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extrapenguinTense conversations! Hm, has anyone come across any AMVs/vids for NiF? I don't want to go look just yet because potential spoilers, but audiovisual canon I'm actually into, might as well go look.
General Lei is a good egg. He's a bit simple and untwisty, but telling Jing to go talk to MCS is a good idea. Every conversation between MCS and Jing in ep 33 was pure gold, especially the one in the snow where MCS actually raised his voice. The later conversation indoors, where MCS had to hide all of his pain of the past and Meng looked Concerned, was heartwrenching.
Jingmom is the immovable object to MCS's unstoppable force. I think she suspects that xiao-Xin has ulterior motives. Her shrine to Consort Chen was at the Emperor's orders, so she will not be censured overmuch – though whether the Emperor calms down enough to ask of the offense/actually dares publicly take responsibility is another thing.
We got more Xia Jiang backstory. His wife rescued Princess Xuanji from the servants' prison, then Xia Jiang ... fell in love with Xuanji? Or something? And the wife grabbed their son and ran off. Whether Xia Jiang staged the Chiyan thing just because of Princess Xuanji or due to some other motives (...trying to get back at his wife?) is still unclear. Nevertheless, Xia Jiang not understanding friendship will be his downfall – Xia Chen was quite shocked at how willingly he'd sacrifice Xia Dong. I expect there'll be consequences from that.
Marquis Yan is quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite minor characters. "How could I meet my friends if I didn't do this" indeed. And he got what was perhaps the most challenging part – holding Xia Jiang. He pulled it off. He also had a nice scene with Yujin. Speaking of Yujin, he's shaping up to be quite a nice character as well. His manipulation of Prince Ji was excellent, and the scene with Fei Liu and the letter was adorable.
The plan to evade Xia Jiang's counterplan was good. Xia Jiang walked right into the trap, lol. I do wonder what the bit with Prince Ji seeing Xia Dong with Wei Zhang was – will this be brought up later as a way of ... framing the Xuanjing Bureau for the kidnapping? Accusing Xia Jiang of setting the whole thing up? He does not look all that good, even if the Emperor raged at Jing first. Had the Empress not arrived, Xia Jiang would've been toast.
I hope we'll see some more of Xia Dong's motivations. Mu Nihuang should be turning up in some time; let's see how she affects the field. Jingrui may or may not return. The former Crown Prince was rather pathetic when he was exiled, and I doubt he'll return, but Noble Consort Yue may try to counterplot at the Empress out of grudgery. I'm still expecting for Fourth Sister to either betray Qin Banruo or just walk away at an inconvenient moment.
My faves so far: Xia Dong and Marquis Yan. I really, really ship Jing/MCS, and enjoy Meng Zhi as sort of a hilarious not-quite-comic-relief mood-lightener dork.
General Lei is a good egg. He's a bit simple and untwisty, but telling Jing to go talk to MCS is a good idea. Every conversation between MCS and Jing in ep 33 was pure gold, especially the one in the snow where MCS actually raised his voice. The later conversation indoors, where MCS had to hide all of his pain of the past and Meng looked Concerned, was heartwrenching.
Jingmom is the immovable object to MCS's unstoppable force. I think she suspects that xiao-Xin has ulterior motives. Her shrine to Consort Chen was at the Emperor's orders, so she will not be censured overmuch – though whether the Emperor calms down enough to ask of the offense/actually dares publicly take responsibility is another thing.
We got more Xia Jiang backstory. His wife rescued Princess Xuanji from the servants' prison, then Xia Jiang ... fell in love with Xuanji? Or something? And the wife grabbed their son and ran off. Whether Xia Jiang staged the Chiyan thing just because of Princess Xuanji or due to some other motives (...trying to get back at his wife?) is still unclear. Nevertheless, Xia Jiang not understanding friendship will be his downfall – Xia Chen was quite shocked at how willingly he'd sacrifice Xia Dong. I expect there'll be consequences from that.
Marquis Yan is quickly shaping up to be one of my favorite minor characters. "How could I meet my friends if I didn't do this" indeed. And he got what was perhaps the most challenging part – holding Xia Jiang. He pulled it off. He also had a nice scene with Yujin. Speaking of Yujin, he's shaping up to be quite a nice character as well. His manipulation of Prince Ji was excellent, and the scene with Fei Liu and the letter was adorable.
The plan to evade Xia Jiang's counterplan was good. Xia Jiang walked right into the trap, lol. I do wonder what the bit with Prince Ji seeing Xia Dong with Wei Zhang was – will this be brought up later as a way of ... framing the Xuanjing Bureau for the kidnapping? Accusing Xia Jiang of setting the whole thing up? He does not look all that good, even if the Emperor raged at Jing first. Had the Empress not arrived, Xia Jiang would've been toast.
I hope we'll see some more of Xia Dong's motivations. Mu Nihuang should be turning up in some time; let's see how she affects the field. Jingrui may or may not return. The former Crown Prince was rather pathetic when he was exiled, and I doubt he'll return, but Noble Consort Yue may try to counterplot at the Empress out of grudgery. I'm still expecting for Fourth Sister to either betray Qin Banruo or just walk away at an inconvenient moment.
My faves so far: Xia Dong and Marquis Yan. I really, really ship Jing/MCS, and enjoy Meng Zhi as sort of a hilarious not-quite-comic-relief mood-lightener dork.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-19 23:27 (UTC)Another great thing about Meng Zhi is that, like the audience, he isn't as smart as MCS and therefore needs things spelled out for him so we can understand it too. He's not stupid, he's just surrounded by very smart people who think around more corners than he does.
There are vids, but mostly in Chinese, and spoiler-y, of course (though iirc not more than the end credits. Don't pay attention to the end credits.)
no subject
Date: 2017-11-20 07:20 (UTC)(Let's test this reply-by-email thing...)
I know why Meng Zhi is a bit untwisty, and it also is to his benefit - the Emperor would not want a commander of the Imperial Guads to be good at plotting. As someone who is slightly twistier, though, his naïveté in certain matters is endearing.
The plot against Xia Jiang was very good. :)
One thing I'd like to see is meta of the song lyrics : person/thing on screen correspondence from the bits where they use a soundtrack song mixed up (like that place where Jing is :((( while MCS is dragged up to Xia Jiang's office). Actually, I might come back and do a hackjob of that myself.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-20 09:13 (UTC)"dragged", you mean when MCS allows the Bureau's soldiers to escort him to where he was planning to go anyway ^^
I'd be interested in seeing that :)
no subject
Date: 2017-11-20 19:15 (UTC)My analysis might be some time coming and will probably be terrible, but hey, half of the fun of these is the fact that someone else did the analysis, so I shall oblige.
/goes to write next post
no subject
Date: 2017-11-20 19:23 (UTC)