This is the synopsis of a story I didn’t write or a series of messages I sent to a coworker
I have to tell someone about the show thing I watched last night.
It takes place in some mythical Imperial China of unknown dynasty and I’m going to have to break this into parts.
The characters and some definitions first:
The rankings of ladies:
- Lady of Talent = woman the Emperor has slept with who is not allowed to see the Emperor without permission
- Consort = woman the Emperor sometimes sleeps with who can see him but mostly as she acts as a maid to a lover of his that is higher up the food chain – the consorts all live in the same palace
- Noble consort = woman the Emperor often sleeps with – gets her own palace
- Noble imperial consort = woman the Emperor often sleeps with who has had his child – gets her own palace AND a “wedding”/promotion ceremony
- Concubine = almost wife of the Emperor
- Empress = manager of the harem, official wife of the Emperor – is harder for emperor to demote
- Empress Dowager = Emperor’s mother
Any of the women can be demoted or promoted by whim of the Emperor at any time except for the Empress whose demotion is more complicated and needs reasons.
Any of the women can become Empress Dowager (the ultimate goal), they just need a son that survives to become Emperor.
The names:
- Isolde – our main character
- George, Isolde’s son
- Jane – Isolde’s maid
- Karen – a consort
- Lydia – the noble imperial consort
- Kevin, Lydia’s son
- Mary – Empress
- Nancy – Isolde’s younger sister
- Ophelia – an insane opera singer and noted seductress
The foundation has been laid.
We open with the promotion ceremony of Lydia to Noble Imperial Consort, she’s just been confirmed to be pregnant with Kevin. The ceremony is interrupted by Isolde who is unkempt, dressed in white and clutching a pillow. Isolde screams for the Emperor to please save her son while alternating between thrusting the pillow at the Emperor and clutching it to her breast. “Lydia’s killed him!” Isolde screams, “She’s killed him! Please, Majesty, save our son! My baby! My baby…”
She attacks Lydia. Is thrown away. People at the ceremony talk about how she lost her mind, gone insane, since her son died.
The Emperor, annoyed that she interrupted the ceremony, banishes her to the Abandoned Palace where consorts who the Emperor has no excuse to kill are thrown. Women go there and are never allowed to leave. A sobbing Isolde is thrown in and the doors shut behind her. She immediately stops crying.
Ophelia is introduced. “Another madwoman?” she asks and Isolde bows to her, revealing that her insanity is faked (debatable) and that she got herself thrown in to the Abandoned Palace on purpose just to meet Ophelia. Isolde asks Ophelia to teach her the art of seduction and every other skill she can so Isolde can get her revenge, saying she followed the rules of society previously and that only got her son killed, so now she’s got to become someone seductive and scandalous who walks the line between societal rules. Ophelia makes her get naked, telling her that to follow that path she must let go of shame.
Cue sexy training montage.
A year later, Lydia’s son, Kevin, is 3 months old and Lydia herself is now the most favored amongst the harem. She’s openly going after Mary’s place as Empress, a task she thinks will be easy since she has a son and Mary has only had daughters.
Ophelia tells Isolde that she’s learned everything and it’s time to leave the Abandoned Palace. Isolde asks her how since no one is ever allowed to leave (she should have thought of this first), but Ophelia says she has a plan. She gives Isolde a jade pendant and tells her to seek out her old maid, Jane, who has been trained in medicine and will help her. That night Ophelia sets fire to the Abandoned Palace. Isolde escapes but Ophelia refuses to leave, She tells Isolde, before shutting the door to the palace for the last time, to never fall in love with a man because that will only bring ruin.
Mary opens one of the other palaces to the ladies who have escaped from the now ruined Abandoned Palace.
The harem and the Emperor gather to perform a rain bringing ritual but are interrupted by Isolde who is belly dancing in a canoe in the middle of the lake. It starts raining. The already sheer, diaphanous robes of the dancer are, I imagine, much sheerer wet. The way too horny emperor orders another boat to take him to meet the mysterious beauty dancing in the middle of the lake. He discovers Isolde!
Emperor: “Hey, didn’t I banish you forever to the Abandoned Palace?”
Mary: “Oh, that place burnt to ash. I let the ladies living there move to Spring Palace until we get Abandoned Palace rebuilt.”
Emperor: “Cool. Guess that means Isolde’s not banished anymore and I can sleep with her again.”
Isolde sneezes.
Emperor: “Oh you poor, mysterious, probably crazy, and definitely sexy dear. You’ve gotten a cold from dancing mostly naked in the rain. Let’s get you to my private hot springs where we can warm you up in front of several servants and eunuchs. You like exhibitionism, right?”
Isolde: “I love it!”
Lydia seethes.
In the hot springs. Isolde frolics. The Emperor watches from a deck while taking off his robes and talking about how much he wants her or some such. It’s unimportant. Lydia, from her rooms, conspires for the Emperor to come to her by sending a message saying that Kevin is sick and the Emperor needs to come check on him right now. The Emperor almost leaves, but Isolde yelps and disappears. The Emperor jumps in after her. He calls for her. She emerges from the water – completely dry – behind him and, clutching him, makes naughty innuendos. The Emperor says he didn’t know she was so naughty and she promises him to show him just what naughty means. The Emperor, when the head eunuch reminds him of Lydia’s message, yells to tell Lydia to get a doctor if she’s so worried and that he can’t help her.
Lydia seethes harder. She tells Karen – who is the boss consort of the consort house – to help her get rid of Isolde. Karen, thinking she’s clever and untouchable because her dad is the prime minister or something, promises to help. Karen tries bullying Isolde by stealing the “glowing silk” that the Emperor gifted her and having her maid slap Jane (Isolde’s maid). Isolde intervenes and slaps Karen. Karen threatens to tell the Emperor. Isolde says, “Please do.”
Karen, stupidly, does.
Isolde is called to the Emperor’s study. The Emperor yells at her and tells her that he has to punish her. Karen and Karen’s maid stand by the window to the study to witness the punishment. They, stupidly, giggle to each other quietly. Isolde agrees that she broke the rules and that she definitely deserves punishment. She has Jane bring in a leather flogger, then Isolde removes her outer robes, bends over a chair, and says, “Please punish me, your majesty. Punish me hard.”
The Emperor’s brain stutters. Karen’s maid asks Karen, confused, “What are those noises coming from the Emperor’s study? That doesn’t sound like punishment.” Karen tells her to shut up.
Lydia tasks Karen with finding out how Isolde keeps the Emperor so enthralled. Karen, stupidly, sends her maid to figure it out. The maid comes back with a sachet of aphrodisiacs and Karen, rather than pass the aphrodisiacs on to Lydia, decides to use them herself. She conspires the Emperor to come to her rooms, slips him the drug, and spends the afternoon being aggressively manhandled.
Isolde invites Mary to look at some pretty flowers growing in the yard of the consort’s palace. Conveniently, their path takes them right past Karen’s rooms just as the Emperor starts having a seizure. Karen runs outside in a panic, right in the path of the Empress who is scandalized by her state of undress in the middle of the day. Doctors are called for the Emperor. The doctor realizes that the Emperor has been drugged with poisonous aphrodisiac herbs. Karen is in trouble.
Karen, stupidly, tells everyone that she got the herbs from Isolde. Isolde denies this and invites Karen’s maid to search her rooms. Karen’s maid does and finds a sachet of herbs. Isolde protests when the doctor wants to examine the herbs. Karen, stupidly, thinks she’s got her. The doctor says the herbs in the sachet are good, healthy for men. Isolde says she heard that they’d help the Emperor sleep and she worries for his health because he’s always so busy. The Emperor wonders why Isolde didn’t want the doctor to examine the sachet. The doctor hesitantly says, well the herbs are good for men but not for women as prolonged use can cause infertility. The Emperor is impressed that Isolde cares so much about him.
Karen is banished to Spring Palace. She writes her father for help. Her father sends back a long white silk scarf. Karen hangs herself.
Isolde goes to stare at the body. One down.
Flashback: Isolde and her young son, George, stand outside Lydia’s palace begging for a doctor to look examine George. He’s sick. Dying. Lydia is holding all the doctors hostage inside. The doctor’s want to leave, but Lydia points out that she’s soon to be promoted to Noble Imperial Consort and Isolde is only a Lady of Talent. “Which one of us do you think is more important to the Emperor?”
Karen goes outside to report to Isolde that none of the 8 doctors are available because Lydia isn’t feeling well. So she guesses that George is just going to have to die. She slaps Lydia. George tries to intervene, but he’s 5 and dying so there’s nothing he can do. Karen kicks him down the stairs. Isolde runs after him and gets to hold him while he breathes his last. He apologizes to her just before dying because he was unable to protect her, but he promises to come back as a star to watch over her.
End part 1.
Knotting the Wind 