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Blood of Youth Birthdays
I did some research on Weibo and was able to find out the birthdays for several characters:
Zhao Yuzhen: January 19th
Ye Ruoyi: February 24th
Li Hanyi: March 24th
Lei Wujie: April 1st
Xiao Se: May 20th
Tang Lian: June 24th
Wuxin: July 30th
Sikong Qianluo: August 19th
These scenes and Jin Xian’s relationships with Jin Yan and Wuxin have such an interesting contrast. In the process of helping him, Jin Xian refuses to be lied to by Wuxin and goes so far as to more or less threaten imperial judgment. Meanwhile, with Jin Yan, who has allegedly told many lies, Jin Xian is willing to face whatever fate His Majesty decides for him as long as Jin Yan can live. I don’t know if it speaks most to Jin Xian’s intense loyalty to/love for his shidi, or if it’s more a result of the losses Jin Xian experienced in the episodes between these scenes, but it’s certainly an intriguing difference.
The irony is dawning on me that there is imagery of gilded and wooden cages in Wuxin’s and Xiao Yu’s first scenes in the Blood of Youth, albeit in the opposite way as I had associated with them. While his chosen cage is the gilded one of the Imperial Palace, Xiao Yu’s introduction ends with him leaving a wooden cage. And, of course, Wuxin starts by leaving the golden coffin. Certainly a fascinating parallel with subversive imagery, when taking their mother’s story into consideration.
The tragedy of Yi Wenjun is that she traded a gilded cage for a wooden one, when all she wanted was to be free.
The keeper of the wooden cage gave her hope, yes, but would never have let her leave. His stories were just stories, and she never got to see the world.
Because of how Yi Wenjun’s oppressive father raised her, she constantly feels like a shadow of herself. The only time her character has ever truly felt alive to me was near the end of the Blood of Youth’s novel, when she was flying through the chaos of her son’s creation, bantering with Jin Xuan as he pleaded for her to return to safety. Her interaction with him near the end of Dashing Youth slightly reminded me of that scene and of why I like her novel counterpart so much.
Freedom is what Yi Wenjun desires above all else, but obligation weighs down her wings. And while her sons never experienced the gilded and wooden cages they were raised in as prisons, she did. Even then, she tried to do what was best for them, rather flawed as that attempt was.
The Blood of Youth Special
(Takes place after episode 40)