This review may contain spoilers
A masterpiece that was ruined by the 1st half's unending failed escape attempts | Excellent ending
"If you want to live, put on an armor and fight, and not try to gain sympathies here." - Lu Buwei
First, I must thank God and the heavens for granting me the unyielding tolerance required to get past the blood-boiling and overly frustrating first half of this drama. Without such patience, I might have dropped this after the first ten episodes and would have missed the opportunity to witness the intricate beauty and excellence of this story—a greatness that can only be appreciated after successfully enduring that excruciating experience.
What killed this drama's first half for me were their multiple attempts at making their plans succeed—which never happened. And as the time went by, I just ended up getting so tired and done of their continuous failed escape attempts. I wanna say that the first 30 episodes have been nothing but an infuriating experience. I have never felt the urge to drop a drama multiple times in a row in almost two years, and this drama successfully did that. Heck! I never skipped scenes in a drama, but I did here. I never let any information leave my sight without reading it, but I did here. And lastly, I never played a game while watching a drama, but I did here. Ghad, it was really an arduous task to finish the crap out of this drama's first 30 episodes, and I just want to pat myself on the back for a job well done!
The first five episodes are the most crucial part of the story, as they introduce the plot, set the mood, and establish the quality of the drama. However, this production simply failed to deliver that. period. The arrangement of events and circumstances felt lacking, ineffective, and dull. I understand they wanted to set up the FL (Li Haolan's) growth through hardships and suffering, but the execution was so repetitive and boring that I ended up hating it. I hated that she kept being dragged into the same situation again and again. Although she knew how to fend for herself, she still felt incapable and powerless as the main character. Mind you, she remained in that stagnant position of being oppressed almost throughout the entire first half. Can you imagine how frustrating that is?
"A romantic net can trap him for a while, but not forever." - Li Haolan (Pertaining to Lu Buwei)
In addition, she got this loathsome loverboy (Lu Buwei) to deal with—one that is fickle, insensitive and disingenuous. This man constantly sabotages his own opportunities and betrays his true feelings. He is a hypocrite who says one thing but does another, speaking of love in a way that is the complete opposite of what he truly feels in his heart. He constantly deceives himself, but when his actions backfire, he shifts the blame to others. He is a manipulative, money-driven, and goal-oriented individual. While he may be skilled at business, his escape plans are woefully inadequate. They are never foolproof and always contain a loophole that enemies exploit to infiltrate and spoil them. Furthermore, he never develops any countermeasures. Dang! He's actually one of the main reason why the first half was so unbearable. /Sighs/
One thing that heavily consoled and pushed me to continue watching this show is knowing that Ying Yiren's gonna be the end game and not Lu Buwei! A spoiler that kept me motivated all throughout.
That being said, all I can say is that at least my suffering and endurance became all worth it in the end. Even though the first half has been nothing but a constant tragedy, I am just glad that the latter half became a perfection I had never anticipated for this show. I guess, I will just treat the 1st half as a lesson that they must go through in order to learn and succeed...because if I don't do that, I might butcher my rating for the "Story" category. LOL
I know that I've written so much about the first half and not much about the second half, and that is only because the latter half has been a complete masterpiece to me! I got no complains at all. Like, none! It was the saving grace who lift this show from the utter slump and raised it to the pedestal where it should be—only if they didn't fumbled and fucked up the preceding part.
The ending. Everything about the finale was perfect to me. It seemed like they squeezed and poured all their creative juices in order to create the cream of the crop, as compensation for the nightmare they brought along in the earlier part.
Lu Buwei: You are entrusting the Crown Prince and court affairs, but how about the Queen?
Ying Yiren: You don't know how much she loves me. She doesn't have regards for you.
I also just wanna mention how satisfied I am with the method used by Ying Yiren to have Haolan remember him as long as she lives. It was the most cruel and heartless way but also the most effective. If not, I can see Haolan slowly softening and accepting Lu Buwei's advances in a mater of 5-10 years.
Anyways, below is my favorite line of spite and grudge for Yiren. It expresses her love, regret and hatred all at the same time.
"Zichu. I will not forgive you. For the rest of my life, I will not forgive you." - Li Haolan
Lastly, I just want to share some ideas against male chauvinism and sexism, which is one of my favorite aspects of this story. They delivered it flawlessly and I'm impressed!
× Men creates war and uses women to pacify/cease it (via peace marriage).
× Men's fights for the throne were viewed as a sign of bravery and determination, while women's imperial struggles were commonly viewed as disruptive and ridiculous.
P.S. I was quite baffled to see a good number of actors from Yanxi Palace in this production. It felt rather awkward at first since I jumped right into this after watching SOYP.
Story - 8.5, I am overly conflicted about this rating because the first half completely threw me off. However, the second half was like a switch that changed the trajectory of the entire story into a masterpiece I never expected it to be. Nonetheless, I will be the bigger person and treat the forepart as the rough yet crucial section that was beneficial in making the story the perfection it ultimately became.
Acting/Cast - 9.5, I am astonished about the casts since most of them are familiar faces I just watched from Yanxi Palace and at the same, overjoyed that we got Mao Zi Jun as the ML and not Nie Yuan. Haha! The delivery and execution are great but them casting most of the actors from Yanxi Palace just made this show quite awkward and weird for me to watch at first.
Music - 8.0, In all honesty, i failed to notice most of the BGMs because of how irritated I was of this show. However, I do recall liking the opening and ending theme.
Rewatch Value - 7.0, I am only willing to rewatch the second half and this rating is purely out of consideration of how impressive that was. I'm afraid it would drop to 5 or lower if we talk about the disappointing first half.
Overall - 8.5, I wanna make it higher, but looking back on how I suffered just to finish the first 30 episodes makes me feel the frustration all over again. So I guess this rating is the perfect score for this show. This is with all due respect and consideration of how excellent the second half was.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
First, I must thank God and the heavens for granting me the unyielding tolerance required to get past the blood-boiling and overly frustrating first half of this drama. Without such patience, I might have dropped this after the first ten episodes and would have missed the opportunity to witness the intricate beauty and excellence of this story—a greatness that can only be appreciated after successfully enduring that excruciating experience.
What killed this drama's first half for me were their multiple attempts at making their plans succeed—which never happened. And as the time went by, I just ended up getting so tired and done of their continuous failed escape attempts. I wanna say that the first 30 episodes have been nothing but an infuriating experience. I have never felt the urge to drop a drama multiple times in a row in almost two years, and this drama successfully did that. Heck! I never skipped scenes in a drama, but I did here. I never let any information leave my sight without reading it, but I did here. And lastly, I never played a game while watching a drama, but I did here. Ghad, it was really an arduous task to finish the crap out of this drama's first 30 episodes, and I just want to pat myself on the back for a job well done!
The first five episodes are the most crucial part of the story, as they introduce the plot, set the mood, and establish the quality of the drama. However, this production simply failed to deliver that. period. The arrangement of events and circumstances felt lacking, ineffective, and dull. I understand they wanted to set up the FL (Li Haolan's) growth through hardships and suffering, but the execution was so repetitive and boring that I ended up hating it. I hated that she kept being dragged into the same situation again and again. Although she knew how to fend for herself, she still felt incapable and powerless as the main character. Mind you, she remained in that stagnant position of being oppressed almost throughout the entire first half. Can you imagine how frustrating that is?
"A romantic net can trap him for a while, but not forever." - Li Haolan (Pertaining to Lu Buwei)
In addition, she got this loathsome loverboy (Lu Buwei) to deal with—one that is fickle, insensitive and disingenuous. This man constantly sabotages his own opportunities and betrays his true feelings. He is a hypocrite who says one thing but does another, speaking of love in a way that is the complete opposite of what he truly feels in his heart. He constantly deceives himself, but when his actions backfire, he shifts the blame to others. He is a manipulative, money-driven, and goal-oriented individual. While he may be skilled at business, his escape plans are woefully inadequate. They are never foolproof and always contain a loophole that enemies exploit to infiltrate and spoil them. Furthermore, he never develops any countermeasures. Dang! He's actually one of the main reason why the first half was so unbearable. /Sighs/
One thing that heavily consoled and pushed me to continue watching this show is knowing that Ying Yiren's gonna be the end game and not Lu Buwei! A spoiler that kept me motivated all throughout.
That being said, all I can say is that at least my suffering and endurance became all worth it in the end. Even though the first half has been nothing but a constant tragedy, I am just glad that the latter half became a perfection I had never anticipated for this show. I guess, I will just treat the 1st half as a lesson that they must go through in order to learn and succeed...because if I don't do that, I might butcher my rating for the "Story" category. LOL
I know that I've written so much about the first half and not much about the second half, and that is only because the latter half has been a complete masterpiece to me! I got no complains at all. Like, none! It was the saving grace who lift this show from the utter slump and raised it to the pedestal where it should be—only if they didn't fumbled and fucked up the preceding part.
The ending. Everything about the finale was perfect to me. It seemed like they squeezed and poured all their creative juices in order to create the cream of the crop, as compensation for the nightmare they brought along in the earlier part.
Lu Buwei: You are entrusting the Crown Prince and court affairs, but how about the Queen?
Ying Yiren: You don't know how much she loves me. She doesn't have regards for you.
I also just wanna mention how satisfied I am with the method used by Ying Yiren to have Haolan remember him as long as she lives. It was the most cruel and heartless way but also the most effective. If not, I can see Haolan slowly softening and accepting Lu Buwei's advances in a mater of 5-10 years.
Anyways, below is my favorite line of spite and grudge for Yiren. It expresses her love, regret and hatred all at the same time.
"Zichu. I will not forgive you. For the rest of my life, I will not forgive you." - Li Haolan
Lastly, I just want to share some ideas against male chauvinism and sexism, which is one of my favorite aspects of this story. They delivered it flawlessly and I'm impressed!
× Men creates war and uses women to pacify/cease it (via peace marriage).
× Men's fights for the throne were viewed as a sign of bravery and determination, while women's imperial struggles were commonly viewed as disruptive and ridiculous.
P.S. I was quite baffled to see a good number of actors from Yanxi Palace in this production. It felt rather awkward at first since I jumped right into this after watching SOYP.
Story - 8.5, I am overly conflicted about this rating because the first half completely threw me off. However, the second half was like a switch that changed the trajectory of the entire story into a masterpiece I never expected it to be. Nonetheless, I will be the bigger person and treat the forepart as the rough yet crucial section that was beneficial in making the story the perfection it ultimately became.
Acting/Cast - 9.5, I am astonished about the casts since most of them are familiar faces I just watched from Yanxi Palace and at the same, overjoyed that we got Mao Zi Jun as the ML and not Nie Yuan. Haha! The delivery and execution are great but them casting most of the actors from Yanxi Palace just made this show quite awkward and weird for me to watch at first.
Music - 8.0, In all honesty, i failed to notice most of the BGMs because of how irritated I was of this show. However, I do recall liking the opening and ending theme.
Rewatch Value - 7.0, I am only willing to rewatch the second half and this rating is purely out of consideration of how impressive that was. I'm afraid it would drop to 5 or lower if we talk about the disappointing first half.
Overall - 8.5, I wanna make it higher, but looking back on how I suffered just to finish the first 30 episodes makes me feel the frustration all over again. So I guess this rating is the perfect score for this show. This is with all due respect and consideration of how excellent the second half was.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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