Yingluo's loyalty to Empress Fuca is a thing of beauty. Omg... Yingluo's face when Mingyu tried to get her killed is like "I lost all my faith in ya b*tch". Emperor: "just give me an excuse to start kicking ppl" Yingluo: "hold my tea"
YinLuo’s quick thinking of “accidentally pouring water all over the emperor” is one of my favourite parts of the show. Both delaying the emperor’s stride and alerting the empress at one go. GENIUS
The thing is, I couldn’t even be mad at Xian Fei for doing what she did. When Jia admitted to Gao GuiFei destroying her family and then laughed in her face about it, I was ticked off myself. But when Xian Fei snapped and brought out the white cloth to get rid of Jia, it was both a sense of shock and relief, which is sad for me to say😂
If anybody looked at me the way Yingluo looked at Mingyu, I’d shit enough bricks to build a second Great Wall. That was vicious And well deserved, too. Mingyu wtf. And another fabulous recap! So glad I get to binge these
Notes: -The ceremony mentioned ('fen fu chi rou'/sharing blessings and eating meat) was peformed once a month during the Qing dynasty at Kunning Palace (which used to be the Empress' residence but was later used for rituals and weddings). The show did actually get one thing wrong: the sacrifical pig had to be black and male. This one is very pink. Also, the reason why the meat is boiled and unseasoned dates all the way back to the founding of the Qing in 1616, during which it was called the 'Later Jin' dynasty. Their founder, Nurhaci, had a fairly rough start, losing his father and grandfather at 23 and leading a revolt against the ruling Ming dynasty. According to legend, he and his followers had to subsist on boiled, unseasoned meat. This meat, later called zuo rou, 'sacrifice meat', was seen as a great honor to be allowed to eat and was awarded only to important ministers and officials; some folk legends say that when said ministers died, their families eulogized them by saying 'He ate meat in Kunning Palace'. -The historical Prince Yi did actually meet a similar fate to his show counterpart; he 'failed to observe etiquette' while making sacrifices at the Imperial Ancestral Temple (alongside one of Prince Guo's sons, actually) and was punished by being demoted and having his salary docked. He semi-retired after this to focus on poetry and art (he actually helped preserve early drafts of Cao Xueqin's 'Dream of the Red Chamber' from being destroyed). -Continuing the ongoing trend of palace dramas making me hungry: modern renditions of zuo rou are closer to braised pork belly than slightly-raw pork squares. There's even a Beijing regional specialty called 'shaguo bairou/white meat casserole' (which is obviously cooked and seasoned). -Fuheng's friend, Hailancha, is hilarious and one of the best characters imo. He mostly acts as comic relief to balance out Fuheng's seriousness (in the form of wisecracking and being amusingly injured--he was the one who got burned by Yingluo's hand-warmer earlier). -It really is ironic that Jia is wearing red (the color of fortune and happiness, worn during weddings) when she's at her lowest point, right before being killed. The white cloth was definitely intentional on Xian's part, to make it look like a suicide; even before she got there, she was set on ending Jia. The joke at the time that this came out was that she had become 'Niohuru Shushen' (as a reference to Niohuru Zhenhuan, in other words her 'corruption' arc is started). -Gao or any of the others never explicitly mention the term 'lesbians' (mainly because that would get the show censored faster than you can say 'girls love'), and historically sapphic women weren't really prevalent in Chinese history (although both they and gay men definitely did exist!) There isn't really even a word for 'lesbian' on its' own in Mandarin--they're just called '女同性恋/nu tongxinglian', 'female homosexuals'; there are a ton of slang terms, some borrowed from English ('拉子/lazi' and '拉拉/lala', both from 'lesbian') and some homegrown ('女同志/nu tongzhi', 'female comrade' and '大同/datong', 'great togetherness'). The best example I can find of historical Chinese lesbians is the '金兰会/Jinlan Hui', the 'Golden Orchid Society', who took oaths never to sleep with or marry men and would style their hair like married women ('自梳女/zi shu nu', 'self-combing women'); some would even enter into unofficial marriages with each other. It existed for several centuries in Guangdong, during the mid-to-late Qing dynasty. -The opera Gao has the performers put on is '怜香伴/Lian Xiang Ban', 'The Fragrant Companion', a 17th century play by Li Yu (the playwright, not the eunuch) about two women, Cao Yuhua and Cui Jianyun, who both marry the same man in order to be together. This is also the start of Gao's 'opera arc', where I get to rant about the many opera references she makes! (Ironically, the role of the women in the opera, normally played by men (women weren't allowed on stage at the time), seems to be played by two maids). -Judging by her symptoms (night sweats, chills), the Empress, who is around 35-36 at this point, might be entering perimenopause (the period before menopause, which often results in hormonal changes), which would be an issue because it means she's close to not being able to have kids anymore. Definitely something she would want to keep under wraps. -Honestly, Gao is something else in Ep.17. Her grand plan is to kill the 'abnormal' 5th prince, AND his mom, in front of all the servants, and *bury the bodies* in the Empress' garden, *with the Emperor still in the palace*. Hoo boy. This is implied to be revenge for the lychee banquet and subsequent punishments, by the way. She's this mad over a minor scolding and a month's salary. -The jaundice turns out to be caused by Yu's cravings for sweets and Mongolian flatbread (*sighs, adds another to the list of C-drama dishes I want to try*). IRL Yu Pin was from the Mongol Bordered Blue Banner, so not too far off in terms of cuisine. Apparently, children of East Asian descent are at higher risk of developing jaundice, and it's also more common in premature children (the 5th Prince here is born early). My hunch is that all the sugar and carbs caused some form of gestational diabetes in Yu, which in turn caused her son's yellow coloring. -Still holding out on Mingyu here. Come on, hurry up with the redemption arc!
-I also think that Nurhaci had it rough with losing his mother, Hitara Emeci, at 10 years old and having to deal with his father's second wife, Hada Nara Kenje, who was stated in history to be a wicked step mother to him. -Does Gao give you any reminders of Empress Dowager Cixi (the pearl cape she wears, love for opera, extravagant lifestyle, lives in Chuxiu palace (all of which is applicable to Cixi)).
@@SolitaryBee-wd5wf Definitely, Gao is inspired by Cixi. The cape is stated to be based off of one of Cixi's own pieces, which had around 3500 pearls on it!
I love this analysis, and the remarks on lesbianism in Chinese historical literature are fascinating! Thank you for the contextual clues, and for mentioning that Gao orchestrated all this as revenge, but that Yingluo outthought her. At this point I’m frankly surprised Yingluo didn’t try to tell the emperor the kid was yellow and thus lucky and destined for good fortune or something 😂
I love the actress for Gao her facial expressions and way of speaking are amazing. Although Xian's character progression is sudden I do love how complex all the characters are.
There was this scene in the episode where the doctor comes in, looking around in confusion at the palace servants, and when he starts checking on the baby he sees Yingluo and is transfixed by her and has this big dumb smile and the Emperor is like “Hello? WHAT ARE YOU DOING GET BACK TO WORK” Like… Get a hold of yourself why are you getting jealous over Yingluo 😭😭
@@gaaraxnaru The emperor is supposed to love the entire harem, but- (spoilers) He only seems to have this special “Don’t you die on me” love only for the first Empress and Yingluo, and I read that he admitted to Yingluo that he was jealous of Fuheng and made her his concubine because he wanted her to himself
@@gaaraxnaru Right now he only loves the empress but this show *is* a slowburn Yingluo/Emperor after all (not really spoilers since they don't bother to disguise who the historical characters are)
You know, this is probably a reach but I noticed something about the attire concubine jia was wearing when she died. In my culture, when someone in the ashante tribe dies, usually people wear black and white cloths. However, people closely related to the person or in deep morning will wear black and red. I just found it interesting that concubine jia was already prepared for what was to come lol 😭
YES!! THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THE PILLAR STRANGLING THING!! No matter how hard I thought about it, there’s no way that Xian could have used both hands to start to strangle Jia while facing her direction, then suddenly turn the opposite direction to wrap the cloth around the pillar, while still strangling Jia, and never having to let go of the cloth *at all*. And that’s before you even consider stringing her up alone in the middle of the night! Did you see how high those ceilings were?! But despite this, it was still an intense scene and a genuine shift in Xian who I think had been bottling those kinds of feelings up for years. I think the justification I would offer for her sudden change is that she could only take so much, and with all the recent events, she finally snapped. With Jia trying to take away the only chance she could have at having a new family, and being party to the death of two of her loved ones (even if they seemed kinda scummy to me), I guess she just became the first victim to fall to Xian’s new wrath.
This was easily my favorite part. I think I've watched these episodes a dozen times. The whole thing with the doctor is just fantastic. This was kind of a Mingyu low point, but I firmly believe Erqing was back there talking smack to her and pushing her to clash with Yinglou.
The empress is really like a big sister/mom to Yinglou she’s really trying to teach her how compromise and know when to stop,which Yinglou doesn’t know how to do that..(yet) and the scene with the empress helping the emperor getting ready for court is so sweet him saying she’s the best queen and that forehead kiss 🥹🥰
Chun was one of my favorites because she was smart and somehow gentle. But these episodes are great like you know they all are doing certain things but we don’t know why
The sheer BALLS on Yinglou. She's up against powerful people and she finds a way to put them in their place by being a quick study in palace rules, politics and then pushing the boundaries.
I REALLY love that you seem to be watching this for the first time as you do these episodes? There's a few times you guess out many possible outcomes for the plots, so even though I already know how it ends since I've watched it so many times, it makes it even more entertaining to hear it from a perspective that I would've had when I watched Yanxi for the first time myself!
I've noticed that unlike with Zhen/Ruyi she's not here in the comments to discuss characters & events. Might be because she doesn't want to be spoiled until all the videos are up!
The actress playing Jia was so chilling to me she went from a hysterical devastated mother to defiant and unrepentant.. besides her bringing up Xian’s mom but saying people with no ability always get trampled” sealed her fate..
This drama is amazing with how it flips my favorites compared to Ruyi. I couldn’t stand Empress Fuca is Ruyi’s royal lpve but i would fight for this one!
According to historical records it seems this version of both Empress Fuca and wei yinglou/yanwan is more closer to their characteristics. Emperor Qianlong left records about Fuca and Ying Lou and they definitely weren’t evil at all, not sure why The writers of Ruyi’s chose to tarnish them like they did 😮. Also Ying Lou was trained by empress Fuca in real life as well
@@Winter74575 Drama. In real life, Ruyi wasn't favored. It's pretty obvious she became the step empress because of her family connections, not for any romantic reason. She would have had a child prior to becoming empress if that was the case. In order to make Ruyi and the emperor in love, they had to tarnish everyone else. There had to be a reason why Ruyi hadn't gotten pregnant in over a decade... and why she had her fall from grace. This is why I'm not a huge fan of Ruyi. It twists history too much and there are just too many evil characters that have no complexity at all.
@@lindsiria I feel exactly the same way about Ruyi’s I actually been stuck halfway through episode 21 for about a month now 😂 I watch clips here and there but I truly can’t allow myself to watch them do Empress Fuca like how they did her, they made it seem as though the emperor didn’t love her and only treated Xian bad because he was extremely terrible. I saw a Chinese Historian ( I think) here saying that she cut her hair because she was so angry that the Emperor and Empress Doweger wanted to make Consort Ling , imperial consort Ling or something like that, so it seems that Yanxi got a few things correct even though they obviously added stuff for dramatisation. Even though there’s not much history about Ruyi because the Emperor destroyed everything At least we can still sympathise with her , even though I personally can’t stand her 😂 but her story arc is not one sided as they portrayed Ling to be.
@@lindsiriaYes, I always took her childless state (she had her first child two decades-well, 18 years-after marriage, when she was already in her mid-30s) as proof that there was never anything beyond basic respect in that relationship. After Empress Xiaoxianchun's death, Lady Nara was simply the only imperial concubine with a high enough status and the right family and ethnic background.
omg that slap was so satisfying! Mingyu was seriously begging to be punished at this point after all the dumb shit she's done out of jealousy. Ofc the Empress is gentle, so she's not the one to punish... but this emperor.. I like him a lot for this haha. He seems level headed. Also this Gao.... she's so unlikeable to me. She seems to have no redeeming qualities, what exactly does the emperor see in her? geez. I know I shouldn't compare, but the Gao in ruyi's royal love was one of my fave characters because she had so many flaws and actual insecurities, she felt like a fleshed out person. This Gao just seems bitter and nasty for the sake of it
A significant chunk of Gao's backstory was cut due to censors. She was BFFs with Yingluo's older sister and actually tried to help her before Yingning/A'man died. It's a huge shame they removed that entire plotline as it shows Gao can absolutely be an empathic person. So every time she seems like a flat cardboard character, shed a tear for victims of censorship ):
@@its99pmno, gao purposely dressed up as a male opera singer when comforting yingning because it would get her in trouble since it looks like she's seeking comfort from a man. no pun intended. i know why yanxi palace _had_ to do it, but there's like 6 episodes of unaired content. it's a bummer.
The attempted baby burying scene was definitely the most frustrated I am at Mingyu. I can view the rest of her antics as simply childish and misguided, but trying to stop Yingluo from saving the lives of a mother and child?! That's just insanely wrong and it has extremely dire consequences. If you're not brave enough to step in yourself, at least don't hinder the person trying to stop murders from happening!
Just found your channel recently and can't wait to go through your back Playlist. We seem to enjoy watching the same dramas, and your recaps are so entertaining.
I don’t think Xian “actually” worked with Chun she knows Chun has medical knowledge so she would wonder why 4th prince wasn’t getting better and would assume it was a plot. She just made use of her
Consort Xian going down this path was completely expected. She was one of the first harem members since before the Prince ascended the throne. She has seen and survived numerous plots and scheming. Now she has a reason to get her hands dirty, so it makes sense that she can and will go to any length to protect her carefully built reputation as the 'kindest consort'. Mingyu grew on me. She's jealous and petty, but in Yanxi Palace, you see how much of a fierce, protective servant she is. She's also quite capable as a main maid. I can see how she rose through the ranks to become a main maid. I assumed it was only because Yinglou took her place that she acted so impulsive and jealous while in Changchun Palace because Mingyu was not a dowry servant, she literally had to work her way up the ranks. She avoids anything that might put the Empress in trouble, like with Concubine Yi and Yu, not understanding that an Empress must be magnanimous, and she's not a high-ranking consort that can pick her battles. It made her a better main maid for a consort than an Empress and I like her charcater arc. Mingyu always felt young to me in this series, around 14, so it makes sense that she finally calms down as she matures as the series goes on and she becomes an adult. I'm so happy someone else found Concubine Yi's death suspicious.
I actually liked Mingyu a lot because I saw the actress in another series, and I loved her character there, so I just liked seeing her. Since Mingyu turns around in this series (and Erqing goes haywire), it made her one of my favorite characters. It's amazing how seeing the same actor in different settings can influence one's opinion of the character!
Hello! Thank you so much for your channel and your wonderful re-cap videos! I have been enjoying your insights for the last couple of years now, and I just want to say I really appreciate your work. So, I absolutely love YanXi Palace. It's exactly the optimistic romp we need after the emotional pummeling of Ruyi's Royal Love. I love the girl power. Anyway, ShuShen Xian is probably my all-time favorite Chinese drama villian. She starts out as an undeniably good character, and her moral downfall is chillingly plausible, understandable, and even relatable. (I had a hard time hating her, even towards the end). I love how she doesn't instantly go from Ruyi's level of "goodness" to straight-up evil on the levels of Gao, or Zhen Huan's Hua Fei, or Ruyi's Ling Fei. With Shu Shen, it's a realistic gradual descent into wickedness. I love how early on in YanXi, we get to see Shu Shen prey on worse characters in order to advance her own agenda. She's delightfully cunning and Machiavellian. SPOILER TEASE: I cannot wait to see your takes on some of the other characters' goodies-to-baddies makeovers. The writers seem to love the theme of a likeable character morphing into a horrible person. But, I didn't like most of those plots, because they were just SO unbelievable and unrelatable. I also can't wait to hear your thoughts on the one big upcoming "baddie-to-goodie" and/or "foe-to-friend" transformation...because I wasn't loving it either. lol. It's also kinda unbelievable that somebody would go from an A'Ruo to a Rong Pei in the same story.
Well first of all, THANK YOU for the sweet comment! Same here, it's exactly the perfect drama to watch after RuYi and when I watch it on my own I just don't take it that seriously. Just settle in for a good time I already know Xian is absolutely making my top 3 favorite characters, she is fantastic for all the reasons you stated. She's a brilliant schemer and she has a great story and arc, what more can you ask for? Good to bad isn't too terrible to me because I definitely buy that some people are only a few hard moments from turning dark. Bad to good however... Are you talking about MingYu? Because if so, yeah. Totally did not buy it for a moment and I never really came around on her. It felt like I was just supposed to delete her entire history from my head in order to like her and that's pretty hard to do...
@@dramarecaps4217 thank you so much for your reply! And yes, I meant Ming Yu. It was a choppy transition and I just don't understand why Ming Yu didn't need any redemption arc to become a sidekick. It was weird. Also, now that we are all past the spoiler... the Erqing storyline is just as whack in the opposite direction, imo. I just don't buy that somebody like Erqing could become so evil so quickly with relatively little provocation (her crush fell for someone else, basically). Keep up the excellent work, my Friend! Your videos are a treat!
I hope this isn't too spoiler-y! The biggest difference in Yanxi vs Ruyi is how clear the character's motivations were. In Ruyi, we knew everyone's motivations pretty soon after they were introduced. Yanxi's writers were *very* good at pulling the uno-reverse card with some characters. At least Yingluo's motives were always clear--she wanted revenge for her sisters; the biological sister that spurred her to enter the palace in the first place, and later the sisters she claimed for herself.
Ok so based on what u said I had to go re-watch that scene with Xian and Jia.. trigger warning for sensitive readers… while Xian is comforting 4th prince she’s replays what she did the cloth she had was long enough for her to be facing Jia while she drags her to the pillar, the part around Jia’s neck has a knot in it but the ends that Xian holds r free so she whips around facing the opposite direction and just sits down and pulls.. they don’t show how Xian made it look like Jia killed herself but the first part of scene shows the entire view of the pillar and it has decorative beam attached sooo maybe Xian used that 🤷♀️
I appreciate the rewatch haha, I'm still stuck on the part after dragging her to the pillar and before she sits down (they kind of cut right past it) she would have to let go of one of the sides she was holding in order to get it wrapped around the pole. As for the stringing up, I suppose a trusted eunuch or two could get it done- she certainly seems to inspire a lot of loyalty in the people that follow her!
@@dramarecaps4217 😎 he is the friend we all need in our lives. Fun fact , he was really close with Qianlong emperor and was from a poor background but was a really great soldier and he was loyal for real, he wasn’t in the palace at the same time as Fuca Fuheng though , their friendship is a myth but I love it nonetheless 🌸
Fuheng: *gives yingluo a knife* Yingluo: *heccing stabs him* But hey I still appreciate a harem drama with a character who can both do exstensive plotting and also just stab a hoe! Also Fuheng is me fr fr xD And as for the difference in the two drama's, let's be real, the emperor from Empresses in the palace just couldn't care less about his harem. As long as they were being discreet he probably couldn't care less if they were sleeping with each other. Also, man, I forgot what Mingyu was like in the beginning. Her arc is amazing, but yeah, it's tough to watch the early days even knowing the whys behind it 😮💨I can see why you can't forgive her, but much like our deceased naive girl, I really feel for her given the circumstances....and i'm too empathetic for my own good. Also, Chun and the Empress, yeah I'm just gonna tell you that you are absolutely wrong but I cannot explain further xD She and Hailan definitely are similair tho!
Honestly, if I have multiple wives or husbands, I really don't mind them having relationships with each other. I kinda feel like their being in love makes this big family closer haha. (Maybe I'm just a pervert :/
Ruyis PTSD follow us everywere. Spoiler its the other naid that ni fun la! (Dont know if i day that correctly, sorry if I massacred chinese 😂 But is Erqing whi gets crazy abd killed at the end ironically....
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