hvnlyangel

Personally I really enjoyed this drama. I understand that Royal feast might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am sad to see it end. I looked forward to Friday for the past couple of weeks so new episodes of this drama will air.
Royal feast has also made me more interested in the history of the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty is the last imperial dynasty in China were women can be officials in the palace. During the Qing dynasty there were no longer any female officials in the palace. I always thought that the plight of women in imperial China can be pretty bleak and restricting at times, but at least women can make something of themselves , a career if you will, during Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties in the imperial palace.

I would like to watch more dramas set in those dynasties and hope to see more air.

I also really enjoyed discussing and debating parts of Royal Feast with people on this forum. Thanks all of you for your insights and opinions.

I am going to elaborate and clarify some things that weren’t answered below for you.

You Yi Fan betrayed his father and wanted to get back at him for killing his mother. He also doesn’t believe that either his father nor uncle are fit to sit on the throne. So he betrayed both of them so that he would be the next emperor if it all worked out and he defeated the ML.

Ye Hua was crying because the book contained her mom’s work, the book showed her that her mother was not the evil, ambitious person Ye Hua thought she was. I think that book contained how to use wild vegetation to cure and get rid or poison. At the end Ye Hua was able to still works for the palace because her mother traded her reinstated position as the head official for her daughter’s release. However , you can see that Ye hua is working as a laborer, Hopefully she can find her redemption and let go of her resentment.

ZiPing didn’t like a soldier but she kind of liked that official who the ML was jealous of.

Oh it will be interesting if those two actors get a drama together. If the actress
Who played Ye hua is part of Yu zheng’s production company than it could be a possibility. I think that Wang Yi Zhe, the actor who played You Yi fan to be a pretty good actor. He was naive, carefree and was slightly goofy in Song of Youth, and cold, serious, in Royal Feast. He embodies the characters he plays well.
The eunuch that tried to poison the ML , Yuan Qi , would be punished I believe. I am still uncertain by exactly what the emperor said but I believe that he would be severely punished like killed perhaps. Yuan Qi did so many bad things, all listed by the other eunuch, Che Wu, that according to Ming dynasty law he would be severely punished. No going around that one. Plus the ML was crying by the door looking at the person who was his friend since childhood. I don’t believe that Yuan Qi didn’t believe that the emperor shouldn’t be the emperor. Plus he was kneeling down slapping his own, he knew that he was wrong at least.

Well there is a 4 year difference between Xu Kai and WJY. She is older than him, and doesn’t help that his face is very youthful and he still has sort of a baby face. Her styling with her hair and makeup ages her and all the other actresses. For example the Empress dowager and Noble Consort Guo are only in their 40s, as I am. I think they are 44 and 42 which is older than me but their styling in this drama makes them look older.

I feel that Wu Jin Yan looks really pretty and younger in modern styling. Her short bob frames her face and really her makeup really suits her. However, I think in Royal feast the updo of the female actresses and the lighter more natural makeup tends to age the actresses. WJY also said that she purposely lost weight for this drama and that could have contributed to her looking older. I find that people with some softness to them tend to look younger, especially when one gets older.

The guy who played the bad eunuch who was the sworn brother of WeiYinglou, was in ALP, where he had a small part. Also the doctor in Yanxi palace played the god of love ties in ALP, he tends to always play doctors. I don’t know if the actress who played Wuhan was in the same company as Xu Kai, but she was in Yanxi palace too.

I don’t about Xu Kai’s other dramas. I guess we have to wait and see from his other dramas that are not produced by Yuzheng.

Watching all of these historical Chinese dramas, I want to get a hanfu myself. But I want one that is made from quality materials such as silk, etc. I am leaning toward getting one set in the Ming dynasty style.

I agree with you about the hair. In some other dramas set during Ming dynasty, civilian unmarried women usually have their hair partly down. Except for when I watched the Song of Youth, the unmarried noble or girls from the officials families all had their hair up.
Piling one’s hair up on one’s head like that does make a person seem less youthful.

I am not saying that anger solves a problem buy for some rulers they can use it as a tactic.
At this point, I am sure alot of his ministers, officials see him as a
kid, who is about the age as their children. I
am not even certain that they all respect
him at this point. They are certainly keeping things from him.
I feel like his anger is justified at his officials in the last two episodes.
Heavy the head that wears the crown.
Zhu zhanji is trying to be a good ruler. With age comes wisdom and as he ages he certainly will gain other tactics to use to get his point across and to get these people to fall into line. He hasn’t learned or attainted that stern bearing that his grandfather had. His grandfather was emperor for 20 years and one he came to power he killed the officials that opposed him. The Yongle emperor took the throne from his nephew and killed a bunch of people. People feared him.

Zhu zhanji is young and this is just his first/second year as emperor. He is also stressed. Sometimes if you don’t show people that you are serious they don’t take you seriously. You can threaten but if there is no teeth behind it those officials will just on keep on doing what they are doing.

And why shouldn’t Zhu ZhanJi be angry? His officials have it job and they aren’t performing well, basically just allowing for child labor to go on. As emperor he isn’t necessarily going to fire these people because he needs them to do their job. But they aren’t. So he is angry. His “loyal” servant/eunch is supposed to oversee this stuff and obviously not doing his job either. If it was in modern times today, those people would’ve already been fired. But during that time it wasn’t so easy. The system was corrupt.
Emperor’s have absolute power and you can think that being an emperor is great. But it can be very stressful, and at times unrewarding, frustrating, dangerous, lonely, and thankless position.
Historically, Zhu ZhanJi lived for 38 years. he was emperor for a decade. I think that he died of stress.

At the end of episode 35, Zhu Zhanji is yelling at a court official for allowing children to be conscripted to do labour. Some of his officials are incompetent, lazy, greedy. That particular person allowed the children to be taken from their parents and forced to work, because another department approved already but he is of higher rank he could’ve stopped it. At this point Zhu Zhanji is stressed because his officials are keeping things from him so he has to journey to see things with his own eyes.

I feel like his anger is justified in regards to the situations and people he is facing.
Anger can be a tactic used by rulers to get things done. Sometimes one has to throw a tantrum and scare people to get things done.
Queen Elizabeth I threw lots of tantrums especially with her privy council to get her way or to stall when she didn’t want to do something. In some situations a carrot isn’t going to work you have to use a stick. At least Zhu Zhanji is just yelling at some people and scaring them to shape up he isn’t beheading people.

Keep on watching there character explanations in the episodes as they progress.

This drama to me isn’t love at first sight as the other dramas from this production company are. To me the two leads are like pen pals in away who admired each other’s artistic talents before they met each other.

It’s hard to compare fuheng’s love and Zhu Zhanji’s love for their romantic leads.
First off Zhu Zhanji is part of the imperial family, he has duties. The foremost is to produce heirs, offsprings.
Fuheng was the heir to his house and it looked like he got an “heir” already. He also had a brother, who was real father to his “son” but his mother didn’t know that. Fuheng was a nobleman but he wasn’t royalty. He did not have produce other heirs to further his family line.
So it’s hard to say one person’s love is purer because Fuheng was a virgin and he loved only one women all of his life.

If Zhu Zhanji don’t produce more kids, people will pressure him too. He is already doing more for Zhi Jin than he is supposed to. Zhu Zhanji is the first emperor who gave his noble consort Sun golden treasure, I don’t know if it was a seal but it translates as that. This golden treasure was only reserved for the empress. So in episode 35 Yuan Qi is complaining to the empress dowager and how he favors her so much and wants to give her that. But that is just an example

Secondly, Zhu Zhanji is an emperor and he has alot of weight on shoulders. Being emperor, to follow the will of his ancestors and to make sure that his people are taken have have time of he doesn’t have time to even be romantic or deal with his love life. Though in previous episodes he was obsessing over it.
So to me it is really hard to compare the two’s men’s love and say one is purer or more. They both love the people they love intensely I feel. But they have different expectations and weight placed on them.

Zhu Zhanji doesn’t treat the women in his harem horribly. I find him more disinterested in those women. He strucks me
as a person who want to find a partner in his wife. He was raised by his grandmother and his grandparents love was a loving one so he probably wanted to love his official wife and have her be his partner. But alas she was unwilling to let him in the beginning and hurt him. And he feel in love with Zhi Jin, who doesn’t act like a girl typical of those times. So she does exasperated him and they don’t communicate well so there are misunderstandings. But zhu zhanji does love Zhi jin. He actually needs her alot. If you watch thr preview for episode 36 he says that he is so difficult he is under alot of stress. That is why he died at the age of 38, he was probably overworked.

Fuheng was able to devote his life to his country and to one woman. His was a great love and very admirable. I would personally prefer to be married to him. But Zhu zhanji though he has multiple concubines he does love Zhi Jin. Their circumstances are differnt. In this dramas Zhu Zhanji probably would have preferred to just have Zhi Jin and no one else but unfortunately he can’t have that.
A good emperor’s life isn’t their own, he has a duty to his country and people.

Royal Feast is a Yuzeng production. So most of these actors are in thr dame production company.

Chinese production companies are interesting to. For example, when Xu Kai was in Ancient live poetry some of the actors were in the same company as him. So his contracts would state that he has some actors from him company act in dramas not produced by his company in the dramas he is in.

I think that all the actors/actresses under contract with a company bring some actors into other productions.

Yuan Qi was getting some kickbacks from some shady dealings. I think it had something to do with the different bureaus and how much money they are spending on things.

Zhi Jin is in charge of investigating and dealing with the finances of the palace. So Yaun Qi is feeling threatened and his underlings are worried.

:) you’re welcome

I am glad that he finally understood what was going on with her.

Ha! He waits 3 months to have a conversation with her than several more months to realize that she is ill and can’t speak and not because she is being stubborn doesn’t want to talk.

But at least he eventually figures it out and apologizes.
They just really need to work on their communication skills up to that point.

But if you see my above posts, after Zhi Jin’s talk with the empress dowager, she knows her purpose as his “wife”/noble consort.
He in turn apologizes to her and has a better understanding of her. How she always advocates for others and not for herself. When it concerns
herself she becomes silent. Zhanji now understands that about her. So they can move on and grow together.

But Zhi Jin will still exasperate him because it is her job to show him the hard truths and help guide him to make the right choices. I am really hoping that we see them united as a couple. Sure there will be ups and downs but at least they know exactly where they stand with each other.

To be fair, the emperor didn’t want to force Zhi Jin to be one of his concubines. He said that hr wanted to do whatever to make her happy and bot sad. But his mother maneuvered it so she had to marry him. The empress dowager wanted to find a wife for his son, who would be his equal partner and tell him truths, and be an advocate for him.
It’s hard being an emperor. Don’t get me wrong I am not excusing his confining her to her quarters for months, and not communicating with her.
Their relationship is stronger after episode 33 because he was able to find out the root cause of her muteness.
Also, from her conversation with the emperor dowager, Zhi Jin understands her role as his “wife.” She has a propose to be next time, she is the mirror that reflects the hard truths that sometimes he doesn’t want to hear and his biggest advocate. That conversation allowed her to heal and she soon recovered her voice after that. Zhi Jin found a purpose as his noble consort.
Ironically, Zhi Jin’s role now, should be the empress’ role but alas things turned out differently.

I feel sympathy for the empress she must feel extra. Like what is her propose. Zhu Zhanji said to her you will always be my good empress but he never says wife. Because he regards Zhi Jin as his wife.
So in my opinion Zhu Zhanji isn’t that childish just slow to realize these things.
Heavy the head that wears the crown. Zhanji was upset with Zhi Jin for not coming to him and relying on him. Instead she is conducting her own investigation and willing to try the medicinal food that the empress is taking to test it.
After episode 33 their relationship I hope is stronger but Zhi Jin still makes him see the hard truths, things that others, his officials, are keeping from him.

This drama mostly follows Zhi Jin’s life. So when Zhi Jin becomes a concubine of the then crown their is less focus on the culinary stuff and more of her interactions with the other concubines.

But this drama still shows a mixture of politics, what the food bureau is doing, and the back court is doing along with the ML and Fl’s relationships.

I think with ye people, like her mother, are willing to cover up for her. She hasn’t ever had to learn her lesson and live up to her responsibilities.

Once there are no one willing to cover for her or take the blame for her then she will suffer.

During the Qing dynasty, the back court couldn’t be involved with the outer court. The imperial concubines could nit be involved in politics.
Maybe during Ming dynasty things were different or the situation was different.
Currently, the empress dowager is investigating the different bureaus there are some shady things going on. One of the emperor’s eunuch’s is getting a kickback,

Zhi Jin is helping the empress dowager clean this stuff up, this was originally Official meng’s job. But this is all still the palace’s interworkings.

In regards to politics, the only situation I can think of was in episode 34 when Zhu jin was pointing out the refugees that the court officials have placed there. Everyone in the palace knows about it but the emperor and no one is willing to let him know.

The empress dowager said that she wanted to find someone who can be a true partner to her son and she thought she found such a person in Zhi jin. So maybe Zhi Jin discussing politics is okay. She is helping her husband the emperor.

This drama is missing 10 episodes. So in terms of drama and suspense I wonder if there would’ve been more if they were allowed to keep all the episodes.

The 2nd male lead seemed like a product of his sad childhood and upbringing.