Legend of the Female General

Brainless Temu level production. 2025 Disappointment.

What an utter disappointment for me. There was nothing and I mean nothing legendary about this drama. I love Zhou Ye and Cheng Lei, in fact I was beyond excited to watch this drama as they are my dream pair, but this drama was not it. The title is extremely misleading.

What this drama showed me is a silly female lead who never proved to me that she’s a legendary general. Was she a good fighter? Sure. Was she smart? Sure. But that’s because her opponents were clowns most of the time or conveniently outsmarted by the script. What makes a hero legendary is seeing their journey from zero to hero. Their struggles and pain, to ultimate victory. The female lead from the start was already smart and a great fighter but she spent a big chunk of the drama acting like a ditzy soldier. She didn’t improve on anything much and didn’t suffer as much as I would expect from a legendary character. Everything was just too convenient. On top of that, when it was her big moment to shine, she was turned into a damsel in distress, saved by the male lead. Worse, she would be crying on the battlefield, that she had lost her hubby, while the battle was still raging on.

The production is at an atrocious Temu level. The script must have cost $5 because of how ridiculous it was with tons of plot holes. The writers even tried to add in some inspirational pinterest quotes but it all felt flat. The set designs, editing, and some of the costumes looked low budget. Which was shocking considering all the high quality marketing, posters and trailers before airing. Truly the only saving grace were the main leads.

The comedy was unexpected but fine. However the angst was as flat as an iron board. The drama set up so many opportunities for angst and endearing emotions but delivered me nothing. The female lead has hidden identity + gender but all the big reveals were so anti-climatic. There was an important scene where the female lead has to prove to the army that she can be their general but the fight was off screen!!! I suppose part of the viewing experience is to use our imagination to believe she is really badass.

As a hopeless romantic, the love story was ok but something was missing. The second male lead had too much screen time in the second half for no good reason.

The fight scenes were mostly unimpressive (with some exceptions), and in general very short. In the initial episodes, the fight scenes were poorly edited, in the later episodes the visuals improved but there was zero emotional impact as the enemies were a bunch of NPCs. The final battle was great but only lasted 5 minutes and 90% of it, I had already seen in the trailer.

In conclusion, the drama was beyond silly, beyond brainless, the plot holes were too much to count. I couldn’t take anything seriously, and if the drama was aiming for full satire, it would have achieved that but nope. The only saving grace were the leads. With great frustration, I award this non-legendary drama as my biggest 2025 disappointment.

Read More

Nothing Legendary About This ‘Female General’

The title Legend of Female General is completely misleading. Instead of delivering a powerful story about a legendary woman leading her army with wisdom and strength, it turns out to be just another cheesy historical romance. From the title, I expected a strong female lead who could inspire, command and outwit her enemies, but that’s far from what this drama shows.
The female lead is betrayed, nearly killed, and robbed of her victory by her own relative. When she finally returns to the army, instead of reclaiming her purpose, she wastes time doing silly things, flirting with the male lead, and conveniently forgetting her original goals. To make things worse, the “disguise as a man” angle is completely unconvincing, her appearance, voice and mannerisms are fully feminine, making the entire premise hard to take seriously.
If the writers only wanted to make a generic love story, they should have chosen a more fitting title rather than misleading viewers with the promise of a legendary general.
I’m not sure if the drama follows the novel or if the script was altered, but if this really comes from the original work, then perhaps the novel itself also has issues.
The romance is another downfall. It feels painfully cringe-worthy, both leads lack depth in their performances.
The FL never once convinces me she’s a general, while the ML delivers a cold, one-dimensional performance like a robot programmed to act “romantic” whenever the script demands it. Even in their most intimate moments, there’s no spark, no emotional weight, just mechanical execution.
Overall, this drama feels like a product of rushed mass production. China seems to be pushing out as many dramas as possible these days, prioritizing flashy visuals and high budgets over meaningful storytelling. Unlike older works that carried depth and substance, this one is like a beautifully plated dish with no real taste, nice presentation, but completely flavorless.

Read More

Worst Generals Ever

After watching the first few episodes, I realized that I needed to turn off my brain so that I may be able to tolerate the show because there really wasn’t anything else on. Besides, I am a fan of ML & FL so support - Yay! But damn Gina! Each episode hurt my brain worst than the previous one. This show had so much potential but squandered it away with bad dialogue, bad acting, bad logic, and bad plot. The villains were never a threat because they were all so stupid! ML & FL were both embraced & squeezed tight by the power of Main Lead Halos. I never felt any tensions or feared that they were ever in danger because both leads were just soooo smart & soooo strategic & soooo strong! They were the worst generals ever. FL and her posse leave the military base w/out permission- no problem!! Commander & his cross dressing low ranked soldier leave to do stuff away from military camp! Sure!! When the commander leaves to do PLOT, his cross dressing low ranked soldier takes charge instead of the second in command Shen? How useless was the second in charge that he needed the FL to draw him a defense map to protect his own base?? Huh??? And why are the FL & ML crying & hugging & loving each other in the middle of a war? Why did she lose her composure when she thought her Dudu died??? PEOPLE ARE DYING KIMBERLY!! And why did my boy chu, who was the most “rounded” character, have a tantrum/meltdown when he knew and witnessed first hand how much the ML & FL loved each other??? Was he surprised?? EVERYONE KNEW!! Why the manufactured drama ?? And why did some folks recognized that she was a girl and some didn’t recognize it?? How did that makes sense?????? There were random deaths but I didn’t give a damn because the writers & director didn’t give me any reasons to feel sad for them. This was such a bad show. Even the romance, which I enjoyed in the beginning, fizzled halfway through. The revelation of her identity should have been more emotional but it fell flat- and then all was forgiven a hot second later after a few emo glances?? Urgh! So disappointed!

Read More

weak and warm

I haven’t watched many Cdramas, but this one was definitely the worst. The script was very weak, it was 36 episodes of boring conversations, purposeless characters, and where are the action scenes? It felt like a low-budget production. I didn’t like either of the two protagonists, she had no charisma and was a weak actress, and he seemed like the Ice Man, with a stiff, cold, and uninspired performance. The villains looked like fools, where was the sense of fear they should instill in the protagonists? That never happened. There were several random characters, like a courtesan who appeared out of nowhere just to tell the protagonists the truth, and the woman was constantly lost in her character, sometimes acting like a woman, sometimes like a man, and for the viewer, it was hard to tell because at no point did she look like a man… What I wanted was a story of revenge, but that was left behind to make room for a bland romance.
I thought that actor Zhang Kang Le's character had too much screen time, which only makes sense if they are promoting the actor for future dramas. His character was boring and didn't add anything interesting to the story.

Read More

In short, our leads carried the drama

Denial is a river. Yup, that's me, hence i wait for everything to sink in and not rushing to give my share. You know, that feeling when you've been waiting for so long and insisted to devour it no matter what or how the outcome just because you've been waiting long enough.
In short, i'm that novel purist who lost it. Just like the plot, lost.

Let me put it upfront, my expectation for the plot isn't that high since i'm very well aware it's impossible with all this damn regulation. So when it started by cutting 2 families, merging character, change character's background etc etc, i was still okay, really. However, it was weak. The beginning isn't as impactful as i expect to be and the moment they make Xiao Jue found He Yan real gender, it's snapped, "Oh, we're gonna have more romance than the novel." Even until the moment i write this, i don't know if i like it or not. The thing is, the novel isn't focus on romance or—in my humble opinion—revenge. It's more about self-discovery and self-development, it's focus a lot on women. Truly female centric material.
All in all, they butchered up a good material into something simple, way too simple, in a not so feel good way.

What saved this, what makes me in denial and reluctant to give harsh rating is the cast. Our leads are awesome, they did amazing job to carried the whole show. I was excited from day 1 with them. Zhou Ye is perfect for me because the thing about He Yan is she's not masculine. Everyone just unable to connect the dots coz the idea of her isn't male is bizarre. So i personally fine with Zhou Ye not so masculine feature and slender figure. Cheng Lei, i don't need explanation, that man is made to play general in costume drama. An easy pass. Their chemistry is good enough. Honestly, i feel like they could deliver more if the script allowed it.
Everyone else also doing good, even SML :) We all hate him for reasons, which means his acting is delivered. I dislike him both in novel and drama lol but at least he was too busy scheming to have delulu about He Yan in novel. Although the last sudden engagement was soooooo unnecessary but i've watched enough cdrama to know the concern was valid. Unnecessary but valid.
I just wish we could have more of yezhou garrison squad coz their bond is so underdeveloped to the point i can't bring myself to empathize with them. At least they got different ending in drama.

To wrap it up, i think it could be decent watch to someone who haven't read the novel. Those detail that irk me probably means nothing if you come with blank sheet.

Read More

Characterless Characters

Overall, it was a good series. I enjoyed watching it. However, there were aspects I didn't like and found faulty. Zhou Ye's female general character, in particular, despite having been a general twice, and having started from scratch in the military the second time, her casual behavior belied her previous status as a general. Her petty actions towards General Fengyun, forgetting she was a soldier, were unbecoming. You've been a general before, and you start as a private, and you have no actions that would indicate you've been a general before. How could such a thing happen? Then she defeats her opponents in combat. They understand that she's used a sword, a spear, and a bow, but she doesn't have a military presence. So, I don't understand why the scriptwriter created such a negative character. I think she should have been more dignified, upright, and had more presence. Okay, I understand she'll portray herself as a rookie. She might have feelings for the general. I agree. But I don't think this is the character of someone who has served as a general before, participated in wars, and been successful. So, the personality analysis is flawed. I saw the same thing with Zi Lan. This character changed character several times throughout the series. He was evil, then became good, then had psychological problems before and was afraid of fire. He has a story with his mother. He constantly acts with her in mind. However, I found it strange that such a person would kill someone without blinking an eye. Similarly, he would make the girl he was keeping with him do this. And these two make observations about people. You kill people, and then you talk about the good things. And the girl is a loser. She had a pathetic personality before. So, both characters have failed to find themselves, have psychologically damaged structures. These characters later become good. They kill their teacher, let's say, causing his death. They cause a rift between two lovers. Then they start a war with a rival country. The King listens to a character raised by a rebellious, treacherous Prime Minister. He appoints her as Vice Prime Minister. Just as he's about to appoint Prime Minister, he realizes his mistake, reverses his mistake, and puts this personality to the test. This person suggests to the King that General Fengyun, whom he highly respects, and General Feihong should not marry. This king, despite being particularly close with General Fengyun, separates them without consulting her or even consulting General Fihong. He annuls the marriage and attempts to marry the female general to Zilan. There's a character flaw here, too. In other words, the screenwriter deliberately made the characters characterless and then had them corrected. It didn't work for me. He followed the wrong path, making this king imprudent, for example. He nullified two generals who fought great battles for the country. He acted as if they were null and void. He belittled them. Then he said, "We made a mistake. Let's find the right path." These things didn't work. Unfortunately, I'm giving the series a 7.5, which I was going to give an 8. Despite it being a series I liked, I'm giving it this rating because of the scriptwriter's misguided approach.
I liked the chemistry between the leads. I liked their acting. Despite Zhou Ye's obvious flaws in the action scenes, and at times, he flew and dodged as if he were swinging on a swing, I found it successful. I found Zhang Kang Le and Bai Shu particularly good. Zhang Miao Yi, Li Qing, and Rao Jia Di (young actriss) were the actors who caught my attention. I recommend watching it for those who haven't watched it.

Read More

The legend of what should have been

This was the biggest let down in 2025 and it makes me very sad.
it was supposed to be everything I wanted in a drama but it became everything I never needed.

The first thing that drew me to this drama was Cheng Lei. I came across him as an actor in Fangs of Fortune and fell in love with his acting in My Journey To You. When I saw this was going to be a main lead role for him, I was over the moon.
I really loved the episodes too until I came to hate it. I went from waiting desperately for another episode to reminding myself I had left it on hold and needed to catch up on it. I did want to finish it but that was purely for Cheng Lei. I made it to the end by skipping (a lot of scenes) and by not caring as much anymore.

I feel like the series could have been so much more. I haven't read the book(s) so I can only say this as a viewer of the show, but I truly feel like they could have done it so much better by changing up the script and giving the main characters the actual spotlight of the show. There was so much depth to a side character (whom I didn't care for) and left important parts of the story untold. We didn't go in depth for Xiao Jue or He Yan. We didn't get to see their backstory (only by a couple of flashbacks that didn't tell us much) and the thing with Xiao Jue's father became a non-relevant thing and it felt like it should matter more.

I kind of wish they told the story chronologically. They should have started us off at their academy days and have them bond, become friends and then the fall-out combined with Xiao Jue's father's death. It would have been more impactful, we would have bonded with the main characters and watched He Yan become a legendary general but have it taken away from her. After that we could've explored their road to revenge or redemption. In my opinion, that would have been so much better. In the way it was told within the show, it felt off. He Yan didn't come across as this bad-ass general but a spoiled brat who sucked up to Xiao Jue to get to a general's position as soon as possible. And Xiao Jue felt like a push over who gave her what she wanted because he was interested in her...
Don't get me wrong, I liked their chemistry. I loved their interactions and they way He Yan had to hide the fact she was a woman within a military camp. I adored the first couple of episodes.... It's fun to watch up until episode 18 or so. The story becomes ridiculous at that point and changes into a convenient plot that forces the main characters together as a couple in order for them to develop romantic feelings. In other words: it was easy writing with a shitty plot and lots of convenient help to progress.

Positives:
- The fighthing scenes (although very short and way too few) were very well done.
- The chemistry between the main characters.
- The first half of the show was fun to watch.
- Usually I don't care much for the male best friend or the female best friend but I loved Chi Su. I was sad to see him go (he doens't die but he just vanished after 20 episodes and doesn't come back until the very last episode).
- I'm still a fan of the two main leads. They acting is amazing and I love to see them in other shows.

Negatives:
- The fact that it's a legend of a female general but there's not a lot of fighting scenes, she does end up saving the day a couple of times by being lucky most of the time or she has to disguise herself and act like a different person in order to get things done. It was weird.
- I cannot get over the fact that she fought this mighty wutou warrior, got herself flinged off into the river with no one around to see where she landed, nearly drowned in the water and Xiao Jue coming in to rescue her. LIKE HOW DID HE KNOW WHERE SHE WAS?!?!?!?!
- That whole "you cannot get married because that would unite too much military power" thing being a shitty plot and makes me wish they had ended it at 30 episodes because it was soooooooo unnecessary. Especially considering the emperor changed his words in the last 10 minutes of the last episode and allowed them to get married anyway.... It's beyond stupid.
- The side characters got too much spotlight. For some reason Chu Zhao and He Ru Fei got a lot of screen time and the main characters become background characters for a lot of episodes. That was the reason I started to skip through most of it. Unfortunately, this remained like this for the second half of the show.

So would I recommend this drama? I'm not sure. But I can tell you this. The trailer is misleading and the way the story starts is too. There's not a lot of epic fight scenes. The female general doesn't really come across as legendary. The chemistry is there but the romance is not. So if you're in for a story that doesn't have a lot of drama or emotion in its script then this is the one for you. Are you looking for more drama and a story well written? Then you're better off skipping this one.

Read More

Overrated

While the story itself was strong, the execution left much to be desired.

First, the editing felt quite messy,scenes often cut off at odd points, and some episodes felt more like random segments pieced together rather than full, coherent episodes. Episode 27, for example, gave most of the screen time to side characters, which disrupted the pacing of the main storyline.

Another issue for me was He Yan’s disguise. I honestly don’t understand how she managed to fool everyone, her mannerisms, compared to the other Yezhou garrison soldiers, were distinctly feminine and almost childish, making her cover less believable.

I was also disappointed with Yan He’s death. It seemed included only for shock value, but it didn’t really land emotionally or add much to the storyit felt unnecessary.

That being said, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the fighting scenes were very well executed and definitely a highlight of the series.

Overall, this drama had potential and an interesting story, but the poor editing, questionable writing choices, and overhype online made it fall short for me.

Read More

A General Without Her Legend

This series had the potential to be a masterpiece, but it struggles with focus and execution. At times, the dialogue and scenes feel truly epic, yet they are quickly undercut by fluffy, love-bubble moments that seem more suited for early teens. With episodes running only 30–45 minutes, the show often downplays serious issues just to insert romance, and these lighter scenes end up taking even more screen time than the plot deserves.

What I had hoped to see was a story centered on He Yan—her legendary reputation as a general, her brilliance as a battlefield tactician, and her skill as a martial artist. Instead, the narrative leans heavily on a childish romance with the male lead, sprinkling in only a few fighting scenes in an unconvincing attempt to showcase her strength.

Despite this imbalance, I still watched through to the end, hoping for redemption. The core story is genuinely strong, but the forced romance, misplaced focus, and glossing over of critical issues hold it back. The true highlight remains He Yan’s fighting scenes, which revealed the kind of depth and power the series could have delivered if it had trusted its own potential.

Read More

Romance of the Female General

The scriptwriters for this show need to write a 10,000 word apology essay for butchering such a high budget, highly anticipated drama. There is absolutely no excuse for this poor of a script when the source material is right there for you to pull from, no matter what constraints and editing they had to do after.

I have to say that the title of this drama is horrifically misleading. When you think of a drama called "Legend of the Female General", your first thoughts are probably of a female-lead drama and her journey and heroic rise to becoming a female general. This drama is not that. Instead, what we got was a was a bland, extremely watered down version of what the trailer promoted. It's like ordering a sandwich and receiving a half toasted slice of bread instead. They have completely cut out what should have been the core and bulk of the show - her journey to being a general. They have provided no context and almost no background on her past life as a general and instead, the audience is just supposed to go with the flow and accept that she's a well revered general despite having received nothing to support this fact.

While I have no issues with a FL who has a personality, she is also clearly overwhelmingly feminine for someone who has supposedly been living as a man AND among fellow soldiers for most of her life. She is seemingly so well versed in battle plans and tactics but the audience has no idea where or how she learnt this. She's angry and upset over the loss of her past comrades? The audience doesn't care because, again, we don't know anything about her life past life as a general. There's so many holes in the plot that it is honestly a bit frustrating to watch because we can see the potential but it's just not giving. There's also very little battle scenes and the few that we do get, leave a lot to be desired. Shaky sword-wielding with little strength behind it as well as overly embellished sound and visual effects by the editing team lead to unsatisfying fight scenes.

I think the scriptwriters and directors of this show aimed for this to be a romance story right from the start, and as such, it was terribly disappointing for most of us who expected more. One scene that really stood out to me and really highlighted how absolutely romance based and ridiculous this show was, was when they were in the middle of the battle and the FL thought the ML had died so she went crying out to find him and then ... she let go of her sword completely. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLEFIELD. WHERE PEOPLE ARE STILL FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES. And then after she finds him, they have a touching moment with soft words ... in the midst of the battlefield. And the audience is just supposed to believe she's an experienced general?

Truly, the only thing that pulled me through 36 episodes was the chemistry between the two leads. However, for the record, I don't think this is a terrible drama. It's just disappointing. And bland. It's perfectly serviceable as a romance drama. But would I recommend it personally to people that I know? No.

Read More

Not so good

This is the kind of Cdrama that deceives you. You expect to watch a drama full of action, with epic fights, characters deceiving each other... but what we get is 36 episodes of pure boredom. The main protagonist never seems like a general; we don’t see that side of her life. The screenwriters chose to only focus on the bland romance with the other lead, whose acting I didn’t like. I know there are different acting methods, but this cold performance he presented doesn’t appeal to me. And throughout the episodes, we see several repetitive scenes that aren’t interesting and don’t even need to be there again. The parallel plots are boring and unnecessary, just padding most of the time. In my opinion, this was the worst Cdrama I’ve watched. The script is uninspired. If they just wanted to focus on dialogue, they should have done it better because most of it feels unnecessary and doesn’t move the plot forward. By the way, at no point does the lead actress convince you that she’s a man, which is another reason for confusion. Also, scenes that should have been emotionally charged were drained of impact at inappropriate moments, or irrelevant characters appeared out of nowhere to reveal some specific secret. Even at the beginning, there’s an absurd Deus Ex Machina.

Read More

Love the choreography of the fights - one of the best I've seen for war fights

It has a few telling plot twists but the pace was good, character development and back story is relatable. I usually don't write reviews here but I really applaud the choreography of the fight scenes, including the different moves a female has to make to leverage on centrifugal force and kinetic force to counter balance the lack of sheer strength compared to a male. All the different weapons and moves were interesting too and I'm glad they didn't make her also perfect in typical noble lady tasks, unlike other female heroine/general shows where the female is unrealistically perfect. This one shows consistency in character, recklessness, perseverance to get to the level she is at.
The chemistry between the two main leads is amazing. The eye contact, expressions, moves, etc were so good, bold and reckless at times, shy and hesitant at others. Definitely one of my favourite female heroine dramas to-date!

Read More