Lizzy

One of my absolute favorites!!

If I were to grab a shovel and try to dig up some flaws with this show, sure I may dig up a few pebbles. Was the plot repetitive? Sure. Sima Jiao was the shit. Everyone either wanted to imprison him, harvest his special blood or kill him because he consistently overpowers and outsmarts all of you lesser bitches. That’s basically the plot. Was the ending a little rushed? Sure. Do I wish we had a few more episodes in the mortal world and in the modern world? Absolutely (also who wouldn’t???). Was there some issues with pacing sometimes? Yeah, okay.

But the strengths of this show far, far outweigh any issues that snobby critics may come with. This main couple quickly rose in ranks to my top 1-3 favorite romances of all Asian shows I have ever watched (and I watch a lot). Their chemistry, the complementary nature of their personalities and the sheer amount of screen time they had together - all created this ultimate powerhouse of a couple. We were blessed with SO MANY sensual kisses, intimate touches, poetic dialogue, soulful gazes, powerful teamwork and open communication. No serious love triangles, no annoying incidences of noble idiocrisy or dragged out miscommunication. Conflict was resolved quickly, the amnesia subplots moved forward at a good pace with lovely soulful angst thanks to the writing and acting. It’s a total feast for us lovers of romance.

The ML also became one of my most favorite MLs of all time as well. Arthur Chen’s portrayal of Sima Jiao was flawless. His ability to just emote SO MUCH emotion through his eyes and through his intimate touches had me feeling all of the feels right alongside him. His ability to seamlessly shift from a dark, cold, ruthless, vindictive and wrathful god into a traumatized, tender, sensual, smiley, cute, vulnerable and enamored man in love with the FL showcased Arthur’s incredible range of abilities. Sima Jiao was beautifully complex. He was able to shed a single tear with the FL in one moment and completely annihilate anyone who threatened them in the next moment coldly and without batting an eye. The best part about all of this is that although Sima Jiao got fantastic character development he never lost the parts of himself that we loved the most. He never lost his dark edge, his powerful aura or his stoic exterior (except when he’s with our FL, of course). He remains delightfully consistent throughout the show in spite of the growth.

And our FL is the perfect balance to his personality. The yang to his yin. Carefree, nonjudgmental, empathetic, unassuming, easy-going, go with the flow type of gal. Although she sometimes disagreed with the ML’s methods or asked him not to do certain things, she never tried to change him. She never had a judgmental attitude toward his edgy darkness, but rather grew to understand that it was rooted in 500 years of physical torture and torment, trauma, and sadistic generational oppression against his kind. Her light brought out his innate goodness, and his dark edge also allowed her to connect with those parts of herself as well. And although sometimes I think her refusal to kill others was taken too far at times (seriously, they oppressed and tortured our ML since birth, did some other horrendous shit and will literally kill you now if you don’t kill them first), she did get some good development as well as the story progressed without losing her essence.

What I also loved about this drama was the development of the three major arcs throughout the show. The ML was the unstoppable, always-saving badass while she was developing her skills in the first arc, the second arc brought them to more of an equal footing in power, and in the final arc the roles were reversed and she protected him and held the power. In a parallel way, the first arc was about the main leads developing the foundation of their love for each other together, the second arc was all about the ML lovingly pursuing the FL, and then we got to see her chase after him for a bit in the final arc. We got it all, guys. This show was wonderful. I think it will be a while before I get hooked on another story in the way that this one captivated me.

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Started off great…

LOVED the first part SO MUCH! LOVED the ML, who stole the show. I was willing to tolerate the annoying af love triangle, the childishness of the FL, the contrived addition of her friend into the latter half of the show… I was really into it until she was taken to the ML’s realm… and then it became too angsty and riddled with drama with very little payoff and reprieve. If you love the angst and sadness, this one should be right up your alley. It wasn’t for me, unfortunately. I needed more pockets of happiness, more cuteness and fluff. It also didn’t help that we did not get any sort of payoff for the angst in the end. While it was a happy ending, it lasted like ten seconds.

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Issues with FL and some of the plot

This show would have been a total 10 were it not for my difficulties getting over the FL’s treatment of the ML a couple of times during the show. I also did not like at all the reason why we had a happy ending, and who we had to thank for it. There was an annoying love triangle as well… Regardless, the ML was a dream. We had a LOT of skinship, cuddles, kisses and sneaking into each others bedrooms. We were also spoiled with the sheer amount of screen time that the main leads had. This is one I may rewatch at some point in the future, but the disappointment with the writing is pretty strong. What was shaping up to be one of my favorite dramas ended up being a letdown in a few ways.

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Very sweet, too many lies / secrets

A great story! LOTS of skinship, decent kisses and good emotional intimacy. The leads had great chemistry and talent for acting. My complaints about the show are mostly about how the lying / secrets ultimately came to a head. You start off seeing the ML as a ruthless guy, blatantly using the FL’s amnesia for his own agenda (he doesn’t coerce her to sex or anything though, quite the opposite). Then you start watching him catch the feels and damn, you understand why it became so difficult for him to just be honest with her. You really felt his inner turmoil, but the hole he dug for himself was already miles deep. I also understood him to a degree, with his desire to retreat to this fairytale away from the palace drama / scheming. Unfortunately… then it just dragged. He kept digging this pit of lies, pressured his friends to keep his deception a secret, and missed so many opportunities to just rip the bandaid off and come clean. Then it gets really uncomfortable and annoying when she recovers her memories, realizes that he’s been lying to her, and then decides to keep all of that a secret from him for a plan to take revenge on him. So it all culminates to a wonderful scene where they part ways… And then I became a little bit disappointed with how they handled his groveling / pursuit of her until they reunite. I wish there was a little more angst and less humor during these episodes. I wanted a bit more begging on his part, more sadness and more of a heartfelt (maybe even tearful) and remorseful apology. We did get a few good scenes, and he does apologize eventually, but I wish we saw more of the remorse from him.

Other things- man, I wish we got more of our leads battling together! The scene we did get was AMAZING, but I wish we had more teamwork badassery with the leads.

In other comments - the new empress was an AMAZING character. She may have been my favorite. Loved her relationship with the emperor.

So yeah- great show!

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Awesome!

GREAT show!!! Wished for a bit less of a slow burn romance (we waited foreeeeever for them to make it official), but the amount of scenes they had throughout the show made up for a lot of it. I wish that they didn’t drag out the reunion in the last third of the show like they did, as it kinda killed the momentum and wasn’t as climactic as I would have liked. Yeah, the poor CGI pets were a little distracting, and some of the show was campy af, but this is one I would watch again. The CHEMISTRY between the leads OMG 🔥 I could watch some of their scenes on repeat. The fighting was epic. The music was epic. The special effects were epic… and the character development was great for the most part. The leads were a great blend of each being badass and independent, but there was also a lot of saving each other. And this has been the first show in a while that had me tearing up near the end. With some smaller changes this would have been 10/10.

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Great Story, Too Preachy

9/10 stars! At times it felt a little preachy and in your face with the Ra Ra Girl Power!, when I wish they would have cut out the cheesy speeches that felt out of place and instead let their characters tell the story through their actions. They didn’t need all of the speeches about feminism and equality, because they were already doing an excellent job conveying those themes through their storytelling and through their characters. It felt unnecessarily force-fed, which pulled me out of the story quite a bit during the middle part. Like I was already eating it up, so why feel the need to push it down my throat?

There were a handful of silly filler-y episodes in the middle, the ending was a bit rushed (pretty normal for cdramas), and I think the lying / secrets dragged on way too long (especially because he knew she was lying, and she knew that he wasn’t buying her lies). Also the (sort of) love triangle got a little annoying a few times, but as someone who will drop shows because of love triangles I was able to grudgingly tolerate this one.

It’s also a sloooooooow burn. Goodness. I mean it was clear from early on that the mutual connection was there, but damn, why make us wait as long as you did for the confession and the kisses? There were many great places earlier in the show to allow their relationship to progress, but for some reason they insisted on keeping the lying and the secrets dragging on and on, past what I thought would have been many natural places for the honesty.

Regardless, this is one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time and the positives far outweigh the negatives. I loved all of the wonderful screen time with our ML and FL! I loved that they saved each other many times and that there was mutual respect. Talk about a Green Light ML! 😍 I am also thankful that they didn’t push the feminism agenda to the point where she was never allowed to be rescued by the ML. It was truly an equal relationship with two badasses who were both capable and saved each other. Their fight scenes were a delight to watch 🔥 UGH. And the romance! The ML gave the most beautifully poetic romantic lines. Well done!

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Not enough couple screen time

Soooo I wish our leads had more screen time. There was literally only one on-screen kiss in the entire show! (The other one doesn’t count!) And there was very little skinship. The scenes they had were wonderful and filled with chemistry, but there just was not enough of them. I wish their agendas intersected more, and that we got to see them doing more things together. Sadly, we only had one episode of them actually investigating something together. Other than that they did their own thing. I also wish the ML got more scenes with his hair down 🔥 🔥 🔥 (or just more scenes of him in general). Other small criticisms - there was not a lot of variety with the costumes. I also wish the show focused a little less on the plot and more on developing the relationships. I would have liked to see more of the Duke’s friendship with the Emperor, more relationship development with the main couple that wasn’t centered on them asking each other for favors, etc. Maybe I’ve just been trying to find another show like Prisoner of Beauty with little luckkk.

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It was all right..

I think overall I liked Pillow Book a little better. The constant lying, keeping secrets, not communicating and dragging out the drama over practically the whole show got to me the most with this one. And unlike Pillow Book, we didn’t get a whopping 20 minute scene where they tell each other everything during cuddles. There was a LOT more angst in this one than in Pillow Book and it felt like we ultimately got less payoff / rewards for the sadness that we (and the characters) endured. There was also a LOT of annoying, possessive, scheming jealousy by a couple of the side characters who just could not take no for an answer.

That being said, the acting in this one by the ML was phenomenal! That man could emote through his eyes like nothing I have seen. I LOVE the lusty and angsty kisses we got, that beautiful hair draping over his shoulders, that jawline… how lovely he looks when he cries… sigh. Some of the best scenes in the Cdramas I’ve watched were in this one and I have been watching a few of them on repeat. Give that man a reward 🔥 His character had depth, and despite his passionate love toward the FL, he made some devastating mistakes with heavy consequences. That stretch of the show, his redemption arc, was my favorite.

Outside of the complaints I listed in the beginning, this was a good show.

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Too few scenes with main couple

This one was a difficult one to rate. There were aspects that I LOVED about the show, but a whole heck of a lot I didn’t care for. What carried the show for me was the incredible relationship / chemistry between the two leads and their overall well-written romance that remained consistent through the show. I wish, however, that they had a lot more screen time than they actually did. Their scenes together unfortunately were few and far between, so if you’re looking for a show with the focus being on the romance, this may not be a good one for you unless you skip to their scenes like I did for the last 30 episodes after the plot took a nosedive.

I was also saddened by how little screen time the ML got, especially in the first half. He was hands down the best character on the show, and yet he had precious little time to grace the audience with his presence. Despite being listed as the main lead, I swear that every other supporting character got at least double the screen time as him (and there were a lot of supporting characters). His character was the best, most upright and kind person… while also a being a sexy blend of pure, powerful masculinity. *fans self*.

The show got swept up in all of the political drama, with very little reprieve and happy moments, and sadly our main couple’s relationship faded into the background. Regardless, the scenes they did have together were incredible. Their scenes were very intimate without there being a lot of kissing. I’m talking cuddles, skinship, pillow talk, consideration for each other, laughter, gazes, saving each other, open communication, trust, emotional connection, etc. Granted, the ML is also a veerrry good kisser. *ahem* I watched the show pretty consistently until episode 35, but skipped through the last half to just watch the scenes with the ML and the main couple.

If it wasn’t for the main couple and the male lead, this show wouldn’t have any stars. Sadly, the FL’s development also took a nosedive the last half and as other people have said, she became too forgiving. A lot of the other characters became incredibly inconsistent later on, which was very frustrating. She forgot all of the horrible sins that others have committed against her and her husband and characters that should have gotten a healthy dose of karma never did. The plot became redundant, and honestly they could have ended it after 25-30 episodes.

Nevertheless, can I get some more of that ML, please? And thank you.

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