From violence to poetry through romance : the characters development. + All the episodes.

Interesting observation. But actually, the day he won the GO game on purpose was when he decided he would return to Xiyan. The win was to tell the Emperor he was going back to fight for the heir to the throne. The Emperor knew all along that Green Tea was just an a Green Tea. He congratulated Green Tea Prince, telling him he FINALLY was showing his true self and that he awaited Green Tea’s success.  Of course, the Emperor did not know that Green Tea was doing all this to get a woman. 

 unbeliebubble:

Thank you for pointing that out TaliaToo. I knew that he won before leaving, but I was not sure if it was was Mei Lin or not. 

So basically, he won for the first time, the day he was freed from his hostage status. This is interesting  to know that he could show his true self at that point of time. He might have think, he didn't need to rely on the Emperor anymore. 

I am going to correct it, thanks. 

Actually, in my notes preparing to write about XiyanGreenTea Prince, I put down that the first real moment we see him turning "dark" was when he decided he wanted Mei Lin as his wife, no matter what he'd to do to achieve this.  Yes, in the beginning, she was his "bai yue guang" (white moonlight), a Chinese term for the unattainable love, and then when he saw her as the Mei Ren, he mouthed about protecting those he loved when, in reality, his actions showed it wasn't about purely about protection but his wanting her as his own.

XiyanGreenTea Prince was a planner. He wasn't a hostage for ten years, I don't think, because Mei Lin helped him escape back to his country during a vaguely referenced "war" time. I imagined the war was ongoing for a few years even after that fire before Xiyan was defeated. Then, Xi Gu was supposed to be sent as a tribute wife but XiyanGreenTea Prince was against that because she was much too young then, so he offered himself as a hostage prince until his sister came of age. That was why, when she arrived, he was free to leave, but he decided to spend some time still in the palace using the excuse of seeing his sister for a while.

He never really wanted to be the Heir to the Xiyan throne but the idea had always been there because the Emperor played GO with him. I'm sure during those games, there were many conversations about history and art and everything round and about XiyanGreenTea's future (they avoided direct politics). That was how the Emperor knew how smart this Prince was and he cultivated a friendship in hopes that if XiyanGreenTea did suddenly become ambitious, then there would be cooperation and peace between Great Yan and Xiyan.

To the Emperor's delight, Green Tea did suddenly change his mind. That game Green Tea won was to tell his friend what was coming (showing his hand) and the Emperor's reply was verbal support and giving him a nod that if he needed anything, let him know.

Green Tea needed the Emperor to agree to let him have Mei Lin, but no immediately. He needed to get to be Heir first. It was a long GO game he had planned and was he ever devious, because the next thing he did was spar with the Clown Prince. The goal was to make MRJH look bad in Mei Lin's eyes to get her out of this romantic thing they were having. He understood Mei Lin as an opponent and he definitely understood MRJH too (he had many years as hostage prince to study the brothers' history). He definitely won that round. 

In my opinion, Mei Lin's loss of trust of MRJH was too sudden. She was a methodical thinker and a killer, at that. She shouldn't have had wool pulled over her eyes that easily. So MEH. You know I rewrote that in the other thread where we are playing "let's rewrite the story."  LOL

OK, sorry to be so long-winded. I had been so excited about writing about the darkness of the XiyanGreenTea but got interrupted by writing Gothic Kill Me Love Me version and watching Pearl Girl! 

You know I love talking to you about characterization and writing, though, LOL. You and I probably bore everyone else to tears.

I am so much enjoying what you are both analysing and waiting.  Doesn’t bore me at all. I am fan! I have about 15-20 minutes in a day to sip my cuppa tea  and do some reading and if you guys post something I am reading it. keep it up.