PeachBlossomGoddess

Tencent goes back to clean up the AI subs with a proper translator but that takes time. I usually watch with Chinese subs but switched on English subs for the first 2 episodes to check them out and found that they are good. If you can't wait for the cleaned up subs then yes of course the AI subs will be beyond terrible.

Good luck with the Mandarin lessons. If you have time you can volunteer to sub or just translate short novels. It is actually a really fantastic way to learn. My nieces go to bilingual school and they also sub stuff during the summers to improve their proficiency level. I am not knocking Viki subs I am sure they are more than adequate. It just depends on which translation team, some are quite superb. Bc this is a very important drama for Tencent, they also put their best subbers on it. But they are also taking a long time bc it just takes time to do it well.

IMHO the Tencent translation of this part is better. Viki tends to be too verbose and pompous in a way that does not reflect the beauty in the profound simplicity of Chinese language. They also like to flip the order of the sentence so that it doesn’t match how it’s said in Chinese which drives someone bilingual like me absolutely batty. It is what usually makes me switch to Chinese subs or turn them off altogether bc it’s incredibly distracting when what I read doesn’t match what I hear. Sorry small rant bc everyone always raves about Viki but I never think they are that great. They have too many volunteer subbers who are English speakers studying Chinese.

They are exaggerating their acting funny on purpose to show it is just a facade to cover up the scheming underneath.

The trailer suggests he will have to indict her for stealing state secrets, an unpardonable crime. It will test his faith in the Qing Code.

Yes, she is the woman he keeps painting without daring to fill in her face. Poor sod, he is still protecting her even though she is colluding with the 2nd prince. That's why his alcoholic momma wants to spank his sorry ass. This family is so dysfunctional!

Until FX discovers it was really the CP that wiped out Sizhe town. He is a very dark character. He casually asked all his guards that saw FX visit him to be silenced "mercifully"

In S1 he left the dust - i.e., he couldn't care less and didn't want to get involved. S2 he is saying I am all in.

The scene was so funny bc his pompous starchy old dad was saying he was proud of his son in that flowery madam get up!!!

Can't wait to watch it.

The way he says Lahkee sounds like Lackey! I just laugh every time. But as they tell you from his name he is a Hao Han 好汉or a good guy.

Its part of his character design. He is supposed to be proud/arrogant to the point it is a flaw. His name Bùfán不凡 literally means not ordinary but it is also a homonym for 不犯 Bùfàn or do not offend.

In S1 FX didn't care about anything. He just wanted to live a carefree life. In S2 he is becoming like his mom and he wants to change the world.

Maybe. I didn't read the novel either its too long. I just read the opening chapters and skimmed some parts. I hope he takes out CP first bc I think 2nd prince is a more interesting villain.

Yes, according to the CP. But as is usually the case, the CP is the son of the empress. The 1st and 2nd prince are older than he is so I assume their mothers were just concubines.

It is very dangerous to take on the emperor's favorite son!

He was dressed like a mama-san! I almost died laughing.

7 episodes in and overall this has exceeded my expectation. It didn't start as well as S1 but that was inevitable:
The cliffhanger at the end of S1 was too over the top - killing the main character dead on screen instead of the cliche of just shoving him off a cliff is very difficult to wind back and leaves a not that dead corpse to get rid of as well. All things considered the explanation was a bit absurd and long winded but they more or less pull it off.
They also introduced quite a few new characters at the start without much foreshadowing of their story arcs but this happens in every new drama.
The tone of S2 has definitely changed. It seems comedic to the point of almost fatuousness but actually the undertone is much darker. FX is playing the fool in a super exaggerated way because he is in super scheming mode. Everyone has to grow up, the vibe is going to be different. It has to be or the story would be stagnant. Underneath the jokes, the battle between the princes is ratcheting up and the rot in the capital is spreading. This season is going to be great!

Her first name is Bà/ 霸 and her last name is Wáng /王. Put it together and it is Bàwáng/霸王 which means despot or overlord. They call her BaBa which also is a homonym for bàba/爸爸 or father. And someone already explained the role reversal above.

He’s just faking it to try to save the woman he loves from being executed for treason.