Jilan

This drama is dark, tragic, and sophisticated—cinematic in its pacing, slow and deliberate, with a melancholic atmosphere. The story is compelling, though it could have benefited from a tighter episode count. Still, its orderly rhythm suits the tone.
As for the characters, He Ye stands out as a hypocrite. The conflict began because he broke the rules, and then his parents—suddenly consumed by ancestral ambition—led a brutal slaughter of a peaceful neighboring tribe. Their tribe was punished, and rightly so. Yet after his own people are wiped out, He Ye turns his vengeance toward the Muyun family. But didn’t they just annihilate the Suqin clan moments earlier? If that was justified, then so is this. His moral compass feels selectively applied.
Muru Shuo, on the other hand, is a portrait of blind loyalty gone wrong. Yu Xin Ji did what Muru Shuo should have—he actually tried to protect both the Muru clan and the empire, which was a surprising and admirable move. Muru Shuo, despite his reputation, fails to protect his soldiers, his sons, his wife, even the emperor. He clings to honor but takes no real action to uphold it. In my eyes, he’s more ornamental than effective.
Muyun Sheng, Han Jiang, and Su Yu Ning represent something different—a path toward destruction and eventual rebirth. Sheng follows his own priorities, Han Jiang is manipulated because his family offers him no protection, and Su Yu Ning stands at the edge of transformation. These three feel like the seeds of a new world.
But He Ye and Muru Shuo? They’re relics of a broken system—frustrating, self-righteous, and ultimately hollow.