Legend of Mi Yue has broadcasted its last episode and I’m still not done the recaps. I’m getting on it because I need to finish this one before I actually get started on the two big ones next month: The Imperial Doctress and Chronicle of Life. I’m pretty excited for The Imperial Doctress because anything with Cecilia Liu is normally pretty good because she definitely picks her scripts. Hawick Lau and Zheng Shuang on the other hand… well, The Cage of Love was so bad that my expectations aren’t high for this, but I mean, Hawick Lau is too damn handsome for me to pass up.
Anyways, let’s get this done. There are 81 freaken episodes (seriously, guys?!) and I’m only up to 30 after this recap. I know the Imperial Doctress will have two episodes out every day so I might have to pick and choose which one to recap if Chronicle of Life comes out daily too.
SO let’s begin. In these ten episodes a few ‘big’ things happen…
1) Mi Yue gets super annoying with investigating and getting revenge on who poisoned Mi Shu (Crown Princess)
It all starts with her visiting Wei Liang Ren, one of the other consorts, and she finds out that every consort has a talisman to get things across the border. This is because each consort is from another country (I guess the Emperor prefers foreign women other than Qin women) and the talisman is pretty much a ‘Nexus’ (if you live in America/Canada you’ll know what it means). The country that the consort is from is carved onto the back of the talisman.
Mi Yue somehow remembers that when she was kidnapped, she did see a similar talisman in Yi Qu Wang’s hands (remember that handsome bearded man that kidnapped her?). Anyways, she decides to recreate these talismans out of sand to try to remember.
Like, how Mi Yue manages to figure it out is beyond me, because apparently it’s been already around half a year already since the incident (but it’s been like two episodes). I know, these dramas have no concept of time.
Anyways, this annoying unimportant consort (who will, spoiler alert, die soon anyways) tries to get Mi Yue in trouble by reporting her to Mi Shu, since technically recreating things issued by the government is illegal (like, if you try to recreate a passport). Luckily, the eunuch that was passing by managed to save her – intentionally, because what are the chances that he would coincidentally pass by before this confrontation.
Anyways, through this, Mi Yue insists that she remembers the talisman said “Wei” on the back, meaning one of the concubines from Wei had planned against Mi Shu for the kidnapping. and she goes to the Emperor and everything. The Emperor, rightly so, pretty much says “Nope, whatever you say is invalid and it’s hearsay”.
BUT Mi Yue, being still, incredibly annoying again, tries to accuse one of Consort Wei’s servants of being the ones that poisoned Mi Shu half a year ago. Again, I don’t understand why she thinks she is able to convince anyone with only what she says.
Understandably, the Emperor is sick of her shit and punishes Mi Yue and makes her do servant work.
The other concubines take this opportunity to go make fun of Mi Yue since they all hate her and the new Empress Mi Shu. Mi Shu *coincidentally* walks by and decides to punish one of the concubines (the unimportant one mentioned earlier) in front of everyone:
Here’s a picture of her. Here you go, your 10 seconds of fame on my blog.
ANYHOO things get messy and somehow the Consort Fan got so scared (even though it wasn’t her that was getting punished, wtf) and fell down the stairs nearby. Did I mention that she was like 8 months pregnant?
At the same time, the useless/unimportant consort that got punished decides to try to get Mi Shu in trouble by faking a suicide attempt so the Emperor would get very mad at Mi Shu.
WELL why do I keep refering to her as a useless/unimportant consort? BECAUSE SHE FREAKEN ACCIDENTALLY COMMITS SUICIDE FOR REAL.There you go. How useless can you get? She is pure 廢柴 fei chai-if you know cantonese, this means crude term meaning that she’s a useless stick – there could not be a better way to explain this cantonese term other than using her.
The Emperor decides to blame Mi Shu for this, since she was the one that overreacted to Mi Yue’s bullying – but really – how can you blame her for that unimportant consort’s fei-chai-ness and Fan Consort’s wussiness where she would fall down a set of stairs when another person is being punished?! Like… not even her. It’s pathetic.
When you thought that things couldn’t be more ‘fei’ 廢, Mi Shu faints because…
2) Mi Shu, the Empress, is preggers!
Yes you read that correctly! She’s pregnant!
But, the Emperor, still mad about the suicide and almost-miscarriage of his other child, decides to isolate her, and ban her from leaving her sleeping quarters, and put this betch in charge:
Consort Wei. Anyways I didn’t call Consort Wei a bitch (or betch, for the delicate ones reading this blog) for no reason.
Consort Wei takes this opportunity to take Mi Yue’s brother in custody (Wei Ran) to accuse him of stealing, when he actually merely just picked something up off the ground.
While the Emperor was out of the palace, Consort Wei blackmails Mi Yue to force her to marry off to someone else to save her brother, which is a huge downgrade, since Mi Yue’s already in the royal palace, she’s technically the woman of the Emperor, which doesn’t get better than that. It’s like forcing yourself to use a Forever 21 bag when you already own an Hermes.
Mi Yue first goes to Empress Mi Shu for help, but since Mi Shu was still technically being punished, she was unable to do anything.
Mi Yue approaches the Emperor for help, and tries to force herself to sleep with him. The Emperor, seeing how unwilling she is, tells her to stop forcing herself, and to pretty much go away.
First attempt: Fail
ANYWAYS, the next day, the Emperor ends up sending his men to stop Consort Wei from hurting Wei Ran (the brother).
Now I might have missed something, but I couldn’t see the rhyme or reason behind why she was sitting outside his sleeping quarters last night, playing on her musical instrument. The Emperor comes out and takes her inside.
Once again, she’s unwilling to sleep with him, and he tells her to sleep separately from her.
Second attempt: Still failure
The next day, I guess, as his way to protect her, he gets them to carry her back from his sleeping quarters on this chair that is pretty much reserved for only the Emperor, even though they didn’t have sex.
Meanwhile, Mi Yue’s only friend at this point in the drama is Meng Ying, the eldest daughter of the Emperor. Her stupid tuft of bang in the middle of her forehead is extremely irritating throughout these episodes. I just want to grab it and take a pair of scissors and cut it off.
3) Mi Yue and the Emperor fall in love
The Emperor really enjoyed Mi Yue’s company, and every night they would sleep separately after ‘hanging out’. Netflix and chill, without the sex.
He really fell in love, and didn’t want to force her to do anything against her will.
She slowly fell in love, watching him train every morning (Sun Li, the actress, is so pretty).
They would just spend time chatting about her life back in the country Chu, and what her relationship with Huang Zi Xie was.
It was so heartbreaking how much the Emperor loved her, and he would uncontrollably pull her in for hugs and would hold her tightly because he cared about her so much, but he knew that her heart wasn’t completely with him yet.
He goes as far as building a grave for her ‘dead’ lover to help her mourn.
Anyways, sorry to ruin the romance, but later on that night, they finally have sex.
Pretty much at the end of their night, she embraces him from behind…
… and
… you know the rest…
… that’s implied here. Right? No need to go into details, this is a PG blog (well, except for the profanity, but we’ll never get rid of that).
I’d hate to burst the romantic bubble at this point, but can I point out how weird their relationship is?!
She calls him 老伯 lao bo, which translates into old man, and he calls her 丫頭 ya tou, which means little girl. If that isn’t weird enough for you, the same night before they, erm, consummated their relationship, Mi Yue started talking about her time in the country Chu, and how her father would give her piggy back rides, and that she would call him Big Tiger, and she’d be the Little Tiger.
The Emperor proceeds to give her a piggyback ride and he calls her Little Tiger, and well, she calls him Big Tiger.
IS THAT NOT WEIRD THAT SHE IS PROJECTING HER FATHER INTO HIM? IS THAT NOT WEIRD THAT THEY ARE DOING FATHER/DAUGHTER THINGS THAT HER DAD DID WHEN THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS ROMANTIC?
It gets weirder, when Mi Yue and Meng Ying finally meet up and Meng Ying asks this:
“So, how was my dad?”
AND NO, NOT HOW IS MY DAD, HOW WAS MY DAD. Like, Meng Ying was referring to the sexual competency of her own father. WHO ASKS THAT?! PLEASE CAN WE NOT TREAD INTO THIS WEIRD ZONE? IT’S WEIRD ENOUGH THAT YOU HAVE A DUMB TUFT OF BANG IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR FOREHEAD.
YES, YOU.
Meanwhile…
4) Huang Zi Xie is still alive
This guy is still alive after falling off a cliff, but like typical drama mode, he has amnesia.
Somehow, they managed to write this guy back into the plot (plus his amnesia) but unfortunately he has nothing of value to add into the plot at all – more on that later.
We just see him try to make his way to the country Qin to see Mi Yue.
Not handsome, does not add to plot, why are you in this drama?
5) Empress Mi Shu gives birth to a son!
The Emperor names him Ying Dang (贏蕩)meaning that the son would pretty much conquer every thing else, but I would like to point out that it pretty much sounds like yin dang 淫蕩 which means, alternatively, perverted.
Meanwhile Consort Wei goes crazy because it sounds like the Emperor has the intention of naming Ying Dang as Crown Prince, not her own son, Ying Hua, who looks like this:
Nope, still not handsome.
So, one of the counsel members, Gong Sun Yan (who is from the country Wei) pushes to have the Emperor pick the Crown Prince, pushing for Ying Hua, because Consort Wei, is from… well, the country Wei.
So, Mi Yue goes to the equally powerful Zhang Yi to help convince the Emperor to not pick the Crown Prince yet, so Ying Dang has a better chance of becoming the Crown Prince.
Well long story short, it worked.
Meanwhile, this relentless guy manages get in the country Qin, and his quick wits is spotted by Yong Rui.
This guy, who is one of the powerful members of council in the Qin courts, who is, coincidentally, ‘dating’ Ying Fu Ren, the Emperor’s divorced sister:
He kinda looks like Leon Lai with a moustache right?
Wow, so.. uh, kawaii, Leon.
6) Meng Ying gets married off into the Yan country
Meng Ying gets into an arranged marriage but apparently the suitor, the Yan Emperor, is 50 years old, and apparently, that’s very old, too old for Meng Ying.
Which lead me to think… how old is this Emperor right now?
I mean, he has a daughter, which, if he’s marrying her off, she’s at least 15/16 years old right? If she’s his first daughter from the deceased Empress (remember, he came into power when he was like 19), I’m guess he’s mid thirties in the drama at this point?
Anyways Meng Ying is devastated. Imagine marrying to a really really person, that will die much earlier than you.
Luckily, Ying Fu Ren gave her an extremely motivating talk about how men sacrifice their lives for their country, so women sacrifice their freedom and marriage to their country as well.
Must… refrain… from… talking about that stupid piece of hair.
After that motivational talk, Meng Ying agreed to marry the old Yan Emperor, albeit unwillingly, but it’s for her country, so what can you do?
She looks stunning with her red lips and no tuft of hair by the way. I love her look here.
7) Lastly, the Wei’s are in trouble
This guy, Gong Sun Yan, is sick of being under utilized by the Emperor. And he also realizes that the Emperor has the talisman of Consort Wei, which proves that he took part in trying to poison Empress Mi Shu.
So this guy decides to leave back to his country, Wei.
The Emperor knows he’s leaving, and lets him escape. Gong Sun Yan goes back to his country, and tries to convince all the surrounding countries to attack the country Qin. Now the two consorts from the Wei country are… well, fucked.
So out of the two, which consort Wei will suffer? Through the golden rule of drama, the more attractive character/eviler and smarter character will survive because we need the antagonist for drama.
So yes, you die.
They kill off this consort because she sacrifices herself by giving her talisman to the other consort, and takes on the blame of planning against Empress Mi Shu.
That’s pretty much the last part of the drama. We’re moving into the next segment where Huang Zi Xie come back, and the Emperor decides to take Mi Yue to these weekly scholarly debates outside the palace.
So you know, Huang Zi Xie and Mi Yue can meet up again right?
I am such a huge fan of jewelry/accessories that I can’t help but mention how beautiful Sun Li’s head dresses are! They’re so intricate and lavish. I love dramatic costume jewelry in real life too but too bad there’s a new report that came out about Forever 21/H&M/cheap jewelry saying that it has carcinogenic metals like cadmium in it. Time to replace my jewelry 😛
Anyways, we are 3/8ths through the drama recapping! ALMOST THERE!!!
Best recap shit ever 😀
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What are your all time favorite C-Dramas? I read your reviews and realised we have really similar tastes. I just watched Lan Ling Wang and totally agree with your review of the series – the first 20 episodes were strong, but after that it just became a mess. The only saving grace of the show at the end was Yuwen Yong. Still, I’m looking for an epic drama to follow up that last series that won’t make me want to strangle the writers at the end..
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I can’t help but agree that the relationship between Qin wang (right?) and Mi Yue is super weird. I am willing to say that they just have weird nick names for each other but then the projecting the father image thing. UHG!!!!
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Haha. Enjoyed your post so much I read it twice. Totally agree with you the Emperor and MiYue relationship is a little weird but nevertheless they have great chemistry together. I really love the kind of romance when the guy feels more for the girl and he can humble himself to give her the freedom of choice. What a guy.
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Ever since Empress of China, I tend to avoid any long dramas ( like 40+ episodes. And to think 80 @__@ )yet I find myself popping by your blog just to read recaps even for dramas I’m not following nor particularly interested in. Your recaps are freakin HILARIOUS I find them more entertaining than the drama itself.
Anyway, if I were to start another long drama I’d look into Mi Yue. Can’t go wrong with anything Sun Li is in as she’s such a stellar actress who knows how to pick ’em. Throw in gorgeous costumes and I’m in.
Speaking of Imperial Doctress if you’ve been anticipating it as much as I have then surely you must know that Huang Zi Xie is back again as one of the two male leads who apparently LSS is in love with, over the Wallace Huo. Haven’t seen him act yet so unless he can really act his socks off or something I’m seriously scratching my head with the dealiooo with him and his recent lead roles in big dramas. Cause this guyy is seriously as bland as it gets. Anyway I’ll keep an open mind and just expect a good time, plus with two of the three leads being my favorites in C-dramas I really can’t ask for anything more:) .Even tho Korean dramas have been my thing as of late, I can always make time for a good Chinese historical drama and I expect myself to not get much done in upcoming moth cause of all that XD
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OMG!!! The summary you are giving is LIT!!! but try to skip less scene, but other than that, ur awesome and please continue your work. XD
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