PeachBlossomGoddess

You can consider The Rise of Phoenixes and Song of Glory.

I think this drama really zeroes in on individual development of the main characters. Those 6 episodes show us how they struggle with their own flaws and reflect on their mistakes. Those episodes were about how Changge, Leyan and Hao Du grow up. And I think Sun's time with Li Jing also further shapes his growth as a military strategists and eventually paves the way for his loyalties to shift away from the grasslands to Tang. Hopefully in the remaining episodes we see the couples start to grow together and rely on each other but I think the personal growth had to come first.

I am not ready for Gong Jun to team up with someone else...

Frpm memory Changge asks them to "entertain" her brother since he loves to play so much. The brat panics and threatens them claiming he is the crown prince and they will be punished if he comes to any harm. Changge assures them that her brother was once ill and is delusional.

I hope they got paid boatloads of money for the concert.

I believe she is Lady Jinse or something - the Khan's favourite wife. The one that made Khatun pour wine for her.

The funny truth is instead of helping him they may have hurt him. This is of course just speculation on my part but I guess the regulators hate it when an actor/idol becomes too influential with young and impressionable people. So Xiao Zhan was really made to suffer for his impact (whether it was deliberate or not) and he is still suffering. I noticed he has many soon to air dramas that keep getting delayed. My personal guess is none of them are going to drop until he drops off the top of the charts for awhile...

I don't think that ship has sunk yet bc I suspect given the no of views, this is gonna be quite a meaningful commercial success for Tencent as I am quite sure many of them are buying VVIP. As long as the CP draws views in, I don't think the final rating or the negative netizen rants will matter that much in any decision to put them together again. That said, both Wu Lei and Dilraba are high in demand with many commitments, it may not be that easy to reunite them down the road anyway.

The Douban rating is 6.3, which is below ELOD (6.7) which is really not fair considering Dilraba is doing so well in this much more challenging role. I have been avoiding the Chinese sites bc they are quite toxic with really silly fan wars and they just make stupid and repetitive comments which are not worth repeating here. The sad truth is fans on both camps have sunk the show's rating so no one wins. It is beyond stupid because to be a success this is a team effort and the entire cast is doing a great job. So these silly rabid fans are actually tanking the entire production's value and hurting their own idols as a result. I think we should trust our own good taste and ignore the Chinese fans for this one.

Speaking of which I can imagine Changge is going to tell their kids the story about how daddy punctured mommy's boob many, many, many times in their long and happy life together.
In all seriousness, Chinese men have so little facial hair and the nobility are so pampered I can totally see many of them believably cross dress as women so I don't see why the opposite doesn't apply. I still remember how Darren Chen pulled off a woman so convincingly in Sleuth of Ming Dynasty...

LOL - of course she does and in any case she is at best a banished princess. And outside of the imperial circles, in jianghu circles especially women who can defend themselves often disguise themselves as men to avoid unnecessary attention. Its been there in vernacular fiction of centuries.

I think it will be accurate wrt all major events but the version I watched was much older so I didn't see the 2014 one. I know it was a huge hit and had an enormous budget but 96 episodes was too much for me. I also heard that they made her less evil than history remembers.

She was the first Empress of China, one of the most fascinating, cruel and ambitious women in Chinese history. She somehow managed to catch the attention of Li Shimin's son after she was sent to a nunnery after his death, became the son's concubine and climbed her way up to crown herself Empress after his death. I think it is only during Song and Ming dynasties that society became super restrictive to the point of abusive towards women.

Very well articulated, I look forward to the further evolution of the relationship between Sun and Li JIng.

Well at least we can still imagine it was possible for her to do this stuff during Tang dynasty bc they didn't start binding women's feet yet at that point. That came after Wu Tzetian's time - she was probably the catalyst for women to be actively suppressed and denied education for centuries to come. Wu Tzetian btw was educated in among other things politics and government so it was not that impossible for noblewomen to be during those times. Wu Tzetian was initially Li Shimin's concubine.

If its any consolation, if they subbed it you would be even madder bc it crashes and burns at the back end....

I don't remember the episode anymore but WKS gave his piece to ZZS down by the river after he takes off his disguise (shortly after ep 5?) And ZZS gave it to Han Ying when they were talking privately after Han Ying helps him and WKS/CL escape from TianChuang, a few episodes after WKS gives it to him. It was given almost as an afterthought when he learned that Jin wang is after the liulijia and I guess it was to help Han Ying deflect suspicion for saving him as well as to help him at least partially complete his mission.

I remember thinking at the time, wow both WKS and ZZS don't give a toss about the liulijia which everyone is fighting over - ie., neither of them are interested at all in the armory and its secrets. Ironically they end up being the ones to attain (and need) it.

Hopefully his mom is smart enough to know that he is gonna remember it forever if she stands in the way of his kissing a goddess like Dilraba.

Dang I was really hoping there would be and that he would turn red all the way to the tips of his ears.

Of course what you suggest is more optimal but posting it on the forum page may be more effective. And while you are waiting for that feature, you can consider using that option (or not), I use it all the time to find my own comment or comments of other users.