This review may contain spoilers
a drama with apparently no primary antagonist
where was the bad guy throughout the entire drama?! this irked me so much i stopped watching.
the main characters and their families suffer a brutal tragedy years before the drama starts, tens of thousands of people get killed, lives are destroyed, etc. why? because one woman wanted to rule
YET for 34 episodes (that's how far i watched before i got too annoyed to go on), this woman is presented to the audience as kind, just, longsuffering, soft spoken, a fair and balanced ruler, measured, a good and caring mother, lonely, sad, astute, isolated, altruistic, everything and anything but a blood thirsty greedy tyrant who engineered so much disaster just so she could get a chance at the throne. not once do we see her directly do or say a bad thing.
and that is so unbalanced. because on the other hand there's the leads just having an absolutely miserable time - the ml and fl with their major physical and mental challenges but who caused it? who is the main villain? why were they so reluctant to directly portray her as a villain?
instead they shove marquis muyang at us for the first half of the drama even though he's obviously just her tool, then they tell us its the 2ml, who despite being her victim is somehow portrayed as even more of a villain than she is?
the ml rarely even acknowledges her as the bad guy, not one person treats her with the scorn she deserves. why did ye li, a girl barely 20 have to come down from the mountain to get justice for the past? what were all of those grown men doing??
speaking of ye li - why was she so mary sue? she was perfect and could do anything and everything from building a wheelchair to predicting an eclipse i mean c'mon! even her mental illness made her look cute and mysterious for the most part.
some positives
bai lu and cheng lei did good with their characters, they didn't really have any romantic chemistry and its not cheng lei's best performance, but they held down their individual parts well.
ye li's psychological issues - her whole i see dead people shtick was quite entertaining. i thought the cause and effect was well done - although i didn't finish the drama so i don' t know the resolution.
the drama didn't have the typical idol drama sheen - the weather looked visibly hot and everyone was sweaty and clammy and the makeup and hair and clothes were not the best, but it felt deliberate? like they had enough confidence in their story to not pack on all that other stuff. anyway it was refreshing
the boy emperor did a good job
the eunuchs and the empresses sometimes had similar makeup - i thought that was cunt
the ost was nice
the main characters and their families suffer a brutal tragedy years before the drama starts, tens of thousands of people get killed, lives are destroyed, etc. why? because one woman wanted to rule
YET for 34 episodes (that's how far i watched before i got too annoyed to go on), this woman is presented to the audience as kind, just, longsuffering, soft spoken, a fair and balanced ruler, measured, a good and caring mother, lonely, sad, astute, isolated, altruistic, everything and anything but a blood thirsty greedy tyrant who engineered so much disaster just so she could get a chance at the throne. not once do we see her directly do or say a bad thing.
and that is so unbalanced. because on the other hand there's the leads just having an absolutely miserable time - the ml and fl with their major physical and mental challenges but who caused it? who is the main villain? why were they so reluctant to directly portray her as a villain?
instead they shove marquis muyang at us for the first half of the drama even though he's obviously just her tool, then they tell us its the 2ml, who despite being her victim is somehow portrayed as even more of a villain than she is?
the ml rarely even acknowledges her as the bad guy, not one person treats her with the scorn she deserves. why did ye li, a girl barely 20 have to come down from the mountain to get justice for the past? what were all of those grown men doing??
speaking of ye li - why was she so mary sue? she was perfect and could do anything and everything from building a wheelchair to predicting an eclipse i mean c'mon! even her mental illness made her look cute and mysterious for the most part.
some positives
bai lu and cheng lei did good with their characters, they didn't really have any romantic chemistry and its not cheng lei's best performance, but they held down their individual parts well.
ye li's psychological issues - her whole i see dead people shtick was quite entertaining. i thought the cause and effect was well done - although i didn't finish the drama so i don' t know the resolution.
the drama didn't have the typical idol drama sheen - the weather looked visibly hot and everyone was sweaty and clammy and the makeup and hair and clothes were not the best, but it felt deliberate? like they had enough confidence in their story to not pack on all that other stuff. anyway it was refreshing
the boy emperor did a good job
the eunuchs and the empresses sometimes had similar makeup - i thought that was cunt
the ost was nice
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