Illogical Story, Cute Characters
The bad:
-Very convenient plot points that are hilariously unrealistic. Out of all the places of certain characters to appear, in a massive city, they just coincidentally stumble upon other relevant characters, with no prior knowledge or plan. And this happens far too many times that my suspension of disbelief couldn't be maintained.
-Also, some of the acting is way too theatrical - namely, Gu Jiusi's right hand servant Mu Nan. You do not need to exaggerate those expressions, we can very well infer what you're feeling at the moment, dude. And even Liu Yuru sometimes, whose crying can sound like an adult imitating the cries of a toddler.
-Unrealistically tragic, to the point that things don't make sense. How does a single commissioner get away with massacring an entire city of nobles with the little army he has, and nobody in the city rebels against him? Really? Nobody's fighting back? He can just seize their assets without consequences?
-Another thing that is annoying is how long and dragged out some of the shots are. You don't need to spend five entire minutes zooming into every character's faces multiple times to show us how they're feeling, and it makes me laugh sometimes. If your audience is laughing at moments that wasn't intended to be funny, you've got a writing problem. You also don't need to spend ten minutes having a character verbally go into detail about how they're feeling, as though they're narrating their mental state as a therapist would describe it. Which is also unrealistic - it's very boring writing to have the characters so aware of their subconscious problems. Show, don't tell.
-Episode 23 was stupid as hell? Yuru barely disguises herself, goes into the HEART of enemy territory and thinks that nobody would recognize her. "They've only met me once all those months ago, surely they won't remember." Girl?????????? Do you think the enemy is stupid???? The next moment we see the enemy alerting their bosses about her. They're not even trying with the writing anymore, just pushing plot along regardless how out of character and silly it makes the characters.
The good:
-Gu Jiusi's actor is superb, if a tiny bit theatrical at times too. But I've seen him in other media, and he's a very natural actor. I wonder if that exaggerated style of acting is a preference of the director's.
-The sets are beautiful and the design of the costumes are splendid as well. But the rags they had to wear - where did they find them? Why do they look completely different from the clothes they started their journey with?? To make it more believable, they should use tattered versions of their previous clothes, not fashionably designed rags.
-The chemistry between Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru is very lovely and adorable. Especially the first quarter of the drama, they had me laughing out loud at times. No drawn out misunderstandings, no immature jealousy, no petty fights. It's a very healthy romantic relationship that has you feeling all fluffy for them.
-I do still want to know what happens next, which means the writing isn't irredeemable. I think it's an interesting premise, even though it's still just your everyday palace politics cdrama, but there is enough intrigue to keep me on.
-It has tropes that I personally like - namely, the female character getting injured/fake dying while the male love interest doesn't know that she's still ok. Too often it's the male characters dying or getting injured to protect the female characters, so I like the reverse of it.
Overall:
I would recommend this if you're looking for something to watch casually. This isn't addictive so you won't be losing sleep or messing up your day schedule. It's good to pass the time with if you like something that has humour, tragedy, romance, intrigue, and don't care about using your brain too much.
-Very convenient plot points that are hilariously unrealistic. Out of all the places of certain characters to appear, in a massive city, they just coincidentally stumble upon other relevant characters, with no prior knowledge or plan. And this happens far too many times that my suspension of disbelief couldn't be maintained.
-Also, some of the acting is way too theatrical - namely, Gu Jiusi's right hand servant Mu Nan. You do not need to exaggerate those expressions, we can very well infer what you're feeling at the moment, dude. And even Liu Yuru sometimes, whose crying can sound like an adult imitating the cries of a toddler.
-Unrealistically tragic, to the point that things don't make sense. How does a single commissioner get away with massacring an entire city of nobles with the little army he has, and nobody in the city rebels against him? Really? Nobody's fighting back? He can just seize their assets without consequences?
-Another thing that is annoying is how long and dragged out some of the shots are. You don't need to spend five entire minutes zooming into every character's faces multiple times to show us how they're feeling, and it makes me laugh sometimes. If your audience is laughing at moments that wasn't intended to be funny, you've got a writing problem. You also don't need to spend ten minutes having a character verbally go into detail about how they're feeling, as though they're narrating their mental state as a therapist would describe it. Which is also unrealistic - it's very boring writing to have the characters so aware of their subconscious problems. Show, don't tell.
-Episode 23 was stupid as hell? Yuru barely disguises herself, goes into the HEART of enemy territory and thinks that nobody would recognize her. "They've only met me once all those months ago, surely they won't remember." Girl?????????? Do you think the enemy is stupid???? The next moment we see the enemy alerting their bosses about her. They're not even trying with the writing anymore, just pushing plot along regardless how out of character and silly it makes the characters.
The good:
-Gu Jiusi's actor is superb, if a tiny bit theatrical at times too. But I've seen him in other media, and he's a very natural actor. I wonder if that exaggerated style of acting is a preference of the director's.
-The sets are beautiful and the design of the costumes are splendid as well. But the rags they had to wear - where did they find them? Why do they look completely different from the clothes they started their journey with?? To make it more believable, they should use tattered versions of their previous clothes, not fashionably designed rags.
-The chemistry between Gu Jiusi and Liu Yuru is very lovely and adorable. Especially the first quarter of the drama, they had me laughing out loud at times. No drawn out misunderstandings, no immature jealousy, no petty fights. It's a very healthy romantic relationship that has you feeling all fluffy for them.
-I do still want to know what happens next, which means the writing isn't irredeemable. I think it's an interesting premise, even though it's still just your everyday palace politics cdrama, but there is enough intrigue to keep me on.
-It has tropes that I personally like - namely, the female character getting injured/fake dying while the male love interest doesn't know that she's still ok. Too often it's the male characters dying or getting injured to protect the female characters, so I like the reverse of it.
Overall:
I would recommend this if you're looking for something to watch casually. This isn't addictive so you won't be losing sleep or messing up your day schedule. It's good to pass the time with if you like something that has humour, tragedy, romance, intrigue, and don't care about using your brain too much.
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