This review may contain spoilers
The potential was there!
Well, this kinda suffered cdrama crash curse, okay maybe not crash but fall. The saving grace that makes me still really love the show is the chemistry between Cheng Lei & Zhou Ye, the dynamic fight choreo & really kickass armour upgrades. Both leads truly embodied the characters, but perhaps the only drawback is the voice actor not differentiating between her man & woman voice. The variety of weapons used by He Yan and the finale ending with a sword swap of the Twin Star generals was so so so satisfying! The leads had such good comic timing + physical chemistry, especially when they fought each other & fought as a team — different tensions but so good. The slowburn romance, to He Yan’s self-discovery under all the disguises, to the hidden secrets, to love declarations — were all so well done. The dialogues will be remembered for years to come, the star general and her moon 🌙 ❤️🩹
The ending was sadly rushed, not giving enough time for the final war and undercutting General Yan’s death (was the most depressing part of the novel for me, & Cheng Lisu being cut from his MOST important character growth arc was so disappointing). But I did like that they added the leads fighting together in the finale! Some novel changes were good, adding to the angst which was acted so well, I still get emotional remembering it all.
My biggest gripe is not letting the main final villain be a real villain aka Chu Zhao. In the novel, he’s so broken as a person he doesn’t realise he can love, and has fallen for He Yan. By the time he’s accepted his feelings, she already in love with Xiao Jue. He tries to get her to like him but gives up, and follows his ambition. He was never a “good” person, but his guilt of sacrificing his bodyguard/assistant/closest aide, he realised he was too far gone to be good anymore. They threw this entire arc out the window and made him a morally good person that only becomes villainous cuz he’s a delulu lovesick jealous fool. When we’ve created a connection in the drama version between He Yan & Xiao Jue’s father (teacher-student) how can she be so nice to Chu Zhao who was a part of the conspiracy? It just isn’t believable that he’s part of the good team. Him betraying his master also was so obvious, not adding to the tension. Them changing his mother’s story, not showing us his abuse in his family & how he was used by his master made him feel like such a 2D character that suddenly went crazy in the last few episodes.
Also, the budget was low-key non-existent (they put it towards the costumes aka armour so that’s a plus) and whatever money they had left was all dumped on the CGI face-swap, which made the CGI for fire, smoke & other green screen stuff SO BAD like it was 2000s level bad. I just bursted out laughing in some high tension battle scenes cuz it looked so fake 😭🤣 But then the leads dashed in with crazy fight choreo and I fell in love with this show again 🫠 (Cheng Lei is so hot when his face is all bloodied.. and him in the rain in the finale.. YUMMMM)
But the biggest sin was NOT HAVING A PROPER ERMAO SCENE! That dog is their first child, we never even saw Xiao Jue look at his son, this is BLASPHEMY! I demand a re-edit!!! 😾
The ending was sadly rushed, not giving enough time for the final war and undercutting General Yan’s death (was the most depressing part of the novel for me, & Cheng Lisu being cut from his MOST important character growth arc was so disappointing). But I did like that they added the leads fighting together in the finale! Some novel changes were good, adding to the angst which was acted so well, I still get emotional remembering it all.
My biggest gripe is not letting the main final villain be a real villain aka Chu Zhao. In the novel, he’s so broken as a person he doesn’t realise he can love, and has fallen for He Yan. By the time he’s accepted his feelings, she already in love with Xiao Jue. He tries to get her to like him but gives up, and follows his ambition. He was never a “good” person, but his guilt of sacrificing his bodyguard/assistant/closest aide, he realised he was too far gone to be good anymore. They threw this entire arc out the window and made him a morally good person that only becomes villainous cuz he’s a delulu lovesick jealous fool. When we’ve created a connection in the drama version between He Yan & Xiao Jue’s father (teacher-student) how can she be so nice to Chu Zhao who was a part of the conspiracy? It just isn’t believable that he’s part of the good team. Him betraying his master also was so obvious, not adding to the tension. Them changing his mother’s story, not showing us his abuse in his family & how he was used by his master made him feel like such a 2D character that suddenly went crazy in the last few episodes.
Also, the budget was low-key non-existent (they put it towards the costumes aka armour so that’s a plus) and whatever money they had left was all dumped on the CGI face-swap, which made the CGI for fire, smoke & other green screen stuff SO BAD like it was 2000s level bad. I just bursted out laughing in some high tension battle scenes cuz it looked so fake 😭🤣 But then the leads dashed in with crazy fight choreo and I fell in love with this show again 🫠 (Cheng Lei is so hot when his face is all bloodied.. and him in the rain in the finale.. YUMMMM)
But the biggest sin was NOT HAVING A PROPER ERMAO SCENE! That dog is their first child, we never even saw Xiao Jue look at his son, this is BLASPHEMY! I demand a re-edit!!! 😾
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