Editorials 
Seeing Ryan Cheng playing a villain in a guest appearance totally made up for all the flaws! Wow. He's so calm and disturbingly pleasant to look at in this role that he really makes for a chilling villain!
Was this review helpful to you?
The script dialogue is very cringe in this episode. Pacing and editing are smoother, but still have a lot of scenes that seem to drag slowly. And the plot right now feels very cartoonish. The villains are all very Snidely Whiplash. Starting to have serious doubts about finishing this series. Are my expectations too high? The cast, sound and visual production quality are so high. The failings in the script and the editing are a big let down by comparison.
Was this review helpful to you?
This episode did a better job of managing transitions between scenes than the last couple of issues, but the pacing within scenes at times dragged to a slow crawl. Some of the conversations took forever yet conveyed only a tiny handful of useful information. There were less 'cringe' script moments, at least. But it was a grind to get through this. I also hope the script evolves to give a chance for this experienced cast to use their talents. After watching deep, sophisticated and powerful performance that Chen Du Ling gave in The Glory, her character here seems like a paper cut-out. Same with Neo's and, well, most of the characters.
Was this review helpful to you?
Once again the editing and scene transitions are just not well done and the story delivery just feels like someone is tearing pages out of a book and throwing them at us. And wow, the pretentiousness in the script - in particular every word out of the Lin Lu character's mouth - is so bad it's hard not to laugh at it ( and those lines aren't supposed to be funny ). Even the fight scenes look very staged and not continuous - camera switches look like they jump to a completely different fight. And don't get me started on just how cringe the script has been around almost everything to do with the Bai Jiu character. I really love the cast of actors so I'll stick with this for a bit but this is frustrating. Neo and Chen Du Ling are two of my fav actors and I really hope the script gives them more to work with. Both of their characters seem kinda boxed-in and almost stuck with robotic lines so far.
Was this review helpful to you?
The first couple of episodes, which were primarily world-building, established high visual production values and a very strong cast of actors. Quite enjoyable to watch and showed lots of promise. This 3rd episode starts down the path of the actual plot line and immediately some cracks are showing in the storytelling. The editing and scene transitions are very awkward resulting in a chopped up story and clumsy pacing. And some of the scripted lines were just ... cringe as they either reached too hard for humor or were too pretentiously dramatic. The episode wasn't all bad. Just kind of a let down.
Was this review helpful to you?
This show hasn't been too bad at it, but I really hate when these c-dramas spend too much screen time trying to build up some sort of sob story for the psychopath villain. This episode spends too much time on Prince Li to that purpose. Just a waste of time. He's a horrible psycho who has selfishly caused the deaths of tens of thousands and is about to cause many more people to die. There is no redeeming quality to him whatsoever and it is a waste of screen time to try to pretend that he is, 'complex' or that there is some sort of grey area to feel sorry for him. This screen time would be better spent on the leads or other characters who are at least interesting,
Was this review helpful to you?
On the surface, this episode felt like a lot of talking and not much happening, but there were a lot of important conversations, some reveals and some key events. The most important, of course, was the Empress Dowager's decision to invite Ye Li to stay at the palace, "for a few days". This move is clearly to keep her as a potential hostage against the threat that Prince Ding might rebel against the Court. But this ultimately is fine. It physically puts Ye Li in a very safe place where no one would dare harm her because that _would_ trigger Prince Ding to rebel. And she's now closer to her final straw doll target and can use this opportunity to learn more about the Empress Dowager.
Was this review helpful to you?
Not a lot happens in this episode other than the (not surprising) appointment of Prince Ding to go lead the army at Suixue Pass. All the rest is filler stuff, first with a mild Prince-gets-jealous-over-nothing story followed by a Sis-in-law-wants-FL-pregnant-before Prince leaves for war story.
Was this review helpful to you?
Bai Lu's performance as Ye Li in this episode was amazing. She does such a great job of channeling a teenage girl going through this horrible, horrible trauma. It's heartbreaking to watch yet mesmerizing as well.
Was this review helpful to you?
that befell the Li Shan Academy. We now know how they died. The next things to learn is how she lived and coped and finally, hopefully we can move on to some sort of healing for her. Jeezus this was emotional and sad.
Was this review helpful to you?
of just what Ye Li's life was like for all those years. As the reveal slowly gets laid out, the image of her having to endure year after year of solitude there is painted with horrifying clarity. Glad that the writers have let Mo Xiu Yao return to being an intelligent, empathic person and his determination to stay with Ye Li and truly learn what has happened to her is a good thing. So cool that he will experience her daily life at the Academy now. But when will they reveal just what exactly happened to everyone? And what is it about the monkeys on the bridge? Aside: Some viewers have been quick to accuse the Empress Dowager of some sort of massacre but that doesn't seem right. She was a Lishan student herself in the past and was genuinely shocked to learn of Ye Li's mother's death. She had thought she was alive on the mountain. Which wouldn't make sense if she had ordered some sort of massacre. It also wouldn't have made sense for her to have issued the marriage decree of Ye Li and Prince Ding. So I don't think she did such a thing.
Was this review helpful to you?
Let's be clear: This whole 'divorce' event was painfully contrived by the writers by using blatant plot-induced stupidity and that is still annoying as heck. That said, the acting performances by Cheng Lei and Bai Lu within this are really good. Especially Bai Lu. The scene of her breaking down and crying was just heart rending. Seeing her once again surrounding herself with her imaginary companions in order to fend off the overwhelming wave of loneliness crashing down on her was just awful and yet brilliantly portrayed.
Was this review helpful to you?
If one thing has been crystal clear throughout this series is that the Marquis is relentless with his distorted gaslighting and bending of the truth to always be in his favor no matter what all other facts might say. He does this in every court appearance and even in private conversations with everyone from his personal family, to other officials and to the Empress Dowager herself. Any words coming from his mouth may contain truth but should never, EVER be taken at face value. And Prince Ding should know this better than anyone. So for him to give immediate credence to the version of the truth that the Marquis gave him - esp. under these circumstances - makes the Prince look bizarrely stupid all of a sudden. And he's so quick to break his vow to always be wither her - a vow he made more than once. This incredible weakness of character is just so at odds with who Prince Ding was built-up to be to this point that it's just so disappointing. Now I guess we have to grit our teeth and endure this annoying, "misunderstanding trope", for an episode or two? How long will they drag this out?
Was this review helpful to you?
The level of cluelessness and lack of ability to see the obvious evil in the nature of both Su Zui Die and Prince Li in Han Ming Yue (Han Ming Xie's older brother) is astonishing. What an utter fool.
Was this review helpful to you?
This episode has SO much happening in it - both good and bad (mostly bad) - but is so well paced and executed. Great episode.
Was this review helpful to you?
