PeachBlossomGoddess

The main villain should be Empress Lv from Beiyuan. But it remains to be seen whether she was also behind Shen Zaiye/Xie clan's downfall. That could be Meng clan, in which case he should get his revenge soon. I think from the title, this is more Taohua's story so the main villain should be in Beiyuan.

During ancient times, all mines belong to the state, especially for gold, silver and salt. This is understandable bc it can be used to fund wars, raise armies etc. So if the evil stepmother can get her hands on it, she can raise an army to over throw Qi state for example. She can also stage a coup in her own state to seize the throne. So it makes sense she wants the map.

The emperor chose to sweep the counterfeit money under the rug for now bc 1.) his second son is trying to topple his older brother and 2.) too many court officials are implicated. If they all go down at once, it would destabilize the court and leave them vulnerable to external challenge. But he is taxing the Meng family to plug the hole for the counterfeit money. I didn't like the bucolic arc either but I believe it is meant to lead to the ML and FL discovering an illegal silver mine that the Meng family is secretly operating.

That all said, this whole story doesn't make much sense - it was not written by a good writer. No wonder the novel did not have good reviews. The crown prince is next in line, he does not need to counterfeit money to raise an army to topple the emperor. Once he assumes power, the Meng clan will continue to dominate, they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing something so stupid. I think this is quite entertaining to watch, but I am quite sure the whole plot when it is revealed is going to have many elements that make no sense.

I didn’t like her acting at all in Blossom. - she has zilch chemistry with LYR. I think she is more natural here but yes she does overdo the dead duck stare. This kind of vanity shots really irritate me and have no place in any drama. It’s also why actresses like her get panned all the time for their acting - they step out of character frequently so they can look pretty in a scene.

Yeah she looked her best in The Untamed. She lost a lot of weight since then. It had made her features look huge in her face and IMHO it makes her look haggard and a lot older. I was shocked at her appearance in Blossom. I read she lost even more weight before shooting this to make her character look like she was suffering. Unfortunately all this has erased the youthful bloom she used to have.

They long ago split up.

At this point, its like he is TRYING to be deposed!!!🤦🏻‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

Yes it does indeed but POB's plot fell off a cliff the moment the ML fell for the FL in something ridiculous like ep 2 and turned into a lovesick fool. Sadly, in c-dramas, no one dies falling off a cliff in c-dramas except drama plots....

Ty for reading and glad you enjoyed ADOS, it was a good drama indeed.
Story of Minglan was Zhao Liying's breakout drama, Its a very good drama but I did not love it as much as most people did.

He had a concubine with whom he had two kids.

Nah it was something like the director and the producer had an affair that didn’t end well bc the director was fooling around with this actress. So the producer took over and edited her out of every scene.

His given name should be Mu Wuyin and his title is Prince Jing.

Oh I vaguely remember that was a minor role acted by someone who was in a scandal.

Yes I think so

He claimed Tsui Hark doesn’t understand his stories and banned him during his lifetime of ever adapting any of his books again. They had intense creative differences.

Lol - well the movie Tsui Hark really wanted to make was about Yang Kang bc he is so much more interesting. Sadly for him, Jin Yong barred him and he never managed to work his way around it.

He was quite a womaniser himself. I was always of the opinion that GJ was his ultimate male fantasy hero - that a dumb dumb like him can get a girl like HR.

Yeah I usually find it quite easy to tell the actors apart but these two sure fooled me!

I also love Yang Kang, I like him as much as I like Huang Rong - I never faulted him for loving his adopted father more. Guo Jing and Huang Rong were just to narrow minded to understand his POV. Micheal Miu nailed the role but I didn't like his Huang Yaoshi as much. I think its bc LYT sucked as HR so I just didn't see the iconic father daughter chemistry in that version.

Yes I couldn't agree more. I have no issue with green flag characters but... if the drama is realistic, most of them should die dead pretty fast during these kinds of chaotic times.