Action/War/Wuxia historical C-dramas

amazing drama, like a masterpiece. the leads were strong, capable and loyal people, not only to the empire but to the people they swore to protect. the story starts with the FL pretending to be her brother that was sick, so she took his idendity when she was a kid and fought and beaome a general., but because of a misunderstanding where reinforcements did not arrive to save the ML's father, he thought the FL became evil. of course, since she always wore a mask and pretended to be her brother, he did not know it was her. then her brother wanted his identity back and plotted to kill her but failed, so she decides to expose the entire truth and enlists in the ML's army as a man, and trains and fights to become even better. here, the story is funny as we see the life of the army, and the ML quickly find outs the FL is a women (ep4) and starts to care for her. through battles, msytery plots, they fight to bring the villains to justice, and then he finds out her real idendity and even though he wants to her for causing his "father and armys" death, he knows her true character and never hates her, and so we see the leads apart just for 2 episodes, untill then the ML finds out the whole truth, that her brother was the villain. the dual personality of the FL when she was the soldier and next to the ML as more "childish" was well done,  because at the time she was concealing her identity. then her more mature, with her assumed identity, chef's kiss.

overall: no deaths excepts one minor general, some kisses between the leads, amazing plot, badass FL, green flag of ML that stood for the FL and did not stay in her way of letting her fight her own battles and supported her, the villains were annoying but the way they got what they deserved was well executed, the last battle with the leads was beautiful with the darker sceneries and the leads wearing black and white. we get around 5 scenes of "battle" or figting, which is good, just wanted a bit more,

wished the two little kids and Mimi did not die

finished july 2023

bittersweet ending

loved the badass female lead and the interaction between ML and FL

happy ending for main leads. loved the friendships. Good story

bad side: Hua song and the instructor Guo died, and the reformed bully as well

it was a good drama, but some things made it feel a bit lacking to be a near perfect one. The plot itself was really interesting with discovering who was the true villain that turned out to be the FL's master, who was indeed a bit weird a lot of times and went blind with his revenge and selifshness; and then the part of the ML seeking out his revenge against the usurper of his clan. The leads had great chemistry together and clearly the ML liked the FL from the start. the problem is that he was used to scheming and ended up hurting the FL many times by using her to achieve what he wanted. He never put her in harm's way directly but his thirst for revenge caused her a lot of pain, like being seen as a demoness by her the sect. It was interesting to see the difference between the old and the new generation and how the new one tried to learn from the mistakes of the older one. That was the case of LingBo, she was jealous of the FL but at least in the end she learned. I also like the sceneries, and the leads travelling to discover new mysteries and meeting so many interesting people along the way. the FL was brave, smart and stook to her own ideals throughout the entire show, and was willing to turn her back on her sect to protect the ML. And the ML was always protecting the FL, but he was a bit of red flag as he was controlling and did not see that he was also using the FL as a chess piece. Fortunately, he learned, but only towards the end so we only get to see them together more towards the end. 

overall: beautiful sceneries, a bit of unhealthy relationship between the leads, wanted to see the last scene of defeating the villain to be a bit diferent, there was no big scene of the ML saving the FL against everyone like she did for him, last episode just of happy ending, no major deaths.

Overall it was a good drama. The beginning was more of a comedy, with mystery and then it became more heavy and serious. Loved the FL, she was strong and stood for what she believed in, and the ML as well. They liked each other almost from the start and had constant bickering which was really funny to watch, also the fact that they were from different armies made it even funnier. We see both the leads being strong and extremely smart, they know what the other is thinking and go along with each other plans. There were however certain things I did not like which is why it's just this rating. First of all, there were a lot of villains, or annoying characters that took up quite a lot of screen time, which bothered me: the jeshuo tribe, the annoying Cui Lin/Lie Cheng Feng, the Lady Guo, the sons of the emperor/brothers of the ML and even the emperor himself. The Lady Guo never got a chance with the ML who turned her down plainly and simple, the brothers of ML thankfully died and so did the fake Cui Lin and the emperor was so immature and finally did the right thing in the last episode and abdicated the throne for the ML. The ML never wanted the throne but had it temporarily (10 years) alongside the FL as empress until the former crown princess was old enough to take over. 

Final verdict: the "Bandid brothers" of the ML died which was unnecessary and I hated it, loved the sidekicks of the leads, Taozi and Xie Chang Er which were so cute together (and had their happy ending) and the leads got their wish in the end and went to defend the border and lived with their kids.