This review may contain spoilers
Solid characters and decent court politics...only to be undone by a lackluster ending
7.8/10 rounded to an 8
TLDR: What a show….I cannot believe how BADLY they fumbled the last episode. Like I am so upset with how this show ended because I was loving it so much. There was a variety of characters and range in plots only to be let down by what I can only call an incomplete ending.
***
I loved Winwin as the secondary lead. Ye Xian practically stole the show for me. I appreciated his whole arc start to finish. I do wish they made him a *tad* less crazed at some points. I also wish he hadn’t died *of course*. But unlike some shows that kill for the sake of tears, Ye Xian’s death felt true to his journey. He was so apathetic to life and everything in the beginning but you can see him “melt” and soften as a person. I cried at his death and at both of his letters - the one to Gu Jin Zhao and the other to his sister. Honestly award winning storytelling and character arc.
Outside of Ye Xian, I also really enjoyed Gu Lan’s character. It’s usually that a character like her would just be “bad” and bratty, but I liked that she had no real issues with Gu Jin Zhao at first. It was only once everything imploded in the family she got desperate and betrayed Gu Jin Zhao’s mother. That said, she was still a redeemable and likable character. I was happy to see her learn and grow from that experience and even trust Gu Jin Zhao more.
Chen Xuan Qing was played by the same actor that was an antagonist in a different show and so because of it I was already pretty wary of him…even though that’s not how that works, I was still right to be wary. I feel he was the more surface level character. He’s used to move certain parts of the plot but has zero agency. I don’t think his character made as much sense as it could have if the writers focused more on character rather than plot in the later half of the show. I would have been more impressed if Chen Xuan Qing had more back and forth at the start of the show because his reappearance and apparently unresolved yearning for a woman *he* rejected years ago just felt…silly? I could not take him seriously at all. Where was all his devotion and romantic displays back when she confessed to him? Why would he wait over three years to still pine for her. I felt bad for his fiancee after all that. I’m glad she didn’t end up with him, but it was quite the ride to witness. I feel like I was expecting him to just communicate more. He takes after Chen Yan Yun with a lot of silent brooding, but I just felt like he admired Chen Yan Yun, it made little sense how crazy he got about the relationship.
I also want to give an honorable mention to Emperor Li Lin Zhang. He slayed. I feel like kid emperors are made super incompetent with their mom or court running the show, so it was nice to see him actually make decisions and stand by them.
Last but not least, the main leads: Chen Yan Yun & Gu Jin Zhao. Their romance is definitely a SLOW burn. The MDL synopsis makes it sound like she marries him in the first quarter of the show, but they don’t even “like” each other until the middle of the plot. That said, it was a believable and cute romance. She’s technically 15 when they first meet so I appreciate they wait until she’s 18 for him to formally declare feelings but I still like to pretend she was 18 at the start of the show and 21 when they start their romance. Gu Jin Zhao is a clever female lead. She’s almost a little to perfect - she can do archery and cook and think like the best of them. Her “flaw” is her intolerance to bullying which is not a flaw at all imo. I loved her. The actress was cute and played the role well. Chen Yan Yun is a cliche “serious” official trying to make the country a better place. That said, I was pretty “tepid” about him. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t great either. I think his character was decently rounded and I enjoyed his journey in recognizing his mentor has strayed to the wrong path, but he didn’t really give Chen Xuan Qing much guidance in the later half of the show which I think did his character a bit of a disservice. I loved how he falls for Gu Jin Zhao, slow but steady. He treats her as an equal despite their age and life differences. I LOVED the letter of separation with his proposal bc it shows he understands her. I hated his reaction to the reveal she had a crush on his nephew 3+ years ago. Again, it’s not that I hated him, but I didn’t get that TV crush on him as much as I usually do for the male lead. I think it circles back to really enjoying Ye Xian’s character more. I even LOVED Ye Xian’s relationship with Chen Yan Yun — begrudgingly trusting.
All of these thoughts link right to the heart of the show — mostly well thought our main characters from protagonists to the antagonists. HOWEVER, it is that dedication to the characters that makes the ending leave a bitter taste in the viewers mouth. SO MUCH has happened and we don’t really get a resolution for half the characters and their storylines. If the writers had put an eighth of the effort they gave the characters to the plot, the last 10 episodes could have been so much stronger and the last episode would have been WAY more satisfying. We needed at least another 5 minutes from the closing scene if not 10 to really close out the forty episode long show.
TLDR: What a show….I cannot believe how BADLY they fumbled the last episode. Like I am so upset with how this show ended because I was loving it so much. There was a variety of characters and range in plots only to be let down by what I can only call an incomplete ending.
***
I loved Winwin as the secondary lead. Ye Xian practically stole the show for me. I appreciated his whole arc start to finish. I do wish they made him a *tad* less crazed at some points. I also wish he hadn’t died *of course*. But unlike some shows that kill for the sake of tears, Ye Xian’s death felt true to his journey. He was so apathetic to life and everything in the beginning but you can see him “melt” and soften as a person. I cried at his death and at both of his letters - the one to Gu Jin Zhao and the other to his sister. Honestly award winning storytelling and character arc.
Outside of Ye Xian, I also really enjoyed Gu Lan’s character. It’s usually that a character like her would just be “bad” and bratty, but I liked that she had no real issues with Gu Jin Zhao at first. It was only once everything imploded in the family she got desperate and betrayed Gu Jin Zhao’s mother. That said, she was still a redeemable and likable character. I was happy to see her learn and grow from that experience and even trust Gu Jin Zhao more.
Chen Xuan Qing was played by the same actor that was an antagonist in a different show and so because of it I was already pretty wary of him…even though that’s not how that works, I was still right to be wary. I feel he was the more surface level character. He’s used to move certain parts of the plot but has zero agency. I don’t think his character made as much sense as it could have if the writers focused more on character rather than plot in the later half of the show. I would have been more impressed if Chen Xuan Qing had more back and forth at the start of the show because his reappearance and apparently unresolved yearning for a woman *he* rejected years ago just felt…silly? I could not take him seriously at all. Where was all his devotion and romantic displays back when she confessed to him? Why would he wait over three years to still pine for her. I felt bad for his fiancee after all that. I’m glad she didn’t end up with him, but it was quite the ride to witness. I feel like I was expecting him to just communicate more. He takes after Chen Yan Yun with a lot of silent brooding, but I just felt like he admired Chen Yan Yun, it made little sense how crazy he got about the relationship.
I also want to give an honorable mention to Emperor Li Lin Zhang. He slayed. I feel like kid emperors are made super incompetent with their mom or court running the show, so it was nice to see him actually make decisions and stand by them.
Last but not least, the main leads: Chen Yan Yun & Gu Jin Zhao. Their romance is definitely a SLOW burn. The MDL synopsis makes it sound like she marries him in the first quarter of the show, but they don’t even “like” each other until the middle of the plot. That said, it was a believable and cute romance. She’s technically 15 when they first meet so I appreciate they wait until she’s 18 for him to formally declare feelings but I still like to pretend she was 18 at the start of the show and 21 when they start their romance. Gu Jin Zhao is a clever female lead. She’s almost a little to perfect - she can do archery and cook and think like the best of them. Her “flaw” is her intolerance to bullying which is not a flaw at all imo. I loved her. The actress was cute and played the role well. Chen Yan Yun is a cliche “serious” official trying to make the country a better place. That said, I was pretty “tepid” about him. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t great either. I think his character was decently rounded and I enjoyed his journey in recognizing his mentor has strayed to the wrong path, but he didn’t really give Chen Xuan Qing much guidance in the later half of the show which I think did his character a bit of a disservice. I loved how he falls for Gu Jin Zhao, slow but steady. He treats her as an equal despite their age and life differences. I LOVED the letter of separation with his proposal bc it shows he understands her. I hated his reaction to the reveal she had a crush on his nephew 3+ years ago. Again, it’s not that I hated him, but I didn’t get that TV crush on him as much as I usually do for the male lead. I think it circles back to really enjoying Ye Xian’s character more. I even LOVED Ye Xian’s relationship with Chen Yan Yun — begrudgingly trusting.
All of these thoughts link right to the heart of the show — mostly well thought our main characters from protagonists to the antagonists. HOWEVER, it is that dedication to the characters that makes the ending leave a bitter taste in the viewers mouth. SO MUCH has happened and we don’t really get a resolution for half the characters and their storylines. If the writers had put an eighth of the effort they gave the characters to the plot, the last 10 episodes could have been so much stronger and the last episode would have been WAY more satisfying. We needed at least another 5 minutes from the closing scene if not 10 to really close out the forty episode long show.
Was this review helpful to you?
