This is a show that to preface my review could have easily been great, but was bogged down by too many characters and subplots and a pretty bland main story line with mediocre revelations and underwhelming scheming.

The story centers around Zhou Zi Shu and Wen Ke Xing. The story is unapologetic about the relationship between these two leads who have a deep and profound connection. It does not make attempts to stray from trying to show their connection which surprised me as I watched the show.

Unfortunately, other than the relationship between the two leads, they don’t particularly captivate me. The story introduces multiple different characters, and different subplots that really make the plot not as cohesive. They don’t particularly drive the story and ultimately just make it unnecessarily convoluted. As different subplots fought for my attention, I found myself caring less and less about the leads. There are different people fighting for power and this leads to some glaring plot holes and just underwhelming revelations. The main plot line never really captures my interest as it’s got too many elements involved that on deeper reflection just don’t make sense.

If you’re not accustomed to wuxia/xianxia dramas, the bad CGI and mediocre fight scenes are glaring. The sets are not particularly good, and a lot of the scenes are not set in a way that immerses you into them. I’m accustomed to the genre in terms of both dramas and the novels, so I know what to expect, but for those who don’t, the mediocre production does stick out. The fight scenes for me are also bizarre in that the canon fodder characters have better choreographed fight scenes than the leads. There’s genuinely so much slow motion fighting one can take. To this day, the most memorable fight scene in this drama for me does not involve the leads.

Where this drama shines is in its power to strangely tug at your heart strings. It could have easily gotten a far better grade if I’d cared about the characters a little more, but because there were too many convoluted subplots, I felt strangely apathetic towards the main characters. However, even if you can predict the emotional scenes, they do a great job at biting at your heart. There were many times I was tempted to drop this but I hang on due to some stellar emotional scenes. The problem of course is the memorable scenes for me do not involve the leads who are what should be driving the story.

Overall, a drama that could have shined if it had ironed out the main plot better, focused on the leads more and erased some of the complicated subplots that don’t add anything to the actual storyline.