Thank you so much for listing things out- you've made it incredibly easy for me to know that I would not enjoy…
Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion. And mine is that the end is extremely unsatisfying and is actually a betrayal of everything WYL has shown to believe in. The fact is, she entered the palace to enact revenge on the person who caused her sister's death, and the last scene shows her being romantic with the Emperor who literally obstructed her constantly from achieving her goals or even just happiness.
"She gets a satisfying ending and same goes to Fuca Fuheng, her first love which ends up becoming her love trial to be wary of trying again."
In the very last episode, she silently promises to love Fuca in the next life. Doesn't sound like she's wary or hurt by him. And in no way did Fuca get a satisfying end.
Throughout the drama Fuca constantly wants to marry WYL, the Emperor refuses him again and again. Tells him that she's not appropriate or a decent woman. He should marry Er Qing instead (can't remember if that's the name).
Fuca constantly refuses him. Then the Emperor literally threatens to kill WYL and Fuca agrees. From the very beginning he didn’t stand a chance because the Emperor was the Emperor and believed he knew better. He married him to a "decent" women Er Qing who literally caused Fuca so much torture. She was psycho.
And guess what? The king, who unlike Fuca, can marry any and every women he so much desires, makes WYL his consort. He's extremely hypocritical for his actions and not once does he reflect on them.
The thing is - it would be understandable if he denied Fuca and WYL's marriage if he simply said, I'm the Emperor and I want her. He'd still be an arrogant jerk but well he's the Emperor so its true to character.
Instead, he denied their marriage constantly, on the grounds that she wasn't a good women. And that he appreciated Fuca and wanted the best for him so he wanted Fuca to marry a better woman. And then what do we get less than 10 episodes later? He's making her his concubine. The sheer hypocrisy turned me off his character. If he flat out told Fuca, "I desire her so I want her and you can't marry her" that would've been fine but he deluded Fuca and himself about something that just wasn't true at all.
And Fuca isnt a random noble. He works for the emperor. The Emperor goes on about how much he trusts him and how he's a loyal aide or whatever and then goes and does this to him.
Second, I can't believe you think I didn’t like the ending simply because you think that *I* think Fuca is better looking.
I've never judged a character by their looks. I aways judge them on the character they're actually playing.
And in this case, even people who enjoyed this drama and loved the ending can't honestly say that the Emperor was depicted as a better man than Fuca.
And, if you really want to know. I've seen the actor who plays Fuca in other dramas amd found him handsome but I think he looks really unattractive in this drama. Ive seen people in the comments who like his looks - i just simply don't. The bald head is probably historically accurate but It made me wince the first 10 eps or every time he appeared on screen.
But i judge characters through their actual personality so I could ignore it after a while.
The Emperor and Fuca are probably equal in looks in my opinion. I don't find either of them appealing with that half bald head.
And other point, I actually got spoiled accidentally while watching this drama and realised early on that WYL was going to end up with the Emperor. And that point i didn't like the Emperor but i continued watching anyway because I wasn't opposed to it. As long as their story and romance made sense and progressed in a nice way, I was okay with it.
And that's exactly the problem, it didn't progress at all. You said there's 30 episodes of push and pull. And you're right. It got repetitive and boring amd there was less "pull"and more "push". And there was never any communication between them. One of these so called "pushes" even lasted 2 years??? With a weird time skip that was not needed AT ALL. And when WYL comes back after 2 years, guess what? The emperor has a new favorite consort because he'd probably die if he couldn't solve his problems by favoring other women.
The relationship between WYL and the Emperor is not handled well at all. Its dragged on and has strange separations.
I actually don't care there's a harem and if the Emperor has many women but his relationship with WYL doesn’t make sense.
That's why the ending was so unsatisfying to me. I wished they focused on the reason WYL entered the Palace in the first place rather than the convoluted story between her and the Emperor.
Again everyone can have their own perspective and mine is that I didn’t like this drama or the "romance".
I probably would've been okay with WYL ending up with the Emperor if they:
1. Showed a natural progression of feelings. Maybe even the Emperor reflecting and understanding some of his faults
2. Didn’t romanticise WYL being with the Emperor. If they showed it simply as WYL wanting power and revenge and being content with the Emperor for those reasons.
I appreciate a good movie review and critic and I glad to have read this since it has some contrast to what I…
This isn't a romance and you’re right about that, however framing this as a revenge story doesn't work for me either.
The main issue I have with this drama is that Yingluo's character starts off very strong but in the middle and end, is a reduced version.
Let me in particular discuss one point you made. You said that you liked that Yingluo didn't end up with Fuca and instead ended up with the emperor.
However, to me, Yingluo ending up with the emperor goes against everything she stands for. Her values and beliefs. She doesn’t like the emperor AT ALL. This is for many reasons , among the fact that he constantly favours other women instead of the Empress and his shielding of his brother who assaulted Yingluo's sister.
You say that it was the Emperor that gave her power which is true to a certain extent but even as a consort she had people constantly trying to kill her. Being with the Emperor gave her power but she still had to struggle a lot by herself.
The relationship between Yingluo and Fuca was handled poorly. He chose to "give up on her" because the king threatened to kill her. It's weird how Yingluo immediately says something along the lines of " I don't need a hundred reasons for why you accepted to marry someone else". He doesn't need a hundred reasons, he has one really good one, which is that she would've died otherwise.
To me - if this drama really wanted to portray Yingluo as someone who wanted revenge more than anything - they should have made her actively choose between Fuca and the Emperor. If she, at any point, had a choice between them and chose the Emperor because she wanted the power he could give her more than Fuca's love - that would've been a very strong scene and would've strengthened her character.
In fact, if this drama had no intention to be a romance drama from the beginning, they should've made it a tragedy. Because everything that happens to Yingluo after about 30 episodes is misfortune after misfortune. Tag it as a tragedy and make every moment even more miserable and at least I would've gotten what it said on the tags. I wouldn't have watched this if it had the tragedy tag but at least it would've been more accurate.
The ending of this drama is also extremely irritating. Yingluo is dying. Fuca dies in order to get a cure for her. She wakes up from a coma(??) and finds out that Fuca died for her. The Emperor is nowhere to be seen and then the last scene is the Emperor and YingLuo saying they'll be together or something, I can't remember exactly
It would've made much more sense if the drama ended with Yingluo talking to her sister, visiting her grave. Saying something about how she's finally achieved revenge for her and now she can rest in peace. Or maybe even the Queen's grave. Or even just reflecting on her own life. Her last scene being with the Emperor is just??? To me the Emperor is far far below on the list of important people in her life. And the scene represents romance. This drama ends with a romantic ending. It's why I 100% would prefer it was a story of revenge instead of what they did which was like halfway between romance and revenge and not committing to either.
Thank you so much for listing things out- you've made it incredibly easy for me to know that I would not enjoy…
I'm really glad it was helpful!
I didn’t want to sound too critical and harsh but a lot of people are raving about this drama and i just couldn't understand why. Especially because i love historical dramas. They're my absolute favorite so I know what im talking about when i say this drama is not as good as other people think it is.
Of course everyone has their own opinion and taste.
The first 20 or so episodes are amazing, the rest not so much (imo).
Surprisingly good! I expected this to way more cringey but everything was handled really well. It has a lot of complex characters that felt real. Plus no 2nd male lead or female lead. People are saying that there's something between the coach and fl but i dont see it. The coach definitely has some issue and i cant figure out if he likes her as an athlete or as a love interest but for the FL it really is just admiration towards an idol.
Back to the coach, he's probably the one person i didn’t like in the whole drama. I think he's kind of toxic and screwed up lu xioyi (if thats her name).
Also! People are loving this so much like it didn't have idk, 4/5 random time skips that were the most annoying thing ever. 1 time skip per drama is my limit and this had so many in the middle. So weird and jarring.
The first 20 or so episodes were amazing. After that it was just okay. I think it hit a good pace again around ep 40 to 45 ish and then it started with the many time skips. I heavily skimmed the last 10 eps just to finish it.
I love love love historical dramas. I enjoy long dramas. I like court politics and schemes. I adore an intelligent female lead. But no matter what i won't be watching this drama again and I'm just so glad to be done with it. Its not a good one for me.
Idk if I'll write a review for this but after watching all 70 episodes of this:
Not a happy story. In any way.
Idk how people can even classify it as a happy ending. Except for the first 20 episdodes and low stakes things, the heroine is unable to accomplish ANYTHING. And i dont mean it negatively because i disliked her but because she genuinely is not able to achieve anything important to her.
1. Wants to get revenge on the guy who assults her sister - it takes her like 20 something years to achieve that goal and even then it was more like an after thought at that point because he did stupid stuff himself and got killed for it. Nothing to do with her.
2. She loves the queen like a sister. The queen is arguably the most important person to her after her sister. And she's unable to stop the queen dying and having her child killed (twice!!).
3. The guy she loves. Doesn't end up with him and he has a terrible life.
4. Her ally/brother and her end up enemies.
5. Her maid. Mingyu or something idk. The most important person to her after the queen dies and what happens to her? Also dies.
6. Doesn’t like the king. Doesn’t want to be with him, ends up with him anyway to get revenge on the person who killed the queen.
7. Kills consort chu who was the one to kill the queen and her son. But! The real mastermind who casused consort chu to do it lives for another 20 or so years despite
THE HEROINE KNOWING THAT IT WAS HER WHO ENCOURAGED CONSORT WHATEVER TO KILL THE QUEEN
Its not happy at all for me.
And i can get past the king having multiple wives because its true to history and ive seen other dramas with many consorts but i dont think the king and the heroine could ever be called romantic. For me this drama had 1 main lead and the heroine didn’t end up with him so its not a happy ending. More like a, "ive gotten used to this life now and its just about tolerable"
I'm halfway through episode 4 and I'm really struggling. I'm not enjoying it at all. Its sooo boring. The only thing I like is the opening song. Can someone tell me if it gets better? And if it's worth watching?
(In case the drama doesn't come up, just search it up on the website)
It doesn't have episode 4.2 or 5. But every ep has its own ending so watching up to ep 3 is enough.
And beware the ads and pop-ups.
"She gets a satisfying ending and same goes to Fuca Fuheng, her first love which ends up becoming her love trial to be wary of trying again."
In the very last episode, she silently promises to love Fuca in the next life. Doesn't sound like she's wary or hurt by him. And in no way did Fuca get a satisfying end.
Throughout the drama Fuca constantly wants to marry WYL, the Emperor refuses him again and again. Tells him that she's not appropriate or a decent woman. He should marry Er Qing instead (can't remember if that's the name).
Fuca constantly refuses him. Then the Emperor literally threatens to kill WYL and Fuca agrees. From the very beginning he didn’t stand a chance because the Emperor was the Emperor and believed he knew better. He married him to a "decent" women Er Qing who literally caused Fuca so much torture. She was psycho.
And guess what? The king, who unlike Fuca, can marry any and every women he so much desires, makes WYL his consort.
He's extremely hypocritical for his actions and not once does he reflect on them.
The thing is - it would be understandable if he denied Fuca and WYL's marriage if he simply said, I'm the Emperor and I want her. He'd still be an arrogant jerk but well he's the Emperor so its true to character.
Instead, he denied their marriage constantly, on the grounds that she wasn't a good women. And that he appreciated Fuca and wanted the best for him so he wanted Fuca to marry a better woman. And then what do we get less than 10 episodes later? He's making her his concubine.
The sheer hypocrisy turned me off his character. If he flat out told Fuca, "I desire her so I want her and you can't marry her" that would've been fine but he deluded Fuca and himself about something that just wasn't true at all.
And Fuca isnt a random noble. He works for the emperor. The Emperor goes on about how much he trusts him and how he's a loyal aide or whatever and then goes and does this to him.
Second, I can't believe you think I didn’t like the ending simply because you think that *I* think Fuca is better looking.
I've never judged a character by their looks. I aways judge them on the character they're actually playing.
And in this case, even people who enjoyed this drama and loved the ending can't honestly say that the Emperor was depicted as a better man than Fuca.
And, if you really want to know. I've seen the actor who plays Fuca in other dramas amd found him handsome but I think he looks really unattractive in this drama. Ive seen people in the comments who like his looks - i just simply don't. The bald head is probably historically accurate but It made me wince the first 10 eps or every time he appeared on screen.
But i judge characters through their actual personality so I could ignore it after a while.
The Emperor and Fuca are probably equal in looks in my opinion. I don't find either of them appealing with that half bald head.
And other point, I actually got spoiled accidentally while watching this drama and realised early on that WYL was going to end up with the Emperor. And that point i didn't like the Emperor but i continued watching anyway because I wasn't opposed to it. As long as their story and romance made sense and progressed in a nice way, I was okay with it.
And that's exactly the problem, it didn't progress at all. You said there's 30 episodes of push and pull. And you're right. It got repetitive and boring amd there was less "pull"and more "push". And there was never any communication between them. One of these so called "pushes" even lasted 2 years??? With a weird time skip that was not needed AT ALL. And when WYL comes back after 2 years, guess what? The emperor has a new favorite consort because he'd probably die if he couldn't solve his problems by favoring other women.
The relationship between WYL and the Emperor is not handled well at all. Its dragged on and has strange separations.
I actually don't care there's a harem and if the Emperor has many women but his relationship with WYL doesn’t make sense.
That's why the ending was so unsatisfying to me. I wished they focused on the reason WYL entered the Palace in the first place rather than the convoluted story between her and the Emperor.
Again everyone can have their own perspective and mine is that I didn’t like this drama or the "romance".
I probably would've been okay with WYL ending up with the Emperor if they:
1. Showed a natural progression of feelings. Maybe even the Emperor reflecting and understanding some of his faults
2. Didn’t romanticise WYL being with the Emperor. If they showed it simply as WYL wanting power and revenge and being content with the Emperor for those reasons.
There's better dramas out there that are more satisfying and have better endings.
The main issue I have with this drama is that Yingluo's character starts off very strong but in the middle and end, is a reduced version.
Let me in particular discuss one point you made. You said that you liked that Yingluo didn't end up with Fuca and instead ended up with the emperor.
However, to me, Yingluo ending up with the emperor goes against everything she stands for. Her values and beliefs. She doesn’t like the emperor AT ALL. This is for many reasons , among the fact that he constantly favours other women instead of the Empress and his shielding of his brother who assaulted Yingluo's sister.
You say that it was the Emperor that gave her power which is true to a certain extent but even as a consort she had people constantly trying to kill her. Being with the Emperor gave her power but she still had to struggle a lot by herself.
The relationship between Yingluo and Fuca was handled poorly. He chose to "give up on her" because the king threatened to kill her. It's weird how Yingluo immediately says something along the lines of " I don't need a hundred reasons for why you accepted to marry someone else". He doesn't need a hundred reasons, he has one really good one, which is that she would've died otherwise.
To me - if this drama really wanted to portray Yingluo as someone who wanted revenge more than anything - they should have made her actively choose between Fuca and the Emperor. If she, at any point, had a choice between them and chose the Emperor because she wanted the power he could give her more than Fuca's love - that would've been a very strong scene and would've strengthened her character.
In fact, if this drama had no intention to be a romance drama from the beginning, they should've made it a tragedy. Because everything that happens to Yingluo after about 30 episodes is misfortune after misfortune. Tag it as a tragedy and make every moment even more miserable and at least I would've gotten what it said on the tags. I wouldn't have watched this if it had the tragedy tag but at least it would've been more accurate.
The ending of this drama is also extremely irritating. Yingluo is dying. Fuca dies in order to get a cure for her. She wakes up from a coma(??) and finds out that Fuca died for her. The Emperor is nowhere to be seen and then the last scene is the Emperor and YingLuo saying they'll be together or something, I can't remember exactly
It would've made much more sense if the drama ended with Yingluo talking to her sister, visiting her grave. Saying something about how she's finally achieved revenge for her and now she can rest in peace. Or maybe even the Queen's grave. Or even just reflecting on her own life. Her last scene being with the Emperor is just??? To me the Emperor is far far below on the list of important people in her life. And the scene represents romance. This drama ends with a romantic ending. It's why I 100% would prefer it was a story of revenge instead of what they did which was like halfway between romance and revenge and not committing to either.
I didn’t want to sound too critical and harsh but a lot of people are raving about this drama and i just couldn't understand why. Especially because i love historical dramas. They're my absolute favorite so I know what im talking about when i say this drama is not as good as other people think it is.
Of course everyone has their own opinion and taste.
The first 20 or so episodes are amazing, the rest not so much (imo).
Back to the coach, he's probably the one person i didn’t like in the whole drama. I think he's kind of toxic and screwed up lu xioyi (if thats her name).
The first 20 or so episodes were amazing. After that it was just okay. I think it hit a good pace again around ep 40 to 45 ish and then it started with the many time skips. I heavily skimmed the last 10 eps just to finish it.
I love love love historical dramas. I enjoy long dramas. I like court politics and schemes. I adore an intelligent female lead. But no matter what i won't be watching this drama again and I'm just so glad to be done with it. Its not a good one for me.
Not a happy story. In any way.
Idk how people can even classify it as a happy ending. Except for the first 20 episdodes and low stakes things, the heroine is unable to accomplish ANYTHING. And i dont mean it negatively because i disliked her but because she genuinely is not able to achieve anything important to her.
1. Wants to get revenge on the guy who assults her sister - it takes her like 20 something years to achieve that goal and even then it was more like an after thought at that point because he did stupid stuff himself and got killed for it. Nothing to do with her.
2. She loves the queen like a sister. The queen is arguably the most important person to her after her sister. And she's unable to stop the queen dying and having her child killed (twice!!).
3. The guy she loves. Doesn't end up with him and he has a terrible life.
4. Her ally/brother and her end up enemies.
5. Her maid. Mingyu or something idk. The most important person to her after the queen dies and what happens to her? Also dies.
6. Doesn’t like the king. Doesn’t want to be with him, ends up with him anyway to get revenge on the person who killed the queen.
7. Kills consort chu who was the one to kill the queen and her son. But! The real mastermind who casused consort chu to do it lives for another 20 or so years despite
THE HEROINE KNOWING THAT IT WAS HER WHO ENCOURAGED CONSORT WHATEVER TO KILL THE QUEEN
Its not happy at all for me.
And i can get past the king having multiple wives because its true to history and ive seen other dramas with many consorts but i dont think the king and the heroine could ever be called romantic. For me this drama had 1 main lead and the heroine didn’t end up with him so its not a happy ending. More like a, "ive gotten used to this life now and its just about tolerable"
Can someone tell me if it gets better? And if it's worth watching?