posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azdak at 09:46pm on 18/10/2025 under nirvana in fire
azdak at 09:46pm on 18/10/2025 under nirvana in fireThis is such an edge-of-your-seat episode.
We open with MCS giving a very kind pep talk to the little boys before the fight. He’s then joined by Nihuang, Prince Jing and Mu Qing, and can’t help giving Jing a smile. Nihuang, who watches MCS like hawk and is PERFECTLY well aware of how Xiao Shu felt about Jingyan, jumps right in and asks him why he’s smiling. MCS answers that he appreciates seeing the three of them brimming with energy and vitality, which with hindsight is very poignant, though on first viewing it looks like just one more parry in the ongoing skirmishes between him and Nihuang.
The Crown Prince and Prince Yu do their usual thing in front of the Emperor, this time trying to sell him on their favoured candidates for Nihuang’s hand, so the names Liao Tingjie and Sima Lei are presented to us yet again. It still went right over my head that this is why Yujin’s playing polo with Liao Tingjie provokes such a fearful fit of coughing in MCS – the first such fit we’ve seen – but after so many rewatches, I am finally in a position to appreciate how carefully it’s been set up.
MCS warns Nihuang that someone in the palace is trying to force her hand. I can’t help feeling it would have helped if he’d been a tad more explicit about the date rape wine, instead of just warning her off food and drink in general, but perhaps feelings of delicacy prevented him. Nihuang, I suspect, had to put up with a lot of Lin Shu protecting her when they were younger; at any rate, after receiving the warning, she gives him a defiant look and accepts the Empress’s invitation to the palace. It’s a kind of “If you care so much, try and stop me,” look. I wonder if this isn’t also what underlies her subsequent decision to drink Consort Yue’s wine. I mean, it's obviously tricky to get out of it, from an etiquette point of view, but she managed it with the Empress, and she does toss it back with a defiant air that might conceivably be aimed at someone inside her head rather than at Yue.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We still have the fight against Baili Qi, which is great – and we get to see just how fast the move Fei Liu was teaching the boys is supposed to be – and it’s followed by the return of the Nihuang-MCS double act. This time they team up to make sure the Emperor never gets a chance to decide not to free the kids, by making him first decide whether they should go to Nihuang or Su Zhe. “You can’t fool me!” says the Emperor, thinking he’s very clever, “You two will have to work that out between you.” This is the same tactic everyone always uses on the Emperor to get their own way and it works every time. But then it’s hard to spot the beam in your eye if you’re surrounded by yes-men and women.
After it’s all over, Mu Qing takes the kids off, Nihuang accepts the invitation to the palace, and MCS worries so terribly that Jingrui notices. Then Yujin drops his remark about polo, MCS collapses and the pace picks up to a furious gallop. This episode is Consort Yue’s star turn. We get to see her in all her different evil facets, beginning with the petty, girly bitch she is with the Empress (the scenes between Yue and the Empress are so like the scenes between the Crown Prince and Prince Yu that I have to laugh). Then there’s the “nice” face she puts on for Nihuang, then what I assume is closer to her real self, when Nihuang almost escapes and Prince Jing bursts in, and she talks to the Crown Prince and Prince Jing like a commander, all girliness gone. Then the Empress appears and she turns on a dime to play Consort Mean Girl again, followed by Poor Innocent Wronged Me before the Emperor. It’s a tour de force. I can’t wish there was more of her, because Consort Yue is such an awful human being, but it’s an amazing performance.
Prince Jing is also wonderful as he barges into Zhaoren palace at Meng’s request without a second thought. I’m not sure how much he knows about the nature of the threat to Nihuang, because he seems to gradually work it out from the things Yue says and gets more and more horrified. This is the scene that transforms Prince Jing from someone clearly good but hard to like to out-and-out hero, and it’s certainly the point at which I fell in love with him (I’d already fallen for Nihuang; MCS took a lot longer because the first time around I wasn’t at all sure I could trust him). The bit where Jing breaks the deal with Consort Yue and testifies before the Emperor that he took the Crown Prince hostage is just the icing on the cake. Great insights into the Emperor from that scene, too. You get to see, for all his appearance of moral outrage, where his real priorities lie. And the episode ends on a real cliffhanger, where it looks as if Jingyan is once again going to be his whipping boy. Great stuff!
We open with MCS giving a very kind pep talk to the little boys before the fight. He’s then joined by Nihuang, Prince Jing and Mu Qing, and can’t help giving Jing a smile. Nihuang, who watches MCS like hawk and is PERFECTLY well aware of how Xiao Shu felt about Jingyan, jumps right in and asks him why he’s smiling. MCS answers that he appreciates seeing the three of them brimming with energy and vitality, which with hindsight is very poignant, though on first viewing it looks like just one more parry in the ongoing skirmishes between him and Nihuang.
The Crown Prince and Prince Yu do their usual thing in front of the Emperor, this time trying to sell him on their favoured candidates for Nihuang’s hand, so the names Liao Tingjie and Sima Lei are presented to us yet again. It still went right over my head that this is why Yujin’s playing polo with Liao Tingjie provokes such a fearful fit of coughing in MCS – the first such fit we’ve seen – but after so many rewatches, I am finally in a position to appreciate how carefully it’s been set up.
MCS warns Nihuang that someone in the palace is trying to force her hand. I can’t help feeling it would have helped if he’d been a tad more explicit about the date rape wine, instead of just warning her off food and drink in general, but perhaps feelings of delicacy prevented him. Nihuang, I suspect, had to put up with a lot of Lin Shu protecting her when they were younger; at any rate, after receiving the warning, she gives him a defiant look and accepts the Empress’s invitation to the palace. It’s a kind of “If you care so much, try and stop me,” look. I wonder if this isn’t also what underlies her subsequent decision to drink Consort Yue’s wine. I mean, it's obviously tricky to get out of it, from an etiquette point of view, but she managed it with the Empress, and she does toss it back with a defiant air that might conceivably be aimed at someone inside her head rather than at Yue.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. We still have the fight against Baili Qi, which is great – and we get to see just how fast the move Fei Liu was teaching the boys is supposed to be – and it’s followed by the return of the Nihuang-MCS double act. This time they team up to make sure the Emperor never gets a chance to decide not to free the kids, by making him first decide whether they should go to Nihuang or Su Zhe. “You can’t fool me!” says the Emperor, thinking he’s very clever, “You two will have to work that out between you.” This is the same tactic everyone always uses on the Emperor to get their own way and it works every time. But then it’s hard to spot the beam in your eye if you’re surrounded by yes-men and women.
After it’s all over, Mu Qing takes the kids off, Nihuang accepts the invitation to the palace, and MCS worries so terribly that Jingrui notices. Then Yujin drops his remark about polo, MCS collapses and the pace picks up to a furious gallop. This episode is Consort Yue’s star turn. We get to see her in all her different evil facets, beginning with the petty, girly bitch she is with the Empress (the scenes between Yue and the Empress are so like the scenes between the Crown Prince and Prince Yu that I have to laugh). Then there’s the “nice” face she puts on for Nihuang, then what I assume is closer to her real self, when Nihuang almost escapes and Prince Jing bursts in, and she talks to the Crown Prince and Prince Jing like a commander, all girliness gone. Then the Empress appears and she turns on a dime to play Consort Mean Girl again, followed by Poor Innocent Wronged Me before the Emperor. It’s a tour de force. I can’t wish there was more of her, because Consort Yue is such an awful human being, but it’s an amazing performance.
Prince Jing is also wonderful as he barges into Zhaoren palace at Meng’s request without a second thought. I’m not sure how much he knows about the nature of the threat to Nihuang, because he seems to gradually work it out from the things Yue says and gets more and more horrified. This is the scene that transforms Prince Jing from someone clearly good but hard to like to out-and-out hero, and it’s certainly the point at which I fell in love with him (I’d already fallen for Nihuang; MCS took a lot longer because the first time around I wasn’t at all sure I could trust him). The bit where Jing breaks the deal with Consort Yue and testifies before the Emperor that he took the Crown Prince hostage is just the icing on the cake. Great insights into the Emperor from that scene, too. You get to see, for all his appearance of moral outrage, where his real priorities lie. And the episode ends on a real cliffhanger, where it looks as if Jingyan is once again going to be his whipping boy. Great stuff!
(no subject)
Consort Yue is not a delight, but fascinating in her ruthlessness: the dead can't tell the truth, so killing both of them is the safer option - also not a calculation flattering to the Emperor. I'm struck on every rewatch how early she leaves the scene, she evidently made a huge impression on me first time round. I find myself wondering whether MCS's lack of deep familiarity with the inner palace is a weakness here. This is a risky plot, as to work, the presence of Sima Lei must be explained away. It just feels more like Yue's style than tne Empress somehow, not because the Empress is nicer, but because it is a bit of a desperate lunge. It's not really going to secure Nihuang as an ally, but an enemy. It is also not going to thrill the Emperor in its outcome. Even if he doesn't learn of the plot, it's a safe bet that he'd prefer a neutral husband for Nihuang.
Which brings me to the 'trial' scene and why he's actually angry. I do think he genuinely wants to know why Nihuang is upset, he is fond of her. But the issue, for him, is ultimately not about her, but an insult to *his* intentions. It's a power base in the palace trying to use a scenario he set up for his political benefit for their political benefit.
But Prince Jing is a delight. Taking the Criwn Prince hostage is such a great way of showing who he is.
(no subject)
Me too! She feels like one of the main villains, even though she's defanged so early, and when Xia Jiang briefly enlists her umpteen episodes later, you don't think "Who was that again?" or even "Oh, she's been dealt with, nothing to worry about here."
It just feels more like Yue's style than tne Empress somehow, not because the Empress is nicer, but because it is a bit of a desperate lunge
I suppose a lot of the Empress's caution comes from the fact she knows the Emperor doesn't like her, whereas Consort Yue has faith that he'll let her off lightly. But she doesn't seem to be a very imaginative person. Once Yue is demoted, she doesn't think beyond starving her a bit. Yue's got more brains, but still isn't all that bright. Like all the Eastern Palace people, she only thinks in terms of forcing people to do things, not manipulating them, and although she's got a sexual hold over the Emperor, when her "I've been wronged!" schtick fails, she's got nothing to fall back on.
You're quite right that even if the plot had been successful, it wouldn't have been of great benefit to the Eastern Palace, but as long as everyone had bveen forced to do what they wanted, I think they'd have seen it as a great victory. When it fails, of course, they're in deep trouble, not just because it was a terrible thing to try to do to Nihuang - who still has her 100,000 troops and who the Emperor is afraid might rebel - but because the women of the Inner Palace were forbidden from getting involved in politics. They weren't even allowed to advise the Emperor, which is why they have to be so cautious and girlish in letting him know which candidates they favour.
Prince Jing is a delight. Taking the Criwn Prince hostage is such a great way of showing who he is
Diving straight in to do what he thinks is right, not held back by any consideration of his own safety or the political consequences.
(no subject)
I didn't realise that the women were actually forbidden from being involved in politics to that extent, but that does increase the severity of the crime and why the emperor responds as he does. I think you're right about the Eastern Palace would have perceived themselves as achieving a great victory, regardless of actual long term impact (and surely Sima Lei would have been dead in a month "falling from his horse"), because force and success in that is how they think. It's all about chess pieces.
Diving straight in to do what he thinks is right, not held back by any consideration of his own safety or the political consequences.
Absolutely! And his reward - the first iteration of that ominous phrase, "are you rebelling?"
(no subject)
Oh goodness, I missed that! Honestly, it's amazing Prince Jing has survived as long as he has, given his incurable honesty. He had the advantage of being out of town when the shit hit the fan, but that alone wouldn't have been enough to keep him alive. I wonder if it was his mother's idea to have him be constantly sent away on military business? If not, then we have to regard it as the Emperor being, by his own lights, merciful. Perhaps he felt that to lose two sons would look like something worse than carelessness.
(no subject)