A tale where two women's love for each other never wanes, even during the darkest moments. Oh, and Wallace Huo is there. He plays the role of a glorified sperm donor.

Ok but seriously, hear me out. The romance arc of this drama becomes a lot more interesting when you read Yu Hailan as gay and Ruyi as bi (and, frankly, who cares about the Emperor). The more life in the Palace beats down Ruyi, the more Yu builds her strength so she can come out batting for Ruyi. Ruyi may not cherish Yu as much as Yu cherishes Ruyi, but Ruyi confides in her more than anyone else. They live together for a while. I mean, c'mon, they raise two kids together. But, sure, tell me they're just "good friends".

I do love a good tragedy and I think this series really threw punches in the last dozen or so episodes. However, I found it really hard to support Ruyi wholeheartedly as the protagonist. That's mostly because she embodies the terrible class politics of the drama.

This drama follows the usual historical Cdrama trope of: servants who are loyal and obedient are good, servants who dare have ambition and question authority are bad. I beg to differ from one of the other reviews and I argue that Ruyi is not an underdog. She may not directly murder anyone but a lot of people die or are grievously harmed due to her failure to protect them. Her refusal to engage in palace intrigue costs lives because, up until almost the end, she believes her judicial innocence to be protection enough. A lot of people sacrifice themselves for Ruyi but, ultimately, she does little self-sacrificing in return (though she's happy to offer a lot of unhelpful pity). At the same time, Wei Yanwan is depicted to be of poor character before she even starts harming people, because she dares to be a servant who wants to break free of her status and aim high.

A natural comparison point here is Yanxi Palace which depicts the same characters, around the same time period (slightly shorter span), and was aired in the same year. In the first half, Yanxi Palace does depict the rise of an underdog – it shows a servant rising through the ranks without demonising her character in the process. That said, it does undercut its own class politics in the second half, but I explain that more in my review of the series.

I will round this off by saying the acting in Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace is incredible. I found Wallace Huo to be a little lacklustre in the first half but when he switched, my god, did he switch. So I changed my mind pretty fast. Special mention goes to Vivian Wu who beautifully portrayed a deeply complicated character. I think the only reason I'd rewatch this drama would be to just focus on her and her character's development.