Ha, I feel I never really have to comment much. Panda-pop parallels my views so much that it's that side of eery. Even to the writing style.
Yes, there is lots of stupid in the recent episodes. Stepping back, it is very much contrived. I understand why LLW allowed for XW to help him at the start. He was getting interested in her and she was a capable stranger. LLW allowing ZE, a state criminal and maid, to assist him with his job is a bit far-fetched. Why she would get precedence over the head maid is beyond me. Xiao Cui is pretty witty herself and loyal to boot. Further, what happened to Wu Ge? His other advisors? Do they pale in comparison to ZE? The guy was doing pretty well before all the ladies came on the scene.
One thing I cannot stand is hypocrisy. The way LLW is going, he seems to have this in spades. He claims XW doesn't trust him, but when YWY was being kind to XW, it was ok for LLW to be suspicious and jealous? LLW also said that he would never have more than one wife, in memory of his mother who had to suffer from being the woman of a king that had too many wives. Then he turns around and proclaims that a man naturally has "3 wives, 4 concubines". Even if they were angry words, he didn't later on claim responsibility for the hurt they caused. He chose to pridefully convince himself that he was in the right.
The whole fake sickness fiasco was also very revealing. It sounded like LLW got more angry that his pride was hurt.
"Everyone laughing at him for appearing a fool of when he begged to see the sick XW".
If being genuinely worried about someone needs to have anything to do with pride, it wasn't very genuine in the first place. Also, major pride issue dude.
When LLW said he would grant ZE a "status" (ming fen = married status), I was like: "Good for you! You two deserve each other." But Ariel's parting performance in that scene was pure gold. Understated and powerfully tragic.
ENDING SPOILER
This is for Panda-pop .
click to show/hide spoilers XW enters the palace to assassinate Gao Wei/crown prince/new king and ZE/Feng Xiao Ling/new queen. LLW makes it into the palace in time to see that XW is safe and hasn't carried out any killings yet. Gao Wei sets his sights to shoot LLW with a poison arrow. XW realizes a split second before LLW does, and takes the arrow for LLW. With her dying breath, XW asks LLW to raise their son, Ping An. Further, she encourages LLW to forget her and find another good woman to be his wife. She doesn't wish for him to spend the rest of his life a lonely life. LLW declares that XW is the only woman he will ever love and have as wife.
Gao Wei shoots a second arrow and kills ZE. He then takes poison - that ZE was giving him in dragged out doses anyway - and kills himself.
One big Shakespearean tragedy.
This may not be the absolute ending. There are differences between the series and the synopses. For example, when YWY was having his weak moment, the synopses said that XW dances for him to cheer him up. I was like: Cool! Want to see that! It also ties in with her name 'Snow Dance'. Obviously, that scene didn't happen. I was actually quite disappointed with the heart-to-heart. It seemed kind of rushed to me. Pacing didn't match the gravity of that moment. Ah well.
Shipping YWY and XW all the way! And Daniel in his current outfit and hairstyle is so handsome .
And I'm a bit slow. Just realized Xiao Dong is also Daniel's Chinese name. Also more than noticed the guy who plays Shi Shen is a bit of nice eye-candy. Generally grumpy eye-candy, but eye-candy nevertheless. Reminds me of an actor from 90's Justice Bao.
So much pretty in this series .