[Mainland Chinese Drama 2018] The Story of Ming Lan 庶女明兰传 / 知否？知否？应是绿肥红瘦

[darkphoenix123]

1 hour ago, frenchfan said:

She did explained to grandma when grandma asked how she felt.  She actually said that she was pleased someone would go to such length to get her then she started to be angry with him because he manipulated her family and she felt like giving him a slap....  So she actually told grandma the truth and all in all they admired him for his audacity.  

I saw that. Neither looked upset. Minglan sounded petulant & grandma sounded shocked

[deslynn88]

26 minutes ago, nrbrown said:

I agree with @mooose assessment. ML is not the typical innocent heroine. She manipulated everyone in order for her revenge to gain fruit. Then otherwise, why would she write her confession? Don’t get me wrong, I like ML. However, she is not an angel. She is flawed, and that’s why I like her. She is human.

 

Agreed.  She is manipulative.  Though I would argue that in that time and environment, she had no other recourse but nonetheless she is. And to be honest, I'm glad she is!  I hate it when the MC gets trampled by all the bad guys and doesn't stick up for herself/himself.  I'm cheering for her all the way.

 

Comparing her with the MC in Yanxi Palace, Wei Ying Luo, who is also super manipulative, ML is more low-key.  If Granny wasn't so observant about everything concerning ML, no one would know ML's role in bringing down Concubine Lin. 

[darkphoenix123]

Minglan confessed to grandma about GTY saving her & Grandma was upset that there was so much Minglan didn’t tell her. But GTY is so excited lol. He is busy decorating his house & preparing for the wedding

[ForgottenSoulx]

15 minutes ago, tomo74 said:

I'm confused, you said bros before hoes but it's ok for GTY going after his friend's ex? I totally understand if ML is the last girl on earth (since QH and ML had clean break and if QH has no feeling at all to ML, so QH can't be so selfish). I'm genuinely confused, there's so many fights and hates because of this thing, like is it ok since it's in drama but not ok in real life?

 

You act like they were best friends or anything are they even friends? they knew each other and talked that is about it.

 

Lets compare it to real life , your mother wants you to marry this girl and you marry her and then you decide oh i remember my first love let me go marry her instead.. but wait someone you knew proposed first . Its totally fine for that person you know to propose when you already gave her up. 

[samanatha_xyooj]

I only left you ladies and gentlemen’s for a few hours and came back to 12 pages of comments to catch up… Don’t anyone of you sleep? JK....LOL  Seriously it took me an hour just to catch up on all the comments and take notes. 

 

After watching the preview spoiler of the wedding  makes me happy. We got to see GTY come pick up ML with pride. SH was happy because finally one of his daughter is making him proud with honor (besides Hualan). 

 

@ForgottenSoulx LOL… your comment about people flying away…. So funny….just made my day LOL in my office….Good thing I have an office so my co-workers won’t think I have issues…

 

@tomo74 If I was in QH shoes and my uncle wants to marry my ex-lover (whom I never got over) OF COURSE I would be super mad and want to kill him. But honestly I wouldn't have the guts to say anything because it was my fault that I lost her and broke the promise. I give QH credit for trying and didn't give up the second round. Finally I get to see QH put effort and stepping up to proving his love for ML by talking to GTY to stop with the engagement and trying to convince Grandma or chat with ML. 

 

@nichiwoohee Love that moral code of yours. If only QH know about their skinship - I'm sure QH would've been even more pissed off. 

 

@Golden Flower I was thinking the same too. As you climb up the ladder and became a trust worthy associate to the new emperor; I’m sure everyone with wealth would want to snatch you as a son-in-law. That reminds me of when CB passed the royal exam and all those official was trying to congrats him and snatch him as a potential son-in-law.   

[darkphoenix123]

30 minutes ago, RobinM said:

It’s very sad when you think on it but if Molan had a decent mother or a big Madam not so prejudiced against her to take over her raising or a father who actually had a clue or if grandma had stepped up she could have been a really accomplished and useful lady. She is really intelligent and driven but it went to waste.pity.

I have been thinking that since the beginning of the drama. If it wasn’t for Concubine Lin neither of her children would have turned out like that. Molan was hesitating about doing anything scandalous because of how it will affect Sheng house reputation but her mother persuaded her saying reputation is nothing! If only...

[ForgottenSoulx]

5 hours ago, darkphoenix123 said:

I saw the expression too & he had a worrisome expression when the previous emperor told him to never slight GTY & house of Gu & was praising him. GTY will probably go to prison cuz of him but will be released due to Ml & be demoted. He became a foot soldier again right? There will probably be another rebellion & he will be promoted again because of the son,the next emperor

 

I think this happens as well it makes total sense most likely GTY family did something maybe he took the blame or something im not sure. 

3 minutes ago, darkphoenix123 said:

I have been thinking that since the beginning of the drama. If it wasn’t for Concubine Lin neither of her children would have turned out like that. Molan was hesitating about doing anything scandalous because of how it will affect Sheng house reputation but her mother persuaded her saying reputation is nothing! If only...

 

You make a good point she did not want to do alot of things due to ruining sheng honor but her mother was pushing her. 

[minglan1]

@ForgottenSoulx I don't  consider ML black hearted because the characters in the drama are far from being black and white.They all have shades of grey some more than less.That's the reason why I like it. A good person can also have a nerve of steel while exacting a ruthless revenge which people might think him/her being incapable of.

 

I like ML the way she she has been sketched  makes her story so worthwhile to watch.

 

[tomo74]

Finally, I saw comments say that ML is manipulative person, yes she is, not because she is fl, she always right, pure and innocent, this story is about a person, each character represent a person (not an angel) with their mind and flaws, with their own goals, I have no pity for the villains but I do understand their reasons.

Thank you to all the people here who are not biased and thank you for the comments that makes this discussion colourful and interesting.

[mayonnaisepan]

i think one of the reasons dramas like this and to an extent, yanxi palace, are interesting (and popular with the public) is mainly because the female character isn't your plain mary sue, waiting for someone to rescue them. minglan isn't a meek or timid girl, GTY said it himself, that she appears to a typical obedient young woman but in actuality she's far more intelligent than anyone gives her credit for. i don't think that ML is black-hearted but she certainly isn't 100% innocent either. it's true that her mother  (and little brother) was essentially murdered and i do think that if ML had not decided to fight back, even her future in the household and her future after she gets married, would be at risk. she fought both to get revenge for her mother/brother and for her own future. the fact that molan and her mother were scheming against her when they thought that ML had a marriage proposal that was good goes to show that even if molan had married and it wasn't ML's plan, ML would not have a good husband if it were up to them. so while ML isn't wholly innocent, i think she also did what she had to do. sink or swim, fight or flight, and while she has grandma on her side, she doesn't have a mother (or a father, really) who'll keep her best interests at heart. 

 

the other thing i wanted to say is that in the most recent episode, when GTY is confessing everything he did to basically entrap ML into marriage, i kept thinking, "this little rascal!" if i didn't have a favorable opinion of GTY and of FSF acting as GTY, i would think he's an richard simmons! lol! he kept laughing and was saying how "i couldn't sleep the whole night after i found out ______" (for example when he says he found out that dr he's cousin was someone he could use/manipulate). all the while as he was confessing, i thought that he was such a richard simmons! probably similar to ML who thought, how dare this man use such dirty means and treat me like some sort of pet to be captured! but at the same time, like ML, i also thought, damn he really did go to extremes to make sure everything went according to plan! 

[selen4ever]

For me ML just gave Concubine Lin and Molan "enough rope to hang themselves", but their downfall was completely their own doing. 

Too bad the dad will never get what he deserves for his part because in my opinion he is kinda an accomplice in ML's mother's death with him giving Lin so much power in the household and always looking the other way when she did (more and more) despicable things. If she had not been sure of getting away with it and even counting on him forgiving her (and not investigating it), she probably would not have dared to do such a thing...

[frenchfan]

1 hour ago, lyaarisa said:

 

LOL... I laugh when I read this part in novel.. GTY corrected ML to call him as "Husband" or else she got punishment.. When ML call him husband, she end up EATEN by GTY.. Muahahahaha.. Im sure the eat up the wifey part will be milder in drama.. But we can hope to see some kisses scenes right.. HAHAHAHAH (pervert mode on) 

 

 

Let us throw confetti around, use party hats and burn some fireworks to celebrate Molan, Mdm Liang n Mdm Gu jealous expression... Hahahahaha 

 

 

Our dearest little lamb Minglan is the "HOT STUFF" of Sheng family.. hahahah... 

Yes, lets thrown confettis ha ha ha........But I do like Mme Liang and the way she spoilt Minglan.  She didn't do her any harm except to want her control her son's harem.  But it was more of a motherly interest not malice.  Whereas Mme Gu and Molan are petty people.  Especially GTY wiked stepmom.  Two faced witch.  You could see her bitterness.  Never thought that GTY would managed to survived after being cruelly turned out from his home.  Served her right.  I hope to see her get her just dessert.  And no, I don't want her to die.  It will be too easy for her.  I want to see her suffer.  Muahaha

[deslynn88]

Richard Simmons?  You mean the exercise guy from the 80's? Can someone explain what this means?

[darkphoenix123]

3 hours ago, paras said:

Preview of the wedding -

  Reveal hidden contents

https://www.weibo.com/tv/v/HcpX6vhJ6?fid=1034:4329595319847468

 

 

The wedding looks grand. Looks like GTY went all out. They look so happy & Sheng Hong looks so proud 

[selen4ever]

2 minutes ago, deslynn88 said:

Richard Simmons?  You mean the exercise guy from the 80's? Can someone explain what this means?

 

Certain curse words/insults are automatically changed to "Richard Simmons" by Soompi. 

[linhlinh111]

1 hour ago, hello210 said:

Haven’t looked at the previews or anything but the Gu’s are not very rich and most of their assets came from GTY’s mother’s dowry.  In my opinion, they’re very greedy and only saw GTY’s mother as their $$ source. In the novel spoilers, they were trying to keep GTY from it all because they didn’t want to loose their cushy life, but the only time they brought up giving GTY a concubine was about a year after marriage because ML hadn’t gotten pregnant yet so they used that as the excuse.  GTY shut them down and right after that found out that ML was already pregnant.  After being newly married, concubines don’t usually get introduced unless the wife can’t get pregnant because of inheritance issues (unless the husband is a womanizer like 6th Liang son). Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, family members can press that the main wife accept a concubine to ensure children and use the execuse of filial piety and being a virtuous wife to force the main wife’s hand. We’ll see how they play it out in the drama.

 

I'm not sure how much later is that scene in the preview, but due to the book troubles with concubines arised twice. First was right after marriage, stepmom called the pair over and gave them 2 women. They were all GTY's women before ML. One of them was GTY's tongfang maid. In families with status, when a boy came of age, their mother (or grandmother) would send them maids to teach them about s*x. Those maids later would become their concubines after they got married. Those maids were called tongfang maids. The other one was a concubine that GTY's first wife took in on behalf of him. These 2 women took care of Rong'er when she was staying at the Gu family. But there are no first wife and Rong'er doesn't live with Gu family in the drama so I'm not sure if they would keep this scene.

 

Second time was when GTY was away on the battlefield, ML was pregnant. Stepmom didn't want GTY to have an heir, so she push ML to receive a concubine, trying to shock her into premature birth. But that doesn't seem to fit the scene either. Maybe drama would make a change here and go through with the plot you predicted. It's more common in this type of drama.

[darkphoenix123]

1 hour ago, RobinM said:

The blunt fact is: Grandma did a pretty poor job of raising Dad to be a strong and discerning man.She should have put as much care and wisdom into him as she has Ming Lan.

She didn’t raise him. She was concentrating on her sick son but he died. When she was occupied with this, the other concubines bullied Sheng Hong Concubine mother & him. That why he always supported Lin & her children. It was in one of the first episodes 

[tomo74]

14 minutes ago, ForgottenSoulx said:

 

You act like they were best friends or anything are they even friends? they knew each other and talked that is about it.

 

Lets compare it to real life , your mother wants you to marry this girl and you marry her and then you decide oh i remember my first love let me go marry her instead.. but wait someone you knew proposed first . Its totally fine for that person you know to propose when you already gave her up. 

Are they friends? I think they are (GTY offered to help QH for kidnapping the princess, people wont offer such dangerous idea if they are not friend, toooooo risky) but how close are they, I dont know.

About marry the girl, QH was forced to marry that princess (he want to kill himself so he wont marry her, but the princess's mother threaten him for killing his lover if he kill himself), not because he choose to marry the princess willingly, like if your mum forced you to marry someone you dont love (at that time, you dont know that your husband/wife life will be short and you become a widow/widower), you have to say goodbye to your lover to free him/her, but thing's changed, suddenly you have the opportunity to go back to your lover and you know he/she is still available (you dont know that he/she is actually engage to someone else), so you chase him/her again but to find out that your friend (the friend that know your love history) is your lover fiance, do you feel like that friend is stabbing your back?, maybe if the fiance is a random people, you might not that angry.

[frenchfan]

7 minutes ago, darkphoenix123 said:

The wedding looks grand. Looks like GTY went all out. They look so happy & Sheng Hong looks so proud 

The wedding looks really grand.  I am happy that he showed how much he care with all the "entourage".  That her marrying him is something to be proud of.  He looked so happy and her family too.  

[RobinM]

Yes.ML is or will be a wicked smart power player and manipulater. But In her circumstances, in her time and place weak, soft  people ended up like her mother or that  eldest girl .It was survival of the fittest . The difference between her and Concubine Lin though is ML has a moral core and won’t hurt innocents to further herself or agenda.GTY is the same... He is a good person but not a soft one. Soft gets you killed.