fio_el

I liked the drama enough to finish it, but for me, it's a very average drama with some enjoyable moments.

Wei Shao is supposed to be this formidable, intelligent military leader, but so much of the time he comes across as immature and emotionally reactive. Xiao Qiao, on the other hand, is almost too perfect. She's intelligent, capable, compassionate, politically savvy, patient… basically good at everything. I understand why she's written that way, but it made her feel less human.

I cared a lot more about the supporting characters and I was far more invested in Xiao Tao and Wei Liang than I was in the main romance and I also really enjoyed Wei Yan's story. Their relationships and individual struggles had an emotional weight that the central pairing never quite managed to create for me.

[SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON]

One of the things that bothered me was the off-screen deaths (Zheng Chu Yu and Chen Pang). These characters had enough importance that their deaths could have been meaningful dramatic moments, but instead we're largely just told what happened. It felt like an easy way for the drama to get rid of characters and move the plot along without having to deal with the emotional consequences, it felt "cheap".

The final battle had a similar problem for me. After all the build-up, the confrontation with Liu Yan was anticlimactic. I expected a much more intense showdown, but Liu Yan barely up much of a fight. Considering how much time the drama spent building toward this conflict, the payoff felt underwhelming.

And what happened with Baby Li? I felt like the drama forgot about him. When Da Qiao was taken hostage and Bi Zhi was forced to fight for Liu Yan, Baby Li seemed to disappear from the story (albeit he was mentioned briefly during this time, but it still felt like an add-on).

Then there's the timeline. The sequence surrounding Wei Liang's death, Wei Qu retrieving his body, and Xiao Qiao's pregnancy is incredibly confusing. The way the scenes are edited makes it feel as though months have passed between events, yet Wei Liang's body was still remarkably… intact. If we're supposed to believe only days passed, then the pregnancy doesn't make sense; if months passed, then the state of the body certainly doesn't make sense. I suspect this is more of an editing/continuity problem than an intentional part of the story, but it pulled me right out of the drama.

Overall, I don't regret watching it, and I can understand why people enjoyed it. It has a good premise, beautiful production, some strong supporting characters, and enough romance and political intrigue to keep things moving, but for me, it never reached the level of the dramas I would enthusiastically recommend.

The biggest takeaway is that I was consistently more interested in what was happening around the main couple than in the main couple themselves. I wanted to know what happened to Wei Liang, Xiao Tao, Wei Yan, Da Qiao, Bi Zhi and the other supporting characters, while I didn't really care as much for the main characters, but was watching it anyway because it was the main storyline.