Peya

A feast for the eyes, good pacing

If you want an epic ride, hop on.
If you love gorgeous, stunning fight scenes, that spit physics straight in the face, don't go anywhere.
If you like sweet romance, you're still at the right place.
If you can read tiny details, can see and thoroughly enjoy micro-expressions, and are an attentive watcher, who loves breath-taking visuals, don't move an inch.
If you love smart FL+ML, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.
HOWEVER,
if you've awaited for this one to air for a long time, putting your expectation bar above the galaxy by now, you'll be disappointed,
if you came expecting a flawless masterpiece, you'll find faults,
if you prefer strong facial expressions, that scream the emotions they want to convey, need the story spoon-fed to you step by step to understand events, and haven't seen a c-drama before nope, sry, don't even start it,
if you want heart-shattering, soul-squeezing drama moments every minute, off you go than, THIS ONE IS NOT FOR YOU.

I'm not some pro reviewer, but seeing the hate this series got from many - because of unfulfilled sky-high expectations - I had to write a few words.

PROS:
- Cheng Lei, period. :D
- fight scenes. I mean Wooooow, just WOW! I love Chinese fight scenes, that couldn't care less about the laws of physics, and go entirely for the visuals. There were quite a few, and all look mesmerizing.
- I love a good romance story, and this one was executed beautifully, as part of their journey.
- the story's pacing was really good, not too slow, not too fast, just the right speed. Beside Be Yourself, this is the other series in a long time, that I managed to watch from beginning to end without getting bored.
- drama-romance-funny moments-fight scenes proportions were really well balanced.
- it was an epic ride.

CONS:
- she didn't look like a guy at all, not for a second, but sure, everybody was blind and deaf, so it's totally understandable, that nobody realized, she is a woman. However, from all the cross-dressing ladies, I've seen maybe 1 or 2 convincing enough.
- some silly things, like during fight, among the enemy soldiers, screaming and running around, like a headless chicken is not the most healthy - and logical - thing to do, especially from a disciplined, well-trained general.
- some unrelatable events, e.g. shifu's death. Maybe they had to cut some scenes, so we couldn't get to know his character well enough, but it was just a meh for me, even though I like the actor.
- our powercouple is all brains and smarts, and cunning, but the enemy is stupid as hell most of the time, walking straight into their traps.
- the usual misunderstanding trope, that makes me want to pull out my hair one by one. Just the one when he finds out her previous identity, but I get it, it was time for some drama.
- FL's speeches. Too many, and the tone was just a bit off for me.

Some things OTHERS criticize, and I get the why, but :
- the FL is too bubbly
She had to act all her life, couldn't let anyone close, of course she is a pro at pretending by now.
- the female general is not badass enough, she should be epic
Well, I don't know about others, but if I were poisoned, blinded, than almost killed, that would put a few things in perspective. She was still badass and epic enough for me.
- why is there romance, it ruined the show
It's 2nd in the genre description, what do ppl expect?! :D
- the ending
If someone's seen at least one c-drama with palace intrigue, they shouldn't be too surprised. The emperors are nearly always snakes, when it comes to military powers, too much means almost certain death, ofc. he couldn't let them married. I only had beef with the fact, that the writers had to involve SML in it. He was one very-very calculating, morally grey character, never liked him, but from what I recall, there weren't any indications, that he was about to blow.
I'm actually more surprised the emperor let them get married in the end.

The story has flaws, but the directing and editing is great in my books, not to mention the choreo of the fight scenes. I'm in awe!

All in all, the PROs so much outweigh the CONs, thus I highly recommend giving it a try.
Those aforementioned cons are just momentary distractions on this epic ride, it's worth the time invested in watching it.
Mind you, I'm the type who has no problem with blanks in the story, that need to be filled out with logic or imagination.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Off to my 2nd time on this ride :)

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