Awesome / Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

• In episode one the Yongzheng Emperor tells Hongli he can't marry Ruyi because her aunt is in disgrace. Hongli immediately stands up to his father, who has shown he won't hesitate to disinherit his own sons if they displease him, on Ruyi's behalf.
• Hailan is terrified of Hongli (with good reason), but when she finds out about the plot against Ruyi she decides to tell him. Which means deliberately drawing his attention after spending years trying to avoid him at all costs.
• Hailan manages to redirect suspicions from Ruyi to A Ruo after the poison incidents with one trick: While Ruyi is confined to the Cold Palace, a pregnant Hailan secretly feeds herself a tiny bit of cinnabar to give herself the same poisoning as Qiying and Ruiji (while taking the antidote in secret), then she shows Ruiji and Hongli what happened to her and manages to convince them that Ruyi couldn't have possibly done this while confined, thus "someone else" must have done it.
• Ruyi's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to A Ruo. Ruyi calls A Ruo out for returning Ruyi's love and good treatment with treachery, lies and backstabbing, and by the end, A Ruo is sent hyperventilating and falling to the snowy ground. As Ruyi turns to walk back inside her palace, she finishes the speech with a chilling quote to the rest of her servants watching the spectacle.
  Ruyi: You all saw it. Once disloyal, a hundred times useless.
• Even more, Hailan manipulated Chun and her sons into not having favor permanently without anyone suspecting. Even Zhen Huan never suspects it was Hailan who caused their fall since she never shows off and thought Ruyi did it. Another scene to show how loyal and devoted she is to Ruyi and considering she knew Chun for a long time, she showed no hesitation to do that to Chun and her sons. But considering A'ruo, what she did was valid.
• Ruyi’s argument with Yanwan, specifically the last line in which she shows who’s boss.
  Ruyi: Noble Consort Ling. You disregarded decorum, and caused damage to the harem with enticement. You have shown derelict of your duty as assistant manager of the harem. And you lured his Majesty into lust. Sanbao, detain Noble Consort Ling immediately, await His Majesty’s handling.
  Sanbao: Yes.
  Yanwan: (indignantly) How dare you?! I am His Majesty’s personally conferred Noble Consort!
  Ruyi: (angrily) and I am His Majesty’s PERSONALLY CONFERRED EMPRESS!!!
• Ruyi finally has enough and tells Hongli what she thinks of him.
  Ruyi: If you want to mention Empress Xiaoxian, then I want to say this. When Empress Xiaoxian was alive there was nothing to complain about her. She went along with you on all matters and never disobeyed. But you still found her dissatisfactory, so she could never feel assured. It was only after she died that you suddenly yearned for her with full devotion. How much of that is actually true? Or do you want others to feel that you're a devoted and loyal man? Not just Empress Xiaoxian. In this palace, which woman can truly be at ease by you? Even Concubine Rong. You were once so infatuated with her. Do you really cherish her with sincerity? You just want to see your own image through the daffodil you love. You only love yourself!
  • Then Hongli has the audacity to complain he's tired by all the plotting in the palace. Ruyi points out he caused all those plots.
• Hongli threatens to depose Ruyi. She responds by cutting her own hair, guaranteeing that she'll be deposed. One commenter called it "the equivalent of saying you aren't firing me, I quit!".
• Hailan reveals all of Yanwan's crimes and brings in witnesses to prove her guilt. Yanwan spent half the series as a Karma Houdini so it's immensely satisfying to watch her panic.
• The way it builds up to reveal Yanwan's crimes to everybody.
  • She still doesn't get her daughter Jingyuan back because her daughter is old enough to realize how horrible her biological mother and the Empress Dowager allows Ying to keep her.
  • Then, because Jingse sent a spy to eavesdrop on her and tells her father, Hongli orders that her children be taken from her.
  • When her crime is revealed, Chunchan bomb drops everything that Yanwan did to secure power.
  • After the full reveal of her crimes, Hongli forces her to bow down to the scripture flags that Ruyi made.
  • Yanwan not mincing her words at Hongli after being given the Qianji medicine. Thinking she's going to die, she tells Hongli how it's his fault that he was the one who taught her how to live in the palace. She's well aware Qianlong never gave even half his heart to her, but not like she cares, she never gave her heart to him. She points out too that no one in the harem or anyone else truly cared for him, except for Ruyi. Even as a horrible, power-hungry she is, even she knows how devoted Ruyi was and that Hongli locked her up and thought the worst of her.
• “Do you dare to swear?!” Only four words, and yet Hailan’s catchphrase manages to reveal the truth and unravel the veil that hid Yuyan and Yanwan’s crimes by striking fear into their hearts and trapping them into a corner where they cannot escape.

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