PeachBlossomGoddess

I think STOTD1 opened with a black cat and a dead official.

I think there must have been folk tales about demon cats during this period. I think there was also something similar in A Dream of Splendor about some kind of cat demon terrorizing the city. Either that or Chen Kaige's The Legend of the Demon Cat inspired a lot of copy cat storylines.

I don't think she tried to poison the emperor in history. I just think she became seriously disturbed after her only son died in infancy and pretty much poisoned all the pregnant concubines. The crown prince survived bc he was hidden from her. There is a lot of wild history around her. She is the same empress in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Zhen%27er#:~:text=Imperial%20Noble%20Consort%20Wan%20(traditional,consort%20of%20the%20Chenghua%20Emperor.

There are so many good dramas currently airing that even if there is fast pass, I doubt I will be able to keep up with it.

Its a busy time of year for me so I am behind the latest episodes and I have no time to respond to stupid comments I just scroll past them.

I think they don't really have enough content and just dragged out some uninteresting villain arcs. Also nowadays lots of dramas play it safe when it comes to historical figures to pass review fast. So I hope I am wrong but I think they are going to gloss over the battle for the throne arc. The Empress Wan should be the one that poisoned/killed all her husband's potential offspring even though she was childless herself.

Yeah I wish the focus will just switch to the final battle for the throne arc instead of prolonging the petty villain arcs - both stepmom and now Song Han are boring villain archetypes. The real players there have barely even shown their hand yet.

Yeah and now Song Mo is his closest living relative and they grew up
like real brothers. He should jut move on and live well.

So far this story lacks a really good, well acted villain.

Not really interested in Song Han’s villain story. His story should have just ended already. The character and acting is not interesting.

Yeah I don't understand these fan wars. They need to get a life. Their idols will never even know they exist.

Seems a bit abrupt. He became ambitious from happy go lucky overnight almost.

I don't think Ji Yong is innately evil but he is ambitious and not satisfied with the emperor and he may think Prince Qing may make a better ruler. Shunde has no kids and she is a woman so she can't hold power. I don't see what she has to gain by plotting against her brother emperor.

Well there are lots of them but it seems they all have the same goal of helping Prince Qing so you can almost think of them as one.

He looks so flabby and harmless like the Pillsbury Doughboy but he is actually very evil and scheming. I wonder if he has the empress or Shunde behind him but I feel Shunde is not evil for some reason.

Idk Sweeney Todd I am just saying Dou is a bit of penny dreadful kind of villain.

He is a bit of a penny dreadful kind of villain.

Sigh - I have a feeling the director decided to let that dratted Ji Yong waver between doing evil and letting him die or doing good and curing him...

Yes - it was that phrase I was referring to. It could be Ji Yong is in the capital as a spy for Prince Qing but also has developed feelings for DZ along the way. Hopefully that ultimately sways him from taking the wrong path.

Meanwhile while we have been distracted by other things, Pillsbury Dou-boy Uncle No 5 has pretty much maneuvered himself into being the next prime minister now that Wang Xingyi has had to step down.