Like it literally serves no purpose to the rest of the main plot of the story. The main plot effing ended already.…
I love your very insightful take on poetic justice. The fates of those you described were definitely filled with karma and poetic irony, which is what poetic justice is about.
And yes, we cannot explain the deaths of Tong Er and the Ji Brothers. Perhaps we shouldn't put them under the theme of justice because they were not the ones to whom justice was administered, but were just part of the "whims of fate."
I do know, though, that this director LOVES mirroring his scenes with different outcomes. Thus, we were shown Duke Su's father in battle gear with all his men dead, battling alone. He did NOT survive. In Episode 40, we see the same bloody scene with Duke Su and his faithful men. And thus, perhaps that's why the Jis had to die, because the mirroring the earlier scene, all the General's men died. The different outcome, of course, was that our Duke survived this battle.
We see this mirroring/different ending with XFF running in red in the beginning and we know she was going to be "killed" by a faithless husband. So, the mirroring ending with her running in red, we know it would be the opposite outcome.
If we believe in karma, which is part of many a revenge plot, then we know it was poetic irony for SYR that in the end, it was his wife who received everything he wanted: noble status, power (she was now the scholar/teacher), equality with a mate, a lover to play music/go with, a peaceful family life.
Here is the other irony, XFF was given the nickname Li for Civet, the "replacement." We've earlier already discussed the Ancient Story of the Civet and that XFF's civet replaced Jiang Li's Pear. But, could we further push this civet story that XFF also in some ways replaced her SYR in life? She was the one inside the gates now, the one being the scholar, the one entire groups of people/families looked up to, the one the Emperor could seek advice from (and you know he did!). I think that is a pretty cool "mirror" maneuver!
Here is the BTS clips scene I told you about where you'll find several times he kept asking to kiss the FL (during filming) and the director said no. Boo!
Jiang Li suffered immense cowardice from her stepmother who wanted to banish her at any cost so she could reign…
She was accused of pushing her stepmother down the stairs and causing the death of her unborn baby brother. She denied this vehemently and thus was banished to Pure Woman Nunnery to reflect until she admitted her wrongdoing.
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And yes, we cannot explain the deaths of Tong Er and the Ji Brothers. Perhaps we shouldn't put them under the theme of justice because they were not the ones to whom justice was administered, but were just part of the "whims of fate."
I do know, though, that this director LOVES mirroring his scenes with different outcomes. Thus, we were shown Duke Su's father in battle gear with all his men dead, battling alone. He did NOT survive. In Episode 40, we see the same bloody scene with Duke Su and his faithful men. And thus, perhaps that's why the Jis had to die, because the mirroring the earlier scene, all the General's men died. The different outcome, of course, was that our Duke survived this battle.
We see this mirroring/different ending with XFF running in red in the beginning and we know she was going to be "killed" by a faithless husband. So, the mirroring ending with her running in red, we know it would be the opposite outcome.
If we believe in karma, which is part of many a revenge plot, then we know it was poetic irony for SYR that in the end, it was his wife who received everything he wanted: noble status, power (she was now the scholar/teacher), equality with a mate, a lover to play music/go with, a peaceful family life.
Here is the other irony, XFF was given the nickname Li for Civet, the "replacement." We've earlier already discussed the Ancient Story of the Civet and that XFF's civet replaced Jiang Li's Pear. But, could we further push this civet story that XFF also in some ways replaced her SYR in life? She was the one inside the gates now, the one being the scholar, the one entire groups of people/families looked up to, the one the Emperor could seek advice from (and you know he did!). I think that is a pretty cool "mirror" maneuver!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nXzwDDs3Ks
Enjoy!