A fun watch, not too deep
Royal Rumors is a cute, light-hearted show. It’s not very long, and a fun watch, which I’d say I enjoyed but didn’t adore.
The show starts with a lot of good humor, but it seems to die down later on in favor of pure story. I really liked the humor and wish they had just focused more on comedy throughout. It gets a bit darker but at least becomes a fairly straightforward good-vs-bad kind of deal, so you don’t feel too many ambiguous emotions. When I’m here for fluff, I don’t need strong, nuanced emotions.
This FL is one of those secretly smart, capable protagonists hiding her true abilities. It’s a classic plotline but always fun to watch. I did find the sickly act to be a little annoying (more powder ain’t gonna help, girl), but at least it sort of disappears after awhile. It wasn’t until the end that I realized she actually WANTS to be known as a sickly beauty (this is in the book too), which makes me wonder- self-defense I can understand, but why would you WANT to play into such a dumb stereotype?
The relationship between the ML and FL starts out fairly hostile, although I’m not really sure why. There is a background of cute childhood letters between them, and the ML seems quite nice and sentimental about them. I guess the FL is just very cautious, but I felt a little frustrated at her as she kept trying to hold up her act. After that goes away and they get together, though, I found them less interesting. Guess I’m hard to please.
I do like this ML- he’s not full of himself, and he doesn’t fall for flattery. He has the best “ORLY?” face as he deals with all her BS. (He is a bit too clingy, though.) I like Jeremy Tsui’s style here- he has the best eye roll, deadpan stare, and funny facial expressions. But, sorry to say, I think he looks too old for this role. It’s not that Meng Ziyi is too young, per se, it’s that her character is young (18), and she can pass. Jeremy in his late 30s, unfortunately, can't really.
Although I wasn’t totally into the main characters’ relationship, I really liked the side characters. I read somewhere that the author of the book felt that women should support each other, and this comes through with great sisterhoods. I found many of the side characters to be very likeable, both male and female, and I was very invested in their stories. This is one of those fluffy shows where I’d expect everyone to pair up, and they mostly did, but unfortunately most of these side couples didn’t seem to get very far- at least, not as far as I wanted.
Not a big part of the story, but we also, refreshingly, get an emperor who actually wants his kids to be happy. That’s a pretty rare one.
The fighting in this show isn’t that flashy (or frequent), but it’s not like this show is a wuxia. Martial arts is clearly not that important because many of the male characters are surprise good fighters out of nowhere… impressive and all, but they didn’t even feel the need to set it up or explain it. The FL has better development in this aspect- she’s supposed to be good and she is, but I also like that she’s not invincible… more realistic.
Another quibble- I’m sorry, but who entrusts national diplomacy to an 18 year old? Never mind that her counterpart doesn’t look much older. No wonder their negotiations were such a sham. “Give us the land.” “No.”
Anyways.
My good feelings for this show are mostly running off the humor in the first half and my attachment to the side characters, and I probably would rate higher if either of those played a bigger role. As is, it was fun to watch but not the kind of show I felt obsessed about.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
It’s a fluffy story, of course it has a happy ending, and the finale is pretty exciting. Only one big sacrifice, but it was sad- I guess they had to kill off somebody we all liked to create some emotional oomph.
I was, on the other hand, not too happy with the level of closure I got on many of the side couples. I was really invested in them. How come the relationship between Pei Jihuai (ML’s BFF) and Yuan Wei (FL’s maid) never went anywhere? And the story with Yun Han (pretty boy) and Du Xiuying (scholar girl)… my gosh, how could they leave it in such an unsatisfactory position? That was the worst.
Speaking of that maid, I thought she was super cute, but her RANDOMLY being a general of the army just doesn’t make sense. If she were, she would have acted very differently throughout the show. And at the end where she finally rushes in with a sword… wow that was the worst sword swipe I’ve ever seen. Sorry girl, I know you were in the background, but could you have at least tried? I liked her a lot (adorable!) and really wished for her to be badass, it’s too bad they couldn’t pull it off better.
The show starts with a lot of good humor, but it seems to die down later on in favor of pure story. I really liked the humor and wish they had just focused more on comedy throughout. It gets a bit darker but at least becomes a fairly straightforward good-vs-bad kind of deal, so you don’t feel too many ambiguous emotions. When I’m here for fluff, I don’t need strong, nuanced emotions.
This FL is one of those secretly smart, capable protagonists hiding her true abilities. It’s a classic plotline but always fun to watch. I did find the sickly act to be a little annoying (more powder ain’t gonna help, girl), but at least it sort of disappears after awhile. It wasn’t until the end that I realized she actually WANTS to be known as a sickly beauty (this is in the book too), which makes me wonder- self-defense I can understand, but why would you WANT to play into such a dumb stereotype?
The relationship between the ML and FL starts out fairly hostile, although I’m not really sure why. There is a background of cute childhood letters between them, and the ML seems quite nice and sentimental about them. I guess the FL is just very cautious, but I felt a little frustrated at her as she kept trying to hold up her act. After that goes away and they get together, though, I found them less interesting. Guess I’m hard to please.
I do like this ML- he’s not full of himself, and he doesn’t fall for flattery. He has the best “ORLY?” face as he deals with all her BS. (He is a bit too clingy, though.) I like Jeremy Tsui’s style here- he has the best eye roll, deadpan stare, and funny facial expressions. But, sorry to say, I think he looks too old for this role. It’s not that Meng Ziyi is too young, per se, it’s that her character is young (18), and she can pass. Jeremy in his late 30s, unfortunately, can't really.
Although I wasn’t totally into the main characters’ relationship, I really liked the side characters. I read somewhere that the author of the book felt that women should support each other, and this comes through with great sisterhoods. I found many of the side characters to be very likeable, both male and female, and I was very invested in their stories. This is one of those fluffy shows where I’d expect everyone to pair up, and they mostly did, but unfortunately most of these side couples didn’t seem to get very far- at least, not as far as I wanted.
Not a big part of the story, but we also, refreshingly, get an emperor who actually wants his kids to be happy. That’s a pretty rare one.
The fighting in this show isn’t that flashy (or frequent), but it’s not like this show is a wuxia. Martial arts is clearly not that important because many of the male characters are surprise good fighters out of nowhere… impressive and all, but they didn’t even feel the need to set it up or explain it. The FL has better development in this aspect- she’s supposed to be good and she is, but I also like that she’s not invincible… more realistic.
Another quibble- I’m sorry, but who entrusts national diplomacy to an 18 year old? Never mind that her counterpart doesn’t look much older. No wonder their negotiations were such a sham. “Give us the land.” “No.”
Anyways.
My good feelings for this show are mostly running off the humor in the first half and my attachment to the side characters, and I probably would rate higher if either of those played a bigger role. As is, it was fun to watch but not the kind of show I felt obsessed about.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
It’s a fluffy story, of course it has a happy ending, and the finale is pretty exciting. Only one big sacrifice, but it was sad- I guess they had to kill off somebody we all liked to create some emotional oomph.
I was, on the other hand, not too happy with the level of closure I got on many of the side couples. I was really invested in them. How come the relationship between Pei Jihuai (ML’s BFF) and Yuan Wei (FL’s maid) never went anywhere? And the story with Yun Han (pretty boy) and Du Xiuying (scholar girl)… my gosh, how could they leave it in such an unsatisfactory position? That was the worst.
Speaking of that maid, I thought she was super cute, but her RANDOMLY being a general of the army just doesn’t make sense. If she were, she would have acted very differently throughout the show. And at the end where she finally rushes in with a sword… wow that was the worst sword swipe I’ve ever seen. Sorry girl, I know you were in the background, but could you have at least tried? I liked her a lot (adorable!) and really wished for her to be badass, it’s too bad they couldn’t pull it off better.
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