RomanticRosebud_BL

I feel like the writers did a good job in world building and how it presented its characters. One of its strengths was how well the writers were able to write the villains and even the gray parts of the story. The first 27 episodes kept me glued to my screen but when we reached episode 28, I felt like the writers were stuck and didn't know how to finish the story. A lot of what we saw in the last 12 episodes or so was already rehashed from episodes before. Granted it was elaborated more and showed the audience what had happened. It still dragged for me. I had a hard time keeping interest and mostly kept going back to rewatch Moonlight Mystique episodes. I think this is where the writers/story failed. Other than that, I think had the plot had weaven everything together better my rating would be higher. Also, the ending had this feeling of rushed but I guess that can't be helped with just the 40 episodes cap.
The best part of this series was definitely the FL. I loved Mu Xualing so much and I liked how she wasn't the typical female lead. SZN did well in portraying MXL: strong, detemined, fiery, seductress, bad ass, innocent, cunning etc. I think after this she will get many more opportunities because she deserves them. As for VZ I had trouble connecting with his character another reason why I rate this an 8. If I can't connect with actors, then I'm not going to like the drama that much. I feel like he did a good job with Xie Xuchen but he was also missing something that made me not care as much about XXC. VZ and SZN did have good chemistry which made the drama watchable. Despite NYX being the villain, he ended up being one of my favorites. Sometimes I liked him more than the ML.
In the end my rating is 8/10.