#or known how often he’s been the subject of arguments between the emperor and fan jian as it is

[mira-likes]

When I first watched s2, I mentioned how I expected the emperor to have Thoughts about Fan Xian entering the Fan ancestral hall. I just didn’t see the emperor loving the idea of Fan Xian declaring himself as part of the Fan family after the emperor had very deliberately revealed his real parentage. I'd forgotten that the emperor actually brings up the subject in episode 10!

Right after Fan Xian stages that excellent show in the Imperial Court and gets the Censorate to investigate the Second Prince, the main dad council convenes. The emperor muses on how Fan Xian's scheming is deep for his young age, and segues from that to saying, offhand: “Is Fan Xian registered in the Fan ancestral hall? It’s better that he isn’t. His personality will bring a lot of trouble to the Fan family in the future.”

And because the emperor is very hard to read, there could be different options here!

Maybe the emperor means to emphasize the trouble part. In the discussion that follows soon after, he indicates he's miffed that the Second Prince is being so publicly investigated, and intends to protect him as his son. So he could be straight up saying: it may be better for the Fan family if you're not inextricably linked to Fan Xian and all of his future fuckery.

Or then the emperor is issuing Fan Jian a warning of a very different kind. Given that the emperor brings up the ancestral hall topic right on the heels of talking about Fan Xian's plotting acumen in an impressed tone, he could also be saying: hm, that kid just got more interesting… so let’s all remember that he is my kid, fellas, and not get ideas about registering him officially as yours.

To Fan Jian’s credit, he immediately and pointedly chortles that Fan Xian’s last name is Fan, ancestral hall or no, and Fan Jian is ready to take responsibility for all of his chaos. Like, in any case that man wants to stand his ground as the Main Dad. It’s no surprise that later in the season he’s touched by Fan Xian’s decision to enter the Fan ancestral hall and is fully onboard with the idea. But I do wonder if this little moment foreshadows an eventual conflict there...