30 episodes of slop before it gets good
So I was slogging through episode after episode of this terrible show out of blind loyalty to the author (Jiu Lu Fei Xiang). Then, near the end and long after I should have dropped it, it actually got pretty good. Truly a surprise.
I guess I’ll start with my issues with the first 30ish episodes.
This show is so unbelievable cheesy. Take the whole superpower thing, for example. If you think of the ML as a Marvel superhero, he’s not that bad- interesting premise and all. But if you're not comparing him to cartoons, then he comes across as… well, cartoonish.
His transformations are accompanied by thumping music, CGI effects, slow motion poses, and hair blowing in the wind. It’s clearly meant to be heart-pounding cool, but I found it super lame. Maybe because the proper buildup isn’t there, so rather than being emotionally invested and caught in the moment, I’m just sitting here rolling my eyes.
And then there are other scenes that seem meant to be squeal-worthy cute, moving, or touching. I was not moved or touched. They were cheesy. Maybe it’s because I didn’t connect with the characters that I just couldn’t get in the proper mood.
As for the characters… let’s start with Li Shuang, female lead and world’s most unbelievable general. I think we’re supposed to like her. She’s strong, capable, noble, and selfless; all she needs now is somebody to appreciate and take care of her. We’re supposed to enjoy watching her find love.
It might have worked if she had any depth to her, but she comes across more as somebody’s one-dimensional image of a paragon of virtue. She is constantly spewing platitudes about protecting the common people; her flaws include failing to take care of herself (because she’s so selfless), her emotions include sorrow for the peoples’ suffering, and her desires include world peace and prosperity. Get the idea?
I think that without any depth, to make her feel more real and relatable, all her moralizing lacks sincerity. She’s too artificial. About half the time she said anything, I rolled my eyes.
As for the ML, his defining feature for the majority of the show is his puppy-like devotion to the FL. He has hints of being clever or thoughtful, but most of his actions center around his obsession with her. You can’t blame him- it’s chemically induced- but that means even more that their romance is founded on nothing.
Sitting through 30 episodes of these two going through all the motions of a sticky sweet romance was truly a struggle. Manufactured cutesy scenes, sappy moments with slow mo and flowery music, incident after incident requiring skin to be bared, sacrifices and rescues, etc. I was either cringing or bored.
On top of this, both leads at times acted in ways I found extremely frustrating. For instance, the unnecessary hostility towards Mo Yun, whose goals are not contrary to theirs. And that poor Crown Prince- despite being a saint, the FL somehow has no empathy for him. As the show itself says, you can turn somebody down and still be kind about it. Their childhood friendship seems to mean nothing to her; she can’t pull out a hint of genuineness or regard for him.
Shows define their own reality. The obnoxious behavior is presented as justified and noble, which left me irritated and further resentful against the two leads.
I had a brief moment of enjoying the show somewhere in the middle, when Lu Xin (female doctor) gets some character development, and Mo Yun appears. In general, I found Lu Xin alternately annoying and very likable. I did like Mo Yun, but some of his character arc was also really cheesy (the detached sage learning to love… lol).
With this second couple, I liked them individually, but the romance between them felt forced- maybe lacking in chemistry or something. Couldn’t quite get behind.
As for the villains, the empress dowager of Yao comes across as deranged and evil- kudos to the actress. I was satisfied with her story and resolution. The Taijin side… more complicated, didn’t quite like.
Around episode 30 is when the ML regains his old memories. The show suddenly gets quite good. The ML becomes more interesting, with much more personality as Prince Annan, and I actually began to like the FL and empathize with her. Li Shuang even has her first moment of humanity, with a genuine and valid regret.
Even more, the way it all plays out between them is at once cute/sweet, and heartbreaking. I guess the previous 30 episodes of sap were setting up for this; it’s a lot more poignant when you understand what was lost. I legit found it touching.
This arc is not without its eyebrow raisers. For one thing, there are now TWO of them competing for the spot of Most Virtuous Soul. The setup / situation is also a bit contrived. But I was willing to overlook all this. All in all, well done, +1 points (yes I was about to give this a 5).
Acting-wise, I’ll address first the complete unbelievability of Li Shuang as a general. It’s easy to blame the actress, and I think that’s part of it, but there are other components too. Things like: her voice; her pretty clothing and jewelry when everyone else is wearing armor; outfits and scenes that highlight her creepy level of skinniness; choreography that showcases her poor fighting technique; so on. I don’t want to bash on Song Yi, but maybe she wasn’t the best choice for the role, and maybe also direction/production could have done some things differently.
Other actors did well. Cheng Lei of course had to show a lot of range for his dual personalities and I thought he did a good job. If you like to see Cheng Lei shirtless, this is the show for you. Darren Chen as Mo Yun and Bi Wenjun as the Crown Prince both showed really good expressions with their eyes. I felt even worse for the Crown Prince with how troubled and hurt he looked at times, near the end.
The fight choreography is… not the best I’ve seen, and not that well executed. I admire the creativity of making her main weapon bow and arrow, but it really is not a short-range weapon, and having her rapid fire for close range combat just makes her sloppy technique even worse. Her sword swings are also uncontrolled. There are some battle scenes but they are all pretty standard.
This is definitely not a low-budget show, with lots of fancy costumes, sets, and extras. The CGI quality seems pretty good, and I did like the music on its own merits. But production can’t save a bad plot.
Ultimately, is it worth it to struggle through 30 episodes to get to the good part? Not sure. I did feel some really great emotions at the end, and I was interested and invested. But, ya know, a good show should have that all the way through, and >75% slop is kind of a lot.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show has a happy ending. The characters really could have achieved the whole thing with much less drama, but I guess it’s a show after all. About half of the last episode is devoted to telling you where everyone goes. It’s bittersweet for some of the characters but not that bad.
I had a lot of sympathy for the Crown Prince throughout the show. He gets pretty ruthless for a moment there, and I was afraid he would spiral into villainhood (the fate of all too many SML, it seems). And yet I wasn’t sure what he did that was wrong or blameworthy, except maybe when he failed to properly read her mind (right). Luckily they turn that around and ultimately he becomes a good emperor. I like him as a character, but all this personality yo-yoing is too dramatic, getting dangerously close to character assassination.
More than anything, I was really bothered by how FL treated him. I felt she should have at least given him closure, along the lines of “I really treasured our time together but we both need to move on.” Even at the end, he’s clearly struggling and she still can’t say anything nice to him. It somehow falls on our ML to say just one kind thing- “you are a good emperor whom the people love”- to comfort this lonely soul.
I guess I’ll start with my issues with the first 30ish episodes.
This show is so unbelievable cheesy. Take the whole superpower thing, for example. If you think of the ML as a Marvel superhero, he’s not that bad- interesting premise and all. But if you're not comparing him to cartoons, then he comes across as… well, cartoonish.
His transformations are accompanied by thumping music, CGI effects, slow motion poses, and hair blowing in the wind. It’s clearly meant to be heart-pounding cool, but I found it super lame. Maybe because the proper buildup isn’t there, so rather than being emotionally invested and caught in the moment, I’m just sitting here rolling my eyes.
And then there are other scenes that seem meant to be squeal-worthy cute, moving, or touching. I was not moved or touched. They were cheesy. Maybe it’s because I didn’t connect with the characters that I just couldn’t get in the proper mood.
As for the characters… let’s start with Li Shuang, female lead and world’s most unbelievable general. I think we’re supposed to like her. She’s strong, capable, noble, and selfless; all she needs now is somebody to appreciate and take care of her. We’re supposed to enjoy watching her find love.
It might have worked if she had any depth to her, but she comes across more as somebody’s one-dimensional image of a paragon of virtue. She is constantly spewing platitudes about protecting the common people; her flaws include failing to take care of herself (because she’s so selfless), her emotions include sorrow for the peoples’ suffering, and her desires include world peace and prosperity. Get the idea?
I think that without any depth, to make her feel more real and relatable, all her moralizing lacks sincerity. She’s too artificial. About half the time she said anything, I rolled my eyes.
As for the ML, his defining feature for the majority of the show is his puppy-like devotion to the FL. He has hints of being clever or thoughtful, but most of his actions center around his obsession with her. You can’t blame him- it’s chemically induced- but that means even more that their romance is founded on nothing.
Sitting through 30 episodes of these two going through all the motions of a sticky sweet romance was truly a struggle. Manufactured cutesy scenes, sappy moments with slow mo and flowery music, incident after incident requiring skin to be bared, sacrifices and rescues, etc. I was either cringing or bored.
On top of this, both leads at times acted in ways I found extremely frustrating. For instance, the unnecessary hostility towards Mo Yun, whose goals are not contrary to theirs. And that poor Crown Prince- despite being a saint, the FL somehow has no empathy for him. As the show itself says, you can turn somebody down and still be kind about it. Their childhood friendship seems to mean nothing to her; she can’t pull out a hint of genuineness or regard for him.
Shows define their own reality. The obnoxious behavior is presented as justified and noble, which left me irritated and further resentful against the two leads.
I had a brief moment of enjoying the show somewhere in the middle, when Lu Xin (female doctor) gets some character development, and Mo Yun appears. In general, I found Lu Xin alternately annoying and very likable. I did like Mo Yun, but some of his character arc was also really cheesy (the detached sage learning to love… lol).
With this second couple, I liked them individually, but the romance between them felt forced- maybe lacking in chemistry or something. Couldn’t quite get behind.
As for the villains, the empress dowager of Yao comes across as deranged and evil- kudos to the actress. I was satisfied with her story and resolution. The Taijin side… more complicated, didn’t quite like.
Around episode 30 is when the ML regains his old memories. The show suddenly gets quite good. The ML becomes more interesting, with much more personality as Prince Annan, and I actually began to like the FL and empathize with her. Li Shuang even has her first moment of humanity, with a genuine and valid regret.
Even more, the way it all plays out between them is at once cute/sweet, and heartbreaking. I guess the previous 30 episodes of sap were setting up for this; it’s a lot more poignant when you understand what was lost. I legit found it touching.
This arc is not without its eyebrow raisers. For one thing, there are now TWO of them competing for the spot of Most Virtuous Soul. The setup / situation is also a bit contrived. But I was willing to overlook all this. All in all, well done, +1 points (yes I was about to give this a 5).
Acting-wise, I’ll address first the complete unbelievability of Li Shuang as a general. It’s easy to blame the actress, and I think that’s part of it, but there are other components too. Things like: her voice; her pretty clothing and jewelry when everyone else is wearing armor; outfits and scenes that highlight her creepy level of skinniness; choreography that showcases her poor fighting technique; so on. I don’t want to bash on Song Yi, but maybe she wasn’t the best choice for the role, and maybe also direction/production could have done some things differently.
Other actors did well. Cheng Lei of course had to show a lot of range for his dual personalities and I thought he did a good job. If you like to see Cheng Lei shirtless, this is the show for you. Darren Chen as Mo Yun and Bi Wenjun as the Crown Prince both showed really good expressions with their eyes. I felt even worse for the Crown Prince with how troubled and hurt he looked at times, near the end.
The fight choreography is… not the best I’ve seen, and not that well executed. I admire the creativity of making her main weapon bow and arrow, but it really is not a short-range weapon, and having her rapid fire for close range combat just makes her sloppy technique even worse. Her sword swings are also uncontrolled. There are some battle scenes but they are all pretty standard.
This is definitely not a low-budget show, with lots of fancy costumes, sets, and extras. The CGI quality seems pretty good, and I did like the music on its own merits. But production can’t save a bad plot.
Ultimately, is it worth it to struggle through 30 episodes to get to the good part? Not sure. I did feel some really great emotions at the end, and I was interested and invested. But, ya know, a good show should have that all the way through, and >75% slop is kind of a lot.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show has a happy ending. The characters really could have achieved the whole thing with much less drama, but I guess it’s a show after all. About half of the last episode is devoted to telling you where everyone goes. It’s bittersweet for some of the characters but not that bad.
I had a lot of sympathy for the Crown Prince throughout the show. He gets pretty ruthless for a moment there, and I was afraid he would spiral into villainhood (the fate of all too many SML, it seems). And yet I wasn’t sure what he did that was wrong or blameworthy, except maybe when he failed to properly read her mind (right). Luckily they turn that around and ultimately he becomes a good emperor. I like him as a character, but all this personality yo-yoing is too dramatic, getting dangerously close to character assassination.
More than anything, I was really bothered by how FL treated him. I felt she should have at least given him closure, along the lines of “I really treasured our time together but we both need to move on.” Even at the end, he’s clearly struggling and she still can’t say anything nice to him. It somehow falls on our ML to say just one kind thing- “you are a good emperor whom the people love”- to comfort this lonely soul.
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