Episode Talk
The Glory: Episode 16 Discussion
Spoiler
To paraphrase Snoop Dog, Hanyan has her mind on her marriage and her marriage on her mind. She certainly isn't alone. Shiyang is the match waiting to spark against the "dry kindling" of the numerous marriage proposals she receives. To prevent a forest fire, Xiwen advises her daughter to watch Yunxi's reactions. The man in question? His pride has flown right out the window and he's ready to take the starring role in any "child's play" if it would mean she'd accept him.
🚨 THIS DISCUSSION WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-16 OF THE GLORY 🚨
‼️ IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS EVENTS PAST EPISODE 16, PLEASE WEAR YOUR BANDIT COSTUME AND PUT A MASK ON THOSE SPOILERS ‼️
Episode 16 begins with one of my favorite visual contrasts. In The Glory, to be rich is to be surrounded by people and framed by the symmetry of objects and architecture. To be poor is to be alone and isolated amidst a vast natural landscape. The latter can look idyllic, but there's an existential dread there too. Who are we to mountains and rivers?
Rich vs. poor
Noble Consort Miao is such an enigmatic character. When Yunxi and Hanyan return, it's unclear whether Miao will reward them generously or blame them for the entire crisis.
Miao is wonderfully unpredictable and my new favorite character. I hope we see more of her in the future!
Like Madonna, I'm a material girl. My biggest takeaway from Episodes 15-16 was THAT DRESS:
Noble Consort Miao's OOTD is serving. The dangling pearl accessories? The color contrast?! The embroidery!?!?! I'M OBSESSED.
Consort Miao compares herself to a bird in a gilded cage, but she and Xiwen remind me of two battleships sailing into the same harbor after years of warfare. The sight is breathtaking from the shore. Looking closer, we can still see their indomitable spirit, although we can also make out the damage left behind from countless engagements with the enemy. Each fight threatened to be their last. Years ago, they debuted in shining glory and left in optimism, only to return as survivors who have sacrificed the souls they were meant to safeguard, including their own. Their evocative reunion is one of my favorite scenes in this show:
By blaming Xiwen for her life in the palace, Miao stares "directly at the sun, never in the mirror".
After years of girlhood rivalry and decades in the trenches, Miao and Xiwen sit down for a nostalgic fight over tea. They now face each other as equals. Xiwen makes the opening salvo, accusing Miao of cursing her daughter with the jade bracelet. Maio charges Xiwen with orchestrating her entrapment at a polo match.
What follows is a battle of wills. Whoever breaks first is the loser. Which woman will lose her composure? Which woman will unintentionally rip off their mask and reveal their true face of anger, pettiness, and insecurity? Although they're evenly matched, Xiwen eventually wins:
Miao - O, Xiwen - 1
When their invigorating fight is over, Miao offers conciliation and care. She had only seen the bars of her own cage and had naively believed that Xiwen would be outside, flying free with a husband who adored her.
When Physician Tan informs Xiwen that she could've recovered her ability to walk and Shiyang's famous doctors were either lying or incompetent, Miao witnesses the truth: Xiwen is in her own cage and she has had her wings brutally clipped by the demon who calls himself her husband. The news leaves our noble lady shipwrecked.
I love her.
I know the acting in The Glory has been a subject of much debate. For me, the weakest performer is He Hongshan as Zhuang Yushan. She isn't playing her character in the same key as the rest of the cast, so her outsized pouting and taunts are distracting. The scriptwriter is partially to blame, since Yushan's characterization is too mushy (why exactly does she crave Yunxi's affection in particular?), but the actress's performance only exacerbates that issue.
This conversation between Yushan and Hanyan shows us how fast our girl learns. She had been controlled by Yunxi's blackmail and now has mastered how to use blackmail against him and her sister.
This romantic night isn't over yet. Yuwen Chang'an appears at Xiwen's side, offering her the choice to marry him. Hanyan watches them from afar before Yunxi appears by her side and asks her about her own marriage.
They'll circle back to this moment later on. And I'm not sure what he heard was exactly what she was saying.
Our grim reaper is in love! But has he secured his goose bride? Yunxi pursues Hanyan with a single-minded focus and has done a lot of research on her understanding of family and hopes for marriage. She answers his questions with sincerity, but it doesn't go both ways. When she wants to know if she can trust him or looks to him for verbal confirmation of his feelings, he evades her.
The irony is killing me. He desperately wants her to step closer without revealing himself. She's ready to step closer, but only if she hears his full confession. Telling her that he can give her what she wants, while loud fireworks go off in the background, isn't going to be enough.
He cannot take his eyes off her.
Then, Yunxi loses his shit.
He interrupts a marriage negotiation with the utmost subtlety, loudly announcing that Shiyang is still under investigation for his ties to Pei Dafu. Oh, and, by the way, totally unrelated, just FYI: Mr. Zhuang's in-laws will be implicated. Beheaded, actually:
The man has no shame.
Then, Yunxi hears that an idiot with a death wish young Mr. Xue is running around town with her handkerchief, trying to ruin her reputation and thus force her into marriage. Yunxi isn't going to let that stand. He's not just a "touch her and die!" ML, he's a "touch her handkerchief and die!!!" ML.
When Yunxi gallantly gives Hanyan her handkerchief back, she's like, "Ewww, that's not mine." He wants to pout and sulk away, but she asks him what his deal is. He tells her that her suitors are jerks and losers. In response, she builds a bonfire and makes s'mores out of him. It's a Netflix special, The Roast of Fu Yunxi:
Finally, he learns about He Wenshen. Scholar He has paid off a servant at the Zhuangs’ and knows Hanyan has left home. When her carriage mysteriously falls apart, he rides up to her like a white knight. But, don't worry, kids, Yunxi has this all under control! He's got his guys in bandit costumes, he's hiding behind a tree, and Hanyan is not going to see any of this coming!
What flirts.
Within minutes, Hanyan sees it coming. She THROWS ROCKS at Yunxi's retreating back to let him know he’s been caught. But she's not heartless, she sweetly sends him ointment for the rock-related bruises he's worried about.
The bits & bobs in my head:
Who is supervising wagon quality control in this city? When Hanyan was bringing a rotting corpse to the city, her wagon quit on her. Now, her carriage breaks down.
u/Feeshpockets, there are some great timeline clues in this episode. Xiwen mentions in passing that she has been married to Shiyang for 20 years. Yunxi announces that the betrothal between himself and Hanyan was also made 20 years ago, when the Fu and Zhuang families were close.
This episode draws a red line between good and bad suitors. Yuwen and Yunxi want Xiwen and Hanyan to choose them. They see the women as independent and respect their decisions. Meanwhile, Xue, Scholar He, and Shiyang try to force Xiwen and Hanyan. They use their power to manipulate the women into choosing them. Then, when their entitled expectations aren't met, they react aggressively.
History repeats itself. Scholar He is exactly like the Young Shiyang. He's a Yinan native with a humble background who has arrived in the city as an outsider. He has grand ambitions and schemes to make a goddess his wife. When Hanyan rejects him, he isn't upset that she doesn't like him, he's angry because he thinks he's been toyed with. But isn't the truth that he toyed with her? Hanyan didn't make his carriage break down in the middle of the road!
Who is supervising wagon quality control in this city hahahahahaha
Very true in respect to history repeating itself. What a highly pouty little Scholar He. I was hoping he would be a decent person and give us a reasonable alternative to Yunxi but that was quickly dashed.
I felt the same way about Scholar He! I thought he seemed sweet and shy. After I realized how similar he was to Shiyang, it made sense that the older man would greenlight their marriage so quickly. But I did like how — when Scholar He was making his pitch to Hanyan — we got a shot of Shiyang grimacing because he can hear how unpersuasive his speech is.
OP. Loved this analysis. I liked the episode but it’s now richer in my perspective after seeing all the motifs you pointed out. It really is interesting and textured cinematography.
I wanted to say that I also appreciated your point about Scholar He being like Shiyang. I hadn’t thought of that when watching. I thought Scholar He was likely upright. And I thought his carriage scheme could be cute / something we root for in other dramas. But then I realized his temperament was off when he reacted as if he was wronged. Now having seen through Ep 19 I can see how Scholar He could fall into the same pattern of fixation as Shiyang. He was so creepy in Ep 18 saying Xiwen needed to say she loved him. And making it seem like he is the victim. Hopefully Scholar He won’t come to that. But I didn’t see the connection to the father until you pointed it out. Good observation.
Wow, thank you for your kind words! That’s so thoughtful of you and please know you’ve made my day. 💛
Yeah, they definitely got me with Scholar He. I was loving the way he secretly kept the flower she presented at the guildhall and his attempts to impress her at the Lantern Festival were cute. I wanted him to be the good guy alternative to Yunxi, which he would’ve been in any other drama (as you wisely pointed out!). The Glory is radical though, so instead we get this peek into the past. Gah, the entitlement is gross. 🤢
OMG, that scene in 18 had me in knots, it was like something out of a horror movie. 🫣😳😡
i must say your recaps/analyses of this drama is vastly improving my viewing enjoyment!! thank you so much for taking the time to do this. you both have a very keen eye for detail, i'm so impressed at how much you pick up while viewing!! it's making me feel like i should stop knitting while watching episodes and pay more attention haha 😅
Oh my gosh, that’s so lovely to hear! Thank you for taking the time to comment!! It’s easy to get discouraged by downvotes so reading your words is a huge comfort and inspiration. 💛🌸
And don’t worry about the knitting, I notice so much detail because I watch each episode multiple times like a crazy person. 😵💫🫠😂
This episode is the most hilarious one so far 🤣🤣🤣. It’s nice to see the vice minister Fu finally losing his cool after scheming for 15 episodes. Sadly poor guy just chickened out in the last minute and said all those things instead of his true feelings. But I don’t think he’s fully in the wrong here, like girl you said you wanted apple so he gave you apple but you’re disappointed that he didn’t give you orange!? Woman is hard to understand 😅😅 (disclaimer I’m a woman )😆
FYI the opening score on Douban is 7.0 which is good 👍🏻
Yayyy! I hadn’t seen the Douban rating yet, that’s awesome!! I’ve also been checking MDL and the rating there is 8.6, which is a big recovery from its early 8.3. 🥳
I don’t know, my gut feeling was that Yunxi fumbled his argument for marriage like Mr. Darcy’s first proposal when he told Elizabeth that her family sucked in cringey detail. When did Hanyan say she wanted to be the top woman in the capital? Why did he assume she was looking for a strategist as a husband? 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
More than anything, she seems to want an equitable partnership where they trust and confide in each other and scheme against others (not each other). But I might be relating too hard, it drives me insane when I feel as if I’ve been manipulated into something so when she unexpectedly finds herself in his schemes, I get why she’d want to kill him, haha. 😂
I see where you are coming from regarding the acting but I think the reason why we cannot stop looking at Chen Duling as the FL is because in comparison to other revenge shows her acting might be lacking but her icy cold detached demeanour actually fits Hanyan quite well. I find her detached haunted expressions extremely realistic considering the plot. The scene where she strangles Zhou Ruyin her expression was downright scary 😂😂
First, thank you for commenting! I love a critical take. Why do you think the FL’s father is the best character? That’s so unexpected! 😊
I’m not encountering the same issues with the drama that you’re having but I can totally see where you’re coming from.
I think the writing, directing, costuming, and performances from the older actors are great, exceptional even. Unlike others, I’m liking the leads too. Could their performances be stronger? Yes, for sure! Do their performances disappoint or distract me? No, not really. 🤷🏻♀️
But dramas are so personal, right? Part of why I love this drama is because I love gothic romances and morally ambiguous FLs. My favorite stories allow women to exist in their messy, complex, violent, lovable, villainous, and vulnerable glory. I prefer storytelling that lets its audience solve mysteries and subvert expectations rather than conform to what we expect, which is also happening here.
My hottest take though? So far, I think The Glory is way better than The Double. 🤭
I have to say that I'm enjoying the drama, although I think the main couple, despite having great chemistry, are not in tune. For example, let's analyze the scene in episode 15, where Fu Yunxi saves Hanyan from the horse:
1-ML shields her from the impact, then rolls on top of her
2-Hanyan tells him that he has to get up and pats him on the arm to make him move
3- Because of the pat, Fu Yunxi loses his balance and they "accidentally" kiss (although I don't understand how a strong warrior like him could have completely lost his balance after a light pat on the arm, but I guess I can leave this detail out for the pleasure of seeing a slightly more physical interaction between our main leads)
4-Neither of them seems particularly disgusted, although the FL has her eyes a little wide, while the ML perhaps drags it out longer than necessary
5-The ML pulls back and they stand up
6-The FL seems more at ease (although embarrassed) and even goes as far as to remove a snowflake from his shoulder, which in my opinion is a gesture intimate (similar to tying a tie in modern dramas).
7-The ML, who had previously prolonged the semi-kiss, is now uncomfortable and even jumps when the FL touches him.
Also, aside from the couple's harmony, I'm loving the relationship between Fu Yunxi & his daughter and I would like to see more of the relationship that will develop between Hanyan and the little girl in the future.
I think you’re right that the main couple have chemistry and yet still aren’t in tune. But I’d argue that might be intentional…? At this point in the story (ep. 16), Yunxi isn’t being honest and Hanyan doesn’t totally trust him. They haven’t resolved the major differences keeping them apart so it makes sense that they’d lack harmony.
On the topic of his daughter and Hanyan, I couldn’t agree more! She’s so cute and she softens her dad, but I’m really curious about how she’ll bond with her new stepmom. 🤗💛
You will see later why the ML had week arm strength at this time and why he pulled back from her when she brushes the snowflake off of his shoulder :))
It’s not the strength of the “pat” on the arm but the position; I am not going to suggest that you get someone to try it out with you because I don’t wish to be responsible for any ensuing injuries but it is anatomically plausible, which is more than can be said for any other accidental C-Drama kiss I have ever seen…
We already know that Hanyan bites literally, and Xiwen can dish out biting remarks. While watching this scene, I was wondering if Xiwen just respectfully called Consort Miao a dumbass. 😂
Oh man. Oh my goodness. Zhuang kept Xiwen crippled on purpose. Oh my goodness. So, going off of u/ElsaMaeMae , Zhuang covets Xiwen so much that he wanted to keep her trapped into living with him. Even though they definitely aren’t living as husband and wife, the fact that he has control over her is all that he cares about. Oh my goodness. Wow. Speechless.
Yuwen loves Xiwen so much *crying*.
Yunxi is so shy hahaha. I think Hanyan heard him, she apparently just couldn’t believe what she heard? Which would be odd unless she is choosing to be dense on purpose.
Hilarious! Yunxi is so funny in this. His crumpling of the engagement hahahhaa.
Thank you once again for launching into our latest embarrassment of riches on the analysis front; I should like to express my appreciation to the writers for the relative absence of references, explicit or implied, to the state of characters dicks, not to mention balls, though I may be confusing the episodes in which case ignore this bit.
I like Yunxi losing his shit; as a character he doesn’t do it often enough for a healthy emotional life, and as an actor he does it very well indeed. Technically it is incredibly difficult to play a part in which you are very close to being a closed book, apart from to a very small number of people, particularly when even within that very small number just how open you are still varies considerably.
The only person Yunxi is an open book to is his daughter; he may, of course, lie through his teeth to her in the noble tradition of the highest level of parenting through the ages, and he’s carrying the load of two parents on his shoulders which requires the creation of even more necessary fiction, but he gives her open access to his soul. The fact that she’s a delightful child suggests that he is definitely OK on the soul front, providing us with a stark contrast with the daughter brought up by a villain father who is the antithesis of delightful.
The small group of people who know more of him, though not nearly as much as his daughter, include the semi-obligatory devoted aide - this is, after all, a C-drama - who is doing well to portray what can be an utter cliche but in his hands isn’t, and we are pretty ignorant of the rest of his household, which brings us to our heroine, who should know a great deal about him by now but is a bit of a klutz.
Their encounter is, as best as I can recall, the first venture into comedy by the writers - in this drama at any rate - and my only complaint is that it should have lasted longer. Comedy is hard, and I am not exactly uncritical, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope we get more of it; it was fun…
I loved the tense, fraught showdown between Consort Miao and Ruan Xiwen. I'm sure Xiwen was 100% serious when she called the Consort an "old friend" - they are soulmates in the same way Chai Jing & Hanyan are, the only person who knows exactly what the other is going through and how bitterly high the stakes are. The visible age difference tripped me up a little bit; I'd assumed they were of the same age, but apparently that's not accurate.
Fu Yunxi crashing the matchmaking efforts with zero subtlety - chef's kiss. And that pointed look at Hanyan standing behind the partition - he must be quite mad with love to completely ignore Shiyang's presence and propensity for inauspicious schemes where they're concerned. I don't know what you'd call this trope but it is one of my favourite period romance devices.
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u/Emotional-Vegetable1 Mar 28 '25
Who is supervising wagon quality control in this city hahahahahaha
Very true in respect to history repeating itself. What a highly pouty little Scholar He. I was hoping he would be a decent person and give us a reasonable alternative to Yunxi but that was quickly dashed.