noor1234

Not really. I think this setup will allow her to be freer than she would've been as a single woman anywhere. Plus, she can go as fat as she wants to be, & she'll make a better understanding 'wife' to this thankless gutless Shameless/ SML than unfortunately SFL. Wu concubine knows painting & there's a chance that will connect her to the narcissistic SML.

Later on, when this family falls, she can always leave them, because she DOES have a powerful merchant connection - with an ear to the dowager no less.

The 2 things that stood out were the scene with bro - because it's the same bro from Ep.1-3 whose interactions with ML were limited to him pretending to be a salt censor - and now he is managing the salt reforms! - & the other scene was with the mom - because it's the same mom they saw in that pretend wedding carriage/funeral procession & now she was seeing them in similar yet different way. His friends, Sen & military people being there was nice too.

They took a minute to get there though, & even then they were playing around the issue - I think their marriage was a non-issue that was stretched like a chewing gum since ep. 19 - and all this week, in which there were more squabbles than obvious courtship. She had proposed twice when they had nothing. He should've asked her immediately when he first met her in capital (after the pickup in the rain). I found this entire arc bothersome filler.

Yup.

I don't think this drama has the depth or time to show what 5 years apart does to a couple. But they never really had a courtship either. And I doubt drama will show any other ending than the damn Ganglin as endgame.

ML & FL do have a communication gap. But he does need her especially because as he himself says lots of things are said to women in social gatherings / elsewhere that can't be said to the courtier directly. She is his eyes and ears outside of court. She is part of his strength. But both are young people navigating palace politics for the first time. Yus have been at it for decades. So of course there will be trip ups.

This entire thread started from the revelation about the king not sending a gift because of what happened at the banquet. FL said what was most appropriate given the circumstances - I doubt she knew what was going on between dowager & king about dowager's burial. The only thing that stands out to me from all this, is how precarious their situation is & how young they both are. ML & FL cross this bridge too. They are a team, whether they see it that way or not.

Ouch! You've had it with the FL huh?!!! You're right (esp about ML's stance on Chongsi & FL's Wang-Chongsi maneuver, I thought exactly the same thing - this can get him and both of them killed or in prison at the very least!!!), but the drama will show FL to be right, that whatever she's saying or doing is right. Maybe it won't. But C-dramas usually take the side of the women being right (female viewership and all that).

This is a very good analysis - I also see it this way, even though FL's original suggestion to ML to join the military was not technically a bad one - I think military was the only respectable route available to a semi-literate guy with no family, name or connections to 'make' it in the capital or country as a law abiding citizen. ML had said no at first - & that too in front of the crown prince. He could've opened a salt shop too (maybe) but before he'd decided what to do with himself, when everyone had left, I remember FL asking him to marry her & taking everyone along to Ganglin and that's when he went to army & took his buddies along.

I don't think you can blame FL for ML's ambition or 'make hay while the sun shines' personality. He was always an ambitious, opportunistic guy, even as a salt smuggler - he turned himself into that bandit when got the opportunity, he played in the big leagues with big threats to his life, he's used to pressure. He had a huge salt cargo & needed to sell it for a huge amount. Then he quite easily dropped the entire salt in people's water buckets! That flexibility & unpredictability gives him an advantage in court. He could walk away from salt business, he cannot walk away from the king! He is stuck now. You cannot say no to king & live to tell the tale. You are right, FL doesn't get it. Basically, she doesn't want him to get lost / go corrupt / think king's favor will last forever. And she does work behind the scenes to make his work better (Chongsi would be a better pick to make salt reform project a success, though she shouldn't have sent a letter to Ministry of Personnel recommending him behind his back, since she is his fiancée; & should've told him about the monk).

BUT I think drama is going to make FL right, that she's right in cautioning ML & trying to work behind the scenes to make his work easy (however it may come across) & one day ML will realize he's about to lose everyone he worked hard for & will turn around & leave the capital.

My problem with them ending up in Ganglin in the end is two-fold: 1) every place will come with its own set of problems, so what is so bad about being in the capital? In fact ML will probably have to travel a lot to see that salt reform is being implemented in different towns. FL can travel with him. 2) Ganglin is a place full of bad memories for ML. FL has good memories because she got her name in county register 3 times in 5 years. But it's a deadbeat border town with poverty & not much 'shops' even. As a teacher she may get students & grow crops, but ML as military guy will be stuck in the same cycle of base camp, provisions, bandits, salt reform implementation & court politics (another influential censor coming to town & telling him who should be selected for merits, or what he's doing wrong & picking fights with him - deadly clashes far away from the crown - which is worse?).

Ooooh, this is good - I mean, bad! - BUT the scene did not play out like this is the drama: empress did not make a snide remark did she? And king deferred the convo. But king not sending any wedding gift probably is shady stuff. I thought king was trying to show 'neutrality' by not going overboard in favoring ML.

I like your analysis, but especially the line: 'there's no shortcut to road to splendor'. That is so true for what is happening to the leads.

That means they are still young & probably a time skip of 2-3 years from Ep.25, and they are in that dead-beat border town where all bad things happened - probably handling salt reforms, military work & teaching, again at the mercy of someone from the capital. And just one kid!!! They have not lived together as much as apart in this drama & no real passage of time or work at capital beyond salt reforms?

No.

I wanted passage of time in the capital - as in 5 years or even 10, where they live & work, strengthen reforms (& take care of Yu's) & raised a bunch of kids, he grows a beard (or whatever the hell that goatee is supposed to be) - to show they came out of it unscathed & then leave for Northern areas to build a quieter life (even though military life in a border town such as north is a dead-end life with zero prospects and poverty every where with problems from distant capital to handle yearly, plus he'll be gone from home to be at camp all the time). I mean, I don't see why they should leave capital actually, but in either case, I wanted a 5-10 year life spent after 7 years of drama building up to this point in their life.

BUT it seems like in the drama, there'll be no passage of time in capital, ML has that ridiculous goatee because of someone's death? The time skip is occurring at the end of the series, where they'll be living in some other place, and have just 1 kid, a daughter (it's on x/twitter).

That is such a cliche'. What's wrong with showing this couple as a middle-aged couple who lived in capital before leaving. - but didn't become a second Lady Yu & hubby, capital failing to make them corrupt or cynical - instead of ending the series at 1 year later when they leave capital (having done reforms) & a time jump of 3 years to show them with their daughter.

We waited 7 years for them to get here, get married and then the story just peters out over the course of a year or so?

Got the dates mixed up. Thanks for the reality check!

Yup...

And it's here tomorrow! Let's see how they have adapted the webnovel.

M-i-l does not respect SFL.

The only egregious thing she has done so far is the slander on FL's name - which nearly killed FL. After that as far as I can see she's just been burning up with envy & jealousy & being b**chy to FL in front of others. What should be her punishment? I think she's being punished: Others laugh at her, first away from her, now in front of her. They insult her to her face in her home. Husband has checked out of marriage. M-i-l openly planned against her & now has been slow to support her but gets into Wu alliance. SFL probably will have a concubine / 2nd wife to share everything with. I'm also guessing that SFL's son will be taken from her to be raised by Lady Yu. And she'll be sent off to live in another town, away from capital. She can even be divorced, I think & sent to her dad's village.

All of this is punishment,BUT I don't think her 'crimes' are as severe as those of Lady Yu, Mr. Yu & their son - who have actually gotten people killed for ambition. All that SFL has done is slander FL & consumed with envy against her. So what she is facing right now is punishment enough.

Ep. 25 trailer: How did dad gain entrance into FL's place? I'm fine with tension for the sake of tension but ML standing firm in front of a malevolent dad shooting a gun is ridiculous. This couple should've been married 4 episodes ago so that the rest of the story could play out, instead a dad has taken up precious screen time all this week.....And with an extremely understated, low-key romance between FL & ML, am I watching a documentary on filial piety, reputation arches & salt reforms, or a romance? Where's the roar in romance? In dad's shotgun?

Yup. It's the only drama I've seen where FL is strong without being aggressive, vocal without being b**chy, feminine without heavy makeup & flowery gowns, looks smart without looking like a shrew / cunning, and she does her own thing without derailing ML's plans. She is also not always right. ML is also written in a balanced manner, he has taken care of people, strangers, without coming across as some do-gooder robin hood, or giving lectures on goodness & patriotism or agreeing with FL like a puppy. And he is quietly masculine without those tropey muscle /chest shots sitting in a tub or doing military exercises. It's tough to show a guy in C-drama who changes according to circumstances - most C-drama leads are born good, know good, do good & are self-sacrificing for greater good. It's good to show 2 people who are selfish as in selfish to have a good life without ruining someone else's, but are ambitious for themselves, not for a country or kingdom - like those princely/kingly/general dramas this year. The best thing that the drama has shown is that this couple can actually have a genuine conversation without feeling threatened or one coming out tops over the other.

I know it, you know it. The world & king don't know it. To the world & Fu family it would look like a wedding procession, come on! If Fu men make a ruckus over their family's woman that she was sneaking out in a procession while they were mourning her, & grandma died because of the disrepute, how is the king supposed to know who is telling the truth? The king saw them in another town, they said they were engaged - fine, how did a noble woman get engaged to a salt smuggler when her dad is saying she ran away & this killed grandma? King knows the issue is being brought up to discredit his pick but he won't take sides openly because it's a morality code issue for that time. You are arguing on a point that is moot.