#n:ef

"We may be seperated from now on, but whenever I think of you, my heart will be free." - Novoland: Eagle Flag.

"I'm not here to save you, I'm here to love you." - Global Examination.

Asule finally sees Ji Ye again... only to find him kill someone. Shit. When he confronts Ji Ye after he killed Sun Zhimiao, Ji Ye tells Asule that Sun Zhimiao deserves to die – but doesn’t add anything else. After shaking his head minimally Asule tells him: “There has to be a misunderstanding. You wouldn’t kill innocent people. Come with me.”

Asule doesn’t say implicitly that he believes Sun Zhimiao to be innocent, thus he could've also meant that Sun Zhimiao might actually have been guilty. But the wording makes it sound as if Asule believes Sun Zhimiao is innocent, even after Ji Ye’s statement, and that maybe Ji Ye was manipulated into killing an innocent. Thus, Ji Ye’s reaction is very understandable.

Also, I believe Asule’s first instinct is to help Ji Ye. He wants to get Ji Ye away first, and then find out all about what went wrong leading to that murder – he certainly would have believed Ji Ye, if he had told him then. And then he would have planned with Ji Ye how to help him out of that situation, cause after the scene he caused, it’s obvious, Jie Ye’d be punished by authorities. Then Ying Yu appears and I feel as if Asule realizes Ji Ye already has backer, through which the imperial family can’t touch him and that he is (at least in that sense) safe. Also awwwwww, the way Asule shields Ji Ye after the emperor and his entourage arrive.

Letting Ji Ye go with her after he killed Sun Zhimiao is also how Ying Yu ‘saves’ Ji Ye’s life and why he later believes he needs to fulfil the three tasks of her (even though she is the one who not only tortured him, but also orchestrated the whole murder, putting him into that situation in the first place. Ugh!)

In the scroll Asule has been given by the Celestial Ministry, could its content maybe describe that he’d need to die and be revived so that nothing would happen? It would explain, why after his revival his illness never played a role again. And if so, there's a possibility that all of Asule’s ancestors with the Bronze Blood had a deal with the Celestial Ministry to keep living. Could that be why his grandfather kept on living instead of dying young, even after using the godlike power until he went mad?

Baili Jinghong tells Asule that he actually likes Yu Ran and I believe that this is true and also part of the reason Asule shows a moment of cowardice in the cells and doesn’t tell Ji Ye about the marriage between him and Yu Ran. But I think at that time Asule himself can’t yet really differentiate between romantic and platonic love, because after killing Longge Qin he shifted the feelings he had for her onto others until Lei Beicheng makes him remember that repressed memory – first Suma, until he realizes that it was codependence and then Yu Ran, maybe. And I also think he doesn’t want Ji Ye to hate him like he tells Yu Ran afterwards.

When Asule tells Yu Ran that without Ji Ye he wouldn’t even have the right to marry her, I feel he means her content to marry him (even if that content is forced through the situation), because otherwise he’d never do it.

In terms of Asule & Yu Ran believing that Ji Ye was sent to the border as a soldier --> even if they didn’t believe it and asked for example Xi Yan (I doubt Asule would want to involve him, but Yu Ran maybe), it would still be hard to get the information they want with them being under suspicion and supervision.

Gong Yu Yi and Yu Ran talking shows to me why Baili Jinghong would believe that marrying Yu Ran and Asule could still benefit him, even if there is no blood relation. Because there is a deep familiar bond between Gong Yu Yi and Yu Ran and Gong Yu Yi stands steadfast at Baili Jinghong’s side.

When Yi Tian Zhan shows Xi Yan his armoured arm and says it was left by his ancestors, bestowed by the late emperor and that it’s also a spirit-sealed weapon, my head cannon is: Even if he is of the Winged Tribe one of his ancestors was an Eagle and that’s how he also inherited his mindset (how he was inspired by the Eagle Flag as he says in EP 43) and wanted to convince the Winged Emperor to not be a tyrant. But he only got the weapon after having been banned and gone to East Land and not too long after the disaster in his homeland happened.

Baili Yin takes Yu Ran with him to the cave because he wants to settle the score between himself, Asule and Ji Ye. Also in the vision that shown him in regard to his father’s death, the grandfather of Ji Ye attacked Baili Yin’s father, thus he recognized the spear, which made him want to kill Ji Ye even more. He didn’t care if Yu Ran got hurt in the process (the price she would have to pay for being friends with his enemies). Also, he needed someone the stone guards would focus on, while he could approach the sword (which hadn’t yet awakened when he stepped towards it) without worry.

Then when he accused all of them of having the weapons of the Tianqi, it was in his madness of the Azure Cloud Tooth Sword and the feelings of his late father, seeing in them (or rather in Ji Ye’s spear) what his father had seen in the comrades that later betrayed him. Cause Yu Ran certainly didn’t have a weapon of the Eagles. Then again it would be interesting if he meant Ji Ye and Asule (the souls of the Azure Cloud Tooth Sword making him recognize the sabre and spear) – thus the sabre, Asule inherited thanks to his grandfather might have been a weapon of an Eagle, who had either married into the Northern Tribe or who had been killed by them and his weapon had been taken. The reason Yu Ran can’t escape Baili Jin’s grasp even though he is gravely injured is because he once again got rid of the pain by the sorcery of the Celestial Ministry – if he didn’t even already get healed by Lei Bi Cheng. And Baili Jin was a trained soldier while Yu Ran, while being very fast and full of tricks didn’t have the strength needed to break free.

You Changji survived the attack of his former Eagles but was wounded so badly that death was certain. In this state the sword no longer recognized him as its master and started to devour anyone too close to it (Eagles who followed You Changji into the Baili Ancenstral Grave).  In the Ancestral Grave he used his remaining power to seal himself and the sword (see Ep 8, 4:07)

Xi Yan actually throws the ring of You Changji, of the Eagle Flag leader into a river. Thus Asule’s ring, the new ring of the Eagle’s Leader is the one of his foster dad.

I don't think the ring of Asule's foster dad was ever a fingercot of the Eagles before, because they look different:

The foster dad's ring has a part standing up and it’s thinner than the fingercot. But I can't help but find this idea interesting~~~

Btw I'm calling the 'Heavenly Samurai' Eagles and their Order Eagle Flag. First read it in one of @dangermousie's posts...