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If milk and beige came together, it would be the colour of Song Yi's character in this show.
I want to say that I started watching the show with very low expectations of polish and excellence. I really just wanted to be entertained, and while the story was absolutely filled to the brim with plot holes and "wtf" moments, it was supremely entertaining for the following reasons:
First, Cheng Lei being extremely s3xy in that face guard and black general uniform.
Second, Cheng Lei being extremely s3xy shirtless for as many scenes as possible.
Third, extremely tight pacing, well organized story line
Fourth, batsh!t insane Empress trope
Fifth, Cheng Lei transforming à la Sailor Moon style, my body was so ready for this. Loved every second of it.
It kept me going honestly and if you don't want tight coherency or plot rationale and you don't mind a really flaccid main couple pairing, then this is the show for you.
Which leads me to mention Song Yi. I mean, my god she is so pretty. She's adorable and lovely and she tries really hard to be badass, but she just like...ends up being milquetoast. All her martial arts scenes feel so crushingly underwhelming, that it's impossible to move past it when the fight scenes are like five minutes long and she's just been flinging arrows at extreme close range at soldiers who merely saunter over and collapse in front of her. Her only believable fight scene was when she fights Aodeng in episode 30-something and he absolutely crushes her. You can see she's really trying and he's just...so much more skilled at it.
I've only watched her in Destined, so I don't know if this is a pattern for Song Yi's acting style, but she also doesn't seem to transfer her emotions from scene to scene very well. It's like she resets every scene and starts afresh, like the grief from her previous scene is completely wiped off her face. I find the continuity of her expressions difficult to ingest because I'm never sure if she's actually recovered from the last scene or not, although that being said, she delivers her expressions well within the scene itself very well. It just...doesn't stitch together from scene to scene.
Frankly speaking, I found Cheng Lei to be MORE engaged and interesting with absolutely every other character. He had some topnotch bromance with Lu Xin. Lu was just 100% more interesting than Shuang I don't know what else is there to say. I wanted MORE of her chemistry with basically any of the male characters.
There were some really sweet moments between Shuang x Aodeng/Jin'an but instead of bittersweet or poignant, it just turned saccharine. The scene in which Aodeng visits Shuang in the shack and she smiles at him made my teeth rot. It was so adorable, but like... kinda not what I wanted or expected out of a really heavy scene? The whiplash was too much for me.
I don't know, maybe I got too hyped over Cheng Lei's string of absolutely stunning and steamy romances with a range of interesting actresses that this mid-strength romance just kind of threw me off.
First, Cheng Lei being extremely s3xy in that face guard and black general uniform.
Second, Cheng Lei being extremely s3xy shirtless for as many scenes as possible.
Third, extremely tight pacing, well organized story line
Fourth, batsh!t insane Empress trope
Fifth, Cheng Lei transforming à la Sailor Moon style, my body was so ready for this. Loved every second of it.
It kept me going honestly and if you don't want tight coherency or plot rationale and you don't mind a really flaccid main couple pairing, then this is the show for you.
Which leads me to mention Song Yi. I mean, my god she is so pretty. She's adorable and lovely and she tries really hard to be badass, but she just like...ends up being milquetoast. All her martial arts scenes feel so crushingly underwhelming, that it's impossible to move past it when the fight scenes are like five minutes long and she's just been flinging arrows at extreme close range at soldiers who merely saunter over and collapse in front of her. Her only believable fight scene was when she fights Aodeng in episode 30-something and he absolutely crushes her. You can see she's really trying and he's just...so much more skilled at it.
I've only watched her in Destined, so I don't know if this is a pattern for Song Yi's acting style, but she also doesn't seem to transfer her emotions from scene to scene very well. It's like she resets every scene and starts afresh, like the grief from her previous scene is completely wiped off her face. I find the continuity of her expressions difficult to ingest because I'm never sure if she's actually recovered from the last scene or not, although that being said, she delivers her expressions well within the scene itself very well. It just...doesn't stitch together from scene to scene.
Frankly speaking, I found Cheng Lei to be MORE engaged and interesting with absolutely every other character. He had some topnotch bromance with Lu Xin. Lu was just 100% more interesting than Shuang I don't know what else is there to say. I wanted MORE of her chemistry with basically any of the male characters.
There were some really sweet moments between Shuang x Aodeng/Jin'an but instead of bittersweet or poignant, it just turned saccharine. The scene in which Aodeng visits Shuang in the shack and she smiles at him made my teeth rot. It was so adorable, but like... kinda not what I wanted or expected out of a really heavy scene? The whiplash was too much for me.
I don't know, maybe I got too hyped over Cheng Lei's string of absolutely stunning and steamy romances with a range of interesting actresses that this mid-strength romance just kind of threw me off.
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