This review may contain spoilers
the last third devolves into an incoherent mess that ruins anything good from the first 2/3
This was high on my watchlist bc I love love LOVE Fated Hearts and this show has the same scriptwriter. I went in with very high expectations given how highly I regard Fated Hearts, and in retrospect, those expectations were probably unreasonably high, but even so this was just... such a mess? Like I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the same person is responsible for both shows because the gap in quality is the size of a literal ocean. I have sooooooo many complaints but I'm going to try to just hit the highlights bc otherwise this review is going to be a literal novel.
God, where to begin......... I guess the first thing I should talk about, given this story is centered around the romance between Jun Qiluo and Xuan Lie, is their dynamic. They went from enemies to trusting each other waaaaaaay too fast. Like iirc by episode 3 Jun Qiluo is in this mentality of "I can't abandon Xuan Lie" when he has abducted her and been holding her hostage? Like, yeah, they did have that life or death experience in the desert where they were helping each other survive, but they barely know each other rn and he *did* abduct her, so this intensity just doesn't make sense at this point. That being said, the romance did pull me in for a brief moment — I really liked Xuan Lie being observant and paying attention to Jun Qiluo and realizing that Jun Feifan was her secret identity within the first 8 episodes, and the way he protected her multiple times in Beixuan... there was some really good ship material there if you just accept how quickly it moves. But then it all falls apart around halfway through the show when their relationship progresses in a way that makes no f*cking sense. So, Jun Qiluo was arranged to marry Shao Qimin, a family friend that she grew up with. She thinks one of Xuan Lie's men killed Shao Qimin in the first episode, but he actually survived and was sold as a slave to Xuan Qingkou, Xuan Lie's sister... I'll talk about her and her relationship with Shao Qimin in a moment. Anyway, Qiluo learns of a mine in Beixuan that has a rare stone that she wants access to, as she is in charge of her family business in Yannan. So she's determined to get shipments of that stone back to Yannan for her family and Xuan Lie starts giving her a bit more free reign. Around this time she learns that Qimin is actually alive as she sees him with Qingkou. Qimin, upon reuniting with Qiluo, the woman he is in love with and that it is his duty to protect (esp since she has no skills in fighting), is repeatedly trying to urge Qiluo to come back to Yannan. Qiluo is still looking for excuses to stay in Beixuan even after she has secured a shipment of these rare stones, so Qimin gives Qiluo some kind of anesthetic so he can take her back to Yannan himself, but of course they are stopped by Xuan Lie. When Xuan Lie's men have cornered Qimin and they have their weapons drawn, Qiluo holds a dagger to her throat and threatens to kill herself if Xuan Lie doesn't promise to let Qimin live. Xuan Lie of course gives into this demand since he doesn't want Qiluo to die. This leads to Xuan Lie and Qiluo having an argument in private and Xuan Lie, refusing to understand that Qiluo cares deeply about Qimin *in a platonic way*, is like "Don't you love me? But you're risking your life for him? When he has romantic feelings for you? It makes no sense! Why can't you just be with me?" and she basically responds with "I am not your only priority either, if we don't trust each other, we shouldn't be together." Qiluo then tries to walk away and Xuan Lie grabs her and threatens to kill Qimin if she leaves the room. Qiluo (UNDERSTANDABLY!!!!!!!!!!!!) in her distress grabs Xuan Lie's whip and tries to hit him with it, but he catches the end and pulls her closer to him and they end up tangled up in the whip (bc of course) and they fall to the bed. Xuan Lie then forcefully kisses her and Qiluo is trying to push him off so THIS IS ASSAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then as soon as she does manage to push him off, she then pulls him into another kiss and things progress to sex. So, another show trying to gaslight me into finding assault sexy. Cool 👍 The romance completely lost me with that scene and then somehow it managed to get EVEN WORSE in the last third of the show! Basically the King of Beixuan arranges a marriage for Xuan Lie, and then shortly after that, Qiluo hears the news that the Yannan King has executed her family bc he believes she has defected to Beixuan. (Which……. okay I get that Xuan Lie is reluctant to let her leave, I get that she's falling for him and is also reluctant to leave but……. can't she write a letter to her family so they at least know that she's okay??????????? Like as far as her father and sisters know, they think she is DEAD and she just never has the thought of reaching out to them????? HUH??????????????) Qiluo is finally wanting to get back to Yannan (only after hearing her family was executed???? GIRL WHAT????) and is determined to do so or die trying. Her method of escaping Beixuan is to jump off a cliff… it's a CDrama, of course she survives. Qiluo learns her family wasn't actually executed and that it was just a ploy from the King to see if she would return to Yannan or not. She is now in the position of trying to keep the King happy and prove her loyalty to him so he doesn't execute her family for real. Meanwhile, Xuan Lie, thinking Qiluo died from jumping off the cliff, is then deep in his grief and decides to go to Yannan in a desire to feel closer to her. Upon learning Qiluo is alive, the man will not leave her alone! He's constantly showing up where she is and insisting she still has feelings for him and she keeps saying that she doesn't and that her life in Yannan is her priority and he refuses to listen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on the day that she is supposed to marry Qimin, bc y'know, she has to prove her loyalty to Yannan if she wants her family to stay alive, Xuan Lie ABDUCTS HER. I am so sick of this abuse apologia bullshit in romances. LISTEN TO WHAT SOMEONE IS TELLING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just because you believe you know someone deeply and that you know their thoughts does not mean that you actually do because mindreading doesn't f*cking exist! If someone is saying something that doesn't line up with how they feel internally, it is still your responsibility to follow what they have communicated to you!!!!!!!!!!!! We are never getting out of our current nightmare reality if people do not start getting this through their skulls!!!!!!!!!! MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, it takes like six separate conversations where Qiluo insists she has no interest in them restarting their relationship before Xuan Lie finally decides to give up. But then the literal next day he learns she's pregnant and he's back to insisting that she still loves him and that they should get back together. Truly this "romance" belongs in the dumpster.
Okay… let's move onto the mess that is Qingkou. So, there's a review on here defending her and uh.... no, I don't think we should be defending the spoiled brat princess who treated a guy like a possession bc she thought he was hot. Literally she sees Qimin being auctioned off and instead of being appalled that a literal slave auction is happening right in front of her eyes and using her powers as the princess to free everyone who is being sold, she's like "[stares dreamily] He's so handsome, I must have him." Also literally in this first meeting, someone else who had bidded on Qimin gets upset w Qingkou for outbidding her and Qingkou's response is to pull out her whip and strike Qimin IN THE FACE so he will be "ruined goods." Yeah, there was no way that I was ever going to like her as a character after this bullshit. Anyway, the review I mentioned really irritated the f*ck out of me bc it claimed that Qingkou had character growth but lol where. She constantly ordered Qimin around, CHANGED HIS NAME and then ALWAYS used the name she gave him even after learning his real name (← you do not understand how much this infuriates me), threatened Qiluo's life every time Qimin displayed his concern for her, repeatedly ignored his boundaries and assaulted him. He told her MORE THAN ONCE that he did not return her feelings and yet she still would not leave him alone!!!!!! (Xuan Lie and Xuan Qingkou are the siblings from hell and I loathe both of them!!!!) When the rest of the royal family wants to keep Qingkou and Qimin separated from each other since he's from Yannan and they don't trust him, every single time without fail, Qingkou threatens to kill herself. She does not view Qimin as his own person, she very clearly views him as her property and throws a tantrum any time he does not do exactly as she wants. And while the script (unfortunately) forces Qimin into the position of forgiving her and starting to fall for her in the final 5 episodes bc how much effort she put into trying to cure him of the poison he was given by the Yannan King, even at that point she's still ordering him around and threatening to do things that would get Qiluo in trouble with the Yannan King (aka endangering Qiluo and her family). Re Qingkou trying to cure Qimin's poison, she has knowledge of medicine and decides to test one of her medicinal concoctions on herself (which.... how the f*ck does that tell her anything about its effectiveness if she has not taken the poison? HELLO??????) and said concoction nearly kills her....... Honestly, this is no different than her threats of killing herself bc ppl are keeping her away from Qimin. Bc her testing the medicine on herself means she either successfully finds the cure and she saves him or she inadvertantly poisons herself and dies and then she doesn't have to worry about living without him. Like…. lmao growth my f*cking ass.
To make matters worse re Qimin… he dies. He endured Qingkou's endless harassment and abuse and still treated her kindly and protected her (which she did NOT deserve); literally every time Xuan Lie or one of Qiluo's antagonists derailed plans to assuage the King's worries about Qiluo's loyalty, he would take the fall; and then after learning about Qiluo's pregnancy, the King is like "You've lied to me too many times. You must either kill Xuan Lie or kill the fetus." Qimin of course is not willing to do either bc he loves Qiluo and he knows how she feels about Xuan Lie, so he presumes the King will have sent guards to kill Xuan Lie and he takes out a bunch of them when he sacrifices himself. And Qiluo doesn't even get to be with him when he dies!!!!! Qingkou is holding him and crying and insisting that she's going to save him while Qiluo is trying to run over to them and then Qingkou is pushing her away OH MY GOD I LITERALLY BLACKED OUT FROM RAGE. And then for some nonsensical reason the King just decides to drop the attempt to assassinate Xuan Lie or the baby. And for some nonsensical reason Qiluo is still loyal to Yannan after this. If I had genuinely been loyal and then some paranoid dickhead with too much power killed one of the people who was dearest to me… I would not f*cking be loyal anymore! But this show doesn't care about logic so. whatever.
What else? Let's talk about the doomed triangle that was Li Fanyin - Luo Zhizhou - Dong Yin bc... god this was grotesque. So Li Fanyin and Luo Zhizhou had fallen for each other but the Beixuan King had his eye on Li Fanyin and demanded her to be his bride. Li Fanyin acquiesced to save Luo Zhizhou's life. Luo Zhizhou then starts plotting to get the position of Wolf Lord so he can save Li Fanyin (and her son with the King) and repeatedly endangers Xuan Lie (his best friend btw) and also repeatedly attempts to have Qiluo killed via help from Dong Yin (a servant in the Beixuan palace who Qiluo quickly develops a fondness for as she is of mixed parentage from Beixuan and Yannan) to try to ruin Xuan Lie's chances of becoming the Wolf Lord. As you can probably guess given Xuan Lie is the male lead, Luo Zhizhou fails in securing the position of Wolf Lord and he quickly is exposed to have been behind the (unintentional) death of another Beixuan sect leader via one of his attempts to stall/harm Xuan Lie during the Wolf Lord competition. Luo Zhizhou is quickly taken to the Beixuan King for punishment and he plans to have Luo Zhizhou AND Li Fanyin executed, causing Luo Zhizhou to insist that he acted alone and pleading for the King to spare Li Fanyin. The King agrees to these terms... but then as soon as Luo Zhizhou "dies" — basically there's a random plot convenient terminally ill doppleganger who agrees to take his place so Zhizhou can escape?????? (This was undoubtedly the exact moment when the writers started losing me lol.) — the King immediately has his son with Li Fanyin separated from her and sent far away. Li Fanyin soon falls ill — presumably bc her heartbreak/distress? — and the King repeatedly refuses to allow her to get medical care, and after an episode or two of her being sickly, she dies. And then the King's bitch ass has the f*cking nerve to be like "Oh that's so sad that she died, who could have seen this coming" and he's like crying and like... god. Go f*ck yourself, you absolute bastard!!!!!!!! So Li Fanyin just existed to suffer and be a prop. Cool 👍 Anyway, Zhizhou and Dong Yin had escaped to the countryside or smth and then upon hearing about Fanyin's death, Zhizhou decides he's going to get revenge for her or die trying and Dong Yin insists on going with him (since she is in love w him). Zhizhou then gets sooooooooooo insanely close to killing the King — WHICH THAT BASTARD UNEQUIVOCALLY DESERVES — but Xuan Lie steps in to stop him (bc his duties as the Wolf Lord). Xuan Lie is pleading for Zhizhou to stop this as he doesn't want to kill his best friend, and Zhizhou basically just… walks into Xuan Lie's sword and then forces the sword deeper into his chest. It's genuinely nauseating seeing Zhizhou getting so close to atoning for his failure to protect Fanyin and have the show side with her rapist who directly caused her death. And then the show just has to really drive home its skewed perception of morality and seconds after Zhizhou is fatally wounded, Dong Yin gets fatally wounded too. And, like, literally the only "bad" thing Dong Yin did in the entire show was attempt to kill Qiluo, which she almost immediately abandoned bc she developed a fondness for her, so it feels extra grotesque to see her die.
So yeah, no consequences for either evil King. The Yannan King loves to do his loyalty tests and is eager to execute anyone who is a toe out of line. The Beixuan King is a warmonger and rapist. And yet Qiluo remains loyal to the Yannan King and Xuan Lie remains loyal to the Beixuan King and both Kings drop their animosity towards Qiluo / Xuan Lie basically bc they see how steadfast the two are about their relationship and are like "You've worn me down, I'm tired of fighting you on this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" HUH??????????? Qiluo and Xuan Lie had also been trying to build a trade port between the two nations and that finally comes to fruition in the last few episodes so that is also part of the two Kings allowing for Qiluo and Xuan Lie to be together, I guess.
ANYWAY, the first 2/3 of the show had its moments and if the writers weren't cowards and had pursued a Qiluo - Qimin romance once they returned to Yannan it could've been an overall enjoyable experience but no they decided to be this garbage fire instead. [sighs heavily]
God, where to begin......... I guess the first thing I should talk about, given this story is centered around the romance between Jun Qiluo and Xuan Lie, is their dynamic. They went from enemies to trusting each other waaaaaaay too fast. Like iirc by episode 3 Jun Qiluo is in this mentality of "I can't abandon Xuan Lie" when he has abducted her and been holding her hostage? Like, yeah, they did have that life or death experience in the desert where they were helping each other survive, but they barely know each other rn and he *did* abduct her, so this intensity just doesn't make sense at this point. That being said, the romance did pull me in for a brief moment — I really liked Xuan Lie being observant and paying attention to Jun Qiluo and realizing that Jun Feifan was her secret identity within the first 8 episodes, and the way he protected her multiple times in Beixuan... there was some really good ship material there if you just accept how quickly it moves. But then it all falls apart around halfway through the show when their relationship progresses in a way that makes no f*cking sense. So, Jun Qiluo was arranged to marry Shao Qimin, a family friend that she grew up with. She thinks one of Xuan Lie's men killed Shao Qimin in the first episode, but he actually survived and was sold as a slave to Xuan Qingkou, Xuan Lie's sister... I'll talk about her and her relationship with Shao Qimin in a moment. Anyway, Qiluo learns of a mine in Beixuan that has a rare stone that she wants access to, as she is in charge of her family business in Yannan. So she's determined to get shipments of that stone back to Yannan for her family and Xuan Lie starts giving her a bit more free reign. Around this time she learns that Qimin is actually alive as she sees him with Qingkou. Qimin, upon reuniting with Qiluo, the woman he is in love with and that it is his duty to protect (esp since she has no skills in fighting), is repeatedly trying to urge Qiluo to come back to Yannan. Qiluo is still looking for excuses to stay in Beixuan even after she has secured a shipment of these rare stones, so Qimin gives Qiluo some kind of anesthetic so he can take her back to Yannan himself, but of course they are stopped by Xuan Lie. When Xuan Lie's men have cornered Qimin and they have their weapons drawn, Qiluo holds a dagger to her throat and threatens to kill herself if Xuan Lie doesn't promise to let Qimin live. Xuan Lie of course gives into this demand since he doesn't want Qiluo to die. This leads to Xuan Lie and Qiluo having an argument in private and Xuan Lie, refusing to understand that Qiluo cares deeply about Qimin *in a platonic way*, is like "Don't you love me? But you're risking your life for him? When he has romantic feelings for you? It makes no sense! Why can't you just be with me?" and she basically responds with "I am not your only priority either, if we don't trust each other, we shouldn't be together." Qiluo then tries to walk away and Xuan Lie grabs her and threatens to kill Qimin if she leaves the room. Qiluo (UNDERSTANDABLY!!!!!!!!!!!!) in her distress grabs Xuan Lie's whip and tries to hit him with it, but he catches the end and pulls her closer to him and they end up tangled up in the whip (bc of course) and they fall to the bed. Xuan Lie then forcefully kisses her and Qiluo is trying to push him off so THIS IS ASSAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But then as soon as she does manage to push him off, she then pulls him into another kiss and things progress to sex. So, another show trying to gaslight me into finding assault sexy. Cool 👍 The romance completely lost me with that scene and then somehow it managed to get EVEN WORSE in the last third of the show! Basically the King of Beixuan arranges a marriage for Xuan Lie, and then shortly after that, Qiluo hears the news that the Yannan King has executed her family bc he believes she has defected to Beixuan. (Which……. okay I get that Xuan Lie is reluctant to let her leave, I get that she's falling for him and is also reluctant to leave but……. can't she write a letter to her family so they at least know that she's okay??????????? Like as far as her father and sisters know, they think she is DEAD and she just never has the thought of reaching out to them????? HUH??????????????) Qiluo is finally wanting to get back to Yannan (only after hearing her family was executed???? GIRL WHAT????) and is determined to do so or die trying. Her method of escaping Beixuan is to jump off a cliff… it's a CDrama, of course she survives. Qiluo learns her family wasn't actually executed and that it was just a ploy from the King to see if she would return to Yannan or not. She is now in the position of trying to keep the King happy and prove her loyalty to him so he doesn't execute her family for real. Meanwhile, Xuan Lie, thinking Qiluo died from jumping off the cliff, is then deep in his grief and decides to go to Yannan in a desire to feel closer to her. Upon learning Qiluo is alive, the man will not leave her alone! He's constantly showing up where she is and insisting she still has feelings for him and she keeps saying that she doesn't and that her life in Yannan is her priority and he refuses to listen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on the day that she is supposed to marry Qimin, bc y'know, she has to prove her loyalty to Yannan if she wants her family to stay alive, Xuan Lie ABDUCTS HER. I am so sick of this abuse apologia bullshit in romances. LISTEN TO WHAT SOMEONE IS TELLING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just because you believe you know someone deeply and that you know their thoughts does not mean that you actually do because mindreading doesn't f*cking exist! If someone is saying something that doesn't line up with how they feel internally, it is still your responsibility to follow what they have communicated to you!!!!!!!!!!!! We are never getting out of our current nightmare reality if people do not start getting this through their skulls!!!!!!!!!! MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, it takes like six separate conversations where Qiluo insists she has no interest in them restarting their relationship before Xuan Lie finally decides to give up. But then the literal next day he learns she's pregnant and he's back to insisting that she still loves him and that they should get back together. Truly this "romance" belongs in the dumpster.
Okay… let's move onto the mess that is Qingkou. So, there's a review on here defending her and uh.... no, I don't think we should be defending the spoiled brat princess who treated a guy like a possession bc she thought he was hot. Literally she sees Qimin being auctioned off and instead of being appalled that a literal slave auction is happening right in front of her eyes and using her powers as the princess to free everyone who is being sold, she's like "[stares dreamily] He's so handsome, I must have him." Also literally in this first meeting, someone else who had bidded on Qimin gets upset w Qingkou for outbidding her and Qingkou's response is to pull out her whip and strike Qimin IN THE FACE so he will be "ruined goods." Yeah, there was no way that I was ever going to like her as a character after this bullshit. Anyway, the review I mentioned really irritated the f*ck out of me bc it claimed that Qingkou had character growth but lol where. She constantly ordered Qimin around, CHANGED HIS NAME and then ALWAYS used the name she gave him even after learning his real name (← you do not understand how much this infuriates me), threatened Qiluo's life every time Qimin displayed his concern for her, repeatedly ignored his boundaries and assaulted him. He told her MORE THAN ONCE that he did not return her feelings and yet she still would not leave him alone!!!!!! (Xuan Lie and Xuan Qingkou are the siblings from hell and I loathe both of them!!!!) When the rest of the royal family wants to keep Qingkou and Qimin separated from each other since he's from Yannan and they don't trust him, every single time without fail, Qingkou threatens to kill herself. She does not view Qimin as his own person, she very clearly views him as her property and throws a tantrum any time he does not do exactly as she wants. And while the script (unfortunately) forces Qimin into the position of forgiving her and starting to fall for her in the final 5 episodes bc how much effort she put into trying to cure him of the poison he was given by the Yannan King, even at that point she's still ordering him around and threatening to do things that would get Qiluo in trouble with the Yannan King (aka endangering Qiluo and her family). Re Qingkou trying to cure Qimin's poison, she has knowledge of medicine and decides to test one of her medicinal concoctions on herself (which.... how the f*ck does that tell her anything about its effectiveness if she has not taken the poison? HELLO??????) and said concoction nearly kills her....... Honestly, this is no different than her threats of killing herself bc ppl are keeping her away from Qimin. Bc her testing the medicine on herself means she either successfully finds the cure and she saves him or she inadvertantly poisons herself and dies and then she doesn't have to worry about living without him. Like…. lmao growth my f*cking ass.
To make matters worse re Qimin… he dies. He endured Qingkou's endless harassment and abuse and still treated her kindly and protected her (which she did NOT deserve); literally every time Xuan Lie or one of Qiluo's antagonists derailed plans to assuage the King's worries about Qiluo's loyalty, he would take the fall; and then after learning about Qiluo's pregnancy, the King is like "You've lied to me too many times. You must either kill Xuan Lie or kill the fetus." Qimin of course is not willing to do either bc he loves Qiluo and he knows how she feels about Xuan Lie, so he presumes the King will have sent guards to kill Xuan Lie and he takes out a bunch of them when he sacrifices himself. And Qiluo doesn't even get to be with him when he dies!!!!! Qingkou is holding him and crying and insisting that she's going to save him while Qiluo is trying to run over to them and then Qingkou is pushing her away OH MY GOD I LITERALLY BLACKED OUT FROM RAGE. And then for some nonsensical reason the King just decides to drop the attempt to assassinate Xuan Lie or the baby. And for some nonsensical reason Qiluo is still loyal to Yannan after this. If I had genuinely been loyal and then some paranoid dickhead with too much power killed one of the people who was dearest to me… I would not f*cking be loyal anymore! But this show doesn't care about logic so. whatever.
What else? Let's talk about the doomed triangle that was Li Fanyin - Luo Zhizhou - Dong Yin bc... god this was grotesque. So Li Fanyin and Luo Zhizhou had fallen for each other but the Beixuan King had his eye on Li Fanyin and demanded her to be his bride. Li Fanyin acquiesced to save Luo Zhizhou's life. Luo Zhizhou then starts plotting to get the position of Wolf Lord so he can save Li Fanyin (and her son with the King) and repeatedly endangers Xuan Lie (his best friend btw) and also repeatedly attempts to have Qiluo killed via help from Dong Yin (a servant in the Beixuan palace who Qiluo quickly develops a fondness for as she is of mixed parentage from Beixuan and Yannan) to try to ruin Xuan Lie's chances of becoming the Wolf Lord. As you can probably guess given Xuan Lie is the male lead, Luo Zhizhou fails in securing the position of Wolf Lord and he quickly is exposed to have been behind the (unintentional) death of another Beixuan sect leader via one of his attempts to stall/harm Xuan Lie during the Wolf Lord competition. Luo Zhizhou is quickly taken to the Beixuan King for punishment and he plans to have Luo Zhizhou AND Li Fanyin executed, causing Luo Zhizhou to insist that he acted alone and pleading for the King to spare Li Fanyin. The King agrees to these terms... but then as soon as Luo Zhizhou "dies" — basically there's a random plot convenient terminally ill doppleganger who agrees to take his place so Zhizhou can escape?????? (This was undoubtedly the exact moment when the writers started losing me lol.) — the King immediately has his son with Li Fanyin separated from her and sent far away. Li Fanyin soon falls ill — presumably bc her heartbreak/distress? — and the King repeatedly refuses to allow her to get medical care, and after an episode or two of her being sickly, she dies. And then the King's bitch ass has the f*cking nerve to be like "Oh that's so sad that she died, who could have seen this coming" and he's like crying and like... god. Go f*ck yourself, you absolute bastard!!!!!!!! So Li Fanyin just existed to suffer and be a prop. Cool 👍 Anyway, Zhizhou and Dong Yin had escaped to the countryside or smth and then upon hearing about Fanyin's death, Zhizhou decides he's going to get revenge for her or die trying and Dong Yin insists on going with him (since she is in love w him). Zhizhou then gets sooooooooooo insanely close to killing the King — WHICH THAT BASTARD UNEQUIVOCALLY DESERVES — but Xuan Lie steps in to stop him (bc his duties as the Wolf Lord). Xuan Lie is pleading for Zhizhou to stop this as he doesn't want to kill his best friend, and Zhizhou basically just… walks into Xuan Lie's sword and then forces the sword deeper into his chest. It's genuinely nauseating seeing Zhizhou getting so close to atoning for his failure to protect Fanyin and have the show side with her rapist who directly caused her death. And then the show just has to really drive home its skewed perception of morality and seconds after Zhizhou is fatally wounded, Dong Yin gets fatally wounded too. And, like, literally the only "bad" thing Dong Yin did in the entire show was attempt to kill Qiluo, which she almost immediately abandoned bc she developed a fondness for her, so it feels extra grotesque to see her die.
So yeah, no consequences for either evil King. The Yannan King loves to do his loyalty tests and is eager to execute anyone who is a toe out of line. The Beixuan King is a warmonger and rapist. And yet Qiluo remains loyal to the Yannan King and Xuan Lie remains loyal to the Beixuan King and both Kings drop their animosity towards Qiluo / Xuan Lie basically bc they see how steadfast the two are about their relationship and are like "You've worn me down, I'm tired of fighting you on this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" HUH??????????? Qiluo and Xuan Lie had also been trying to build a trade port between the two nations and that finally comes to fruition in the last few episodes so that is also part of the two Kings allowing for Qiluo and Xuan Lie to be together, I guess.
ANYWAY, the first 2/3 of the show had its moments and if the writers weren't cowards and had pursued a Qiluo - Qimin romance once they returned to Yannan it could've been an overall enjoyable experience but no they decided to be this garbage fire instead. [sighs heavily]
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