Alysha Johnson

There is no reason for ZZ to assume that XW is protecting the Yan because XW has been very careful to not seen as taking anyone sides. Only JXN know XW true intention. None of the court official can read XW. The Emperor himself thought XW is on his side, and XW mission in this whole scenario was to get the seal for the Emperor.

The fact that Yan Marquis gave XW the seal is not something anyone there could even imagine. Only us viewers know. So ZZ was not implying any of that.

His question is quite logical. If even the guards who been searching the house can't find the seal, how did XW get it? That seal is EXTREMELY important, but the Yan marquis easily give it to XW, an outsider? His assumption if he have any, is that XW took/stole it from Yan Marquis. If you are on the Yan's side, like ZZ is, and not knowing who XW really is, obviously that would be a concern to you, isn't it? We only think ZZ is stupid because he's foiling XW plan, and we know XW is the good guy. But if XW was not the ML, and the evil second lead, then we would think ZZ was sharp.

no he's stupid and useless.. Like Yan Lin said, if Dingfei was alive, not everyone in the Xue clan is useless.

Why is everything have to be male vs female? His advice is just a common idiom, and he's just telling her to be careful. An advice just mean she can take it or leave it. He's not telling her WHAT to do.

By your logic, if ML or anyone else give the FL some advice, it's male chauvinism too? Does ML liking the FL make it NOT male chauvinism then?

I understand. Yes technically he have some power through his position. But the Duke's son is stupid to ignore the prince/princess. Only when Xie Wei entered did it wake him up. If he was like his sister who is smart he would have stopped already.
But I was merely pointing it out that the royal power that the prince supposedly have does not carry him far enough to break through stupidity (aka duke's son). But XW who is so many level (technically) below the prince can. I was merely pointing out position power vs actual power.

Okay I know that scene between the Emperor, ZZ and XW was annoying but I got to speak up for ZZ here.

As viewers we have omniscient view. We know XW true motive and his real identity, but ZZ does not. From ZZ pov, it's not that he was being righteous, he was simply being very logical. XW suggested the Yan be exiled while ZZ knew they were innocent. If you don't know anything about XW, would you think XW was being very suspiciously harsh? And because ZZ is righteous, it make perfect sense that he spoke up. Didn't we all happy that ZZ stood up during the Yan banquet by pointing out the problem with the edit? It's the same person - but I think we let our own knowledge cloud our judgement toward a character. It's very unfair to judge them based on what we know and not what the character actually know. Let's be real here, even a couple of episodes ago, people didn't like XW much because he was suspicious, until we confirmed his identity. If you did not see that scene between XW and Yan Mu, wouldn't you also be like JXN who thought that XW backstabbed the Yan? Would you then still hate ZZ for speaking up?

All the main characters: XW, JXN and ZZ has very clear setup and they have been very consistent. XW is a schemer, he's playing chess with everyone. JXN is his support, but is playing a game of her own. ZZ is the bystander, the referee. ZZ is also trying to protect the Yan clan in his own way. You can't blame ZZ for being "righteous" and not reading the room, when he is not even trying to be righteous but simply "logical"? If ZZ did not say anything, that would have been a flaw in the character setup. You can't expect ZZ to take XW side and go with the flow, because even JXN need some time to be convinced by XW - who actually opened up to her. It would make no sense for ZZ to trust XW without knowing anything.

He does not know about Empress and her relative out for FL because he's not THAT involved in her life at this point. And he is not on FL side yet. Right now he's from a third perspective.

yes technically his position is higher but he doesn't hold real world power.. like XW - who is merely a "teacher" yet he can stand shoulder to shoulder with Yan lord and Xue lord.
Sometime power is from your position, sometime it's the person.

Duke's son, doesn't hold power either but the guard is under his family so that's why he seem to have power but it's only because of the guards.

he's not the crown prince yet though and since he's not involved in politics and have no official title in court, his words don't hold much gravitas.

it's not recently banned. i think it's been banned since 2011-2012

Good to know.. But then again that is information that is not available yet to ZZ. So we should only judge character and their action based on what they know. We can't blame them on things they don't know.

I think you got confused. The imperial/Emperor family did not executed the 300 kids. It was Lord Pingan (the rebels). Even after they handed over the fake Emperor (Dingwei) so the kids are released, he still killed the kids just in case.
ZZ is not attacking XW to protect the Emperor. He knew the Yan family is innocent, but from his POV, XW is strangely very harsh toward them. So he wanted to get to the bottom of it because he thought XW is going after the Yan.
If we as audience do not know XW true identity, it's easier for us to see the same as ZZ. Even the audience here did not like XW until episode 7-8 after we learn more about his true identity.

you can ignore that part. they just add it in to bypass censorship because time travel is banned.
the original novel is that the FL went back in time to undo her wrongdoings. But the drama just made the whole story as a novel. And the writer "wrote" that the FL went back in time to undo her wrongdoing. We can "assume" that the writer may have enter the novel - but without any knowledge that she is a writer and not a character.

Even as audience until ep 7-8 a lot of us didn't like XW because we didn't know his intention. Only after us audience realize who he really is that we trust whatever he does. From ZZ and Mr. Gu perspective, it's the same as us audience in the earlier episodes. If they blindly trust XW not knowing his true intention, that would have been a flaw in the story because these two are supposed to be smart.

I agree with you.
I think that Xuehui not becoming empress is the better ending for her and Lord Lanzi because we all know how it ended for him.

he wanted to see what the Xue going to do when they're desperate and showing their hand. this could be a useful situation for him to use in the future, accusing the Xue uncle of breaking the law by getting the stamp from Hanlin Academy without proper protocol.

I'm kinda loving both suitors for JXN, not shipping neither because I like both.

ZZ is the first love, XW is the last love. ZZ stand for her ideals, her "the one that got away". She in love with the idea of him, the idea of love. He's pure, righteous, untainted and in a way, unattainable to her. XW is the last love, the one that is most like her. They're like two peas in a pod, who grow together through tough time, and love bloom through that bonding experience.

ZZ is the like destination she wanted to get to, but XW is the companion who was with her the whole journey. A lot of time we wanted to get to our destination, but only realize the fun was in the journey once we arrived. I feel that is what it is for JXN. In this second life, she wanted to be like ZZ - but she'll get there with XW. And when she get there, she will realize her true love was beside her all along.

In episode 16 he mentioned that the Yan family has a private seal that control part of the army. That mean it does not belong to the Emperor or the country. The Yan family only survived this long because of their military might and the Xue family is there to balance the power, otherwise how could any Emperor tolerate that?

If anything, cunning Shen Lang would want to use Xue vs Yan to take that seal and the military under his control. But the seal itself isn't the power, it's the trust behind that seal. Remember in episode 1 when the FL empress said the Emperor gave a decree that she can rule the empire in his absence and the ML said that a decree itself do not give her power - that's the basic of politics. Decree is just a symbolism of the power behind the person that gave it, same with the seal. So Shen Lang taking the seal by force from Yan family would be useless.

As a cunning emperor, he would want to use Xue clan to be seen as "enemy" of the Yan clan. The army that follow the Yan clan would see it was the Xue that toppled the Yan clan. And the emperor can swoop in and take the seal and he wouldn't be seen as a thief. Because it's a better alternative than the Xue family taking it. If you're a Yan army's soldier, what would be more convincing to you? Follow the king, or follow a treacherous enemy (in your eyes) that brought the ruin to the Yan family who you are loyal to?

Ofc Xue family is also blood-related to the King. But it's not that simple. All powerful clan fight for power - to do what? To put their own on the throne. So Xue clan has little motive to topple the King because it's their own blood. HOWEVER, Xue clan would also want someone they can control. Right now because the king is so sick, they "think" that he is not a threat - and Shen Lang let Xue family grew so big so they can confirm this belief. Having one of their own make it easier for them to grow powerful.

To counter the Xue's power, Shen Lang would need the Yan family army. By the time all is done and he got Yan family army, it would be too late for the Xue. The little cub they thought they control is now a tiger. Then they would fall in line - because it's their best hope to retain their power and prestige due to their blood relations as long as they behave. So now Shen Lang finally gain full control and have true power over the court.

i don't see anything wrong with that because she already stated that she's a "nobody". she can't make changes being nobody so she need to leverage "power" of those around her.

it's not because of the censorship because they follow the source pretty closely. what you see is due to the poor production and directing, that is infamous of this director. even cnetz are mocking him and the main actress Bai Lu got him to promise not to do all these poor shots/directing in his next project with her.

You know a character like Xie Wei would be all the rage just 5-6 years ago. Angsty, rough, passionate, morally grey - but as a 2nd lead. Now people are dropping like flies for Zhang Zhe. We like them good boys again..
Talking about Xie Wei - I do quite like this push and pull. I get the vibe that he liked her in the first life too but was too disappointed by her (for helping to kill the Yan family), and so he hold a grudge toward her. But in this life - he said he glad she didn't grow astray, and i think that's the turning point for their relationship. They also have more honest interactions this time so naturally he couldn't contain his feeling. And I don't love toxic love but I freaking love it when he get jealous. I love it when he turn red and green with jealousy because they aren't together yet so he's the one suffering and it so satisfying to see. I feel it somewhat make up (for me as a viewer) for how rough and harsh he was with JXN in the beginning.