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To long and ending was terrible...
I admit that I watched this for Shi Shi and found her character quite Stoic; a lesser person would have given up long ago!As said by others, the first half to three-fourths was very good, although I didn't like the pairing of Tan Yunxien with Empress Hang:
Historical fact vs the series:
Yunxian lived to be around 93-94 years old, while Empress Hang only lived to be about 29-30 years old...
Empress Hang was preceded by Empress Wang (Not Mei Lin) and followed by Empress Qian...
Hang was originally the concubine of Prince Jingta and was promoted to consort when the character played by Wallace Huo was captured by the Mongols , not after she returned to the palace when both her and the Retired Emperor escaped.
Consort Hang's son was made emperor, which promoted her to Empress, not her husband. And Yes, she did deliver rather than abort! As stated on another review, a little push would not have caused her to miscarry.
IMO, the whole captivity part should never have been portrayed in the series, but it was an interesting part but not historically accurate at all!
The series itself:
It seems that there was no one 'man enough" to control the first Empress Dowager, the royal female characters in the series were allowed to run wild, sort of. Some historians consider the Empress Dowager as being under the Emperor himself, but this series says otherwise.
I thought all three actresses of the royal family portrayed themselves as villians quite well; one can see why Mei Lin was such a nasty person, after the two other Empress Dowagers and her father got through raising her to be self-centered and greedy. It still blows my mind that after Yunxian saving the royal ladies' lives, they still plotted against her the way they did! And for Mei Lin to beg Yunxian to save their husband's life after she poisoned him...unbelievable!
The younger brother's character fell in love with Yunxian out of gratitude for saving his life, and his actions led her to agree to marry him; and for the emperor to back off her courting after seeing Little Brother loved her, showed me early on that his character was more mature than he acted at the time. However, the court players and the royal women turned Little Brother into a greedy Emperor, and as he said, he got what he deserved from Mei Lin ultimately.
The only good part about the Mongol imprisonment was Little Sister, who treated Yunxian as an equal; although there is no historical fact to this part of the series. The scenery was beautiful and a nice break from the Forbidden City.
Most of what else should be said has already been said by other reviewers; I recommend the reading of the other reviewers to fill in the rest of the review I planned here.
The story was good but artistic license spoiled the historical facts...
The music was great, but not perfect...
Had I known how it would end I would probably not have finished it.
I am glad the two remaining characters did get together, but it left us wondering what happened after the final scene ended!
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Bad acting. Bad casting.
I just couldn't push myself to watch more than 7 episodes.Bad acting. Not believable. It looked like amateurs. The script didn't help to make it credible either.
I am not sure what to say positive. I was attracted to something different with the FL but I didn't like her constant low esteem. Plus her high-pitched childish voice was annoying. Both MLs were over-the-top acting. Most actors weren't credible either. I specifically abhor the maids who intrude all the time It is so ridiculous to think maids were allowed to speak up..
I jumped to the last episode as sometimes season 2 is better and if the epilogue is satisfactory, I generally put effort into watching the drama. But it was sad and even the happy ending was just bland.
Pity. I really wanted to like this drama. A pass for me.
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