PeachBlossomGoddess

Its all good except she often out-dresses the empress and the dowager... And poor Xiao Qi he looks so spartan and impoverished by comparison... A few yards less will feed Xiao Qi's army and make it easier for her to escape these dicey situations she finds herself in... just saying...

That was a very cold conversation between A'wu and Helan Zhen. I think she suspects he killed/tried to kill Xiao Qi.

I wish you would disappear forever. Ouch.

That was a great conversation but it was complicated. At that moment Huaien thinks that Xiao Qi is dead already and one of his conditions for helping Wang Su is that they investigate and clear the names of Xiao Qi and the Ningshou army. And the second condition is that they find Wang Xuan. And you can see from the calculating look on Wang Su's face that he knows Huaien has the hots for his sister. So it is hard to exactly say he has betrayed Xiao Qi and Awu. It was just that he had an epiphany then and there that for all the righteous principles they fought for, they were all chess pieces and they serve at the mercy of fickle and ungrateful masters. In the end Xiao Qi could not protect him and his Ningshou army. So I think that is when he decides to be ruthless and throw his lot with someone with the ultimate power to protect him.

So brilliantly cast.... they look increasingly alike.

Zilv is Jian Ning wang's illegitimate son. They are allied with the Huan family, another aristocrat family - Wang Su's wife's family.

Yes for the most part it is between the Wangs and the Xies. The Wens and the Gus also occasionally take sides as suits their own interests, usually against Wang Lin because he is too powerful. They are usually involved in sub-plots and are not that important in the grand scheme of things.
Re second prince major spoiler don't open if you don't want to be spoiled.

There are four aristocrat families that vie for power behind the throne - the Wangs, the Xies, the Gus and the Wens. The Wangs who have some military power and the Xies who control food supplies are the most powerful. The Wangs gained the upper hand when Wang Lin helped emperor Ma secure the throne over his brother Jian Ning Wang. They have a power sharing agreement and the emperor always makes a Wang clan woman the empress. Both Wang Lin and the emperor are discontented with this arrangement - Wang Lin is the smartest and most dangerous contender for the throne. Then there are emperor Ma's own sons - Zilong (the eldest crown prince, son of Wang Lin's sister); the unfavored second prince Zilv who is allied with emperor Ma's brother Jian Ning wang and finally Zidan the favourite son by the emperor's favourite consort Gui (from Xie family). You can see why A'wu's refusal to marry the crown prince caused the existing power balance to shift. The emperor was secretly hoping to unseat the crown prince and replace him with Zidan (which is why he was willing to allow Awu to marry Zidan). Wang Lin and his sister obviously did not like that turn of events as the Xie clan would be more powerful than the Wang clan. Wang Lin is also personally ambitious as he thinks the emperor's heirs are all weak and unworthy. So initially there are 4 parties in the power struggle - Wang Lin and the 3 princes.

This Wang Su is gradually turning into Wang Lin... manipulative, disingenuous and ruthless. Even his mannerisms... It is really excellent acting.

I believe this is all part of Zidan's plan to seize power, he is behind Zilong's assassination. Zilong doesn't help himself, he was trying to lure Xiao Qi away from his men to be killed by assassins. Instead he got killed by Zidan's assassins. Dumb dumb dumb - emperor does not need to be bait. Helan Zhen is the one that "killed" Xiao Qi but he is also working together with Zidan. He played both sides and comes out on top so far in this plotting.

Zidan is putting in motion his plan to seize the throne. He has to break out of the mausoleum where he is essentially under house arrest. Don't remember exactly but the eunuch is probably the Dowager Empress/Emperor's spy that is there to keep an eye on him.

She was so stupid. Her plotting ultimately brought down her son and with the rise of Zidan, the end of the Wang clan's dominance in court. The emperor meant well but was weak and not smart.

Sigh! Why does she always get herself kidnapped in the most ridiculous outfits??? You would think she learned to make changes to her wardrobe to make escape easier!

Zhou Yi Wei has a very stunning and vivacious wife.

Ok as someone who is enjoying this even though I think the main leads are a big yawn, I am still kind of like WTF with what they have done with Linglong. I didn't mind that much they "muted" her but the clinging to the clothes and the chewing... OMG that is just too OTT...

So much a better father-child relationship!!!

He is so great here I forget he is that Helan turkey.

LMAO - RIP!!!

No 2, 6, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 31 and 33 were all the ones I watched ranked in order of preference. I have reviews for all of them.
https://mydramalist.com/list/1NkKjwWL

I dropped Dream Detective, My Roomate is a Detective and Psych Hunter. There was also Kidnapping Game, Journey Across the Night and a few more that I didn’t watch.

Its a major plot hole... so they entrust their infant to the "evil" people they conspired to murder! The only way I can excuse such stupidity is that these dumb f**ks were the product of too much in-breeding.