Azaniah

I so hundred and one percent agree with you. She's amazing. She's smart, she's witty, she's a go getter/a hard worker.
She's strong and so loyal.

I love how she fought street with Liu Qing Yan, I mean we know Liu Qing Yan could've beaten her up if they continued to fight , but I love how she wasn't intimidated by the fact that she's an assassin who's got martial arts skills, she still went for her, even after that kick in her stomach, holding her stomach as expected, she still had her back straight with her head held high and a satisfied look on her face...I mean come on for someone that's not skilled in martial arts...that's what I call daring, determination, courage and guts.

I definitely agree with you, I would also take HBQ's intelligence, adaptability and guts over a damsel in distress who is good at punching any day too :)

I knew I shouldn't have started this drama before it finished airing.

Was already in love with Ariel Lin but this drama is escalating my love for her, she's truly AMAZING ♡.
Kind of got slow for me round about episode 20. Picked up just a bit on 24.
Will definitely stick through it for Ariel Lin and Vin Zhang.
Dreading what's about to happen from what I've seen on the opening scenes and trailers.
Really hope this drama will have a good ending for our OTP.

I like him so far also, so I second you with that, I hope he has a happy ending.

Huh? End up with one girl??? Or you mean end up being a girl?

I haven't seen the multiple times yet, I'm still on ep 8. But that first time he's mom treated him privately I was waiting for her to reveal that he's a woman, but she didn't, that's true. Which kind of made me think that she probably is playing a male role in this drama, so maybe you right. But at the same time I still think he might be hiding his true gender to protect his family. Maybe as I continue watching more episodes I will think differently.

I've also been wondering the same thing @ Mo Ro Fei, but I think I'm going to go with your first thought of her being 'disguised as a guy in order to hold the family name'. Maybe that's why she/he can only be treated by her/his mother because they hiding her true gender...just a thought...but otherwise I'm also wondering the same thing.

I'm watching it on Kissasian, but you can also find it on dramacool:

http://kissasian.sh

https://www17.dramacool9.io

Don't they mean: while Qin Zhi Yan helps her/Lu Zhao Yao get revenge on Li Chen Lan since she/Lu Zhao Yao believes he is related to the incident after he is revealed to be the previous cult leader’s son, she/Lu Zhao Yao instead falls in love with him/Li Chen Lan instead of taking revenge on him?

That's good then. I'm happy to hear that : ) . Love her. And Vin Zhang.
Will be looking forward to watching this one then.
Thank you

Ariel Lin! ♡
I hope this is a good drama

Lol I definitely hear you and agree.

Thanks Estelll, I will give them a try.

Really appreciate you taking the time to actually recommend these to me. Thank you.
Lol your unashamed passion and enjoyment of 'eye candy' in dramas...lol love it.
I do appreciate 'easy on the eye' leads but it's not really a major for me. I wouldn't be put off a drama if they aren't. It's the age that gets to me, especially for a historical.

I've seen great reviews of Empress Ki. And it really looks good. I would like to try that one.
My only issue with historical K-dramas that makes me not interested in watching them, whenever I go through 'top/best 20/15/10 historical k-dramas' on youtube is the babyfaced boyish looking Male Leads, I don't know if I'll be able to get pass that, I prefer older/oldish looking leads, especially for a historical. But Empress Ki is not bad in regards to that and if I enjoy it, I'll give the others you've mentioned a try.
Thanks for the recommendations.

Thanks for the advice.
I will definitely try push through to at least 2 or 3 episodes with the ones you've recommended.

Thanks for this list.
I'm still fairly new to Asian dramas. Started watching them sometime last year, and my first drama was chinese historical and have been watching just chinese dramas so far and loving them, and trying to try out some Japanese dramas due to my love of Anime.
I've come to realise that K-dramas are quite popular in the Asian drama watchers world and my heart tends to be rebellious when it comes to popular things, I just want to go the opposite direction of what is popular, I get put off from things that are just too popular.
I've tried to watch some K-dramas but just struggled to and would drop it within a few minutes.
I would definitely love to give them a try again. So this list is definitely needed and will come in handy for someone like me.
So thanks.

Really really disappointed in this one. Took me weeks to get to episode 3 or something. Skipped through the last couple of episodes. One of those last episodes watched like three minutes of it skipped to the next one, felt like I didn't miss a thing, still skipped through the next one. This drama was just dead for me. For a crime thriller it had no thrill at all. And that overdramatic dull acting of some...oh gosh shoot me now.
Really expected more based on the high rating on Viki and MDL but yah noh it didn't do it for me.

Ohhh so it was the wife's nanny not the wife.
I missed it there and confused the two for the other, thought the wife was the plant.

There was a scene when they informed Xia Jiang that they chose her and he was impressed and said he Knew she would do well and be chosen. All this time I thought they were referring to Prince Jing's wife. I completely missed it.

Thank you so much MusicalVeggies for your response and clearing this out for me. Completely completely missed it, now I want to rewatch it.

Prince Jing's wife...was she not planted by Prince Yu and Xia Jiang?
And when they were uprooting all the Xia Jiang and Qin Banruo people, she was not one of them.
So...does that mean they missed one person and Xia Jiang still has someone planted in the palace who might one day possibly avenge...
Or did I miss something

Truly an amazing drama.
I did struggle a bit for the first 15/16 some episodes, felt like a mountain climb. Literally every 3/4 episodes I had to come to MDL and allow myself to be encourage by all the positive reviews and comments from fellow MDLers who actually finished the drama.
Then from episode...not sure if it was the late teen or early twenties...I was hooked.

Loved the brotherly love. Loved and appreciated the intelligence of both the protagonist as well as the antagonists. Loved the loyalty of the ML's people.
Beautiful beautiful closing OST.

No plot holes. Every beginning had an end, every chapter had a closing/conclusion, everything made sense.
Really really this is a masterpiece. Didn't think I would love it this much since there isn't that much romance--which I'm a sucker for.
But it was really a good drama.

I do have one question that I feel like it wasn't concluded or closed in the drama, am not sure if I missed it. But I will ask that as a spoiler question. Please help with that.

Lol I will do that.