AleksandraSucur

we all agree on the emperor's suppressive and manipulative character, but in the plot his actions contraddict each other and gives orders contrasting each other. Thanks for confirming me you agree with this impression

I disagree he should take tuition from CPP.
If I were FX, I'd take advice from Beiqi emperor (or empress, can't figure out the gender, but it doesn't matter): I'd try to write the follow-up to the Red Mansion, after quitting the job at the Overnight Watch. I agree with you that CPP tries to protect him: without the power of his agency, he certainly can't take over that royal treasury, but I think FX still can take the woman he loves, takes her to Beiqi (she agreed to elope with him even before he went on the mission there) and live happily ever after by writing novels...

well, I've thought of the need of "balance of power", too, but this balance between CP and the 2nd prince is not in motion any more, because 2nd prince transferred his rivalry with CP on FX, the thing which was not so smart from a smart person such as Chengze but can understand the dynamics which brought to a deterioration of his relationship with FX.
Besides, if "the balance of power" between the two princes was the reason, why would the emperor say to the CP to stay away and just watch Chengze and FX battling each other? It doesn't make much sense, logically, he would have done the opposite, trying to push the CP back to the "balance of power" scheme.
This is not the only thing I don't understand. The Oldest princess had an obvious relation with both princes, intimate with one, stealing money with the other prince, money which will serve to raise an army and possibly rebel. How such a smart person as Chengze didn't know she controls the 9th+ level archer? To get rid of the emperor, it was sufficient for this archer to let pass one of the numerous assassins and neutralize his bodyguard... Why would he enter into such a complex scheme which will inevitably produce a rebellion when he could have stricken a deal with her: let's get rid of the emperor and I assure you'll continue running the business?

Has anyone here figured out why the emperor is so easygoing on Chengze? Why is he refusing to allow the investigation and who is btw now in charge of the royal business after the emperor's sister was dismissed to her fief?

glad to be of some help 😊

The eldest brother can't be CP because his mother is a concubine and while the 2nd prince still have some chances to overturn the son of the empress, the 1st prince's mother is from another state which invalidates such a claim from the legal pov of this fictional state.
For all other questions, I'll tell you: the attractivness of this drama is all about: everybody manipulates everybody, this tendency is in the human nature, psychologists would say that even a newborn baby "knows" how to manipulate the mother when hungry - starting to cry. Of course, nobody of us in real life manipulate other people as in this fiction, but it is truly worth watching this drama from the very beginning, enjoying the reasons why the manipulation Leitmotiv is so entertaining. 😎

take my advice, the sachet won't work on the prime minister - lure Da Bao out of the mannor, put a mise-en-scene of some dangerous situation for him, then save him and be kind to Da Bao, and you'll have the prime minister in your pocket. 😉

He finished victim of the 2nd prince scheming against FX. We don't know the exact dynamics, it happened at the end of ep 13, when his body was used by Gao Du to hint 2nd prince's connection with the murder of Jin girl from the brothel.

yup, I've seen that and somehow felt sorry for him, he just wanted to pass the imperial exam and quit that sh***y job. The character was well delievered and I've started to grow an attachment, lol.
As for Si Zhe, I've also expected this outcome, he is written differently in the drama, greedy but not a criminal, it's somehow logical to keep him around, even for fun this character conveys.
Anyway, although it appears logical, measuring similarities through the outcome of plots is not the right metrics. If I write the story of my trip "From Europe to Beijing", the plot will almost certainly give my arrival as the outcome of the story, but the plot will be completely different accordingly to how I've travelled: by plane, by bus, train, boat or bike, how many stops I've made, what amount of I time I've needed, the plot will depend on different things I've seen and different people I've met, right?

Pity for the 2nd prince's guard, he only wanted to pass the imperial exam and change his sh***y job.

I think the Bully is also happy, he is melting in her presence...

As I've tried to tell you two days ago, till this point (now I am on ep 12) I enjoy S2 A LOT, while I haven't enjoyed 50 chapters I've read. Which I've read only because the fake death took too much time to be solved. And that's how I've discovered that about 90% of the plot in those chapters was changed by the scriptwriter. Imo, thank goodness he has done that, I admire him even more after reading the content of the novel! It is good I've read those chapter because from now on I'll remember this scriptrwriter (not the author of the novel) for sure.
You are right, I am a pedantic and picky person, that's why I've also wanted to clarify points we disagree upon, such as the level of disconnection between the novel and drama content. Thank you for your willing to explain your pov., maybe I'd enjoy the novel too if I knew Mandarin and I 'm fine with you liking both the drama and the novel, it's the matter of taste, I'd never dispute about personal tastes (espc. if emotions are involved, too). I'd only dispute "unpersonal" things, things which can be rationalized and objectified, such as the level of (dis)similarities, narration structure etc. lol. Have a nice day

I enjoy this drama

Now I finally understand what did you imply yesterday with "end result". It appears logical: if A occurs in the drama then - whatever happen in between - it will result in B, because B was the result of the occurrence or subplot in the novel, but notwithstanding it's the wrong method to evaluate the level of similarities, because the basic structure of a narrative (both filmed or written) relies on ACTIONS taken by the protagonists. Actions determine constitutive elements of story telling, that's why they are also called "the morphology of the story" while characters are its "syntax" and with dialogues somewhere between, sometimes they can be counted as actions and sometimes serving to better describe the characters.
If you take the story-telling "grammar" as a measure, you'll notice that S2 greatly differs from the novel: the whole "fake death arc" never happened in the novel, the brothel story happened differently: in the novel there was no witty confrontation with the 2nd prince, CP arriving & playing a fake dumb "I don't see FX", Fan Sizhe in the novel is totally aware of the criminal business he was doing, not showing any remourse, his beating by FX (finally, that one thing happened in the novel) was inflicted for different reasons (as a demonstration that Fan family punished its member involved in criminal doings in order to clean themselves up), and what to say for a total lost of FX's moral compass by murdering three witnesses of his brother's criminal activity? All characters in the novel are deranged, yes, but differently, some more (the very FX) and some less (the second prince). The "family dinner" with the emperor never happened in the novel, as well as the entire course of action that brought us to the memorable today's scene in the court. Because the main and unexpected helper (Lin Ruo Fu) is not the prime minister any more in the novel, he's already retired, Lin Wan and FX are already marrried (they've married before his trip to Beiqi). For the Sizhe's ambush... till now we don't know whether it will happen or not, in the novel this ambush never happened and he calmly arrived in Beiqi. And so on.
I admit there were strong similarities in S1, at least in the part I've read (Beiqi arc), but in S2 the scriptwriter ought to re-write and re-construct 90% of the unconvincing story from the novel (that's my opinion), or due to the "Chinese censorship" (that's your opinion). Yes, even in this season he followed few patterns from the original novel, but they are few: the Beiqi princess really opposed to be pissed off by her to-be-husband at the city gates, and Sizhe involvement in the brothel story did occur together with his brother's "punishment and exile" (but for different reasons comparing to the novel), now, tell me, how can you say: "The drama did not deviate a lot from the novel."?

😊

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Aisin-Gioro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgen_Gioro

Gioro (Juéluó in Chinese) is the old name for the city of Harbin/Yilan in Manchuria. Aisin means "gold" in Manchu language, it's the "Mukūn" of the imperial clan which united with "Hala" (Gioro) makes a family name.
Irgen Gioro is a family name of one of the 8 noble Manchu houses/clans and 8 banners (with right to unite through marriage with the imperial family). Although "Irgen" means "commoner", they belonged to the nobility class. The legend says they are discendants of the last Song Dinasty imperial family members captured by Jin (i.e., by Jurchens-ancestors of Manchurians).

there's no need to be so offensive. VincentGoh expressed his opinion which you may share or not. I share it because tendencially it is true. On average, k-drama put more money in drama productions, they give more time to the writers of dialogues (which make these authors better scriptwriters), more time to the actors and crew to prepare themselves for the roles/tasks avoiding overworking etc. The authors don't need to drag the plot in order to produce as much episodes as possible because they need money from ads collected during the airing time. No miracle the products are (in general) more professionally polished. But this fact doesn't mean that among numerous c-dramas there won't be several we like a lot and among k-dramas many we will dislike. Drama is a drama, no matter where it was produced.
Btw. what he (or she) said doesn't look like a k-drama fan to me at all, while your reaction is a complete overtone.

100 years since the foundation of PRC will be in 2049, as some other countries (like Greece), China had an internal civil war beside the WWII, which ended in 1949

I've read only 50 middle chapters, in English translation. I explained above why I've checked those chapters. Browsing the rest, I've noticed the lenght and the sc. Chinese-boxes narrative technique used by the writer. This technique allows an easy linking of different sub-plots and such novels are also frequently used as rough bases for drama productions because the final creators can easily chose which plots, patterns and characters to include and which to drop out or modify, according to their own needs, they are a sort of "drugstore of stories" ready to be cherry-picked.
I've dropped Ever Night drama, never heard of others.
I respect your opinion which is different than mine, evidently we have different tastes, but it's ok. The tastes can also change in our lifetime: there are books I didn't like when I was young which I appreciate now and others I now can't believe I loved when I was young. When I was young, I liked novels of a French writer Daniel Pennac who also published a few essays on literature, interesting because written from the pov of a reader and dealing with people's need to read. For him, it was ok to start a book from whatever point or chapter and to drop it or suspend the reading whenever we feel so, because our reasons to read are as strange, intimate and personal as our reasons to live. One day, I've dropped his latest novel of the time and stopped to be interested in his writing. I suppose I felt I've learned enough from him and moved on others... 😊