#princess wanning

[peisijing]

@kdramaspace 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW | Opposing Forces

» You wanted to kill me. I'll wait for you in Hell.

♕ favorite antagonist/villain(s) of 2024: Princess Wanning (墨雨云间 The Double, dir. Bai Yun Mo, Lu Hao Ji Ji, Ma Shi Ge)

[nunafilms]

You just don't want to be my prince consort, right?

✩ The Double ─ Episode 35 (墨雨云间)

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

The villains in The Double were great, well-acted, they had motives and acted in self-interest, and they were so deluded but in a logical way. I also loved how at first I felt the most sympathy for Shen but then it totally flipped and I was on the side of Princess Wanning.

Because at first when we see crying Shen killing his wife, I felt sorry for him. He's caught up by powers bigger than himself, he's trying to save his family, the implication that he's almost mercy killing his wife since the princess is so scary and wants her as a plaything, and then how miserable he looks whenever he's around Wanning, I almost had pity. And he's still trying to be ethical despite the circumstances only to get steam-rolled or attempted-murdered by Wanning. He is in agony whenever he sees Li (whom he still thinks is just weirdly similar to his wife).

But then he kind of flips and decides and no, none of this was his fault (which maybe I can buy) but the step too far is that he thinks he deserves to be forgiven and get everything back. I love that you can follow his twisted logic: his mom and Princess Wanning are at fault for everything, so Li should forgive him and the only reason she isn't is because another powerful person (Duke Su) is stealing her from him. "Powerful people are evil and I, Shen, am the scrappy underdog who has been forced by circumstances and if only I hadn't been the SMARTEST BOY EVER, none of this would have happened."

Like, die sir.

Whereas with Princess Wanning, at first I just saw her as Chaotic Evil, but she's living in the palace watching her younger brother, who has never suffered at all, being emperor which she knows was paid for by her and her older brother's suffering and she's pissed about it. Shen is something she could have been or could have had, but she must destroy him to obtain him and she's fine with that. She's been destroyed, why not destroy others? Her revenge is unjust compared to Li, who only targets those who have harmed her, but Wanning is just raging against everything and I ended up kind of liking her for it.

What really made me sympathize with her is how excited she was about the fake baby, because it's this chance at a normal life that has been robbed from her. She just wants a man to love her and a baby to cherish, but believing that she will never have it, she rampages. Her hope broke me.

Her final form is just wanting to have some autonomy in her own death, after being used by men for their own purposes for her entire existence and I couldn't help but love her for it.

They were both great and I'll miss their insane dynamic.

[deathdefyinglifeleaps]

i know she’s the bad guy but watching wanning believe she’s pregnant while we know she’s not is kind of brutal

[desicanary]

Some thoughts after finishing the double that I need to expel from my consciousness:

1. I haven't enjoyed a show so much in a while. It had all the drama, and it didn't sacrifice it for the romance

2. Princess Wanning! She killed her dad and I think that was queen shit. She should have killed more people, frankly. She deserves to do so much murder

3. Shen Yurong how I hate you. This man is not only a murderer and a coward, he's also incompetent. None of his plans have ever worked. Mans couldn't manage to successfully kill his wife even if every god were on his side. I loved every time Xue Fangfei did psychic damage to him simply by existing

4. Xue Fangfei! Xue Li! Jiang Li! Xiao Limao! A'Li! Many other terms of address I've missed! She truly is that girl. She is gaslight gatekeep girl boss. She's a girl's girl. She stabbed a man in the dick 7 times. She has the man who once called her a pawn wrapped around her pinkie. When her man tells her he has to get into a political marriage for the nation she says do it then, and then he has to admit he was never gonna. She inflicted [phone] damage on those who wronged her and Jiang Li. She can't fight to save her life (as evident) but can and will confuse her opponent into tripping over their own nonexistent shoelaces

5. I loved the progression of the relationship between A'Li and Xiao Heng. They weren't immediately lovers or friends. They fully used each other until they were willing to be used. The chemistry, the flirting, it's too much and too good. Also, Xiao Heng serves. See: the fans, the fucking gold plated murder fan, a walk-in closet full of capes, the most dramatic entrances known to cdramas, and all the audacity

6. BUT what were the last 20 minutes! They don't exist to me! My buddies Wen Ji and Lu Ji are watching their boss embarass himself at Duke Su's mansion and sharing in the hot goss, to me

7. Plus, I've gotta be missing something about the Longwu army. I do not understand them at all. Not a single one of them would survive the Nuremberg precedent. Not only are they not guided by ethics and morals, they're also not guided by loyalty or revenge or anger or hate or any understandable motivation. Instead, they're guided by a rock carving of a fish. wut. They find out the dude holding the fish works for the guy who betrayed and killed their general, their comrades, and even some of their family. And their response is: "How could they?!?!?! But we still have to listen to them because they have the fish!" Truly what. Someone explain this all-powerful rock fish to me

8. I do think that the Jiangs deserved more. And by more I mean worse. I think Xue Li should have told Jiang Yuanbai exactly how Jiang Li lived and died, and that she hated him for his negligence. I think she should have told the grandma too. They had their hand in this and they deserve to feel the full weight of Jiang Li's life and death and hatred

9. Also Jiang Yuanbai being like "It's not that I didn't know what was going on at home it's just that I was so busy working for the nation uwu". Sir, disrespectfully, no. You had not a clue. And if you did, that makes it worse. Like "Oh no! I'm so busy working that I have no choice but to let my wife frame my 8 yr old for her own attempted murder! The murder of the same stepmom that she, until yesterday, adored! Oh well, I gotta go to work so I'll just let that happen and abandon her for 10 years until politics makes it necessary for me to bring her home! And I'll feel really bad about abandoning her now, but I'll also never believe a single word out her mouth!" Actually, I think he should be hunted for sport

10. Anyway, that got off track! But I love this show, and how even the antagonists have arcs and backstories and aren't countering our girl just cuz. I love the fleshed out characters, all the looks it serves, the drama, and the adorable Wen Ji and Lu Ji and Jiang Jingrui

[thegreymoonwtf]

Princess Wanning, my unexpected favourite from The Double.

Drawn in Autodesk Sketchbook.

[pippin-pippout]

GOD I hate Shen Yurong. I mean the actor is doing incredibly - this is a really fucking hard role to play. But WANNING. Li Meng is killing this.

I honestly don't even think the show needed to show us her history in the flashbacks. The actress is already doing such a good job acting her history. And I'm dreading what's coming to her because she can't see it coming since she's so blinded by her desperation for Shen Yurong. And I think she'll die at that man's hands, which just feels tragic given what she's been through.

And although Shen Yurong is a monster of her own making, and while he is a victim and she is perpetuating the cycle of abuse, the fact of what he did to Xue Fangfei and what he is clearly getting ready to do to Wanning makes me believe he was always a hypocrite.

As a person, Wanning may have pushed him, but he did not have far to fall. What she did do, unfortunately, is teach him how to be conniving and get what he wants.

Shen Yurong was pressured into a difficult choice by Wanning, but he chose to be cowardly. Now he has the upper hand, and if he was only fighting for his freedom, I could root for him. But instead, he's fighting to climb higher and take back Xue Fangfei.

Wanning does deserve what's coming to her. She did abuse him and do countless terrible things.

Yet I pity her because of how well her actress is playing her – someone driven to the edge of madness, who has lost all perspective and sense of morality, who is grasping at the last thing that can make her feel human - love.

And Shen Yurong, I despise, because of how his actor is playing him - someone who never took responsibility, nor felt true guilt, for his own actions because he always felt he was wronged by fate and the world.

[fairytaehl]

"Smile."

The Double 墨雨云间 (2024) - ep. 1 vs. ep 18.