Does it feel like they're trying to redeem the dickless bore? idk if he's doing a con on her or they're showing he has real feelings for her wasn't the novel different?
One thing I'm really noticing in the Princess Royal (Grand Princess) adaption is that they will 'play it straight' with characters like Su Rongqing and the Emperor: giving the character similar dialogue and facial expressions as they would have in the novel -- except without PWX or LR's internal dialogue of 🙄 why u lying???
🙄 lol ok sure
😒 oh i see, back on your bullshit again
😤 the AUDACITY
😬 oh shit oh shit danger BE COOL
The consequence is that if you take everything at face value, the Emperor seems like a reasonable guy and not up for The Absolute Worst Dad award. Under the surface, the novel reader knows he is acting out a play and coldly calculating every interaction with Li Rong, the Crown Prince, and Consort Ruo. Every single scene with him, Li Rong is in peril and she knows it. She's pretending to be his sweet, obedient 19 year old daughter who believes in him and is following Pei Wenxuan's direction and acting as a puppet, making moves that he has already approved PWX to make. The Emperor's pretending that this play isn't supposed to end with LR and the Crown Prince taken down & the power transferred into Consort Ruo and the other prince's hands.
The viewer can just interpret all the words coming out of a character's mouth as facts & just believe everything they claim about their motives/real agenda as true. Or they recall the implied horrorshow of Life 1 and view all of these interactions with a cynical eye, questioning what else could be under the surface.
With SRQ, that guy is so fucking complicated. I think actually he's portrayed in character. Nothing we have seen isn't .... him. At least so far, as of ep 19 he aligns with the novel.
But 3 different factors: A) The music is romantizing him; B) The audience is given a couple internal-thought voice overs from him, which other antagonists don't get; C) With those voice-overs, the screenwriter has chosen to affirm his love for his brother and LR way earlier than the reader has it confirmed in the novel (where he is intentionally kept a total mystery for far longer, while the reader is the math lady meme, trying to piece together clues to figure him out).
And ultimately, when in SRQ's PoV in the drama, we have to deal with him being the hero of his own story. He is absolutely sincere about himself and, as has been revealed, in his own way he's sincere about wanting LR and his brother to have a good life this time around.
So does that mean the writer intends to do a swerve in the narrative arc and redeem him in the end? It's totally possible. Maybe?
However, not necessarily.
#1 There is a certain refrain from many of the great cnovel/drama villians: I had no choice! You all forced me to this!
We saw it from Shen Yurong in The Double, we saw it from Meng Yao/JGY in The Untamed, and in the novel (and I presume in the drama), we're gonna see it from Su Rongqing.
And it's the reason why they become villians who can't be saved. Because so many people suffer in life or experience unfairness. But they don't turn around and use this as an excuse to enact horrible cruelties on others.
Out of the billions of people in the world, few have no problems but so many of them actively chose to do good, or are willing at least to turn back and be better.
#2 imo the reason LR has historically been bad at reading people's hearts but has an exquisite read of SRQ, his flaws & darkness, is THAT'S HER FUCKING MOM. And I do think ep 16-18 put that out there in the text, if you're looking for it. He and the empress are the same sophisticated aristocrat who is clever & educated but with a narrow perspective limited by their privilege and desperate need to maintain the status quo. So sorry bro, but no wonder she might have settled for marrying you in the first life if you wanted to, but she was never gonna fall in love with you 💀.
PWX can see that SRQ loves her and he thinks that matters, so it scares him. LR has tender nostalgia for her empress mother and her former companion but she's all too aware that their love for her will not necessarily get in the way of stepping on her to protect the social structure of a powerful aristocracy class operating at a higher level above the peasants and restraining the throne. To them, this is safety and stability that guards the realm.
(ofc both those characters are complex and when it comes to LR's life & death we can't be confident on what they will always choose. that's part of what made all the palace drama aspects of the novel incredibly suspenseful. So many of the suppporting characters are layered and tho everything they do makes sense when it happens, you can't often predict people's hard choices when their back is up against the wall)
Story of Kunning Palace and The Grand Princess say that caring about people and trying your best to understand them, wanting what's best for them by listening to what's best for them, can make a huge difference. But not everyone is willing to change.
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Happy (over) 1 year to this comment I made. It aged like milk. No really.
Then again, back in April I had no idea that things would lead to this. Times then were not the best... I look back on this with a little amusement though. "Do they know?" They did not know! But they found out two months later! Which is today but one year ago! And here we are now! Honestly, it feels a little surreal that I ever made this comment to begin with.
Since it's anniversary time... Let me have a little tangent as well! Just for memories sake!
A year has passed and while there are others alongside him now my love is not going to fade anytime soon. I love Ritsu so much yet I never saw this one coming. I remember who was the first one who actually had my attention - Rei. Oh the irony nowadays... I still love Rei but not like that.
Much to my embarrassment I also had pulled on that very first banner on EN, thinking it was Rei (I think I was half asleep)... I got the Ritsu card in one ten pull though so this marks my first five star from a gacha pull too!
Was it a sign? Probably not, no. Just stupid luck. But I like to think and joke that it was a sign for things to come.
I tried to fight it but in the end I gave in. Out of all the f/os so far Ritsu managed to prevail. A character who makes me feel all fuzzy now and helps me to get through life. And I couldn't be happier with this outcome! I like how things are now and he was contributing a lot to that! I will never forget it!
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