#jol emperor

[coquelicoq]

i love how the emperor is always in a state of mild déshabille with like. his robe open and the little wispies on the side of his head. but not in a sexy way just in an "i'm too over this shit to get dressed" way. even though he has teams of people specifically employed to dress him. relatable.

[lord-rain-master]

the emperor in nif is evil, yes, but he seems so tame compared to the emperor in nif

[naanima]

What I love about JoL, amongst a million things, is how they take all the guzhuang drama tropes about the royal family, tropes that are so FAMILIAR to the Chinese audience, and somehow still manage to stun the audience with how ruthless & terrifying they are. I think it is because they present the royal family as distinctive individuals with their quirks, make you laugh & love them bcos they can act foolish & have moments of humour. But then turn around & casually order the death of a loyal subject or a whole village.

One of the tropes about the Emperor - that JoL's emperor does so well, is to show the audience over and over again that his love, his sentiment, is a commodity that he can revoke at any second. His love is conditional, it is dependent on your love & belief in his status as the descendent of the divine. He is the supreme power. Question his position, his power, and he will revoke the gifts, the favours and love he gave you.

When he looks upon his children, it isn't just parental love alone, he is looking upon them as potential future heirs for his throne. He needs a candidate that can take over his throne, but who CANNOT be a true competition against him while he is still the Emperor. So he sets up his children against each other, to see who is the smartest, the most ruthless, and the one that can hide just enough so he isn't a threat against the emperor yet. And to that he needs to set his brightest children against one another, to find the best one suited to being the next emperor.

The Second Prince is the whetstone chosen by the emperor to sharpen the blade that's the Crown Prince. He cannot leave the Capital, he cannot be the son that doesn't want power. Bcos the emperor put him in a situation where he is perceived as a threat to the Crown Prince, his manor and base of power was dropped into his laps at a young age, no one, certainly not the crown prince would believe he didn't want to be the future emperor. In order to survive he has to deceive & plan, and try to remove the Crown Prince, to gain the iota chance of taking his spot.

It is cruel, but there is no sentiment in the Imperial Royal Family.

[silviakundera]

Joy of Life S2, ep 13 - 15 comments

Chen Pingping continues to be both using Fan Xian and a good mentor. He contains multitudes! Which is what makes him such a compelling character.

Second Prince is the least interesting he's ever been when he's in scenes with Ye Ling Er playing the victim. It's just too easy to manipulate her and so I can't care very much.

The way Fan Xian's mother is this powerful spectre that haunts the narrative... and it's not just her Seductive Beauty™ . It's in the way we more commonly see with a Great Man trope: a famed marital arts master, a dead legendary general or past king.... a father or grandfather figurehead. I both wish we knew about her but DON'T. She works best as a partial sketch; an unsolved poignant mystery.

Ep 14

Saintess!!!!!!!!!!!! reappears! After Fan Xian finally called her friend in ep 13 (朋友!). I don't believe you either, girl, that it's all about the treasury. You're bros!!!!!! He seduced a bromance out of you.

They basically gave 2P's new guard enough characterization for us to be interested in what happens to him. RIP your hopes & dreams my dude, it's been real

Guao Baokun and Loser Brother is a match made in heaven. I missed all the Beiqi people so much. Fan Xian playing 4D chess and getting them to babysit Guo Baokun. "Let's leave a good impression, he might come back." 😂 The way they have to escort those dumbasses to the border.

Fan Xian wants friends SO BAD it's literally tragic to me. He wants to make Censorate guy his friend because there's no one he can trust not to turn on him for benefits (other than the Fan family).

Ep 15

Chen Pingping & Fan Xian put on a ridiculous show. Very amusing but I feel like they should have been more convincing, if for no other reason than giving the emperor his due. 2nd Prince simply tried harder. Hate to say it about the enemy but facts are facts.

We already got a read on the emperor about Second Prince. A temporary grounding is all he can countenance (even that is a gift to Fan Xian and a warning to not exceed boundaries). To any extent he likes the faction wars and is happy to stir shit up & eat popcorn. But at least right now, he's gonna protect all his sons. In his own twisted way he cares about Crown Prince, Second Prince, and Fan Xian. Just not more than he cares about himself & power & control.

Censor Lai pushing the emperor too far "Are you saying everyone is confused but you?" It's honestly shocking he wasn't executed before this. Bro you just tired of living?

Crown Prince pinching his leg and having fake hysterics while his flunky joins in while 2P looks disgusted. This is why CP is my bestie. He's hilarious.

Fan Xian finally realizing what his brothers already know - that there are limits to the emperor's condescending forbearance. They can't become a potential threat to him and he can't feel they are out of his control. When FX is playing with His Majesty, all is permissible. But when he's not...

The burning indentures scene reminding me of Blossoms in Adversity, a drama I ended up enjoying more than I expected. (If only it was blessed with the quality of acting we see in every cast member of JOL.)

[deng-yi-deng]

Cdrama: what I watched 2024

This year I got suuuuper picky and also pretty much stopped watching cdramas. Will this be my last wrap-up post ever? Tune in next year! Normally I keep a running draft review going that I can just post at the end of the year, but this year I forgot - which really signals my waning interest in cdramas generally - so my reviews are kinda vague.

No shade to folks who loved the big popular romance dramas but I completely gave them a pass. As a result, I had a great drama year - nothing under a 4/5 for this viewer!

Best drama this year: Heroes 天行健 (2024). Y'all slept on this one. Watch it now!! Even better than JoL2. Yes, you heard me. Shoutout to @lyxurious for reccing it to me. She has the best taste 💜

Mostly spoiler-free reviews of what I watched in the order I saw them under the cut

Follow Your Heart 颜心�� 4/5 (iQiyi)

(score includes extra credit for LYX bias)

Easy-watching, low-stakes, funny, and sweet. If I'm honest, one of the better plotted dramas that Luo Yunxi has been in. You know him as the beautiful crier, but his rom-com is not to be trifled with. Luo Yunxi is great as Jiang Xin Bai, the face-blind detective, but I was so happy to see Song Yi (Yan Nan Xing) in something where she wasn't playing a helpless girl or demure lady. It's the most enjoyable role I've seen her do apart from RuoRuo in JoL. Her comedy chops are also very solid, and she and Xixi were very cute together. The plot does falter a bit in the last 3/4 and slows down as they focus on the other couples, but then picks up and ends happily. Some great comedy characters - Jiang Xin Bai's mom is hilariously over the top - and fabulous performances by guest actors who play "Yan Nan Xing" when she shape-shifts. Also some good fight scenes! This is one I'd re-watch to de-stress.

Judge Dee's Mystery 大唐狄公案- (4)?/5 (Youku, Netflix)

Overall good, with movie-quality visuals, but I was disappointed by the last two mysteries which were simple and lacked oomf - I think the drama was split into two parts due to the new <40 rule, which would explain the fall off in momentum. As such I'm going to reserve a rating until the second half drops. Some of the individual mysteries - especially the one with Zhang Ruoyun - were fabulous. Acting was great from all the leads - don't believe anyone who tells you Ma Rong was annoying, she was not. The gender swap the writers did for that character totally worked for me. And I absolutely bought Zhou Yiwei as Di Renjie (though tbf I've only seen the Detective Dee movies).

Looking foward to s.2 (or part 2 however you want to count it)

Joy of Life 2 庆余年 4.5/5 (iQiyi)

Lots more people have reviewed or commented on this so I will be brief - I enjoyed the focus on politics and the machinations of the emperor, so this season really worked for me. I also thought Wu Xingjian did a great job as Yan Bing Yun, taking over from XZ. I loved the interactions between Fan Xian and Wang Qinian, adorable. There was one scene where the emperor and Fan Jian were talking/ploting/negotiating and the dialog and acting were so aaagh. so clever. I was kicking my feet and squealing. It is nice when a drama does not assume its audience is stupid. And of course we can't forget the 'power point' Fan Xian and Fan Si Zhe give about treasury bonds. Worst part: Uncle Wu doesn't show up until nearly the end ;_; looking forward to LOTS of Uncle Wu in s.3

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2 To the West 唐朝诡事录·���行 4.5/5 (iQiyi)

Better than season 1 in production quality but particularly in terms of the mysteries themselves. Where s.1 gave us Scooby-gang like "the demon is just a guy in a mask" solutions, the mysteries here have a bit more to them, and plenty of cultural interest as they journey farther into the west, ending up in Dunhuang! Lu Lingfeng and Su Wuming still have unbeatable chemistry, but I feel like LLF got the spotlight a bit more this season. I love them both, but hope my man Wuming doesn't get the short end of the stick again. Let's please not forget who the disciple of Di Renjie and all-around genius is?

S.3 they should head back to Chang'An and maybe??? get back to the original mystery of who is the worst royal in the capital!

Heroes 天行健 5/5 (Tencent, YouTube)

Some of the best and most entertaining storytelling in a cdrama that I've watched. The setting at the very end of the Qing, with the turbulence and uncertainty works perfectly to explore the question of who really is a hero, and for whom. And the fights! There are so many!! sometimes more than one per episode!!!! The characters are well written and well-acted. This drama cements Qin Junjie as one of my favorite actors now (having previously only seen him in Fox Volant). Also one of the few guys who can rock the queue and still be handsome. We follow three groups of characters as they try to find the pieces to a puzzle that will lead them to a treasure. One group is the old guard (royalty, the establishment), one the outsiders of the jianghu, and the third are the rebels - the new China. The stories and character relationships are woven together really well, and the pacing of each episode pushes you forward to the next, always wondering what will happen. I seriously did not think they could keep each episode as interesting as the last but they did - with twists that were surprising, but logical in hindsight. Each 'hero' is trying to find their place in the world and do what they think is best for their people - by following the rules, by breaking them, and by making new rules. It's as much a competition between philosophies as it is between individual groups or individual people. This drama is intelligent, but first of all it's entertaining. It understands exactly what it is and what it's trying to do and is very self-aware. Please please pay special attention to the opening credits because they change...(also kudos to the composer who so ably channeled Enrico Morricone when necessary.)

I Am Nobody 异人之下 4.5/5 (Youku, YouTube)

Though this came out in 2023 I didn't manage to watch it until the end of the summer (2024) and I'm glad I did. Pure fun. Hilarious, great concept and characters, well done all around. It gave me major KO One flashbacks - mostly because of the style of humor and the focus on 'teenagers' - but was completely it's own thing. Great characters with sweet and sometimes heartbreaking backstories. Bao Bao you deserve all the hugs forever 😭.

Highly recommended if you enjoy fun comic book style fights, clever storytelling, and slightly sophomoric humor with lots of heart.

Dramas I dropped:

Not as many this year, since I didn't even try any of the big popular idol dramas. Eternal Brotherhood lost me around the 2/3 mark but I can't explain why! It had a great plot, and I love Yang Xuwen, but maybe I just got distracted? When the second half comes out I'll probably try it again.

Kill Me, Love Me had a spectacularly plot-packed first couple episodes and then they put on the brakes. That kind of uneven pacing, and focus on secondary characters led me to drop around ep 9. Which was sad because I like all the actors and the plot seemed good, but I lost interest.

[not-your-npc]

To start, JOL is great - good acting, costumes, storyline, etc.

My point, though, is the topic of equality that comes up.

First off, countries need a government. The emperor, as the manipulative shit that he is, actually knows how to run a country properly and is able to conduct proper checks and balances.

Fan Xian is a prime example because his fathers all want him in important positions. And without proper balance, Fan Xian will become the next dictator, whether or not he chooses to.

In this case, the emperor keeps Fan Xian's power in check by removing any chances of strong political support. (Hence, the execution and exile of ministers)

Secondly, the position of women in such a society. (It is a male-centric story, after all.) The women are either unnamed; e.g. only known as Madam <Husband's surname>, or Lady <Father's surname>, or given childish/babyish sounding names, with the exception of Li Yun Rui, the Elder Princess/Princess Royal, whose name actually has some meaning - her 'Rui 睿' means astute, 睿智 means wisdom.

The women are not allowed to become court officials. The women are not allowed to be in the running for the throne.

Fan Ruo Ruo is acknowledged to be a female scholar, but she can not take the national exams nor hold a court position. Li Yun Rui is as cunning and ruthless as the Emperor, but is not allowed to sit on the throne.

The ruler of Beiqi, the head of a nation, has to present themselves as a man to be acknowledged as a ruler.

For all his talk about following his mother's footsteps and fighting for equality of all humans, has Fan Xian never looked at the court and wondered why there were no women there?

[serenasufinjapan]

May 7: Shibuya and Harajuku

Today, we went to Harajuku and Shibuya to experience the scramble crossing, the fashion district, and the Meiji shrine. My friends and I really enjoyed Harajuku, and we all got to buy some fashionable shoes and other clothing items. After the class events of the day, we found a place in Harajuku called "JOL" where we got food and drinks, but then two small idol groups performed! It was very fun and a great surprise. I wasn't able to get pictures since it was not allowed, but the groups were called Shibuya Sixx and Upright. I turns out that JOL is well known locally for their idol group shows, and it is frequented by young women, especially after school. Shibuya and Harajuku both had plenty of examples of "Cool Japan" and kawaii culture. In the 109 department store, there was lots of Sanrio goods, and many foreigners were shopping there. Then, in Harajuku, there was Lolita fashion stores and character goods. As Wink on Pink mentioned, it seemed very feminine, and I understand why conservatives are so inclined to reject that image. However, it does seem very beneficial to their tourist industry, as I saw more tourists than locals in the stores. The Tokyo Olympics stadium reminded me of the concept of soft power as well, as it was the first time Japan was able to return to the world stage. Instead of military influence, the influence this event brought was largely cultural and media-based. The Meiji shrine was beautiful, and much larger than I expected. The space is well cared for, and I could see the respect put into the shrine and the land surrounding it. Emperor Meiji was the emperor that modernized Japan, and it is clear that he is very well regarded for that even today. Visiting this shrine after being at the Edo Musuem yesterday made me wonder if the Edo period was looked down upon for a while after the Meiji restoration. Regardless, the Meiji period is certainly not looked down upon, and the shrine seemed to be continuously modernized with additions such as a Museum and very modern facilities. One thing that surprised me was the use of wine in cleansing rituals at the shrine. I already knew about the sake from my Japanese Culture class, but it was fun to learn that wine is also used at the Meiji shrine because the emperor liked it.

[nemainofthewater]

Halfway through and The Emperor of Southern Qing is currently in the lead with 25.9%, followed by Emperor Wen with 21.7%, and then Xiao Xuan in third with 16.1%.

Tag propaganda under the cut

The Emperor of Southern Qing

#the joy of life emperor is not only entertaining he is also the single most terrifying emperor I’ve ever seen in a drama#he’s hypercompetent to a high degree#you can never tell in a scene whether his temperament will be being amused by fan cian’s actions or angry and upset#he controls literally everything by @bitterfrosts

#the joy of life emperor is not only entertaining he is also the single most terrifying emperor I’ve ever seen in a drama#<- prev#yes. I love him#but he is genuinely frightening in himself#Dinner with him would be great#but only if we were both required to be frisked and pass through airport scans and put on new clothes we were given#and then be served by the kind of professional waiters who normally handle catering at high-stakes international negotiations#maybe I'll have dinner with Xiao Xuan instead by @nineveh-uk

#qing-di sweep!!!#most terrifying of emperors but very fun to watch#joy of life#tumblr polls by @trisshawkeye

#joy of life emperor my... uh... can I say beloved here?#man is a schemer and spends half his time in his pyjamas and the other half playing 10D chess#very entertaining.#jol by @muninnhuginn

#voted for the emperor of southern qing (JOL)#but i do also enjoy emperor wangxuan (ALON) a lot... one of zhang ping's boyfriends 💖#JOL tho i spent so much time being like “what is this guy's deal” and also “wow he doesn't give a fuck”#he has some kind of extensive spy system and seems to know everything going on in season 1?? also he blew himself up once#and his interactions with fan xian & fan jian & chen pingping are *so* interesting by @marquisguyun

#the emperor of southern qing for sure#man shoots arrows across his study and plays with gunpowder#he's in his pajamas half the time#he knows everything#what is this man's Deal by @noswordinourlake

Emperor Wen

#emperor wen#he's just so funny. putting his guys (his adopted son and the girl he has a crush on) in situations#world's number one shipper by @minnarr

#emperor wen!#he’s one of us#if he knew what fanfic was he’d be writing that all day#as it stands the second his adopted son finally likes a girl he ships it SO HARD and it’s incredibly funny to me#love like the galaxy#emperor wen#polls by @auroramagpie

The Mingde Emperor

#aaaaah#bixiaaaaaaa#this is even harder than choosing my favorite eunuch#out of loyalty I voted the Mingde Emperor#but if I was feeling more literal I would have went for his father#because he is so enjoyable to watch with his smirk and his hands and his everything#xiao ruojin#xiao xuan#xiao zhongjing#emperors#poll#propaganda#my gifs by @feng-huli

Cao Rui

#AA cao rui mention#i stan insane emperor that dresses as his mom is normal about his dad and makes love with his eunuch by @caozihuanismyson

The Chenghua Emperor

#chenghua emperor solely because he had to deal with tang fan by @unfortunatelycake

Xiao Xuan

#Xiao Xuan is one of those 'terrible person excellent character' types#very fun to hate#competent enough to be an actual threat#incredibly satisfying to see him go down by @octarina

#nirvana in fire has this#admittedly I'm not familiar with all of these#but xiao xuan is the most vital part of this entire story#its about MCS but when you have to leverage every single act against the emperors reaction AND use that to gain what you need#that makes xiao xuan very fun to watch because he is vital to the story#he is so well acted too#he brings very real tension to incredible scenes in a heavy weight cast while being very believably painfully human by @pinkbalrog

#xiao xuan is just so!!!!!! everything that went wrong happened because of you!!!!!#blah blah blah your favourite son died and you never got over it HE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU#blub blub your sister and your wife and your bff all died THEY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU#BECAUSE YOU FORCED THEM TO DIE#wahhh your other bff hates you BECAUSE YOU FUCKING SUCK. YOU'RE THE REASON YOUR ENTIRE POLYCULE (-1) IS DEAD#and yet. and yet. when he cried during that final confrontation i felt that. i cried along with and for him 😢#also i laughed when he played stupid and gasped when he showed his ruthlessness. but mostly i clutched my pearls#nirvana in fire by @dreamsaflame

Emperor Wangxuan

#i voted for the mingde emperor but that was yesterday. or two days ago#today i have new appreciation for the emperor in#a league of nobleman#i love that guy by @fire-burning-brighter

Other

#I'd like to nominate Emperor Taizong from The Long Ballad#he's a bad father but he Cares. So. Much#and they say he was a good emperor too despite starting out killing his brother and all that#plus thanks to this show I felt so knowledgeable when I started reading Journey to the West lmao#I voted for Chenghua though#who actually seems to be a competent emperor (with the court he's got)#and there's that scene with his hair down#very enjoyable indeed#poll#cdrama#the long ballad#the sleuth of ming dynasty#emperors by @marilearnsmandarin

#shaking hands with prev re: their tags esp. about the chenghua emperor having his hair down.#but also there is a really nice animated show called No Doubt In Us with a fun emperor/empress situation. you can watch it on viki.com by @oodlenoodleroodle

#anyway Qianlong from Yanxi is my favorite he's such a clown of a man by @tavina-writes

The wording of this week's poll is very important!

Good or bad, no one can deny that in a court drama, the Emperor is often incredibly important - he's the central authority, the one with the power. Sometime's he's inept, sometimes he needs a painkiller to deal with all the shenanighans and, the rarest of all types, sometimes he's a good ruler.

Whichever the flavour, the best thing an Emperor can be is entertaining!

*Most enjoyable to watch, not necessarily a good person

**(If I get the Emperors' titles wrong, please forgive me! I'm trying to standardise across the series but there isn't always a consistant/any title that i can find, and I'm finding it tricky to differentiate between reign names and temple names, especially for Emperors with no historical counterpart)

***I haven't read the novel of a League of Nobleman so I don't know what the Emperor's book counterpart is like but I thought I could add the Emperor from The Imperial Uncle into the same category as it's the same universe

Propaganda, write-ins, and examples heartily welcome!

[xiaosean]

I just heard that a lot of Chinese JoL fans who aren't XZ fans actually hated him as Yan Bingyun. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion but I'm sad because I think he did well, especially with how different yby is personality wise with all other characters he has ever played. Maybe that's why he doesn't seem to be cast for season 2.

lmao don’t kill me but personally (even as a xz fan) i thought yby wasn’t a right fit for him? although oh! my emperor was a terrible drama, he still stood out to me as btmr despite being 3rd male lead // yby just seemed kinda constipated to me all the time 🤕 and i know xz could do better bc he honestly looked better behind the scenes; and yeah… im okay if season 2 doesn’t have him reprise

[coquelicoq]

something is up with the emperor in joy of life but i don't know what it is exactly. current theories as of episode 17:

he's a time traveler

he's another version of fan xian somehow

he's fan xian's mother

[lord-rain-master]

damn i haven't been paying much attention to the pm but it's so impressive how well he knows the emperor despite not being "close" to him like chen pingping is

[dangermousie]

Just wanted to say JoL has a get out of jail free card because the framing story is this is a novel written by a college student.

In the novel (put behind read more as spoiler)

Fan Xian ultimately has a showdown with his father the emperor and emperor gets killed (I believe Uncle Wushu is the one who literally does him in but FX is the one responsible.)

And then he retires to live in peace and wealth.

I genuinely don’t know how they will do this in s3 tho at the speed they film them, it will be 2029 and we might have entirely new rules OR be all ruled by lizards who knows.

I am not sure even being in the novel will allow them to have Fan Xian be a patricide with a happy ending though I suppose they get get around it by having Uncle Wushu do the emperor in while FX did not want that (they let ML have a happy ending after his revenge ended up indirectly doing in his evil emperor father in Twisted Fate of Life in 2020 so if rules get relaxed a bit…)

I finally had time to catch up on Guardians of the Dafeng and I feel the need to vent.

I've liked it since the beginning and so far it's been great. It combined comedy with action, a bit of romance and a bit of awful crimes being punished.

But the worst crime by FAR was shown in episode 36 in the worst way possible. A whole city of almost 400000 people slaughtered. It had the potential to be awful and make me bawl my eyes out. Instead I kept fast-forwarding through it because the execution was so boring and performative. I don't get it. They did an excellent job in previous episodes when tackling corruption and injustice and how Xu Qi An reacts to it. He should've lost his mind with rage and horror. That would be in character and, to be fair, they did try to show it but it was too restrained (my complaint against Dylan) and too focused on how righteous and heroic he is, especially with his repetitive speech about how the duke deserves punishment (my main complaint, and it's the writer and director I blame for this). It made it cheap and distracted from the horror of it all. The officials crying in horror and grief was also overdone and the battle against the Kui was a joke, only there to make Xu Qi An even more heroic singlehandedly defeating an entire army. They should have focused only on the city.

The only part of episode 36 I liked at all was the segment about our wayward guardians and their adventure trying and failing to avenge their friend lol.

Oh! And Xu Qi An telling the duke (who justified his butchery by calling the people he killed "mere ants") that he is also an ant. That whole scene would have been so much better if instead of Xu Qi An giving a boring repetitive speech, he let the duke do his evil monologue, called him an ant and killed him. That's totally in character for him too! As we saw in previous episodes, he's cheerful and opportunistic and also willing to swallow his anger at being looked down on and oppressed for his and his people's sake but when he sees injustice he can't accept it and goes all quiet and wrathful. That's the Xu Qi An we were given for 35 episodes. That's what I wanted here too.

All this being said, I'm halfway through episode 37 and it's great so far! I wasn't sure how they'd handle the emperor but I'm loving it. He hears of his brother's crimes and is more angry about the duke being dead than the whole city being exterminated. And the way they're pressuring him to actually acknowledge his brother's crimes and actually siding with Xu Qi An who at this point doesn't seem to give a fuck anymore. I'm almost afraid to keep watching because it's so great and what if they try to make the emperor sympathetic? Though probably not. They've given plenty of hints he's a monster so far and seem to be anti-royalty (or at least anti emperor and brother).

[dangermousie]

The emperor is VILE.

But Song Mo refuses to play these games and have his father in law take the blame, saving his life and career at the expense of family.

Oh no, how dare he refuse to play your game, sacrificing everything so he can still be a useful pawn for you to play, after you discard justice and loyalty of your own?

He is NOT gonna learn your gross lesson.

This is very much something Fan Xian over in JoL will do/say.

You tell him, Song Mo! Anything he promises is worthless.

Loved the loser emperor hallucinating that it's the Duke of Ding who accuses him. SERVES YOU RIGHT, FUCKER!

[naanima]

Something I don't know if people caught on during S1 of JoL or realised the implications of IRT the Fan Family. Bcos the drama was careful about not being explicit about it ... Or perhaps didn't want to delve into it too much.

A few things:

There's a reason why Chen Pingping tells FX to be good to Fan Jian, that the man sacrificed the most for Fan Xian.

Fan Jian had a wife that birthed Fan Ruoruo. The Main Wife, mother of the household etc. We don't know what happened to her though we can guess she passed away. In fact Ruoruo even said at one point she had another brother.

The reason NO one questions Fan Xian's true identity, i.e. son of Fan Jian instead of the Emperor is that Rourou's mother gave birth to a son the same day as Fan Xian was born. The assassins DID kill a baby boy with Ye Qingmei, and yes it was Fan Jian's son.

Let that sink in a bit. In order to save Fan Xian, Ye Qingmei's son (and the emperor's), Fan Jian sacrificed his own new born son. And instead of any lingering resentment FJ has treated FX like his own son.

[silviakundera]

Joy of Life E1 E37 liveblogging

watching for the 1st time, don't tell me secrets ;)

Fan Xian carried a war banner all those miles just to start shit. I really admire his dedication to the troll lifestyle

the emperor hassling beiqi with his border troops to back up Fan Xian is too cute. what an asshole.

so ML is wuxia advancing as he fights big players

Yes let's meet the emperor!

lmao she just wants an update on Dream of Red Chamber. I get her. WIP are so frustrating

as a guy with memory of modern china, he shouldn't be too surprised at a female emperor. China had one.

ML very respectful of the dowager. Who clearly is the power behind the throne

emperor wants to chat w him solo..does she ALSO need a rescue? damn this man does not have a big enough carriage to hold y'all

saintess just exposing him 😭😂😭😂

Fan Xian is the best when he's a flailing dork

She DOES need a rescue

(the empress dowager is hot btw)

They keep using the male pronoun for the emperor but I can't figure if it's a emperor role-based thing or actually a chosen gender. (Verbally there's no gender attached to ta but the english subs say 'he' and the mandarin subs are using 他 instead of 她)

he just invited the saintess to poison him, he really DOES want to make friends

official meeting of the Fan Xian's Mom fan club at Taiping Villa 🎣

Emperor was correct that the Dowager Empress party is not gonna let him take Yan Bingyuan home without a lot of quality schemes

We actually get a tiny flashback to prior generation with who I presume is Marvolous Mom! !!! I note that she feeds all 3 of them. (JOL still playing coy about who is the real bio dad.) This drama is obsessed with nothing more than refusing to show us people's faces so I'm not surprised we only get her back 😒

Part of me really wants to believe that the whole fishing in a lake with no fish, and then there IS fish is an homage to Stargate but idk how popular it was with VPN savvy cn screenwriters

Yan Bingyuan's life is in Gao Baokun's hands? RIP

Luckily he's obviously a decoy

[gotyouanyway]

just had a vision from god of the emperor from jol as george sr. from arrested development