Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #379

Anne: I am looking forward to not working for two days for Thanksgiving, to sleep and just turn off my brain for longer than two days. Since nothing really interesting happened in my life this last week, let's get on with some show discussions!

The King's Affection

I assume that everyone watched episode 12 and that I'm not revealing anything that isn't too shocking. 

Yes, Ji Woon was VERY surprised. Mostly because he had come to terms with his falling in love with the Crown Prince. Compared to Hyun, her cousin who secreted loved her from afar, Ji Woon confessed his love for someone who is off limits in everyway. In this aspect, he is definitely a braver soul. And which one of us watched when he got drunk and leaned in and didn't think "Oh no...he's NOT!"

And he did! For days after, he kept dreaming about being kissed back.

Finally he remembered that it wasn't a dream. (Hm... I've never recovered any memories after being drunk out of my mind that I forgot large sections of my night. Has any reader actually remembered any lost memories that's not a plant from just knowing you have to have done something. Like, I don't remember taking out my contacts and taking a shower, but the evidence points to those events happening. And then the vague memories follow. But are they really memories or created based on my conclusions?)

Well, Ji Woon isn't the only one who knows she's a girl. I mean the person whom she was most afraid of discovering her secret knew ALL this time. We now know why the King was so against the Crown Prince marrying. (And does anyone ever wonders how you can eavesdrop from across the room? If this was true, won't all the servants know her secret?) Her father used the scandal to release her to live her own life. But why in the world is her grandfather so intent on the Crown Prince remaining in the palace? Onward to episode 13! I LOVE this show. 💖 

Bright as the Moon

I've started talking about this drama a couple of weeks back. After some very persistent watching and some FFing, I finished this rather odd drama. It's 40 episodes of some of the most convoluted and complex plot of all time. I mean, I thought Princess Silver, with the twins separated at birth being raised as mortal enemies and falling in love with the same woman was outrageous enough. But I believe this one definitely takes the cake. Let's see if I can give everyone a taste of the plot without the post becoming a confusing mess of words.

Qian Yue is a modern web writer, who is being hounded by a rich man, who is after her because he believes she is the reason for all his misfortunes due to her writing. And during her being chased by his henchmen, she wished to disappear, and zipped she finds herself in an other time, with her nemesis. Okay, now pay attention.

She wakes up as Qian Yue, the only daughter of a powerful family, and accused of burning down a brothel, killing and injuring a bunch of people. She is the betrothed to the Crown Prince (2nd Prince who plotted to kill her in the brothel fire). She realized that her most recent "transport" into Qian Yue's body wasn't actually that recent. She actually came into her body ten years ago, and she did have amnesia when she hit her head in the fire. 

Our ML is Rong Jing, whose family, with the exception of his younger brother, were all slaughtered due to made up treason charges. But Rong Jing is actually the heir of the once fallen kingdom whose people is trying to get him to raise an army to take back the throne. At first he uses Qian Yue in order to get a document from her grandfather's study, which would showed that her grandfather was the mastermind behind his adopted family's extermination. At one point, he did give up his revenge and married Qian Yue, and they lived a couple of months in wedded bliss. Until he realized that he was the heir of the fallen kingdom that the current Emperor wants to erase. So he ruthlessly breaks her heart in order to protect her from his "people's" plan to resurrect the fallen kingdom. In the end, he realized that woman who saved his life when his adopted family was murdered was our FL's mom. (And where is our FL's dad, you might ask...well...he showed up as a monk in like the 2nd to last episode.)

Qing Ran is the 4th prince, who is also our FL's childhood friend who has been in loved with her for a very long time. He pretended to be a carefree prince with no aspirations, under his father's orders, so no one would never think he has a chance in line for the throne. He eventually inherits the throne when his father dies, and he marries Qian Yue as his Empress. And to protect her, he claimed the unborn child she was carrying was his. He was fine with everything until Qian Yue became very depressed when she thought our ML killed her grandfather (who really died of poison, but our ML "confessed" to the killing as a way to demonstrate to his people that he had gotten revenge for the death of his family). The 4th Prince, who is by now the Emperor, convinces his concubine (pictured below) to concoct a poison that would make the FL forget the person she loves the most. But if she ever remembers, he would suffer a cruel death. Of course we all know where this is going right? She remembered. He started to die, but he sets the stage for Rong Jing to kill him in order to get him to protect all he holds dear, the FL and the kingdom.

Ye Qian, who is a princess from another kingdom, who chased the above mentioned 4th prince until he finally married her. Unfortunately for her, he only married her under his father's orders as a way to secure a powerful backing to help him be enthroned. In the end, due to her misunderstanding of the situation, she kills the person she loved the most, who never spared her a second glance.

Tian Yi, the 3rd Prince, who was our FL's sweetheart for 7 freaking years, before she lost her memory in that brothel fire. He is working with a bunch of people, eliminating his brother's one by one so he can be named the Crown Prince. Because there is a clause in the Royal family that the Empress must be the daughter of Yun family. So when he thought that our FL was in love with him, he was so sure that it was a sign that he was the rightful heir to the throne. It turns out, however, that his dad would never had considered him because he wasn't the Emperor's son. His real father was one of the people who tried to help him eliminate his competition. In the end, he was outsmarted by Rong Jing, and allowed himself to be killed by the person whom he thought he may have wronged the most.

She is our tragic heroine of the drama, Yu Ning. She was was in love with our ML, but was engaged to the 3rd Prince. Like almost every female in this drama, her obsession with our ML knows no bounds. And in her desperate attempt to force our ML's hand in marriage, she decided to drug him, because that always worked out so well 😝😒. Instead, she drugged the 3rd Prince by accident, and slept with him (was the room that dark that you couldn't see his face?). But the 3rd Prince only had one goal in mind, and when she realized that the "mistake" was actually a setup by Rong Jing, she joined forces with the 3rd Prince. Her schemes are pretty cruel, but she really did not deserve her punishment. In the end, she commits suicide after killing the 3rd Prince, wanting to be free from the life that she was suffered to live.

And Ling Rui, a prince from yet another neighboring kingdom who is in loved in Ye Qian. In reality, he is our FL's twin brother, who was sent to his mother's side of the family to grow up because of some wacky superstition about having twins is unlucky. For nearly the entire show, I liked him. He was funny and never really serious. But he was also the one that locked Yu Ning in a brothel. Ok, yes, she did kill his grandfather, but what he did, was way overboard. Can't forgive him for that. He should be cursed to remain alone forever!

This is our 2nd CP. And the only two people who were NOT constantly tormented by love and purposely hurting each other. They are the ML's and FL's personal servants respectively. 

This is the tragic heroine's admirer. He was the only one who came to her aid, and the only one who did what he could to bring Yu Ning's goals to fruition. He was also the one who rescued her from the brothel. He is also 3rd Prince's half brother. He had to obey his father's wishes to help the 3rd Prince to the throne, including giving up the woman he loved. 

There are actually even more characters, mostly female with one-sided love obsessions. In the end, everyone realized that our ML didn't kill the grandfather nor the 4th Prince nor the Emperor, and he didn't kill his own son. It was all plotted by the 3rd Prince's group of helpers. After the happy ending for our main CP and 2nd CP, it is time for our FL to return back to her time. And in the modern time, she made a plan to pursue the ML. And his personal secretary is her cousin, which is why her writings of him seem so prophetic. She knew where he would be. In the end, fate cannot be broken, and our CP ends up back together.

All in all...it's a very odd drama that had a dizzying cast of characters whom always seem to be suffering from one-side love. A very long plot where all the reveal at the end was done in exposition. Which certainly cuts down on dragging it out even longer. Our FL obviously have super great bones, because she was pushed to death probably 3 times off different cliffs, and never suffer so much as a sprang ankle. The ML should have smiled more. He has dimples! That paralyzed face look doesn't work on him. 

One comment on Pearl Eclipse...after reading what the book was really about...yeah...I see nothing good coming out of it. 

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US. I would take an entire day to just sleep if I could.