Your Analysis Of SOKP Is Amazing, Can't Wait For More. Also I Haven't Read The Novel But Lmfao I Was

Your analysis of SOKP is amazing, can't wait for more. Also I haven't read the novel but lmfao I was under the impression that this was a love story between her and XW but I think I was sorely mistaken because how are we halfway through and she's in love with another man. I was all ready for my broken woman and even more broken man love each other enough to make up for everything because we don't get a lot of that but it seems it's going to be for him but not for her , the show is great nonetheless and I hope it stays that way until the end.

Thanks for the kind words, OP 🙏🏼

I haven’t read the novel either but I’ve been told it’s even more skewed towards Ning-er’s relationship with Zhang Zhe? So given the source material I think the drama has been doing an ok job at setting up her eventual shift towards Xie Wei because it’s clear he’s always been attracted to if not in love with her while she’s starting to clarify her own preconceptions about him and even sense his feelings.

And honestly I’m ok with the slow burn. Up until this point, Ning-er still remembers what happened in her first life and all the awful things that Xie Wei did. To me, she almost got too comfortable too fast given what she knows. It’s interesting how to a certain extent she must have always trusted Xie Wei in the original timeline because she believed he would honor her request to save Zhang Zhe after she died but outside of that we still haven’t seen flashbacks that would indicate she’d feel anything besides fear, disgust, or hate towards him. I’m enjoying the little nuggets of cute in the current timeline but as someone who LOVES angst I would have preferred seeing these two broken people rage at each other a little more before settling down as bantering partners in crime.

That said, I think the shift should happen soon. We’re going to get the rebel infiltration arc after Episode 20, which means Ning-er will not only have time to realize that she and Zhang Zhe might not be a good match but that she misses Xie Wei’s jawline and ruthless support. I’m also getting very bad in-law vibes from Zhang Zhe’s mom and we know how sensitive Ning-er is to maternal figures disrespecting her…

Story of Kunning Palace Ep. 20: To be free like the birds

What I love about good prison scenes is that they often reveal which of our characters are truly free.

For Yan Lin, Jiang Xuening, and Xie Wei, Episode 20 poses the following question: to what extent are we prisoners of the fate we've created for ourselves?

Yan Lin

Ironically, Yan Lin is an actual prisoner but he’s probably the freest of all our characters. He's finally free from his unrequited love of Xuening, free from the politicking of the palace, and, as @tomorrowsdrama beautifully observes, free from the burden of revenge. However he meets Xie Wei next, it won't be as the ruthless man from the story's original timeline who was hellbent on destroying those who had betrayed him.

Despite Xuening's worries, Yan Lin's exile grants him the opportunity to grow into the impressive man he always had the potential to be. @dangermousie used the word irrepressible to describe him and it's such a perfect word that encapsulates Yan Lin's boundless love and spirit. As Yan Lin and his father are taken away to Huangzhou because of their crimes, he shouts to Xie Wei the poem that inspired his courtesy name:

There will come a day when the roc finally goes up against the wind, flying up to the highest sky. I, Yan Hui, will return safely."

He will return as a great general, one who upholds peace in the world.

Jiang Xuening

I think it's a lovely touch how both Yan Lin and Xuening are symbolically represented by birds flying through the sky. Episode 1 kicked off with a bird of prey soaring above Xuening's poor childhood home and descending upon the palace. Young Xuening had always dreamed of escaping her difficult life but found herself in a different type of prison once she entered the palace. Empress Xuening narrates:

"If I knew this would happen, I would not have wasted my life chasing after fame and power. I should have traveled far and wide, to see the vast land and waters, to be free like the birds."

So when Xuening fails to escape the prison after visiting Yan Lin and she encounters an undercover Zhang Zhe, she's also granted a rare freedom: to figure out what she truly wants from life.

In previous episodes, Xuening mused about what it would be like to forsake palace life and be with Zhang Zhe, but at this point, her feelings for him are largely based on their interactions during the original timeline, not the current one. When she suddenly finds herself joining him to infiltrate the rebels, it is both a chance to explore the world beyond the constraints of the palace while also getting closer to him.

As viewers, many of us have been wondering when Xuening will realize her feelings for Xie Wei and abandon her pursuit of Zhang Zhe. And I think that shift will happen soon. Look at how dark, almost sinister, it looked when the doors of the prison were opened and they began their journey to the rebel hideout. Together, Xuening and Zhang Zhe are embarking on a dangerous adventure that will most likely illuminate just how ill-matched they are.

Xie Wei

Up until this point, everything has gone according to plan for Xie Wei. Like he fine-tunes his qin, he has fine-tuned his revenge plot against the Xue Family to perfection. Ruthless and methodical, he is the puppet master of everyone's fate.

But what I've found so tragic about Xie Wei's character is that even with all the power he has amassed, he still lives within the confines of a prison he has created for himself. Like he had sacrificed himself to save the Crown Prince and those 300 other children when he was a boy, he is now sacrificing his goodness and true sense of self to execute his revenge. "I am not a good person", he warns Xuening over and over again--and he isn't, not really (despite some evidence to the contrary).

Which makes his willingness to reconsider his plans to save Xuening even more incredible. Look at the simmering panic on his face. He warned her never to tell others who she has in her heart, and yet here he is, allowing his carefully crafted plans--the one thing that defines him-- to unravel as he makes plans to leave the palace to go after her.

Xie Wei started the story as the least likely to ever marry anyone, much less Xue Ning, especially out of the the men vying for her heart, but it turns out he's been the most suitable for her all along. It's not that she is merely oblivious to his feelings for her, she is blind to her own as well. She hasn't realised how much influence and sway he holds over her, a woman so fiercely independent and stubborn even to her own detriment, and how much he has been affecting her and her life.

She keeps quoting him, follows his advice and adopts his opinions and strategies, she learns to like go (which she previously hated) and even became a decent qin player. It shows he attracts her because she can sense how similar he is, she can identify and relate to him in many ways. In comparison, Zhang Zhe, who she put on a pedestal and glorified, never influenced her actions with his skills, opinions and behaviour. Her actions towards him were guided by guilt and regret.

A lot of people can see that Xie Ning has Xie Wei wrapped around her little finger, because he loves her (even if she doesn't know it yet), she is the only one who can reign him in, but it goes both ways. He is the only one who manages to control and tame her, an feat not even Zhang Zhe, the emperor or her father have never accomplished. She changes her mind and opinions, listens to him and follows his advices. She can uses their stock excuses, it's because he is her teacher, but that would be a lie. Xue Ning has never treated anyone else in both of her lives this way - with respect and almost unconditional trust that he would never betray or hurt her. If she put Zhang Zhe on a pedestal, where she can't never reach him, she put Xie Wei right next to her, as her equal, so close and touchable.

Wo while Xie Wei might have fallen first, but Xue Ning is falling hard without knowing, by the time she realises how much he means to her, she will be so irrevocably bound to him, she won't be ever able to live him.

When you find yourself at your most desperate and helpless moment, you always run to the person you trust or love the most, usually a lover or a family member, and Xue Ning time and time again runs to Xie Wei in such moments without fail. Because she trusts him unconditionally and believes he can accomplish miracles, even though he still doesn't hold the ultimate power as in the previous life. On a purely subconscious, instinctive level, she must feel that whenever she falls and gets her, he is there to catch her, raise her up, and comfort her. Xie Wei is not so much her teacher, but a guide or a guardian angel.

Really long ramble ahead: I really enjoy the quote that the main similarity between Xie Wei and Ning is that they’re loyal. Because on one hand, their main similarity is that they’re both ruthlessly manipulative and have serious trust issues and identity problems, but on the other hand, comic relief business guy is right. They’re both extremely loyal and motivated by their loyalty.

Ning is trying to save all of her friends no matter what because no matter the terrible things they did, like Yan Lin, in life 1, she is still loyal to them. She is motivated by her loyalty to Zhang Zhe and the promise she made to him. Xie Wei is motivated by a loyalty to his family, to avenge them, to betray everyone and Lord Pinging to do so, to the risk of death.

Not only this, but as demonstrated by their relationship, neither expects loyalty from others, ever. Xie Wei is loyal to her, his saviour, he does not kill her and tries to protect her out of loyalty to their connection and friendship (among other things), and Ning is completely unaware of this. She trusts he has the same goals as her, and is loyal towards the Yan family: she does not trust he would ever be loyal to her, they simply share a goal.

Ning is loyal to Xie Wei in a more intrinsic sense; that being she could easily sell him out to Zhang Zhe, or set him up, or any of that, and be rid of the main cause of the rebellion and life 1, but she never even considers it. She clearly is not averse to setting people up and does it many times, but still she helps him instead. Her whole “im not interested in your secrets” speech exemplifies this, because by all rights, she should be interested, he is behind the rebels, he slaughtered countless people in life 1, she believes he is capable of killing people again, but she isn’t. She threatens to reveal his secrets but it’s entirely half hearted and Xie Wei knows it. Still, he does not realise this is loyalty: she is scared of him, it is fear (except she hasn’t been scared of him for a while now but still). Or it is trust in his loyalty and that they have the same motivations (which it also isn’t).

Neither expects loyalty from others I believe because their loyalty was hard won. Xie Wei is loyal exclusively to people from his childhood, before his walls were built. Ning is loyal to the people she betrayed, they won her loyalty and appreciation through her acts of disloyalty and cruelty. Ning is only loyal to people she saw before her walls went up, before everyone who ever loved her betrayed her, before she was consumed by guilt. So the budding loyalty between Ning and Xie Wei is unexpected and unacknowledged by either party.

But, given their conflicting goals, I have this feeling their mutual loyalty is gonna be an issue in the future. As is exemplified by ZZ and XW’s enemy/rivalry thing, XW’s actions are progressively going more and more against Nings goal of a good ending, and she is going to have to deal with that at some point.

TLDR: Ning and Xie Wei’s loyalty underpins their motivations and their budding loyalty to each other is big for both characters, who so far are mainly just loyal to people they met before their walls went up, but this mutual loyalty will become a plot issue as both of their motivations begin to diverge.

It really is Xuening's world, isn't it?

First blue and red, and now green.

Story of Kunning Palace: Xuening's Harem

Story of Kunning Palace is really making me ship Jiang Xuening with everyone aren't they?

Her harem is even color-coded.

I chuckled when I saw how the composition for Xie Wei's scene was reused for the princess. Very subtle, show. Like including their meet-cute on a bridge under the moonlight in the opening credits sequence.

Xuening really was an equal opportunist in her former timeline.

Story of Kunning Palace Ep. 14: Redemption in life

Jian Xuening: Between my past self and present self, who do you think is better? Xie Wei: Be it the past or the present, it is all you. You're the one and only Miss Ning'er. Besides, the present exists because of the past. Just face it as is. But if we have to make it clear, I think if the present Ning'er knows what she wants, she will be well. And she'll be even better in the future.

Kyaaaa, the scream that just came out of me. This scene from Episode 14 solidified for me why Xie Wei is Jiang Xuening's endgame. Although Zhang Zhe is dreamy and represents the virtuous life Xuening regrets not pursuing as empress, it is ultimately Xie Wei who complements her character. Xuening's story arc isn't just about becoming a better person but also about recognizing that she has always had goodness in her and that goodness makes her life worth just as much as someone like Zhang Zhe. And it is Xie Wei who reminds her of this. She is an "unrefined jade", someone who can choose a more righteous path than the one she started on.

Xuening gave up her life for Zhang Zhe to make amends but also because she idolizes him. In a way, she sees him as more than just a man; he's the embodiment of what is good in the world--the opposite of how she sees her past self.

What I find interesting about their interactions are the small ways she tries to mold herself to fit Zhang Zhe's preferences. (I laughed when her voiceover at the antique shop admitted she didn't know anything about antiques but she would learn for him. Girl, same.) They don't have the fragile but freeing honesty Xie Wei and her have slowly cultivated, and I have a feeling her approach will become exhausting in the long run.

In contrast, Xie Wei argues that she has always had a choice to be a better person because she fundamentally is a good person. Despite being brash and cunning, Xuening is also tenacious, brave, and even kind (all of which Xie Wei recognized when they first met years ago). It is only in life not death that there is the possibility of redemption; she just needs to seek it.

And he sees her.

Truly sees her.

(I have to hand it to Zhang Linghe. These scenes are some of the best acting he's done in years.)

In every timeline, he has watched (over) her and recognized her for her, whether that was by

Calling her Ning'er because of the three words in her name, only "Ning" is her name alone. I think this is particularly poignant given his own estrangement from his family. When they first met, she was still a normal village girl who hadn't officially joined the Jiang family while he had long forsaken his father's name. "Ning'er" is intimate, thoughtful, and honors that shared history;

Apologizing for his anger after assuming the worst of her scheming (e.g., when she was supposedly endangering Yan Lin);

Bringing her sweets when he saw her other study mates had ignored her, even baking them according to her preferences; or

Appreciating her strategic thinking and offering her guidance despite how her plans might complicate his own.

Both Xuening and Xie Wei are people readers (but completely blind to each other's growing feelings, of course), but Xie Wei also uses those skills to care for Xuening in ways that are meaningful to her. He's not changing himself like Xuening wants to do for Zhang Zhe (i.e., how can I fit myself into his world) but instead offering relief (i.e., how can I make her world better).

I can't wait for her to truly see him back so he can redeem himself.