My favorite dramas

I've watched the live action and anime about 10 times and read the book at least 3 times...

I love it so much that I am unable to convey that love through words.

Amazing, this one was amazing. It was filled with sismance, bromance, love, family and friendship. Of course, there were hateful characters, as it would not be wuxia/xianxia without them, but even more prominent was the many lovable characters. The main characters were never alone, instead their family and friends stayed loyal from the beginning to the end. Best of all was the relationship between the sisters, there were no jealousy or manipulation, just unconditional trust and love. Despite the existing circumstances, that could have given birth to a lot of jealousy and hate, it never happened.

I hope this sets a new example for the wuxia/xianxia genre. You can get dramatic, heartbreaking and beautiful stories even without evil, cunning and hateful men and women doing their best to sabotage the life of the female lead. You can get a beautiful love story, even when the main characters are surrounded by loyalty and friendship.

Loved it! An intelligent and very strategic ML, powerful both in the martial arts world and the imperial court. Wonderful bromance, though the foundation of the friendship could have been better built. Even though I enjoyed it, it felt like they just jumped directly into the BFF-category. However, the storyline was great, the plot strong and the CGI was marvelous.

Warning!

Do not watch it for the romance, it is very lacking and I do not sense any chemistry between the ML and the FL. It felt more like a sibling relationship or a camaraderie. Watch it for the action as well as the incredibly schemes the ML cooked up in that intelligent brain of his. It always felt like he was many steps ahead of all the other players in the chess game.

So dark, but so good. Bullying, violence, bromance and psychological issues.

What a great MC! Intelligent, loyal and kind. Weak, but strong. Despite trembling in his boots, he always stood up to protect his friends from people he knew were much stronger than him. He still survived and fought back, thanks to his wit and intelligence (also theoretical knowledge).

Also, no one was 100% evil (or maybe one), but was shaped due to their circumstances and mistakes. Even that one horrible guy (watchers know whom I mean) had his reasons. Despite crossing the line too many times to be forgiven, I sympathized with him and could never really hate him.

The ending still broke my heart.

Wonderful plot, wonderful OST, wonderful visuals, beautiful unconditional love and great acting.  There were no forced drama and no fillers, but there were some abrupt scene changes that made you feel disoriented and the ending should have been explained better.

I also feel the need to include this: many people hate the FL in the beginning and she is probably the reason why they drop the drama. Personally, I liked here in the beginning and loved her in the end. In the beginning she is childish, naive and foolish, but strong, kind and purehearted. In the end she is wise, mature, selfless and despite all her tribulations she never forgot her strength and kindness. She was also never wishy washy after they became a couple and never doubted the ML's love despite all their hardships.

I loved Zhao Lu Si's acting. Her character felt so alive.

The ending was okay, though, I don't like when everything is only a dream, it gives "lazy ending"-vibes.

This is one of those rare times where I actually prefer the drama over the novel, despite censorship. I found Zhao Yun Lan far too shameless in the novel, making me cringe too many times for my comfort.

Of course, the drama also had quite a lot of issues. The pacing felt too fast sometimes and the plot became quite chaotic, especially in the second half of the drama. There were also some unnecessary things happening and the ending was abrupt. However, this is still one of my favorite dramas.

Maybe I am just biased due to being an avid bromance fan (especially when it is adapted from a BL novel).

Great story and great acting. Wonderful couple, even though I felt the drama in the last episode was forced. The villain was also great, pure evil but also charismatic.

I usually try to avoid Chinese Republican Era -dramas, as I dislike all the communist propaganda. Knowing how horrible communism is makes it hard to enjoy a drama about it. However, I really liked this one, although I had to overlook the propaganda to actually start to enjoy it. After this, it was relatively easy to just focus on the friendships, the plot and the main romance, as well as the two side couples.

Despite being a 36-episode romance drama, it never dragged. The relatively fluffy romance was a nice contrast to the darker themes of political games and warfare. I also loved how the FL and ML were each others equals, both in intelligence and cunning. Although, the FL did fall deeper than the ML. I always felt like if the ML died the FL would have followed him to death, while in the case of the opposite, the ML would have continued his life, although heartbroken. I wonder if it's impossible to make a C-drama FL deeply in love with ML, who would still choose to continue living despite a love lost? Someone who actually chooses to live for herself and not because she had to take care of their child.

However, my biggest beef was with something the ML said about the FL. He said something akin to: the most impressive choice she did was to choose someone as him as her boyfriend. I beg to differ, the greatest thing HE did was to fall in love and choose someone like her. Her support was the main reason behind his success as the Commander. She also saved him from a misstep that would have been fatal for him, his soldiers and the common people of Shanghai.

Additionally, unlike many other watchers, I actually liked the death of two important characters, as this was realistic. It was sad, yes, and heartbreaking, but it was realistic. If all important characters stayed alive despite everything, that would have been unrealistic. After all, it is the hard truth of war.