This review may contain spoilers
Kept the essence of the novel without the details. Heavy comparisons ahead
I came in with quite big expectations so i started watching it while airing. Found the airing slow and ran out of eps but already got gripped by the plot so went to read the novel. Maybe that was my mistake. So i ended up comparing the two versions left and right. The drama kept the essence, but changed the details. Found a lot of things amiss. The novel was also much more touching and wholesome and more of a legend than the drama.
When i read the novel, my expectations soared high. So when i came back after reading it, i was kinda disappointed.
Characters: i didnt really find the characters grow at all. Fl was supposed to be strong and she was both clever and strong and knew what she wanted. But for a general who had a tough life with extreme betrayal, for her to be so bubbly and chatty felt out of character. She was not this playful in the novel, mostly she was pretending and that was only around the ml. Ml was a cold faced but strong and intelligent general. But after he fell for her, he kinda became a simp, though he didn't become weak. And in their teenage years, the help that he extended to fl dressed as a man seemed weird to me as it came without reasons. They didnt keep some characters i loved from the novel, understandable since rebirth or soul swapping is banned. Chu zhao became a lot more humane and moral character here compared to the absolutely shrewd, unscrupulous, cruel, scheming, selfish, heartless man without morals, who does whatever to satisfy his purpose in the novel. Here he was like a lost puppy who found light in fl and got crazy obsessed with her, classic love triangle trope, which is different from the novel since there he tried everything to honeytrap her to get to ml and use them. But at least i pitied him here rather than in the novel. He rufei here was an evil lackey at best, extremely proud, but somehow messes up whatever he tried to do by himself. Novel he rufei was at least quite clever and scheming. Most characters have been softened to some extent in the drama from what they were in the novel.
Story: the plot kept the tiny details but changed the major parts, so sometimes these tiny details didn't make much sense. For example, he yan drowning in shallow water was ridiculous in the drama, but in the novel she was murdered by drowning. The dialogue, i love the moon, the moon doesn't know, and all her moon references came from the part where he yan was given new hope to live when she tried to end her own life and xiao jue saved her. Since that entire part was changed, it didn't make much sense. Fl's mother's death was stupid too, a fully healthy woman suddenly dies unexplained, unlike in the novel where she had been slowly poisoned and took the final dose herself. Onto a useless causalty, yan he, in the drama his death by an arrow wound at his doorstep was unnecessary, in the novel his arrow was poisoned and he died much later. Also, xiao jue had seen feihong during the mingshui battle so when a different person appeared in the court as feihong, he should've been able to tell them apart considering that he yan was a small and skinny person, adding to another inconsistency just to keep angst in the plot. Howevr, this wasn't an issue in the novel at all since feihong had never appeared outside battlefields. In the novel, of course he had a face off with her about her being feihong but it was not related to his father's death. They removed an epic naval battle at jiyang, and also didn't focus much on her journey to become the top 1 of yezhou garrison. The fight against libei tribe wasnt as great as the novel where she single handedly defeated 3 of their warriors. The rundu war was grim, they didn't keep its very serious nature. Also, 1 tiny detail here, if he yan could reach rundu from yezhou by traveling overnight, requesting and waiting for help from feihong for days was unnecessary as they could have just asked help from fengyun instead. In the novel this happened because rundu was a 15 day travel from yezhou so it made perfect sense. They completely altered the last 10 eps from the novel, until then they still had somewhat followed it. Chu zhao became a hopeless fool, obsessed with fl and trying whatever to break fl and ml apart, typical of any other cdrama. These weren't in the original novel. So there were a lot of inconsistencies. The novel was quite politics and action heavy, with little romance which was extremely slow burn. Here it was much more focused on romance and although supposed to be heavily political and action, they cut out most of the epic battle and action scenes.
Production: good acting, good chemistry. Decent production. The few action scenes it had were well done. The costumes weren't all that grand and all.
My review compares the drama with the novel a lot but my rating is solely based on the drama itself. It was entertaining and a good watch with a happy ending. I would recommend watching it once and even more so i would recommend reading the novel after watching it.
When i read the novel, my expectations soared high. So when i came back after reading it, i was kinda disappointed.
Characters: i didnt really find the characters grow at all. Fl was supposed to be strong and she was both clever and strong and knew what she wanted. But for a general who had a tough life with extreme betrayal, for her to be so bubbly and chatty felt out of character. She was not this playful in the novel, mostly she was pretending and that was only around the ml. Ml was a cold faced but strong and intelligent general. But after he fell for her, he kinda became a simp, though he didn't become weak. And in their teenage years, the help that he extended to fl dressed as a man seemed weird to me as it came without reasons. They didnt keep some characters i loved from the novel, understandable since rebirth or soul swapping is banned. Chu zhao became a lot more humane and moral character here compared to the absolutely shrewd, unscrupulous, cruel, scheming, selfish, heartless man without morals, who does whatever to satisfy his purpose in the novel. Here he was like a lost puppy who found light in fl and got crazy obsessed with her, classic love triangle trope, which is different from the novel since there he tried everything to honeytrap her to get to ml and use them. But at least i pitied him here rather than in the novel. He rufei here was an evil lackey at best, extremely proud, but somehow messes up whatever he tried to do by himself. Novel he rufei was at least quite clever and scheming. Most characters have been softened to some extent in the drama from what they were in the novel.
Story: the plot kept the tiny details but changed the major parts, so sometimes these tiny details didn't make much sense. For example, he yan drowning in shallow water was ridiculous in the drama, but in the novel she was murdered by drowning. The dialogue, i love the moon, the moon doesn't know, and all her moon references came from the part where he yan was given new hope to live when she tried to end her own life and xiao jue saved her. Since that entire part was changed, it didn't make much sense. Fl's mother's death was stupid too, a fully healthy woman suddenly dies unexplained, unlike in the novel where she had been slowly poisoned and took the final dose herself. Onto a useless causalty, yan he, in the drama his death by an arrow wound at his doorstep was unnecessary, in the novel his arrow was poisoned and he died much later. Also, xiao jue had seen feihong during the mingshui battle so when a different person appeared in the court as feihong, he should've been able to tell them apart considering that he yan was a small and skinny person, adding to another inconsistency just to keep angst in the plot. Howevr, this wasn't an issue in the novel at all since feihong had never appeared outside battlefields. In the novel, of course he had a face off with her about her being feihong but it was not related to his father's death. They removed an epic naval battle at jiyang, and also didn't focus much on her journey to become the top 1 of yezhou garrison. The fight against libei tribe wasnt as great as the novel where she single handedly defeated 3 of their warriors. The rundu war was grim, they didn't keep its very serious nature. Also, 1 tiny detail here, if he yan could reach rundu from yezhou by traveling overnight, requesting and waiting for help from feihong for days was unnecessary as they could have just asked help from fengyun instead. In the novel this happened because rundu was a 15 day travel from yezhou so it made perfect sense. They completely altered the last 10 eps from the novel, until then they still had somewhat followed it. Chu zhao became a hopeless fool, obsessed with fl and trying whatever to break fl and ml apart, typical of any other cdrama. These weren't in the original novel. So there were a lot of inconsistencies. The novel was quite politics and action heavy, with little romance which was extremely slow burn. Here it was much more focused on romance and although supposed to be heavily political and action, they cut out most of the epic battle and action scenes.
Production: good acting, good chemistry. Decent production. The few action scenes it had were well done. The costumes weren't all that grand and all.
My review compares the drama with the novel a lot but my rating is solely based on the drama itself. It was entertaining and a good watch with a happy ending. I would recommend watching it once and even more so i would recommend reading the novel after watching it.
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