This review may contain spoilers
Even the beautiful Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye couldn't save this trainwreck
** I want to preface this by saying that I did not read the original source material so everything I'm about to say is strictly about the show. I also see these shows through the lens of a white American- my knowledge of Chinese history and culture is very limited and that might taint my perception. **Firstly, like others have pointed out, this drama requires A LOT of suspension of disbelief. I normally have no problem doing that when watching dramas because I don't need a whole lot of realism to feel like I'm immersed in a show. However if you DO value realism, this is most likely not the show for you. We are supposed to believe that He Yan has been disguised as her brother for years and that nobody who spends a long amount of time around her has figured out that she's a woman. Even when her brother takes back his identity, we're supposed to believe that nobody has noticed that suddenly General Feihong is a head taller, dozens of pounds heavier, and his shoulders have doubled in width? Ok, scriptwriters... sure. I'll believe it for the sake of the story. I know that rebirth stories are harder to adapt because of censorship laws so you get a pass... this time.
Our two main villains in this show are Xu Jingfu and He Rufei, but they are both laughably bad. I can't excuse the writers for this one, they're that bad. Xu Jingfu at one point says "generals only ever want to go to war, they never want to try other strategies" but before that he literally worked together with an enemy to invade his own country, causing battles in MULTIPLE CITIES. Even he has no idea why he does what he did other than he "believed he was helping the country in the long run." You're telling me that his big strategy to stop the people suffering from war, is to help the enemy country invade on several different occasions and kill his own country's generals? I... don't even know what to say to that, genuinely. My mouth was just left agape when he revealed to everyone what his motivation was. I would say "make it make sense" but I don't think there's a way that you can.
He Rufei is another story altogether. I don't know if it was the shoddy script, poor directing, or poor acting but the only emotion that man showed for 99% of the show was just anger. We know why He Rufei wants to kill He Yan, but we don't know why he repeatedly aligns himself with Xu Jingfu. The crimes they commit together are serious, life-and-death crimes. So WHY are they committing them? What is their motivation? I don't know why they do the things they do so I don't feel like there's any reason to relate to their struggles. A good villain is not just blindly evil and murderous. You can have an antagonist that is murderous and greedy and power-hungry while also giving them redeemable qualities as well. The only time I felt a twinge of sympathy for He Rufei was at the very end of his life when he's lecturing He Yan and Xiao Jue. And the only likeable thing about Xu Jingfu is that he does the absolute bare minimum as a father, and loves his daughter. These villains are so one-dimensional it's painful. When Rufei is in prison, he laments the fact that He Yan got everything that he feels like he deserved and while I disagree with his view on it, that was the only moment where I felt any sort of sadness or pity for his character. He spends so much time being angry and wanting to murder He Yan that I forgot that he's also a victim in their story, and that's really a pity. I think if the writers had spent more time showing us his sadness at missing out on most of his own life, and less of him plotting to kill He Yan, that he could have been a really interesting character.
Both of those characters' flaws could almost be overlooked if it wasn't for the massive character assassination the writers did to my boy Chu Zhao in the last several episodes. His struggle was about choosing between loyalty to his teacher or loyalty to his country, and the whole arc is thrown out at the eleventh hour for half-assed angst between our main leads. Seriously, nothing that he (or the emperor) does in the last 3 episodes makes any sense. This is genuinely what ruined the show for me, otherwise it could have been an enjoyable- albeit, flawed- drama with attractive leads and a story that makes enough sense if you turn your brain off. But the writers couldn't even let us have that.
The deaths in this show feel cheap and show huge disrespect both to the characters and the audience. Every single character death in this show has almost ZERO emotional impact. The deaths are sad because death itself is sad, not because the audience is attached to or emotionally resonates with the characters. I had actually forgotten about He Yan's sifu completely until he showed up in an episode just to die by the end of it. It's the same case for the other deaths as well. The characters are supposed to be important to He Yan and Xiao Jue but the writers didn't show us that until the characters are about to die. They just show up suddenly after somehow consuming poison that is never explained, to conveniently hand over evidence that nobody knew existed until that moment, cough up some blood, and die. I felt no sadness, no sense of loss, and it didn't seem like the characters did either. He Yan cries for a few minutes after returning from her sifu's funeral and then he's never mentioned again after they leave the city.
And my last gripe has to do with the show's take on feminism. Now this might be a hot take... I don't think that writing a female character who beats every single opponent she ever fights with little-to-no struggle is a great example of feminism. In fact, I find it lazy. Yes, He Yan trained and worked really hard to get to where she is. There's no denying that she's a very strong martial artist. But it is impossible for 99% of women to go up against men twice their size and win with just fighting prowess alone. I'll compare He Yan to Disney's animated Mulan for a moment. Mulan doesn't make it to the top of the wooden pole in camp, or bury Shan Yu's army in snow, or disarm and kill Shan Yu on the palace roof top, because she is a better martial artist. She knows that she is physically not able to beat a man twice her size so she compensates by being creative and clever. THIS is something I would have liked to see from the writers of LotFG. I cannot believe that a woman who is 5'5 is beating all these generals who are a half a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. Making He Yan an unbeatable martial artist does not do her character justice. In her fights she doesn't employ any sort of creativity or ingenuity to gain the upperhand- she just beats her enemies with good old martial arts. I find it quite lazy. He Yan shouldn't be winning fights because she has plot armor- she should be using her strengths to take advantage of her enemies' weaknesses. I think this is what they were trying to show by making her use a whip in the beginning of the show but it's never made clear if that's her reasoning, and she also abandons the whip later in the show. I think that this mainly comes down to suspension of disbelief again- and I know I said I can usually forgive quite a bit but this show is genuinely asking a lot from me. I am a woman who loves to see another woman doing her thing and putting men in their place. But you know what I love more? Female friendship and sisterhood. I really wanted to see more of Song Taotao and He Yan's friendship. Scenes of her talking He Yan's ear off while she's training, or of the two of them sharing a meal and drinks in He Yan's tent. Show us Taotao picking out dresses and makeup for He Yan and them giggling while talking about their respective boyfriends- things that women do! Or a scene where they become sworn sisters or something? We have a couple scenes of this nature but I want MORE. Taotao stays at the garrison for a long time with the army and she does virtually nothing for the story in that time. She was such an underutilized character :( If they could just go back and get rid of the last 3 episodes of the show and replace them with scenes of Taotao and He Yan just being besties I could forgive (almost) everything.
I really wanted to enjoy this drama. I was super hyped for it and couldn't wait every day to watch the next episodes after they released. I don't think the story is great at all, to be clear, but it was ok enough to enjoy alongside the gorgeous leads and the comedic relief from supporting characters. But, as I'm pretty sure I've said many times already, it really all came crashing down with the last several episodes. It's a shame because without them this show would have probably been a 6.5 for me, heavily weighted because of Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye's facecards, but instead we're left at a 4. I'm usually an avid rewatcher, even of shows I think are just mindless eye-candy slop (I've watched Only for Love three times, oopsies), but I don't think I would even rewatch this. It's sad because I do think the 3 leads did a decent job it's just that they were given a dumpster fire of a script. I hope Cheng Lei and Zhou Ye are able to work together on a different project some day- with hopefully better writing.
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