kookiejamz

Production quality is breathtaking and the acting is amazing. However, the plot is AWFUL. The Emperor was glorified into a perfect figure who never makes mistakes. We are forced to justify his actions and spoon-fed that he is always right no matter how crazy and unreasonable. What was originally a story focused on the eunuch, had turned into a complete biography of the emperor. That is so disrespectful when it comes to adapting somebody else's works.

This drama tells a very interesting BUT exhausting story. It's insane how they tried to cram what could have been three individual dramas into one: The emperor and politics, the empress and the harem, the princess and the eunuch.

The audience alternates between multiple people's perspectives in a single episode alone, which causes information to become scattered and lose focus. From a family perspective, we see a selfish father who gets any women he wants, but married off his daughter to someone she doesn't love as compensation for his maternal family. However, if this was broken down into different dramas, we will get a proper, political side to the story- how the arranged marriage was actually protection for the Princess from being persecuted by the next Emperor-in-line.

So where is the climax? THERE IS NONE. Things just happen and we're forced to move on quickly. All the meaningful foreshadow scenes (from Huaiji's childhood) which were supposed to lead to powerful realizations were all but watered down. The climax in the novel occurs when the Princess breaks the law. But this doesn't happen in the drama until a sudden change of focus near the end of the show, with a very rushed open ending that left us in confusion. The drama ends with the Emperor's death, when there is actually more to the story.