#here in ruyi most of the devoted girlies are so in a way in which they can't even feel jealously for other concubines. they're perfect wive

[palaceoftears]

What did consort Shu even see in him? Like I do get the teenage crush part, but then in the harem he never treated her with genuine care untill he felt bad for his own doing. Don't get me wrong, I felt awful for her and hated the emperor as always, but I still think her character was way too bland, like a Ruyi 2.0 but without all the things that make her a complex character, only with her loyalty to the emperor that in this case didn't even make sense. I think Yihuan was there to be an example of what the emperor is capable of doing because of his paranoia, and also to contrast Yanwan's opportunism with her devotion. It is funny though that the drama is showing you how Qianlong screws everyone and that being loyal to him changes nothing, but also romanticizes devotion all the time (I'm talking about all those scenes with Ruyi & Yihuan being refered as different from the others because they're the only ones that care for him). The madonna/whore complex may be a too western term to talk about this (and also I hate it when it's thrown around randomly for any comparison of two female characters) but there's definetly a patron of good girlies that genuinely love the emperor always being shown praying & charming him w their knowledge and the manipulative evil ones that use him for their own interests potrayed as seductive, sexually active (w this I mean they are the only ones whose sexual relations with the emperor are implied via more than just getting pregnant) and yearning for other men that don't love them.