This review may contain spoilers
❤️ My internal clock woke me up at 4:00 a.m. to watch this for a week.
Story
The story was surprisingly accurate. When I did a comparison between plot lines in the novel versus the drama I was surprised to see that the drama stayed very loyal to the book. And I say surprised, because it felt, especially towards ep 26-30, that the drama was falling behind. That said, it’s because it was missing a lot of context that was left in the novel.
I completely understand the choice to cut out some of plot lines and missions (ex: the bear, interrogating/breaking out prisoners, the multiple battles in the capital…) for time. But where they cut, they also included a lot of scenes for other characters. For instance, QM and YQQ barely had any of their own pov in the novel, while the drama devoted almost 1/3 of its time to them (and I do appreciate the toxic love story). But the screenwriter decided to incorporate the side stories into the main story, thereby taking away time from the main story.
So we missed a lot of plots surrounding our main characters in exchange for other characters. But for what they kept, they stayed really faithful. Almost word for word.
The story stayed very faithful the characters in a lot of ways, but also deviated from them somewhat. For instance, for XZ/YZ, we barely get any context about his mother’s suicide and how it affected him beyond nightmares and hints about self loathing. In the book, it’s deeply tied to his reluctance to fall in love, how he doesn’t want to end up like his mother falling in love with someone that when they die it kills them. He blames himself more than anyone, and when he finds out that his mother killed herself to save him from his uncle, it completely floors him. It was a huge moment in the book where he went to confront WY at his parent’s graves. Or when they realize that her father was WX and he actually leaves her and throws himself into the war to try to get her out of his head, injuring himself repeatedly, then going to his family and asking to be whipped 108 times because he committed a grave sin by falling in love with her and deciding he cannot let her go. I mean, the angst!! Dial it up by x20 in the novel.
And I can excuse those changes for needing to cut time. I think the change I disliked the most was ep 26/27 when after he’s drugged, he doesn’t kill the opposing side General like he does in the book. That was one change I was genuinely confused why they would do that. It just prolonged that plot point for that guy to come back for 2 seconds and be killed in a 1 second. That was, I think, the only change that actually annoyed me. Because in the book, after he wakes up, he goes to fight in the battle before seeking out CY, having confidence that she could take care of herself and that if she couldn’t his people would take care of her, even though he was worried.
Generally the show did an amazing job. If I didn’t read the novel, I would think this still an amazing watch for its plot. Still 10/10.
And I do love some the changes they made in the show. XZ/YZ is infinitely nicer and less of a dick to people. And while some people may complain that he’s not showing the power of being the feared marquis, I appreciated the change. We still see the depth of his power because he can mobilize people to do what he wants and his reputation is as feared general and he has so much arrogance from his achievements that he doesn’t even kneel for the emperor. I like that we see him be nice to Changning and to Bao’er, especially in the village.
I like that the mains relationship had a lot more consent in it. I think the mains relationship was so beautifully written and perfectly performed (I’ll get to that later).
Despite the fact that it cut into the main story line, I love that they included the side stories and added the complexity to the other characters (WY, QM, SY…)
My general review for the story as a whole was that it’s a good story. Having read the novel, of course I’m disappointed that parts I consider pivotal weren’t included, but I’m not that mad about it because of how the drama came together as a whole.
I definitely think my understanding of the drama is probably affected by the translation. I saw online someone say that the translations lost a lot of the formality and context. So hopefully I can either learn mandarin or someone can do an in depth translation with guides on the jokes or important verbiage that are lost on those who don’t speak the language.
I think overall, too much time in the village, that could have been cut down and devoted to more background in their families and backstory. I don’t know if it helped that I read the novel so I knew what was happening, or if it hurt because I knew what should have been happening.
Acting/Cast
When I say that the best part of this drama was the actors, I am not lying. The actors understood the f*cking assignment, and I applaud them heartily.
Our leads ZLH and TXW had peak chemistry. I have watched their other works before and I do not know if I’ve ever been this obsessed with them. They’ve never looked better, they’ve never acted better.
I swear to god TXW eyes did more acting in this drama than some veteran actors in their entire careers. And ZLH’s microexpressions and his jaw. HIS JAW!! Did so much acting!
Now, yes they are both very pretty people and do benefit from the pretty privilege where you can ignore bad acting. But I genuinely think they did act very well in this series. This is a director who knew what he wanted and got it from his cast.
I also watched the behind the scenes footage and was surprised by how much say the actor’s had in what they wanted to do considering how intentional this director is with his choices in the drama.
Besides our leads, our side characters were also outstanding. DK and SK’s chemistry was on fire. While toxic obsession stories are not my cup of tea I give them all the props for their chemistry and flawless acting. They played incredibly nuanced characters. LQ and YZL also gave an amazing performance of their pure love story. And LMR is a new young break out actor I hope to see more of.
Special mention to the young actors playing CN and YB. They did amazing.
Music / Cinematography
I have nothing but love for this director and his way of capturing the story and the characters. He is so deliberate about his choices, the coloring, the focus, the details are just so layered and intentional.
The music and composition was beautiful.
Rewatch Value
10/10
Would rewatch, would reread, have been rewatching, and rereading.
The story was surprisingly accurate. When I did a comparison between plot lines in the novel versus the drama I was surprised to see that the drama stayed very loyal to the book. And I say surprised, because it felt, especially towards ep 26-30, that the drama was falling behind. That said, it’s because it was missing a lot of context that was left in the novel.
I completely understand the choice to cut out some of plot lines and missions (ex: the bear, interrogating/breaking out prisoners, the multiple battles in the capital…) for time. But where they cut, they also included a lot of scenes for other characters. For instance, QM and YQQ barely had any of their own pov in the novel, while the drama devoted almost 1/3 of its time to them (and I do appreciate the toxic love story). But the screenwriter decided to incorporate the side stories into the main story, thereby taking away time from the main story.
So we missed a lot of plots surrounding our main characters in exchange for other characters. But for what they kept, they stayed really faithful. Almost word for word.
The story stayed very faithful the characters in a lot of ways, but also deviated from them somewhat. For instance, for XZ/YZ, we barely get any context about his mother’s suicide and how it affected him beyond nightmares and hints about self loathing. In the book, it’s deeply tied to his reluctance to fall in love, how he doesn’t want to end up like his mother falling in love with someone that when they die it kills them. He blames himself more than anyone, and when he finds out that his mother killed herself to save him from his uncle, it completely floors him. It was a huge moment in the book where he went to confront WY at his parent’s graves. Or when they realize that her father was WX and he actually leaves her and throws himself into the war to try to get her out of his head, injuring himself repeatedly, then going to his family and asking to be whipped 108 times because he committed a grave sin by falling in love with her and deciding he cannot let her go. I mean, the angst!! Dial it up by x20 in the novel.
And I can excuse those changes for needing to cut time. I think the change I disliked the most was ep 26/27 when after he’s drugged, he doesn’t kill the opposing side General like he does in the book. That was one change I was genuinely confused why they would do that. It just prolonged that plot point for that guy to come back for 2 seconds and be killed in a 1 second. That was, I think, the only change that actually annoyed me. Because in the book, after he wakes up, he goes to fight in the battle before seeking out CY, having confidence that she could take care of herself and that if she couldn’t his people would take care of her, even though he was worried.
Generally the show did an amazing job. If I didn’t read the novel, I would think this still an amazing watch for its plot. Still 10/10.
And I do love some the changes they made in the show. XZ/YZ is infinitely nicer and less of a dick to people. And while some people may complain that he’s not showing the power of being the feared marquis, I appreciated the change. We still see the depth of his power because he can mobilize people to do what he wants and his reputation is as feared general and he has so much arrogance from his achievements that he doesn’t even kneel for the emperor. I like that we see him be nice to Changning and to Bao’er, especially in the village.
I like that the mains relationship had a lot more consent in it. I think the mains relationship was so beautifully written and perfectly performed (I’ll get to that later).
Despite the fact that it cut into the main story line, I love that they included the side stories and added the complexity to the other characters (WY, QM, SY…)
My general review for the story as a whole was that it’s a good story. Having read the novel, of course I’m disappointed that parts I consider pivotal weren’t included, but I’m not that mad about it because of how the drama came together as a whole.
I definitely think my understanding of the drama is probably affected by the translation. I saw online someone say that the translations lost a lot of the formality and context. So hopefully I can either learn mandarin or someone can do an in depth translation with guides on the jokes or important verbiage that are lost on those who don’t speak the language.
I think overall, too much time in the village, that could have been cut down and devoted to more background in their families and backstory. I don’t know if it helped that I read the novel so I knew what was happening, or if it hurt because I knew what should have been happening.
Acting/Cast
When I say that the best part of this drama was the actors, I am not lying. The actors understood the f*cking assignment, and I applaud them heartily.
Our leads ZLH and TXW had peak chemistry. I have watched their other works before and I do not know if I’ve ever been this obsessed with them. They’ve never looked better, they’ve never acted better.
I swear to god TXW eyes did more acting in this drama than some veteran actors in their entire careers. And ZLH’s microexpressions and his jaw. HIS JAW!! Did so much acting!
Now, yes they are both very pretty people and do benefit from the pretty privilege where you can ignore bad acting. But I genuinely think they did act very well in this series. This is a director who knew what he wanted and got it from his cast.
I also watched the behind the scenes footage and was surprised by how much say the actor’s had in what they wanted to do considering how intentional this director is with his choices in the drama.
Besides our leads, our side characters were also outstanding. DK and SK’s chemistry was on fire. While toxic obsession stories are not my cup of tea I give them all the props for their chemistry and flawless acting. They played incredibly nuanced characters. LQ and YZL also gave an amazing performance of their pure love story. And LMR is a new young break out actor I hope to see more of.
Special mention to the young actors playing CN and YB. They did amazing.
Music / Cinematography
I have nothing but love for this director and his way of capturing the story and the characters. He is so deliberate about his choices, the coloring, the focus, the details are just so layered and intentional.
The music and composition was beautiful.
Rewatch Value
10/10
Would rewatch, would reread, have been rewatching, and rereading.
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