Legend of the Female General

Even the beautiful Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye couldn't save this trainwreck

** I want to preface this by saying that I did not read the original source material so everything I'm about to say is strictly about the show. I also see these shows through the lens of a white American- my knowledge of Chinese history and culture is very limited and that might taint my perception. **

Firstly, like others have pointed out, this drama requires A LOT of suspension of disbelief. I normally have no problem doing that when watching dramas because I don't need a whole lot of realism to feel like I'm immersed in a show. However if you DO value realism, this is most likely not the show for you. We are supposed to believe that He Yan has been disguised as her brother for years and that nobody who spends a long amount of time around her has figured out that she's a woman. Even when her brother takes back his identity, we're supposed to believe that nobody has noticed that suddenly General Feihong is a head taller, dozens of pounds heavier, and his shoulders have doubled in width? Ok, scriptwriters... sure. I'll believe it for the sake of the story. I know that rebirth stories are harder to adapt because of censorship laws so you get a pass... this time.

Our two main villains in this show are Xu Jingfu and He Rufei, but they are both laughably bad. I can't excuse the writers for this one, they're that bad. Xu Jingfu at one point says "generals only ever want to go to war, they never want to try other strategies" but before that he literally worked together with an enemy to invade his own country, causing battles in MULTIPLE CITIES. Even he has no idea why he does what he did other than he "believed he was helping the country in the long run." You're telling me that his big strategy to stop the people suffering from war, is to help the enemy country invade on several different occasions and kill his own country's generals? I... don't even know what to say to that, genuinely. My mouth was just left agape when he revealed to everyone what his motivation was. I would say "make it make sense" but I don't think there's a way that you can.

He Rufei is another story altogether. I don't know if it was the shoddy script, poor directing, or poor acting but the only emotion that man showed for 99% of the show was just anger. We know why He Rufei wants to kill He Yan, but we don't know why he repeatedly aligns himself with Xu Jingfu. The crimes they commit together are serious, life-and-death crimes. So WHY are they committing them? What is their motivation? I don't know why they do the things they do so I don't feel like there's any reason to relate to their struggles. A good villain is not just blindly evil and murderous. You can have an antagonist that is murderous and greedy and power-hungry while also giving them redeemable qualities as well. The only time I felt a twinge of sympathy for He Rufei was at the very end of his life when he's lecturing He Yan and Xiao Jue. And the only likeable thing about Xu Jingfu is that he does the absolute bare minimum as a father, and loves his daughter. These villains are so one-dimensional it's painful. When Rufei is in prison, he laments the fact that He Yan got everything that he feels like he deserved and while I disagree with his view on it, that was the only moment where I felt any sort of sadness or pity for his character. He spends so much time being angry and wanting to murder He Yan that I forgot that he's also a victim in their story, and that's really a pity. I think if the writers had spent more time showing us his sadness at missing out on most of his own life, and less of him plotting to kill He Yan, that he could have been a really interesting character.

Both of those characters' flaws could almost be overlooked if it wasn't for the massive character assassination the writers did to my boy Chu Zhao in the last several episodes. His struggle was about choosing between loyalty to his teacher or loyalty to his country, and the whole arc is thrown out at the eleventh hour for half-assed angst between our main leads. Seriously, nothing that he (or the emperor) does in the last 3 episodes makes any sense. This is genuinely what ruined the show for me, otherwise it could have been an enjoyable- albeit, flawed- drama with attractive leads and a story that makes enough sense if you turn your brain off. But the writers couldn't even let us have that.

The deaths in this show feel cheap and show huge disrespect both to the characters and the audience. Every single character death in this show has almost ZERO emotional impact. The deaths are sad because death itself is sad, not because the audience is attached to or emotionally resonates with the characters. I had actually forgotten about He Yan's sifu completely until he showed up in an episode just to die by the end of it. It's the same case for the other deaths as well. The characters are supposed to be important to He Yan and Xiao Jue but the writers didn't show us that until the characters are about to die. They just show up suddenly after somehow consuming poison that is never explained, to conveniently hand over evidence that nobody knew existed until that moment, cough up some blood, and die. I felt no sadness, no sense of loss, and it didn't seem like the characters did either. He Yan cries for a few minutes after returning from her sifu's funeral and then he's never mentioned again after they leave the city.

And my last gripe has to do with the show's take on feminism. Now this might be a hot take... I don't think that writing a female character who beats every single opponent she ever fights with little-to-no struggle is a great example of feminism. In fact, I find it lazy. Yes, He Yan trained and worked really hard to get to where she is. There's no denying that she's a very strong martial artist. But it is impossible for 99% of women to go up against men twice their size and win with just fighting prowess alone. I'll compare He Yan to Disney's animated Mulan for a moment. Mulan doesn't make it to the top of the wooden pole in camp, or bury Shan Yu's army in snow, or disarm and kill Shan Yu on the palace roof top, because she is a better martial artist. She knows that she is physically not able to beat a man twice her size so she compensates by being creative and clever. THIS is something I would have liked to see from the writers of LotFG. I cannot believe that a woman who is 5'5 is beating all these generals who are a half a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. Making He Yan an unbeatable martial artist does not do her character justice. In her fights she doesn't employ any sort of creativity or ingenuity to gain the upperhand- she just beats her enemies with good old martial arts. I find it quite lazy. He Yan shouldn't be winning fights because she has plot armor- she should be using her strengths to take advantage of her enemies' weaknesses. I think this is what they were trying to show by making her use a whip in the beginning of the show but it's never made clear if that's her reasoning, and she also abandons the whip later in the show. I think that this mainly comes down to suspension of disbelief again- and I know I said I can usually forgive quite a bit but this show is genuinely asking a lot from me. I am a woman who loves to see another woman doing her thing and putting men in their place. But you know what I love more? Female friendship and sisterhood. I really wanted to see more of Song Taotao and He Yan's friendship. Scenes of her talking He Yan's ear off while she's training, or of the two of them sharing a meal and drinks in He Yan's tent. Show us Taotao picking out dresses and makeup for He Yan and them giggling while talking about their respective boyfriends- things that women do! Or a scene where they become sworn sisters or something? We have a couple scenes of this nature but I want MORE. Taotao stays at the garrison for a long time with the army and she does virtually nothing for the story in that time. She was such an underutilized character :( If they could just go back and get rid of the last 3 episodes of the show and replace them with scenes of Taotao and He Yan just being besties I could forgive (almost) everything.

I really wanted to enjoy this drama. I was super hyped for it and couldn't wait every day to watch the next episodes after they released. I don't think the story is great at all, to be clear, but it was ok enough to enjoy alongside the gorgeous leads and the comedic relief from supporting characters. But, as I'm pretty sure I've said many times already, it really all came crashing down with the last several episodes. It's a shame because without them this show would have probably been a 6.5 for me, heavily weighted because of Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye's facecards, but instead we're left at a 4. I'm usually an avid rewatcher, even of shows I think are just mindless eye-candy slop (I've watched Only for Love three times, oopsies), but I don't think I would even rewatch this. It's sad because I do think the 3 leads did a decent job it's just that they were given a dumpster fire of a script. I hope Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye are able to work together on a different project some day- with hopefully better writing.

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Legen-DAIRY!

I was so excited for this series. All the teasers, the reels, the videos I saw got me so hyped up that I had some sort of expectations coming in to watch the series. However, I have never seen the two main leads in any series before so I don't know either of them.

But let me tell you right now that this show is so overyhped and overrated. I was just plain disappointed. I don't even know why I kept watching but I did so I am not going to feel bad about spending time to review this but I should. This series talked about a legendary female general and seriously, there was no legendary female general from this show. I was expecting a bad-ass female character but all we got was an infantilized version of a romance female lead. You can not be serious that this woman has been a general, has led an army, has won multiple battles, and has even gone undetected as a woman in the military for so long? Granted, we are expected to suspend belief but come on now, this is just overreach. I don't mind her physique and looks, but her behavior and demeanor does not befit a general. Who gets drunk in a military camp and almost gives herself away multiple times? Ridiculous. The whole cutesy version female lead won over the strong woman that we could have gotten. That is such a pity because this could have been a really great series with a great premise.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the fight scenes but they weren't as grand or epic as you would expect - again, where is the legendary? The first few episodes were ok. The pacing of the series was pretty smooth since the episodes were shorter than usual. But honestly, it felt like the latter part of the series just dragged on. This whole series totally missed the mark. It could have been great, it could have been legendary, but it just ended up flat.

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Women in male dominating field!!

1 woman 2 identity and the story of her life.

INTRODUCTION AND BASIC PLOT-
'Legend of the Female General' is a series about He Yan, who was made take up her brothers identity to protect family honor. Through her hardwork and diligence she rose through the ranks to become a feared and respected general.
But after a tragic incident and the return of her brother her family ask her to switch back her identity. On refusal she is then poisoned and betrayed by her family and her identity is once again stolen.
Hurt, lost and betrayed she once against take a new identity and decided to rise up the ranks and take get revenge and identity back which crosses her path with our ML once again.
Our ML has known her for ages but never knew her real identity. They had been classmates then soldiers and then genral's together. He thing 'he' (she) was his friend who betrayed him and his father in the worst way possible. So he hated 'him' not knowing 'he' is 'her' and that it wasn't her that betrayed him but someone else who conspired against them.

This is HER story, the story about THAT WOMAN who did something no one could, who fought against all odds to rise above all.
This is the story of her life, her love, her hardship, her trauma, her past, her present, her future.

MUSIC AND CINEMATOGRAPHY-
The cinematography of the drama is just amazing, the colour grading and costumes go well with the whole vibe of the drama. Plus the music add to the charm of the drama. The OST specially is beautiful. The fight scene are also immaculate, like you actually grip your seats while watching them.

ACTORS-
Both the main cast have been a spot on casting, they are literally made for their role. There acting portrays why they are such famous and high paid actors. And the chemistry between them have been off the charts. The side character are also well done with really good acting.

OVERALL MY THOUGHT-
The plot is intriguing, and keep you hooked. Watching it you feel the love, anger, hate, happiness, sadness through the screen. You actually connect with the chapters and theirs story specially the main leads. Their amazing acting brings characters to life. The music and cinematography gives the drama a different vibe that makes it addicting to watch.
The bad guy of the drama and specially the 2nd ml literally tested my patience like they all were sooo deluded and in their own fantasy world.
I love the romance part of the drama, it was more romance plotted than political with was nice, I mean if you kind of overlook some of the plot holes it created to keep the romance going.

So overall, the drama is worth it and will keep you hooked to the screen. Highly recommended.

NEGATIVE PART/PLOT HOLE
1. The characters in the drama knew the FL (as the general) but couldn't identify her even once when she was suddenly changed, no one doubted anything.
Even the ML knew the FL for a long time but still wasn't able to identify her.
2. And tbh the FL is too pretty even in mens clothes to be overlooked as a girl by the characters. Like she literally looks like a girl.
3. And there seem to be a bit of chopping up of episodes to make them just 35 min, that are noticeable if you watch with a lot of concentration but don't really affect the drama that much.
Plus the pacing is a bit off in the last few ep and might not make sense for the novel readers.
4. The drama was more romance centred than political which is not a bad thing persay but I will say it did create some plotholes.

Anyways, the drama is a good watch.

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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.

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The best Chinese drama i have ever watched , Don't believe the rumours it's totally worth it

This will always be my favourite , i really enjoyed it. I had also read the novel so i had very high expectations and I won't say that this drama didn't had any plot holes but still which drama is totally perfect. It's true that the length of the episodes was small but other than that there were no other problems and this was all because of li ming de , it was all because of him that that the episodes were cut short and ai face swaping was used. I watched this drama for zhou ye and he yan but fell in love with ryan Cheng and xiao jue . zhou ye potraited the best female general and she was the perfect actress for the role of he yan so this drama deserves the title legend of the female general. I was waiting for this drama since 2023 so for me it was the most anticipated and best Chinese drama of this year . If i had to rate this drama i would give this drama 9.5/10 because each and every role in this drama be it supporting or main deserves this much! Thank you soo much zhou ye and cheng lei for this amazing chinese drama this will always be my favourite and most loved chinese drama. This drama and the story personally taught me a lot and I will be grateful for this amazing story.
he yan and xiao jue are the best couple ever ❤️☺️🥰🫶🏻

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Not what I expected ....

so basically the story is compelling and acting is great but somehow I feel something is missing .

from the get go they focused on FL story and it's obvious given the drama's title but the kept trying to make her so independent and strong to a point to me it felt annoying I mean I get it she is a general and spent her life fighting and training but she is a women it was okay to see xiao jue protecting her for once but it was he yan protecting him all of the drama .

chu Zhao was the greyist character I have ever seen like are you good or evil couldn't get it , At first he served xu jingfu but all of a sudden he was helping FL maybe out of love but I think it's more out of ambition , the final part when he prevented FL and ML marriage was so useless and the breaking point for me when he more or less caused yan he 's death like it's people's lives at stake let your schemes and ambition aside for a moment .

the emperor what was he doing, like anyone advise him with something , he is like sure let's do it , not your typical cdrama emperor they are always cunning and clever , this one seemed weak for me .

some things felt rushed for me I would have wished to see he ruefei execution , he yan mother's funeral those were sentimental moments for me but we didn't get to see it .

both leads and supporting actors did a great job .

loved the scene when he confessed his love for her at court .

but can't get over the fact that she lived most of if not all of her life as a man, how was she acting all cute when she asked him to train her in the beginning and in alot of different occasions , It didn't convince me at all that she was raised as a man , she was acting as a girl for me 🤷

great drama but for me it was lacking .

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Started out STRONG...Finished SHITTY

The Last 3 episodes were not needed. What happened with Chu Zhao was such a cop out. And the killing of his maid was solely to gain non existent sympathy points(I personally liked his maid) And the Emperor pissed me off with his decision to allow He Yan to marry Chu Zhao. And then abandoned him when everything was over as if the emperor didn't give him the opportunity to fuck things up. And lastly Yan He's death was so unneeded!!!! And they rushed the hell out of it. Song Taotao and Cheng Lisu's wedding was cute ,so was our mains but after fucking the show up in the last few episodes, I really couldn't enjoy it.

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It's been a while, General He.

“I don't need anyone to pave a way for me, what I need is someone who’ll walk by my side” — He Yan.


For a drama with a title that gives off war vibes, Legend Of The Female General is -simply put- about a woman finding peace in life after a journey full of push-and-pulls between the person she wants to be, and the ‘object’ her family wanted her to become.

He Yan was born a female, a healthy younger sister to the sick older brother, He Rufei. But in a world where men are in every way superior to women, the innocent young girl was forced to swap identities with him in hopes of protecting the family pride.. shouldering both the misfortunes of a ‘useless’ daughter, and the glory of a ‘capable’ son and heir.

as she grew up, she had better chances in education than girls her age, she knew more, so she decided to flee and join the army, she thought it was a firm step to freedom, out of the suffocating lines drawn for her.. until it became a shackle creeping around her neck.

But something built on lies, will eventually collapse.. well thank God she survived and had a comeback~

Watching this in real-time granted me the chance to witness and involve in a lot of good discussions, and the most valuable point I came to realize is: — He Yan is not all about revenge, yes, she wants justice and is firmly standing on business.. but she also wants to live, to be appreciated as she is with all her ugly wounds and borrowed lies, she wants to be surrounded with good people to call family, she wants to be herself and tell the world that women has wings to fly and soar in the clear and clouded skies, they're not meant to sing in cages called marriage, where men see them as objects to discard when bored..

So if you want the always-cold and never-smiling type of female lead, this is not the one..
Here, we have a strong female lead who saves the day, strictly obeys harsh military discipline, and with her brain and sword she turns the tide in losing wars.
Here, too, we have a strong female lead who needs to be saved sometimes, cries when she loses a dear one, and behave like a carefree little girl.
Here –so, we have a strong woman with red lines drawn clearly, willfully living with a strong and warm heart..

I can write an essay describing her character only, but I’ll save us time and just say: the cool male lead and the bubbly female lead in one person + a poker face and oscar worthy acting~

Then we have a cool male lead as well :) jokes aside, Xiao Jue is the perfect man for a woman like He Yan, he never doubted her abilities, never held her back despite his worries. His love was never a barrier, but something to remind her that despite being someone who protects the borders fearlessly, there's a man who’ll give his life to her, and she's his dear woman to spoil as well as his mighty General..
Surely, a misunderstanding happened in their lowest, but it somehow only made him understand her even better, and their love became stronger than ever..
—————
“I love the moon, but the moon doesn't know it..”
“Now, the moon belongs to you.”

There's something so beautiful about their relationship, from pity and empathy, admiring from afar, mutual respect and unspoken trust, to watching in silence and suspect, keeping the other's secret, friendship, until it fully bloomed to partners walking side by side for the rest of their lives, sharing hardships and fortune, with infinite trust and love..

If you ask me what makes ‘Legend of The Female General’ so special to me, undoubtedly one of the best released in 2025, I’ll note first that the drama is indeed lacking in terms of directing and post-production.

Yet, it was told from an inspiring and unique perspective, a woman who never had a chance to be herself, finding her way back to embrace the young girl she was forced to bury inside her, and punishing everyone involved in her suffering..
He Yan, actually, never wanted to be a man.. she only had a loyal heart and eagerly wanted to protect her nation and people, if the choice was hers, she would've took every step as the woman she is..

All for sure with great chemistry, emotional scenes to make you both cry and giggle, admirable friendships and comradeship, fair amount of comedy, betrayers & schemes, and of course fights with amazing choreographies and well-strategized epic wars.. successfully showing how a General is made, how a female General was born.

My final say is, go ahead and give it a chance, don’t be skeptic or highly expectant, have your favorite drink and snacks accompany you through the rough first episodes, focus on the facts to avoid confusion.. it’s completely worth it !

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Had the potential to be an epic but ultimately disappointing

36 episodes at approximately 35 minutes each but could’ve easily been condensed into 24 episodes of 30 minutes and you would’ve still not missed anything because they laboured on the same point for way too long.

Episode one and I’m already annoyed. ML‘s dad gets killed through betrayal and he’s punished severely and asked to reclaim lost land by the stupid Emperor. Why? he didn’t do anything wrong and it clearly won’t be appreciated by anybody. FL blinded by father and brother, even though she achieved great military credit Substituting for her sick brother..

Episode four good to see the villains are actually punished correctly rather than let off for heinous crimes. The army training camp bloke who went looking for trouble and then tried to frame FL got rightly executed. Should’ve shown it though to give us an emotional release.

Episode seven I’m getting really annoyed having to pretend that she is a boy when it’s clearly a woman. It’s stupid. What is the obsession in letting villains go to plot more despicable acts when you have them in your hands. Getting frustratingly bad this show.

Episode eight. So the villains who they let go before, plot an assassination attempt and because they don’t have ABSOLUTE CONCRETE Evidence against them, they are let go. Total nonsense. Usual rubbish from C dramas. I’m starting to fast forward.
IT’S REALLY RUBBISH and getting more and more ridiculous. I’m so disappointed. There was a moment here in episode nine when I thought we’re making progress but it just went back to usual nonsense when the story could’ve moved forward. It’s just rubbish.
Episode 12 our heroes are just walking into trap after trap after trap after trap after trap. I’m tired.
Episode 13, it makes no sense that the female lead has to hide her origins from the ML. Unnecessary nonsense when they could be collaborating in uniting against the villains. It’s really poor storytelling. I don’t understand why they let the Que city spy leave just cause he had a sickly little brother. He would’ve killed everybody without mercy but his martial art skills were as good as our FL so he couldn’t. Its this kind of nonsense that shows how weak and pathetic C dramas are because if you’re getting this steady stream of propaganda that, if you’re morally bankrupt, it really doesn’t matter because the state will insist on forgiving and you don’t have to take any accountability. Sheesh!
Episode 16 my frustration is slightly waning because of the playful, lighthearted stuff at uncle and Aunty‘s reunion banquet. It’s nice stuff and brings a smile to my face.
17 to 34. Not bad.
The end of the drama really annoys me because we got the stupid Emperor who has been saved countless times by the FL and ML but insist on listening to nonsense from other people. I’m not gonna go through all the problematic elements but ultimately this emperor is going to be remembered as the most stupid idiotic emperor of his generation and it makes me wonder why they blindly follow a ruler who’s so incompetent like this.

I always struggle with these shows because there are so many mistakes that they make, which are not deliberate, but just clear flaws in the ideology they are trying to present.

As a sidenote, I really didn’t buy the chemistry between our leads. They are both very good looking people with strong acting ability, but I just didn’t believe in their romance. To be honest, none of the romantic pairings were particularly captivating. Anyway, finished happily enough but it’s easily forgettable. What a shame.

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Should have been called: Romance of the Female General.

Lazy storytelling that prioritised cheap, tropey romance over creating a good story and character development.

The first episode was choppy and poorly put together. The backstory of the female lead is crucial to the rest of her character's motivation and actions, and yet, they chose to gloss over it like an afterthought. Instead, the next dozen episodes were devoted to endless scenes aimed at selling the romance. Worse, they chose to do this by sacrificing logic and falling back on the most overused tropes in drama land.

The female lead was trying to pass as a man; she should be cautious and vigilant around the male lead and try to keep her distance from him. Yet, the script had her acting coquetishly, falling and clutching him and other ridiculousness. Are they so lacking in imagination that they couldn't write female-male romance in any other way except to fall back on the same old cutesy, girlish characterisation when it doesn't even make sense for the character and situation? I like romance. I also like tropes. However, it should not come at the expense of logic or characters and should be used sparingly for maximum effect.

The rest of the plot points are more of an afterthought, to serve the romance rather than the other way around. The result is that moments of emotional highlight came across as unearned because they were barely set up for the audience to feel the emotional weight of the scenes. The drama also suffered from the "tell, instead of show" mistake, overutilizing voice-over to explain characters' thoughts and actions rather than just allowing the behaviour to speak for itself. The writing shoehorned in themes of female empowerment with preachy speech and clunky scenes that again felt unearned because they were, again, poorly set up and relied on "tell, not show". This is a shame, because I can see the potential in this story and the female lead to speak well on this theme, if they had cared to write and develop it properly.

The moments of spark in this drama just emphasised how far short it falls from what it could have been.

Watch it if you want romance. But nothing else is to be taken seriously because even the people making the drama didn't take it seriously.

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An as objective review as possible.

So this is one of those series where the comment section has essentially become a warzone & I personally just recommend against reading the comment section. So as objective as I can as someone who didn't read the novel & isn't simply trying to shut up anyone who has a criticism I will just point out some positives & negatives & why you should or shouldn't watch this drama.

Positives:
- The 2 Leads have a pretty cute chemistry / love story. I know a lot of people don't like Zhou Ye's acting & I understand, but I took it for what it was. Cheng Lei was just cooking with what he had. The intense stares to the subtle smile. Yeah, I'm not gay, but he was great. But in the end it is pretty simple, with nothing overly deep that may get you thinking about it too much. Still a fun watch mainly bcuz of the actors IMO.
- The action scenes are probably the best thing this drama has going for it. The final fight actually looks pretty damn cinematic for a TV series.
- The cinematography ranges from standard to pretty damn good. And the pretty damn good was mainly in the actions scenes.
- I liked the music & OST too, but not too jaw dropping good.

Negatives:
- Lack of depth & characterization makes the Leads & even side characters quite boring. If they Leads didn't have their fun chemistry working I think it'd be quite apparent. E.G. ML wants to restore his family's honor, but we barely see his family or relationship with his father in the beginning. Only later in the final third part of the series do we meet his family, but they barely add depth to him.
- The story is really simple so don’t expect any amazing tension, twists, resolution or anything of the like.
- If you read the novel the chances of you liking it is pretty damn small.
- Villains are a bit underwhelming.
- Last 3-4 ep you really, really need to tolerate the ridiculousness.

Overall, I enjoyed. With themes of identity, femininity, strength & love the show falls short. Not a lot is put into discovering the Female General. Instead it was lightly spread throughout that it didn't make as much of an impact as it should. So if you liked the novel or are expecting an interesting story about a woman discovering her femininity, balancing that with her masculinity, her wits, her strength & how she uses this to inspire other woman, then best to skip this. If you are looking for a simple, light & fluffy romance with some cool action scenes thrown in once in a while. Watch it.

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