Dr Ghost

Fair enough, lets see how they end it and I do suspect FL is royalty due to her arrogant and demanding attitude.

in bath scene !

The scene was added to bent ML neck by looking at them in jealousy going on dates from wired angles like rooftop, side of walls etc.

So, in simple words another beautiful novel and work of art was sacrificed to appease the audience hunger for romantic dramas.

Then early dynasty its but Lamellar iron plate armour with riveted chainmail below its definitely late 10th century invention. Yes the lamellar armour is very old, and it originates from iron age Assyrians around 1400 BCE and after that, it was very common in Neo-Assyrian empires in 911BCE with depictions everywhere.
Central Asian tribes picked it up and from them it arrived in China, but the one they are using is advance form. Anyway you are right it could be Han dynasty !

WTF!
So original source is a gay story between ML and small Persian boy, writer has very lets just say "RICH IMMAGINATION" to write a story about podophile ML (going after small boy) and small Persian boy.
Let me guess he is survivor of Muslim conquest of his land and persecution, last emperor of the Sassanian Empire did go missing in the area of Tarim basin, so WOW !

Okay then which dynasty has drama set in, it looks like late Tang to early song to me. Its definitely not Han, Qing or Yuan but "Lamellar plate armour" is from Tang era.

Going by the calendar we can expect ML to break his leg today to get out of the marriage, black iron dagger in the tomorrow's episode tells me my boi will be stabbed again !

Fair enough and I completely agree with you on this one, violence shouldn't be used as cliche trope in any drama unless it involves mafia, cartels and gang violence. I absolutely loathe woman-beating and equally hates its counterpart, violence against men but people seem to enjoy it here.

You are right about that but, is he ruling his empire or fiefs/warlords are ruling it for him, does his rule extend to all the corners of his empire or he is just a puppet invented by the warlords to fill the seat. While they collect taxes and rule populus in their own name.
"Many Chinese dynasties lasted for centuries without an emperor that could lead armies"
Its same here many dynasties did last for centuries without their kings leading the armies but my question for you, for how many years during they actually rule with everybody under them. Let me give example, Abbasid caliphate officially ruled for 5 centuries but actually ruled for only 200 years at max but for the remainder of the 3 centuries, they were the puppets of powerful governors and local warlords. Who all declared their loyalty to the emperor and paid homage, but they literally decided, what caliph will eat to when and who will F...
The point I am trying to make here, He can sit on the throne and pit lords against eachother but the end of the day, fief lords own the empire, not him and Yes Emperor have to use people to survive but he have to have some sort backup or powerbase to back him up....SML has none !
Let me give you example, in order to legitimize your rule over entirety of Muslim nations you have to control Hijaz or twin Holy cities, declaration of Caliphate sovereignty to general public is declaration of his name with old kings in Friday sermon held all over the Muslim world.
Ottoman Empire controlled the Holy cities in 17th century and hence they were the DeFacto ruler/Emperor of all of Muslim world but look at this map
https://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/gunpowder-empires.gif
You can clearly see they barely controlled less than 40% of it and can't collect taxes or rule them directly but were called rulers of all. That's the point I am trying to make here, he is just sitting on the throne and doesn't have the loyalty of anybody, nor he can collect taxes or regulate their rule in their own states. Officially he is ruler of all and history written by his palace will remember him as much but was he !
As for Mongols, they could have ruled China for couple of centuries if not for Mamluks and Khiljis. They massacred their whole armies, like 50,000 soldiers and 100,000 followers in one battle, Alauddin khilji went even one step further than it and killed their entire tribes of common Mongol people, who they brough along with them to settle the newly conquered lands. I hate this kind of stuff but I don't know about China but in East Mongols deserved every bit of it.

"That's my problem with her - she doesn't know who to stab! The woman is a menace with sharp objects!"
Damnn sound like a veiled threat to me, god save the people who cause minor inconvenience to you. Although drama glossed over the details but her stab to ML was pretty deadly, it must have gone through his ribs and intercostal muscles to puncture the lungs and release the negative pressure of thoracic cavity (negative pressure is necessary for normal functioning of heart).
Her stab must have caused Acute cardiac failure, pneumothorax and Haemothorax, they are deadly if not treated with surgery within 40-30 minutes in acute-chronic cases.

Now can you translate it too!

Fair enough, this would explain alot of things😂😂😂!

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
He is a weak man at time of political turmoil/hard times and he may sit on the throne, but power belongs to Prince Sui and other parties. He has no army to command and if somebody wanted to remove his head, they can just rush in and off with his head.
The drama also does the bad job of portraying the court dynamics and other stuff. From my understanding in Medieval Era, the ability of the king to lead his army independently in battle was far more important, that anything else. I don't think I have to tell you how many times in ancient chinese and world history, favoured and famous generals have turned their armies around and made a move on capital to capture the throne.
Julius Cesar crossing of Rubicon, Cao Cao capture of Wei, Sima clan capture of Wei, An shu rebellion, rise of Umayyads caliphate, rise of Abbasid caliphate, rise of Mamluks, rise of Ottomans and there are numerous other examples. That being said, I don't like him cuz he is neither a reformer king (who massively improved economy and build dams) nor a unifier, who attempted to conquer fiefs and other small warlords in his kingdom. He is in complete hands of Prince Sui, who already has King title and hence he can literally force SML to award him "Nine Bestowments" and that would be the end of him. My problem is he get it way to easily !

You are right about that but a character should have some good redeeming qualities, like good reformer, military commander or even leader but he has nothing and rely completely on other people. He mentioned to FL about his dream of achieving peace and how is he going to do that?
What he has done so for to achieve that?

I personally believe Faceless killed ML parents on the orders of someone from Yong !

That explains a lot and I really hope her family got nothing to do with his parents' death.

I respectfully disagree cuz in those times ruler ability to lead troops in the battle was far more important as compared to other abilities.
Ziyu can make good courtier or minister cuz of his strategies (which I am yet to see any, first it was FL and then prince sui who planned and carried out everything and then install him on throne) but an emperor must have good ruling and leading abilities of his own.
People like him can sit on throne through schemes and use generals to deal with problems, but sooner or later someone is going to become powerful enough to turn his armies on the capital. I foresee a rebellion incoming episodes due to incompetence as an Emperor, he send ML to deal with northern problems but did nothing of his own to deal with southern lords !
To top that off, he is disloyal who can drop his life long supporters in matter of seconds for benefits, I have not seen him introduce some good and strong reforms either.
I believe he thinks he is smart but in reality he isn't and that's his biggest weakness!

Ohhh, don't worry compensation is coming along with his reason to legally abduct her into the palace and make her his concubine, that county princess title in upcoming episode is Ziyu first step towards it. He is whitewashing her past and giving himself a solid reason to order her into the palace.
He doesn't love her at all, he is just obsessed with owning her as his property. If he really cared about her, he could have allowed to assassinate Prince Sui or at minimum killed maid Yuner at her attempts to take FL life, but he didn't and she serves no purpose to him now, he has no justification!

I know (I have read y'all lets say passionate discussion there), I was just pulling your leg.