#kind of an absolutely pefect piece of television in every element

[cerusee]

Finally finished Goodbye My Princess and I was not expecting a happy ending—this show famously does not have a happy ending, and I knew it going in—but the ending still gutted me like a fish and had me openly weeping. (Normally when I say a piece of media made me cry, I mean, “I actually teared up a little”. Not this time! Full on ugly sobbing! A lingering sense of devastation even a couple of hours later!)

I assumed at first it was going to end on that shot of Li Chengyin’s face when Xiaofeng’s brother carries her lifeless body away, which would honestly have been bad enough. But somehow, what really pushed it over the edge for me was the coda, where LCY has, decades later, voluntarily abdicated to make way for his successor. It’s clearly the end of a lengthy tenure as emperor, and maybe even a good one, since they make a point of mentioning that it’s the first peaceful transfer of power in generations (a marked difference from the bloody succession struggle Chengyin and his brothers endured) and Pei Zhao is notably still hanging around.

But LCY is still pining for his lost Xiaofeng, and has either recent,y developed the delusion that she’s not dead, or has been clinging to that delusion ever since he watched her slit her throat in front of him and then die in his arms (straight up I do not know which is worse), and is now going to spend what remains of his life wandering in the desert searching for a woman who is forever lost to him. What was it all for, LCY? Was it worth it? (Maybe it was! I think it’s implied he was actually a decent emperor and he’s leaving the place in better condition than he found it.) But worth it or not, he’s never gotten over the price he paid for all this, never known true contentment, never stopped searching and waiting and longing for Xiaofeng in his heart. Oh my god.