(This section has major spoilers)
The reason of "it would be bad for Ning Yi as emperor" for him and Feng Zhiwei to marry doesn't make sense logically. And even if that was a legitimate concern, given their characters one would also think that they would find a creative solution, but deep down it feels like Feng Zhiwei being coerced to make that vow (and then even renewing it of her own accord later) is ultimately to blame.
A lot of the tragedy in this show is voiced in what Feng Zhiwei says on death row: that she wanted to change her own fate, but not like that. This theme is painfully reflected once again in their relationship, and how their same strong-willed spirits that draw them to eachother is exactly what stopped them from being married right when it was arranged by others at the start.
(Yes I posted this somewhere else on the internet, and may even post it again somewhere else. All you have is my word on it, but it's just an opinion it's not that serious either way. Honestly I'm so irrationally anxious about the idea of my online socials being linked to this blog as if any of it matters that I might remove this anyway.)
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(Only the last sentence of this section has spoilers)
Since this isn't a forum comment and I can write as much or as little as I please without feeling pressure, lets also turn this into a theme statement, just like in high school English:
A cost of exercising free will is regret.
Part of the philosophy of optimism is that we live in the best of all possible worlds, rooted in the thought that a loving God would surely put into motion a world that works out as the most optimal world.
I am not sure how strongly I'd cling to that assumption (especially claiming that that action is the only course for a loving God... it sounds like it makes sense to me right now but what do I know). But from this lens something I have thought about a lot is how perhaps it would be seen that all the suffering that has resulted in this world is the cost of the existence of free will. And that naturally, provided that the deleterious effects are temporary and are promised to be undone by God after the appointed time, with an eternity after of the claims that caused the suffering resolved it really could be said that this is the best of all possible worlds to live in; not because every step was predestined, but because of free will being granted to be exercised.
So while it has come with suffering and regret, a cost of temporary suffering and regret is contrasted with what it buys: free will paired with guaranteed eternal future where that pain is undone.
If you check out the comments associated with the account I used to repost the first portion of this post you can see a change in my thinking, and the timing should line up well with other posts on this blog tagged "Philosophy" and "optimism." (For this post, please don't mind the "personal essays tag. It's not a personal essay really but it's tagged this way just because of the potential for the topic to be used for one.)
That said... ever the optimist I am, under all this premise it also makes me see it that if Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi were real, although we can't see it on Netflix now their story isn't really over. )
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After discussing this, it makes me think that perhaps positive-thinking can be smaller-picture and more immediate, while optimism relies on a bigger-picture.
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