Nirvana in Fire 2, eps 37-40

[extrapenguin]

*cracks knuckles*

Tingsheng dies. The scenes around that are beautiful, especially the one where Tingsheng essentially releases Pingjing from responsibility. The whole funeral thing, Minister Xun just tossing the abolishment of Changlin in Pingjing's face, Ce'er not quite arriving in time to see granda one last time, Pingjing admitting his colossal survivor's guilt to Lin Xi – a lot of punches in the gut. What really takes the cake, though, is Yuanshi's conversation with Pingjing, where Pingjing says that there are some things one cannot fix or take back.

The Empress is very petty, and doesn't quite realize that she's not the one who "loyally serves the country". Feizhan essentially ragequits his post before he punches one of his relatives in the face.

Yuanqi commits treason. Also, he's totally going to execute a coup and make himself Emperor, all because of his inferiority complexes. The bit after the timeskip, especially – he's shown himself to be a good plotter by manipulating an endearingly young Yuanshi into giving him Xun Anru as a wife, and then getting Di Ming on his side with the mix of lies and weaponized truths about the plague. (He Cheng must've also heard.) (I actually like He Cheng surprisingly much.) He's surprisingly sweet to Anru, though.

Pingjing's being cute with Lin Xi – "Why would I want to change her?" indeed.

Jingting has died, after the 2-year timeskip (at what must've been an advanced age). Mu Yong is the heir to the Yunnan army. Mu Qing's son?

Feizhan apparently has feelings for Qianxue, which, okay. A bit stereotypical, but not going to complain yet. Feizhan arrived on Langya Mountain and the reunion scenes with Pingjing and Qianxue were sweet; this is definitely a family friend/secondary dage here. He even offered to help tutor Ce'er!

Pingjing has spotted the irregularities with the battles against Donghai! Let's see what he'll do with it. General Yue has elsewhere also realized something's amiss, and is being summoned to the capital.

Xun Anru is kind, and she has been dumped into a rat's nest of intrigue. Pei'er spotted He Cheng dumping a sword in the lake (Lady Qi arriving at Yuanqi's wedding was totally a power play) and is still disturbed, and shall probably tattle to Anru soon. Let's see how much Anru's willing to choose self-preservation.

Comments

[schneefink]

Pingjing at his dad's funeral ;_; At least they got a few very nice scenes together before. I also liked Pingjing's conversation with Yuanshi at the memorial, and that he allowed himself to call Yuanshi by name.
I was sad we didn't see Feizhan saying goodbye to Yuanshi. Yuanshi just lost his uncle, I bet he wasn't happy about losing another familiar face.

Okay Yuanqui really is the big bad :( Excellent work tempting and corrupting him by Mozi. And of course now Mozi controls him completely, with the amount of blackmail material he must have. And Yuanqui still has the proof of the Empress Dowager's crimes he got from Puyang Yin, I thought Minister Xun would have insisted he destroy them.
Yuanqui clearly learned from his uncle, he did very well with General Di Ming.

It's cute that Pingjing and Lin Xie exchanged letters during those two years :) I also seem to accidentally ship Lin Jiu/Pingjing now, oops.
Btw I'm confused why Ce'er calls Pingjing Second Uncle, who would be first?

I was glad that we're finally meeting some more servants. It always bugs me when they're treated like furniture when important/secret conversations are being held. Poor Pei'er, she knows something isn't quite right but no more than that...
Seems to me that Xun Anru is the one luxury Yuanqui allowed himself, because he really does seem to care for her, even though at first I thought it was mostly the family connection and maybe a pretty face.

[extrapenguin]

Tingsheng's death had so many good scenes around it. This show does dialogue at intense situations really well.

Yuanqi really is the big bad. So far, I think the show would've been better if it hadn't been Changlin Slice of Life + Yuanqi's Fall, and instead been Yuanqi's fall only.

I think the "second uncle" is because Pingjing is his uncle, but also second in birth order on the Changlin side? Or translation flub. IDK.

Yeah, meeting more servants would've always been nice. Something à la Banruo's org would be a nice "protagonist" for a series.

[schneefink]

You can't have Yuanqi's fall without showing house Changlin though. You need to show what Yuanqi sees as contrast to what he never had, and the political imbalance that motivates Minister Xun. I think it could have worked very well, if only in the first half Pingjing had been less of a naive idiot and Puyang Ying a less ridiculous/OTT villain.

[extrapenguin]

Well, yes, but there's a difference between (co-)lead and foil, no? And yeah, the first half really needed a better villain (maybe Puyang Ying is working for Mozi, too/otherwise related to Donghai to tie the plot-threads together better) and Pingjing definitely should've grown up earlier. Or have his arc start with him going "oh shit yeah I should put on my Court Personality" and stumbling with it out-of-practice before ironing out the kinks, then some actual character development.

[schneefink]

Maybe, but I'm not convinced Yuanqi could be captivating/interesting enough to have a lead role for the entire series.

You could even have had Pingjing realize that he needs to put on his Court Personality a couple of episodes after arriving in Jinling, maybe discussing his missteps with his brother seriously and talking about what he has to do and what he can get away with, depending on what he wants to do later in life. There were many possibilities.

If Puyang Yi is the villain, to make him work for me a) he needs less OTT evil symbolism, like the cloak and the smoke and the snakes and everything, and b) he needs a less stupid and convoluted plan, and no evil trap machine specifically for Pingzhang, what even.