Whatever news of that extremely amazing TTJ custom-made doll? I keep thinking about it, but now twtr is being a d*ck and I don't have any way of checking how it's going - they had the hairdo down, but the costumes were not finished. Are there any new pics about it? I can't relink to where it was waaaaay back in the comments.
Realistically speaking, the Emperor only has power if people recognize him for having power and follow his orders…
That's why I said he was as merciful as he could. Usually someone who dies for lèse-majesté in ancient China loses their whole wealth, their family registry if they're lucky and the whole house doesn't get killed right off or sold into slavery, and that not just for the culprit's direct kin, but for some ranks of their family, depending on how bad they had it.
So letting GJS survive at all, with wealth (as much as they had recovered at that point) intact, their homes still their own, and even more, he's still employed in the ministries, even demoted six ranks... That's basically crime erased (yes, even with LYR being "suicided" as compensation).
The first half put me to sleep every episode. The second half at least moved much faster and I did remain connected so there's that.
This is kind of a strange drama - I was expecting to get interested in the hypnosis angle, but it was treated like every hypnotist can engage with basically every person they meet, and put them under hypnosis in an instant, all the time, with barely any contact, like they're superhumans or something - and by the end they can do it wholesale, with amphitheatres full of people all at once. That was really really strange to me. And TBH it was kind of making me laugh how every human interaction in the police investigations needed the supplement of hypnosis for them to find clues. That's not.... Ah, whatever.
I liked the mains more in the first part, strangely. At least they were working out kinks in their relationships. By the end they switched into Frodo and Sam and I didn't quite like it TBH. But oh well, at least they gave a positive ending (oh and BTW the ending, including the LOTR reference, felt veeery similar to what happened at the end of The Silence of the Monster). James Yang stole the second half of the show, IMHO.
Well, now I'm done with it. It satisfied my XYL craving for a bit, though I hope he picks some drama not on Mango, next :D
Realistically speaking, the Emperor only has power if people recognize him for having power and follow his orders…
She's not an entity in a void. She belongs to a clan, and going by the usual historical things, that clan is probably really well entrenched in everything the administration does. They wouldn't let her be alone in court if anything wrongs her (or she pretends wrongs her). And then those clans would be allied with even more clans, and so on and so forth.
That's why I'm saying - she still has power behind her. That's why JH is needed to help the Emperor clean up the court and admin, in general, and replace the old power with new scholars, ministers, generals, etc.
Realistically speaking, the Emperor only has power if people recognize him for having power and follow his orders…
(Playing devil's advocate here) He could have hit her hand and make her drop it instead of taking it in his own hand. Even that short instant of time he had it was enough, and he realised it immediately too. He knew he was done, that's why he was asking the both of them to spare LYR and the family.
Look if this show doesn’t turn a corner by the end of ep 33 I might drop it. I can’t stand this bullshit palace…
Realistically speaking, the Emperor only has power if people recognize him for having power and follow his orders (also true for every other kind of leader of people).
So if the Empress wants to make this a huge hullabaloo in Court, there WILL be people supporting her, as they have a lot to gain from that, and working against the Emperor for the same reason. In order NOT to have a huge commotion over something that IS legally clear - I mean, he DID have a sword drawn in his hand in the presence of the Empress, and that was a capital offence - the Emperor has to play by the book and appease those who otherwise might just cook up a revolt or something. It's not that big a thing worth sacrificing the Empire's peace over, from a pragmatic point of view.
Not sure about how switching the punishment from one to the other works, but being sent poisoned wine from the Emperor was one of the nicer types of execution, usually reserved for family or high nobles. And letting GJS actually alive and just demoted - not even exiled to the borders and all his family's wealth confiscated and all that is very merciful.
But yeah, I'd had rather he slapped that bi**h of an Empress and told her what's what. He just couldn't really afford it, politically.
I think FX would have lived longer if he had not become emperor 😅
They keep showing that incense burner, LOL, I don't know what incense they're using, but it's giving me a throat itch just by seeing that smoke :D
(I know it's supposed to be a soothing incense or something, but then we already watched LZS using incense to send FY mad. Who's to say someone else didn't already have the same idea and managed to use something slow-acting on FX?)
It doesn't sit right with me. Fake death after all the mourning? I think it's lame and stupid plotline.
This is a romance costume cdrama drama, people fake die and come back to life ALL THE TIME. You'd think it was a Messiah convention, each and every time. ATWIL, AoL, TBW, TTEOTM, TU... all had this thing. And those are just off the top of my head, LOL, I think I could remember a few more if I really tried.
First off: Shi'An, f**k the f**k off already. Nobody appointed you blame-setter and you have NO right. So shut…
... is it just me or did he straight up offer to kill off Fan Yu IF he proved to be a bad emperor?!
How else is that description of the ex-Crown Prince SO precisely fitting Fan Yu... and what Jiang He did to him, too? I think these two men are indirectly discussing the power disposition if the emperor dies and only FY is left. I loved that talk.
If LZS is JH's son, how did Gu dad come into the picture, and why did JH not marry LZS's mother after all if they really loved each other? Something's either fishy or definitely not how each other them perceived it. But if LZS is the son, he showed all his cards in that discussion. If there's any integrity to JH, he played LZS all these three years, and well done to the best weiqi player in the world :D
I didn't want to see JiuSi so broken. Even if she's not dead, even if it looked to be the only way out of the mess (I'd have gone with removing the Empress instead), they all did him bad - even YuRu. I know she had no choice initially, but she could've told him in these past three years instead of letting him spend his life energy building up a dam (that that commissioner seems inclined to un-build, LOL).
But MAAAAYBE... I mean, it's been three years. And they had consummated the marriage before the mess started. Maybe she was pregnant. And maybe there's a little GiuSi or YuRu in the world? (I don't have high hopes for that though, since she's "Miss" only). But one can still dream about it :D
3 
PS Also, some vigilante justice...
https://imgur.com/a/1V7bqPe
And then he says "Oh, it's going to be a long night..."
He KNOWS you can't resist re-watching :D
That... threw me for a loop. Is that part of the novel TLed yet? I need to read that. For science.
So letting GJS survive at all, with wealth (as much as they had recovered at that point) intact, their homes still their own, and even more, he's still employed in the ministries, even demoted six ranks... That's basically crime erased (yes, even with LYR being "suicided" as compensation).
This is kind of a strange drama - I was expecting to get interested in the hypnosis angle, but it was treated like every hypnotist can engage with basically every person they meet, and put them under hypnosis in an instant, all the time, with barely any contact, like they're superhumans or something - and by the end they can do it wholesale, with amphitheatres full of people all at once. That was really really strange to me. And TBH it was kind of making me laugh how every human interaction in the police investigations needed the supplement of hypnosis for them to find clues. That's not.... Ah, whatever.
I liked the mains more in the first part, strangely. At least they were working out kinks in their relationships. By the end they switched into Frodo and Sam and I didn't quite like it TBH. But oh well, at least they gave a positive ending (oh and BTW the ending, including the LOTR reference, felt veeery similar to what happened at the end of The Silence of the Monster). James Yang stole the second half of the show, IMHO.
Well, now I'm done with it. It satisfied my XYL craving for a bit, though I hope he picks some drama not on Mango, next :D
That's why I'm saying - she still has power behind her. That's why JH is needed to help the Emperor clean up the court and admin, in general, and replace the old power with new scholars, ministers, generals, etc.
Same song as all abusers from all periods of time.
So if the Empress wants to make this a huge hullabaloo in Court, there WILL be people supporting her, as they have a lot to gain from that, and working against the Emperor for the same reason. In order NOT to have a huge commotion over something that IS legally clear - I mean, he DID have a sword drawn in his hand in the presence of the Empress, and that was a capital offence - the Emperor has to play by the book and appease those who otherwise might just cook up a revolt or something. It's not that big a thing worth sacrificing the Empire's peace over, from a pragmatic point of view.
Not sure about how switching the punishment from one to the other works, but being sent poisoned wine from the Emperor was one of the nicer types of execution, usually reserved for family or high nobles. And letting GJS actually alive and just demoted - not even exiled to the borders and all his family's wealth confiscated and all that is very merciful.
But yeah, I'd had rather he slapped that bi**h of an Empress and told her what's what. He just couldn't really afford it, politically.
This is still a romantic story with the usual tropes, everything else are side dishes :)
(I know it's supposed to be a soothing incense or something, but then we already watched LZS using incense to send FY mad. Who's to say someone else didn't already have the same idea and managed to use something slow-acting on FX?)
How else is that description of the ex-Crown Prince SO precisely fitting Fan Yu... and what Jiang He did to him, too? I think these two men are indirectly discussing the power disposition if the emperor dies and only FY is left. I loved that talk.
If LZS is JH's son, how did Gu dad come into the picture, and why did JH not marry LZS's mother after all if they really loved each other? Something's either fishy or definitely not how each other them perceived it. But if LZS is the son, he showed all his cards in that discussion. If there's any integrity to JH, he played LZS all these three years, and well done to the best weiqi player in the world :D
I didn't want to see JiuSi so broken. Even if she's not dead, even if it looked to be the only way out of the mess (I'd have gone with removing the Empress instead), they all did him bad - even YuRu. I know she had no choice initially, but she could've told him in these past three years instead of letting him spend his life energy building up a dam (that that commissioner seems inclined to un-build, LOL).
But MAAAAYBE... I mean, it's been three years. And they had consummated the marriage before the mess started. Maybe she was pregnant. And maybe there's a little GiuSi or YuRu in the world? (I don't have high hopes for that though, since she's "Miss" only). But one can still dream about it :D