What it could have been>What it actually was.
Oh my gosh, this drama! I waited for it for such a long time… From the moment I saw the trailer, I was hooked and had my expectations sky-high. And then every single month there were rumors like, “It’s coming out now!”—and nope, another month passed, and another, and another… The wait felt endless! But finally, it got released and I was so happy. I even waited until it completely finished airing because I hate watching dramas while they’re still on air, so I only started a few days ago.
The first episode was… fine. Nothing mind-blowing, but not bad either. The opening song was pretty, the ending song was actually really good, and honestly, a huge reason I was excited was because of the male lead. I’d seen him in another drama where he was more of a secondary lead, and I really wanted to see him shine here as the main guy.
But then… disappointment started hitting me. The whole scene where the female lead survives the assassination attempts? Ugh, it was just so poorly done. They tried to kill her in such ridiculous ways—like switching her chair so she would accidentally fall into a pond. Seriously?! She’s supposed to be an expert fighter, yet we’re expected to believe she could die from something that dumb? It just didn’t make sense. And then of course the male lead shows up right on time to save her. Super convenient! What makes it worse is that he actually saw part of her face in that moment, but later, when she disguises herself as a man at the military camp, he doesn’t recognize her at all. Not by her face, not by her voice—nothing! He’s supposed to be this brilliant soldier, but come on… And then the typical Chinese drama thing: she’s obviously a girl, but only the audience can see it—everyone else in the story is magically blind to it.
What really made me stop was after the whole training and military tests arc. The leads went to some noble’s house (I honestly didn’t even catch why, the plot was already confusing me), there were dead bodies, people trying to kill the male lead, the female lead confronting her attacker… and at that point I was forcing myself to keep going. It was just so boring. Even the romantic scenes, which should have been the highlight, fell flat. Like, there’s this shower scene that could have been swoon-worthy in a good drama, but here? Nothing. Zero impact.
And don’t even get me started on the female lead’s behavior. Since she’s pretending to be someone else, she switches between this ridiculously childish tone and then suddenly being all serious. On paper, that could work. But the way the actress pulled it off? Cringe. Pure cringe.
And honestly, this is the part that hurts the most—I’m not saying all this out of hate. It breaks my heart to give this drama such a low rating, because I really wanted it to be the best Chinese drama of the year. But it just… wasn’t. And the disappointment was huge.
The first episode was… fine. Nothing mind-blowing, but not bad either. The opening song was pretty, the ending song was actually really good, and honestly, a huge reason I was excited was because of the male lead. I’d seen him in another drama where he was more of a secondary lead, and I really wanted to see him shine here as the main guy.
But then… disappointment started hitting me. The whole scene where the female lead survives the assassination attempts? Ugh, it was just so poorly done. They tried to kill her in such ridiculous ways—like switching her chair so she would accidentally fall into a pond. Seriously?! She’s supposed to be an expert fighter, yet we’re expected to believe she could die from something that dumb? It just didn’t make sense. And then of course the male lead shows up right on time to save her. Super convenient! What makes it worse is that he actually saw part of her face in that moment, but later, when she disguises herself as a man at the military camp, he doesn’t recognize her at all. Not by her face, not by her voice—nothing! He’s supposed to be this brilliant soldier, but come on… And then the typical Chinese drama thing: she’s obviously a girl, but only the audience can see it—everyone else in the story is magically blind to it.
What really made me stop was after the whole training and military tests arc. The leads went to some noble’s house (I honestly didn’t even catch why, the plot was already confusing me), there were dead bodies, people trying to kill the male lead, the female lead confronting her attacker… and at that point I was forcing myself to keep going. It was just so boring. Even the romantic scenes, which should have been the highlight, fell flat. Like, there’s this shower scene that could have been swoon-worthy in a good drama, but here? Nothing. Zero impact.
And don’t even get me started on the female lead’s behavior. Since she’s pretending to be someone else, she switches between this ridiculously childish tone and then suddenly being all serious. On paper, that could work. But the way the actress pulled it off? Cringe. Pure cringe.
And honestly, this is the part that hurts the most—I’m not saying all this out of hate. It breaks my heart to give this drama such a low rating, because I really wanted it to be the best Chinese drama of the year. But it just… wasn’t. And the disappointment was huge.
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