I’m back to recap this new drama! Apparently it’s related to Legend of Zhen Huan but I haven’t got around to watching it… but so far watching this drama, it’s not like i’m missing a lot of back story anyways.

And happy anniversary to Deer Drama! It’s been alive for 1 year now, and it passed the 1 mil view mark a week ago. Woo!!! I should make it a point to update more consistently instead of being M.I.A. all the time.

The drama starts with Shang Yang, a scholar, being executed.

This was actually part of history – when Qin Hui Wen ascended to power, it was bad news for Shang Yang since Qin Hui Wen is a grudge-holding little brat. Case in point, he fucking rips Shang Yang apart for punishing him as an adolescent. Literally.

Also I would like to note that physiologically, if you’re pulled apart like that, your torso would pretty much be the strongest bond to rip apart, and your arms/legs would be more likely to come out of its sockets.

Meanwhile in the Chu state, the Chu Emperor was notified by his astronomer that the dominant star has fallen into the Chu state. The Chu Emperor was elated, and sought out his pregnant concubines to see who carried the ‘dominant’ star.

Now we introduced the Empress, who suspiciously looks like an old version of Hyori Lee. Since this threatens the crown prince, she seeks to murder the baby before it’s even born.

AM I RIGHT?!

The ‘concubine’ that’s pregnant with the the ‘dominant star’ is a servant, originally, and I can only imagine that the Emperor just… decided that he wanted her one night – which is still a concept that baffles me because I can’t imagine to be in a position to have to sleep with someone because they’re, well, an Emperor. Anyways, her name is essentially ‘Xiang’ since she has no ranking.

Ju Ji, another concubine, and who is originally the ‘master’ of Xiang, can foresee that this ‘dominant star’ can overshadow the crown prince, so she protects Xiang from the Empress’s evil tactics like poisoning, etc.

And throughout the drama, you can tell Xiang is wearing circle lenses, which are obviously irritating her eyes, because her eyes are so red. She needs a new brand or something.

Well, turns out the dominant star is… well, a baby girl. Since we’re set in a male-dominated chauvinistic society, the Emperor was infuriated and disappointed.

So pissed and disappointed that he allowed the murder of his own child, by setting her in a stream and saying that “Oh, if she’s meant to live, she’ll live”. Ok well, that’s a great philosophy – I’m sure that you would have contributed a lot to modern medicine as an Emperor.

Anyways the little baby girl survives (obviously, she’s our main lead) and he names her (surprise) Yue since she was glowing under the moonlight, making her name Mi Yue (surprise!!!). Yes, since it’s called the Legend of Mi Yue.

Xiang’s eyes are so red^.

Baby Yue sees her mom thinking about the Emperor everyday.

Baby Yue somehow makes it past all the guards, and approaches the Emperor. She soon becomes his favourite, and convinces him to go find her mom, Xiang.

Her bloodshot eyes are even more red when she’s crying.

Anyways, this captures the attention of the Empress, which decides to plot against her. I mean, it makes a lot of sense – I never blame concubines for plotting against each other. I mean, your power and ranking is based on how much the Emperor likes you, and I mean, if you gotta take some girls down along the way, it is what it is.

At this point of the drama it becomes excruciatingly painful to watch concubine Xiang because of her bloodshot eyes. It’s gotta be something – either her contacts, her lashes, it has to be causing her a lot of discomfort. Just look how red her eyes are.

The Empress gifts new clothes to Xiang as Xiang gave birth to another child, and this time, a boy! And right before the Emperor went off to war too.

Unfortunately, these clothes were made with some sort of irritant to make Xiang look like she had some sort of skin disease. They ‘temporarily’ exile her, but really actually leave her in the hands of a perverted disgusting man.

I really hate rape scenes because I think that they’re so unnecessary to add into a plot, but they’re in every drama. I think they’re very cringeworthy to watch. Anyways, in this point of this drama you have to endure a long gross rape scene of her and her captor.

During these 3 years, Yue grows up without her mom, and meets Huang Zi Xie, which is a disciple of Qu Zi, a respected scholar and member of council in the courts. They become friends, and he delivers books to Yue so she can learn and study from Qu Zi as well.

All the other princes and princesses treat Yue badly except for the main princess, which is known as Mi Shu. She’s the ‘main’ princess because she’s directly related to the Empress.

One of the servants, Kui Gu, take Yue to visit Xiang one day, seeing that Yue was so distraught. At this point, being away for so long, Xiang had actually created a (sad) life for herself. She became her captor’s ‘woman’ and had a child with him. She did so much hard back-breaking work to try to make ends meet, and feed her child, but her captor would just hit her and take all her money.

The Emperor finally comes back from war, and the Empress tells him that Xiang had died during her rehabilitation from the skin rash. Yue notifies him of the truth, and that her mother is well and alive.

(She should really see an optometrist)

Xiang sets it up so that she would first meet one-on-one with the Empress. She then sets up that the Emperor would come shortly afterwards.

Reason being is that she could see that the Empress would try to ruin her life again, and even harm her children. Xiang decided to frame the Empress for her death in order to take her down.

This plan partially works. I mean the Emperor falls for it, and believes the Empress truly killed Xiang. I mean this would all work if…

The USELESS EMPEROR DIDN’T IMMEDIATELY DIE AFTERWARDS.

Pretty much the Emperor died from exhaustion nearly immediately afterwards and the Empress (now known as Wei Empress, because she is no longer the acting Empress, but the Empress dowager) and the former Crown Prince (now Emperor) has taken power.

Immediately, Wei Empress decides to get rid of the children – Yue and her younger brother, Rong. When Emperors die, they liked to kill off a bunch of servants/people as well because they would want more people to join the Emperor in the afterlife (which is pretty messed up, but hey, the pharaohs did it too  on the other side of the world).  Ju Ji goes to beg for Wei Empress’s exception to include the children on the list, but Wei Empress says “Unless you can ask the Emperor himself, then I’m including him”.

To which, long story short, Ju Ji commits suicide while burning a turtle shell. The turtle shell, which Ju Ji already carved “No” into, cracked into “No” from being burned, acted as an answer in the morning when they found her body.

Wei Empress, unable to kill off the kids, send them to guard the deceased Emperor’s grave, to which they stay for 7 years.

BAM – our female lead with horrific bangs.

And our main antagonist (for now), one of the princesses that hated and bullied Yue, Yin. She also has horrific bangs, and an annoying voice.

Upon witnessing Huang Zi Xie during a debate competition, Yin develops a crush on him, except that Huang Zi Xie loves Yue, which makes Yin hate Yue even more.

Anyways, Yue returns to the palace after guarding the tomb of the deceased Emperor unwillingly, just for the sake of her brother, because there was a limitation of his success outside of the palace.

We’re also introduced to Zheng Xiu, which is also known as the South Empress, which is a manipulative and conniving woman.

The episodes so far have moved pretty fast. I’ve watched up to Episode 15 so far, and I can say that the plot really slows down after all these main characters are introduced… So far it’s still good, but the plot is moving pretty slowly. So far there are 54 episodes out – so I’m still catching up.