Who Rules the World

Entertaining, Fun, Acting, Chemistry, Beautiful visuals

It's a fact: most story plots in C Drama have loopholes, editing issues, fillers, inconsistencies, randomness, etc ... If there is a standard or competition that the writers can compete as in the Emmys, there would be more inspiring stories. Economic factors and taste rule the C drama world. Most endings have a similar feel: ML has 10 years left to live - well that's been done in The Princess Wei Young ... If a drama's ending (or anything else) is shown to be successful, then it is replicated to another drama.

So the best that the audience can expect is that the drama is entertaining and has good acting. This drama delivers these two aspects well.

The FL is outstanding in her delivery of this dramatic and fun role. She delivers convincing acting as a queen, warrior, and fun-loving girl with a big personality. At her age, she is totally convincing as someone who can rush to block out the canons without thinking about the consequences. She is just perfect for this role. I don't think there is another person who can act better because this role fits her personality so well.

The ML is also convincing in his role ... although he is a little stiff. His back is always too straight ... which makes him look like he is acting instead of being immersive in a role. But he is decent compared to other C actors who look handsome but cannot act.

Overall, if you accept that most C dramas are not perfect, this drama is as good as it gets. Read the novel. I think it will give you a better understanding and a more satisfying ending. However, I do like that they changed the novel to have an evil person that everyone fights against. This makes more sense to me than just playing chess on the war field. Humans are always predictable so it makes sense to have an arch evil that everyone can unite and fight against.

I will recommend this drama since it does have the entertaining value, good chemistry between the leads, and good acting from almost everyone. There are scenes that could be way better; however, there is never a time that the drama is too boring that you will feel like giving up on it. I've had this happen to me in various dramas: the beginning is so good but then the rest is so bad that even good acting cannot savage it. I usually quit watching them in the middle because the stories between the MLs are just too confusing and illogical.

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So much wasted potential, it hurts

Looking at the first couple reviews, my opinion seems to be on the unpopular side - I did not, in fact, like the drama.

Having watched just a couple modern c-dramas before, I decided to give this one a try solely because of much I adored Zhao Lusi in Hidden Love and this seemed to be one of her more popular roles. As I progressed into the drama, I started realising that I was not immersed in the story at all. Maybe it was because this was my first historical c-drama ever, but it was so. Here's a few thoughts:

1. Direction : The overall direction seemed extremely all over the place. Scenes would transition very abruptly, the buildup towards certain important plot points was too underwhelming, hell even the climax felt anti climactic. The pacing and development was off, making the viewer feel disconnected to the drama as a whole.

2. Story: I believe that the writing of this show was one of the main reasons everything felt the way it did. The writing did NOT do justice to the characters, or the plot itself. The story shifted directions way too many times, and lots of things introduced in the earlier episodes were left unexplored which is one of my biggest complaints with the show:

For example, the first couple episodes hinted at the complex relationship between the leads, with the FL actively disliking the ML. So much substance could have been added to the show by delving into the leads' collective pasts but alas, it was not.

Hei Fengxi, our beloved ML was introduced as a shrewd, clever and cunning man and while he did technically use his 'cleverness' in the battles etc., he was just ultimately written off as a soft man, with a 'cold exterior', an exterior which was never really shown to us somehow.

The whole reveal of Bai Fengxi being Feng Xiyun could have been written and utilised in a much, much better manner. They could have easily used her identity as an element of surprise in the final battle, but instead we got a flat 'I figured this must have been the case when so and so happened' from both the ML as well as the antagonist, in the damn middle of the drama.

So many interesting relationship dynamics were introduced, but none were developed - INCLUDING THE LEADS'. Well, the entire relationship development of the leads felt very skewed in the first place. We went from them not liking each other, to somehow falling in love - a point we were supposed to decipher from the few 'romantic' scenes we were shown (which were really just half a minute scenes popping out of nowhere with intense eye contact and weird falling into the other's arms and awkwardly poetic dialogues, but that's just the whole 'historic' premise ig).
Also, as much as I detest love triangles, this show could have really done with one considering how bland the leads' whole relationship turned out to be. We got that one random scene with Yu Wu Yuan reminiscing about FL dearest only for it to never be talked about again. We had Hua Chunran, a very shrewd and calculative character who ultimately ended up not having much contribution to the plot - WHY?? The relationship between the FL and Huang Chao was given a relatively larger screentime tho - an entire 5 to 6 minutes! The ML and his elder bro's relationship could have been much better too, so much wasted potential omg.

The writing felt as if they tried to show a healthy relationship between the leads with no misunderstandings, but it just ended up depicting a very boring one.

3. Acting: I have pretty much no idea about c-dramas and actors so I went in without any expectations about acting, except for Zhao Lusi who obviously did not let down. The overall acting was good and even the side characters did a pretty decent job imo.

4. Chemistry: Now here's the thing, I can handle even the shittiest of dramas if the chemistry makes up for it but while I appreciated both the leads' acting, I could not feel that kind of explosive chemistry that could save this drama for me. Obviously they did not feel downright incompatible, I just found the chemistry very mid.

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Felt cheated

I loved, loved how the story began. I am relatively new to these types of dramas, I watch them purely and solely for the entertainment value.
What i loved....the story made me lol, it made me cry...it made me angry.. i was feeling all sorts of emotions throughout.
What i hated... Sometimes felt like he was more into her than she was into him, so relationship felt kind of one sided and well weird. Also, I didn't like the fact that even though she promised to marry him she still kept her identity a secret and offered absolutely no reason for doing so. Lastly, what the hell was that in episode 40?!!! Maybe because i felt he cared for her more than she did for him, i was shouting at the ML (as if he could hear me) "what the hell are you doing, she wouldn't do that for you." To me, i felt she was spoilt and entitled, maybe because everyone catered to her but it rubbed me wrong, because i felt after everything the ML went through in his life he should have someone who care about him as much as he did for them.

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A new favorite

Hello! I just finished watching this amazing show and headed straight over to join in on the conversations about it. 2022 is an exciting year for us with these new, wonderful dramas being released.
This show is definitely now a top pick for me right along with Long Ballad, Legend of Fei, Ashes of Love, Love and Redemption, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, Etc. High quality content for sure. They put the budget to good use imo.

Story: good- ending was rushed due to new rule on only 40 episodes tho. I don’t blame them too much for that. Wish they shaved some off the middle instead of the end tho.
Music: great. The flow was really nice during the show. Sound effects were good. Nothing overpowered the conversations. I only remember one part that it had a odd little cut in music. Thumbs up👍
Acting: top notch as expected from these two legends. Chemistry was so cute. They fit their roles really well too. Both serious and smiley from Yang Yang. I was so happy, pleased, proud of Zhao Lu Si for stepping into this strong female role. She fit it really well and compared to her other “sweet” characters I really enjoyed seeing this change. I think she liked doing something that people wouldn't consider “sweet” as well from what she said in the interviews.
Camera work/Editing: on point imo. It had an almost animated feel to it the in beginning that was so pleasant to see. Beautiful. CGI and other effects were great! Ending was a little less “high quality” than the beginning, but still nothing to complain about too much. I loved the silk as a weapon/tool. Haven’t seen too much of that.

The story is imo relatively original in some aspects and pretty common place in others. I definitely enjoyed the first half (more of the action, martial arts, more relaxed scenes) better than the latter. It was interesting that they had two very different identities and the responsibilities that came with that. I personally think we could have done with more martial arts world scenes and less political ones as those always feel kinda draggy.
I had some questions of logic for example- How did they first meet and why are they famous when no one seems to recognize them until they use their skills. If you know you might possibly give power over to another “good” ruler maybe sit down and talk first before killing a bunch of your soldiers playing power war. Etc.

Over all though I was very pleased and hung on to every word for the majority of the 40episodes. I’m super picky, detailed, and rewind about every five seconds FYI lol.

Definitely recommend. I will continue to come back and watch bits and pieces again. Get your tissues ready for the last few episodes though. Just fair warning. Enjoy! Round of applause 👏 to everyone for making this wonderful show.

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What Was That?

What the heck was this? It started off strong, and I was waiting for each episode, but it slowly devolved into absolute nothingness, along with all the characters.

I can't tell you exactly when things came undone, but slowly, a prince murders everyone who knows about his medical condition, but we are supposed to forget about that and pretend that never happened, even though he almost killed the FL. The ML literally melts someone's mind so they won't give him away (seriously, just puts his fingers on either side of the guy's head, at his temples, and melts his brain!!!). A character we come to know is an antagonist, is hinted at having real human feelings for the FL, but later, it turns out he is just a robot of a character (not literally) with no discernable human feelings, thereby making him a completely static and largely irrelevant character to the story. The... I guess... SML, is introduced to us as a rounded character, only to have everything that made him a rounded character taken away from him. Why?? Why take rounded characters and take away their human nature to turn them into robots? They pretty much introduced us to the most interesting characters near the beginning, then forgot about them till the end, whilst focusing on introducing more and more less interesting side characters, like the ML's evil queen step-mother, the insufferably gullible teenage daughter of the FL's shifu, the FL's shifu, and that random old shifu guy that lives inside a mountain, which they only introduced us to in order to force the FL and ML to do a ridiculous dance together (seriously). They needed to stop introducing more and more characters, and to focus on the ones they gave us in the first few episodes. The FL and ML "dating" and "bonding" scenes were so dull and drawn out, it was ridiculous.

What I really mean is that when we first met the FL, the ML, and the SML, they all had an intriguing introduction that made me excited to get to know them better, but as the story went on, they all proved to be quite empty characters with little to offer.

The FL wasn't the heroine I thought she would turn out to be, the ML just smirked the whole time, so I thought for sure he was going to be an interesting character once I got to know more about him... but no! He just got less and less interesting! Same with the SML, though at least the SML held on to a bit of mystery about him, which made him slightly more interesting than the rest of the characters.

I couldn't care less if all the characters died after the first 8 episodes, they were so bland, so utterly boring, stiff, vacuous.

Zhao Lu Si can't do anything but comedy. As a person, she isn't a serious person, and it translates to her roles, though I'm glad she toned down the cuteness for this one, because her usual level of cutesy is downright saccharine. She isn't even pretty, for an actress, not that I want one of those wooden Chinese Barbies to get cast instead *cough* Gulnazar *cough*. She is an average looking actress with average acting skills (except for comedy). I hope that the industry will stop casting her in roles that don't suit her at all as they have been doing.

An Yue Xi is a wonderful actress, who lights up the screen no matter which role she gets cast in. Even her character in this drama was quite boring, but like the SML, she did the best with what she was given. It drives me a bit crazy that An Yue Xi isn't given the roles Zhao Lu Si is, yet An is not just a much better actress, but also a very, very beautiful woman. Actually, if you took Zhao Lu Si out of all the main roles she has been given, and replaced her with An Yue Xi instead, all those dramas would have ended up way better than they did. An can do both comedy and drama exceptionally well! Do better, China, start hiring actresses by ability, not by popularity, then less costume dramas would crash and burn.

4.5 melted brains out of 10.

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Great story that builds up well but is sadly kinda rushed in the end

All in all i really liked this drama.
The story is very interesting, builts up very well and makes you wanna watch "just one more episode".
The female lead is very smart and quick witted. She isn't dramatic, acting stupid or annoying as female leads are (sadly) often presented in other dramas.
Also there is no unnecessary break-off drama between the male an female lead, which i really appreciate. Their love is pure and real, you can really feel it while watching the drama.
Amazing cast, everyone did a great job, especially the main leads.
Special Effects are, in comparison, not that bad. Some do look quite unrealistic, but that's expected from a classical Chinese drama with not the highest budget. Definitely better than in, for example, The Untamed tho.

What's kinda sad is, that the drama is quite rushed in the end. It suddenly skips multiple years, ignores the intense build up of the whole drama and rushes to resolve the main plot in the last episode. In my opinion the ending doesn't really make sense and kinda ruins the whole drama ngl.

So all in all, yes i liked it, except for the ending. I would recommend you to watch it if you're interested in classical Chinese drama about kings and queens and a sweet love story with two intelligent main characters.
I most likely wouldn't watch it again, but i still enjoyed watching it for the first time :)

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can we have multiple seasons please? crying bc this drama ended

Firstly, I was not expecting to be this in love with this drama because when I first started it I had no expectations.

Everything about this drama was breathtaking.
A smart, beautiful, intelligent, and strong female lead.
A powerful, handsome, wise man who treats his woman as an equal.
A healthy loving relationship between the leads.
Strong chemistry between the whole cast.
OST that matched the drama.

Can we just take a moment to applaud the casting director because they were able to get Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi to act together– who knew we needed this ship in our lives?? And the rest of the cast were just as amazing.
It's astonishing to see Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi act together because they have so much good chemistry together– on screen and off screen (yes I love this drama enough to see the behind the scenes clips lol).

Honestly, I love the two actors so of course I'm biased but during this whole series I enjoyed both of their acting. They have improved so much! It’s like they were made for these characters!! Yang Yang just portrays Hei Fengxi/Feng Lanxi so well and Zhao Lusi does such an amazing job at acting as Bai Fengxi/Feng Xiyun. We can see her aloof and carefree personality as Bai Fengxi but once she’s Feng Xiyun– she gives more mature and intellectual vibes.

I am in love with Bai Fengxi/Feng Xiyun because for once we have a smart, independent, strong female lead. She doesn’t need anyone to help or rescue her because she can defend herself and the whole world literally knows it too!! I love how as the series progresses we can see more of her charms unfold. Literally everyone is impressed with her.

The love between Bai/Hei Fengxi is the dream relationship I hope everyone would strive for. They have such a healthy loving relationship and this is a rare occurrence in Chinese dramas. Even in the beginning Hei Fengxi sees Bai Fengxi as his equal and this continues on for the whole series. We don’t just have the male lead rescuing the female lead. We have the female lead who can defend and save the male lead too. A strong man and a strong woman makes the perfect power couple. We can see how much the two love and care for each other. There really needs to be a real Hei Fengxi out there because we all want a man like him in our lives. What man can share their throne with their woman? He is really willing to do anything for her and we can see that she's really the apple of his eye. They are both able to give their lives for each other.

The storyline was great but definitely could have used some improvements. We got a good amount of politics, fighting, waring, and romance. However I feel like they focused way too much on the drama with Feng Lanxi’s family and we barely got to see Feng Xiyun as Princess of Qingzhou. I’m still mad that her brother and dad were killed off because they were so supportive of her but we did get to see her become Queen so I guess that makes up for it.
The fighting scenes were really cool to see too, especially since we got to see Bai Fengxi fight (supposedly Zhao Lusi did all her stunts).

The side characters just really added to this amazing series: my poor Hanpu and Feng Xie Yue (Bai Fengxi's brother who died a tragic death), Feng Chang (he deserves more after what his horrible mother did to him), Qi Wu (another strong female character), Huang Chao (we love a man who protects the innocent but also achieves what he wants- and he really wanted Bai Fengxi as his queen. I mean who wouldn't right??), all of Bai/Hei Fengxi's supportive comrades/military leaders.

ughhhhh i have to go cry in the corner now because the series ended. about to go re-watch this 20+ times

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It has an absolutely awful, disrespectful ending!

Endings are important to me, when the writer completely gives up common sense in the final episode flipping the proverbial table, then I tend to just lose it & from then on I won't be able to write an objectively fair review.
Twenty-Five Twenty-One's ending made me change my rating from 9+ to 3.5. Trying to look at this objectively I think Who Rules the World's ending is even worse, perhaps the worse ending I have ever reached. The only reason I'm not THAT harsh in my scoring today is because at least the romance has not been ruined, but everything else is, what happens in the final episode is so egregious that I can not easily put it into words.

I'm so angry that I'm really not in the mood to talk about the good things. Just to sum it up real quick, the romance is really really good in this one, which is about 40% of the drama. Chemistry, bickering, cuteness, fluff etc it's all there, it's as good as it gets from a semi-historical show. The palace politics genre is something I generally hate watching, but in this drama up to maybe episode 25-ish it was really really well done. (there is only one evil queen, so the usual cold palace concubine garbage is mostly not there) At that point I still thought a 10/10 final score would be possible. In the later half though the plot deteriorated quite a bit, however after watching episode 38 I thought this would still be at least a 8/10, but then the ending came..

The Wuxia part of the drama is good and bad at the same time. There are many Relatively well done fight scenes & we go through various Wuxia classics, it even has a saint's trial. However the whole thing in the later episodes about armies clashing & whatever else is pointless to me.
In an acceptable Wuxia-world (no pun intended) strong cultivators decide the outcome of all battles & a weak king without the permanent support of a strong cultivator can never amount to anything ever, no matter how big his army is. Since if he offends a cultivator, they can literally just enter the palace & kill him effortlessly. I think the argument that this is not the case in this specific fantasy world is a bad one, since something similar happened not once, but twice in this show.
Also there were two plots related to cultivation that I thought were incredibly bad. The first one is about the theft of that certain technique, that's something absolutely insane, so much so that no self respecting wuxia writer would ever write that, because it's like fan fiction. The other one is the potion that supposedly disperses all inner force, though my dislike of that is more of a personal preference, it's not completely unreasonable.
Oh I almost forgot FL's sect is supposed to be one of the top righteous sects in Jianghu, however they are repeatedly the useless pig teammate throughout the entire show (useless+weak+stupid the whole lot).

If by some random chance someone who has not watched this drama yet chanced upon this review, my suggestion to you fellow MDLer is to maybe watch up to episode 38 & then just pretend the show only has 38 episodes & call it a day. The romance gets proper closure by that point-ish.

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To be honest the show isn't really worth it. I was really excited to watch this show hoping that it was more with the fighting side and martial arts of Jiang Hu. However I'd say that like the first 7 episodes actually met that requirement, the first few episodes actually get you hooked into watching it.

Later on you figure out who Hei Fengxi's real identity is, and from that point on it just kept bringing up court affairs and one episode took about 10 minutes to watch for me, it was more like one episode was 75% about court affairs and they rest of it was about Bai Fengxi and Hei Fengxi.

Gotta say the best thing about this drama is the costume, I think the way Yang Yang is dressed as Hei Fengxi instead of Feng Lanxi (his prince side) is way better and same thing with Bai Fengxi. The cast was also great and same with the music. I think it was really the court affairs that made the show only an 8.0 stars. I am disappointed that most of it wasn't really related to the martial arts side of Jiang Hu.

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Interesting Start and Finish, but Slump in Between

This show started off pretty interesting - with two characters in the martial arts world. It became less about martial arts and more about political power struggle. Somewhere in the middle it dragged with the evil stepmother scheming in Yongzhou. I would’ve rated it lower if it kept going the way it was. I kept watching just because it was something to do and sometimes you just stick through it, but certain episodes just ended at moments where I didn’t really feel compelled to binge forward.

That being said, I think by the time I got to episode 34 it was worth the payoff. I laughed out loud at the bitch slapping.

One other point of hilarity is that the main antagonist gets to roam around freely and no one suspects a damn thing for the longest time. Every time he showed up on screen I laughed at his shifty eyes and how NO ONE got it until the last quarter of the series. In fact the female lead almost dies because her dumb sworn sister blames her for something our grand master antagonist in plain view does.

The female lead was a strong bad ass, so that was a plus. The side characters don’t really get much of an ending - it’s all about Hei-Bai Fengxi. That being said, I really liked Feng Chang and wished he had some sort of concluding send off scene.

All in all, the show was entertaining despite the dragging middle.

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