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This review may contain spoilers
Charming but too long
I'm giving this a higher score than I would because compared to many other "female general" series, this one is so much more deserving than other over-hyped ones like Legend of the Female General. The concept of female general being disguised as a male makes so much more sense here and is far more believable.
If it weren't for some hiccups in the plot flow and a sloppy ending, it would have deserved an even higher rating for its uniqueness. Our female lead is the brawn and the brains while our male lead is squishy but cultured and also intellectual. The first quarter of the series is humorous, entertaining, and an added layer of cringe. Some reviews praise how they appreciate the strength of the FL but bash on the ML for weak and incapable but I would like to differ. The FL has very obvious traits to be respected but the ML was raised in a very male-dominated, wealthy, and noble background. Sure, the ML is chauvinistic, spoiled, and spends his time not doing anything really productive. But his personality is what makes him believable as a character in the series. He grew up with a weak body, a mother who imprisoned him at home to protect him, and he grew up feeling like he could never be a "man"... so why not just enjoy life the way he is privileged to? No one ever expected anything out of him and no one ever challenged him. But his core is kind and he has the capacity to be successful. So despite his cringe ways and treatment towards the FL in the beginning, he had the most character growth out of everyone and I really appreciate this. And only when you get to the end, do you understand why the FL has been so tolerant.
The plot flow is a bit choppy because it focuses heavily on the lives of the main couple and would suddenly switch over to palace drama, then suddenly switch to another character's situation, etc. But it all ties to one another so this didn't bother me too much. The humor from the first quarter of the series dissolve into a grimmer environment with lesser sprinkles of lighthearted moments. My biggest disappointment is the last quarter of the series when the palace politics and war politics starts to get really messy. They spent way too many episodes dragging the scenarios on and the final battle was pretty cheesy. The ending was also not very fulfilling for a 60-episode series because it was super abrupt and despite all the effort to build up great relationships, they show pretty much nothing about what happened to anyone after that final battle.
I wouldn't consider this a binge show and the acting was a hit or miss at times, but I still really enjoyed the couple's development because it's quite unique. You also get a bit of mystery/detective work, political drama, war scenes, harem drama, some spicy moments, etc. It's like they blended a bunch of different genres into one series and none of which are really exceptional, but it was nice to have some variation and still have a common base to the overall plot.
If it weren't for some hiccups in the plot flow and a sloppy ending, it would have deserved an even higher rating for its uniqueness. Our female lead is the brawn and the brains while our male lead is squishy but cultured and also intellectual. The first quarter of the series is humorous, entertaining, and an added layer of cringe. Some reviews praise how they appreciate the strength of the FL but bash on the ML for weak and incapable but I would like to differ. The FL has very obvious traits to be respected but the ML was raised in a very male-dominated, wealthy, and noble background. Sure, the ML is chauvinistic, spoiled, and spends his time not doing anything really productive. But his personality is what makes him believable as a character in the series. He grew up with a weak body, a mother who imprisoned him at home to protect him, and he grew up feeling like he could never be a "man"... so why not just enjoy life the way he is privileged to? No one ever expected anything out of him and no one ever challenged him. But his core is kind and he has the capacity to be successful. So despite his cringe ways and treatment towards the FL in the beginning, he had the most character growth out of everyone and I really appreciate this. And only when you get to the end, do you understand why the FL has been so tolerant.
The plot flow is a bit choppy because it focuses heavily on the lives of the main couple and would suddenly switch over to palace drama, then suddenly switch to another character's situation, etc. But it all ties to one another so this didn't bother me too much. The humor from the first quarter of the series dissolve into a grimmer environment with lesser sprinkles of lighthearted moments. My biggest disappointment is the last quarter of the series when the palace politics and war politics starts to get really messy. They spent way too many episodes dragging the scenarios on and the final battle was pretty cheesy. The ending was also not very fulfilling for a 60-episode series because it was super abrupt and despite all the effort to build up great relationships, they show pretty much nothing about what happened to anyone after that final battle.
I wouldn't consider this a binge show and the acting was a hit or miss at times, but I still really enjoyed the couple's development because it's quite unique. You also get a bit of mystery/detective work, political drama, war scenes, harem drama, some spicy moments, etc. It's like they blended a bunch of different genres into one series and none of which are really exceptional, but it was nice to have some variation and still have a common base to the overall plot.
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