Princess Agents (2017)

Don’t dread the ending, enjoy the journey!

Princess Agents has most definitely been my favorite drama of 2017. I have been waiting for a long time to write this review and many a times I almost gave into the urge to gush about it to everyone but unlike some impatient little boogers, I decided to wait for the drama to completely air first. I'm glad I did.

Even though, Princess Agent's story remained interesting from start to finish, it was the cast and characters that were the essence of the show.
Everyone who knows me, knows that I for one have a lot of love for my lady badasses and Chu Qiao was the definition of a badass. She was brilliant, witty, an excellent fighter, loyal to the bone and fully determined in her beliefs. Nobody could boss her around and she always stuck to what she thought was right. Watching Zhao Zanilia on-screen has always been a pleasure. She's such a versatile actress and her effortless elegance along with her sincere charisma never fails to make her acting seem extremely natural. I loved Chu Qiao so much and her fighting scenes always blessed me with these unexpected bursts of adrenaline rush that left me jumping around in excitement.

One thing I absolutely hate in Chinese dramas are the robotic and emotionless male leads that are perfect in every way and while, YuWen Yue started off as being cold and aloof, he soon began to win hearts with his unadulterated devotion towards our girl. He's someone who's not afraid to express his honest feelings and show his vulnerable side and that is what made him so endearing. Lin Geng Xin put out the acting of his life and was able to easily deliver YWY's innermost emotions without having to do much. The chemistry between Chu Qiao and YWY was simply electric.
Princess Agents was Kung Fu made sexy and these two characters communicated their every feeling with it. Every time these two were in a room together the temperature rose a few considerable degrees until everything felt hotter and a lot more sensual.

However, even though I was wholeheartedly rooting for YuWen Yue, my love for Yan Xun wasn't insignificant in any way. Dou Shawn brought to life, with his stunning acting, an unforgettable character. His transition from a reckless, know-no-better, kind-hearted prince to a cruel and blinded by vengeance duke was heart breaking. No matter what he did, it was so hard to truly hate Yan Xun because he was a man shaped by the scars of his life; someone slowly losing grasp of the humanity that defined him and it was all just such a shame. With his sharp eyes and an even sharper jawline Yan Xun slayed the hearts of the viewers without even trying.

Normally, I despise love triangles. Primarily because I'm almost always more inclined towards one of the male leads and then all the romantic scenes with the other just piss me off. However, deciding between Yan Xun and Yuwen Yue was such a hard thing to do because they were both fully committed towards their love for Chu Qiao. Whenever my heart was cheering one of them on, there came fluttering a scene with the other man that melted by insides. Chu Qiao had significant history and a strong bond with both of them and by the end of the show, I was almost praying for YX to mess up in some way so she could go to YWY.

Another actress whose work needs to be commended is Li Qin. She played the role of the extremely annoying, holier than thou, too stupid to live princess and played it in such a way that she was still tolerable till the end. Chun'er, time and time again made me want to bang my head with the wall. Not only was she extremely naive and selfish, she always ended up making a tragedy out of herself. She had everybody bend over backwards to save her worthless ass from her own mistakes and then she chose to blame others for her failures. All of her schemes always failed and it ended in her being utterly humiliated. So it was only because of the brilliant acting that by the end of the show the watchers still harbored some sympathy for her. Li Qin is undeniably talented and her portrayal of some scenes often left me open mouthed.

Backed by stunning visuals, a hauntingly good soundtrack and a gripping plot-line, Princess Agents was a treat throughout. It had me waking up at 7 am every morning because I wanted to see the new episode as soon as the subs were released. It had me watching entire episodes in raw form just because I was too impatient to know what happened next and it had me wishing away my weekends because I had no episode to look forward to then.

All in all, this review clearly shows how much I loved this drama so you must be wondering why then, did I not give it a solid 10? That is where we address the elephant in the room. Up until most of the show, I was willing to give it a 10 without a second thought and then came the outrageous ending.

The drama ends with the worst cliff hanger in Asian Drama history with absolutely nothing resolved. It's like the thing that you've been looking forward to throughout 67 episodes finally appears and when everything is at its peak, the show ends and your celebratory moment is snatched away from you. However, it would've been all okay if a second season with the same cast had been confirmed. Then this horribly disappointing finale would've been converted to a powerful episode that filled one with anticipation for the next season but that is not the case. The news for the second season is muddy at best and there's a high chance that the actors for the show will be changed out.

That is what makes millions of viewers so angry and devastated because this seems like a huge injustice. A disrespect to the drama, the actors who worked their ass off and the viewers who had been wholly attached to the story. What we wanted was closure but instead it was like we were handed the short end of the stick. The last few episodes were filled with unnecessary filler trash and the writers cramped everything into the finale, shoved all of it under a rug and dusted their hands with it.

This is the reason why this show could have been something phenomenal but ended up having its head cut off due to poorly planned decisions made on the behalf of the Princess Agent's team. Just like in the show the foul actions of an insecure King ruined the lives of many, the reckless actions of the drama creators eradicated many hopes.

I myself felt betrayed. The ending was like a personal offense and all the hours invested into the drama suddenly felt wasted. In that moment I wanted to give it a 4/10 rating out of rage, which is why I completely understand the low reviews and the hate comments. Once you see the ending, slowly you start to judge the entire show and downplay everything about it. All the things that seemed so great before, start to leave a sour taste in the mouth. However while I understand it, doesn't mean I would do the same myself because even if I had known beforehand the way it was going to end, I would have still chosen to watch the show. Because upon further thinking I realized that for me being on this journey with these amazing characters and creating a bond with all of them, alone was a great experience and discrediting the whole show just because of the ending seemed unfair.

So if you're considering watching it, don't dread the result rather enjoy the process.

Good Luck!

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Could have, would have, and should have been epic but just isn't.

This drama's thrilling opening had me on the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat. It is one helluva start that brilliantly sets the stage for the backstory. We are immediately transported to ancient Wei, a wicked, immoral, debauched kingdom where the dissipated nobility hunt slaves for sport. Our titular character Xing'er/Chu Qiao is no ordinary slave she is a superhero; assassin, gladiator, warrior and survivor. Her courage and fiery fighting spirit draws the interest of many suitors including her owner and spymaster Yuwen Yue, Yanbei hostage prince Yan Xun, Prince Yuan Song of Wei and Prince Xiao Ce of Liang. If not for the fact that she pulls her weight when it comes to the rescuing, this would sound absurdly Mary Sue. As it turns out, the most powerful men across three rival kingdoms simply have a death wish and are fatally attracted to dangerous, irascible and bad-ass women. Recognising her indomitable spirit and lethal fighting ability, Yuwen Yue trains her to be a top notch spy and assassin.

I enjoyed every moment of the first half of this drama - despite some discontinuity in the editing, the plot is intriguing, the characters are flawed and complex, it moves at a fast pace and the fight scenes are powerful and exhilirating. The chemistry between Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin is off the charts and their supercharged one on one fight scenes are hot, hot, hot. The way Yuwen Yue grooms her, her gratitude and resentment and the push and pull attraction between them and their strong personalities results in a highly combustible build-up in passion between them. I just love how his eyes reveal how vulnerable he is, his grumpy sullen glower conveys his displeasure at being enslaved by his slave while the tiniest wry smile suggests a sense of acceptance and humor about it. The fierce answering spark in Xing'er's fiery eyes and her combative, resentful stance is a dead giveaway as to who this spitfire also most unwillingly longs for. I believe she would never have left with Yan Xun if her pride had not been so wounded at the thought she was nothing more than a lean mean killing machine to Yuwen Yue.

I have always considered Zhao Liying a vastly overrated, creepy life sized LOL doll with her gigantic head and eyes. This drama has given me a newfound appreciation for her acting skills and commanding screen presence. Her fight scenes are phenomenal and it is obvious that she immersed herself in this fabulous, kick-ass role of a fearless heroine with a big heart and bold dreams. It is hard to pull off the typical cold male lead well but Lin Gengxin effortlessly depicts the iceberg that conceals a dormant volcano. It is such a waste that his masterful articulation of such a complex and interesting character does not get nearly enough screen time. With one glaring weak link, this boasts an all star cast with complex, interesting and funny supporting characters with Xiao Ce (Deng Lun), Yue Qi and Yang Song being my favourites.

After peaking near the middle with a barbarous, heart wrenching massacre that results in irreversible divisions, the plot digresses into a long winded, meandering, melodramatic and ultimately trite tale of revenge as the focus shifts to the second leads Yan Xun and Chun'er. They are parallel selfish and amoral characters who go off the rails albeit for good reason and become consumed by hate and revenge. Although Li Qin does a fantastic job making a delusional, entitled and spoilt princess somewhat empathetic, the character Chun'er is not smart or interesting enough to command the amount of screen time she got and in so many gratuitous sub-plots. Xing'er/Chu Qiao's character is thrown under the bus in these arcs where she is dumbed down, stagnates and even regresses on several fronts when she excuses Yan Xun's misdeeds and lies at the cost of many lives. Like Chun'er she closes both eyes to the fact that Yan Xun sold her an empty dream and is nothing but a selfish, heartless prick with no game plan, is of mediocre ability and has no vision.

Yan Xun is a well written, complex and interesting antagonist. It is hinted from the beginning that he is innately selfish and quite manipulative, traits that rule him after the loss he experiences. This has to be said - this role however was badly miscast and that is why the drama pretty much implodes in the second half, from the moment Yan Xun takes centerstage. Shawn Dou is a blank actor that never compelled me because underneath the surface of his toothy, million dollar smile, there is not much to him. He can only pull off easy going, laid back two dimensional good guy roles and from his blank placid gaze it is clear he never really gets deep into character, he is the epitome of still waters run shallow. They would have been way better off sticking a Darth Vader mask over him rather than to inflict the wooden, constipated expression he wore for over half the damn drama on us. And the annoying sibilant "dark" whisper that became his voice made him the first male character I have ever been tempted to mute in a c-drama. To me, there is no believable triangle in this drama because there is zero spark between him and Zhao Liying. Put against an intensely masculine actor like Lin Gengxin, Shawn Dou's utter lack of sex appeal (男人味) is painfully obvious. I don't mean to offend his fans but this is too important a role that got way too much screen time to have been so poorly cast. I struggled to complete this drama because I lost all interest in the Yanbei arcs and the last few episodes are simply incoherent.

I was well warned that this drama has the worst open ending ever. The problem is that unlike The Rise of Phoenixes, it is not just about one bad ending episode. This drama starts to sink from about the halfway point where my intriguing historical spy / assassin drama turns into yet another boring revenge drama and my strong female allows her dreams to be subsumed by someone else's agenda. The only reason I didn't drop this is the remarkable chemistry between Yuwen Yue and Xing'er. I am reading the book (which is long but riveting) so I know their story does go on and the portrayal of both characters are quite faithful to the novel. Many much more interesting sub-plots didn't play out because they wasted 15-20 episodes on the most boring Yan Xun and Chun'er. Sadly the odds of this ever being completed with the original cast are low.

This drama could have, would have, and should have been epic but it just isn't. All it is is unfinished. Thus I rate the first few arcs 9.0/9.5 but the second half is at best a 5.5/6.0. My overall score is 7.5 which I consider generous. This is one that must be watched with adjusted expectations.

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I wish I could give it a higher rating, but I just can't. It started off promising, but then the story turned into a complete mess of bad story arc choices and pacing, with irrelevant side characters given way too much screen time at the expense of main characters. Also, the end makes you feel completely cheated.



The romance was... messy. It was as if the production team couldn't decide what they were trying to film-- an historical political drama, or a romance drama, and kept flip-flopping between the two. I felt like I was watching an half-arsed political drama half the time with irrelevant characters who don't contribute to Chu Qiao's storyline at all, and an underdeveloped love triangle between Chu Xiao, Yan Xun, and Yuwen Yue the other time.



The title "Legend of Chu Qiao" is pretty much a lie. There's hints at CQ having an incredibly interesting backstory, but that's shoehorned in at random times and isn't revealed until way too late, and never utilised to make an interesting story. CQ has very little agency, and the story isn't even about her bringing down the institution of slavery. It's first about her under the command of YWY, then her under the command of YX, and trying to outsmart a bunch of YWY/YX-related people want to kill her.



Her relationship with YX could've been one of the strongest emotional arcs, and while to some extent I did think it worked, it could have been much stronger. I found CQ's romance with YWY very underdeveloped and flat for the majority of the drama, although it started off okay, and got better near the end.



In terms of acting and characters, Dou Xiao (Yan Xun), Li Qin (Chun'er), and Niu Junfeng (Yuan Song) stood out to me the most. It probably helped that their characters had complete arcs, and had significantly changed from the start to the end. DX completely stole the show for me, and his portrayal of YX from a happy-go-lucky princeling to a person filled with hate was amazing. I wouldn't say CQ didn't have a character arc, but her storyline felt like one befitting a supporting character rather than the main character-- as such, I found ZLY's performance adequate, with a few great emotional scenes, but didn't wow me in the same way as DX or LQ. In the same way, I thought Lin Gengxin was watchable, but there were no real 'wow' moments for me.



Another highlight would be Deng Lun (Xiao Ce) whose foxy prince was amazing, but unfortunately, under-utilised.



The music was great, but I don't think I'll be rewatching this drama again. There's just way too much I'll have to fast-forward through.

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A Good Story With A Lot of Lost Potentials

One of the rare dramas where it solely focus on a female's strength and power -- the type of drama where the female lead is mostly got away from troubles or death situations by her own will power and capabilities.

Zhao Liying did amazing in this role. Her zero regards to all the males around her was astounding as you can see from early one that her family has always been the priority for her and nothing else matters. I personally think Lin Gengxin is under used here considering his character could do so much more than what being given by the script. And Shawn Dou as Yun Xun is a treat to the eyes! From his dazzling smiles and personality to his broken and damaged self after the tragedy was a great transition and he did it believably.

I personally think Yan Xun is stupid despite how intelligent he is as an individual. The one he needs to take revenge on is the Wei Emperor and not the people. But his war affects the people more rather than the Emperor. He should have just kill the Emperor (and his whole family if he needs to see more blood :() and his revenge is over SMH. But his war killed more innocent people than the King did to his family back then. So overall, his revenge is just dumb and unnecessary.

Despite all the positive reviews that the drama got, as someone who is a bit picky, I found that many of the plots were never being explored to its full potential. The great premise was there, but the writer obviously lacked the capabilities to expand the script to be even greater. This mostly masked by the great portrayal of the characters but there are many instances on they just glared through the matter with no justification and explanation. The great offender would be the Kung Fu of Ice that Xing-er possessed which were never explored. To the mention of Leader of the Afterlife Camp which seemed to have no problem when Yuwen Yue destroying his agency and took away his spies (lol) to the Moustache Man who doesn’t seemed to have purpose but just love to create trouble and influencing the politic in Wei, Yan & Liang states. Not to mention the useless Liang spies that despite their great potential and capabilities -- never actually achieve anything despite being the real mastermind of the conflict between Yan & Wei. But despite that I'm was adamant to give the drama 6.5/10 for being entertaining but in the end, it deserved 7/10 because of the great ending and how heartbroken it made me feels.

THE ENDING

I think the great thing about the last episode is that how we finally understand the inner thoughts of Xing-er's mind and the position of Yuwen You & Yan Xun in her heart. Her character was consistent throughout the drama that she never put love an emphasis in her heart no matter how many guys were interested in her. Family has always been her priority and later the people of Yan.

And Yan Xun is exactly like that to her -- someone she cares deeply and share dreams with like a family -- the reason why she lives -- a broken child that she needs to protect. That’s why no matter what, she always chose him over Yuwen Yu over and over again. And Yan Xun finally get it at the end that despite the fact that she always chose him, someone else has her heart.

So on why the dying scene of Yuwen Yue was so heart wrenching is the fact is that when Xing'er finally understand her heart, it was already too late. It was already too late when she apologised and promised not to leave him ever again -- everything is just too late at that time. Then when she said to him to 'Hold on' and he nodded slowly, it was even more heart breaking -- as we all know, and he knew it as well that he's not gonna make it but he did anyway for her. But that whole dying scene was really amazing though. I lose count how many times I watch it. Definitely the best dying scene in my book -- the acting was A++ since Yuwen Yue literally looks like he was dying at that time. ;_;

What I find very interesting is that mostly Yuwen Yue's great love are done just for the fact that he loves Xing-er. He knew Xing-er will never reciprocate his feelings but it was just enough if he can see her and knew that she is alive and safe. That’s why, he never told her the countless of times he saves her without she her knowledge because his love was selfless where he didn’t expect anything in return. He could hold her back and ask her to stay, but to him, what makes her happier is much more important rather than her staying by his side. That is why his love, despite being great is very sad as well. And the fact that he only knew that she actually loves him too as well at that time just make everything just even sadder.

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As Princess Agents is ongoing this review will be getting updated as I go through **

So far I love this drama it's characters are aces, plot progression though slow at times is well paced with information being told at good intervals. The OST's are amazing!!!! I love how everything is timed perfectly with each scene. Good action sequences and political aspects, strategic plans, scheming, inner and outer strength growing in our characters. Character growth is also really well done. Chemistry between all the characters is elegant, anticipated and well executed. The story line so far is absolutely one of my favorite C-Dramas up to date.

Okay that's where I'm at for now. Also even though I'm not finished I can say this with 100% certainty that I will be able to re-watch this series in the future as of today I have re-seen the first episode again.

If you want thoughts/reviews/slight recaps of episodes I have them up to episode 16.

WATCH THIS SHOW. It's in no way a regret. It may have a lot of episodes but the story and actors make it go by so fast :D Give it a try what do you have to lose? (An amazing experience of a show that's what lol)

Sara Rojas JUNE 30 2017

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Story: This drama did NOT do it's job, and left us seriously hanging. There were way too many unanswered questions.
Acting: I thought all the actors did a great job, and the transition and character growthw as great.
Music: I watched on Viki and they subbed the songs. I thought the songs were great and fit each scene beautifully.
Rewatch Value: MEHHHH, If I'm bored and want to see Kenny Lin or Shawn Dou, yea.

The ending as many have wrote about, SUCKS. I did enjoy the build up but the latter part of this drama did not live up to the hype. I was hoping so much for Chu Qiao and Yuwen Yue but nothing came of it, and she ended up figuring out she liked him on the last episode (yikes). I did like the beginning of the series and seeing everyone's relationship and them being playful and funny. I never thought that this series would take such a dark turn. This drama is also one of the MOST violent dramas I've ever seen. The opening scene is literally guys hunting slave girls for fun.

I'd only watch this if you want to check out hotties, since this drama included many of them even the some of the antagonistic characters and side characters.

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Very entertaining. Did not waste time. I stayed for 50 plus EPs, of course, for the couples (Xinger+Yuwen Yue). I hate Reverse Harem. LACK character development for Yuwen Yue. Also, our female lead Xinger changes her mind A LOT. Fickle is not the right term because It's "Friendships". Kissing on the lips is still friendship. Having 4 guys liking you and their reasons for liking you are hard to see why, but it's ok coz you're so great they have to like you coz it's plot and it is not mary sue of you anyway. You sort of exist through time with them, not that you're ignoring their love for you. You just don't do anything about it.  
I dropped this when it was airing coz at that time I was viewing Nirvana In Fire, so my taste for legit dramas had skyrocketed, and PA's lighting was insanely bright that it looked like a "not serious" drama. The filter is okay but the lighting is very historically incorrect. Everywhere is so bright.
but I finished it now and understand the hype. 

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I’m struggling to rate this one because there are some very strong elements to this show, but there are things that drag the show down. The plot is strong and solid, the first half of the show is very good, and some of the big plot points (betrayal, murder, weddings) are all great. There is time in between some of these points and they’re often necessary to build up the characters, their relationship, and add to the anticipation of the events to come. However, some parts of the show do feel slow. It’s odd because the show doesn’t feel poorly paced but perhaps it gets muddled towards the end because it has so many subplots and characters and it has to divide its time between each of them, so it feels like not a lot of progress gets made over the course of an episode.

Chu Qiao is one of my favorite female protagonists I’ve seen in a cdrama. She’s smart, she’s loyal, she’s determined, and she’s a total badass. The growth she undergoes from being a slave just trying to stay alive to super skilled fighter able to take revenge on her enemies is great. She has her own goals and she will not be swayed from the path she has decided to take. I love that while the guys will sometimes come and rescue her from whatever predicament she’s in, she has pretty much handled it already (taken down 9 of 10 bad guys, cleverly talked her way out of a situation, etc) so they are just basically helping her wrap things up lol. Her character growth throughout the entire show is so interesting and fun to watch.

I seem to be in the minority in that I liked Yan Xun wayyyy more than Yuwen Yue. Yuwen Yue was fine, but kinda boring. I gave zero craps about his Heavenly Spies or wtf he was up to. He undergoes some character growth which is great but also... idk I just never really cared. Yan Xun on the other hand changes a lot and I found him and his story so compelling. I also found his and Chu Qiao’s relationship way more interesting. The things they experience together, how that brings them together, and how their relationship changes as they themselves change is great to watch.

I’m also possibly in the minority of liking the cliffhanger ending. I can see how it would be infuriating for someone who was watching the show while it was airing. But I will admit that the show suffers from some pacing issues and gets dragged down by subplots that don’t end up being important or even get resolved. That’s what frustrated me towards the end; not the actual ending, but how I felt like I was dragging myself through the last 10 episodes. I was truly invested in how it was going to end and what would happen to the characters. But because there are all these subplots and side characters, it was annoying to sit through the stuff I didn’t find interesting to get to the actual plot and conflicts that I cared about. They also low key seemed to forget about a few important plot points and just threw them in at the end.

The last episodes were also weird in that there was so much use of green screens. I generally try to not judge a show based on technical stuff but it was so distracting that it took away from the very serious and important stuff was occurring in those scenes. I’m sure there was some reason irl that they needed to reshoot those scenes or something.

Tl;dr this show has a very solid plot, an amazing female protagonist and other good characters, but does get bogged down towards the end.

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This is a drama that should have been everything - except it wasn't. Heavily promoted, it featured a great cast, a killer OST, featured an awesome female lead character, and was based off of a popular online novel which in recent years has pretty much meant guaranteed success. And commercially wise, I suppose it was quite successful as it broke a number of records streaming wise, but the production team pretty much failed all other aspects of storytelling.

Story
Even if you haven't watched the drama, you've probably heard some of the controversy - they essentially only took about 3/4 (maybe not even...more like a little more than a half) of the original story for the drama. Which just screams, "What in the world were they thinking?" How can anyone have greenlighted this project and said, "Hey, you know what, we're just going to end the drama on a total cliffhanger without a guarantee at all there will be a second season. Better yet, let's include a bunch of useless filler storylines to drag out the middle part of the story even more since we're not telling the whole story anyways." ??? Rule number one for drama production teams - never do multiple seasons for dramas if you have a popular cast that you haven't already bound by contract to bring back (props to the team behind Ode to Joy for  realizing this, btw) . Rule number two - if you can tell the whole story in one season, don't drag it out because it just hurts the quality.

The first half of the drama was pretty good - it features an awesome female lead who is multi-dimensional and is willing to claw her way to survive. She's not a Mary Sue - she can have moments where she seems heartless and cold, but she's also had a terrible life and thus has a different world view than most girls her age. The tone of the drama is darker than most because of the heavy material in the story, and I did enjoy that aspect. I have no idea why they added so much nonsense in the second half - for a drama that should have been moving along super fast considering how much plot it needed to cover, the pacing was ridiculously slow.

I was fascinated by the premise of the story and hated how the drama handled it, so I actually went back and read the novel, which I never do, because reading full length novels in Chinese is a bit of a chore for me. I'm glad I did though, because it filled the gaps nicely and at least I can picture in my head how this should have ended. But it also lended a different perspective to the love triangle - I'm not a fan of how the drama skewed it. If you read the novel, this should have been a tale of two loves for our lead, Chu Qiao - the first would be Yan Xun, and the second would be Yuwen Yue. However, the drama pretty much portrayed it so you would be rooting for Yuwen Yue all the way through, which I think does Chu Qiao a disservice. Part of the whole point of the story is her understanding of what love is and how it evolves over time - so that was disappointing. I'm particularly sad we didn't get to see all the cute, truly squee-worthy moments between her and Yuwen Yue becasue I think I pretty much grinned my way through the end of the novel.

But nitpicking over the depiction of the love triangle would be a moot point since the story was incomplete to begin with. Again, I have no idea who thought that would be a great idea. I don't even know if they would have enough material to cover a season 2, to be honest, without dragging things out significantly. If you enjoyed the premise of the story and can read Chinese (or find a translation), go read the novel and get yourself some closure.

Cast
What a waste of a great (young) cast - obviously this isn't one of those dramas with a stellar veteran crew, but the young(ish) leads all have some decent acting chops.

 It's amazing how far Zhao Li Ying has come in just a short number of years - she's one of a handful of actresses who stars in exclusively heroine-centric dramas (Princess Agents, Rookie Agent Rouge, Journey of Flower, the upcoming Glamorous Times and The Story of Minglan - all are stories that are centered around the female lead character and her journey). One of the biggest reasons for her success has been her versatility (despite her pixie stature and face) and the fact that she is one of the better actresses for her age group. Chu Qiao was a great role for her as it let her channel her inner female general - but again we go back to the writing - it would have been so much better if she was given the whole story to work with.

Lin Geng Xin was decent as Yuwen Yue - the stoic characters are pretty much a staple of dramaland and I don't think anyone ever does badly in this type of role - but I would like to see him take a meatier role at some point (and I do think he's capable - there's a reason why his career took off after his stint as the 14th prince in Bu Bu Jing Xin). I also think he didn't have the greatest chemistry with Zhao Li Ying, but that could have been the writing more than anything else - a lot of their interactions were way too forced, and not built in an organic manner at all.

But the standout, for sure, was Shawn Dou, who gave an incredibly memorable performance as the complicated Yan Xun. He was able to express every aspect of his character beautifully, and even in the end, after everything he's done, it's almost impossible to hate him because you still feel like he's a product of circumstance. In a world where C-dramaland is dominated by tall, attractive actors in their mid to late twenties who are, for the most part, rather acting-challenged or limited in range, it baffles me how Shawn has not taken off yet. I know he's got a couple of dramas lined up as the main lead, but they're all the typical romance/makjang fare, and I would love to see him in something of substance because he is so talented (I would love to see him work with the Daylight Entertainment team one day a la Zhang Bo).

Shoutout to Li Qin as well who was great in her role - as hard as it was to watch sometimes, she portrayed all the trials and tribulations of her spoiled princess character perfectly. Deng Lun is still really, really green to me - I don't know what it is but he always just comes off a bit awkward in his roles.

Overall
If they had just stuck to the novel material, this would have probably been one of my favorite dramas - but the decision to not film a complete drama is just absolutely baffling. If they do end up making a season 2 (and there isn't any indication that is the case yet - all three of the main leads have projects lined up for the next couple of years - not to mention the fact that some of the rising stars, like Deng Lun, have a heavily packed schedule now too), maybe some of the fury will subside from fans, but for the time being, this is an incomplete production.

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