American Perspectives: Noble Consort Wei is the voice of reason in the Palace. Princess Agents Ep 20-22 Reaction

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Noble Consort Wei: The voice of reason, while she is surrounded by people who decide based on emotion.

Something that has been standing out for me in the midst of a paranoid Emperor, a cluelessly entitled daughter, and an oblivious son, is that Noble Consort Wei is the voice of reason in the palace.  And what a tiring job that must be.  For the record, I do not support her having Princess Chun's slave beaten to death in order to get the Princess to understand that her individualistic actions has devastating consequences for those around her.

She tries to calmly reason with a paranoid and highly irrational Emperor who is so sure Yan Xun's father is out to get him.  Because he didn't listen to her, his paranoia is creating a domino effect that can only get worse.

Next, we have the oblivious son who is extremely privileged, and just acts on a whim.  He has a codependent relationship with his sister, Princess Chun, in which he tries to protect from having hurt feelings because Yan Xun does not like her back (and he never did).  In order for her to mature, however, and to think like a rational adult and political leader, she must experience those kinds of negative emotions when they are small, and not when they snowball into something larger.  Also, as the oblivious son, he doesn't appear to be in tune with the current political issues, which is imperative for a future Emperor.  It actually would not surprise me in the least if Noble Consort Wei took over as a high powered regent.

Princess Chun

Then, she has a sheltered, spoiled, entitled daughter.  None of these issues that Princess Chun has are mean spirited, but there's a gross disconnect between fantasy and reality.  Noble Consort Wei warns both of them that as members of the royal family, their privilege comes at the hefty price of not having the ability to be impeded by emotions and love, which is true.  Not just because of Yan Xun's fate, but because as someone with political power, extremely tough decisions have to be made, and they are best made based on logic instead of emotion.  Because of this privilege they were born with, they can't walk away from it because they don't know how to survive any other way, so by default, they do not have the ability to allow emotion to trump logic.  With royal marriages, it is all about power first, while feelings and love are an extra that they may or may not get.  Even with Concubines, that whole process is very politically driven.

Princess Chun does not want to hear any of it, and that is where privilege and power collide.  If this were an American drama, she'd cut herself free, have an obligatory struggle, and then live happily ever after.  In the context of Ancient China, that is not realistic, not even in the slightest.  If she were to do that, at best she'd be an extremely low peasant, at worst she'd be dead.  Because Princess Chun does not want to hear any of it, this is where her actions get selfish and cause harm to the people around her. She continues to try and "save" Yan Xun without any plausible plan, and her self centered actions result in her slave dying, her mother's way of making the point that having the privilege of not getting beaten herself has the profound cost of her seeing someone she cares about losing her life.  Let me emphasize again, in the age of cancel culture and knee jerk reactions, I do not agree with that course of action.

I feel that Noble Consort Wei is the voice of reason within the palace even if what she has to say or do isn't what the people around her want to hear.