#a'wu

[carmelide]

Wang Lin and Tywin Lannister

the parallels between wang lin and tywin lannister genuinely need to be studied. they're such similar characters, on the surface, but if you delve deeper into their characters you'll find a huge dissimilarity between them.

wang lin, despite all his glaring faults, genuinely loves his family. when a'wu came to visit him and left upon realising su'er and jinruo weren't there, he was very clearly devestated. when he and wang su were in the prison, he swore that they would have vengeance (and even though the union between huan mi and wang su was a catastrophic mistake, wang lin wed them together because he wanted wang su to be with a woman of his choice; something WL had been deprived of.) and, when jinruo died, anyone with working eyes could see the man was devestated (and even before that, he does genuinely love her. romantically, i still don't know, but his care for her was undeniable. that night where she demands the truth from him before his ancestors and he, knowing he cannot lie to her, admits he poisoned the emperor and even waits for her to kill him...he deffo feels something towards her.)

the thing that i have taken away from wang lin's character is this; it is evident that he loves his family, but he simply loves power more. he, like tywin, puts so much value on legacy- but unlike tywin (or maybe still alike depending on how you view the latter), WL believes that he is protecting his family by making all of these chess moves (which, to an extent, i understand. the emperor means to supress the wangs and of course wang lin, despite being his brother in law, cannot possibly stand by and watch that happen.)

another difference between tywin and wang lin is that whereas i feel confident calling WL a morally grey antagonist, tywin is a cold, calculating, loveless hardass™️ antagonist and graduated from Big Bad Guy University. that man only truly cared for joanna and i doubt he cared for anyone else. one could argue for his affections towards his children, but tywin didn't love or care for them at all in my opinion.

in regards to jaime, i think tywin loves what jaime represents and what he represents his the heir to casterly rock. his golden child. his future; his legacy. he loves what jaime could accomplish, what jaime could achieve; he loves what jaime could be (the future lord of casterly rock and warden of the west) but not what he is (an infatuated, impulsive kingsguard who has no desire to play the game). i think tywin's "favourite" child is most definitely cersei as she's the most accomplished out of all his children; the most powerful woman (and at times, most powerful person) in the seven kingdoms, mother to the future king and a lioness through and through. she definitely inherited tywin's traits the most, but her downfall is her madness (probably due to inbreeding or maybe she was bonked as a child idk) and, again, her recklessness and impulsivity are what disappoint tywin; cersei believes she can play the game, but she cannot. also, misogyny.

then there's tyrion. good god, where to begin. even though tywin is an intelligent man, he blames the death of his wife on tyrion who was an infant when his mother passed. he blames tyrion not because it was his fault (after all, it is logistically impossible for a newborn infant to kill a grown woman), but because he needs something to blame. for the most part, tywin is a logical man and only behaves illogically when he's emotional. his hatred of tyrion is a purely emotional one (though the man doesn't make himself any better by drinking and whoring so i'll give tywin some leeway there) and i think, to tywin, that tyrion is the antithesis of everything a lannister should be.

tywin only cares for his children when it suits him. he tries to get tyrion back from catelyn because if he doesn't, he will appear incompetent. he does the same with jaime for the same reasons (and because he needs his heir). he cares for cersei because it is in his best interest to do so, as she is the queen. if tywin truly loved his children, he would have clocked onto jaime/cersei's ways sooner. he would have found a way to quell cersei's madness and cruelty (or at least help her mask it better). hell, he would have remarried! tywin was only in his thirties when joanna died and i am positive of the fact that hundreds of lords and noblemen would have jumped at the chance for their daughters, sisters, nieces etc. to wed the lord paramount of the westerlands. if he truly wished to further his legacy, he should have just had more kids!

sorry, this has kinda devolved into me criticising tywin as an antagonist rather than comparing him to wang lin so compare i shall! tywin, firstly, is a terrible judge of character; the best example of this is him misjudging tyrion and thinking that the man wouldn't kill him for whatever fucking reason. in contrast, wang lin makes the astute observation (though it is moreso a jab at wang su than a compliment to his daughter) that she has a curiousity that could rival any man, or something along those lines. for the most part, wang lin is on the money for many characters in the story. the only person he misjudges is xiao qi, which he later admits.

a similarity between WL and TL is the fact that they both believe themselves to be acting in the best interests of their families (though i feel WL is a little bit more sincere, at least initially.) the reality of this, however, is that their goals are selfish and the only thing they seek to further/elevate is themselves. this, coupled with their hubris and the under-estimating of their enemies (who, arguably, needn't have been enemies in the first place), is what leads to their downfalls.

honestly, this was very disorganised and muddled and had no clear direction but i just needed to rant about how alike their characters are and for somebody - ANYBODY - to agree with/discuss this with me!

[xiaolanhua]

Zhang Zi Yi as A'Wu The Rebel Princess 上阳赋 (2021)

[dramagifs]

Thank you for tagging me @gege!

rules: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!

I don't know who has already done this but I'll tagged everyone who comes across this and wants to do it :))))

[dramaddict-and-proud-of-it]

The rebel princess

Year : 2021 | Country : CN | Nb of episodes: 68

My rate: 9/10

Synopsis :

Wang Xuan and Xiao Qi strike a deal for the sake of power. They marry before falling in love and join hands to protect their homeland. She is a woman who is no less than any man while he rose from humble beginnings.

The imperial family has become rotten to the core. The nobles are lavish with no regard for the people. Princess Wang Xuan and her childhood sweetheart, the third prince, become pawns of a prophecy that states, "To acquire thee is to obtain the world." Being pulled into the court matters, Wang Xuan is married off by her father to Xiao Qi, who comes from a poor family.

On their wedding night, Xiao Qi is forced to leave the capital. Wang Xuan is shamed and discouraged. The Helan Prince kidnaps Wang Xuan in order to seek revenge on Xiao Qi. The crisis they face becomes a blessing in disguise for the couple. Wang Xuan is moved and inspired by Xiao Qi's wish to bring peace and prosperity to the nation, and they fall in love.

However, circumstances threaten to destroy them. The Wang and Xie clans are fighting for power, the Empress Dowager schemes to separate husband and wife, the military has committed treason while the Helan clan has raised their flags in rebellion. Wang Xuan puts her life on the line to escort the third prince to safety. She leads an army of men to defend the last stronghold, hoping that Xiao Qi can arrive in time with reinforcements...

Main cast :

Zhang Zi Yi as Wang Xuan/ A'Wu

Zhou Yi Wei as Xiao Qi

Tony Yang as Ma Zi Dan

My thoughts on this drama :

I had not seen Zhang Zi Yi in any show since Memories of a Geisha. She's is another league, acting-wise. This show is a masterpiece. We're here in a pure historical and political drama. There is one huge difference with other dramas of the genre: the cast is not composed of young actors. We have rugged men, older women, but all of them are amazing. The story is thrilling and engaging. I saw a lot of criticism regarding Zhang Zi Yi playing a teenage girl at the beginning of the story: I beg to differ. She is totally believable in spite of her actual age.

The cast gave us a stella performance, and the OST is to die for too!

A Favorite ?

YES

[screaming-at-the-tv]

A'Wu and Xiao Qi are the most power couple that ever coupled.

[drrav3nb]

Xiao Qi & Awu + playfulness

[smylealong]

Losing Inhibitions

I have been wanting to do a "Drunk A'Wu shittalking Zitan". Orsuliya did her version, this is mine. Warning, this is completely OUT OF CHARACTER. F'Bombs flying left, right and center. So, proceed with caution and at your discretion. ETA: Forgot to add @orsuliya's version. Added it now.

Scene: After the battle of Huizhou, and Zitan's drunken confrontation of Xiao Qi, A'Wu and Yu Xiu are getting drunk out of their mind. Outside, Xiao Qi and his four puppies are listening.

______

"That fucking asshole!"

Outside, Xiao Qi raised his brows and exchanged a confused glance with Hu Yao. Who was his wife so mad at? He had never heard A'Wu this angry.

"Thinks I owe him love? LOVE? What the fuck? I fucking stood waiting for him in rain for five fucking hours and that fucker! He couldn't be arsed to get off his royal behind and fucker has the temerity to blame me! Fuck that noise!"

Tang Jin's undignified snort almost cracked Xiao Qi's composure. Almost. But he managed to hold his own laughter back. It wouldn't do to laugh at a prince.

"Then, in the middle of a fucking war... he has the absolute fucking balls to ask me, IN FRONT OF INJURED PEOPLE, to elope with his sorry ass?"

Xiao Qi turned to Huai'en and mouthed, he did that??

Huai'en's eyeroll said everything.

"Like fucker... look around! There is a bloody war! And you are their fucking Prince!! Fucking fuck!"

Okay... this was getting tough. How was he supposed to hold in his laughter if she continued this way? It did not help that Hu Yao and Tang Jin were pointedly looking everywhere but at each other with poorly concealed mirth on their faces.

"And how fucking convenient for him to simply... totally forget the tiny absolutely minuscule little detail that I.AM.MARRIED!"

At Guang Lie's snort, Xiao Qi turned to shoot a warning glare at the man, only to realize the pointlessness of the action. Guang Lie was clutching on to Huai'en as though his life depended on it, while the latter had his face scrunched in a valiant effort to contain his guffaw.

"My husband would shove his sword so far up your ass you wouldn't be able to poop for months!"

That comment did it. Xiao Qi's laughter was threatening to bubble over now. He had to stuff a fist to his mouth to stay quiet. Beside him, Hu Yao was doubled over, clutching her hands across her stomach. Tang Jin had his face hidden in his gigantic hands, his entire form trembling from the effort to stay quiet and if Guang Lie and Huai'en grabbed each other any tighter, one of them was going to break a bone.

"And... then... he has the balls... the absolute fucking balls to go to Xiao Qi and fucking challenge him? Asshole, forget Xiao Qi, you wouldn't be able to fight even a foot soldier from Ningshuo! And Xiao Qi? You wanna go to Xiao Qi? You will have not one, not two but four... four goddamn generals to get through. And any one of them would fucking destroy you, you confetti prince!"

At that, Xiao Qi lost his battle and the snort he had been holding back escaped his lips. As one, all four of his generals took off running. Even though they had locked themselves in a room some distance away, Xiao Qi could still hear the howls of their laughter. Chortling to himself, Xiao Qi walked away.

[stellarflex]

[jashne-bahaaraa]

you know you're doing smth wromg when the evil ass villain calls you sick lol

[carmelide]

i know it makes sense for their characters or whatever and that i should just be glad that monarch industry had a happy ending but the fact that wang xuan and xiao qi don't become emperor and empress at the end reallllyyyy pisses me off 😭

[xiaolanhua]

top 5 kdrama ships and top5 cdrama ships

hi Anny, thanks for the ask <3

top 5 kdrama ships:

Sung Deok Mi and Ryan Gold (Her Private Life)

Ha Moon Soo and Lee Kang Doo (Just Between Lovers)

Kim Bok Joo and Jung Joon Hyeong (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo)

Han Seo Woo and Moon Ha Won (A Piece of Your Mind)

Park Joong Gil and Koo Ryeon (Tomorrow)

top 5 cdrama ships:

Xiao Lanhua and Dongfang Qingcang (Love Between Fairy and Devil)

A'Wu and Xiao Qi (The Rebel Princess)

Jiang Jun and Yuan Shuai (Love is Sweet)

Xu Hong Dou and Xie Zhi Yao (Meet Yourself)

Zhao Pan'er and Gu Qian Fan (A Dream of Splendor)

[thefeastandthefast]

The Rebel Princess episode 8 spoilers

Zhang Ziyi, my queen! Episode 8 is a glorious showcase of her signature barely suppressed rage face, the first appearance of which is making me so damn giddy! THIS is what I’ve been most excited for.

A’wu is so deeply furious throughout this miserable wedding ceremony (with shades of Isabelle Adjani in the wedding scene of La Reine Margot) and then she delivers this incredible monologue dripping with scorn looking untouchable and impossibly beautiful and then she tosses her hairpin with so much cold contempt and now I’m deceased and typing from six feet under. Finger and toes crossed for many more moments of icy rhetorical brilliance. 

And amidst all this hostility- that lingering, longing look on the General’s face (I know his name is Xiao Qi but he is SUCH a General) as she turns and stalks off after the ceremony! Goodness fucking gracious. 

I ALSO love that he’s wearing his armor hidden underneath his gorgeous wedding robes, just in case this becomes some kind of Red Wedding situation. Gotta applaud a man who’s prepared.

[awu-wangxuan]

"only my death will protect jing'er. a'wu, i was wrong to you in the past. don't blame me. please take good care of jing'er for me from now on. teach him how to speak and write for me. have him stay far away from state affairs. it's fine if he's a mediocre person, as long as he lives well. [...] this is probably karma. i committed quite a few bad deeds. i've schemed here and there. they have finally caught up with me. however, i never thought you would be protecting my jing'er this whole time. i only hope that heavens will punish only me and won't give my jing'er a hard time. [...] a'wu, i trust only you. i can entrust jing'er to only you. starting from today, you are jing'er's mother. [...] jing'er will repay you on my behalf"

empress wang - the rebel princess | episode 52

[screaming-at-the-tv]

Also that scene where A'Wu encourages her older brother for the flooding job brought me to tears 😭

[orsuliya]

A drunk A'Wu shittalking Zitan

Cao Jie, usually a perfect example of womanly decorum, giggled uncontrollably over her spilled cup as Princess Yuzhang raised hers in preparation for the next part of her high-spirited soliloquy. The Princess could get terribly melancholic, astonishingly dirty-minded and mischievious or amusingly loquacious while drunk, depending on the liquor of choice. And since they had unanimously voted for having some prime plum wine and nothing but, they were in for some pretty entertaining ramblings.

Which made for a great letup after telling her own tale of disappointed love. Cao Jie loved Mou Lian with all her heart, but sometimes she wondered if she would have appreciated him quite this much if she hadn't had a lucky escape from her erstwhile fiance, a grasping brute of considerable charm and no moral fortitude whatsoever. That said, even that sorry excuse for a human being couldn't come close to His Former Imperial Majesty Ma Zitan. Neither in sheer viciousness nor in how pathetic he ultimately turned out to be. Cao Jie shook herself from a sudden bout of fugue, tuning back into Princess Yuzhang's increasingly angry monologue.

"So there I was, clutching a box of golden leaf and already planning out how I would use it to furnish our little cottage in the countryside, more fool me, since, imagine, the Imperial Mausoleum was apparently not good enough for his royal, heh, dignity and that place is basically a palace, If a quaint one..."

Well, it couldn't have gotten any more comfortable after getting buried under a rockslide. Cao Jie wondered if His Former Imperial Majesty took that little fact into account when choosing the place of his exile. Personally, she hoped he got a nasty suprise upon arrival. A bed full of rocks seemed a fitting fate for a snake this treacherous. To start with.

"...and in the other hand I was holding his stupid jade hairpin, a touching memento of his eternal love, which he later had the temerity to offer me for the second time in Huizhou. Right after telling me that standing in the freezing rain for five hours was not enough, I should have waited there for five more..."

Punctuality was clearly something that Princess Yuzhang held to be quite important in a man. As an officer's wife and daughter Cao Jie couldn't help but agree. And truly, if anybody had the right to expect more from a man, it was Princess Yuzhang. After all, Prince Yuzhang was known for his amazingly timely rescues, both of his wife or his country. There were entire songs about that, if Mou Lian was to be believed. And he usually was, that unfailingly reliable, steadfast, foolish husband of hers. And pretty, Mou Lian was oh so very pretty...

"And then that son of a bitch..." Princess Yuzhang stopped in the middle of the sentence, as if puzzling something out. "Although no, that would be Zilong, taking into account my late Aunt's truly exemplary character... Then he actually had the temerity not to come until after dawn, leaving me all wet and shivering all night long!"

It was just too perfect an opening not to say something and so four female heads snapped up as one. It was just a question of who would come up with a snappy comeback first, the task made rather hard by the sheer quantity of consumed alcohol. But as always, Princess Yuzhang ruled supreme, raising her finger high in a threatening gesture.

"And not, mind you," she enunciated clearly, each word another rock in the rockslide burying His Former Imperial Majesty deeper in the muck. "Not in the way other, more worthy individuals might have."

[smylealong]

The Tragedy of Song Huai'en

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a Liu Duan Duan fangirl. Unapologetically so. This is a spoiler filled post, so reader discretion is advised. (Written with some inputs from @terribleteej)

When we first meet Song Huai’en, we don’t see him. The focus is fully on Xiao Qi (a brilliant Zhou Ye Wei), like it should be, because he is the male lead. And this was his introduction scene. I, of course noticed him because I started this show forLiu Duan Duan. At this point, he is just a background figure – standing half a step behind Xiao Qi, a lieutenant bellowing his General’s orders.

When we next meet him, we learn that he is Xiao Qi’s right-hand man. Walking behind him, following his orders, fiercely loyal and protective of his General.

Decked in all black, he lurks in the shadows. In fact, he is Xiao Qi’s shadow – something that both becomes the cause of his meteoric rise and terrible downfall. But more on that later.

As the episodes go, we see him as this loveable dork, who likes to playfully banter with his friends. We see him gently tease Xiao Qi, and sportingly let people tease him. One cannot help but love this sweet man. The fact that he looks super pretty is just a bonus. But up until this point, he is, as the poster would have us believe, a side character.

In fact, based on that poster, I assumed that Zitan was the second lead. Huai’en did not even feature much during A’Wu’s abduction and subsequent rescue. A brief, flash in the pan appearance follows when A’Wu and Xiao Qi are attacked, but here, we do see that this man can be very intimidating, something that comes to play later.

However, a discerning viewer might notice that in the small appearances that the character is making, his eyes seem to be trailing A’Wu. He is very quietly crushing on her and at this juncture of the show, we cannot really blame him. A’Wu is stunning and as a young man, he was attracted. Understandable and even innocent.

It is only when we get to Huizhou that we see Song Huai’en in his element. He is leading the army, defending the city, working with A’Wu, Pang Gui, and Mou Lian to make sure that Huishou does not fall. This is the brave General who shines like a bright star, earning A’Wu’s trust and respect, and Yu Xiu’s undying devotion in the process.

At this point in the series, to the viewers at least, Huai’en’s crush on A’Wu becomes obvious in the little queries, the shy smiles, and the feeble excuses to see her. Before he can introspect on his reasons for wanting to see A’Wu, Ma Zi Lu goes tyrannical and Huai’en has to put aside his personal jumble of feelings to focus on the chaos that Zi Lu has unleashed. In trying to do so, he is tortured, believes that he failed in doing the task that A’Wu assigned him and in doing so, falls in his own eyes. One thing that I would like to point out is that here is where he also sustains a significant injury to his head.

Why am I talking about this scene? I mean, it was just whumping, and Pang Gui got massively whumped, so why the focus on Huai’en’s whump? Because unlike Pan Gui, Huai’en suffered a cranial injury. An injury to the head is not something to be brushed off easily. Even a tiny clot in the brain can change a person drastically. And Huai’en does change. He pretty much splits into two – Song Huai’en and Su Yi Bo. I believe that some of it was his inherent fragility, exacerbated by an injury to head that was never addressed. He comes back, all guns blazing, and shoots his arrow to put an end to Ma Zi Lu’s reign of terror.

The chaos reined in, he settles back to his comfortable familiarity and all seems normal. However, with Xiao Qi’s presence at the Yuzhang Manor, things are not what they were before. Huia’en too, is no longer who he was before. The cracks are hairline at this point, so no one notices it. But change is there. He starts to pull back from Xiao Qi and by extension, A’Wu.

On some level, he too understands that his desire for A’Wu is not right, so he holds himself back. The scene below is a perfect example of it.

He comes in with medicines and a plant. A plant that A’Wu had asked him to take care of. Clearly, he wanted to show her that he did what she had asked him to do, but then, when A-Xue jumps to the conclusion that the plant was for Yu Xiu, like the medicines, Huai’en quietly surrenders, knowing that it would be improper for him to harbor any kind of feelings for A’Wu. A theme we see repeated in his terrified reaction to his dream.

Granted it happened after Xiao Qi called him out on his frequent visits to A’Wu, but here is a man who understands he’s crossed a line he shouldn’t have. This is a critical juncture for his character. This is where we first realize that not everything is copacetic with Song Huai’en. Suddenly, his little rueful dialogues early on about Xiao Qi selling away his material possessions take whole different meaning. This is where we learn that this brave soldier from a humble background is dazzled by the material possessions and wealth that is in abundance in the capital. This is where we see that Huai’en is not a mini-Xiao Qi. That in comparison to Xiao Qi, he fails.

Here, I would like to call attention to Xiao Qi’s personality. Xiao Qi is, simply put, larger than life. He is a brilliant General, a loving husband, an adept politician, with iron control on his desires. In some ways, he practically has no vices. If he has a flaw, it is that he is perhaps a tad too patient. What I’m getting at here is that Xiao Qi is like a saint. He is a standard that is almost impossible to achieve.

Huai’en, being his shadow and arguably his best friend, understands that. He is keenlyaware that he is not Xiao Qi and as people start comparing him, his bravery, and his valor to Xiao Qi, it begins to grate on him. If you have ever had a sibling who outshines you in every aspect, you would understand how that slowly chips away at your confidence. All your merits are recognized, but they are perennially the lesser than that of the golden child. This is the crux of Huai’en’s problems. He is eternally the second best.

Wang Lin later states that Huai’en has an inferiority complex, and he is absolutely right. At this stage, Huai’en begins to realize just how wide the chasm that separates him, and Xiao Qi is. And that starts eating at him. The laughing, joking, shy Huai’en slowly starts to retreat into his shell. Both as a scared reaction and as a punishment to himself, he latches on to Yu Xiu.

Why Yu Xiu, though, one might ask. To some, it may look like him trapping her in a loveless marriage. I, however, saw it as him deciding to do the right thing and step away from A’Wu. It was also a bit of if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you are with. He chose a woman he liked enough to give himself a chance to love someone else other than the one forbidden to him.

And love her, he does. But if you are looking for the extravagant flair and loud actions declaring his love, like Xiao Qi does for A’Wu (the second marriage, for example), you won’t find it. Why? Because the entire arc of Song Huai’en is that he is not Xiao Qi.

With A'Wu and Xiao Qi, they have the same love language. But as someone who's been married for 13+ years, I can say that is rare. Most cases, the love languages of couples are different and it takes some time for each to fully understand the language the other is speaking. Time that the two did not get. Yu Xiu never hid her feelings for him. She was upfront with it. So, what was the language that Song Huai’en speaking?

Yu Xiu says he treats her well. Gives her gifts, medicines, clothes, jewelry. Having grown up poor and struggling, money is a big deal to Song Huai’en. Every human being shows their love to their partners with the one thing about themselves that they value the most. For some, it’s food. Some singing. Huai’en is a battle-hardened killer. That’s what he is good at. That can’t be the language of love. So, what else can he do? He showers her with gifts. That is his love language. Yu Xiu wanted more, but Huai’en is not one for big declarations.

Carrying her in his arms is the biggest declaration he would ever make. His love shows in the softness of the tone that he speaks to her in. His love shows in his reaction to her tears. In the soft smiles he gives her. In his horrified reaction when he sees her at the city gates. The battle-hardened Duke is suddenly reduced to a terrified, trembling man. He tells her to go away, repeatedly.

Huai’en is not Zitan. He is not delusional. He knows that there’s a good chance that he would end up dead or worse. He did not want Yu Xiu to witness that. As their conversation proceeds, you see his heart breaking in his eyes.

(Man, Liu Duan Duan spoke VOLUMES through his eyes. Somebody give this man an award already!). And then, he shoots an arrow at her. Only, it misses her. Or does it? An archer of Song Huai’en’s caliber would never miss a shot that easy. This was his way of scaring her into going away, because Yu Xiu was not listening to his words. This was also his way of trying to show the world that she was not his weakness. Only, this backfires and Yu Xiu, in a desperate attempt to make him see reason, jumps from there. The moment she fell, Song Huai’en broke. Shattered.

But he did not weep. Did not seem to mourn her loss. He just moved on. Because, again, Song Huai’en is not one to show big emotions. Not so publicly. Look at his eyes instead. Listen to his gasp of horror and pain. If he had lived through the coup, Huai’en would have mourned Yu Xiu in solitude. But not while thousands of eyes were on him.

But what of the scene where he pushes Yu Xiu and orders her to stay home? He did try to be gentle. He did try, as lovingly as he could, to tell her to stay away from it, but she refused. She dug her heels in. And with so many people watching, and the clock ticking, he snapped. We have all said and done things to the people we love that we should not have. That’s human. I will not crucify him for this one event.

An argument can be made against my theory of him not willing to show his pain in public – that he wept in that carriage with Wang Su when he learned of the Empress Dowager wanting to kill him and the news of Xiao Qi’s death reached him. Yes, he cried. He cried because with Wang Su, was private and safe to show the emotions. (He didn’t know of the assassins waiting outside). Something that the city gates most certainly were not. At the city gate, he lets the soldier in him take over. But in the carriage, he is still Song Huai’en.

Which brings me to Wang Su and by extension Wang Lin. Wang Lin, being the snake that he is, tells Huai’en exactly what he wants to hear. Wang Lin is a master manipulator; he’s made his entire career out of being the devil on people’s shoulders. Huai’en was just not equipped to shut out that insidious voice. It had been previously established that Huai’en did not understand court politics as well as Xiao Qi did, so the puppet did not see the strings till it was very late.

Wang Lin, however, for all his tricks, forgot a crucial thing. That Song Huai’en is a Ningshou General. The army that has, on more than one occasion, changed the course of history with their blades. And that Huai’en is a soldier through and through. Something Wang Lin should have realized with Maidservant Xu’s stabbing, but he didn’t. He missed just how easy it is for Huai’en to switch from a human to a killing machine. He did not realize that it was Su Yi Bo that he was talking to when he told Huai’en that he could not let Xu Gu Gu see him. When she does see him, he instantly goes into the soldier following orders mode. It was a crucial bit that Wang Lin missed. It was a mistake that ultimately cost him his life.

That cold blooded killer is the one that resurfaces with the killing of Hu Yao. Yet again, I have seen people rage at him for killing her and yes, it was not pleasant to see, but guess what? They were at war. They were both fulfilling the role of a soldier. One died, one moved on. It hurt him to watch his comrade fall under his own blade, you can see it on his face, but the soldier marched on.

By now, Su Yi Bo, the Edward Hyde to Song Huai’en’s Henry Jekyll, is fighting Huai’en for control. He’s at war, both inside and out. But he still doesn’t show it. He puts his game face on and goes on to fulfill the one dream that both the viewers and Huai’en himself have nurtured for a very long time – he flings Zitan out of the throne. (Man, that was glorious!). Allows Wang Lin to sit on it, only to stab him in the back, both literally and metaphorically.

When Wang Lin turned his back on Huai'en, the real soldier --a General of NIngzhou-- stepped out and killed the opposition leader, and thus did as he has been trained to do all his life. Fight and conquer and take from the enemy. He knewWang Lin was the enemy in the end and he rose to the surface long enough to do what he has been trained to do all his life. But immediately after that, Su Yi Bo takes over.

And then, and only then, does he speak of his real feelings. Feelings that he has buried deep in his heart. Feelings of inadequacy and neglect. Feelings of being the second best. The silent fight he fought all his life. The one thing he wanted to do – get out of Xiao Qi’s shadow. That was his motivating factor. By this point, his proposition to A’Wu is more of a snub to Xiao Qi than a love declaration for A’Wu. He knows very well she would not accept him. And at this point, he no longer cares. He is broken beyond repair. He is unstable, switching between Song Huai’en and Su Yi Bo.

Song Huai’en is the one that killed Wang Lin and threw Zitan away. Su Yi Bo is the one that killed Hu Yao and propositioned A’Wu. Su Yi Bo is the one who gets shot by the arrow, but Huai’en is the one that pleads with Xiao Qi to take him back to Ningshou with his dying breath. And then, Xiao weeps.

Xiao Qi weeps at the loss of his best friend. His brother. Arguably the one he loved the most after A’Wu. Xiao Qi is the first to see the crack in Huai’en. Upon discovering the evidence of pilfering, Xiao Qi hopes that his veiled insinuation and gentle nudges will put Huai’en in the right path and for a time, it does. But then, the Empress Dowager pulls them apart by sending Huai’en as flood relief. By the time Xiao Qi meets Huai’en again, he is aware of what the court is doing. By then, Xiao Qi has already been framed for Zilong’s murder, has lost a chunk of his soldiers and has been labeled a traitor.

When Huai’en and Xiao Qi meet at the gate, Wang Lin’s claws are already deep into Huai’en. When Xiao Qi addresses him as Su Yi Bo, he has already realized that his best friend and brother is lost. Cracked. Xiao Qi mourns the loss of his trusted General and yet, holds on to the hope that Huai’en will pull through. But as a more than a month passes and Huai’en doesn’t come to visit them, Xiao Qi has to accept that things will never go back to being the way they were.

Yet, it is Xiao Qi’s love for his brother-in-arms that makes him adopt Huai’en and Yu Xiu’s son. It is of note that Huai’en did not name his son. It may not the sign of neglect that it is perceived to be. I know that in some parts of the world, there was a custom to not give a baby a name for he first six months of its life for the simple reason that infant mortality was very high. Once the baby was relatively safe, the parents would name them. I don’t know if this was a thing in ancient China, but it might be. By the time the child became old enough to be named, Huai’en is already splitting, being pulled in a hundred different directions. He never got a chance because of the Roaring Tornado of chaos in the capital that kept him too busy to be able to focus on his home. He did not name his child. He should have, but he didn’t.

He was undoubtedly the most tragic character in the end. He broke and he did some things that are very hard to forgive, but those were done in the throes of insanity. Not bitter hatefulness. Zitan was hateful, Zi Lu was hateful. Wang Lin was consumed with hate. Wanru and Jin’er fed the hate in their heart, enjoyed it even. The Empress Dowager hated the whole world. Huai’en, however, was just tragic.

At the end of the day, I guess what I’m saying is that Song Huai’en is not a villain. He is human. A fallible, flawed, foolish one, but human, nonetheless. Conflicted, controlled, corrupted, confused, cracked, and compromised. And he is not, as the poster would have us believe, a support character. He was the second lead of this story and that is a hill I will plant my stake on.