Overall thoughts: "Great entertainment, storyline never got me anxious for the female lead since she is witty, out-spoken, and clever. The costume + headset designs and tone throughout the entire production is muted instead of the usual bright, vibrant colors."



Starting this post off with the opening theme. I love how it's unique in comparison to past historical dramas. A humming sequence that's surprisingly addicting and then dialogues from Chinese opera. I didn't know there were actual lyrics until the song was played during a sequence in the drama:

The SARFT is at it again. SARFT stands for State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, notorious for censoring content and setting strict criteria on productions churned out each year such as the limit on ancient dramas that can be aired on TV and strict auditing process on the scripts. This is the reason why many dramas opt to be aired online as a web series; I have a feeling the SARFT will eventually start regulating this channel.

The Story of Yanxi Palace has been faring pretty well until the most recent episode 58. Wei Ying Luo is informed by Fucha Fuheng that a new concubine has entered the palace and she is urged to return to the palace. Fuheng thinks there is something fishy with this new Shun Pin and believe she will cause the downfall of Qianlong.

Anyways, Wei Ying Luo visits Empress Ulanara and learns that the empress wants to cooperate in order to topple Shun Pin. Wei Ying Luo walks out and supposedly sees only the emperor's mesmerized expression. Then, in the next scene, she returns back to the Empress to accept her offer in cooperation.

A huge chunk has been cut out because viewers speculated that the government didn't want to encourage more tensions amongst the minority groups so they ask for those scenes to be cut out. What got cut out are the scenes with Shun Pin dressed in minority tribal clothing and her character has turned into the daughter of an imperial official.

On the other hand, Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, which is also airing simultaneously, also had to be censored. The government wasn't too happy that the script was "twisting" history by flipping the personality of the Empress and Concubine Ling (aka Wei Ying Luo in Yanxi). Therefore, 令妃 became 炩妃, the sound for Ling is the same but it's a different character. As the drama progresses, I am almost certain that there will be more obvious changes made to pacify the SARFT.


My Thoughts on the Ending:
I think the ending is great as it is since it wrapped up almost all the stories completely by letting us viewers know what happened to each character, Empress Ulanara, Prince Heqing, eunuch Yuan Chun Wang, etc. There is no need for a sequel or second season.

Throughout the entire series, I was not aggravated one bit because I know in the end, Wei Ying Luo always has something up her sleeves. Sometimes, she is just going with the flow to catch the bigger fish, which happened a majority of the time. She let Yuan Chun Wang continue to wreak havoc and urges Prince Heqing to rebel since in the end, she hasn't forgotten that Prince Heqing, though not the murderer, was the one who raped her sister and directly led to her death. I also liked how she wasn't perfect, she didn't foresee Yuan Chun Wang's plan to kill her with the poisonous bugs.

I enjoy how some parts are subtle where viewers have to assume based on context clues.

Empress Dowager quickly shot up upon hearing Emperor wants to execute Yuan Chun Wang

1) Is Yuan Chun Wang as Aisin Gioro? Based on the reaction of the Empress Dowager, he is. But it would be a disgrace if people finds out that an Aisin Gioro is an eunuch.

That smile is scary, it looks like a sweet grandmother smile but it's a smile recalling what bad things she might have supposedly done in the past

2) Did Empress Dowager killed the emperor's birth mother? I think this is a yes. She is the victor of the imperial harem during Emperor Yongzheng's reign. The way she countered Empress Ulanara shows that she is still the boss of the imperial harem. There is a saying in Cantonese, 僵越老越辣, literally translated to gingers are spicier the older; this means: the older, the wiser.

3) Is Erqing's son the Emperor's? From a leaked script, it seems like the son is Fuheng's younger brother but those scenes were cut. It seems about right since it doesn't make sense to have such a useless character just standing around in the series and doing nothing if he didn't play a crucial part. He did but it never survived the scissors. Moreover, when the emperor asked Erqing, she denied because that was the truth; there was no need to lie at that point if all she wanted was to rise above others.

4) Did Prince Yongqi died from his injury? In history, he should have been dead 4 years ago, I am assuming it is around 1770 since Fuheng died this year on the battlefield. This would have been the perfect storyline to follow the history and let his character rest in peace. Funny thing is, Empress Ulanara should have died the same year the he died but both survived.

Scenes that were speculatively cut that would have added value:

Er Qing's final moment to shine before she exits

1. Ming Yu forcing the cup of poison into Erqing's mouth would have been a glorious scene to enjoy since Erqing became such a despicable character that she ruined Wei Ying Luo's life and directly caused Empress Fucha' suicide.

2. The affair between Erqing and Fuheng's younger brother would have cleared up some viewer's confusions.

3. Hearing how the servants described Imperial Consort Chun's death, the scene of her death would have been another treat since she did plot to kill Empress Fucha' son. But seeing the bloodied kite strings was sufficient enough to train our imagination and visualize how gruesome that scene would have been.



4. Almost more than half of Shun Pin' scenes have been reduced to pacify the censorship board. It would have been easier to follow if the editing wasn't so disoriented and choppy. The purpose of this character is to push the emperor and Ying Luo's character to a new stage in their relationship. It served its purpose but I believe her original character has so much content that it should have been given a chance to be told properly.

5. How did Wei Ying Luo kill Prince Heqing's mother? I heard this was purposely left out so viewers wouldn't replicate this at home. And I buy this because once upon a time, a pair of girls committed suicide hoping to time travel back, which happened after the airing of Scarlet Heart or Startling By Each Step. Of course, the government blamed time-travel elements in productions instead of putting blame on the strict parenting method. Thus, no more time-travel. I am not a fan of time-travel since I don't understand why the female lead have to be a modern-age girl in order to be smart and spunky. I am pretty sure there is at least one in a million that had thoughts of a modern-day woman even though it was not the norm back in history.

Some Behind The Scenes and Commentary Videos:

**If anyone is interested in the content, I can translate the videos**

I don't know why but Charmaine never stood out to me when she was filming for TVB. But through this series, I see her professionalism. This video shows how she speaks in Cantonese but ends every line in Mandarin so her coworker understands where they are up to in the scene:



In this one, actor Nie Yuan talks about how he makes Qianlong much more realistic by adding in traits of an ordinary person. For example, when he found out Empress Fucha was pregnant again, he hopped with joy even though we might think it wasn't something an Emperor would do. But in the end, the Emperor is human so it makes sense when he is genuinely joyful upon hearing good news. Or, when he wakes up to look for Wei Ying Luo without fixing his clothes. The script says he wakes up, fixes up his image, and looks for her.




A hilarious commenter:

Yu Zheng's (Produce Yumama) face photoshopped onto Wei Ying Luo's because he sent out a Weibo saying her character was written based on himself LOL okay ...

Fun Facts:

1. Wu Jinyan is a rising star, currently being managed under Yu Zheng's studio. She has two upcoming historical dramas; in one, she stars as the notorious Daji who was cruel and caused the downfall of the Shang dynasty, in the other, she plays the mother of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Actors Nie Yuan (Qianlong) and Xu Kai (Fuheng) will also time travel with Wu Jinyan in these dramas.

2. Imperial Consort Ling died at the age of 45 and was posthumously granted the title of empress personally by Qianlong. In the early 1900s, the Qing family's tombs were raided and records indicated that there was a body of a woman that showed no signs of rotting. Based on the age, it seemed like this body belonged to Imperial Consort Ling. I've did a quick Google Search, found nothing about this, but found an article about a well-preserved female body that was discovered and dates back to the Han dynasty. Lady Dai of Western Han

3. Historians have speculated the Fuheng' son Fuk'anggan is actually the emperor's illegitimate child predominantly because he is the only one in Qing history to have been granted a prince title without being an Aisin Gioro.