Always My General (2025)

Addictive But Don't Look Too Close

This show was addicting to watch but FULL of hand-waving and plot holes. Some were so small you barely noticed and thought "maybe I just missed something" but others were so big you could drive you car through.

That said, I was INVESTED wanting to know what was going to happen next. This show took a soup of tropes and made them actually feel mostly fresh. From gender-bending to face-swapping; palace politics, mindcontrol and betrayal, there was a little bit of everything in this plot.

The music had an intense, epic feeling to it that helped carry that feeling of getting addicted and NEEDING to know what will happen next.

8.5/10 (bumped up for enjoyment)

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Very complex story packed with good characters - romance, revenge and whole lot of more!

This was one of the first surprises in 2025: short, but really involved story which sometimes was overdone and sometimes uncooked. Acting was pretty good although sometimes uneven, but overall the effect was really good.
Below are the major spoilers because tracking all the twists of the story is not so easy if you fast forward too much as a habit.

The story of a princess from the South who is raised by and for the enemy (North) to be their valiant leader of Jet-Black Armored Cavalry, is buried deeply underneath the usual orphan girl (pretending to be a boy) to general story. But while she is a kickass military person and has awesome relationship with her men (including 2nd prince of North who is her vice general) there are three scoundrels who plot to get rid of her - including the North King who orders her and her troop to be killed to keep 2nd prince under control. The history is further complicated by the fact that 2nd prince competes with his older brother for the throne and there is a convoy from the South (Shafeng) who falls for the general and also wants to get his paws on the North's throne.
The general FL does not die along her men, but she has to be now the tool and a toy of that dude from the South who not only gives the general better face but also masquerades himself as the 1st prince and... kills the North King after he imprisons the 1st stealing his face!
Further down the road 2nd prince falls for the general who is now a woman, and we are on the roller coaster ride because the general is poisoned and made a puppet of the Southern madman and unwillingly blinds the 2nd prince! Regardless of all of that the true love flourishes and in order to save his girl 2nd prince takes the general to the South King looking for a remedy. There we learn that the remedy can only be applied during the intercourse and the South King has that remedy in his hands, while WE know that the general is his sister!!! Will there be an incest?
Well, it all works out because of love: brotherly and romantic. People sacrifice themselves left and right (so many good side characters well written and played!) and in the end all band together to free the 1st prince from the clutches of the madman from the South pretending to be the North King now aiming at marrying the general even though he is dying of poison himself. He will give the general antidote to her poison but in exchange for killing the 2nd prince. The general is smart and will just wound her beloved, but after she does the madman from the South reveals that he poisoned the weapons so even a scratch will kill the 2nd prince. How do you like it now, huh?
Ending? In Ep 23 we are still wondering how the Southern scoundrel is going to ruin leads' happiness since he escaped the North with the news that South now has an antidote to his poison. In the last episode the tension builds incredibly because now there is the 3rd country attacking the North and they came with the deadly poisons of the Shafeng on their weapons! The 2nd prince now the King of North orders his soon to be wife and queen to stay in the palace, but when she defies that order he follows her because she is always his general. The HE could have been better organized rather than two-line comment about the death of the Southern madman, but it was still satisfying to see that the ML stood by FL!

For those who had seen the FL actress before (for ex in Love and Bid Farewell) you will love her agency and power here. For those who like the male leads here - all 3 ML are handsome and there is plenty of naked torsos and seductive masculinity in plain view. All of that is encased in a really nice sound/OST and framed with very good outdoor shots with incredible lighting that fits the scenes' gravitas or melancholy (you will love half naked troop toiling against the backdrop of greener than envy grass as well as kisses, lingering longing and intimacy - particularly the bed scene after consummation!)

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