If This Is All You Can Write Then You Should Have Let Zhuge Yue Marinate Under The Ice
Positive Points
1. Cinematography, direction and editing were top-notch. It was probably the reason I could bottle down this absolutely messy, vomit-worthy writing.
2. In terms of casting, only Li Yun Rui managed to pass with flying colours as Zhuge Yue. He was one of the reasons that I managed to finish this shit show. Though his character was not spared from "Operation Turning Every Rational Character Into An Impulsive Clown", he still managed to make me feel that the cool, composed, smart planner Zhuge Yue was still here, somewhat. He was the saving grace of this sinking ship. May he be blessed with proper written scripts in future.
Negative points
1. The main problem (I would rather say crime) of this drama is the script itself. This is probably one of the most horrible butcherings of characters I have seen in dramas. The most intelligent and rational character here was the pet donkey of General Huan. Even if you had to change the script and could not follow the novel due to plagarism issue, this is no excuse for turning every rational character into a love brained imbecle in the drama. The main beauty of season 01 (And the novel of course) was its complex characters (at least for me). The producer and production team claimed this to be based on the novel. I have read the novel, and I definitely did not find any resemblance except for the name of the ML, Zhuge Yue. This is severely misleading and insulting for the viewers and fans. If they could not follow the novel, why did they even make a S02? Were they trying to mock the fans of S01? The writer and everyone related to the script writing should consider changing their profession, if this is all they could come up with.
2. Except for Zhuge Yue rest of the casts were mediocre. The producer and casting director should have paid more focus while casting Yan Xun and Chu Qiao. This is completely unacceptable. While I agree Zhang Kang Le and Huangyang Tian Tian were given a very poorly written script, but it cannot be denied that they were hardly capable of handling the weight of their characters. The comparison with the season 01 cast was bound to happen, especially when the entire cast of S01 had given one of the best performances of their careers (at least in my opinion). I tried to watch with an open mind, and still I hardly felt they were playing Chu Qiao and Yan Xun. The producer adamantly had cast a minor FL with a grown man 10 years older than her, just because she resembled the FL of S01, is utterly foolish. Unfortunately, she could hardly act like the FL of S01. She felt more like a child trying to act like an adult to me.
3. All of the budget got used up in cinematograpgy it seems, as the drama lacked a proper dialogue writer who could write better than these plain, straight cringe dialogues. Except for Li Yun Rui, none of the others had a good makeup or proper costumes. Why did they even think that making everyone's complexion dark for no reason was a good idea? Moreover, who the hell wrote the dialogues? Especially, Chu Qiao sounds like a naive child. No one will believe this one is a military general fighting wars.
4. Now lets come to the writing inconsistencies. Princess Chun, who was discarded, suddenly became very powerful, who can kidnap Chu Qiao and Yan Xun in Yanbei. When did any character, especially Zhogue Yue was so expressive? His main trait was caring from behind the scenes always. He never showed it directly nor said it in words. Zhuge Yue, who was an utterly calm planner, suddenly became impulsive and had poison to save Chu Qiao. What happened to Chu Qiao? She is suddenly all about Zhuge Yue, forgetting her own dream of a slave free world (she later remembered her mission towards the end, but only for giving speeches). Suddenly, everything is about love. She is losing her memory, losing eyesight, all because she fell into a frozen lake. She is risking her life and setting herself as bait to confirm Zhuge Yue is alive. Yan Xun is jumping and falling in lake for love. He suddenly left his ambition for love. Is there any character here who is not foolish and an idiot, except for General Huan's pet donkey? Yan Xun leaving a traitor like Cheng Yuan alive is even more unbelievable, and he even agreed to give away his consort to him for love. Cheng Yuan objected Yan Xun's marriage with Chu Qiao at every opportunity he got, but later ran away with Yan Xun's consort, whom he had conspired with and had done everything to appoint her as Yan Xun's Princess Consort. Drunk writing totally. Moreover, this new Li Ce is actually foolish instead of the S01 Li Ce who was actually pretending to be a fool. It was so painful to watch. Who thought it was a good idea to replace a pretend-to-be-foolish crown prince with an actual, useless crown prince? Disaster after disaster. The empress doubted right from the start about the identity of the FL, but let the FL and Li Ce enough time to prepare and rehearse their fake story. Chu Qiao was injured and unable to hold a sword properly. But baam she drowned in the pond and suddenly can fight once again. Water is playing a supporting role here. What even was that poison drama, drawing all attention to Chu Qiao. Wasn't she sneaking out? Then fighting outside, coming back, playing the role of a patient by actually taking poison. There was no decoy, so who was the doctor treating even this whole time? Furthermore, is she even training a private military or a band of circus, even I am confused. What even happened at episode 19? A 3-person palace coup. You must be joking. After all the drama of running away, drowning in water and memory loss, the best war strategy this so-called famous lady general came up with is to surrender to Yan Xun just because people told her to surrender. The general in charge just surrenders even though she can win as she has the geographical advantage. She is a general, purely driven by emotions. She took revenge for Li Ce but has now caused the entire command chain in chaos. After creating the entire mess thinks about who will solve the mess. Later she appoints herself as the acting empress or whatever and plays dressing up for a while and leaves for her love once again. In the entire drama all battle strategies our so-called genius female general came up with were disguising herself as a slave/ princess/ giving herself up for exchange. What an upgrade. A military general entering an enemy camp alone right before the battle for whatever negotiation (as if it is believable). Fighting all and getting injured, and the mighty hero came to save her at the right moment. Who made this imbecile a general with this small brain? Now Yan Xun is coming to take her away and Chu Qiao's husband Zhogue Yue is leaving his wife in his mortal enemy's care. I am having a headache.
What is with this 7th prince and General Huan romance angle? Who attacked them out of nowhere just to create this gaging moment? (Oh the enemy brother of the pitiful prince). Ahh now another female general is abandoning her duties temporarily and escorting an injured mortal enemy while war is on the horizon. The 7th prince turned bad and killed his brother and took the throne but suddenly became good again as soon as he heard the self-righteous speech of Chu Qiao for a few minutes. Zhao Che is so smart that he even made plans for the king. But he blindly trusts Zhuge Yue. Ordering Zhuge Yue to arrest his wife Chu Qiao and Zhuge Yue obliges and abandons his wife immediately. What a foolish crown prince or king whatever. Also, Wasn't Zhao Che is a military general who was well-trained with vast experience? You are expecting me to believe that Zhuge Yue managed to defeat him within 2 to 3 moves. Furthermore, what even happened to that fake faceless god? What the hell was even that ending? Who died and who is alive I didnot even understand as I was banging my head out of frustration the entire time. I wish to shake up the writer so badly. How drunk do you have to be to write this high-level shit? Here, all the fools are competing to see who is the biggest fool. What is this drama even about? I have no idea.
This drama is an absolute waste of time, and I would suggest to all, especially if you are a fan of Princess Agents (like me) or even the novel fan; do not watch this drama to maintain your sanity.
PS. Who thought making all the actors floating like dead goldfish in an aquarium was a good idea for the opening title?
1. Cinematography, direction and editing were top-notch. It was probably the reason I could bottle down this absolutely messy, vomit-worthy writing.
2. In terms of casting, only Li Yun Rui managed to pass with flying colours as Zhuge Yue. He was one of the reasons that I managed to finish this shit show. Though his character was not spared from "Operation Turning Every Rational Character Into An Impulsive Clown", he still managed to make me feel that the cool, composed, smart planner Zhuge Yue was still here, somewhat. He was the saving grace of this sinking ship. May he be blessed with proper written scripts in future.
Negative points
1. The main problem (I would rather say crime) of this drama is the script itself. This is probably one of the most horrible butcherings of characters I have seen in dramas. The most intelligent and rational character here was the pet donkey of General Huan. Even if you had to change the script and could not follow the novel due to plagarism issue, this is no excuse for turning every rational character into a love brained imbecle in the drama. The main beauty of season 01 (And the novel of course) was its complex characters (at least for me). The producer and production team claimed this to be based on the novel. I have read the novel, and I definitely did not find any resemblance except for the name of the ML, Zhuge Yue. This is severely misleading and insulting for the viewers and fans. If they could not follow the novel, why did they even make a S02? Were they trying to mock the fans of S01? The writer and everyone related to the script writing should consider changing their profession, if this is all they could come up with.
2. Except for Zhuge Yue rest of the casts were mediocre. The producer and casting director should have paid more focus while casting Yan Xun and Chu Qiao. This is completely unacceptable. While I agree Zhang Kang Le and Huangyang Tian Tian were given a very poorly written script, but it cannot be denied that they were hardly capable of handling the weight of their characters. The comparison with the season 01 cast was bound to happen, especially when the entire cast of S01 had given one of the best performances of their careers (at least in my opinion). I tried to watch with an open mind, and still I hardly felt they were playing Chu Qiao and Yan Xun. The producer adamantly had cast a minor FL with a grown man 10 years older than her, just because she resembled the FL of S01, is utterly foolish. Unfortunately, she could hardly act like the FL of S01. She felt more like a child trying to act like an adult to me.
3. All of the budget got used up in cinematograpgy it seems, as the drama lacked a proper dialogue writer who could write better than these plain, straight cringe dialogues. Except for Li Yun Rui, none of the others had a good makeup or proper costumes. Why did they even think that making everyone's complexion dark for no reason was a good idea? Moreover, who the hell wrote the dialogues? Especially, Chu Qiao sounds like a naive child. No one will believe this one is a military general fighting wars.
4. Now lets come to the writing inconsistencies. Princess Chun, who was discarded, suddenly became very powerful, who can kidnap Chu Qiao and Yan Xun in Yanbei. When did any character, especially Zhogue Yue was so expressive? His main trait was caring from behind the scenes always. He never showed it directly nor said it in words. Zhuge Yue, who was an utterly calm planner, suddenly became impulsive and had poison to save Chu Qiao. What happened to Chu Qiao? She is suddenly all about Zhuge Yue, forgetting her own dream of a slave free world (she later remembered her mission towards the end, but only for giving speeches). Suddenly, everything is about love. She is losing her memory, losing eyesight, all because she fell into a frozen lake. She is risking her life and setting herself as bait to confirm Zhuge Yue is alive. Yan Xun is jumping and falling in lake for love. He suddenly left his ambition for love. Is there any character here who is not foolish and an idiot, except for General Huan's pet donkey? Yan Xun leaving a traitor like Cheng Yuan alive is even more unbelievable, and he even agreed to give away his consort to him for love. Cheng Yuan objected Yan Xun's marriage with Chu Qiao at every opportunity he got, but later ran away with Yan Xun's consort, whom he had conspired with and had done everything to appoint her as Yan Xun's Princess Consort. Drunk writing totally. Moreover, this new Li Ce is actually foolish instead of the S01 Li Ce who was actually pretending to be a fool. It was so painful to watch. Who thought it was a good idea to replace a pretend-to-be-foolish crown prince with an actual, useless crown prince? Disaster after disaster. The empress doubted right from the start about the identity of the FL, but let the FL and Li Ce enough time to prepare and rehearse their fake story. Chu Qiao was injured and unable to hold a sword properly. But baam she drowned in the pond and suddenly can fight once again. Water is playing a supporting role here. What even was that poison drama, drawing all attention to Chu Qiao. Wasn't she sneaking out? Then fighting outside, coming back, playing the role of a patient by actually taking poison. There was no decoy, so who was the doctor treating even this whole time? Furthermore, is she even training a private military or a band of circus, even I am confused. What even happened at episode 19? A 3-person palace coup. You must be joking. After all the drama of running away, drowning in water and memory loss, the best war strategy this so-called famous lady general came up with is to surrender to Yan Xun just because people told her to surrender. The general in charge just surrenders even though she can win as she has the geographical advantage. She is a general, purely driven by emotions. She took revenge for Li Ce but has now caused the entire command chain in chaos. After creating the entire mess thinks about who will solve the mess. Later she appoints herself as the acting empress or whatever and plays dressing up for a while and leaves for her love once again. In the entire drama all battle strategies our so-called genius female general came up with were disguising herself as a slave/ princess/ giving herself up for exchange. What an upgrade. A military general entering an enemy camp alone right before the battle for whatever negotiation (as if it is believable). Fighting all and getting injured, and the mighty hero came to save her at the right moment. Who made this imbecile a general with this small brain? Now Yan Xun is coming to take her away and Chu Qiao's husband Zhogue Yue is leaving his wife in his mortal enemy's care. I am having a headache.
What is with this 7th prince and General Huan romance angle? Who attacked them out of nowhere just to create this gaging moment? (Oh the enemy brother of the pitiful prince). Ahh now another female general is abandoning her duties temporarily and escorting an injured mortal enemy while war is on the horizon. The 7th prince turned bad and killed his brother and took the throne but suddenly became good again as soon as he heard the self-righteous speech of Chu Qiao for a few minutes. Zhao Che is so smart that he even made plans for the king. But he blindly trusts Zhuge Yue. Ordering Zhuge Yue to arrest his wife Chu Qiao and Zhuge Yue obliges and abandons his wife immediately. What a foolish crown prince or king whatever. Also, Wasn't Zhao Che is a military general who was well-trained with vast experience? You are expecting me to believe that Zhuge Yue managed to defeat him within 2 to 3 moves. Furthermore, what even happened to that fake faceless god? What the hell was even that ending? Who died and who is alive I didnot even understand as I was banging my head out of frustration the entire time. I wish to shake up the writer so badly. How drunk do you have to be to write this high-level shit? Here, all the fools are competing to see who is the biggest fool. What is this drama even about? I have no idea.
This drama is an absolute waste of time, and I would suggest to all, especially if you are a fan of Princess Agents (like me) or even the novel fan; do not watch this drama to maintain your sanity.
PS. Who thought making all the actors floating like dead goldfish in an aquarium was a good idea for the opening title?
Was this review helpful to you?
