whimsyhwi

[whimsyhwi]

What I love the most about Story of Kunning Palace is that it uses the unreasonably possessive male lead and pits him against a female heroine who is entirely immune to any and all of his machinations. While Xie Wei's madness is almost instrumental to him ultimately winning Jiang Xuening's heart, the story doesn't shy away from the fact that it was the very same love that had destroyed them both in their first life.

Every attempt Xie Wei makes at trapping Xuening within the ties of societal propriety in their second life also spectacularly fails. For a story about going back in the past to fix one's mistakes, the romance between Xie Wei and Xuening somehow manages to stay above the lazy strings of destiny.

They kiss, they have sex, he does her immense favors - all in poorly veiled attempts to purposefully manipulate her, but she still refuses to be 'his'. Jiang Xuening, not even for a moment, turns away from the duty and love she feels for Yan Lin, Princess Shen Zhiyi or even Zhang Zhe, who is Xie Wei's direct competitor and in many ways the one who 'won' the battle for Xuening's heart in the first life.

In Xie Wei's obsession over Xuening's feelings for Zhange Zhe, he does manage to understand the core of what moves Xuening's heart: sincerity. I think it's pretty undeniable that the day Xuening kills herself in the first life, Xie Wei was there to marry her. I see it as more than just a simple misunderstanding; Xuening did not love Xie Wei and she especially did not vibe with his desire for mutual punishment and destruction.

Even though Xuening desires devotion, she values life above all and not just her own either. She loves her friends more than she loves any of these men romantically and the one person who's given her devotion and sincerity in spades and won hers in return in both lives? You Fangyin. Even though her relationship with Xuening ends her life both times, You Fangyin always dies with her spirit intact. Whereas, Zhang Zhe's devotion to Xuening in their first life destroys the core of Zhang Zhe's being. When Xuening realizes that they're forever unable to escape this particular fate, she gives him up immediately.

Xie Wei's madness, his crazy red flag possessiveness allows him to weather the turmoil of giving her a devotion that surpasses that of even You Fangyin's. And it takes him two lifetimes to figure out how to give it to her without her recoiling in disgust.

Of the three male leads Yan Lin Zhang Zhe and Xie Wei, Xie Wei is indeed the personality that suits Xuening best, he may very well be her ideal man - but that’s not enough! It's a destiny you have to work for and a destiny you have to choose.

Go figure.

[whimsyhwi]

Xue Ning's deepest, most visceral desire in both lives has been to be loved by someone the most in the world. After a lifetime of neglect from those who should have given her that sort of love, be it her biological mother or her "fake" mother, she tried to compensate for this lack by becoming the empress, because she thought the position meant being loved by everyone the most, which terribly backfired on her, since it's the opposite - she was just the first among many, locked in a golden cage and an eternal struggle for the emperor's favour, and hated by almost everyone. Xue Ning had never been anyone's everything, and the more she yearned for it and tried to fill the void, the more it eluded her. She looked for it in all the wrong places - the palace, Zhang Zhe, in the capital, with her family..., but it only left her even more empty, jaded, unhappy and constantly disappointed no matter what she did. She was never good enough for them. And just when she gives up the hope of ever finding acceptance and love, Xie Wei storms into her life and GIVES HER HIS EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING SHE HAS EVER WANTED AND NEEDED, BECAUSE SHE IS HIS EVERYTHING.

He, perhaps the most unlikely person imaginable (at least for her), is the only one who can actually give her what she has always been starved for, taking her everything, all her damaged, dark, tormented and vulnerable self and loving her completely. She doesn't need to hide or pretend with him, like she does with others, since she never fears Xie Wei would reject her for her flaws.

It's telling that the only time Xue Ning actually gets angry in front of Zhang Zhe and argues with him is when she is defending Xie Wei. It's like he is seeing her for the first time, and in a way, he really is.

Xue Ning desires acceptance of everything she is, and Xie Wei embraces her completely. He is the only one who can see only her and gives her his unconditional love and complete devotion. This all-encompassing, all-consuming love that defies all reason, fear, and fate finally belongs only to her. Forever. In him, she gets what no other woman in her acquittance does - a man faithful only to her for a lifetime (maybe even more than that). Her sister is a concubine, her father used to have a concubine, but Xue Ning is Xie Wei's one and only.

Her sheer disbelief and wonder of being loved so completely when she finally realises she is someone's everything, his first and only choice forever, that she is finally more than enough and that Xie Wei would give up and sacrifice for her everything he cares for, even his own life, despite knowing her ugly, dark, messy side, he loves her not in spite of it but because of it, because he considers her his equal in every way.

How could it be him out of all people? But the truth is, it could have only ever been him.

[whimsyhwi]

[whimsyhwi]

Xie✨feminist✨ Wei: If I eat vinegar so does she *sideyes yanlin and zhangzhe*

#story of kunning palace

[whimsyhwi]

Jiang Xuening flipping the script and being increasingly into Xie Wei the more unhinged & messily desperate about her that he reveals himself to be absolutely makes sense for her character.

The girl from the countryside who always knew her mother was searching for someone else in her face & felt a distance there, where they were harassed and never accepted by the villagers... and then came to the capital to find her "real" family where she had been replaced and could never catch up, finding it impossible to compare with the talents and poise of her replacement, who spent years realizing she can't please her birth mother... The woman who climbed up the ladder to be empress in her orginal life so that she could reach what she thought was the 1 unassailable point that demanded the respect & admiration that she's been craving, who since learning the truth of her identity lived in panicked grasping fear that everything she had would be taken away from her. Though at first she's instinctively running away from intimacy because she can't trust it, everything in her instinctively lights up at connecting with someone she feels a physical attraction to AND can't have their attention and love stolen away or shared. Once she realizes and accepts in her heart that this person can be all hers, with NO BRAKES ... She likes that he's obsessive and too much and damaged. He's hyper competent, she believes he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to, and what he wants the most is HER? Sorry not sorry this is 100% Jiang Xuening's secret sauce, she can vibe out on that forever.

[whimsyhwi]

XW is so pathetic in love...I love it(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

#story of kunning palace

[whimsyhwi]

My boy XW had a qin and a dream but he still played EVERYONE

#story of kunning palace

[whimsyhwi]

D-did I get Stockholm syndromed into liking the osts??😭😭

#thought it mediocre at first #but now its kinda seving wtf #story of kunning palace #im DEEP in this show huh #ep29&30 did sth idk

[whimsyhwi]

Because Xue Shu is hellbent on marrying her cousin, it's time for a family tree.

So Xie Wei is actually Xue Dingfei. His mother is Yan Min, sister of Yan Mu. She was the official wife. It means Yan Mu is Xie Wei's maternal uncle. So Yan Mu' son is Xie Wei's maternal cousin : Yan Lin.

Xie Wei's father is Duke Xue Yuan, who is the brother of the Queen Mother. It means the children of Duke Xue are Xie Wei's half siblings : Xue Shu, Xue Ye. It also means the Queen Mother is Xie Wei's paternal aunt. The children of Queen Mother Xue are Xie Wei's paternal cousins : the king (= Shen Kang), the prince Lin Zi (= Shen Jie), the princess Zi Yi (= Shen Zhi Yi).

SO it also means the other children of Duke Xue (Xue Shu, Xue Ye) and the royal siblings (the king, the prince, the princess) are cousins. SO it means that bitch Xue Shu wanted to marry her cousin prince Lin Zi and is now the consort of her other cousin king Shen Kang (while plotting to have his unborn child killed, her own second cousin).

On a side note, we also now Xue Shu was concieved out of wedlock since her father was cheating on his wife (Yan Min), the mother of Dingfei/Xie Wei, and Xue Shu was conceived two months before Duke Xue took his mistress as concubine (or was she already his concubine and it was 2 months before taking her as his official wife?).

Xie Wei's father and aunt (the Xue) tried to destroyed the family of Xie Wei's mother and uncle (the Yan), while he tries to avenge himself, his mother and, it seems, the 300 killed children by destroying the Xue's clan. We love him for this.

Now for the Jiang Sisters : Xue Ning is actually the only daughter/child by blood of the Jiang. Her sister Jiang Xue Hui is officially the eldest daughter but she is not of the blood : she is the daughter of a maid who switched the babies and was kicked out. While I'm at it, why are you named Xue Ning, it creates confusion with the Xue clan!

So in her first life Ning was married to Lin Zi, who also had for concubine his cousin Xue Shu. Ning also slept with Xie Wei, who is Lin Zi's cousin and Xue Shu's half-brother. And she had a thing with Yan Lin who then turned into (for what I understood) r*pe. Yan Lin is Xie Wei's cousin.

So she had ties to both of Xie Wei's cousins. And in this second life she almost got engaged to Yan Lin who loves her, but she will end up with Yan Lin's cousin Xie Wei.

Now, Xie Wei and Ning are endgame. Let's say it's a happy end and they get married. What do we have ? Xie Wei's maternal cousin (Yan Lin) is in love with Ning. Xie Wei's paternal cousin (princess Zi Yi) is in love with Ning. Xie Wei's paternal cousin (the king) and Xie Wei's half-sister Xue Shu are kinda-married Xie Wei's paternal cousin (prince Lin Zi) and Ning's sister (Jiang Xue Hui) are in love.

So most of them are family by blood-ties or marriage, most of which gravitates around Xie Wei.

And then there is Zhang Zhe. 🧍‍♂️

[whimsyhwi]

Saw a tweet about Jiang xuining that said she doesn't need to rely on anyone and a strong independent woman....while yes she IS a strong independent woman it's not cause she doesn't rely on others.

Her 1st life we see her use and manipulate everyone she can in order achieve her goals. And even in her 2nd life she STILL uses others to an extent (eg: zhou yin zhi). And we need to acknowledge that. She isn't a Mary Sue who can magically solve issues cause the plot says so. She needs to plan and tread carefully and let's not forget she is technically not the same rank as the other characters like Xue Shu. She does need to use others in other to get things done. And that doesn't mean she ain't a badass or an independent woman. She lives in a society which restricts her from her status to the social conventions regarding woman to all her enemies waiting for her to make one wrong move and kill her.

And I love that. I love how she will never be 100% morally good nor bad. She's a grey person whose loyalty to her loved ones will drive her actions over everything (like how her desire to be empress in the 1st life). We need to appreciate that we FINALLY have a fl with a bit of nuance here.

Tldr: JXN built her throne by sacrificing and using others and no one should ignore that in order to make her this 'good' person

Also maybe I took the tweet the wrong way and if so I'm sorry but in general this is to all those who try to make my girl into this victim who is actually pure goodness and was forced to be evil or sth like that. Like c'mon we need to realise that we are getting an actual grey heroine like pls give that some love and see it for what it is

#story of kunning palace #bai lu #sorry i needed to vent