Good romance between bratty princess and mature general

I finally finished watching this drama after trying to drop it several times . Let me start by saying that it was mostly cute and funny and not too heavy.
Story: The rash and bratty daughter of royalty is married off to a powerful border general, who has a secret mission going on, but they fall in love and he does everything to solve the troubles his wife keeps creating, all while working his own hidden agenda. The plot was fast moving. So the story is not stagnant. There's a lot of things going on, one after the other. Sometimes it does get a little boring, like the part where the FL started her own business. And the FL is super annoying. There were some plotholes in the working of the villains. There were loads of sweet and funny moments. But throughout the story the FL has zero character development. Still the story was good, if the draggy parts are skipped, then it was a good one to watch. They had a happy ending, a funny one at that, and ig a total of 6 couples came out by the end of the drama.
Characters and acting- The acting of all the characters was very well done. The fl did a good job portraying the stupid princess, the ML did a good job in his part. The leads had such a beautiful chemistry, their romance and love felt so real and natural and they had tons of kisses. As much as i love their love story, I can't deny that the FL was super annoying. Throughout the story she was a super unreasonable, irrational, rash and wilful. The ML was like ultra patient and considerate of her and i even think that he deserved better. He wasn't always very forthright, he liked to keep things to himself but nonetheless he loved her so much. The FL had very few moments of maturity but she was very honest about everything. Towards the end the emperor turned into a comic character. The other couples like that of rourou and susu, bao zitou and xiaocong were pretty fun. Well xiuyuan and ruonan had a lot of growth as a couple but I'm just disappointed that she became the empress, like wtf? Anyway i hated the FL's two sisters so much that i literally jumped every time they were slapped lmao.

Overall: I might just rewatch it someday if I'm bored, but for the first time definitely worth a try. It is entertaining and fun tow watch.

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Long review with details and my rants ahead. Do not judge.

I want to begin by saying how eager i was to watch this drama but it wasnt available anywhere. Only recently has it been released on viki so i am finally able to watch it. I just had to vent my anger after watching till 20 else I'd have waited till finishing it to give the review.

Characters and acting: Not gonna lie, for me Zheng Yecheng carried the entirety of the drama like i watched it just for him. He was way too sweet, charming, loyal and devoted and selfless. And i think he deserved a better lover than the princess. I've seen 3 of Zhao Lusi's dramas, and tbh i like her, but she is not a good choice for these serious tragic characters, i felt like she didn't fit the role of Qin Chuan well. She was so busy portraying her anger and sadness that i couldn't see any chemistry with the ml. The original princess was better for the role i guess.
To me the most pitiful character remained Fu Jiuyun throughout, it's like nothing he does is ever enough. Imagine loving someone for thousand years, witnessing her death through ten lifetimes and then when you finally come close to her you end up dying for her without even getting her(well this is something that i found for myself when i read the reviews.)
Zichen was straight out annoying. Ermeng was a complex but good character. Liyuan was despicable. Meishan and Xiaobai were fun to watch. Xuanzhu remained the same selfish and greedy princess throughout.

Story: Idk if its because i spoiled the drama for me by reading reviews beforehand or it's because of the story itself but the drama couldn't keep me invested or addicted. It started off so well with everything. But as the story progressed, i couldn't see minimal love in the FL for the ML. She was like still in love with Zichen idk why i felt so. I kept feeling that she just abused MLs love for her by taking him for granted and rejecting him everytime. She was too cruel to him. The ML was so good to her like i can't even explain in words. The story is so much about the FLs revenge motive that the FLs love for the ML can't even be seen. In the last 5 episodes she was suddenly in love with him but they never showed how and when she started loving him. I admit that with all the constant love and care from him anyone would fall for him but they should have shown a little more of that part. She is like all about fighting her own fate and revenge and pushing the people that love her away. I haven't read the original novel so i don't know how it goes, but i heard that it is a lot more detailed with a happy ending but don't expect all that from the drama. I don't know how exactly it is in the novel but in the drama it's all there is. A lot of parts were abrupt while some parts felt draggy because of the 2nd couple and the FLs constant anger and indifference.

Music: The music is truly so beautiful and soothing. I loved the music.
From what I read from other reviews, there was a lot of key information missing and a confusing ending and dramatic modifications from the original story. The script could've done a better job at explaining the backstory of the ML instead of wasting scenes on the 2nd couple. Overall once i am done with this drama, I'm not gonna rewatch it because I'm already preparing myself for a heartbreak at its end. But I'm going to finish it till 30. Might change my review after i finish it.



P.s i have finished it now and my opinions didn't drastically change, instead i am left confused about what exactly happened in the last episode.

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Back to square one: love left, loneliness stayed

Finally finished it after months of putting it on hold in dread of heartbreak and watching again.

Production: this is the best thing here. top notch production. Action scenes are done super well. The sets are grand and costumes and jewellery of everyone, especially tilan's were mesmerising. The music is nice, especially each of the couples have their own song.

Story:  the story is pretty good, just not what i had expected, honestly since i expected lots of fantasy and less on politics. But i wouldn't say that i loved  the  story, mainly because of how the main men here keep making dumb decisions amd learn nothing. Also, When it comes to teacher student thing, that too in fantasy dramas, i can't help but compare it to eternal love and get disappointed. But that's out of context because the genres are different. I have seen from a lot of comments that the novel is rather very dark and tragic but i like how the scriptwriter made it into a political and not so dark story. The main couple had what I'd call an illusory good time with each other. They met, loved, lived together happily very briefly, only to part ways. Honestly i was more invested emotionally in Di xu and tilan's romance, than the main couple, because after the initial torturous and hostile period, they were consistently in a sweet romance until fate took over. The ml actually went too much back and forth, so i could only feel pity for the fl and not be too touched by their story. Zhe liu and zhuoying had a nice fairytale like romance which was pleasant to see, until it wasn't anymore. A major part of the story was political, so there were numerous villains and i liked how the ml planned and schemed against them. Some of them were shown as villains from the start while some were undercover, which i failed to recognize, so it was not that predictable for me. Shit got really tragic and depressing from ep 34 on. And that absolute fucking bitch of a maid that ruined everything for all of them just for her own selfishness was horrible. Later we had blissful episodes 44 to 46, after  which  shitfest of doom began. However the main villain's revelation just fell flat in reason in the final battle, and all what every villain wanted here was power, that really made the villains shallow. I'd rather it ended at ep 46 , would've saved us the tsunami of heartbreaks they purposely inflicted on watchers. Also the last war happened only because they didn't want us to have happy ending. Logically it could've very well been averted by beating the villains at their own game but makers wouldn't do that lest we get a happy ending for all 3 couples.

Characters: firstly my favourite characters were zhuoying and youdu. Youdu was super cute tho he was just a guest role and zhuoying was the best brother ever, i loved his brotherhood with haishi. Others that i liked were chengqian and shaozi, mu deqing. Who even needs a court jester when mu deqing is there? Lol. I didn't like fang zhu too much as a lover, because he was way too dedicated to the emperor to the point where he forgot that he was a human with his own life and hurt everyone around himself to protect him. That was plain frustrating and i understood that he felt guilty for causing the pregnant empress to die but being the baixi for the emperor and then again his son was just too much of noble idiocy. Haishi, as a character was similar to fuyao in legend of fuyao, so i liked her character, the dedication, determination and loyalty she had. The emperor was plain horrible to everyone in the first few episodes and just disgusting. After halfway through the series, seeing his interactions with fang zhu i felt like am i watching a bl? However i couldn't help but sympathize with his pathetic character, he had a really miserable romantic life and also as a king. Tilan was a gentle yet stubborn character, who put up with everything for no real reason at first, then because of love. There were villains  out of desperate love like Ju qiqi, general tang and out of vengeance and greed like su ming, eunuch shi, princess sister of emperor, and others that i won't spoil. The villains here however had nothing to be pitiful, except one, they were just greedy and vain.

Acting: it was my first time watching William chan, so i don't know how he is but i was satisfied with how he portrayed a stony cold character and sometimes how he got affected by haishi getting close to him. However his love for her wasn't expressed that obviously if his actions aren't counted. So i guess he did that purposely or isn't good at facial expressions of being in love, idk. Yang mi, on the contrary had a character similar to that of fuyao so i compared fuyao and haishi a lot, even though the plots were vastly different, and can't help but choose fuyao. Fuyao was even better acted out and portrayed in the romantic scenes, well there were few romantic moments here, so maybe i felt this way but nonetheless it was believable and good. Xu kaicheng surprised me with his acting here , it was very well done. And chen xiaoyun played both the bubbly zizan and introverted tilan very well and her voice was so soothing, idk who dubbed her? The villain's acting actually got on my nerves,  so i guesshe did well. Nothing to say about others.

I do recommend watching it overall. If for nothing else, for the feast to the eye it offers with the grandeur of production. It was interesting and exhilarating in some scenes. But this is too serious for me to rewatch. As a one time watch, it was worth it.

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Lots of fluff in a drama that doesn't take itself too seriously

This entertaining and fun to watch drama is not that bad as it seems but well.

Story: the first 6 or 7 eps were almost perfect and really drew me in. But as it progressed, the pacing became a trouble, sometimes very quick, sometimes felt slow. Also often there felt a lack of coordination in the story. The story was nice in itself, but it's execution wasn't done too well. The comic relief of the first 10ish eps was amazing, i almost choked of laughter. That was somewhat toned down in the later eps. That ending was too quick though like i understood that all of them were in the same game world and those umbrellas and bottles were gifts for successfully completing the game beta, but maybe a little less rush could be better. But overall it was something really lightweight and feel good kind of drama with nothing serious going on.

Characters: Song che's character and acting was gold. He was so hilarious, almost comical and cute kind of dumb. He was my favourite character. Others were also okay. The characters were flat, negligible character development, but that wasn't boring or repulsive. The ml was very handsome and pretty funny too. The fl was smart in a way, and super funny with her monologues. Their acting was on point. The villain was actually rather pitiful. The fl had the best brothers, esp the 8th, and her sis queen was also soo good, 2 minor characters that i really loved.

Production: didn't really notice the music much, but wasn't something that annoyed me. The scenes with special effects looked meh, like below average but i didn't mind. The editing was horrible, like many scenes had no connection to the previous, so sometimes it didn't completely make sense.

But tbh, i really liked this show. It sometimes didn't make sense, progressed too quick, but nevertheless it was very entertaining. Would actually suggest binging on it. It can be a nice lightweight transition between heavier dramas.

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DON'T BE FOOLED BY HATE COMMENTS AND THE FIRST FEW EPS

Months of wait came to a bear a fruitful end. The story was heart touching, with great cast, good production. Everything about it was pure perfection. Haven't really seen any cdrama that resolved everything this well.

Characters: Be it supporting characters or mains, there was a lot of character development. My most favourite characters were Baijue, Tianqi and Yuemi. Baijue, oh what do i even say about him? He looked cold but was soft inside, and his love was purer than water. As much as i loved him, Qingmu was more lovable. He and Qingmu were total opposites. He did so much for Shanggu in silence that it hurt me. Tianqi was hands down the best character. He was the most precious little bean, just like Yuemi. They looked like Shanggu's parents lol. I loved the two of them very much. But such a pity that she died so early, and i teared up when in that ep her statue called to Houchi... so many of the dead characters came back to life why not her? Then even my Tianqi would've gotten his well deserved happy ending. I feel so bad for them. Gujun.. i loved him as Houchi's dad and tbh he suited the heaven king position more than that stupid Muguang. Hongri (matchmaker), Fengran, Zihan and Jingjian (how could he be Wuhuan's son? He was adopted i bet!) were some other good characters that i liked. Fengran and Jingjian's love was sad like Yuemi's. Thankfully Jingjian was reborn, so one day they'd be together again. Xuanyi was a complex villain, it took me a long time to figure him out. Xueying was straight up annoying and i felt like she set fire to the wick of vileness in Wuhuan. Wuhuan was a f-ing disgusting and horribly evil bitch, like i can't even explain in words how much exactly i hated her, to think i pitied and liked her when she first appeared. In the first few eps of Wuhuan i couldnt understand why she'd turn that horrible but then i did. She was too greedy and jealous and didn't know her place. Jingzhao was better than her, but i hated her. But she wasn't as vicious as Wuhuan. She was a spoiled and bratty princess used to having things her way and blindly loving her mother. Sometimes I'd just feel like getting inside the screen and kill wuhuan. Ugh.

Acting: I think Liu Xueyi outdid all his previous performances. Never watched Zhou Dongyu before but her portrayal of Shanggu and houchi was perfect. Xu kai.. his Baijue was different from all his previous roles that I've seen, and i loved him as a serious, calm and mature character. It's just that he looked too young as Baijue, but perfect for Qingmu, and his acting was on point. Although the two roles here were opposite to each other, he nailed them both. They had a cute chemistry, not a burning one. Lai yi was as always great. Jenny Zhang had that blood boiling thing about her acting as Wuhuan and she looked really good. Zhang Yaqin is a really good actor and she did a good job here too as Fengran. Everyone's performance actually felt really good and convincing.

Story: The story was beautifully written and well executed. It had 3 arcs:
1. the falling in love phase where the FL also attains her full power,
2. the reincarnation of the leads post destruction of god realm and their love in full bloom with the villains running rampant,
3. the god realm is back and the main leads are back in power, but trouble in love and the final sacrifice.
It never bored me for even a minute. It kept me interested and wanting more throughout. I cried buckets while watching it lol. Shanggu and Baijue's love was really touching. Starting from their falling for each other to him protecting her with his life, it was wonderful. Their love bloomed beautifully as Houchi and Qingmu. As Qingmu, he did everything that he couldn't as Baijue, and they could resolve a lot of their old regrets. True that it started off really slow in the first 15 eps but that was necessary as it was setting the plot. But it was beautiful too, i personally loved their falling in love phase. Oh and how the tables turned when they incarnated lol. It explained most of the important things in the later eps. Tianqi finally moved on from Shanggu but kept being the best to her. It was soooo satisfying to see Wuhuan punished like that, better than death. The ending was beautiful. All loose ends tied up, and everything explained.
Something that I didn't like is that he kept hurting her after getting back his memories, to be a sacrificial lamb to save her, unlike Qingmu and Houchi who were a really well coordinated couple. Why was Jingzhao kept alive? I wished Yuemi came back but she didn't didn't appear as such. Apparently she was reborn as a mortal (bai shuo) and her story is in progress ;).

Production: The production was extremely well done. The backgrounds, cgi, sets everything was absolutely breathtaking and magical. The osts were so soothing and the timing when they were played made it even more emotional. The lyrics synced perfectly with the story and were very meaningful and touching. This album was also one of the best that I've heard in the cdramas. The costumes were wonderful and grand, not dramatic. And why is nobody saying anything about the opening theme visuals? THEY WERE MESMERISING.

I'd definitely come back to rewatch it. I just finished it and my emotions are still raw. I laughed and cried with the characters, it was that emotion invoking. And i highly recommend it.

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Amazing acting and storyline, worth the time spent watching.

So this is my most favorite C drama and despite it being 66 episodes long, I've rewatched it because I totally loved it the first time.

Story: The story is very well written, i don't remember any plotholes. The first part in Xuanyan sect where the ML and FL meet, and Taiyuan kingdom where they develop feelings was really the best part in the entire drama. Tiansha kingdom affairs felt a little draggy, especially the Yao City part was the worst to me. Xuanji kingdom was filled with evil lol. Tianquan was the centre of the major incidents. Well could've invested a little more time to the last episodes because they did feel a little rushed despite the show having so many episodes. I think the tiansha arc took a lot more episodes than it needed, thus making the ending this rushed.

Characters and acting: Yang Mi won my heart in Eternal love and this one just made me an even bigger fan. Her acting was on point and she was amazing. Ethan Juan was sweet, charming and caring throughout, except he was a little too kind to be a king. His acting was also great. They had mind blowing chemistry. I especially loved the character of Zong Yue. Yalan Zhu and Zhan Beiye.. their pair up seemed kinda forced, like yalan zhu did so much for him so he accepted her out of pity. And Fuyao's adoptive father was so good. There are quite a lot of evil b's like Feng Xuan, Folian and Pei Yuan. Qi Zhen was very evil but i didn't hate him more than Folian. I felt bad for Yang Jingchen as he was a pathetic character throughout. Yun Hen was so dumb and annoying. Zhangsun Pinrong was absolutely disgusting. Zhangsun Jiong was kinda pathetic though he was evil. I didn't like Wuji's mother at all. Everyone's acting was natural and felt great. Well that's it for the characters.
Ending: This is an open ended drama. So everyone who is disappointed with the ending, it was meant for viewers to imagine how they might have lived after the climax. Wuji and Fuyao standing together in a palace garden is already a hint. Well the ending was kinda bizarre because I wanted to know what happened to the others too. But from what i read, the novel which this is based on has a happy ending, so I'm just gonna go with that.

Others: The cgi was okay. Cinematography, costumes, sets and backgrounds in this drama were amazing. About the music, i especially loved the closing theme.

Would watch it again after watching twice already because i never get tired of it and highly recommend watching it.

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