The Princess Royal

unrealistic and confusing. there are little spoilers in my review from the first 3 episodes.

I really wanted to like this drama. I have seen the ML before and felt he is a decent actor. I have reach episode 19 and the story remains confusing, unrealistic and clear as mud. The FL i am puzzled by. emotionless and stoney, but maybe that is poor direction i don't know as i have never seen her before. There is almost zero emotion from the FL about anything, after what is suppose to have been in a previous life/dream a 20 years of marriage. I would have given up long ago. She seems to prefer the man who killed her. go figure.
So i am giving up now, and i feel sad. But there it is. you can't please everyone.

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Watching mainly for interaction between Leads

i find ZHAO JIN MAI acting is unique.

Most people will say some acted well when they shout and scream like double lead actress does. She is different beast. But ZJM has unique style of acting in that you dont feel she acts but LIVES in it.

Oh i am watching her first time. First episode was bad . But i got hooked in 2nd episode and when she throw ML into water and they chit chat around after. That is when i noticed her acting. She acted with face , eye and overall mannerism.

I do not think any one can act that good except one. Zhang Tian Ai ( great actress). She never get many chance because she outshine male actors.

ZJM dont do not because she acts different. We can see ZJM is 4 level above ML when it come to acting.

Anyways i plan to watch her other dramas now.

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Solid political & romantic drama with INCREDIBLE lead

[After abandoning Nirvana in Fire fairly early, and almost bingeing all of The First Frost, this is only my third CDrama ever. Though I've read MANY regression stories in Jnovels/manga/Knovels/Manhwa/webnovels]

Let me first get out of the way that the absolutely incredible performance Zhao Jin Mai as the incredibly well-written Li Rong, the titular Princess Royal, is indisputably the best thing about this series. I enthusiastically checked out what else she's been in as a result and even started watching Amidst a Snowstorm of Love before finishing this series.
Yes she's distractingly, incredibly beautiful, but it's matched by her performance as this capable, strong, sassy, caring Princess Royal who's risen (in the prime timeline) to be a political juggernaut. The many layers of this character, and the tragic fact that no one else in the world truly understands her, is one of the fascinating things about this series. How do you trust someone who admits she's chasing power? How do you trust her when she says she's doing it for you but then also says she's doing it for the Family but then also says she's doing it for the Commoners...Can they all be true? Can you risk it being a lie? What if it's all true?
The rest of the cast deserves praise, too. Zhang Ling He as Pei Wen Xuan (our main male pov) and Chen He Yi as Su Rong Qing make up the rest of our central love triangle. And it's an interesting love triangle in that it's clear very early on that both men were sincerely and deeply loved by our lead at least at some point, and it colours their relationships throughout the series. (honestly, I was hoping for a poly ending fairly early)
The cast gradually expands overtime, with characters revealing themselves to have multiple layers or sides such that they feel complicated and the resulting complicated mix of politics and events feels a natural result rather than anything contrived for the sake of narrative. (Cheng Guo as Shangguan Ya, He Qiu as Qin Zhen Zhen, etc etc)
Even the King, who for most of his airtime serves his role well as this central power to be feared and approaced with caution, has his moment in a GREAT scene where someone rages at him, pointing out all of his flaws and failures and desires and his actor's reaction gave me a new level of respect. (One of my favourite episodes).

It's this blend of great acting with very well-written characters that helps make this series notable.
But that's not all.

The REALLY interesting thing about this series is it's view on power and morality. Our central character is the main vessel for this philosophy in her refusal to hold grudges or chase revenge when she sees so many schemes as less of a personal affront and more simply a natural result of the corrupting influence of power and the Imperial Court.
It's not personal, it's just business.
But then what do you do when, in this rat race, someone could get enough power such that now the entire nation could suffer greatly?
So many times the issue of the corruptive nature of power and the natural desire to chase it is raised in this series and our characters both consider how it affects themselves but also take it into consideration when dealing with their enemies.

There's also the commoner vs noble class philosophy. It's obviously supposed to be a reference to Communist China but really you can make it an allegory with pretty much any modern day system of democratic government vs the older system depicted here. But it was interesting to see a series where the monarchy is pro-commoner/egalitarianism. (it's not the first I've seen, but interesting to see in a Chinese Imperial Court story)

The OST is solid, and the ending theme is so beautiful I have watched the entire credits many times just to listen to it.
Also, at 40 episodes I was worried it'd go too long... but I actually don't think that's the case. And episode 32 onwards is probably the best of all the episodes.

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A Historical Revenge Drama with Unexpected Twists

Honestly, I feel bad for Zhang Linghe, because in many of his historical dramas, he often ends up being misunderstood or seen as the “bad guy” by the female lead even though he’s actually kind-hearted. In The Princess Royal, Zhao Jinmai character seeks revenge, believing that Zhang linghe character was the one who poisoned her. But the truth is he wasn’t.

I think this drama has some shocking plot twists, though some parts are a bit predictable, especially when it comes to figuring out who the real villain is. Still, there’s one twist that genuinely caught me off guard I didn’t expect the true identity of the person who poisoned Zhao Jinmai in her past life.

This is one of the few historical dramas with a happy ending for Zhang Linghe’s character, which is rare and refreshing. While it’s not in my list of top favorites, I still think it’s a well written story with a satisfying revenge arc. The pacing is a bit slow at times, especially when it comes to the female lead finally realizing how kind her husband was in her past life. But overall, I’d still recommend this drama, especially if you like historical romances with a twist of mystery and revenge.

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Disappointed…

This became unintentionally long cause at one point I just started talking about anything lmfao)

If ongoing reviews were a thing, yall would’ve seen how highly I thought of this drama at first lmfao

I think, the word “exemplary” once came to mind (during that consort’s final moments in court earlier on)

They took such care with the characters and story in the beginning.

It should be a crime for dramas to let you down this badly.

We wanted something different…

And at first, this was the something different.

This was a story where the fl was the heroine not just the love interest.

And not just in name only.

This was her story. Her journey and man was it a great watch

There were flaws throughout but I could tolerate them because I was having so much fun.

The Princess Royal was riding highhhh and then it crashed

It crashed horribly after ep.30

The last 10 episodes were a pain to get through

It revealed her as an indecisive hypocrite and spent an ungodly amount of time on an issue that was already resolved in ep.2-3 by framing it as some irreconcilable injustice.

We wasted 3 episodes on things we already knew or could’ve been explained in 15 minutes.

And then came the illogicalities.

The noble houses siding with a woman who’d previously tortured members of their houses and had them executed

A betrayal in the barracks for no apparent reason other than to create a conflict ig?

The others would be a spoiler.

They should cut out episodes 35-37, and cut out that drawn out death in ep.40, if they want to save even a fraction of this busted story

The casting director must’ve been asleep during the casting of this drama.

The sml, crown prince, Prince Su and Consort Rou’s actor(s) were casted for what?

There was also something not quite right with the fl’s acting.

I will say that regarding the criticisms about the sml being more like a ml than the sml: this is the most second male leadiest sml ever lmfao

The obnoxious yearning, the self righteousness, the inflated sense of worth he feels he holds in the fls heart/mind, the surface level/paper thin perfection and the need to control her couched in a pretense of protection

The only issue was her unreasonable attachment to him and that the story permitted the narrative of “missed opportunity” between them to persist til the end.

Don’t know what the writers were thinking but they weakened their romance with this.

You can’t have one person single-handedly carrying a relationship. It should be a partnership with mutual love and respect but it felt more like something Pei Wenxuan was painstakingly carving out of desperation.

I can’t root for that. It gives me the ick.

They also seemed afraid to position him fully as the villain of the story. Even til the end.

There seemed to be a disconnect between what they were trying to tell and what the viewers saw/experienced.

By the end, Li Ring and Pei Wenxuan were no longer characters I cared all that much about.

There was a point in the story where it felt like the writers gave up and patched together an ending because they had to.

It went from having fleshed out characters with an identity, personality and goals (from mains, sides, antagonists) to paper thin plot devices.

I want to give this a 6.5 so badly but I really liked it at first so a 7/10 it is.

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basically the male wife trope

the inicial idea was crazy good, and that made the first episodes very easy to watch.
i really liked that Pei Wen Xuan and Li Rong are not traditional characters, their personalities were different than we usually see in chinese dramas, they are a unique couple. also i loved their past, it was absolute DRAMA!
however, there's a very disturbing scene on episode 25 between the main couple, that bothered me a lot and i have not seen anyone talk about it, that scene was hideous, it even made me think if i would finish the drama, and it's the reason why i took away so many stars in my review. i believe it would be a trigger for some people, so beware.

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A captivating Story with a Psychotic villain

First things first, this c-drama was great, it had a captivating story line, a villain like most dramas do but that doesn't change my opinion as some villains can be like annoying to the point where if affects your opinion on the whole drama itself but I don't really care, cause the story line was unique for me it kept me going whilst watching this ongoing(1-32) the cast was amazing in terms of acting and sticking to their characters aside from the concubine(Li Rong's step-mother) It was like well for me, her acting was too forced but it was funny at the same time😂 the music was like another additional thing that was enjoyable for me it was special and complemented the scene that was shown. You may see that idk some reviews that are a lot different to mine but this is an honest opinion from myself and MY OPINION so please don't start anything. Just some advice, don't read the negative reviews, I read them myself some are not genuine and are hating on the fact of how the villains character was in general not the one who played it. If you think they're genuine carry on, I can't control what you do lol. But just remember that If you decide not to get into this drama you will be MISSING OUT for sure as it was definitely worth a watch I might even watch this for its first year anniversary (just my fave eps😌)
Anyone reading this take care, and choose wisely as to whether you WANT to watch this or not.

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The male lead became an accessory while the female lead became the back story

I was conflicted and confused about this drama. The title is misleading. The emphasis throughout was on Su Rong Qing, who was supposed to be the 2nd ML by the way. It was all about SRQ’s endless dramatic antics, forever sob story and sociopathic and villainous behavior. I thought they should have called this drama The Psycho Royal. Only ZLH made me tune in till the end. But really, I wasn’t even sure ZLH was the ML when his character was reduced to an accessory of the FL. I felt cheated. The last episode totally ruined this for me especially with that long irritating monologue from the psycho. Only saving grace of this drama is the flawless acting of ZLH and ZJM.

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great actors with subpar plot

I really had a hard time to finish the series, dropped it twice before able to complete it in the span of 1 month with the video speed up to 1.5x speed. It started great with well explaination of what happen in the future and how they were back in the past. However the plot started to be draggy and lengthy with too much unccessary misunderstanding between the 2 leads.

The acting of all actors are great but still unable to revive the plot and the characters arc development were poorly developed. At the end of the series, the SML have more airtime compare to the ML as if Zhang lihe is the SML. I drop it twice before able to finish it.

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Pei Wen Xuan deserved better!!

Just finished this drama and it lowkey felt like a chore to finish it. The story was a bit boring yet interesting enough to finish it.

I found there to be very little chemistry between the two leads, but their acting was good enough and I felt the respect they had for each other as actors. ZJM could work on her facial expressions a bit. More feeling!! Some of her crying/sad scenes were not convincing enough to me except the one where SRQ revealed everything to her in that cave. I liked her acting there. I enjoy a good crazy dramatic scene (ahem, Consort Rue). ZLH needed more screen time!!

Li Rong was such a selfish person with big trust issues (understandable). Her character was so annoying and she did not deserve Pei Wen Xuan's love!! He was way too good for her. PWX loved her way more than she did. I do appreciate that they had good communication in certain scenes and cleared up some misunderstandings. And like many other's already talked about, Su Rong Qing had too much screen time. He was pretty much the ML in this drama and the whole story felt like it revolved around him.

I loved the other supporting characters like Qin Zhen Zhen, Shangguan Ya and Su Rong Hua. And the actress of Consort Rou played the heck out of her role! She was a very convincing psycho! LOL

What bugged me was in Episode 35 where they switched Prince Su after he passed away with someone who was basically the same person. That was ridiculous. But then suddenly everyone knew he was imposter? They just knew!! There was no big reveal so it was underwhelming. And nobody really mourned for Prince Su except the Princess Hua. Consort Rou was so fixated on power, she mourned for like a few minutes and then boom - back to being power hungry.

Also, goodness gracious SRQ was basically half of Ep 40 with his dramatic antics. And near the end 3 years into the future, where the heck was Li Rong and Pei Wen Xuan's kid?!

I do enjoy a good political drama, but this one dragged on. This shouldn't have been 40 episodes long. 30 episodes would have been fine. I do believe this is worth a watch if you like the leads. Who knows, you might enjoy it more than me!

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The Princess Royal - Rebirth, Power, and Love

🔹 I gave The Princess Royal 8/10.

🔹From the very first episode, I was drawn in by the plot's question: What if fate gave you a second chance to change everything?

📖 Overview
🔹 The Princess Royal is a 40-episode Chinese historical romance adapted from the novel The Eldest Princess (长公主) by Mo Shu Bai.
🔹 It stars Zhao Jin Mai as Li Rong, a princess caught between duty and love, and Zhang Ling He as Pei Wen Xuan, the prime minister tied to her fate.
🔹 The story blends palace intrigue, rebirth fantasy, and romance. Both leads die after decades of tension, only to wake up as their younger selves with full memories of the past.

✍️ Storyline & Tone
🔹 The drama mixes political suspense with intimate emotions, creating a bittersweet but hopeful mood.
🔹 I liked how the rebirth theme gave familiar palace conflicts fresh weight since every choice feels like it could rewrite destiny.
🔹 At times, the pacing slowed in the middle episodes, but the emotional pull of the second-chance setup kept me watching.

🎭 Cast & Performances
🔹 Zhao Jin Mai makes Li Rong believable as both a leader and a woman scarred by her past. Her performance is layered, showing strength and vulnerability side by side.
🔹 Zhang Ling He gives Pei Wen Xuan a steady calm that softens into warmth, making his slow bond with Li Rong feel natural.
🔹 The supporting cast, including Li Yun Rui, Dai Lu Wa, Wang Zi Teng, and Chen Xin Hai, round out the palace world with humor, loyalty, and conflict, so the story never feels empty.

🎵 OST
🔹 "Live Up to the Good Years (华年不负)" – Curley Gao (希林娜依·高, former BONBON GIRLS 303)
🔹 "Wind Blows (风吹)" – Qian Yan (千言)
🔹 "Persistent Love (执爱)" – Mi Ka (米卡)
🔹 "Double Dream (双梦)" – Yao Xiao Tang (姚晓棠)
🔹 "Love Without End (爱而不休)" – Chen Hong Li (陈红鲤)
🔹 "Hidden Heart (藏心)" – Ye Xuan Qing (叶宣卿)
🔹 "Soul Attached (魂牵)" – Shui Mu Nian Hua (水木年华)


🎨 Visuals & Production
🔹 The palace and interior sets felt well-balanced, making the world believable.
🔹 The costumes were on point for each character.
🔹 I liked how the cinematography highlighted both the sweeping political moments and the smaller, emotional ones.


🏆 Final Thoughts
🔹 For me, The Princess Royal stands out because it blends rebirth fantasy, political intrigue, and romance in a way that feels both moving and grand.
🔹 I rated it 8/10 for its heartfelt acting, beautiful OST, and plot twists.
🔹 The slower middle episodes were a drawback, but the overall emotional impact stayed strong.

⭐ Final Rating: 9/10

💭 As SpillTheDramaTea ☕, The Princess Royal felt like a rich, fragrant brew of tea. The longer it steeped, the deeper the taste became, and it’s one I’ll gladly pour again.

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