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This review may contain spoilers
Bloody good romance, but HEARTS FADED into violence and silly tropes
(I'll warn you when I get spoiler-ish. If you're like me and hate knowing anything before you watch a series, I recommend this series to a certain degree but fear it's fumbled it's potential in the second half.)
I'm not into the fight or magical series. I consider them junk food. If you pay attention on the net you see people INSANELY addicted to this idol dramas until after about 12 of them they wake up and say, wait, they're kind all the same. Correct.
However, there's nothing wrong with a little junk food now and again, to break up the Republican Era stuff and sappy romance stuff. I find I must rotate genres to remain a C-Drama fan. And these types of shows can be certainly fun.
The series introduces the correct amount of characters when they need to be, instead of all at once in the first 3 episodes. The first 18 episodes of this story were very well written.
Our ML Chen Zhe Yuan was new to me. Very very handsome ladies. My wife didn't mind him one bit, lol. I liked how he walked like a force of nature. How he almost never looked anyone in the eyes, for if he did -- this Killer God might end them. But he was a 'God' with a heart of gold, which makes this warrior as charming as he is scary..
Our FL Li Qin I've had trouble avoiding. It's weird, I'm not a fan seeking her out but time and again she ends up in projects worth seeing. She's from the school of LESS IS MORE and she's just great in this series. Try her SNOWY NIGHTS and YOUTH MEMORIES if she is new to you. It's a lot of fun to see her KICKING ASS instead of demure, or being wasted as a cute 'girl' holding a chicken leg.
There's a six year age difference between these leads. And to be honest I suspect she's maybe a little older than we're told. But this age gap lent her needed gravitas to stand up to Feng Suige.
There are many supporting characters, but I want to dial down on three --
(We're entering MILD SPOILERS land now --)
Xia Meng plays the ML's sister. This Princess is young and naive and embraces life with bravery and style. Critics of this character complain about how 'stupid' she is but, sorry kids -- most kids are wide-eyed and stupid. In the second half of the drama you see how much smarter she is than her stepbrother, so I'm on Team Princess.
Ding Jia Wen plays the weepiest Crown Prince ever seen. Almost comically so. His complete lack of manhood makes the Eunuchs feel manly. He cries so much Firemen could just send him into a building to put out a fire. But the Weepy Emperor has a huge heart, and despite his giant vulnerabilities he's rather likeable just the same. His love of his brother is so sweet.
Qin Tian Yu plays the Playboy Emperor of the enemy Kingdom. He's at first a violent hedonist bore but upon meeting our Princess becomes much like Star Trek's famous Trelance character, which is to say he become delighted by the challenges and humanity the Princess provides him. He lets her get away with murder and couldn't be happier about it.
Why do I focus on these three characters? Because I feel the story completely fumbled the ending of this story. All the other many characters kind of fade away fast, but these three linger in my mind's eye.
FATE HEARTS is ultimately a violent story that demonstrates violence begets violence. This became pandemic where even the Storm Alliance village was infected with the same palace intrigue murder tropes. Sigh.
This story was NOT Love Conquers All. It was about how violent good people conquer violent bad people.
I'm a lifelong creative writer and I want to share with you the way I'd rewrite this story's ending to serve a purpose beyond violence. And it's why I drew attention to those three characters.
(SPOILING THE END OF THE STORY)
Towards the end of this tale you're starting to wonder who will end up ruling each Kingdom. It's comical because our ML doesn't want to, his young bro is too weepy, their sister lives in the enemy kingdom, and that kingdom has two brothers fighting to be Emperor... but neither are that desirable. What a mess!
The story could have offered one noble possibility -- that our two leads separate and rule their respective kingdoms. So they sacrifice proximity to attain peace for their people. Sure, they'd visit each other now and again, but not the best way to end a love story unless your first name is Bill and your last name is Shakespeare.
My preferred ending would have been along the lines of what they had already set up.
The Weepy Emperor needed a resolved character arc. He was in the process of becoming a little tougher and more Emperor-y, and so I wanted him to end up as Emperor. But with encouragement from the brother he loved so dearly. Think of when the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man are told by the Wizard that they're smarter, braver, and have more compassion than they realize. This sort of moment, but dramatic.
Doing this with the Weepy Emperor would send the message that love conquers violence. Weepy Emperor could be the type of Emperor who makes a strong proclamation -- but then peeks over to Feng Suige wondering if that was 'strong' enough. Big Bro thumbs up and insecure Emperor sits taller and prouder.
Imagine a scene where Weepy barks out an order and one guard bows so fast he bangs his helmet on the ground. At that point Weepy Emperor would stand, gather his robes, run down to the soldier and ask if he was okay. He'd say, "Someone get this man a softer helmut!" and you'd see his Big Bro rolling eyes and shaking his head. But the female servants would be so charmed by their new kinder Emperor.
Meanwhile, in the other Kingdom, Playboy Emperor was so compelling that I wanted him to survive our tale. That his Love of the Princess gave him a reason to live. To please her. Make her smile.
Princess tells Playboy he can't murder his brother (her ex-husband) out of revenge. He promises her he won't murder the Prince, but then the Prince tries to murder the Princess. The Emperor murders his brother and feels bad. He cries, "You made me do it!!" to his brother and "It wasn't revenge -- it was to protect you and our child!!!"
The Princess realizes she could bring peace to the two kingdoms if she became Empress and reformed our Playboy Emperor. The reason I wanted this was because of the humorous scenes we'd have with the new and improved Emperor.
Where Weepy Emperor tries his hardest to be tough, Playboy Emperor softens up to charming and comical levels. He'd train his court not to cow-tow, not to beg, not to whine. His party boy demeanor would remain but now everyone is invited to the party. But everything he'd say and do would be under the watch and approval of our Princess/Empress, who would SMILE when he tried his best.
So this way Love Conquers Violence. Things would be so peaceful that our Weepy Emperor would encourage our two leads to leave the palace and live in the male lead's home. There they would bring up the orphans the story forgot about.
I know a purist might say, wait -- this bloodfest gets a double Disney happy family ending? Well as I said from the top, this story was too violent for it's own good.
What I will promise you is that an ending more in this direction would have used everything they introduced better and made the show an easier recommend.
BITS & BOBS DEPT:
1. Did you notice the ending credits include water related scenes we never got to see?
2. The opening credits seemed rather thrown together, with an unrecognizable pic of our ML
3. The opening vocalist was kind of grating and so I typically skipped it
4. Scene design and costumes were solid
5. The series was great until Episode 19, then the plot started taking stupid pills
6. Direction leaned too much into shock and awe
7. In the first half of our series the ML could stand inside and yet a breeze blew his hair strands around
8. I never seen a director so obsessed with hand expressions
9. This series holds a record for how many times they said "Overthinking"
That's it! Again, it's worth the diversion but not as good as it should have been.
I'm not into the fight or magical series. I consider them junk food. If you pay attention on the net you see people INSANELY addicted to this idol dramas until after about 12 of them they wake up and say, wait, they're kind all the same. Correct.
However, there's nothing wrong with a little junk food now and again, to break up the Republican Era stuff and sappy romance stuff. I find I must rotate genres to remain a C-Drama fan. And these types of shows can be certainly fun.
The series introduces the correct amount of characters when they need to be, instead of all at once in the first 3 episodes. The first 18 episodes of this story were very well written.
Our ML Chen Zhe Yuan was new to me. Very very handsome ladies. My wife didn't mind him one bit, lol. I liked how he walked like a force of nature. How he almost never looked anyone in the eyes, for if he did -- this Killer God might end them. But he was a 'God' with a heart of gold, which makes this warrior as charming as he is scary..
Our FL Li Qin I've had trouble avoiding. It's weird, I'm not a fan seeking her out but time and again she ends up in projects worth seeing. She's from the school of LESS IS MORE and she's just great in this series. Try her SNOWY NIGHTS and YOUTH MEMORIES if she is new to you. It's a lot of fun to see her KICKING ASS instead of demure, or being wasted as a cute 'girl' holding a chicken leg.
There's a six year age difference between these leads. And to be honest I suspect she's maybe a little older than we're told. But this age gap lent her needed gravitas to stand up to Feng Suige.
There are many supporting characters, but I want to dial down on three --
(We're entering MILD SPOILERS land now --)
Xia Meng plays the ML's sister. This Princess is young and naive and embraces life with bravery and style. Critics of this character complain about how 'stupid' she is but, sorry kids -- most kids are wide-eyed and stupid. In the second half of the drama you see how much smarter she is than her stepbrother, so I'm on Team Princess.
Ding Jia Wen plays the weepiest Crown Prince ever seen. Almost comically so. His complete lack of manhood makes the Eunuchs feel manly. He cries so much Firemen could just send him into a building to put out a fire. But the Weepy Emperor has a huge heart, and despite his giant vulnerabilities he's rather likeable just the same. His love of his brother is so sweet.
Qin Tian Yu plays the Playboy Emperor of the enemy Kingdom. He's at first a violent hedonist bore but upon meeting our Princess becomes much like Star Trek's famous Trelance character, which is to say he become delighted by the challenges and humanity the Princess provides him. He lets her get away with murder and couldn't be happier about it.
Why do I focus on these three characters? Because I feel the story completely fumbled the ending of this story. All the other many characters kind of fade away fast, but these three linger in my mind's eye.
FATE HEARTS is ultimately a violent story that demonstrates violence begets violence. This became pandemic where even the Storm Alliance village was infected with the same palace intrigue murder tropes. Sigh.
This story was NOT Love Conquers All. It was about how violent good people conquer violent bad people.
I'm a lifelong creative writer and I want to share with you the way I'd rewrite this story's ending to serve a purpose beyond violence. And it's why I drew attention to those three characters.
(SPOILING THE END OF THE STORY)
Towards the end of this tale you're starting to wonder who will end up ruling each Kingdom. It's comical because our ML doesn't want to, his young bro is too weepy, their sister lives in the enemy kingdom, and that kingdom has two brothers fighting to be Emperor... but neither are that desirable. What a mess!
The story could have offered one noble possibility -- that our two leads separate and rule their respective kingdoms. So they sacrifice proximity to attain peace for their people. Sure, they'd visit each other now and again, but not the best way to end a love story unless your first name is Bill and your last name is Shakespeare.
My preferred ending would have been along the lines of what they had already set up.
The Weepy Emperor needed a resolved character arc. He was in the process of becoming a little tougher and more Emperor-y, and so I wanted him to end up as Emperor. But with encouragement from the brother he loved so dearly. Think of when the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man are told by the Wizard that they're smarter, braver, and have more compassion than they realize. This sort of moment, but dramatic.
Doing this with the Weepy Emperor would send the message that love conquers violence. Weepy Emperor could be the type of Emperor who makes a strong proclamation -- but then peeks over to Feng Suige wondering if that was 'strong' enough. Big Bro thumbs up and insecure Emperor sits taller and prouder.
Imagine a scene where Weepy barks out an order and one guard bows so fast he bangs his helmet on the ground. At that point Weepy Emperor would stand, gather his robes, run down to the soldier and ask if he was okay. He'd say, "Someone get this man a softer helmut!" and you'd see his Big Bro rolling eyes and shaking his head. But the female servants would be so charmed by their new kinder Emperor.
Meanwhile, in the other Kingdom, Playboy Emperor was so compelling that I wanted him to survive our tale. That his Love of the Princess gave him a reason to live. To please her. Make her smile.
Princess tells Playboy he can't murder his brother (her ex-husband) out of revenge. He promises her he won't murder the Prince, but then the Prince tries to murder the Princess. The Emperor murders his brother and feels bad. He cries, "You made me do it!!" to his brother and "It wasn't revenge -- it was to protect you and our child!!!"
The Princess realizes she could bring peace to the two kingdoms if she became Empress and reformed our Playboy Emperor. The reason I wanted this was because of the humorous scenes we'd have with the new and improved Emperor.
Where Weepy Emperor tries his hardest to be tough, Playboy Emperor softens up to charming and comical levels. He'd train his court not to cow-tow, not to beg, not to whine. His party boy demeanor would remain but now everyone is invited to the party. But everything he'd say and do would be under the watch and approval of our Princess/Empress, who would SMILE when he tried his best.
So this way Love Conquers Violence. Things would be so peaceful that our Weepy Emperor would encourage our two leads to leave the palace and live in the male lead's home. There they would bring up the orphans the story forgot about.
I know a purist might say, wait -- this bloodfest gets a double Disney happy family ending? Well as I said from the top, this story was too violent for it's own good.
What I will promise you is that an ending more in this direction would have used everything they introduced better and made the show an easier recommend.
BITS & BOBS DEPT:
1. Did you notice the ending credits include water related scenes we never got to see?
2. The opening credits seemed rather thrown together, with an unrecognizable pic of our ML
3. The opening vocalist was kind of grating and so I typically skipped it
4. Scene design and costumes were solid
5. The series was great until Episode 19, then the plot started taking stupid pills
6. Direction leaned too much into shock and awe
7. In the first half of our series the ML could stand inside and yet a breeze blew his hair strands around
8. I never seen a director so obsessed with hand expressions
9. This series holds a record for how many times they said "Overthinking"
That's it! Again, it's worth the diversion but not as good as it should have been.
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