Juelin
United States
This review may contain spoilers
Lets play a game of pick-a-plot
This is the first time I watched a drama where a plot felt like a combination of several dramas glued together, as if a bunch of different people wrote it without communicating with each other. There were several parallel storylines with characters that often crossed paths, but their stories were completely independent of each other. You will miss nothing if you skip entire scenes and focus on the characters you like. So, to save yourself time and sanity, start a game of pick-a-plot and make friends with the fast-forward button.
Li Qian was a valiant and brave soldier. Baoning was a spoiled princess. But the difference in their status did not prevent them from building a loving relationship based on trust and communication until, towards the end, they regressed into complete knuckleheads who refused to communicate, jumped to conclusions, and threw asinine accusations. In the last 5 episodes, Baoning's character drastically changed from a spunky young woman to a calculating persona resembling Wang Xuan from The Rebel Princess. This change showcased Ju Jing Yi's ability to play more serious roles. But, it wasn't necessarily good for the story, because it happened without any actual character development showing Baoning's transition from a care-free princess to a mature woman with experience dealing with scheming villains.
The first 12 episodes were very engaging showing Baoning and Li Qian's blossoming romance. But then, the plot suddenly got hijacked by secondary characters and became a continuous onslaught of love rivals' deranged schemes to break up the happy couple. A love obsessed and jealous villain is one of the worst, most uninspired, uninteresting tropes to manufacture conflict. The writers threw in every cliche and rehashed idea instead of writing an actual story. Zhao Xiao was a nobleman with a bright political future. But, every single action he took was to get into Baoning's pants. And, Miaorong's slimy schemes resulted in the same predictable outcome again and again. The writers did not even try to create compelling villains, but love-obsessed psychos who just wouldn't get the message that the object of their affection couldn't care less.
More often than not, I ended up throwing my hands in the air and screaming "FFS!!" When I did not suffer from second-hand embarrassment, I pressed on the fast-forward button. The drama is a convoluted mess of jealous lover tropes, scattered plot, and a marketing scheme for the supporting cast.
Li Qian was a valiant and brave soldier. Baoning was a spoiled princess. But the difference in their status did not prevent them from building a loving relationship based on trust and communication until, towards the end, they regressed into complete knuckleheads who refused to communicate, jumped to conclusions, and threw asinine accusations. In the last 5 episodes, Baoning's character drastically changed from a spunky young woman to a calculating persona resembling Wang Xuan from The Rebel Princess. This change showcased Ju Jing Yi's ability to play more serious roles. But, it wasn't necessarily good for the story, because it happened without any actual character development showing Baoning's transition from a care-free princess to a mature woman with experience dealing with scheming villains.
The first 12 episodes were very engaging showing Baoning and Li Qian's blossoming romance. But then, the plot suddenly got hijacked by secondary characters and became a continuous onslaught of love rivals' deranged schemes to break up the happy couple. A love obsessed and jealous villain is one of the worst, most uninspired, uninteresting tropes to manufacture conflict. The writers threw in every cliche and rehashed idea instead of writing an actual story. Zhao Xiao was a nobleman with a bright political future. But, every single action he took was to get into Baoning's pants. And, Miaorong's slimy schemes resulted in the same predictable outcome again and again. The writers did not even try to create compelling villains, but love-obsessed psychos who just wouldn't get the message that the object of their affection couldn't care less.
More often than not, I ended up throwing my hands in the air and screaming "FFS!!" When I did not suffer from second-hand embarrassment, I pressed on the fast-forward button. The drama is a convoluted mess of jealous lover tropes, scattered plot, and a marketing scheme for the supporting cast.
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