OMG, writing-brain, seriously?

[branchandroot]

So, I finally get the Jingrui and Yujin’s Political Adventures story out the door, and promptly the Yuwen Nian bunny starts flipping its ears at me again. So back I go to re-watch bits of episodes to nail down a few facts. And I happen to breeze past Consort Yue putting on her poor-pitiful-me act for the Emperor and recommending Consort Xushu stand in the Empress’ stead for New Year. Wherein she mentions that Xushu has raised a grown Princess.

And suddenly I’ve got Linyang (lin as in jade, but quite deliberately gesturing to lin as in forest as in Emperor’s then-best-buddy Lin Xie), age 40 or thereabouts, waltzing around my head, trying to figure out exactly what subject prince she got married off to, and picking out livery colors for her ladies in waiting, and very quietly rolling her eyes over being stuck as chaperone for Nian until the banquet because Liyang looked about to cut someone when /she/ was suggested.

I mean, yes, my unofficial motto for this whole arc is Women Being Fucking Awesome but really. One line! *bangs her head on the desk*

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Comments

[branchandroot]

Xushu's daughter is barely a throw-away line, so I'm treating her as a separate character, since Jingning's plotline was dropped entirely from the drama. Is it explicit that Jingning is an only daughter? Or just the only royal princess (daughter of the Empress)?

I'm supposing that Linyang's name was along the conventions of the previous generation because she was Xuan's first child and either a) the astrology department was still catering to the then-emperor or b) Xuan himself was angling for favor.

[superborb]

I'm not sure why I had the impression that she was the only daughter; I don't think the exact number of children that the Emperor has is ever mentioned explicitly. Actually, I guess we know for sure that at least one prince is dead / not mentioned or named, so it wouldn't be odd if a princess wasn't mentioned either.

Typically, a naming scheme like that would apply to the full set of kids. Often girls might be not be included in the naming scheme, but since Jingning is also given the "Jing" character, it would be Weird if another daughter wasn't named in the pattern.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, I'm kind of leaning that way, at this point. *takes a moment with Google Translate* Actually, that works even better as a double-reference on Lin.