mysteryqueen9

North Qi Princess in PM's manor is a perfect representation of: With friends like these, who needs enemies? lol everytime she opens her mouth to "help" FX, she gives a blow to him. Loving her and First Prince, the mule aka warhorse was marvellous.

Well, you are most probably right, since I read just a little bit of a certain scene of the books and they had a very beautiful exchange (I will not spoil it if you don't want to)

There is already a S3 approved since a long time ago, we have soooo many episodes until the end we will probably quite a bit of FX as a prince (though I don't know if he will be legally recognised as one) I personally prefer FX hides this as long as possible because it will give him 0 benefit and 100% trouble. Crown prince and second prince, Empress, Empress Dowager.... would be out there for blood, since FX would create quite a threat to sucession, specially since he has the connections in Overwatch and CPP's support. And I love so much Fan family scenes.
About RouRou, I would also like more screen time but there is a lot of eps so probably we will have more of her in the future. Wan'er is a character I don't miss very much because I don't miss romance in the plot, but I guess that's just my personal take.

Second Prince is angry as hell, which is fascinating since nobody has been able to crack his mask of a carefree mischievous prince till now. The scene after court with him and CP was funny as crazy, CP totally stabbing him with his comments (absolutely ignorant of "his involvement" in the plan) and I swear for a second Cheng Ze looked ready to jump to CP's throat lol.
FX has messed with him so bad I think the scheming meticulous Cheng Ze will let his emotions and desire for revenge override his rational and FX will be able to give a deeper blow because of that.

The emperor does know it for sure: it's not only the way he treats FX, it's revealed in many other subtles details: Emperor arranging a "casual encounter" in the Temple at the beginning of S1 to meet FX, Emperor tellig him he doesn't have to kneel in front of him, he discovering FX in the courtyard that belonged to his mom when FX and Wu Zhu were searching the key to open the chest, Emperor so obsessed with FX being in charge of the treasury, and in the famous poem banquet, when the Emperor was leaving he had a very neutral face but when he was just out of everyone's sights, he smiled in a very proud parental way....
The most important moments in this S2 to further proof emperor knows are: his reaction to FX' death, and Fan Jian yelling at the Emperor "you may not want him, but I want him" (that quote only makes sense if Emperor does know he is his father). A super revealing and key clue was Emperor arranging a supper with all his sons and FX, and when Empress knows about it, she is furious because the Emperor didn't let her attend under the pretext THE SUPPER WAS ONLY FOR FAMILY, so she complains to her servant he invited FX.
And about your question of last episode, the key in fact to the question it's in Emperor and Fan Jian dialogues. The emperor says something like "FX better not pray to your ancestors" and FJ replies: "he may not pray to them but he carries the Fan Surname" (a veiled low blow to Emperor, like saying: you can say all you want, he is my son before yours in all that matters)

Thank you!

You are totally right, in the little details we have so much information and even hints to what it's to come. Now that I am rewatching S1 I am amazed by how we have a scene between Noble Consort Shu (Cheng Ze's mother) and FX that it's very hilarious but it is blatantly revealing us crutial information if we take the words seriously and don't fall into the assumption that is there just for comedy purposes. FX tells her he and 2 Prince seem to have hit it off very well and Noble Consort says to FX "oh you must have been fooled by him. My son is shrew and scheming, but you will understand after you have known him for some time".

I tried to look for previews of next eps in youtube but couldn't find it, does someone please know where to watch them?

He isn't gonna take very well the "secret brother reveal", I guess lol

The best of that scene in the carriage with his Dad is in the little details. When the father is giving him advice, every time FX replies that Chen PingPing already said it to him, so the father puts down the cup of tea in the table in frustration. Then, FX says to him: we can trust family, and his father is happy and appeased so he takes again the cup of tea to drink from it, with a smile on his face.

Lol I just gave my opinion and I gave you a sincere suggestion to make your experience of watching the drama more enjoyable, since I myself have experienced what it is to enjoy less a good show/book because of having too much expectations or comparisons. If you don't like the show or whatever you are free to have your own opinion and ofc it won't bother me, we all have different tastes, why do you think it makes me miserable if you don't like it? lol
It says much of you that in a forum where people share their opinions and comment why they have a different idea you are so upset that I answered you showing disagreement, when I wasn't rude in any way.

Yes, let's see how this develops but I think FX is going to be very pissed off with both of the princes, they just can't seem to lay low and stop scheming all the time.

Yes, I watched the episode, fyi. I think I now where the confusion is:
CP indeed said to his mother "second prince had already removed his people from village". But his people means Second Prince's informants, his spies and the people that worked for his shady business inside the village. It's very very unlikely that all the inhabitants of the village worked for Second Prince. So Second Prince commanded his people to flee the village, in that way, when CP went to investigate, only the innocent people that lived in the village, completely uninvolved with Second Prince, remained. And then he burnt the village with those people that were normal smallfolk inside.
Furthermore, if the village was really empty, CP's scheme would be discovered very quickly because it would be extremely difficult to hide there were no burnt bodies inside the village. So the key word is "his people", not "the people/ inhabitors of the village", so unless the subtitles are wrong, CP burnt the village with people inside.

But FX problem with second prince is not the smugling...at all. Second prince tried to kill FX in season 1 (several times, btw) and killed his dear friend? How is that a weak reason?
Also, CP indeed burnt the whole village with people inside, if not, why would FX be so appalled?? It makes no sense the reasoning that FX is abhorred by the burning if Second Prince is the culprit, but not if CP is the one behind it

I feel the opposite. The vibe and comedy is all the same. I have greatly enjoyed these 7 eps and imo the main problem is perhaps drawing all the time comparisons with S1 when we have a lot of eps yet to watch. I suggest people to try to enjoy the season without obsessing too much with S1 because it has happened to me too in other shows or books that I start comparing different seasons while watching, and even if it is a good season, it diminishes the enjoyment.

Are you referring to his daughter's name? I read someone said Ba ba means "king of domineering" so it's a very hlarious name for a cute little girl

Thank you so much!

Just the audience. CP reveals this and why he did it while speaking to his mom, the Queen.

I think you misunderstood my comment. I understand why FX allied temporarily with CP. Like you said, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. What I don't understand is why CP did something so despicable and that can backfire against him when FX already sided with him, when FX wasn't going to ally with Cheng Ze because there is too much bad blood between them. Any smart person could see FX and Cheng Ze were already at odds and that wasn't going to change.

I think CP shot himself on the foot, FX would have sided with him against Second Prince because he hates Cheng Ze, all CP had to do was stay "nice" and don't do too much evil and FX wouldn't have opposed him. Making a massacre just for throwing dirt on Cheng Ze is gonna bite him in the ass later, FX will inevitably start suspecting CP because let's be honest, FXwill imply something to Cheng Ze that he knows what he has done to hide his crime, Cheng Ze will put 2 and 2 together and will realise CP is the culprit: even if FX doesn't trust 2 prince, he will begin suspecting CP and voila. The unbelievable thing is CP has committed a terrible atrocity just to get FX to break all ties to Cheng Ze when at Moon Embracing Pavillion he had already rejected 2 prince's offer of reconciling and being allies and he hates his guts, why would he change now ?