MadelineMaureen

very similar but they have changed a few things to suit Korean culture/geography. I'm paused toward the end of episode 4 as I know what's coming & need to wait for the final time jump before getting back into it.

Watching this and 'Family by Choice' and everyone who is about to start either one is like "oh my god they get with their SIBLING?!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
No...please read tags or the plot briefing.

She doesn't end up with the one that lives with her but the neighbor upstairs. There is about to be a large time jump of roughly ten years were they don't see each other.

He needs an heir as relatives are trying to already divide his assets amongst themselves. He and or his wife have fertility issues and he hasn't been able to have another child with his wealthy heiress wife and she finally allowed him to go fetch his bastard son.



EDIT/Add on and possible spoilers for future episodes: In 'Go Ahead' after he moves to be in the same country as his bio father(after blackmail is used against his adoptive family) his bio father and stepmother finally have a child a few years after(thus he is redundant and no longer needed). He struggles to make ends met as he doesn't want to take money from his "father" who threated his adoptive family. He didn't want his dad and little sister to worry about him so he lied and said everything was fine. He was in the UK in the Chinese version I believe in the Korean version he'll be in the USA or Canada.

The only truly unintelligent thing the Yi Ning has done so far is not confide in the Shen Yuan about her past with Lu Jia Xue while she was at the side yard. It seems that years have past not weeks or months since she spent time with him. So girly needs to come clean to someone.

She believes this man has tried to kill her in the past. She knows he is actively trying to block Shen Yuan from his goals. Constantly appearing out of nowhere and interrogating her. Girl has nightmares about him all the time. You would think that she would give a heads up to Shen Yuan who she cares for. Like oh, i don't know "So, bro, you know that guy that beat you up and is trying to arrest your friend? Well, he tried to kill me a few years back when I thought he loved me. Just thought you should know."

I believe she used her maid's identity to hang out with Lu Jia Xue. Her maid did die, but we don't know how as of now. If what everyone has been saying is correct she looks like her mother.

But....if the maid had been with her for years, plus the "personality" change I could see how it could been seen as she is the maid and Luo Yi Ning is actually dead. As only her personal maid would have been around when interacting with Luo Shen Yuan and would be able to recall personal conversations.

I don't think she is the maid, as they have shown us multiple flashbacks from Yi Ning's POV without anyone else being present. I believe she wanted to "get away" and dressed as her maid to spend time away from the side yard as the lady of the house. As she would have had to adhere to rules, not as strict as the main mansion, but still roaming about as a lady...not a good look for the Luo family.

Still doesn't know by episode 20(which is the most recent as of 10/18)

I want to see more of them developing/showing their vulnerable sides to one another. Showing their weaknesses and being accepted by the other person without judgement is the ultimate test of feelings(trust/love).
Because of his own training, Mei Lin can't really pick up on the emotional clues/subtleties that Jing He expresses unknowingly to her. The servants around them can see it because they have to understand and anticipate the subtle shifts in their master's moods and emotions. Mei Lin and Jing He can recognize when someone has ill intent, but they don't really remember what love looks like anymore, so they keep missing the clues.

Definitely thought I had hit the spoiler tag but I must have double clicked it.
I think I always have the most "annoyance" (it's not really the word I want to describe the feeling, but close enough) with character that are somewhat oblivious to what is actually happening around them within a mystery/conspiracy plot. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" quote comes to mind. Like they think they are helping, but in fact they are the ones who end up either dead or responsible for other people's death. I'll take the person knowing what they are doing will harm others(and possibly not giving a fuck) over someone who doesn't even consider the consequences of their actions.

Is that Jaehyun's voice I hear?

I don't know enough Mandarin to hear the differences like I can with Korean. I miss fan subs that had translator notes included. The good ole days...

Well he still hasn't dropped the "I secretly trained you with torture for 10 years so that I could use you as a martyr to kill me and clear my name" bomb....so...😬

I was really hoping that he would continue to just see her as a daughter, but no...he had to go and make it weird.

I've seen some toxic unrequited love in other dramas but this one takes the cake. We have MULTIPLE people not listening to their supposed "love" and just steamrolling right over them in the process. Surprisingly ML(JingHe) is the only one sort of even closely listening and paying attention to the person he has feelings for. He actually gave her space, until she walked right into his own counterplan forcing him to pull her back in.

Crown Prince needs to stop trying to kill his little brother when all his brother wanted to do was help the country and set him up with their childhood friend. Jing He has never wanted their childhood friend as anything but a friend. She is so in her own head that she can't see 20 plus years of utter friendzone and being polite for what it is...friendship.

Yue Qin is just....wow...he and his sister are just messy. Coming in in the 11th hour to just fuck up everyone's day. But just because they are "good" doesn't mean I don't want to yeet them into a deep body of water fully clothed. They don't actually ever ask Mei Lin what SHE wants, they just assume and then lie to her so that when she does express something out loud it's to their own benefit and beliefs.
When the sister TOOK Mei Lin's gift from Jing He and then folded it and put it in the water to sink....girl, you had no right to take something from her that could be precious. I have never wished for a female character to be "fridged" so hard in my life. Just let her character die to further the plot of a man and be done with it. I both love and hate her. Because her innocence is what is going to get everyone she loves killed or hurt.

Okay, so Yue Qin and his sister both need to take a long walk off a short pier, because their stupidity is through the roof. She don't love you, back off, and pay better attention.

Having heirs and connections were very important. So some marriages were happening simply because the man got a woman pregnant, she could have been an entertainer or servant of some kind. Some concubines were daughters of other noble households' concubines, so getting multiple connections to different noble households while the primary wife position was left for legitimate daughters of families.

Many children died young, and many women died in childbirth so think of it as hedging your bets so that your household could remain strong/powerful.

Daughters were used to make deals between families. Sons were generally the only ones who could run a business or hold a position in court so being able to produce heirs to take over those family roles were extremely important for the survival of the family.

BTW: I'm not saying this is a GOOD way to have a "stable" family...haha stable...stable of wives...sounded better in my head. Anyway, I've never been a huge fan of using family members as bargaining chips in the power ladder of life, but not my culture, not my problem. (many cultures/classes today see marriage as a business deal of some kind...even in my own country. Women in my country couldn't even have their own bank account until the 70s)

The animated opening shows them with a baby and the family that is left right before the title card as well. So double proof.

Spoilers for the OG story below.
I might have to pause this until we at least get a little past the time jump to adulthood. Cause I've paused it in episode 4 b4 Hae Jun's bio-father starts messing with his life because I know what's coming. Well I at least know that a whole bunch of frustrating misundrstandings are about to happen back to back to back and I want to be able to follow it up with a reunion as quickly as possible. Cause this show was always going to be on the heavy side of "light" because of just the general ups and downs of what the characters go through.
But I really really really need this adaptation to never forgive San Ha's mother for her behavior and for San Ha to go to therapy as an adult once he escapes her again. I don't know if they are just going to have him move to Seoul or if they are going to make it so he's out of the country as well, but the main reason he never went to Ju Won in the years they were apart was because his mother hid his passport so he was unable to leave Singapore and go back to China.
I remember thinking that his relationship with the FL was toxic because it was very much rooted in an obsessive behavior and codependency because of all the trauma his mother inflected on him. My boy needed so THE.RO.PHY bad bad. Don't get me wrong Go Ahead is one of my comfort shows, but I needed more solid visuals/mentions that he was seeking help for his panic disorder.

In general or for a show that is 32 episodes?

I feel like we are winding down the first act/arch of the show. I don't know the novel, so I don't know what may or may not be down the road to comment on pacing out specific plot points. But we are now 1/3 of the way through and it feels about right to me.

2/3 should be her living in his mansion and continuing finding evidence against the Crown Prince by getting the witness out of the mines, concluding most likely the reveal that ML was the head of the Shadow Works the whole time. Final 3rd could be wrapping up and making amends. I have no clue how the other main characters stories will play out but I feel like we still have a lot of story and relationship development to cover.

I feel like Kevin Hart after looking up the age of the actor playing the Crown Prince..."Damn."
I was watching the archery scene and it has a lot of daytime close-ups of the ML, 3ML and 2FL back to back, and I was like, why does he look so much older than them when they are all supposed to be a few years or even months apart in age? Well at the time of filming....ML & FL were 33, 2ML & 2FL were 25/26 and Crown Prince aka 3ML...45.

Don't get me wrong he looks good for 45, but when the younger actors playing the leads in flashbacks are so close in age it throws me off. I don't have a clue how old any of the characters are supposed to be as adults. As marriageable age is like 16 and no one is married yet...I'm like...very confused.

Seriously, how old are the dame characters supposed to be in this thing? Cause in what universe would the princes not already have concubines at their grown ass age?