mimi0108

Hua Jing was a brat. The fact she was also a victim doesn't change her bad nature.
She has no respect or love for her family. She only comes to see them when she needs something, has no regard for the lives of others and doesn't seek to escape from her situation. Her husband is abusive and lustful but she prefers to blame her family for refusing to sacrifice an innocent young girl to him.
Instead of respecting her loved ones and sincerely asking for help, she comes in like a demanding princess and throws a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. She has her brother's concubine raped, she tries to ruin her niece's reputation (which could lead her to suicide), she curses her entire family and disrespects her mother (which is a huge taboo for this era) and she causes the death of her mother.
What she suffered at the hands of her husband is horrible BUT that doesn't absolve her of the horrible actions she has done and her deeply evil and selfish nature.
If she had been better, her family would have helped her. But no one wants to help a bad person who also refuses to recognize she need help.
You can have empathy for her situation but you can't hate innocent people because they don't have patience for someone who wishes them harm.
This woman doesn't deserve their help and is not asking for it, she is only asking to sacrifice a girl to a pervert abusive man.

It was something that was done in families, when a branch had no heir. And the child remains with the family. It was most of the time the husbands or heads of the family, mother-in-law who made the decision.

I saw a drama that took place during World War II. The eldest daughter had lost her son while escaping from the Japanese and had gone crazy, waiting for her son, refusing to accept his death. She became also barren. So her husband asked her younger sister and her fiancé if they would agree to give one of their children (when they'll have them) so the sister would have a child who would still be related by blood to her. Out of love, the young sister and her fiancé accepted (even if ultimately, because of the war they never had to give up their child).

Exactly

You're welcome. Their family tree is a mess and wasn't properly explained.
We have :
First son, his wife and his concubine. He has a legitimate daughter (the FL) and son as well as an illegitimate daughter with his concubine.
Second son and his wife. They adopted the illegitimate son of the third son.
Third son, his wife and his concubine. He has a legitimate son (the one who was exiled since he was 10 years old) and daughter (the little one) as well as an illegitimate daughter and son (who was adopted by his second brother) with his concubine Qin.
Four son, the youngest, and his wife and their unborn child.
The Hua family has also two daugthers married, the eldest is the crazy one and the second is the nice one. They both had one son.

Concubine Qin, the real mother, is the concubine of the third brother. So she belongs to the third brother's wife. Her son was adopted by the second brother and his wife since they didn't have kids neither concubine.

Concubine Qin, the real mother, is the concubine of the third brother. The second brother and his wife didn't have kids neither concubine so, when the third brother had a son with his concubine, the family decided to give him to be raise by the second brother in order to his lineage to perdure, since the third brother already have a son with his legitimate wife. By doing so, the boy became legitimate as the son of the second brother.

I really like the drama but what happens to Madam Qin turns my stomach: her son was forcibly taken from her to be raised by her husband's brother and his wife, she was the property of the Hua family (with a slave contract) and could be sold at any time, when she has a moment of fear (when her son falls into the water) and reveals their link, she is thrown into the street while injured. FL spares her but she's still banished from the Hua house and away from her other child (her daughter). Then she is drugged and raped by her sister-in-law's henchman who uses it to blackmail her.
What a pitiful life.
I hope the drama will stop torturing her and give her more peace. And I sincerely hope her son's adoptive mother realizes her mistakes and sincerely apologizes. She is the mother of your son whom you love! How dare you treat her like nothing?

For me, the step-mother is the emperor's spy who killed the mother. It's why she kept the sister locked up and maybe forced her to drink medecine who confused her mind.The Emperor try to have his nephew by his side to avoid him been a rival. He privilegied him in front of everyone while just plotting to use him.

He lets his wife's people be killed, and his wife nearly killed. He then psychologically tortures her by, for example, forcing her to watch him have sex with another woman (who hits her), forces her to see the body of her brother and his men, locks her in a dungeon where she is tortured and abused by his guards to the point she runs away and would rather die. But he has the nerve to say he did everything to protect her, that he loves her and he had no other choice?
Toxic behavior and a pointless story.

Yeah, it was heartbroking. For all of them. But, in a way, it helped her entangled the anger she had against her mom as well as the mom's issue to be a loving mother.
NN needed this time far from everyone to mature, calm her heart and be in peace with herself.

I think it was clearly imply she was having "revenge" on her family, specially her mother. She loves them but she needed to do this.

Actually Tagon's mother died in the genocide he orchestrated. She was the translator for the Neandal'chef. She even shared a sad look with Tagon's father when he left.

When they met Eunseom, only Rottip knew who he was and he was silently happy but thought it was meaningless. He only told his friend who Eunseom was after they left. Now, Rottnip isn't here and the other boy raised by Asa Hon is actually more expressive so...they can show happiness.

Exactly.
She saw him spare her cousin because she was standing in front of him. She saw him spit on blood and faint from exhaustion to treat her, watch over her, tell her stories with tenderness and confide. She knows he loves her and it's not just lust. And his refusal to see her, when she wakes up, screams “I love you but we can't be together”. She is aware he is putting a distance between them and that makes her bitter since, because of that, she doesn't really know for sure what he thinks.
And, in many ways, she never stops hoping for a sign from him. A little sign would have been enough for her to express her love too. This shows how much she loves him and how deep down she is aware of the strength of his feelings too. More than once, she hopes for something but she always ends up heartbroken and having to cling to TSJ who, until episode 35, was always there to tell her his love.

I agree with your comment and your sadness for XL.
I just want to give my opinion about XY's thought about XL's love for her:

I don't think XY doesn't know XL loves her. Several scenes seem to indicate she is aware of his feelings. I rather think she doesn't know how much he loves her and how important she is to him because he always hides his feelings and acts of love behind a mask of carelessness and transactions. It's the thing she really blames him for. For example, for me, when she learns he made a deal to save her, she's not bitter because she thinks he's only saving her for that but she's bitter because he always chooses to take advantage of his acts of love, making it hard for XY to know the extent of his sincerity.

This is the tragedy of their love. They are both aware the other loves them but each refuses to acknowledge it out loud, contenting themselves with insinuations and regrets from time to time (like when she tells him she wishes she was the one who saves him or when he asks her to abandon her princess status to travel the world with him). And each doubts the depth of the other's feelings. XL fears TSJ occupies a lot of XY's thoughts and she always fears that XL isn't fully serious with her.

I find the transition between the different actors for the main lead very well done. And this is coming from someone who loves SJK and KJW as Euseom/Saya and Tanya.
8 years have passed, they are now adults and no longer young people. And the new actors bring this more mature aura of experience.
The distinction between Saya & Euseom is clearly murkier. Which is normal now. Euseom is no longer the slightly dumb, awkward, naive, innocent and impulsive kid. His time as a slave in the mine, the losses he suffered, the mistakes he made gradually eroded his innocence and impulsiveness, giving rise to a certain cynicism. After 8 years at the head of the Ago tribe, uniting the tribes one after the other, killing his adversaries, executing his men when they strayed from the right path, making difficult choices, he could no longer be the kid from season 1. No leader is innocent, nor is any soldier.
So it's understandable that Euseom now looks more like Saya, without the twisted and dark side.
And I find that LJG succeeded in showing us the twins were becoming more and more alike while maintaining a significant distinction: Euseom is a charismatic leader with a big heart while Saya has demons, complexes and ambition that eats away at him.
As for SSK, she embodies with calm, gentleness and determination a Tanya more seasoned in the game of power and religious manipulation. We see that Tanya has learned to repress her impulsive indignation and to channel it so as to always maintain her position as spiritual leader to achieve her ends. But the change is more subtle because Tanya had already started a good part of the way in season 1.

Yeah, I was sad too about Choi Young Joon. He was so great as Yeonbal and his scenes with LJG would have been incredible.
In general, Doti excepted (since she was a child and now a teenager so the change makes sense), I have a hard time knowing who's who in the recast. It's a bit confusing at first.

They kept Doti's character but it's no longer the same actress.
Go Na Hee (born in 2009) was Doti in the first season and now it's Lee Chae-Yun (born in 2005).
But I understand the confusion since it's 4 years later irl and the actress could have grow up to this person.

Euseom dreamed of Tanya saying to Saya she wished she never met him. And he thought it was him she was talking about. A part of him fear what Tanya may think of him. That's also why he send men to her father and not her. I agree 8 years are too long but hé was caught in the War, didn't know much about what happened to Arthdal, feared about Tanya's réaction and so on.

For those who know how china broadcast works :
How long can we get a release date after a licence approval?