My NiF/LYB sideblog, because… *sobs*

i love that nihuang did one of the single meanest things ever to mei changsu in the show (took him to lin manor) and then spent the rest of the show ready to throw hands with anyone who even looked at him funny. she went from sad to gleefully protecting her sickly bf in like five hot seconds. she was SO EXCITED to swoop in with her army to rescue him at the spring hunt and was ready to deck a prince in broad daylight for being mean to him. she showed up to the almost-rebellion meeting in full battle armor. xia jiang is lucky she was out of town when he arrested mcs because she would have shown up with all 100k of her troops and a wall of cannons (yes i know there weren't cannons yet i don't care she would have invented them if she needed to) and flattened the place. she would have tossed mcs over her horse and then dragged xia jiang through the streets behind it. rip to mcs's self-destructive plans, she doesn't have time for that shit. 'oh but the emperor would have had her killed for treason!' wrong. she is now the empress. good luck bitches

the weird schrödinger's emotion that is "that character death was narratively satisfying and emotionally impactful and ultimately the best way to handle their character arc" simultaneously with "noooo but I wanted them to live :( :( :("