Legend of the Female General

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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Not what I expected ....

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

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 , it 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 executed , he yan mother's burial those were sentimental moments for me but we didn't get to see it .

both leads and supporting actors did great job .

loved the seen 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 , I didn't convinced 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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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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The title doesn't fit the story /confused storytelling/miscasting

The title is "The legend of the female general" but i don't see any general or any legend..From the title and the initial hype, i though i would watch a strong, capable, dominant and bold female general, a strong female lead.. But in the contrary i just see a weak female lead hidden behind a name of a general, also the casting directors failed to choose the female lead because she doesn't have the charisma or the strong aura to play this character, if they casted another suitable actress maybe she could save the character despite the way it's written... but the current fl doesn't add anything, the ml is ok his character is writing in a better way than the fl and the actor is doing well for his character compared to the fl...
I didn't read the novel so i don't really care if they follow it or not, but i just want directors and screenwriters to deliver the inside story the way we see it in trailers and the way it's being hyped so people don't get disappointed, and they should cast suitable actresses and actor and not just some random choices..

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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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An enjoyable mash-up of all my favorite romantic tropes that couldn't stick the ending . . .

This is the first show in a long while that I was able to binge the first 20 episodes easily. Romantic triangles! Forbidden lovers! Woman pretending to be a man! Highly competent people! All executed well with solid action scenes, believable romance, attractive people.

But as it hit its midway point it slowed, and it moved into the 'ideal man' and 'ideal woman' do always the right and moral thing for the country type of drama. And then took a bunch of plot ideas and shot scenes and kind of did ???? for the last episodes.

This is common for modern dramas, to really fumble the ending which is unfortunate, but I do think the bad ratings are going a bit too far. The first 20 episodes were like if someone had taken all my favorite C-Drama scenes ever and strung them together in a plot, in the best way possible, and I haven't been so entertained by a C-Drama in a very long time.

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I dont like

I personally found it very boring. At first, it promised to be a grand epic of action and revenge led by our female protagonis after all, we were supposed to be watching the story of our female general in a male-dominated world. But of course, there's always a catch. What we actually got was a 36-episode parade of pure filler and a lukewarm romance, dull flashback scenes of characters irrelevant to the plot, poorly executed action scenes, boring side plots, and often it feels like the supporting characters get more screen time than the leads. As for the main couple, I didn’t find them particularly compelling—the acting felt cold and uninspired.

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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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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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historical to idol drama speedrun

this is just my personal opinions im not forcing you to agree with me but I have to say im not a hater I genuinely do like this drama but it feels so chopped lowkey

the start was okay for me I didn’t care about cliches when the vibe was giving but when they developed I just found myself skipping because there were no more vibes

personally don’t attack me for this but it feels like for those who enjoy xianxia romance,I don’t get the chemistry at all the only chemistry I ever saw were from the bath scenes

the shows title had so much potential like Mulan which personally should’ve fit LOTFG more than this show itself but they just decided to point the gun at themselves instead

in most dramas that are centred around this kind the romance is most likely just a sub plot but for LOTFG it felt like they were just shoving it down onto me now personally I didn’t read the novel before but from what I see—they screwed up Chu Zhao like REAL bad full ahh reflex angle type of reverse

I never really liked Chu Zhao when he first appeared his character could’ve been so much more but poor man was reduced to a 2nd male lead hopelessly in love with female lead,sighh

I found it weird as how he Yan always getting saved by shifu or xiao jue like isn’t she supposed to be a strong general who dominates male fields in ancient misogynistic China and plus her personality was funny at first but for a person going undercover for revenge she’s kinda sloppy at it.

I like revenge plots but this show’s romance was chocking me so much I genuinely forgot what heyan’s objective was for a while

one thing I like about heyan and Xiao jue was that heyan has been a shadow of someone else never truly herself the mask has always been there whether physically or mentally but xiao jue doesn’t want to see the facade he wants to see the behind the scenes

I personally found myself crying over Mu hongjun x Liu buwang’s story and death lmao

I don’t find anything in cheng lisu or song taotao’s character I don’t feel any emotional depth over their relationship or character it just feels so main lead centred sometimes like I get their the main characters but can I please just watch the side characters more

The fight scenes feel so main lead centred like they get the spotlights but it doesn’t feel like an actual war—it just feels like a performance the vibe doesn’t vibe with me and most people are just eating it up for some reason

Very hot take but this show feels so glazed personally,is it just because yall like xianxia type of romance?

anyway im not hating I just found very little emotional depth in it that resonates with me

Edits:I made this review yesterday night instead of studying for my science test big mistake (very idiotic anyway) I wasn’t able to fully grasp all of my personal perceptions of this show enough from my previous rants so here we go again!Dont take any review from me seriously i just want entertainment which LOTFG has failed me

ill start off with basics and I’ll be straightforward so woosh,i did not read the novel as if it wasn’t already stated before.This show is overrated by the hype,it’s very glazed.I don’t have high expectations but how do you even mess up this bad.Compared to other dramas such as A Journey To Love,My Journey To You and Wonderland Of Love I am easily in love with strong martial artist women but wtf is this?Such cheap goon-romance bait like I lowkey do not for one care if you watch cdramas just to goon to hot actors but seriously?calling this “good” ? it’s like a baby compared to other wuxia romances

Genres are Historical Romance Wuxia War but they should’ve just scrapped everything but romance away because what the actual heck is this?Historical but my girl survives something straight out of miracles cool?War?Then why is it just yapping,plus the war looks so staged bruh

Characters,He yan is a miserable woman who has to shoulder this burden of imposing as her elder brother in military school.She put herself through danger chances of dying for her achievements only for them to be swooped away by the real mask and she becomes disabled,nothing left of her to live.Oh and then she is killed but saved by her master and enters military again to regain her glory oh but she also goofs around!!like what?girl i get it you’ve been acting like some man for most of your life you can’t embrace your femininity but girl??you putting a big giant red flag on your ahh.Plus she ain’t even looked determined for revenge at all it feels more like some side quest and her main quest is to dominate xiao jue tf
Xiao jue,lil bro has been with HeRuFei since the kiddos he could’ve found out he was a fake and a woman like YEARS ago and the way he analysed Heyan but not freaking HeRuFei changing is stoopid lil bro acts like the next art of war author but probably going to be a victim bro he took less than a year to find out Heyan was a woman but buddy ain’t even notice Herufei like what?did he get the blind drink years ago?
Chu Zhao,lil bro tf is you ahh?Wtf happened to your whole character now your just gooning over heyan you used to be some cool morally gray manipulative guy but bro pulled that huge uno reverse off and decided to become a downbad loser that’s getting laughed at by all the viewers.Such a waste bro??
All the side characters,can you guys just kill the screen writer for more screen time please

The trope was pretty okay at first now Yappy silly girl and non chalant calm quiet guy but then they pull this damsel in distress at us so now what legend is she bro?Should be called “Legend of The Female Rizzler” tf girl pulled both genders like the amount of aura from the title itself bro???such a waste of a title

this drama’s supposed main objective was about A woman fighting (literally) in a world where men dominate with power and about the strong connection with the masks well that completely is destroyed.First few episodes she’s crushing it but I don’t see her influence much on the women well excluding the jiangyi arc but still??now the masks and heyans first confession with to mask it felt rushed there was so little time for you to dissect and digest it felt as if it were insignificant

Then after that it just digs deeper into sinkholes like it practically lost me after that heyan screws up so obviously to the enemies (her vengeance for her Xiong dis part) like is that even revenge anymore?Girl should get Zang Hai’s masters clearly Liu Bu Wang had a chatty and failure of a disciple girl ain’t even hiding it when she’s drunk

now war but this feels like some fake musical where the fl and ml are just performing cuz wtf?war is supposed to be dark,affecting everyone,chaos but wow they really wanted to put in some comedy.Why?just why?It feels like a spit into the face for those dead honourable soldiers to call this “war”

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Director stop saving your characters like this you can do better

been waiting for this drama for about 4 months now, recently I've watched a lot of dramas and all were good but still i didn't get the feeling I've been long awaiting, the feeling of Iconics drama like, joy of life, the long ballad, love like galaxy, something that just have good plot and intense drama that keeps you clicking next episode non stop, well this drama might just be the next ticker,and all i can say is it seems very promising. I'm exited to see how the plot unfolds.
...

that's what you were expecting to hear right?
well here's my truth: Maybe i expected too much from the storyline and hype I don't even understand what went wrong.

From the first episode the female lead was depicted to be all strong and mighty with great military achievements, but upon seeing her she didn't strike that appearance but its cool that's okay because thats not even the worst part, the worst part is how rushed the beginning seems with unrealistic acting and the way the characters and the story are just so predictable, there are use of some cliche drama devices that i hate seeing a lot, instances like when the male lead coincidentally meets the female lead and saves her from falling into the stream by pulling her then this director plays that dumb music at that scene whereas she is also the general under the masks whom he has known all his life but this guy didn't even know who she was.

well i guess thats not so bad right?

well Surprise Surprise it's gets worse because there was a scene where an assassin was sent to kill the female lead and they had gotten into an intense fights which was not even that intense but it was meant to look intense, then this girl gets stabbed in the stomach and the sword literally came out over other side and she fell over the cliff at this moment this drama should have ended but this lady survived she literally survived it 😭😭

i hope the director stops using such cliche deux machina scenes to save his characters.

and i see a good plot but not just the right acting and action

Edit: just caught up to the last episode and all i can say is it gets worse, firstly theres too much scenes with coincidence which makes this drama slightly unbearable to watch.
secondly who in their right mind conspires against their own state for its downfall, talking about sacrifing cities of your state for gains.
Third and last got me crying, so you're telling me she gets stabbed in the hearts with a sword and she survives that, but another martial artists maid gets stabbed by a little kitchen knife on the shoulders and dies????
😭 why director? weishema?

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