This review may contain spoilers
Not Up to Par - the Result of Editing or Poor Writing?
Before you come at me, I suspect that a lot of my disappointment stems from the editing team cutting out a lot of the screentime from FL which made the script feel stilted or the writing team themselves. Not sure if all of Song Zu-er's scenes were retained or if the writing was just poor.
The reason I say POB was a little underwhelming is because the synopsis and trailer promised a strong FL and a strong ML, enemies to lovers type drama. The FL, in my opinion, had less scenes than ML and did not feel to me as a 'strong' character. While I suspect that part of it was because her scenes were cut and never restored (we have no way of knowing truly), it just was never convincing that this was a drama with two leads. It seemed more like the story about ML and his journey to putting down a blood feud, finding love in an unexpected place. Again, not the actors' fault, but potentially a downfall of the author or screen writer. I thought that it would be a drama with plenty of strong female characters (not just the FL) because of the cast, but it ended up feeling like a man's hero's journey written through the lens of a man. Putting aside FL, we feature a couple of seemingly strong female characters yet weirdly not:
1) ML's grandmother who was strong enough to keep the Wei clan together until her grandson took over, but not strong enough to weed out dissidents or manage her family
2) ML's mother who cared more about her niece than her son. Being a bit of a ninny while her son was super smart was a bit annoying as well.
3) FL's cousin who was caring and kind but later betrays FL's trust and doesn't help when it really counts, only to die by suicide to protect her husband
4) Lady Yu Lou (who was a bit of the main female villian) is this ultra talented and scheming woman only to be reduced to a jaded, delusional woman with low self esteem and inability to 'see' her partners' love and care for her
Between the FL and ML and their world, there was never a sense of equality between the two in terms of skill. There was always some sort of power relationship. FL is always trying to even the playing field: negotiating with Panyi's seal, raising support in a different state to keep ML and Wei in check, diverting ML's attention away from conquering Panyi. On top of that, ML is always distrustful and resentful of FL's family, but FL never really does anything about it because in her head, she and her family owes ML's family. Because of this premise, there is never a moment where it didn't feel like FL was trying to please or placate ML. ML (the character, not Liu Yu Ning) did the bare minimum for romance. Respectfully, the romance wasn't romancing at all.
My disappointment lays mainly with the screenwriter (and potentially the author) as the actors were fantastic. Strength can be found in different forms. I looked forward to seeing FL's strength that was 'gentle like water' but what I ended up seeing was strength being portrayed in very traditional, heteronormative ways. Men's strength is through martial arts and warfare while women's strength was through sacrifice: enduring political marriages, enduring one's in-laws, enduring public opinion, etc.
This style of drama is not unusual when compared to historical dramas of the early 2000s where men were the main characters. It was just a little jarring to see this type of drama in 2025, especially after so much hype about this being an enemies to lovers drama and after well written female centric dramas like Perfect Match aired earlier this year.
The reason I say POB was a little underwhelming is because the synopsis and trailer promised a strong FL and a strong ML, enemies to lovers type drama. The FL, in my opinion, had less scenes than ML and did not feel to me as a 'strong' character. While I suspect that part of it was because her scenes were cut and never restored (we have no way of knowing truly), it just was never convincing that this was a drama with two leads. It seemed more like the story about ML and his journey to putting down a blood feud, finding love in an unexpected place. Again, not the actors' fault, but potentially a downfall of the author or screen writer. I thought that it would be a drama with plenty of strong female characters (not just the FL) because of the cast, but it ended up feeling like a man's hero's journey written through the lens of a man. Putting aside FL, we feature a couple of seemingly strong female characters yet weirdly not:
1) ML's grandmother who was strong enough to keep the Wei clan together until her grandson took over, but not strong enough to weed out dissidents or manage her family
2) ML's mother who cared more about her niece than her son. Being a bit of a ninny while her son was super smart was a bit annoying as well.
3) FL's cousin who was caring and kind but later betrays FL's trust and doesn't help when it really counts, only to die by suicide to protect her husband
4) Lady Yu Lou (who was a bit of the main female villian) is this ultra talented and scheming woman only to be reduced to a jaded, delusional woman with low self esteem and inability to 'see' her partners' love and care for her
Between the FL and ML and their world, there was never a sense of equality between the two in terms of skill. There was always some sort of power relationship. FL is always trying to even the playing field: negotiating with Panyi's seal, raising support in a different state to keep ML and Wei in check, diverting ML's attention away from conquering Panyi. On top of that, ML is always distrustful and resentful of FL's family, but FL never really does anything about it because in her head, she and her family owes ML's family. Because of this premise, there is never a moment where it didn't feel like FL was trying to please or placate ML. ML (the character, not Liu Yu Ning) did the bare minimum for romance. Respectfully, the romance wasn't romancing at all.
My disappointment lays mainly with the screenwriter (and potentially the author) as the actors were fantastic. Strength can be found in different forms. I looked forward to seeing FL's strength that was 'gentle like water' but what I ended up seeing was strength being portrayed in very traditional, heteronormative ways. Men's strength is through martial arts and warfare while women's strength was through sacrifice: enduring political marriages, enduring one's in-laws, enduring public opinion, etc.
This style of drama is not unusual when compared to historical dramas of the early 2000s where men were the main characters. It was just a little jarring to see this type of drama in 2025, especially after so much hype about this being an enemies to lovers drama and after well written female centric dramas like Perfect Match aired earlier this year.
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