random thoughts about new life begins circa ep 14
this show is so pleasurable. i tend not to be a romcom type person, but i just love the construction and setup of the show so much. it puts patriarchy in the smack dab middle of everything so nicely while keeping it light
i really liked how ep 14 had fifth prince and shangguan jing conduct essentially the same conversation as yin zheng and li wei conduct later on, where each prince says he is resigned to the fucked-up-ness of the royal family -- being bullied, suppressed, overlooked by their parents and older brothers -- while shangguan jin and li wei both point out that one should never simply say it's alright, especially not from one's own family
i also really like the way the show is going with growing all its young characters. yin zheng has to learn to really fight for the throne, not simply trying to be the best student to catch dad's attention. li wei has to gain some polish and managerial competence. yuanying needs to learn social management and how to work with others. fifth prince needs to, you know, mature. and 3rd prince needs to learn to care about governance and less about his ego (slow going for this one)
it's more clear than ever that the show is saying that the only faults that can't be worked around or grown out of are being cruel and being oppressive. yin zheng's emergent odd-numbered prince faction (3rd prince, 5th prince, 7th prince, 9th prince, and 11th prince!!) counts among the faults displayed by its members cowardice, avariciousness, wastefulness, lustfulness, braggadacio, vanity, ignorance, stupidity, and baked-in sexism. but cruelty, enjoying the oppression of others... these faults belong only to second prince and fourth prince
anyways i was thinking more about end game, and i feel like, all the sort of pie-in-the-sky ideas are actually maybe being built up? like:
* 5th prince moves to daichuan to be a matrilocal husband to shangguan jing
* yuanying goes back to jinchuan and becomes queen there
* hao jia gets free from 2nd prince and... 'becomes her own boss' ... which i think means she opens her own business?
and of course,
* yin zheng becomes the true successor to the throne, raises li wei to legitimate wife, and ends the xinchuan wife selection from other regions. (i think banning concubinage would also be amazing for the show to try for but i feel it's possibly too big a leap even under the nice fanciful show logic. possibly jinchuan might change its customs under yuanying?)
on that note, it's completely unclear to me whether the emperor is already thinking about sixth prince in light of promoting him to be crown prince, or if he was being honest with the empress in saying he wants sixth prince to be a capable right-hand man to second prince. regardless, i was glad we finally got a teensy bit of development of his character in this episode with his private conversations first with his head eunuch then with the empress
