5
1
I loved it. I loved it a little less. I liked it.
I know this is one of the biggest hit of 2026 and there are already hundreds of reviews here so I shall not waste my time with another regulation review. This is more a collection of my thoughts after completion.
1) the production value is S class. They created a whole wintery village, which is admirable. They made good use of it too. However, this is a double-edged sword. Fully half of the show was set in this village. This means so much of the early plots are small town shenanigans. This is fine early on, it helps to set the scene and introduce characters, but as the clock ticked on, we know the bigger picture stuff needs to kick in. It does test our patience a bit.
2) This drama is quite graphic. There are so much death and destructions, including the wholesale massacre of innocent people and it is on full display. Once the war is joined, we have even more bloodshed. There are also random tortures and beatings. You have been warned.
3) the narrative in the last third of the show is messy. Yes, there is the overarching revenge plot spanning 17 years. I get that. It is the telling of it which seems to flag towards the end. It is functional but felt loose. Many threads must come together at one crucial point. It could have been a grand conflagration, yet it felt ho hum.
4) as an addendum to (3), the ending is contrived. Yes, everything worked out and we got the happy ending we wanted. It just doesn't feel right in its historical context. Ask no questions, Ancient Chinese scholars.
5) the romance of our leads was very slow going for the longest time. It is swoon-y as both characters are secretly falling in love, they just can't admit it. There is a lot of "will they, won't they" moments. It didn't pick up the pace until the last few eps and then it was full on. ;)
6) there has been some chatter about our leads not being martial enough. I get that. The FL spent much of her career playing cute, feisty girl. Ditto, the ML is much more the scholar type. He even plays that role in the first half of this drama, and he totally nailed it. In their defence, the production did try to make them look good via clever editing, stunt doubles and CGI. It is a costume idol drama. Enough said. ;)
7) related to (6), some of the battle scenes are very well done. They do look epic. Interestingly, a lot of the scene are focused on the FL to establish her credential. I won't say the ML is MIA, his involvement does not always translate into combat though. More the slow-mo ride to battle in full armour type. Much of the large scale battle scenes are replaced by smaller brawls as the plot moves back towards political intrigues.
8) I enjoyed this show. When it works, it is great. It is not my favourite costume idol drama though. It wants to be different, but ends up being fairly tropey.
9) peace.
1) the production value is S class. They created a whole wintery village, which is admirable. They made good use of it too. However, this is a double-edged sword. Fully half of the show was set in this village. This means so much of the early plots are small town shenanigans. This is fine early on, it helps to set the scene and introduce characters, but as the clock ticked on, we know the bigger picture stuff needs to kick in. It does test our patience a bit.
2) This drama is quite graphic. There are so much death and destructions, including the wholesale massacre of innocent people and it is on full display. Once the war is joined, we have even more bloodshed. There are also random tortures and beatings. You have been warned.
3) the narrative in the last third of the show is messy. Yes, there is the overarching revenge plot spanning 17 years. I get that. It is the telling of it which seems to flag towards the end. It is functional but felt loose. Many threads must come together at one crucial point. It could have been a grand conflagration, yet it felt ho hum.
4) as an addendum to (3), the ending is contrived. Yes, everything worked out and we got the happy ending we wanted. It just doesn't feel right in its historical context. Ask no questions, Ancient Chinese scholars.
5) the romance of our leads was very slow going for the longest time. It is swoon-y as both characters are secretly falling in love, they just can't admit it. There is a lot of "will they, won't they" moments. It didn't pick up the pace until the last few eps and then it was full on. ;)
6) there has been some chatter about our leads not being martial enough. I get that. The FL spent much of her career playing cute, feisty girl. Ditto, the ML is much more the scholar type. He even plays that role in the first half of this drama, and he totally nailed it. In their defence, the production did try to make them look good via clever editing, stunt doubles and CGI. It is a costume idol drama. Enough said. ;)
7) related to (6), some of the battle scenes are very well done. They do look epic. Interestingly, a lot of the scene are focused on the FL to establish her credential. I won't say the ML is MIA, his involvement does not always translate into combat though. More the slow-mo ride to battle in full armour type. Much of the large scale battle scenes are replaced by smaller brawls as the plot moves back towards political intrigues.
8) I enjoyed this show. When it works, it is great. It is not my favourite costume idol drama though. It wants to be different, but ends up being fairly tropey.
9) peace.
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