yujeeee

I don’t really have much to say or complain about this drama to be honest, it did its job as an okay idol drama. As long as you’re not looking too much into the plot or storyline it’s pretty enjoyable.

The most enjoyable part for me definitely has to be the male lead. This is my first He Yu drama (I’m not counting the two episodes of the mess I watched him and Esther Yu in) and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised, he was the perfect Xiao Huayong, shameless, brazen, loving and completely incorrigible, I loved every minute of it, and his acting was also pretty good. Overall, there’s not much to say about his character; a sickly presenting crown prince who is not actually what he appears to be, the trope has been done since time immemorial, nothing to write home about. But maybe because I’ve been watching mostly serious shows, I found it quite refreshing, he reminded me very much of Zhangsun Wuji in Legend of Fuyao actually. A lot of people found it tiring and pathetic how his entire character was reduced to chasing after the female lead, and I get that it could be tiring to watch after the first 20 episodes and the couple has still gotten nowhere, but his character in the first place was of a dying prince, the only thing he cared about was finding the person that poisoned him, and then all of a sudden he fell in love with this woman and she became his sole motivation to live, its understandable. What is NOT understandable however is the first episode where he sees this woman that drowned and then he proceeds to give this total stranger the medicine that will save his life for like no reason?? whatsoever??
The leads had pretty solid chemistry though, and they’re both very good looking people that look good together, which is why all the cinematographic shots were just of them serving looks.

Apart from that the other thing I liked is that this drama knew that its strong points were not in the writing, so any scenes of political maneuvering or scheming were gotten quickly out of the way, they made it a said and done thing. It became kind of a game to me at some point, how quickly will they resolve this political dilemma? The answer is 15 minutes at the most. In the first episodes there was this ledger that contained a list of all the corrupt officials and their crimes, you know, the kind of thing that if it comes out will shake the verry foundation of the Court and will cause an upheaval, we literally see nothing of it. Who committed what and what were their punishments? Who knows and who cares, definitely not the writers. I think it’s actually much better that they went this route, rather than give us very shit writing filled with so many plotholes it basically becomes a sieve.

Third point in the favor of this drama is the second lead couple, I so enjoyed their story and relationship, the actress for Bu Shulin especially did a pretty good job. It’s the first time I’ve seen her and her disguise and acting of a man was very good. The premise of a lady disguised as a man and being able to navigate living alone in the capital since childhood as the sole heir of a marquis could’ve been a very compelling storyline, I’ll explain in my third negative point.

As for the not so good part of things, number one; Meng Ziyi and her character. Yes, Shen Xihe was supposed to be this aloof, cold, goddess like character, but MZY acted her like a doll, always the perfect makeup and accessories on, but no expression, she could not convey her emotions through the screen for anyone to even understand. The scene in the last battle, where Huayong had a moment with the emperor before dying was very sad, and the two actors did a good job conveying that, then it cuts to him actually dying in her arms, and you have this woman who has lived through two lives, lost her entire family in the first and now the love of her life in the second, this strong woman that has never shown weakness or vulnerability in both lives finally breaks down and everything comes pouring out. You would expect ugly heaving sobs and a heartbreaking scene, but MZY made it so underwhelming I just fast
forwarded. And Shen Xihe has so much plot armor I wonder how she hasn’t suffocated from the thickness of it, she can basically step on any toes—consort, princess, prince, duke, duchess—it doesn’t matter, she’s going to get away with it. All the princes also love her for no reason, like they all fell head over heels for this one girl minutes after meeting her, crazy things. Somehow her personality also switched overnight and none of the people close to her found it weird or alarming? This sweet, kind girl became ruthless and cold in the blink of an eye and even just develops skills and knowledge she never had and no one thought to even question it, they just carried on the way SXH carried on when she was reincarnated, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.

When I said the drama knew its weaknesses were in plot writing, they did not realize that their strengths also did not lie with character writing. I don’t even want to get into the insufferable unbearable annoyance that was that obsessive pest, Prince Xin. I’ve not encountered such an annoying character that forced me to skip their scenes in a while, I loathe him. But all other female characters are somehow there to prop up SXH, even the second fl. They were all one track minded and had no other thing going on besides being jealous of her and trying to take her down. It is lazy writing and actually lowkey misogynistic writing. BSL was smart enough to navigate the scheming capital as a girl in disguise since she was a child but she was not smart enough that she was caught by SXH, she was not smart enough to get a body double in all those years, SXH had to do it for her. The sister, Gu Qingshu is basically just jealous girl 101, she had no quarrel with SXH but she repeatedly tried to get in her way why? Because she was written as the typical jealous antagonist with no other goal. The Noble Consort that should be fighting with other consorts is instead in competition with her stepson’s wife, not even the stepson that would inherit the throne she wants her son to inherit, instead it’s the wife she’s jealous of. If they’re not jealous of her they have to have been given their power by her (like the foreign consort) or some sort of agency (like her half sister she gave permission not to marry), its all very annoying.

All of a sudden, the second couple vanished in episode 26 and there was no more mention of them until SXH needed her avengers to assemble. I actually hated how they just made BSL’s character pregnant all of a sudden. She had worked her entire life to hold onto her position as heir and then they just have her sleep with a man and go off to have his babies, very stupid trope, its 2026 ffs. Then she comes back as BSL’s twin sister when it has been repeatedly emphasized that she’s the only child and heir so how did she/he now gain a twin sister? I find it a grave injustice that was done to her character because she was very firm on doing her duty, even breaking up with the vice minister because things were starting to get serious and she could not afford that.

Overall like I said in the beginning, quite enjoyable if you don’t take it too seriously. Oh and they really could have just scrapped that suddenly back to life thing and just left XHY dead.