MadelineMaureen

I think the main reason is fear of the unknown. She knows that Xuan Lie wanted to use her to get to Jun Fei Fan. What does he want with her "brother"? Is disclosing the fact she is Jun Fei Fan going to possibly put her family in danger? She's a very guarded and logical person. She still is trying to get her business done and leave to get back to her family.

I knew I wasn't losing my mind. The voice actress for the annoying princess is the same voice actress for the annoying bestie in Melody of Golden age. When she does a winy voice for a character I just want to mute and read the subtitles.
Tried to watch Romance of a Twin Flower and stopped the second the FL opened her mouth. Don't know why I can finally stand her voice in Perfect Match, but yeah the winy voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

I need Yao Chi and Ding Yu Xi to play brothers in something...or just stand near one another for a second cause I need to see something.

Every teaser trailer is epically misleading. As I've seen the correlation charts there are certain things that can't be used as bait.

Be more specific. If you are talking about a contraceptive being consumed it's only taken after intimate acts to prevent pregnancy. She doesn't want to get pregnant...as far as episode 15 she is not pregnant.
Her reasoning makes sense on why she doesn't want to be pregnant. If he is ordered to attack her home country he will be duty bound to do so. She, being from Yannan is considered beneath everyone, and their child will be mistreated by everyone. There are already multiple examples of mixed children being discriminated against in the show.
She still is duty bound to her family, who is waiting for her return, as she is technically the head of the household behind her father. If she were to come back to her own country with a baby, unmarried....the child will also be mistreated in Yannan.
She is protecting her future child by holding off it's conception. No matter how much you love someone it cannot save you from the outside world that they must adhere to. They are in a Romeo and Juliette situation but add in the fact she is a merchant and he is a Lord....it's a whole mess. Her maid spoke facts

highly recommend youtubing or googling the dynasty that a period drama is set in to get a better understanding. as long as it's a real dynasty & not a fictional world.

If her husband hears her say the things she did to the FL imma need an appropriate response. Along the lines of "who the f*ck did I marry?"

The hypocrisy is completely lost on pretty much every character in this drama. So many people telling the ML that he shouldn't care about FL, when they are literally over throwing an entire kingdom for the same damn reason(different woman).

Praying for the death of a little girl is a weird feeling for me...but I'm currently hoping we get a two for one special on dead princesses.

Also having Byeol as a daughter would just mean MORE family for Jiyun. Like seriously wanted to slap Mi Ae.

I'm about to throw hands at FL's bestie.

So far nothing egregious to turn me off of watching. It's your basic period idol drama a la Romeo and Juliette. Similar to The Long Ballad in quality.

THIS!! So true.
Literally the only time I personally care about an age gap of actors is when one is still a minor in a romantic pairing and then I'm side eyeing the crap out of the director until I know for sure that they used camera angles/editing cuts for kiss scenes. (Looking at you directors/productions who keep casting Huangyang Tian Tian in shows with actors a decade plus older than her. Keep it cute, keep it playful, keep it chaste, sirs and ma'ams)

Side tangent: Not all shows even need to have a kiss to be great shows.
Hell, The Long Ballad they were both of age and they never kiss on screen...still an amazing show with great chemistry. Love Game in Eastern Fantasy...no kiss of ML and FL, so everyone ran to watch/rewatch Moonlight. The Double, unless the characters were married no lips touched on screen, all crafty editing and camera angles. We love a creative director.

They never focus long enough on the Yannan side of things outside of her annoying cousin to get a good foundation of the overall power structure. Hopefully they will flesh it out more once they are back in Yannan.
Do we know if this show was always going to be 30 episodes or if it was cut down in editing?

ML Xuan Lie and FL Jun Qi Luo.

They have "💗" in quotes on the character chart...I can't tell if they meant beating heart or if they meant that he is faking his care for her(the princess).

It depends on the dynasty it's set in and whether or not it is a real kingdom or a fictionalized one. So shows like Flourished Peony would follower closer to real life distinctions in wardrobe and hair styles to show class levels of the Tang dynasty.
With this one it's loosely based on real regions in China but not a real kingdom that existed. Sometimes shows will get the casting correct to show the more "ethnic" differences between characters from different regions, but sometimes not.
Just be fully aware that some period dramas have heavy Xenophobia/racist undertones. Not always...but kind of like how the whole cowboys and "Indians" tropes from the 50s-70s tv shows don't actually depict Native tribes/nations correctly. Or make them appear more barbaric than they might have actually been.
So how someone is dressed will show what region/country they come from, and what clan they personally belong to.
Royalty/Nobles, Scholars, Military, Merchants, Common Folk, Entertainers(musicians/dancers/courtesans), Slaves.
Outside of this show most of the time if a girl's hair is down but ornamented she was just unmarried. If it was up and ornamented it could indicate that she is married. Depending on ornamentation could tell you social class, marital status.

This one is a bit all over the place at least in the ML's country as it is borrowing from multiple cultures. Though the eunuchs do have uniforms and the clans have designs that are added to different parts of their wardrobe, but it's hard to tell the differences. Other than being able to tell what nationality they are dressed as, casting wise all the women are from the same area of China South East(Angelababy is a quarter German, i think) and all the men are from Northern regions. So no one is giving "otherness" at a glace visually without the help of hair styling, jewelry, and tunics.

I keep a journal for everything I'm watching. So currently the one I'm using started in August of 2024. It's a dotted A5 Leuchtturn1917 journal. Putting this in spoiler tag cause it is way too long a comment.
So short answer new watches get at least two pages, rewatches get 1/4 of a page to keep track of where I am in the rewatch. Long explanation/breakdown below if you are actually curious. It's unhinged so apologizes.

Anything I'm rewatching will share a page with other rewatches so 3 to 4 shows or movies a page with a little photo on the left and written on the right would be for series or tv shows.
[Country/Language spoken
Where I watched it/original broadcast company/network
Original Air dates
Dates of rewatch
Episodes numbered out so I can highlight where I am in the show]

For Movies
[Country/Language spoken
Where I watched/Studio
Original air date
Rewatch date
Rating
How long in minutes]

Anything that I watch for the first time gets a minimum 2 page spread. And it's own color scheme based off of the promotional photos/wardrobe/vibe of the show. On the Left page would be the Title of the movie or show written under that would be
[Country/Language used
Where I'm watching it/broadcast company/studio
Original air date(s)
Date(s) I watched said movie/show]
I have and "about" section where I write out the synopsis, and a small photo of the movie/drama poster is normally on this page as well.(the photos normally take up a 5x8 dotted space. They are from my sproket Zink printer that I print 4 photos to a page. https://a.co/d/cjlmvWi )
Then under the "About" I right out my thoughts &/or what happen in the show movie.
On the right side I keep and episode count. So one number per square. I highlight once I've watch the episode. I have a key at the front of the journal that lists colors that I use to outline the squares so I can tell from a glace if their was a death, a separation, kiss, etc. all different colors using dots vs lines vs black out of color will determine the intensity of said situation.

Then I have my ratings section that I will stamp 1-5 stars to rate individual aspects of the movie/show which usually looks something like
[Female Lead
Male Lead
Chemistry
Supporting(characters/actors)
Storyline
Writing
Music/OST/Score
Costumes
Hair & Make-up
Set Design
Cinematography
Production
Visual Effects
Stunts]
Just to the right of these 14 or mor ratings I have my "tags" aka Romance, drama, fantasy etc listed out.

Under that would be a continuation of thoughts on the show/movie from the left page.
For Perfect Match I have all of that plus one page per couple accept 3rd daughter had a 2 page spread because I know I like both actors and would yap about them. I underestimated how much I would yap about each couple. I'm also keeping an episode list for each couple so when the husband first appears and then any episode that sort of focuses on their story in some way.

I'm keeping track of who/which couple is in which episodes so I can say x storyline is from episode y-z. The meet-cutes, conflicts, how the men are connected to one another, personalities of each couple etc.
But I didn't think about the fact that half the cast isn't even listed yet so way more story happening and interconnections than originally planned. I was hoping not to have multiple sections for the show in my journal this time. aka having other shows between pages for this show.
Starting to write in hella short hand.

When giving the breakdown of the show so far to my mom I've started calling KangNing, Elizabeth, and Chai An, Darcy, just to make it easier for my mom to keep track.
& using other Austen related characters to describe the other's personality traits.