Legend of the Female General

WATCH IT NOW IF YOU LOVE LOVE LIKE ME!!!

I did not read the novel. But even if I had I am not a purist. Even while watching western shows and webtoon adapted kdramas,I always treat the novel and book differently.

I have never reviewed a drama before but I HAD TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT BECAUSE THIS DRAMA IS AMAZING!!! I LOVED IT SO SO SO MUCH.

The love story is insanely beautiful. The leads's chemistry is on fire. They are so gorgeous together and there is so much tension right off the bat.
Also Cheng Lei's each confession tops the other. Xiao Jue had the audacity to say : "She is my view, my mind, my heart" in front of the whole court. GODDDDD.

The battle scenes are so beautifully choregraphed especially the one where she uses the whip and the ones where He Yan and Xiao Jue fight together. And I love that we get so many battles for He Yan to flex her skills.

The show has everything: romance, humor and epic fights. Such a fantastic fun watch.

The last 2 episodes were kind of annoying but Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye acted so well in that episode. I could literally feel their heartbreak.

Both Xiao Jue and He Yan are such deep characters. We see so many layers for both. Xiao Jue starts all serious but is so hopelessly in love and you can see his love in the way he smiles and stares at He Yan. Beautiful!!. And He Yan gosh the way that girl slips from one mode to another is fantastic. That scene in ep 9 where she goes from rage and anger to cheerful and happy in split second. Master acting!!!

Anyway I repeat LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SHOW. WATCH IT NOW EVERYONE!!!!

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A Surprisingly Addictive Watch!

If you go into this drama with no expectations, you’re in for a treat! It kicks off strong by introducing the main characters right away—no dragging things out. The hot spring fight scene was a standout for me—so entertaining! I only wish there were more scenes like that.

One thing I really appreciated was that the male lead discovers the female lead’s true identity early on. I’m so over dramas where the ML is confused for half the show about why he's drawn to a "guy"—that trope is played out. Here, the secret identity angle unfolds at a great pace, and it's satisfying to watch her slowly reclaim her position as a general while he quietly supports her behind the scenes.

That said, I was a bit frustrated that the ML couldn’t recognize that the “general” at court was a fake. Seriously—he's known the real general’s build and voice for years! That part didn’t sit well with me.

Still, the sword dance scene? *Incredible.* I’m absolutely hooked and counting down the days for each new episode!

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Unexpectantly Interesting... with minor drawbacks

'Legend of the Female General' is a series I was genuinely excited about, especially given the strong potential of the leads. Ryan Cheng, cast as the male lead, had already impressed me with his performance in 'My Journey to You'. Zhou Ye, playing the female lead, is a personal favorite of mine thanks to her notable acting in 'Back from the Brink'.

Zhou Ye as the FL, He Yan is a girl who has to pretend to be her family's son to protect their title. She meets Xiao Jue (Ryan Cheng as the ML) while studying at an academy; instead, she leaves to fight in the army.
The FL fights her way to become a general, she returns as a war hero, only to be betrayed by her family when her real brother suddenly comes back. After surviving stabs, blindness, and poison, she takes on a new identity and disguises herself as a man to join the army in Yezhou.

First impression: Positives:
#1: Strong potential with a strong FL and Eye-candy ML, surprisingly a great casting choice. They both fit their corresponding roles pretty well. Good expressions!
#2: Chemistry is as interesting as the storyline itself?? In the first few episodes, I am absolutely hooked on the chemistry between the cast! (probably because of Ml's expressions) FL is able to guess everything the ML thinks. ML is initially cold to her, thinking she is a spy. After finding out that the FL is actually a girl, he goes soft on her.
#3: Great cinematography, nothing groundbreaking, but really good visuals. The camera really makes ML a great military general fit, especially during horse riding.
#4: Storyline is interesting, despite the ML's suspicion of the FL as a spy, he still helps her prove her abilities.

Negative Drawbacks: plotholes and crazy plot armor
#1 The FL's Voice. The ML had known He Rufei (FL version) ever since their time in the academy, yet when the FL's brother took He Rufei's identity, his voice was completely different. How did the ML fail to recognize that? Even the figure?
#2 The FL is shown as someone super clever who is able to depict whatever the ML is thinking. But she was not able to think through her family's schemes and was poisoned.
#3 Her being poisoned was way too sudden. After she was chased and stabbed, she fell off the cliff. How was her master able to cure all her severe injuries and even the blindness?? Maybe there will be context in the future; this part was rushed and thus a bit confusing.
#4 I just feel like the FL's build is sort of feminine for a military series.. it could've been a bit more towards the 'hardened' side.. being a general with that beauty is unrealistic..

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Superb viewing - don’t let the logic gaps put you off!

Legend of the Female General is superb viewing. The show has very high production values, great aesthetics, superb acting and logic gaps aplenty but they don’t matter. This show is top notch entertainment.

Our OTP is great together. From the initial moments of subterfuge, through to relationship challenges, flashbacks, sweet moments and side by side on the battlefield. In fact, the final battle scene to this series is top notch. He Yan is superb on her white charger shooting arrows in an effort to rescue her beloved. The best horse scene since Jeremy Tsui.

There is the full range of villains and one in particular who really doesn’t seem that bad but lets his romantic attachment cloud his judgement. He tends to interfere more than he should.

There are many other highlights: He Yan’s indomitable spirit as she rejoins the army and makes her way back to the top, her increasing affection for the ML, typical tropes that are dealt with quickly (yay) and Huai Jin who, as the perfect male general, has a hard exterior but a soft heart.

Viki does have the bad habit of only releasing one episode per day towards the end of a series. Although frustrating, Legend carried itself very well at one episode per day.

So, what is the show’s message? It would seem to be: stay true to yourself, even if you have to hide who you are from time to time.

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Not your typical historical drama

Keeping it brief — I really enjoyed this drama. It had me hooked episode after episode, always wanting to see what happens next.

The chemistry between the leads isn’t your typical sweet, romantic kind — it’s more subtle and layered. There’s a deep sense of understanding between them, and their shared gazes (especially from Cheng Lei) say so much without needing words.

That said, there were a few plot points that felt unclear or unexplained — maybe I missed something? For example, how did he realize she was the girl he once saved at the temple and gave the candy to? Or how did he figure out she was faking her blindness when he brought in the doctor?

Despite those small gaps, I loved the story of her fighting to reclaim her place and the way the drama touched on gender equality. It showed that even if women can’t go to war, they still have powerful roles to play.

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"I like the moon, but the moon doesn't know."

Zhou Ye and Cheng Lei worked super hard and did super well in their roles as He Yan/General Feihong and Xiao Jue/General Fengyun. This drama is full of beautiful character work, nice cinematography, and some touching full-circle moments and parallels.
In terms of the plot, I liked the pace, it barely dragged and kept me interested throughout every episode. There was something so satisfying about seeing He Yan who lost everything beginning from the bottom again and working hard to achieve her goals. That is what's so refreshing about this drama; usually the female leads tend to be naturally talented at fighting and work for recognition of their talents, but in this drama, He Yan is actually not talented at fighting and rises to the top through hard work and dedication, which is such a beautiful message. Skill and dedication truly matters more than natural talent.
I loved the main characters and Zhou Ye and Cheng Lei were absolutely amazing. There were widespread complaints that He Yan didn't have the general aura at the start, but as the drama progresses, the audience gets to experience her growth and reassumption of her position. I find it kind of funny that everyone was expecting a newbie soldier to be super imposing and emotionless, when that's not how it was written in the novel. One of the biggest downsides of the drama is simply the viewers' own expectations of what the drama should be like without regarding trying to understand what it is.
I thought Zhou Ye portrayed He Yan amazingly, her curiosity, playfulness, dedication and intelligence was on full display, and her struggles with finding herself and her own identity was also executed very well by Zhou Ye in terms of the limitations of the script. He Yan as a character is truly very engaging and the viewer can't help but root for her success and happiness in this new chance at life.
Meanwhile, Cheng Lei lived and breathed Xiao Jue, such an amazing character. Unexpectedly, the part that I enjoyed the most were all of the comedic moments, but the emotional and cool moments were also really great. A lot of male leads have the archetype of cold on the outside and soft on the inside, but I feel with Xiao Jue it was done incredibly well. He's commanding, skilled, but also sweet and dedicated to the one he loves.
The chemistry between Zhou Ye and Xiao Jue was also a huge highlight of the drama, their moments held so much tension, whether emotional, romantic or comedic.
In terms of Chu Zhao, I've seen that other viewers pity him but I think he's just the generic "I'm entitled to the female lead because I 'love' her" type of second male lead, and people who said that he should've been the male lead are absolutely wrong in my opinion. His role as a person who strictly follows his own morals was pretty interesting in the story, there were times when he was united or against the leads, and it all flowed very naturally. Zhang Kangle does have an iPhone face to me, though.
Cheng Lisu and Song Taotao were pretty interesting characters, especially as their romantic relationship is a feature unique to the drama. I wish that they had gotten more screen time, but obviously because of the face swap, it was not possible. Zhang Miaoyi was still very cute in her role, and I honestly could not tell that Li Qing was the replacement for Cheng Lisu's previous actor.
The villains, namely Xu Jingfu and He Rufei, really annoyed me, especially He Rufei's extraordinary delusion. I can't even elaborate more on that because it makes me so angry. He spends all of his screentime acting like an entitled child throwing a tantrum. I wish that the viewers could've received some context for Xu Jingfu's actions.
Last but not least, the male lead's subordinate Feinu and all of He Yan's army buddies survived to the end of the drama, which is an absolute miracle. I have to thank the drama writers for that one.
Honestly, the biggest downside of the drama is its runtime. It would've been so beneficial to have 40 (45 minute long) episodes to give the story breathing space and time to elaborate on other aspects of the plot or characters. I think that the audience could've really benefitted from a deeper exploration into He Yan's psyche and journey of self-discovery outside of He Rufei. The storyline was still present, but it could've been even more impactful and emotional to see He Yan's numerous struggles with her identity highlighted. However, for the time they ended up with and the amount that they had to cut, I think the people behind the drama did an excellent job at crafting a captivating and engaging drama.
I truly commend Zhou Ye and Cheng Lei on their amazing performances, and recommend this drama to anyone wanting to watch a touching story of romance, fulfillment, and growth with excellent acting and fight scenes.

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Brainless Romance That's Fun if You Don't Look At All The Plotholes

Going in to ANY show 100% blind isn't really my thing. I like to KNOW what I'm setting myself up for but this year I've been letting this go more and more. With Legend of the Female General I literally did not even read the synopsis before watching, nor follow any trailers or promo. In fact, I'm not even a fan of Cheng Lei as he always looks like he has resting b*tch face to me and Zhou Ye looks "off" to me for an unknown reason. (This is NOT a jab at either's looks or acting ability but literally just a personal preference as I have watched multiple dramas from both actors and will continue to do so without prejudice, they just don't make me "swoon". 😅 )

This all said, I went in and found myself pleasantly surprised.

Personally, I have been watching this show after a period of being unable to watch ANY airing dramas, but I kept up with this one and it allowed me to get back into the habit. It's script is brainless and dumb. This is NOT a bad thing in my personal mind as I found myself enjoying clicking the next episode and waiting for the next day. I turned my brain off to all the VAST and NUMEROUS number of coincidences and slogans and hand-waves, and plot holes scattered throughout the story and instead focused on enjoying a slowly building romance.

Because I could tell that politics were going to be nothing I refused to think about them or pay attention to any detail. Because side stories were obviously not going to be fleshed out it didn't MATTER if I understood who was who or what they were doing when the aide was sent off somewhere.

The only IMPORTANT things were how was the relationship between the leads progressing... Were they looking at eachother, was he taking her candy? Was she sewing him things like a "little lady"?

Now for side characters I'll be honest, NO ONE, not the leads, not the 2nds, or even the villains showed true character depth. Both generals are shown at the school but then she apparently leaves to enlist? At some point the audience gets information about her enlisting because of a marriage decree but it's a throwaway line and seems to make little sense with anything they'd shown. The 2nd leads, they hate eachother until they meet then it's basically love at first sight but they've seen eachother before so their relationship history was glossed over as them being stubborn. Our 2ML had a grudge with his family that got 2 scenes and a few "mommy issues" flashbacks. Her General was a misogynist one moment and "oh, you're a woman? I'll follow you anyway the next". Even the Emperor was set-up in one direction and then WHAM let's 180° him.

BUT.... with all these issues I still liked the show as a romance between the two generals. I am fully capable of laughing at there being barely any blood splatter on her face after a major battle AND swooning over him giving her a birthday.

8/10 for enjoyment bias
(Storyplot is probably a 6 or 6.5 "maybe" 😅)

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I recommend to skip the last episodes.

I recommend to skip the last episodes- 33,34,35,36. They make no sense at all.

The drama was ok, but I expected more. I had really looked forward to it and imagined a stronger female lead. It had good ideas that could have been developed further. What was also disturbing is that the female lead had less and less to say the closer her relationship with the male lead became. The last episodes could have been left out entirely. They added an extra storyline that distorted the characters and was also illogical. I don’t understand why they even made those last episodes.

Beautiful cinematography, beautiful fight scenes, beautiful costumes. The actors are fine as well.

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Great chemistry but a not-so-legendary historical drama

I quite enjoyed Legend of the Female General overall, especially because of the undeniable chemistry between the two leads.
Their interactions are engaging to watch and their scenes give the drama a certain charm that keeps it from being dull.
However, despite these strengths, there are aspects of the story that left me disappointed.
The biggest issue for me lies in the way the female lead is written and portrayed. Considering her backstory, I expected a character who carried a sense of gravity, intensity and inner strength. Instead, the drama often presents her in a much lighter, almost playful manner, more fitting for a romantic comedy heroine than a legendary general.
The overall tone of the story also misses the epic, larger-than-life atmosphere I was hoping for.
The drama isn’t without its redeeming qualities. The chemistry between the leads genuinely carries the show, making their relationship a delight to follow and perhaps even overshadowing some of the weaker elements in the script.
For viewers who enjoy light romance wrapped in a historical setting, this drama can still be an enjoyable watch.
While it may not live up to its full potential or the expectations but it has enough charm to keep you watching until the end.

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I can't!!!!!

Okay, first of all, I know that I should be reviewing the plot and cast and be unbiased. But let me fangirl first, like Ryan Cheng's attractiveness since MJTY is off the charts! And on this drama, I screamed and my heart jump every time he is on the screen, like he's seducing me with those eyes and the aristocratic nose! His charm is that of a bad boy that you want to tame and hog for yourself! Yep, I think he is a red flag that you chose to die for! Okay that is an exaggeration but you know what I mean!

Alright enough of my fangirling! On a serious note, even though I only watched the first 4 episodes, I can say that I love the plot. I always gravitate towards a revenge plot story, but of course with a nicely done storytelling! And I can say as early as now that it is nicely done! The pacing so far is good, the action sequence is great and the cinematography so far is nicely done! It's like they are walking you through the drama at a nice pace. I am not bored but definitely anticipating the next episodes. For now, it gives you a sense of wanting to know what's next and gives you just the right amount of excitement! Can't wait for the intense fighting and cunningness of Ryan Cheng and Zhou Ye. I am also waiting for Bai Shu's intense villain act, I don't want to typecast him and put him in a box but I like him more portraying as a villain. Maybe, in the future he can be cast as antihero, coz he knows how to act as a docile, goody main character and a splendid villain!

This is my take for now! Happy watching!

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Disappointing and Dull

The story is riddled with massive plot holes, weak character development, and uninspired writing. I gave it a try, but dropped the drama after episode 3, that’s how quickly it lost me.

The FL and ML are both miscast in my opinion. Their performances feel stiff and disconnected. It’s hard to care about characters who feel so out of place in their own story.

The dialogue is dull, filled with forced lines and lifeless predictable conversations. There’s an overuse of inner monologues, which just drag the pacing down even more. Instead of adding depth, these internal thoughts come off as repetitive and unnecessary.

Nothing stands out visually either, the sets, costumes, and cinematography are all forgettable.

I really wanted to enjoy this drama, but after three episodes, it became clear that it just wasn’t worth continuing. If you're looking for a strong story, solid acting, or any kind of emotional engagement, this isn’t it. Legend of the Female General is a forgettable, frustrating watch.

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