PrincetonGirl818:

for me it started strong but after ep 15 I started to lose interest and I eventually dropped it at ep 20

I'm afraid this will happen to me when I check it out. I'm not a big fan of 40 ep 45 min dramas. I just don't have to ability to stay interested in most of them.

 AmelieLucan:

@Ss_ann  

"The cilched fireworks, " Lol! Is there any CDrama where there isn't a fireworks scene, a market scene, an umbrella scene? I wonder if there is a masterlist that every production has to follow in order to pass censorship. There are a few that I really like, but please people, let's be a little more inventive.

I loved drama “A dream within a dream” because it made so much fun of these clichés

I feel the drama bit off more than it could chew. It started off strong, but wasn’t satisfied with the FL keeping to her humble origins. Regardless of her true background, her upbringing was that of a pig butcher, and the way this was filmed, her character didn’t want to be anything more than that. To create a heroic saga for her, it shoved her into the role of a general when she didn’t have the desire nor the skillset to be one, and the way it drove her forward in this plot arc felt very contrived and awkward. There were also way too many villains, each with their own motivations and scheming, and maybe even just too many characters because there were quite a few I didn’t even recognize when they showed up after they were introduced. Villains refuse to die without a final monologue even though viewers were already emotionally over their subplot, and they filled the time with unnecessary scenes long after they should have died from their mortal wounds. By the end of the series, I was so apathetic to everyone, even the leads, that I’m actually no longer recommending my friends watch this show, because the final two episodes have ruined the whole journey for me due to sloppy writing and a poor understanding of what should make sense from the characters’ point of view, what they would or would not do, and whether we as an audience could sympathize. One of the greater disappointments, in my opinion. If this show stayed small and didn’t try to make everyone a hero, embraced FL’s very reasonable deficiencies rather than eliminate them so she could be good at everything, it might have been better. But it wanted to be an epic, and just couldn’t do so organically within 40 episodes.

Too many fillers throughout. 

Writing or editing (only PH will know) failed to do justice to Xie Zheng's character. 

 Slim Xtra:

contrary to lovelydove419  I think its not long enough to make the perfekt addaption/drama. 40 episodes may in this case be not enough but I have not yet watched past epi 34 so I cannot state if they dragged the last episode,s as often seen in other c-dramas.

China passed a law a few years ago that dramas can NOT be more  than 40 episodes so they might have to condense the story or have a season 2 

I feel like the sudden shift to politics felt abrupt. I wished the drama had sprinkled more political developments or court conflicts earlier on so the transition would feel more gradual rather than switching from slice of life to political drama almost all at once. Scenes of the politics are so little early on that when it does come out, there were so much information that needed to be processed. I had to jot it down to keep up with the names, relationships, and all that. 

Aside form that, I also feel like this drama tones down the men's action scenes and war scenes. Chang Yu always serves aura during her action scene and you can see that her practice pays off. Xie Zheng's action scenes played more cinematically than action. It looks like K-POP ending fairy shots made into a video. I saw Zhang Ling He's practice behind the scenes video so I had expectations. Unfortunately, until the very end, Xie Zheng didn't really impress with his martial arts. The battlefield also felt toned down and quite low scale. I can also see some NPCs just minding their own business in the back. 

Now, I find episode 39 a wasted potential. It was supposed to be this grand climax considering how the story builds up. Yet, the end product felt so anticlimactic. I find many things absurd in this episode. Not sure if I'm allowed to pinpoint it here in case there are people who haven't watched. 

This drama has one of the most beautiful cinematography I've seen in Chinese costume dramas. Unfortunately, there were quite a few instances where I see the filming crew, staff, and even fans present at the sides of the frame. No big deal though just that I work in ads and film so it's noticeable to me.

Despite its flaws, I really loved this drama!!! Can't help but give it a 10 lol. Definitely one of my top 3 favorite Chinese costume dramas!

@Yidenia  I've seen people commenting that this drama needed to be longer, but from your assessment it sounds more like it needed to tighten up the writing and eliminate needless characters and dialogue (though the image of the villain who just won't die is funny).

I'm not a fan of long dramas as they rarely can keep my interest for 40 eps and I find they often either have fillers, start repeating actions or have too many characters that are uninteresting and don't contribue anything to the story.