susuworld

Here is a loophole about that marriage contract with the ex brother in law...He said if he divorced his wife then the princess would agree to marry him. However, he technically didn't divorce his wife. For a husband to divorce their wife in that time, the wife would have had to offend one of the cardinal rules as a wife - the most cited reason is either she can't bear children or that she committed adultery. The alternative to the divorce used in many cdramas is similar to modern day separation agreement- which does not suggest or imply that the wife did anything wrong that led to the separation. Once signed, parties can freely remarry. A wife would rather choose to have a separation agreement than to be divorced by her husband because it comes with negative stigma as someone who was unwanted by their husband.

Jiang Yi got a separation agreement and not a divorce from her ex husband - it was heavily advocated in exchange for not exposing him for his adultery and his attempted murder of his wife via the horse carriage incident. So he technically did not divorce his wife and Ming Yue could technically not have to honor that agreement she signed with him. But this loophole had to be in place to allow the Emperor to not go back on his edict but honor the agreement. I am all too happy to see this is how it ends for Ming Yue- she might be cold and ruthless but she has no brains. She used herself as a chess piece and didn't see to it to make sure she could get out of it unscathed. She absolutely deserves this ending for her.

Next preview suggests there probably isn't a "married life" afterwards

The wife was Jiang Yi. When Zhen Heng was reading the letter, he didn't misspoke. He said Jiang "shi" which refers to the wife by her surname "Jiang".

Her just desert is perfect. Her mother made her marry that useless ex husband of FL's sister. Which surprises me since her mother always put her spoiled daughter first. My guess is that between power and her daughter- she chose power which is the worst she could do to daughter.

Probably one of the very first cdramas where the ML is literally begging to not marry someone like his life depended on it. That physical shaking in his voice and his body shows it. Good job ZWY.

Brother is very ruthless. He was willing to kill his man because his identity was accidentally revealed without hesitation. Interestingly, he hasn't aligned himself with Princess Royal who is a king maker here by backing the useless Crown Prince (he said he only got this title because his mother was Empress) but he is obviously petty and immature for the role.

It just doesn't seem believable. Typically this plot about bad luck at birth - the father actually believes it, the mother would be in denial and in pain of being separated from their child. Here, it's like the reverse. The Emperor actually doesn't seem to believe it, chose to keep tabs and want updates on his son from afar and clearly demonstrates a genuine affection for him (even though he has 8 sons and hard for him to share his time with them as their father). There hasn't been any signs that ML has brought bad luck - ever!

I'm actually thinking something is really wrong with ML's mother. Even if she was misled to believe that ML brings bad luck - she didn't hesitate to give him away at birth while the Emperor was. That sit down meal - everything was wrong with the mother. She didn't express even the slightest bit of joy having been reunited with her son she hasn't seen in many years. Even if she was cautious about the prophecy, as a mother, it would only be natural to want to know her son even at a distance. But there was nothing. She seems overly focused on her eldest son, ML's brother. It begs me to wonder if ML's mother is someone else and assumed ML as her son but then used an excuse to give him away so as to have one less brother for the fight for the throne. It makes absolutely no sense for her to act this way if ML is truly her son. There is no specific reason to favour her eldest son over her 2nd child when they share the same father.

past life she knows. She hinted it during the recent flashback from FL that she knew ML wasn't just an ordinary man whereas FL absolutely didn't know ML is the 7th prince both past and present

That's correct.

I personally prefer this over Rise of Ning. ZWY in Rise of Ning didn't have much of a backstory or wasn't a complex character. He was just an ordinary person. But here along with in Are You the One - he has status and ZWY proves, status roles work really well for him - I personally prefer him in those roles.

I use an unofficial site

Thank goodness it is back! Waited 2 years and if we need to wait 4 months for the complete series, it's worth it. It will be painful to wait weekly for 2 episodes we will get there. Also happy they didn't actually dubbed it in Japanese. The attraction of Steven Zhang is his voice.

His styling is different here. If anything, I see close resemblance to 90s Hong Kong costume dramas (with how high his ponytail is and is very short) which is rarely seen in mainland dramas. When he wears that black/white, they are cropped to his elbow (again, this is common in the 90s HK dramas). But this will change when his character comes to light as the 7th prince - the royalty outfits seem similar to Are You the One where he is only a Duke in title but not by any royal blood. Character wise, he was quite different between Are You the One and Rise of Ning. Here, I see resemblance of both of those characters. His goofiness seems more immature here

The father doesn't hold much power. That's why he's not respected by his daughter or his wife. He has his own title that is separate from being the Grand Princess' husband but he appears to be an honourable man but has a rather toxic family. Probably choose to spend time with his comrades than at home.

Worth it. It's not draggy. A lot has been discussed up to now (ep 13). The part that is draggy a bit is the investigation that ML is doing on his own time.

Her past life - she was forced to marry to that first guy, she soon became a widow and was driven out of her town. She met ML in another country and fell in love. They were getting married and on the day of wedding, the Grand Princess came to threaten her to write a letter (ending their relationship) and then demanded she jump off the cliff. She did. So far, the flashbacks so far don't go pass this point. She survived and was saved by a man she saved before . At some point she returned the palace and used a sword to exact revenge on the Grand Princess. Her backstory appears disjointed because they only come up when she meets those people in her current lifetime so it's not linear or she recalls a specific memory.

lol the Princess is a new level of ruthlessness and not because she holds any power - it's only because of her mother as the Grand Princess. She is so petty. But you can tell she is raised like this - as a spoiled and pampered brat. Doesn't take no for an answer. I can see her as the biggest obstacle for the leads to being together. In her previous life, it was her via Grand Princess who made her jump off the cliff. But that won't be repeated because in that past life, it looks like Yu Qi didn't use his status as the 7th prince (otherwise, his life couldn't be used to threaten Jiang Si). But in this lifetime, it looks like he will use his status but it presents a different challenge in that he would be forced to give up Jiang Si for the sake of duty/peace.

it's much better than Rise of Ning - I'm not bored at least by the pacing.

I never read the source material so I watched this with nothing to compare to. I started off watching it at regular speed, then sped up and towards the end, I sped up 2x for the most part. I will say the main leads did really well. Rarely do we see a cdrama talk about PTSD and Chen Zhe Yuan did a really good job in playing this complicated role - a marked departure for his past roles. Liang Jie was okay - I've seen her past works before - she doesn't annoy me.

My interpretation of the ending is that they did commit suicide. It's obvious that Ran Ran would not live without him. She said it as much - if he was going to hell, she go with him. While the show does not promote suicide as the easy way out or even the inevitable, it does leave a sour taste. The note they left behind was an acknowledgement that Li Zan wasn't going to get better so to not be a burden on their family and friends, they chose to leave them behind and live elsewhere. This does not promote any good feeling - anyone who suffers from major depressive disorder or has PTSD - the ending shows the one without any hope. I rather them leave an open ending - say they leave their family behind but chose to work on living with PTSD as oppose to seeing it as the reason they cannot have a functional life. I rather it said they would work on it, there may be ups and downs but leaves a hopeful message that one can live with PTSD and plenty do live with it but as it is based on the Asian culture - suffering PTSD alone without family and friend support network and without adequate treatment and medication can lead to this very tragic ending.

I also had this big pet peeve that Li Zan was constantly lying to Ran Ran about his emotional state. When something bothered him or he wasn't feeling right, he would pretend it was all okay - this is consistent with his character before the 1st major event that triggered his PTSD. But even towards the end, he was super sensitive to light and noise. He chose to pretend it didn't bother him until it wasn't working. I get the whole "I don't want her to worry about me" is worrying in and of itself. Not letting her share his suffering despite seeing her as significant other.

In the end, I am very disappointment in this drama. I expected more danger scenes- more actual scenes of Li Zan doing his job as an explosives engineer. Except most we see his default position is that the bomb is too complicated, just have to throw it far away. It was too long - 38 episodes could have easily been reduced to 30.