Yue

Watching Ep.19 and the "twist" about ML's past just makes me want to sigh. Because of course it's like that.

It's clumsy and doesn't fit with the era or the way real women thought back then. We're being fed a modern idea about women in almost every episode. There are better ways to write this into a story.

The Sword and The Brocade isn't bad. Better romance at least. The actress is also very good.

The drama can't decide what it wants to be. Revenge or mystery/thriller. It definitely isn't romance.

The right way to script a mystery/suspense drama is "Show, Don't tell" which is not happening here. The viewer is being given information forcefully only when the characters confront each other. It's become tiresome and insulting to a viewer's intelligence.

The script is bad to put it simply.

Surprisingly, the only consistent character is FL's father. Yes, he's not innocent and guilty as hell but least his character arc makes sense and is clearly written. The rest aren't as convincing.

Historically speaking, eunuchs had a lot of adopted sons or nephews from their cousins and blood relations. So yes, it doesn't make sense he'd have only one son.

Ep.18: seems Grandfather was an idiot. His son was smarter. No one is likeable in this drama

LOL! That window is open so wide there's no way he couldn't see her.

The ship was awesome. I've only seen it in donghua before.

Yes, exactly.

The tonal shift between the first and second half of this drama doesn't make sense. And all these heavy-handed feminist messages feel like the scriptwriter, who is a man, is ticking off issues from a list.

Oh my god. What kind of carriage wheel breaks like that unless you took an axe to it? XD

Ep.16: if this was a story about the mother, I'd probably be more interested. Her "friendship" with the Consort and her own lover are more interesting and layered than FL.

It's not bad exactly but over wrought. Like outright melodrama at times.

ML is definitely not as naive as he looks. This makes things more interesting.

Ep.8: I don't know who is worse at lying. FL or Sword spirit 😂

The anime was short so they had to condense many things. Drama has almost 40 eps

In a way, it's likely a criticism of Asian/Chinese society where elders wield too much power.