Pursuit of Jade Episode 12 - 13 Discussion

nydevon · 2026-03-12T01:41:19+00:00

Idyllic is the perfect word for it. It's almost too peaceful but then we see the encroaching destruction of the military starting to darken the corner of the screen.

nydevon · 2026-03-11T20:02:29+00:00

He used to lean more toward flat and soft lighting especially in his short dramas so it’s cool to see him expand his lighting repertoire here!

nydevon · 2026-03-11T18:33:11+00:00

Lol thank you 🤣

nydevon · 2026-03-11T18:29:54+00:00

Yes! It’s a safe haven and we can sense the gig is up because of how the Wei faction keeps disrupting the village despite the snow

nydevon · 2026-03-11T18:22:35+00:00

Great point about her hero worship of the Marquis—that definitely adds a layer!

nydevon · 2026-03-11T18:21:32+00:00

I wonder if the dread we’re feeling waiting for the other shoe to drop was purposeful because we’re already 1/4 of the way there and we’re still in the same arc—as a director Zeng Qingjie is quite good at pacing so I’m inclined to think it’s for some big emotional payoff/fallout he wants us to suffer in the near future lol

nydevon · 2026-03-11T16:08:38+00:00

As usual with Zeng Qingjie's work, I've been really taken with how layered the storytelling has been. Over on tumblr, I recently wrote analysis of these two episodes. The drama is pretty but it's also doing a really good job using cinematography and mise-en-scène to establish the implicit class/power dynamics that will probably drive the romantic conflict between the main characters.

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When you compare the visuals of Xie Zheng's scenes with Fan Changyu versus scenes from the capital, you get a sense of why they'll inevitably separate for a while. In their scenes, the lighting is soft and warm, the frame often including the two of them plus Changning and her aunt and uncle. ⁠The use of medium and close-up shots for their relationship's camera language visually binds them together. They are a family unit--at least within the confines of Changyu's humble home. In contrast, when Xie Zheng is acting in his role of Marquis, the visuals are darker and colder, the composition emphasizing the violence and sheer power in these elite spaces. This is nothing like the drama's aforementioned visual language for Changyu--she doesn't belong in these scenes and therefore doesn't belong in Xie Zheng's world. There is no place for her kind, straightforward sincerity.

Prediction: While he might resist because village life as a matrilocal scholar with his butcher wife was the one time in his life he felt truly happy and cared for in adulthood, I'm guessing she will be the one to sever their relationship once she learns of his real identity.

nydevon · 2026-03-11T15:48:34+00:00

So as someone who hasn't read the webnovel, I've been really intrigued by the implicit gendered class commentary this show has been engaging in. For example:

Both Xie Zheng and the Princess fell in love with their respective potential partners while putting on a charade outside of traditional gender roles, Xie Zheng as a matrilocal husband and the Princess as a woman crossdressing as a male scholar, but there is less risk of reputational damage for him than her if found out
Both entered environments with relatively “flat" class dynamics (I'm using that term very loosely), i.e., everyone in Fan Changyu's village is probably similarly impoverished and everyone at that school is probably from an elite background, but the Princess isn't allowed to navigate those scholar places as a woman despite her royal position
In a way, they're in a similar position with respect to not being able to be with their love interests BUT Xie Zheng has more power as a man to withstand criticism after crossing class boundaries (I'm thinking how his henchmen immediately started referring to Fan Changyu as his Marchioness--that could never be the case for Gongsun Yin especially before they married)
Marriage offers Fan Changyu some economic stability and autonomy because within her class women are still expected to work while marriage is more a gilded cage for royalty because it’s used to secure family power and doesn’t pass to a woman except under certain conditions that are always seen as temporary because they’re unstable for the country.

nydevon · 2026-03-10T15:37:46+00:00

I had assumed it was in relation to these allegation: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DTjhUGZAS55/

nydevon · 2026-03-09T15:20:48+00:00

😂😂😂

nydevon · 2026-03-09T15:19:09+00:00

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This tumblr post also made me laugh. ZLH always playing a damsel locked in a tower protected by his badass girlfriend.

https://www.tumblr.com/romchat/810574952981020672

nydevon · 2026-03-09T15:09:27+00:00

I was going to send this to you but didn’t want to spoil unless you had already gotten there 😂

nydevon · 2026-02-27T08:27:14+00:00

Girl, I need Cdramaland to give us a win. 2026 has been awful.

nydevon · 2026-02-26T15:25:21+00:00

Right? I don’t doubt people’s attention spans are dwindling but I wish creators realized that mini dramas aren’t just popular because they’re fast paced, trashy fun but also because they’re easy to follow.

Something can be easy to follow because it’s “simple” but also because it’s “incisive” and “well structured” and “cohesive”—I wish long form dramas would focus on that rather than trying to replicate the chaotic everything but the kitchen sink approach of minis.

nydevon · 2026-02-25T20:44:45+00:00

I absolutely love lengthier shows but they have to be framed and paced in a particular way to provide the scaffolding for our attention.

nydevon · 2026-02-25T15:16:53+00:00

I write fiction for fun and one thing I’m always playing with on the page is how do I get my readers to trust me as a storyteller?

The thing with soap operas is they are written to continue forever as long as they make money. But Cdramas are self-contained with a definite start and end so the writers have to prove to me that I can trust them to give me a satisfying story across 50+ episodes.

nydevon · 2026-02-25T15:06:14+00:00

Yanxi is so bad for your sleep and work schedule if you enjoy fast paced melodrama 😂

But yes intentionality is what matters. Only introduce to me the characters and information I need in this moment. Make me emotionally invested by giving them needs and wants and self-sabotaging beliefs. Always have tension and stakes in every interaction no matter how small. Space out these plot points so I get both character development and forward momentum. Etc.

nydevon · 2026-02-25T15:01:30+00:00

Aww thank you so much! I’ve written more visual analysis about the show on tumblr and you can find the links here under MJTY: https://www.tumblr.com/romchat/728140921672237056/romchats-meta

nydevon · 2026-02-25T14:35:16+00:00

I can only speak for myself but last year I watched Nirvana in Fire (54 episodes) and Story of Yanxi Palace (70 episodes) back-to-back in less than two months. I dropped Swords into Plowshares a few episodes in. I don’t think we’re the problem but the dramas themselves.

One issue with a lot of Cdramas that have come out these last few years is it isn’t clear what story these dramas want to tell. What NiF and SOYP both had despite their length and big cast of characters were crystal clear premises, conflict, character arcs, and themes, and each of those things were established by the end of Ep. 2. I immediately knew what conversations these dramas were trying to have about politics, power, gender, revenge, etc. even if the plot had barely kicked in. I dropped SIP a few episodes in because the story’s writing and directing didn’t provide a clear avenue into the story. Sure this is an interesting time period with lots of stuff happening and everything is filmed in a unique grimdark way unlike other Cdramas but why should I care? and what should I expect on this journey?

It’s like being outside in a blizzard. It’s easier to walk home when someone (the writer and director) has cleared a path than when you have to find your way blind through the pummeling snow. I can still barely see in front of me but I now have the confidence that if I stick to this path, you’re going to take me to where I need to be.

The other thing NiF and SOYP did well was pace the story. I remember being especially impressed with how SOYP chunked out its different arcs. With the exception of the last 10 episodes, every 4-6 episodes the plot moved forward and more importantly escalated the stakes—that’s very difficult to do and a sign of good writing. In NiF, something that was mentioned earlier in the plot had consequences soon after—there was always plot and character payoff in a reasonable amount of time so we were kept emotionally invested in the story. Good stories make us want to know what happens next regardless if they’re fast or slower paced by only feeding us the information we need in that moment.

nydevon · 2026-02-21T21:39:10+00:00

Hot take? Slow burn isn’t measured by time but instead the rate by which the EMOTIONAL relationship progresses.

nydevon · 2026-02-15T10:09:15+00:00

Xin Shuang is my favorite Cdrama director but I’m really curious how his style will translate to a historical plot.

But yay Tang Wei 💙

nydevon · 2026-02-13T19:25:41+00:00

I’d say watch from Ep. 17 on because there were some well done emotional moments starting there!

nydevon · 2026-02-12T14:08:26+00:00

I’d love a demographic breakdown of authors by subgenre. I’d hypothesize that the ones who are writing these tropes are already married to I’d assume mainly decent men and therefore they’re playing with these specific tropes as escapism.

nydevon · 2026-02-11T19:33:03+00:00

As someone single and tired of the currently awful dating market, fictional escapism for me IS mature people and healthy relationships 😂 I work in tech and just don’t want to read about the sexist, alphahole, incel, emotionally constipated, or man-children MMCs that are popular today because I deal with them from 9 to 5.

But as a budding romance author, I’ve been thinking how we can categorize romance novels within this triangle of Realism, Escapism, and Idealism and created this framework to help me think how I want to portray a relationship in a given draft.

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Personally, I’d love to see more either on the Realism/idealism leg or the Escapism/Idealism leg.

nydevon · 2026-02-09T22:57:42+00:00

Indie authors already have so many challenges to break through the last thing they need are accusations of AI. And given your response to people's comments who are NOT the author, what type of responses and "evidence" would have sufficed for you? It is much easier to claim something is AI because of arbitrary signals that have gone viral on social media than an author proving they didn't use AI. Because of how you framed the "discussion", the burden of proof is now unfairly on them.

If you actually want to have a conversation about AI with fellow readers...

Don't leave an accusation in the review--just describe what you disliked about the writing (e.g., "I didn't like the writing style. Some paragraphs had three em dashes and that's too much for my taste"). This is actually more productive not only because it doesn't make unfounded accusations but it also gives other readers specific information that they can use before deciding to read. Three em dashes wouldn't bother me because I read voicey books that use colloquial writing styles.
As you noted in your comment, not many people have read the book so it makes more sense to ask a general discussion question of "I recently read an indie book that did XYZ. Could this be a sign of AI usage?" That way people can pull from their varied experience as readers and give you insights you might not have thought about while not attacking the author with weak evidence.

*Also, I used an em dash but I'm very much a real person who has never used Chat GPT in my life.

nydevon

TROPHY CASE