ASmith

Or is he?
Because I thought deposed emperor was an axe murderer deep down but it seems like actually he’s not completely terrible (???)

This show is very good at showing that normal people have crazy living inside of them and it comes out if they’re pushed hard enough but what you do when you snap isn’t all you are as a human being, so at what point do good and bad balance out, or can you never atone?

It’s hip to be a critic I guess 😂. From comments here I read she wasn’t a fan of Mysterious Lotus Casebook either iirc, so probably just CY she’s not a fan of which would spill over to anything she saw him in, but that just tells me her reviews probably aren’t worth watching for me as her tastes are so unaligned with what I enjoy lol.

I think even telling her the truth wouldn’t have helped. She’s known his family is being hunted and targeted by that general for ages, and seen firsthand from her mentor and that guy she tried to warn died how dangerous the H army is and how they’re everywhere even people she trusts. Yet she still blurted out her true parentage to random strangers. She alas was probably just not very scheming minded even when aware how dangerous the enemy, so knowing probably wouldn’t have helped her. 😅

The general seems weirdly tolerant of XHA though. And protective of the girl’s grave even after murdering her. wonder what his real connection with XHA’s family is, he has a very fond uncle air when he talks about him.

He is pretty strong though. I know narratively he’s not a martial artist like the generals & can’t solo mobs, but I can tell you I couldn’t pole vault over enemies and onto a horse or side ride one, and stabbing “without precision but with force” still leaves his enemies dead 😂

Same 😭😭

Maybe add a spoiler tag?

I remember XHA saying in their academy days, the deposed emperor slipped a snake into his stuff and then not only pretended it didn’t happen but offered the antidote after. His pattern of harming under pressure and then making up for it is consistent, but wanting that guy to eat like a dog makes it unclear to me how much he’s genuinely repenting and how much he’s just smart enough to see what will ingratiate himself with his captors. If he’s ever not under their thumb it will be interesting to see how he treats them. (I do like him though, I can respect a weasel who’ll do anything to live and isn’t hypocritical about it.)

You will get your answer really early in Ep7 :D

I think basically he said the little kid was chewing bamboo starving, and he’d had mercy on this family, so my impression was he’d tried to feed some enemy family only to have them try to kill him while his guard was down, leaving him with no capacity after to see weak or helpless people as not a threat, he strongly feared all threats to himself.

I think he was going to be booted out of the army and the family, so to him it made more sense to kill his bro so he could stay in the army and stay in a good position. (The army continued to exist, just the leader changed.)

As for why he bothered to spare his nephew instead of just knifing him when he showed up with that cart, that is an excellent question. Someone as professional as himself failed to kill his nephew via stabbing his throat as well as let him be kicked out of the carriage and not murdered, and also he petted the family dog instead of killing it. He either had a soft spot for family back then and was hoping his nephew would just die in the streets so he wouldn’t have to personally kill the kid he gave his first dagger to and looked out for, or else there is some deeper reason why he didn’t do it. (is where I am so far.)

Maybe watch a couple of eps to see if it’s your thing or not? For me it’s yes but I’m biased bc the cast is packed with pros I have loved in other stuff (in terms of support actors, especially Uncle Wu in Joy of Life.)

I would say there’s fighting, but it’s more about battles or ambushes style fights, and less about elegant swordplay. You get soldiers and generals swinging and people collapsing but so far not wuxia-style martial masters dueling.

What I got was 2 reasons:

1) He was set upon by civilians he was nice to during a war, so as a result he now kills threats before threats can kill him.

2) At some point with this line of thought, he killed some civilians before they did anything, and his very not happy older bro booted him from the family because of it. He then perceived his bro as another threat to himself hence dealt with him in advance is how I read it.

Suspend that disbelief 😂 I’m just assuming at this point that the dad’s family has that medicine for reducing blood from injuries and that maybe all the upper army members took it at some point too 😂

I’m not going to spoil you but ep7 will have the answers to a lot of the Bai Wan questions 😀

From the vibe of it “I am that last surviving family member”, sounded like not only was the dude trying to hurt the sister, but was doing it solely to draw him out to kill him, so treating his sister as a disposable tool to be hurt to lure him out on top of being one of the dudes involved in killing his dad probably didn’t help that guy’s fate 👀🥶

😂

The block button can help to clean it up; the shovel that makes unwanted trolls sleep forever lol.

I think he’s absolutely an evil guy. In the first instance because he murdered his boss, but in the second instance, because the way the deposed emperor murdered the pageboy says that no one has tried to give him responsibility or teach him morals in his life before, and that general has had him as the puppet emperor for years. He’s clearly not interested in raising up a good leader for the people, or in having moral minions, so I say bad and most likely power hungry. Yes he has loyal minions, but he seems to have that loyalty because he will kill their families if they don’t obey him, it doesn’t seem to be by choice imo.

As you say hard to tell with her calling him gege, but I’m pretty sure that’s like hyung or abang or kuya, in that you can be a gege without being a relative as well as it also being what you call an older bro. Exactlyyyy more will be revealed later we can only guesss

Same lol I didn’t think I’d ever like him after ep3 😂

I think earlier the sword guy told the deposed emperor that she doesn’t realise she’s his blood sibling or remember her real parents so likely she didn’t realise it’s her father too ? is how I’m reading it 👀