This review may contain spoilers
angsty romance at its best
Okay whew this was a RIDE with lots of highs and lows lmfao. So firstly let me say that if you've only seen really recent wuxia dramas, on a technical level this is not going to live up to those. The costuming honestly looks really cheap (excluding a few really nice pieces for the women), the props and sets are kinda meh, etc etc. It was clearly doing what it could with a smaller budget. (I will say there are some moments of really nice cinematography tho!) The script could also use some polishing. There are plot holes and "reveals" that genuinely just retcon things that were previously established, but the character writing for Moxin-Mowan and the romance are honestly so good that I didn't even care about that 85% of the time.
The plot summary on here is too inaccurate for my tastes, so let me give a brief one: Moxin, the Empress, has a miscarriage and some magical device body swaps her and her sister Mowan. Moxin, in Mowan's body, then rushes out of the palace seeking help and runs into Junqing. They're being chased and fall off a cliff, causing Moxin to lose her memories. "Moxin" enters a coma due to the miscarriage and dies. When Moxin recovers her memories, she vows to find the people responsible for attempting to kill her and get revenge.
The first 10 episodes while Moxin has amnesia are mostly cute and fun, but incredibly underwhelming when compared to the rest of the show. Once Moxin recovers her memories, the intrigue of her revenge mission in the palace is genuinely some of my favorite writing I've seen for any CDrama — genuinely some of the most exquisite and complex writing for a FL that I've seen and the cutthroat politics of palace life is clearly a strength for the writers. Imo the quality starts to dip slightly around ep 28 and there are a lot of just straight up bizarre writing choices between episodes 31-34, but the resolution really saved it and practically the entirety of the final episode had me VIBRATING in my seat.
Let's get into some more details re Moxin and the romance tho! F*ck all the Moxin haters, she's one of my fave FLs! She's allowed to be angry! She's allowed to be spiteful and cruel! She's allowed to hurt people who love her and is forgiven! She's willing to go to whatever lengths she feels is required to get her revenge, including sleeping with someone she despises bc she needs to gain his trust! What a refreshing and complicated character. She loves Junqing and as much as it pains her to walk away from their romance, she values revenge(/arguably justice) over any of her other feelings. So she pushes him away to try to protect him. But he sees through it. He knows she must have some deeper reason for getting closer to the Emperor (his brother, Hongyi) and that her feelings were real. So she pushes him away harder, even though it is agonizing for her to do so. But because her desire to protect him, the mask keeps slipping and she keeps expressing concern and fear for him. They continue this angsty push-pull until Junqing becomes aware of the fact that the Emperor punished the wrong people for "Moxin's" death and that she's trying to avenge her sister and he reaffirms his loyalty to her. Like oh my god Chen Zheyuan is sooooooo swoon-worthy in this. (Altho when is that not the case? LOL.) And when they're finally on the same page and working together???????? OUGH EPISODE 27 MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!!!! Like this romance is genuinely exquisite and it pains me that so many ppl on here are caught up in crucifying Moxin for being "flawed" and hurting Junqing's feelings because I love them SO MUCH.
Unfortunately around this time when they solidify their relationship — Moxin finally accepting his help and admitting her feelings — is when the plot kinda starts to dip in quality. Upon reaching the penultimate episode I realized that certain writing decisions happened for a big battle sequence and like, yeah, that certainly is one way to resolve the Junqing vs Hongyi conflict but given how intimate (for lack of a better word) the story had been up until this point, I do think it would have been better and made more sense to stay small scale — Junqing & Moxin vs Hongyi (instead of volunteer army vs palace army LOL). Again, the final episode and a half absolutely saved it and overall this is definitely one of my fave CDramas, but there are undeniably flaws lmao. (Also no other place to put this thought, but I feel weird not saying it — the two enemy kingdoms that are really peripheral for the first 2/3 of the show start getting a lot of attention in the last third and I just feel uncomfy w how they were portrayed given how CDramas tend to portray those who are not Han Chinese.....)
But anyway if you like angsty romances this is absolutely must watch in my book!! Just rip for the 31-34 stretch, those episodes are really truly Rough lol.
The plot summary on here is too inaccurate for my tastes, so let me give a brief one: Moxin, the Empress, has a miscarriage and some magical device body swaps her and her sister Mowan. Moxin, in Mowan's body, then rushes out of the palace seeking help and runs into Junqing. They're being chased and fall off a cliff, causing Moxin to lose her memories. "Moxin" enters a coma due to the miscarriage and dies. When Moxin recovers her memories, she vows to find the people responsible for attempting to kill her and get revenge.
The first 10 episodes while Moxin has amnesia are mostly cute and fun, but incredibly underwhelming when compared to the rest of the show. Once Moxin recovers her memories, the intrigue of her revenge mission in the palace is genuinely some of my favorite writing I've seen for any CDrama — genuinely some of the most exquisite and complex writing for a FL that I've seen and the cutthroat politics of palace life is clearly a strength for the writers. Imo the quality starts to dip slightly around ep 28 and there are a lot of just straight up bizarre writing choices between episodes 31-34, but the resolution really saved it and practically the entirety of the final episode had me VIBRATING in my seat.
Let's get into some more details re Moxin and the romance tho! F*ck all the Moxin haters, she's one of my fave FLs! She's allowed to be angry! She's allowed to be spiteful and cruel! She's allowed to hurt people who love her and is forgiven! She's willing to go to whatever lengths she feels is required to get her revenge, including sleeping with someone she despises bc she needs to gain his trust! What a refreshing and complicated character. She loves Junqing and as much as it pains her to walk away from their romance, she values revenge(/arguably justice) over any of her other feelings. So she pushes him away to try to protect him. But he sees through it. He knows she must have some deeper reason for getting closer to the Emperor (his brother, Hongyi) and that her feelings were real. So she pushes him away harder, even though it is agonizing for her to do so. But because her desire to protect him, the mask keeps slipping and she keeps expressing concern and fear for him. They continue this angsty push-pull until Junqing becomes aware of the fact that the Emperor punished the wrong people for "Moxin's" death and that she's trying to avenge her sister and he reaffirms his loyalty to her. Like oh my god Chen Zheyuan is sooooooo swoon-worthy in this. (Altho when is that not the case? LOL.) And when they're finally on the same page and working together???????? OUGH EPISODE 27 MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!!!! Like this romance is genuinely exquisite and it pains me that so many ppl on here are caught up in crucifying Moxin for being "flawed" and hurting Junqing's feelings because I love them SO MUCH.
Unfortunately around this time when they solidify their relationship — Moxin finally accepting his help and admitting her feelings — is when the plot kinda starts to dip in quality. Upon reaching the penultimate episode I realized that certain writing decisions happened for a big battle sequence and like, yeah, that certainly is one way to resolve the Junqing vs Hongyi conflict but given how intimate (for lack of a better word) the story had been up until this point, I do think it would have been better and made more sense to stay small scale — Junqing & Moxin vs Hongyi (instead of volunteer army vs palace army LOL). Again, the final episode and a half absolutely saved it and overall this is definitely one of my fave CDramas, but there are undeniably flaws lmao. (Also no other place to put this thought, but I feel weird not saying it — the two enemy kingdoms that are really peripheral for the first 2/3 of the show start getting a lot of attention in the last third and I just feel uncomfy w how they were portrayed given how CDramas tend to portray those who are not Han Chinese.....)
But anyway if you like angsty romances this is absolutely must watch in my book!! Just rip for the 31-34 stretch, those episodes are really truly Rough lol.
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