Amazing chemistry and characters! Very satisfied w/ tempered expectations about the political plot.
Oh. My. God. I absolutely loved this story, but more specifically, I loved the characters. It's very much a character driven story to me, and the actors all do a great job of making you feel for them, whether they're a main lead, villain, or side character. Usually, C-dramas don't spend much time on the "village life" arc of the main leads. However, the time spent on the bond between the main leads and side characters is what made the rest of the story compelling, even when the climax was not as big as what the rest of the story built it up to be. It serves as the foundation for the FL's down-to-earth personality, the ML's humanization, and it makes you utterly invested in the world they and their friends live in. There were multiple scenes that I watched multiple times because the camera angles, the dialogue, and the actors pulled them off so well. So many surprise reveals pulled of *so* well. I can already tell I will be rewatching this drama for years to come. Only regret is that I won't get to experience it for the first time again.
I loved that the strong female lead archetype is refreshed with the element of being a butcher, and I love that ML largely lets her fix her own problems rather than using his strong, influential male lead magic to make things easier for her. She earns everything truly by her own merit. I love the comedy that comes from their differing social positions, and their chemistry is off the charts! Zhang Linghe does an amazing job balancing ML's two sides, one that is utterly devoted and a simp for his wife and the unrelenting, ruthless Marquise. It never feels forced or like whiplash. I saw Tian Xiwei in "New Life Begins," and I knew she would absolutely nail the part of FL. Every trope is served in a way that makes sense for the story and doesn't feel like it's stuffed into the story just because (except for the excessive FL tend to ML's wounds to create forced tension, especially at the beginning). I also must say I am a sucker for whenever the ML falls first and *hard* for FL.
This drama, as other people have pointed out, does suffer some discrepancies due to the 40 episode limit. There are scenes where you just know there was meant to be more. However, this drama never feels awfully disjointed. My expectations for the court life and political scheming was already tempered; I had heard from many people who had read the web novel that not nearly enough time was spent unraveling the very complex events of 17-years-ago. I have never read the web novel, but after watching the drama, I view it as a story much more devoted to our female lead's development and the main couple's devotion to each other. There's a large dose of political intrigue, and I feel given the restrictions, the ending was still relatively well-paced to me. I am very willing to make that exchange for the time we spent on their time in the village and on other battle fields. I think you'll be very satisfied going in knowing that the political plot is not as elaborate as the novel, but the story still does an amazing job of making us fall in love with its characters.
I loved that the strong female lead archetype is refreshed with the element of being a butcher, and I love that ML largely lets her fix her own problems rather than using his strong, influential male lead magic to make things easier for her. She earns everything truly by her own merit. I love the comedy that comes from their differing social positions, and their chemistry is off the charts! Zhang Linghe does an amazing job balancing ML's two sides, one that is utterly devoted and a simp for his wife and the unrelenting, ruthless Marquise. It never feels forced or like whiplash. I saw Tian Xiwei in "New Life Begins," and I knew she would absolutely nail the part of FL. Every trope is served in a way that makes sense for the story and doesn't feel like it's stuffed into the story just because (except for the excessive FL tend to ML's wounds to create forced tension, especially at the beginning). I also must say I am a sucker for whenever the ML falls first and *hard* for FL.
This drama, as other people have pointed out, does suffer some discrepancies due to the 40 episode limit. There are scenes where you just know there was meant to be more. However, this drama never feels awfully disjointed. My expectations for the court life and political scheming was already tempered; I had heard from many people who had read the web novel that not nearly enough time was spent unraveling the very complex events of 17-years-ago. I have never read the web novel, but after watching the drama, I view it as a story much more devoted to our female lead's development and the main couple's devotion to each other. There's a large dose of political intrigue, and I feel given the restrictions, the ending was still relatively well-paced to me. I am very willing to make that exchange for the time we spent on their time in the village and on other battle fields. I think you'll be very satisfied going in knowing that the political plot is not as elaborate as the novel, but the story still does an amazing job of making us fall in love with its characters.
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