frankly

I missed the allusion to weather. I'm going to rewatch and pay attention to these details, thanks!

You know, I want to rewatch that part...when he says he'll stay in the marriage so that he can still see her again. After that point, I was hoping they would have more interactions, but there really weren't... 😢. I was hoping he wouldn't dirty his hands by killing JJ because DE didn't dirty her hands. But maybe that was why he chose to leave with his daughter? Because he knew that even though they were so similar, he couldn't be entirely clean like her.

I wondered why they showed the shoes...and I didn't quite get why she gave PYJ another chance, but this helps explain it. I mean, I saw the shoes, but the respect he showed her by leaving the shoes at the entrance kinda went over my head. Thanks for clarifying that! I too shipped DE and DY...there's something about their mutual admiration and respect for each other, but showing restraint based on their current situation. I wish they explored this a bit more...

Someone posted this on the Part 1 discussion: https://time.com/6261820/the-glory-netflix-true-story/

The bullying is based on a true story in a school in Korea. It is an interesting read, especially the writer’s comments about the story.

I kinda like the fact that DE didn’t have to stoop to the level of her abusers. She was able to cleverly manipulate them despite their attempts to get back at her. They were her pawns in the game of Go. For me, that seems more satisfying because she knew her abusers so well that all they needed was a little push (a very well planned push) and they would do all the dirty work themselves. But that’s just me…wanting DE to get her revenge but still stay “clean”, i.e., her abusers didn’t turn her into one of them.

😊 Ahhh, i kept looking at Part 1 only! I see now that your comments are in Part 2! See you there!

I wondered why PYJ was re-enacting the weather forecasting and missed the reference that she’s doing what she forced DE to do (sing and dance) when she abused her. Thanks for that connection! I think it’s also that PYJ never felt the fear of being bullied since she was always the one bullying. So she’s going to endure that longer than DE had to and she can’t escape. In DE case, the people around her allowed it to happened by turning a blind eye, in PYJ case, the public thinks she deserves it so it will be a never-ending hell for her. They may not have shown bruises nor marks on her body, but I’m sure in prison, they do all sorts of horrible things there.

I just finished it and liked it! I’ve been avoiding the discussions until I finished it, so will now head there for some interesting perspectives and analysis! Thanks for the drama recommendation!

Love Like the Galaxy
Love Between Fairy and Devil (not historical but fantasy)
An Ancient Love Song (historical with a twist)
Scent of Time

IIUC, she overturned the charge that her father was a corrupt official that stole 5000 taels from the government during his 10 year career as the magistrate. The witnesses testify that he helped them out with the money he’s been stealing throughout his tenure as an official. She contrasts that with the current magistrate who has been in office for only 6 months, who has considerably more assets than her father. She asks the Grand Censor to provide the official assets seized from her father at the time of his imprisonment (no houses nor lands with a total money sum of 5000 taels) and compares it to the official assets of the current magistrate while in office (40 houses, the number of farmlands is too much to count and total assets of 200,000 taels). I think this pretty much shows that the corrupt official is really the current magistrate. The Emperor then asks another official to reinvestigate her father’s corruption case. That said, i’m in no way an expert on the laws of the government during that time period and i’m basing my understanding on English subtitles. 😅

The current Emperor did not send her (the princess is his half-sister, same father but different mothers). The princess’ father, the previous Emperor sent her to Dai country as a hostage to keep the peace between their two countries. The princess will take revenge on her father because of what she went through as the hostage.

I liked your insights on EP30. Thanks for sharing.

Agree. Loved the chemistry between the leads and their witty/flirty exchanges.

She was able to escape the convent by setting up the headmistress on her own. She manipulated Duke Su into taking her back to the capital by feigning collusion with the salt trafficker he was after. Duke Su and his guards even mentioned she had the gall to use him. At the coming of age ceremony, Duke Su’s guard asks if he should help her escape since her stepmother locked her up. Duke Su said he didn’t want to help her because he wanted to see how capable she was. As @MarkWasHere mentioned, she uses Duke Su to help her maternal family in Luyang, while Duke Su not only uses her to further drive a wedge between Chancellor Li and Grand Secretariat Jiang, but to also stop Chancellor Li from funneling funds to the Emperor’s enemies. There are more examples of these partnerships between them.
I like how their individual goals put them on the same path and how their witty exchanges show their mutual attraction, trust, respect, and admiration for each other.

My friend is watching The Double now, so I’m watching it with her! 🤣

I’m actually ok with brutal and violent scenes. Have you heard of the series “The Boys” on Amazon Prime? I actually liked the first season because of the premise and it was violent and gruesome. However, I felt that the brutality just kept escalating with each season, so that was one of the reasons I turned to Chinese/Korean dramas. It sounds like only the first episode sounds violent so that should be fine for me. Thanks so much for being so thoughtful!

Ok, will definitely watch it next! I'm struggling with Destined. It was fine in the beginning, but I've been getting distracted by rewatching parts of other WXY dramas starting ep 29.

Hello, the actress who played the real Jiang Li is Yang Chao Yue. She is listed in mydramalist cast and credits (near the bottom) as a Guest Role who portrayed Jiang Li in episodes 1-2, 5, 17-18, 40.

I could see why XFF's actions could diminish her character, but for me personally, it did not. I think the sum of XFF's actions make her overall character. Throughout the story I never felt she was an evil person nor did I feel she was a saint. I think she struggled between right and wrong. Her uncle had to make her realize she can't just value people from her town, she almost stabbed the magistrate to death (she even targeted his "crown jewels"), and she was tempted and almost put an arrow through SYR at the imperial banquet.

She tried to get WN "pregnant" to hold SYR and WN to account. I don't think it was her intention to get the physician killed and getting WN "pregnant" doesn't necessarily mean a physician will be killed. Though she created the conditions that would have made it more likely, it was not inevitable and not her intention. I think her smile was intended for WN's situation and not because a physician was killed. WN killed the physician without a second thought. She wanted to kill XFF, Duke Su, and others she didn't like, without a thought. She punished SYR and her husband needlessly.

As for Jiang Li's stepmom, she wanted JL in a convent so her daughter could be the legitimate Jiang family daughter. She had no intention of killing Jiang Li and was even shocked to find out she was abused and killed by the convent headmistress. It shocked her so much she went crazy. She was an evil, scheming person, but I think she never thought Jiang Li would actually die as a result of her actions. I think it was the same for XFF. Her goal was to hold WN and SYR to account and the physician's death was an unintended consequence and at the hands of WN. WN didn't have to kill him, but she did anyways. Given WN's character I could see that she could have killed him if she was having a bad day, regardless of whether she was pregnant or not.

Anyways, good discussion. I got a different perspective of XFF and the story which is always a good thing. 😊

I see. I rewatched that scene to make sure I understood what you were saying. It could have been my understanding of the translation since I don’t speak mandarin. The English subtitles indicate Duke Su said, “The Eldest Princess secretly got rid of the imperial physician.” XFF could infer that getting rid of the physician meant killing him. Her smile due to her plan working, was in spite of the physician being killed. I missed that detail, likely because I was so focused on the interaction between Duke Su and XFF.
Yes, from the perspective of the physician and his family, and the situation that led to their deaths, their revenge against XFF and WN would be justified.
Would I want to watch it? Sure, if the storyline, characters, actors/actresses, OST, production, director, etc. were good! 😊