Rampie

Feels bad that Xing Fei is getting old now. My favorite actress, I miss the time when she was in her early 20s.

Nope, romance is not the focus here. This is a political drama about corruption in China.

My reaction when watching the first episode is like, wow this security guard is so dumb and naive lmao.

This is definitely up there as one of the best cdrama, there is only few dramas that gets 9.0 or above user rating on this site. In fact there is only exactly 2 titles that has higher rating, NiF and Reset which I too enjoyed more than this. Out of those with equal rating imo Joy of Life is better than the others, but then again as a straight guy, LLTG female lead character is too annoying/flawed for my liking while Untamed is basically BL which gets automatic 0 from me.

The problem is that she doesn't realize that she is a liability. With her supposed intellect I'm expecting that she's less of a burden but no, she constantly need saving from the start to the end, and would've been dead so many times if an invincible male lead like LBY doesn't exist in the story. She expects him to tell him everything yet at the same time keep doing reckless things until the end without telling him beforehand even until the very end, such as putting no guard against Luo Jitong or Lou Li leading to necessary danger. Realistically speaking she really should've learned from her earlier experiences that she actually isn't capable enough to survive without his protection, nothing wrong with wanting to be "independent" but you would need to actually have the capability to do so, for example her personality would be fine if she's one of those cunning (instead of naive) female lead who's capable of martial arts at least.

Honestly the only thing saving this drama for me is the excellent supporting characters, I'm a huge fan of the Emperor and Yue Heng in particular, definitely best couple.

I prefer The Long Ballad. The male character in both drama is equally great but Shaoshang is definitely a worse character than both princess in The Long Ballad. Shaoshang is really irritating as a character and always making me feel bad for the male lead throughout the ride. Especially near the end where she gets mad at him for not taking her everywhere and down the cliff, completely lack self-awareness in the fact that if he actually listen to her whims she would've been dead many times already probably throughout the journey.

I watched until the end and I totally agree. Falling in love with a character like that is basically a disaster imo.

Indeed. I've watched a lot of cdramas and Cheng Shaoshang is definitely the FMC I dislike the most. On the contrary, Zisheng has one of the best character I've ever seen. One thing I agree with her love rival villain is that she doesn't deserve him, a lot of her logic seems immature, juvenile, and dare I say, unrealistic.

If someone tried to sacrifice himself in order to spare his family and loved ones, everyone would see that as a noble act, the whole notion of "I'm mad because you didn't let me and my whole family die with you" is kinda idiotic, almost bordering on being an ingrate. Should a wife be mad if her husband took a mortal blow to protect her? With this kind of logic, accident like Titanic shouldn't even be "ladies and children to lifeboat first" but rather "everyone should just jump down to the sea together in order to be together forever" in the afterlife.

The biggest flaw to her logic is the fact that she herself is weak, constantly begging to be taken along and thrown into danger without being able to actually protect herself makes her a burden, for example if both of them fall from the cliff then with her weaker constitution she will be the one who die alone which actually prove that Zisheng's action is the one that can spare them both. If he actually listens to her whims she would've died way many times probably. Her lack of self-awareness is what makes her really annoying and irritating as a character. Considering the amount of times he sacrificed and save her life, honestly this is one of those drama where the male character does everything and out of his way to show her love while she barely does anything much in return but instead gave him a lot of misery.

The best thing about this drama is that there is no evil character/villain. Everyone is a good guy. Can't help but sympathize with everyone, everyone has their own problem.

Tan Er becomes a really boring FMC that becomes a burdensome damsel in distress rather than being any help to the MC. Xigua has a better personality and character imo, as well as being able to compliment the main character in things that he lacks which is fighting skill. It is kinda annoying to watch when MC is stuck with the worse girl.

Xigua and Shuwan are actually the most interesting female characters in this show... and the 2nd arc in the bandit city is far more interesting than the boring first arc, here we see the MC character develop more and are willing to do more drastic things like doing torture or killing certain character in a way that is satisfying, unlike the first arc where the Wu villain were spared. To be honest I thought this is gonna be another mediocre generic show when during the first part but the 2nd arc really impress me.

Ning Yi's betraying the bandits is very tragic. It's easy to sympathize with the bandits, Fang Tianlei and his family doesn't seem that bad. Honestly I feel really bad for Xigua, her love for the MC is pure, and she was even willing to sacrifice herself for him despite him being a married man.