airuying
This review may contain spoilers
So much potential, wasted! [SPOILERS]
Ugh, this drama makes me so sad. The cast was great, the first few episodes were enjoyable and light-hearted. It started to go wrong when the focus shifted to Su Youlian at the expense of the rest of the story, and it became more and more obvious that she's just an awful character. While every other character either stayed relatively the same, but fun to watch (Changqing, Bian Lingcheng, Cui Pianran) or developed positively (Li Xuan, Yunshan, Cui Yanren, Long Wei'er), or even was just okay (Yu Fengmu, General Li, Lord Zi, Xiao Fengming), Su Youlian got worse the more the story progressed. It got to the point that about 2/3 of the way into the show I honestly wondered if the writers were TRYING to make us hate her.
Admittedly, I'm never a fan of romance, but I can usually tolerate it--never in my life have I rooted so hard AGAINST the main romance or hoped for the death of the FL. Alas, while the drama has no problem killing off plenty of people--quite of a few of which are Su Youlian's fault!--Su Youlian herself survives and so does her romance with Li Xuan. This is probably the first time I've ever been so unhappy with a "happy" ending.
It's really a shame, because this could have been an interesting story, had they not created such a completely unlikeable FL. Yes, a lot of it is the actress--her only expression is a pout, whether she's betraying Li Xuan or the Prince, or doing something extremely stupid, or... But most of the blame must lie with the writers. They wrote the other female characters decently, but literally not even the main villain is as completely hateable as Su Youlian.
The only positives I can say are that (a) Xu Kai genuinely does a phenomenal job and manages to keep Li Xuan likeable despite his terribly unfortunate love for Su Youlian and the bad/clunky writing. I have to say I was really impressed--he's a great actor. (b) Li Xuan and his two bros have the most genuine relationship in the series, and their characters deserved MUCH more screentime because they are a delight. (c) The first few episodes really do have some hilarious moments.
Admittedly, I'm never a fan of romance, but I can usually tolerate it--never in my life have I rooted so hard AGAINST the main romance or hoped for the death of the FL. Alas, while the drama has no problem killing off plenty of people--quite of a few of which are Su Youlian's fault!--Su Youlian herself survives and so does her romance with Li Xuan. This is probably the first time I've ever been so unhappy with a "happy" ending.
It's really a shame, because this could have been an interesting story, had they not created such a completely unlikeable FL. Yes, a lot of it is the actress--her only expression is a pout, whether she's betraying Li Xuan or the Prince, or doing something extremely stupid, or... But most of the blame must lie with the writers. They wrote the other female characters decently, but literally not even the main villain is as completely hateable as Su Youlian.
The only positives I can say are that (a) Xu Kai genuinely does a phenomenal job and manages to keep Li Xuan likeable despite his terribly unfortunate love for Su Youlian and the bad/clunky writing. I have to say I was really impressed--he's a great actor. (b) Li Xuan and his two bros have the most genuine relationship in the series, and their characters deserved MUCH more screentime because they are a delight. (c) The first few episodes really do have some hilarious moments.
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