PeachBlossomGoddess

Sigh - let's hope for the best. They allegedly have "sufficient content" for 47 episodes...

Well Tong Hua should still be overall in charge but she is a writer with many projects. Usually the lead writer just gives overall direction, writes some parts themselves - opening and closing - and parcels all the other sub-plots out to other writers so that they can get worked on in parallel. That's why there is so little consistency in most c-dramas bc they are so long its hard for one writer to do it all. Wang Juan (JOL, SSS etc) does everything himself but he takes years to finish a script.

This is where I feel a bit scared. Usually there are a few supporting scriptwriters that write different arcs - I feel the one in charge of this Manyi arc is not really up to scratch.

Fragrant Orchid. Or Orchid Fragrance.

This Duke really has no insight. The ML and his family were in dire straits when he married Ms Zhao and yet he refused to be their puppet. He is not the malleable puppet type - this is about his innate nature and has nothing to do with whether the FL exists or not.

Oink oink!

Totally. I'd have dropped that if it weren't during covid and I was locked down.

😅😂👏

I think that is clearly Ms Du's preference - to be a concubine over the legit wife of a scholar bc God forbid, she will have to help her husband make his way in the world! It is a feudal society so there is little way forward for women on their own. And Ms Du has no qualms poisoning the legit wife or her kids. So yeah, it makes sense more for her bc she has no bottom line. But of course Lanxiang won't be prepared to do that and if she were concubine and someone like Xingtang or Manyi were the main wife that would be terrible for her. I do think if Jinqi's offer is main wife then of course it is a vastly superior offer to scholar Han's.

She left it behind at the Lin mansion. Had to make space for all that gold they gave her....

Yeah I have to agree - I rolled my eyes through the latest 2 episodes. Not to mention dumb dumb Duke can just go get a royal decree to order Jinqi to marry his daughter. Easy peasy and its a done deal there would be nothing he can do about it. Truth be told, they didn't even need to go to all those lengths - there is no way Grandpa Lin will turn down a duke.

I think she or Xiaolian said something along the lines of its much better to be the wife of an ordinary man than the concubine of a noble family like the Lins. So I hope Jinqi gets it that nothing less than legitimate wife is going to fly with Lanxiang.

Most of the Zhus were big fat dudes.😂😂😂

Yeah one of the great tragedies of the history - the guy was isolated for so long he could barely walk or recognize farm animals much less communicate when he was released and died shortly thereafter.

This part is completely fictional. But in history, Zhu Yunwen's younger son, who was 2 at the time survived, was given a different commoner name and was imprisoned by Zhu Di. He was jailed for more than 50 years until one of the subsequent emperors freed him.

Not Zhu Yuanzhang - he was the founding emperor and a conquerer - he didn’t depose anyone. This is his son Zhu Di who deposed Xhu Yuanzhang’s grandson, Zhu Yunwen. Both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di were ruthless generals and cruel but effective monarchs. But Zhu Yuanzhang chose his grandson over his more capable son Zhu Di to succeed him bc he was more benevolent and scholarly. That is probably why Grandpa Shen refused to criticize him and Scholar Lu obviously knew Grandpa Lin but shuns him for what he did to save his family.

Duke is highest rank of nobility and yet he gets his hands dirty personally? It’s like they ran out of money to cast a henchman for him.😅

Of course I am not saying I need all the villains to be the same archetype and they clearly are not . Cuique actually has more of a grudge towards society and should be more empathetic but the actress didn’t succeed in making me feel empathetic to her at all. I just yawned. Whereas I feel Xingtang was her own worst enemy but still Li Meng made me feel bad for her.

It’s all relative - she is clearly a better actor than JJY who was extra annoying with her posing in every scene in that. But I found her acting here not that great bc Li Meng is a much better villain actor so coming after that ZHHZ seemed first flat and then forced - her soliloquy was boring and not empathetic. This third villain Manyi is also meh so far.

I think the Xu Kai drama is alright to pass time - it’s very melodramatiic.