Favourite Yanzhen-Xiang Xiang moments in Episode 41 #ArsenalMilitaryAcademy


^A cute exchange. When she heard him come out of the room, she turned her head to look at him. His eyebrows flash and smiled at her. She smiled back then went on to look after the fishes! My cuties.

*Spoilers in the comments below*

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    **Just snippets of my thoughts. Time won’t let me post essay** 😭

    This episode continues from Gu Yanzhen searching every nook and cranny of Beijing to find Xiang Xiang. She was kidnapped and no traces of her could be found.

    He is desperate, so lost on what else can he do. He’s slouching in the middle of the street. He is exhausted, but can’t rest, won’t rest, won’t let himself pass out until he finds her.

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    When he did find her, no words came out. The sight of her safe and sound overwhelmed him; it made him cry.

    Whenever Gu Yanzhen is overwhelmed with emotions, he tears up. We’ve seen it first happen when he was frustrated that he couldn’t save the patriotic students, when his heart was broken once again, when he lost Xiang Xiang the first time, and this time too when he found her. I am always at awe seeing these many sides of Gu Yanzhen. Behind his narcissistic, crazy, impulsive, wild self, he is also so raw when his feelings come out.

    Crying is the only way your eyes speak when your mouth can’t explain how things made your heart broken or happy

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      Perfectly worded Famy! As much as I loved this scene, I did chuckle when he collapsed. I know Yanzhen hasn’t slept and probably eaten but boy you weren’t the one who was kidnapped.

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        I laughed at that too even if it was supposed to be very serious. This is again an example of role reversal. Girl saved herself and girl even saved her boy.

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          The role reversal here is definitely one of the highlight themes of this drama. Its presence is pretty much felt in the characters’ personality and the situations they are are in.

          Xiang Xiang is also not someone who cries a lot; we don’t see her whine and is not very much expressive with words either which typically goes to a male lead role. But that’s how Yanzhen complements her character!

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        Hueheheheh. He was always the one who came out most distressed in these situations! Both here and in episode 40, while her presence assured him she was fine and in one piece, he def looked like he was the one stabbed and kidnapped. LOL. But then again, with Yanzhen, they might as well just do that than have him go through these stress.

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        him collapsing broke my heart,
        his mind kept his body moving but when the danger is over , how tired , sleep-deprived, starving he was shows up in a second : he sees her, mind is ok, body is taking over : faint T_T

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          Yep. He didn’t even have the energy to run to her and hug her. He just passed out right after he saw her safe.

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    Let me take a moment here to appreciate how Xiang Xiang has come along way in her journey in getting out of her depression from her brother’s death. She got into the military to fulfill her brother’s dream, went through the same tough harsh training with the rest of the men, worked hard everyday to become the best version of herself. She can perfectly save her own skin just fine. Yanzhen didn’t even need to worry!

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    I like this scene. His jokes make her smile now. And look at how sweet the smile she gives him. It’s so endearing.

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    He gently takes her hand, assures her that he will be with her no matter what. She smiles again in agreement.

    I can’t help but compare how calm and peaceful this moment is than what she had with Junshan when she walked him out. It was the same discussion – that she needed to come back to the academy, that someone would be with her when she travelled back, but he used force once again to make her say yes. He wouldn’t let her speak; there were no buts. His decision for her was final.

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      I loved this scene. She calmed down so much after realizing her love for him and she is letting him be. She is now enjoying his love for her.
      And this hand holding was so soft and so caring.
      And you are absolutely right about Junshan. He was worried but he approached it very differently. Our girl has grown up so much and learnt to be independent and it will only work with someone who treats her as equal. May be if she had met him before joining the school she might have been impressed by him, but not anymore.

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        So agree on all you said blue! In this scene too, you can feel how much they are on equal footing. They discuss plan together rather than Yanzhen impose his idea on her on what she should do now. He asks her questions and provides her with his options – do you have anywhere else you can take your parents to? Or I can help. She tells him she has other relatives she can ask for help. Yknow simple conversations like this that shows there’s a two way communication between them! I love it.

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      that ‘s why JunShan was like a brother for her, brother trying to protect her , knowing best what’s good for her ^^’

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    My most favourite OTP moment ever. Something about this made my heart go “Ooof! They are so beautiful. So precious”. I imagined this was how they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. Very homey. So comfortable.

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      Happy that we at least got this scene. I wanted MOOOREEEE

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        Same neener! Same 😭 It was around this time that my thirst for OTP scenes became stronger than ever! I had made it to 41 episodes just fine but I think I had a meltdown seeing this scene and longed for more. That’s probably why this became my most favourite!

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    And how cute is it that Xiang Xiang flirts with him in front of her parents?

    A typical household conversation:
    Mama Xie: Yanzhen, what do you want for dinner?
    Yanzhen: Anything is fine.
    Mama Xie: What about Sichuan cuisine?
    Xiang Xiang: He doesn’t eat spicy food.

    💘💘 My precious. It’s little things like this that this drama gets me

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      Anything is fine…..but tomatoes x)

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        YASSS! Honestly he’s a picky eater. He totally lied, trying to be on his mother in law side when he said he could eat anything LOL

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    I like this.

    We were deliberately shown that her thoughts are with him. She knows he won’t like Junshan’s request to walk him out. She said yes again knowing he’s not happy about it.

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    Thankfully, even when sulking, her ‘home’ always waits for her to come back.

    And we know how much she likes loves her home.

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    You sure this wasn’t an essay?? >.< I love it!

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      Many thanks neener!!! Nope, I really had all the words I wanted to write in my head TT_______TT I wanted to elaborate further my most favourite OTP moment. It’s was a brief moment but I had so many emotions going through when I first watched it. And how she casually interrupted Yanzhen and Mama Xie’s conversation to tell her mom that he doesn’t eat spicy food – like auugh… my heart! Anyways thinking about it, I think I wrote my feels about those scenes in one of my early posts http://www.dramabeans.com/members/13infamyss/activity/927081/#acomment-927695 so I guess this one should tell more how much I am in love with those two brief scenes! ^__^

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        Noooo, many thanks to you too! I don’t have any place to talk about this yet as my rl friend is not yet finished, so I’m thankful for all the posts!

        Whenever Xiang Xiang casually says something about how much she knows Yanzhen, my heart explodes! You’re not alone in loving those scenes! I love little moments like that.

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          Lucky you! At least you have somebody you can talk to irl about this drama. Did you introduce Arsenal to them? Huehehe. Anyways I only have you beanies to spazz with so thanks a lot for spazzing with me!

          Huehehhehe. She knows her man too well. She knows how picky he is with food. Going back to that beautiful episode 16 where she made him eat food he didn’t like and laughed to herself! My heart💘

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            I just found out last night that she was watching. You should have seen me in the coffee shop hihihihi I jumped, squeed and hugged her! >.< She's still at the episode 12 so it'll take a while for her. I did offer to watch with her.

            I am amazed at you Famy for remembering episodes SO WELL! I remember the scenes but I can't remember episode numbers

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            😂😂😂😂😂 @neener I have rewatched these scenes with you guys many times. Beanies started at different times so whenever a scene is brought up I watched the episodes that you guys were on over and over again 😂 I definitely have these episode numbers embedded on my brain already. I’m saying this is actually good so I know which episode to jump to right away. I used to have to play each episode to get to the scene I want to rewatch. 😅 geeez My reasoning totally sounds an unhealthy obsession.

            Awwwww ep 12 is definitely the perfect moment to rewatch and point out what she may miss at that time. I remember how these episodes just flew by and around that time I didn’t really remember the names of the other characters!

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            Nah, not unhealthy, we love the show that much which sounds unhealthy >.< who cares? HAHAHA

            In that case, if I suddenly want to rewatch a scene, I'll be asking you which one!

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            @neener definitely! 😝 feel free and I’m just one post away.

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    I loved their scenes. I wish the whole show was just about them because I’m not feeling the patriotic segments. I mean the whole action part is good but doesn’t give you the same feelings as maybe Chicago Typewriter even. Though they are based on two different things, this show’s charm lied in the main couple, we should’ve seen more of them. Now I am actually feeling the couple. Isn’t there a rumor of them being togther in real life too?

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      The patriotic part was so disconnected. Somehow it wasn’t organic. Also, I didn’t bother reading up the history. So I didn’t get the significance of many events.
      The OTP is the reason I watched the show. And of course our squad.

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        Same blue. And I was so disappointed with what they did with Xianrong. I enjoyed seeing her be conflicted with her becoming a Japanese national, turning on her original background vs her feelings for Junshan and her brother figure. I loved seeing her shaken up in those times they were involved. Alas, the show carried on destroying her supposed layered character with over the top propaganda to show who’s the real baddie here.

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        Yes the OTP and squad had the best moments. I’d say all the episodes with the squad were way better than political intrigue. The first students protest in Beijing and its results was fine, after that one thing happened after another and most of the time I’ll think if it was even needed. But well now I’m done with the show and still loved it. The last few episodes did kick in the right emotions but yeah the charm still lied in Gu Yanzhen teasing Xie Xiang so I’ll go back to watch the earlier episodes to reminisce that.

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          RE: Gu Yanzhen teasing Xie Xiang –

          There was this scene that somebody mentioned on twitter that I thought was funny. It was I think ep 37 where Xiang Xiang and Xiaojun rain into Yanzhen just outside the campus. The tweet was like she was ready to fight flirt with him again but he was in the bad mood (lol he was coming from Manting’s place and her constant pressure on him to like her back), so he just ignored him after her snotty response that it was not any of his business when he asked where she was going. Looooool I went back to that scene and she really did look confused after he walked past her! When he was coming out of his car, she cleared her throat ready to “flirt fight” with him lmaoooo. These two.

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      This drama came out at a wrong time unfortunately – the Chinese government had imposed stricter rules on what production companies can show given its 70 year anniversary this year. I had found two flashbacks that OTP reminisced that I did not see happen in the show at all, There were at least three kiss scenes that were cut; I saw two and one of them was just a kiss on Xiang Xiang’s hair and even that did not pass censorship! The production team admitted that OTP scenes were trimmed down significantly to pass censorship. It’s sad that this drama that I loved so much could have shown more, could have produced a better quality to satisfy its audience’s thirst…. but here we are….. left with wondering what could have been….

      I was very iffy starting this show. I read a whole lot about this series before continuing on because OTP romance wasn’t the highlight of the show. Romance is my only reason to watch drama! But I still took the risk, lowered my expectation and found myself falling in love with this show despite its imperfection. My binge watch slowed down during the patriotic and propaganda scenes, but I didn’t want to skip anything. So I’d rather take a breather, don’t watch it for days then come back to it when I’m in the mood to take in the patriotism they throw at me. Overall, this drama catered to how China wants their patriotism to be portrayed. It still looks cheesy and absurd to me no matter what. But I came out loving all the characters in this show, not just my OTP-bbs, and I am left having a great respect for all the actors and the characters that they made come alive.

      Xu Kai and Bai Lu have been in 4 dramas together. Two of them they were leads and they have another one coming out either next year or 2021! So there’s lots of rumours going around them for sure!

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        Oh that explains a lot. Because the only episode with OTP moments is ep 41 and nothing else really. But as I mentioned earlier, the charm of this was in Gu Yanzhen teasing Xie Xiang so maybe I’ll just keep that in my memory 😜 But otherwise I do get that the show is about Arsenal Military Academy in itself and that’s why it ended there rather bringing the focus on the couple. By the end, I did appreciate the emotional kick, yes it could’ve been less but they probably ecisted because of the reasons you gave.

        Yes I heard this is their 5th drama together. This is going to be my reel to real ship unless I ship Xu Kai with myself 😂

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          Episode 46 is one of my favourites too! Not sure if you’re on there yet? It’s one of the cutest. It was around this time that I miss his cray. I mean he still jokes around but he’s definitely tone down.

          I noticed in episode 46 – He used to be very cheesy yknow “I’m full watching you eat” kind of guy (ep 33). In episode 46 he only tells her “you eat. I’ll watch.” 😭 although I’m pretty sure he really meant that cheesy line. This simpleton!

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            Is it the reunion? After she is rescued by him from jail? I’ve completed the show. But if it’s about the reunion scene than I loved it. And that’s exactly what I missed in the show, there were very few of these scenes.

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            Yep I was taking about that! Overall we really had very little OTP scenes and it’s so exciting to learn new things about them that beanies have discovered such as Xiang Xiang had actually picked up one of Yanzhen’s habits overtime. Their scenes were all precious; they built up. Their love story didn’t start from love at first sight or physical attraction. It stemmed from being strangers to camaraderie to close friends to finding each other as their better halves. Even with little screentime, we’ve seen this progress happen. It’s beautiful.

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    I loved the vibe of this scene – it’s homey and comfortable. Gu Yanzhen doesn’t even look out of place. My OTP heart was very, very satisfied in this moment.

    An aside, but OP, I love your enthusiasm about this series and the romance! I got into the series earlier this week and I’m now around the 42nd episode with no one to gush over the OTP with hahaha thank you for posting all the gifs!! I love all the fluff GYZ and XX bring, but also the fact that they have a pretty healthy relationship, which was already highlighted in one of your earlier posts 😀

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      Oh no so sorry to hear that you had no one to spazz with on this series Nina!! 💔 I was on the same boat as you when I first watched this which was……. early October…. almost two months ago 🤦‍♀️. I know I sound like I’m seeing all this for the first time! 🤣

      I mean a couple of beanies have seen it with me but our conversations were so limited because we were the only ones who understood what was going on! When I finished the series, that’s when beanies started to pick it up and I rewatched the scenes with them. They all started at different times so I rewatched and rewatched and rewatched to my fangirl heart’s content! 😆😆

      But worry not Nina, feel free to spazz on DB and we’ll be with you on your journey to Arsenal’s last arc. And should the need to rewatch some scenes kick in, feel free to share your favourite moments with us, and we’ll definitely spazz with you….! 💘

      Episode 41 fed my soul. It was exactly how I imagined Xiang Xiang and Yanzhen’s life would be like if they didn’t live in a turbulent time.

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