ShortCircuit

It's not the resolution. Some scenes do have blurred edges around a focused center (I've noticed it's mostly the throne room - or most other "official" settings). I reasoned to myself that it might be caused by some censorhip (maybe they got things wrong from a historical POV or something was not approved and had to be blurred out a bit). Or maybe they filmed it that way on purpose or by mistake, who knows.

It's not really distracting, though noticeable at times. The parts they did right compensate a lot of the few shortcomings, LOL.

This is the second tabloid article on MDL in as many days... *sigh*.

I get it, the private lives of celebrities/actors are interesting to some people, but I had hoped this kind of clickbait "news" is not what MDL is about.

Is this a sign of new trends on this site?

I sure hope we've learned enough from the previous two WWs NOT to get into another, but it doesn't look good, TBH. It might be I'm a cynic and can't find the light in this all the time... I hope I'm going to be proven wrong.

Re: UTM... it keeps getting more complex as time goes by. But at the same time, there are people who want to clear it all up and they have plenty of power too, so maybe it'll have a good, positive ending.

That Ma WenCai guy is the one who cheated and got the official position in the exam, by blaming Cheng RenQing of cheating and getting him banned from official exams for life! And he turns out to be Mr. Fan's nephew. Curiouser and curiouser!

And then the friendly uncle also turns out to be greased out by Mr. Fan and the land measurement DOES matter a lot - now Mr. Fan has twice the reasons to kill JiaMo's father.

Lawyer Cheng orchestrated the whole thing beautifully, getting BaoYu and JiaMo released by pretending to present a lying witness (that he knew was lying) and "accidentally" getting caught on it. But I am starting to be afraid for him - Mr Fan is on to it, and if JiaMo and BaoYu had a lot of luck, then Lawyer Cheng might not be so lucky.

BUT THEN AGAIN. What are the chances Lawyer Cheng was on it from the very beginning?! As in, he's maybe a secret undercover agent of the court, staying close to Mr Fan to catch him in all his cheating and corruption and theft?! I'd LOVE such a twist.

JiaMo remembers quite a lot more than he lets on... I still think he's autistic, but he does have a lot more awareness than he showed before. And strangely, he's guarded against people whom he'd probably instinctively trust.

Are all 7 magistrates (other than Mr Fang) in on it?! Is this such a large conspiracy?! Oh oh...

Uh-oh, the plot thickens!

And are we going to get a chance to redeem a LOT more injustices than what we've learned about so far?

I hear you about protesting in Egypt. I hope the situation improves, and that it does so, soon.

In Europe we have at least the pretense of freedom to protest, but in the end, if there's not a lot of social pressure, people usually give in at the slightest compromise the gov't makes. I am also looking at the France protests now, if anyone can have some results, it'll be the French. For the rest of the continent... it's not looking too good either in the long term. At least we don't end up disappeared or killed if we do protest.

Then again, we all seem to be living in interesting times. I guess we're about due for a new WW, I just wish it wouldn't come in my lifetime because it'll be catastrophic.

Oh well, enough doom and gloom for today :(

Well, that too. Only in those days, they had autocratic rulers and a top-heavy system, so the small fries only got to pay up and shut up. Nowadays we can also protest in the streets, aside from paying up and shutting up eventually LOL.

1. No. Except for a very short period at the end of season 1, that's it.

2. By the second season, they forget everything about magic levels and it won't matter. Don't bother remembering them.

3. Yes.

4. Naksu's body is gone BUT there's a plot switch that allows someone else's body to look like Naksu's original one. She doesn't shift any more.

And geometry battles :D

JiaMo explained it the first time they landed in court with the story of the misplaced tax. 100 years back the emperor introduced a quick tax in kind (silk) to support the army against a Japanese surprise invasion. All the counties contributed to it. But after the war they never removed the tax (because why not?) and then the trail got cold because the registries of the tax bureaus went missing, and those that survived showed the same tax (it kept the name, presumably to keep track of it), but paid in silver taels and relegated to just one county in the prefecture instead to all of them.

That's the original problem, anyway. And then there's the land measurement (measures don't fit the official tallies) and that's a HUGE problem. And JiaMo's parents were probably killed because his father (also a good mathematician) had calculated it all and told somebody, presumably a politician or a landlord with an interest in keeping it secret.

As for the tax system, it was pretty complicated already. They had tax in kind (products of some type, like silk or rice etc), money tax (actual silver), and work tax (the peasants would have to work for free for the empire or nobles - and that's aside the actual slaves or state convicts sentenced to hard labour). China - all the kingdoms and empires that came and went - used to have a wonderfully complex bureaucratic system for taxation, public works, army, and so on and so forth.

BaoYu's heart is in the right place, he's just young and naive (and sheltered), not really stupid. He can improve.

And love is supposed to be blind at that age - she's teasing him about the food, and having heart-to-hearts with him. It's love. :D

A sensible wife will keep him in check and let older sister find her own happiness. I hear Cheng's not married either, and he's digging himself up from the pit. Just sayin'.

Mr. Fan seems much more sinister, and more decided to do away with JiaMo. He grew mad at Lawyer Cheng because he postponed the whole thing until JiaMo and BaoYu managed to escape.

I think Mr. Fan is the culprit, even if it wasn't he, himself, who did it.

But him bringing in the cat was cute (and he's allergic now?! :D LOL).

But oooooh the WHOLE prison shuddered in unison when they learned JiaMo was returning. And they brought out the new straw mats, LOL. I think I like those guys :D

PS And it's definitely love between BaoYu and the girl, I see marriage in their future - what, he gave her his precious jade! They're basically engaged already.

I don't trust Lawyer Cheng when he doesn't take money.

I'm all about living in a fantasy (I'm watching dramas, aren't I?) but it's always the characters that I end up loving or hating. The actors playing them are secondary.

LSG's private life is his private life, he and his future wife are not public property so the public doesn't get to decide over them.

TBH though, this sounds more like what a regular tabloid would publish - something to get the clicks. Even if there are some fans who can't respect common sense limits to fandom, giving them any kind of discussion space isn't right in the end.

Edit: reading about it, it's not directly about the marriage, but more about the bride's family (her father was twice prosecuted for embezzlement, went to prison the first time, was exonerated at retrial the second time), and about how the family made their fortune partially due to that. So it's not opposing in sasaeng fury, but more in disapproving the future in-laws.

I still think framing it as a case of fans mad their idol is marrying (at all) is baiting for clicks. The situation is a bit more nuanced, apparently. Still his own - and her own - private lives, but not as black and white as it first appeared.

It seems to have been released last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmfDNi9xYew

I mean, man-made airborne biochemical weapon. We can't have that at this time, even in a roundabout way.

It started extremely strong - loved the first episode! - and kind of mellowed toward the end. Zhang Ping's tenacious nature might've bent a bit too (was ShuLin the actual emperor? Because it sure looked like he was, and ZP ignored it in order to make the good guy an emperor.)

Lan Jue was all over the place - there were about three distinct arcs (LJ's revenge, LJ and ZP's enmity, and then the final arc), and in each he seemed kind of disposed toward each of the guys in turn, LOL. And then they smack down the son kept in the countryside so that he'd be protected, LOL. I mean, okay, he definitely has a son, BUT, unless there was some mention of him in the cuts made to the previous 28 eps, they didn't need to mention him now either, unless it was to tone down any presumable close friendships *ahem*. And when did he have TIME to become a scholar, get an official position, get married, have a kid, lose the wife, plan a revenge, meet ZP, etc? Good thing the cats are still around. They'll just purr some sense into him again, maybe :D

Gu Qingzhang acted in a different drama than the rest of them, LOL. They were all being detective-y and then military-ish, and he was being the main character in a palace drama and court politics :D

The absolute winners - MoWen!! (yes, I'm definitely a MoWen fan.) I don't know how he came to become the Minister of Justice, LOL, after going to the wars, but hey, I don't judge. He has insane chemistry with everybody else, too. I'm going to be looking out for whatever drama Hong Yao appears in from now on. And then, obviously, Chen Chou - you don't need Lan Jue, Zhang Ping, your own faithful sidekick is there to save the day, any day, every day :D

I just wish somebody would have thought to give Zhang Ping his metal bowl again. How will he practice the magic without it?

And now that I remember it, whose was the metal bowl they found in the closed Incantation Court when the fake/real/no, wait, really fake Dowager Empress was about to be burned? If it's supposed to be GQZ's? But he wasn't from the clan, what could he do with it? Ah, plot holes...

I would've LOVED it to keep the original atmosphere, and sadly, I kind of see how badly it was cut down. Maybe it was to tone down the bromance, or the final plot lines, or whatever... But the first ep felt like a whole movie, and for me anyway, that didn't maintain til the end.

Yet, it was a good series, pretty good production values (despite having only one throne room to play for the whole imperial complex, and only two or three street settings overall. and then in the second half, lots of kind of obvious green screen scenes (like the cozy playhouse of LJ and ShuLin). The music was also good (old master's singing voice was a surprise, LOL, he could definitely win some awards :D).

So, all's well that ends well.

Okay, now it makes sense why they couldn't air it in the past two years.

What the heck!! ShuLin is PeiZhi's zhi ji / soulmate?!! When did THAT happen?!

MoWen, come over, I have cookies. Bad people don't deserve you. Seriously, come over, we'll find someone new for you. Someone better. There, there... *consoling the baby*

Seriously now, Zhang Ping going bothered about that is cute, though LOL.

Mid ep 22 but I can't help myself...