Is it HE or not depends on how you perceive "happy ending":
If you care only about main couple, than it is HE, counting on them to be cold and emotionless jerks who are not affected by lost of so many good friends. If you care about second leads and very sweet supporting characters, than this is one of those shitty ending, where lazy writers killed off characters for shock and drama.
This drama is just like real life: full of selfish, insensitive people, always ready to take advantage of others kindness, thinking they deserved all good they get from using nice people. And, all of them got very happy ending. On the other hand, only two kind and giving characters ended up alone and without any sort of HE for them.
compared to sword & brocade, is this drama better?
Sword & brocade was very toxic most of the time, literary all women tried to destroy FL. I have no idea why I didn't dropped it. This one has also lots of toxic people lurking on FL, but in this drama she has sweet family, wonderful friends and extraordinary ML to be on her side, while ML in Sword & brocade was pathetic creature unable to tell off his mom and concubines (plus he was double her age). So far, I find this drama way more pleasant to watch compared to Sword, crazy mother and all those unhinged concubines.
Oh, boy, FL is so unlikable! When she thinks she doesn't need 2ML she is all sass & arrogance, showing rude behavior toward him for no reason, but when she does need him she instantly turns into cute, submissive cupcake. Yikes, girl, treat people with respect no matter what.
I am taking back what I said about Lord Dind didn't deserve Ms Mu. I just realized that I was judgematal toward…
Lord Ding is a wonderful character, he is not perfect, but he is more than good enough. It is just casting that didn't do justice neither to the character nor to the actor.
That Sang SS is such a blockhead. I don't know why JYY like to use him to do stuff. He always messed up - with…
She, being smart, wouldn't use him if she was a real person, but in this drama she has no choice, screenwriter is twisting her hands, so she has to act stupid because that Sang dude is just a plot device for setbacks and drama to go on and on and on...
Well, what can I say? After production of "The Double" turned novel's HE into drama's BE, than did last minute dress up with an lame extra episode as HE, I decided to be very cautious where I waste my time. Glad I paused watching this and didn't get involved too much, knowing what might happen.
Closing credits starts with scene from a wedding, no1 can't miss it. It is not important for the story since this is mystery, case(s) solving drama. And very good one if you like those kind of stuff.
If you care about second leads and very sweet supporting characters, than this is one of those shitty ending, where lazy writers killed off characters for shock and drama.
Good point on them being like delulu concubines in period dramas.
So far, I find this drama way more pleasant to watch compared to Sword, crazy mother and all those unhinged concubines.
But, I apologize to you.