in the end stretch now for fated hearts
it still has flashes of brilliance
every time fu yixiao saves feng suige with a well-placed arrow, especially when she saves him from murong chong's dagger!! every glance between them that is so trustful and secure!! the way suige throws away his sword after knocking away murong yao's, and the two brothers use a fist fight instead!!
the fact that pushover baby chengyang's vision for the future -- taking his mom to stay by his dad's mausoleum and praying there forever -- is basically his mom's worst nightmare but since she has never told him anything true he thinks this is actually for the best, and because he's the man (though still also a child) his opinion is what will prevail. (that is, if they don't both end up dead, which i think they might)
the theoretical mirroring between chengyang and jingyan as emperors who are simultaneously protected, resented, manipulated by their mothers. the thwarted ambition of both women
the dynamic developing between xiyang and jingyan (props to qin tianyu for making what could be a tiresome character vividly watchable). the gesture at the strange respect and understanding xiyang and jingshi have developed for each other, under their hatred and positional enmity
but yeah ... it's been quite a comedown since the incredible stretch of eps 19ish to 28ish, starting from when fu yixiao confronted murong yao in ep 19 about being meng juran, peaking with episodes 24/25 with the crazy revelations about the emperor's motivations as a parent (and our otp finally getting it onnn), and staying very strong through ep 28 as the situation in susha exploded politically. now we're just working through what's left of the plot and characters
