Ether

I was so suprised by this drama, I thought it would be the typical historical drama + revenge. I was not expected the quality and profoundness of the acting, the story, the things the writer and director wanted to convey to us.
There's so many plot point that I adore: Ye Li and the way her suffering is portrayed, the way we're shown the path people choose to take and why, the difference of opinion and how anyone can blind themselves, the importance of education and how tyranny begins with access to knowledge being restrained,...

I found the characters so interesting (I think less time could have been spend on Mo Jingli, I didn't find his struggle interesting especially since it tells us pretty much the same thing as the struggle of the empress dowager but maybe I just didn't connect and missed something).

Question though: does anyone know the meaning of the flower Ye Li is obsessed with in episode 39?

I really wanted So Hee to have some closure, but her body stayed in the background like a loaded Chekhov’s Gun that was left unused.
Also, is it revenge if your suffering is not recognized? Almost every bad guy was punished, but the bullying was never acknowledged for Dong Eun!
I kinda feel we lost the plot at some point? Wasn't the theme of the drama school bullying, its impact on victims and "The only thing victims can get back is their glory and honor"?
But the victims lost their honor:
- So Hee is remembered as a teenager that killed herself because she was pregnant (rape not acknowledged by anyone, the bullying part yes, the murder no)
- Kim Gyeong Ran is...not acknowledged by anyone for anything and became a murderer (maybe she got part of her revenge since she killed her rapist but looked more guilty than anything else about that)

In the end, I don't really know what the drama wanted to tell us.
But it was still amazing amazing, golden era of kdrama.

Yes I agree, but it's not their wife, they don't spend almost all their time outside of work together.
And even her senior investigated when he was suspicious about master shu. He found out and decided not to do or say anything, because he thought she would be better now that she is out of the mountain. Which was probably not the best move.
I still love the ml, but he fucked up on this.

yeah so the timeline should be accurate.

I have a hard time believing that too but Mo JingLi did say everyone kind of thought she was a genius as a child so she probably learned early before she was 13 and continued by herself after. but yeah I'm closing my eyes too.

Thinking about it I'm a bit mad at ML. Cause what do you mean you know your wife suffered a great deal because of the death of her maid that she took with her to Lishan mountain (so you KNOW she died ON the mountain) and you DON'T investigate?
You KNOW she hallucinates her maid and monkeys and maybe other things about the mountain and when she talks about the mountain you're like "why does it always seem like you were doing everything alone?" and she didn't have sugar or meat AT ALL there and she seems to avoid all questions about the mountain and the DOCTOR told you she suffers from extreme loneliness.
Like, dude please put two and two together damn...

Truthfully I didn't even really realised it before he said it! then I was like duuuuude you, in fact, suck a bit

I feel it's the arc with Lingyun princess and the feng guy that does that (also that awful former fiance trying to stay at the house for 2 EPISODES -_- I almost dropped the drama)

ML did express clearly that she was allowed to return but he couldn't follow her. So it is clear she in fact can go as she pleases

Maybe I'm wrong but I think the auspicious stone was chipped (announcing her future death I suppose)

I especially like that he's not pristine, since Ye Li is not either! And I rarely was so happy with the redemption arc of a male lead. Like, he feels reeeeally guilty (as he should, cause he didn't question why the notorious bad guy would give him this information on his deathbed!!).
Ye li is so pitiful I don't know how she will save herself :/

It seems that she really went there after her mother died (so around 13 yo but we're not really sure).
- She stayed there until 2 months before the beginning of the show (so around 8 years on mount Lishan, with the plague arriving maybe when she was 15-16 yo).
- It seems she lived by herself for 5-6 years and went back to the capital.
- She saved the assassin on her way to the capital.
We don't really have a precise timeline, and I don't remember her exact age but it should be pretty accurate.
Also, I think the flashbacks are either her reminescence or they used Bai Lu to signify that a couple of years had passed, we'll see.

For those like me that were wondering: in hanakotoba, dogwood's meaning includes 'enduring presence', 'enduring love', 'reciprocal gift' and 'please accept my feelings' :)

Thank you for your idea, I think it might well be what the writers meant 👍 but it's so poorly executed that it doesn't really make sense. And it doesn't make sense either how he has color blindness sometimes but most of the time he's perfectly fine and is a famous artist! Also it kind of seem that it only happens when he's touching woojin 🤔 at first I thought they wanted to make the "time is a circle and he was in fact already trying to save woojin in his first life because he was already back in time!" And it was a consequence of knowing the future or something. But they didn't choose this path so I don't know...

Whaaat was the deal with Hyeseong's color blindness??
And whyyy did he distance himself from Woojin in the first timeline? It was so confusing

I understand why people don't really like the ending.
But I feel like the whole point of the serie was a karmic cyrcle, that you can't move on if you don't resolve what stuck with you along the way: Junichi's guilt, Makiko's suffering, Naoto's obsession, Nara's grief, Keisuke's inferiority complex (yeah this one is not really resolved...).
There was no other proper way to end this than by having Junichi and Makiko reunited/having a second chance at love, and Junichi giving back to Masaki what he received from Masaki's grandpa.
Everyone went back were they were before the traumatic event, and moved on.

As for Hiromi...yes that's classic jdrama. But at the same time, she's literally a nurse, we should have seen it coming.

It was not perfect but I loved the drama nevertheless.

This show was awazing all the way, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in japanese cinema. The acting was very good, I was especially impressed by the guest appearance of Hinata Hiiragi in the last episode

Okay it was an amazing drama!! It's been so long since I've been able to finish such a long serie but it was never boring, always fresh and interesting. The acting was incredible (especially impressed by Alen Fang's performance, that I had only seen in romance drama).
I was pretty alright with the ending, how rebirth instead of desctruction is the solution for Ye Mo, yeah okay. But that montage with everyone being happy, as if all their problems were coming from Tianren realms? (just. HOW were Chunji's problems solved? Tiaren didn't create class discrimination or poverty).
I'm guessing that there is a buddhist implication that I just don't know, but it kinda feels like they just said 'Nothing is going your way? The right answer is to kill yourself because in another like/universe you will be happy and accomplish everything you want'. I felt like it was so contradictory of the message they give all through the drama that 'Actions have consequences, and consequences shape your karma, so be good'.

You're godsend

I'm so sad it ended it was sooooo good :'( Like, did we have ny other thai serie this perfect in the last few years?
I had a question though, why did Charn say he changed his surname?

oh wow... yeah I prefer this happy one 😅