Sunbath12

I’d say up to ep 22 or so it was pretty watchable. Once they returned to the capital, it became another drama

I know, you would think someone could have raised their hand and said uh this isn’t a good idea

I’m just watching now to see exactly how it crashes and burns

To me, it’s the writing mostly. His character has no arc and so there’s not much for the actor to work with. I agree I enjoyed his other supporting roles in the past, so I don’t think it’s his acting skills.

I think the actor for the emperor did a great job in such a strange role (at least he looked like he was having a good time lol). I guess they were trying to show how he became a miserable wretch after he killed his own brother for the throne. Not a very subtle way to show the treachery and destructiveness of being in the royal family. I guess that’s my beef with this show. It tries to be too much. Army story, palace story, it’s just all over the place

30 episodes in and considering the drama as it is (not as an adaptation, since I’ve never read the novel), I find the greatest failing is how the ML’s character is written. The court/palace politics, while not super original or sophisticated, is not as bad as how inept, superficial and just plain boring the character of Yizhi is shown here. He doesn’t drive the plot in this latter half of the show when the setting requires his character to do so to remain interesting or compelling to watch. Other characters like his mother, the prime minister and even the other princes do that job for him. It’s one thing to write a character that’s a reluctant king. It’s another to have him have no depth or growth for me to care about him. And WHY does Amai care about him? I haven’t the faintest idea lol because she literally has more chemistry/story with every other character out there including Chen Qi, Xiu’er and Tang Shaoyi…not to mention Chang Yuqing, who literally steals every scene he’s in even when he doesn’t say a word. Please Amai leave this whole mess behind soon!

Made it through ep 24. I actually don’t mind palace politics if done well, but this show has not done the legwork to set up anything substantial except that the emperor is cuckoo puffs and his two sons aren’t great candidates either for leadership.

Just finished ep22, scared to continue as the story seems to fall apart soon after. Up until now, it’s been an enjoyable watch, although the Yuzhou arc seemed a bit rushed and ended abruptly.

Up to episode 12 so far, enjoying it but I see the story kind of falls off later, too bad. I’ll stick it through and see how far it falls lol. I too do not see much romantic chemistry between ML and FL. Already I can see that ML is not always forthcoming to A’mai and doesn’t always unconditionally support her (when he laughed at her when she finally told him who she was and why she had to go to Beimo, I was like, nope…I guess he did apologize? Nah, can’t stand him). Even her scenes with Brother Tang have more emotional weight to me (like the scenes with the horse). Whether their relationship is romantic or not, it’s far more supportive and interesting than what we have with Yi Zhi and Amai right now, at least for me.

😆 I’m only on episode 7, but this was hilarious.

I’ll give a try!

I think my main problem with how the FL’s character is portrayed so far is that whenever she is with the king, she has that same doe-eyed-verge-of-tears look. I know she can be smart and look after herself (she was able to help the queen and stands up to that snake Yoo Hyun Bo). Just wish she had a bit more bite or edge when she’s with the ML. I’m not getting enough of the hate in their supposed love-hate relationship. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong later, I’m only at episode 8.

Thinking of starting this but a little hesitant based on some comments about ML being, well, meh.

Lots of typos in this one 😅

Oops, meant to say “well-paced” plot.

It’s great fun! While not a high budget production, the story/plot and characters make sense, and it’s just really entertaining throughout

Got to hand it to this drama, it's kept me anticipating each episode up until the end. On to the grand finale! I really hope it ends in a satisfying way. While the empress is deluuuuuuusional, it's nice to see a villain gain the upper hand up until the end.

Wow this empress is delusional. Everything terrible is of her own making and she has the nerve to think she was just looking out for her son? I hope she gets what she deserves, but the previews for the next episodes are 😱

It's stressing me out that I can't watch the last 6 episodes yet. How will this end????

I love a complex written character like our ML. The FL right now is very idealistic, not surprising given her noble upbringing and lack of experience in the real world. Hopefully we get to see her develop as a character, would love to see different sides of her and I think SSK is more than capable of bringing more layers in her performance.