The Rise of Phoenixes (2018)

In both costume dramas you can find a politician hero played by brilliant Zhao Lixin and many other ancient Chinese policemakers and warlords.

I think both drama have the same dark feel.
The lead males are both mysterious and the lead females are not sure if they can be trusted.
Both male leads are good strategists and creates several plots and plans to keep the main females safe.
The female leads seem as if they are against the world.
Both female lead have a great martial artist as their bodyguard/male servant.

Ended with a 'WHAT JUST HAPPENED?' feeling!

Without the fantasy element, The Rise of Phoenixes is a similar match of stunning cinematography, excellent cast, political scheming and downplayed romance. Both suffer from the dreaded "what could have been" curse of C-Dramas, but if you can make through Tribes and Empires, The Rise of Phoenixes certainly deserves a go.

Both dramas look visually amazing with fantastic acting from veteran casts. The chemistry between the two leads are really great, in fact the leads from Ming Lan eventually got married in real life. The lead females come from humble beginnings and struggle to overcome the familial expectations put on them. They are highly intelligent, but must hide it due to the the social stigmas that women should just be housewives. The male leads grow up in comparable wealth and comfort, but due to a series of events suffer a huge fall from grace at the hands of their own family. The romance is cute in how the leads bicker with each other, but both are a little darker in tone.

Both productions have Chen Kun as male lead, accompanied by cross-dressing strong female lead. While one of them focuses more on fighting/action and the other one focuses on politics, they both showcase women who are good at their, seemingly male-only, job.

both are historical | costume dramas where the female and male leads are smart and attractive.
both are really well-made dramas that give similar vibes

In Both Dramas:

---Male lead is a kind, highly intelligent and calculating prince who has learned to hide his true personality behind a carefree facade since the true "ruler" of the country is only corrupt officials
---Male lead tries to support the innocent younger 4th brother of the family and help him success the throne, instead of the evil 2nd brother.
---Male and Female lead join forces and try to uncover corrupted officials and expose the crimes of the 2nd (evil) brother. Second brother does anything in order to steal the throne, including numerous murders.
---Both dramas have a lot of action scenes combined with interesting palace politics ( I never got bored not even for a second) and romance.
---Both dramas have a good amount of Romance . Female leads are smart , kind and fight for justice and to protect their loved ones.
---The side characters have interesting back story and are all well written. This adds a lot to the "world building".
---Male lead despite being a Prince, he never cares about obtaining the throne. He only wants to protect the younger Prince from the evil older Prince whom desperately tries to win the throne.

Differences:
Well... Haechi is K-drama not Chinese and is dark but not as dark and sad as Rise of the phoenixes was. Rise of the phoenixes was very very tragic.
Haechi has a lot of sad moments but there are also many times that the main leads will manage to succeed! Rise of the phoenixes also was more focused on politics. Haechi has more action scenes and more romance (without to forget the politics aspect).

Both dramas are serious and focus on how important it is in life to be kind and fight for justice. Good against Evil. Love against all forces. Those are the morale of the story.

Both are by the same author and the FL lead in TRoF is actually the last descendant from LoFY. Both have a brilliant and smart FL and ML but I really like the portrayal of the FL in TRoF. TRoF is more about politics and court intrigue and although LoFY also has that it also has stunning fight scenes. Also LoFY has a touch of fantasy/magic while TRoF is set in the world of mortals. The romance in TRoF is slow burn where in LoFY its all there. But both had leads with sizzling chemistry.

Both dramas are heavy on political talks, with family drama. And they make it absolutely not boring. Both have great production values.

Every time I think of the chemistry between the lead it often leads me back to to rise of the phonenix. This mutual understand and conspiracy they do to get what they want. The only difference is the ML in rising in the phoenixes plays as a crazy guy but so passionate. The guy in snow tower often had to keep his feelings in check.

- smart male and female lead, both leads from TROP and WRTW gives very similar vibe
- the male lead is a prince from one nation, the female lead is a princess from another nation
- revolves around the royal princes fighting for the throne, archetypes of each princes are similar
- the politics/court felt very similar in both drama
- WRTW is a more light-heart/refreshing version of TROP with more wuxia/action elements

Both dramas have:
; strong female leads
; both characters have martial arts skills.
; hidden identities
; cross dressing
; Cold male lead with similar personality
; Cold female lead with similar personality
; adapted from source (manhua or a novel)
; revenge
; the female lead family have died in both dramas

Both dramas have lots of strategic intrigue, fight scenes, and a romance that just keeps being a bit too out of reach ...both have a high production budget and are cinematic

The Rise of Phoenixes is more strategy than romance and the intelligence and complexity stays strong all the way through.

Both dramas are chinese historical with 2 cunning leads.

The prince that is older and meets in the FL in disguise and the FL that is younger and also in disguise. They secretly work together and have good chemistry.
Both princes pretend to be sick / obedient only to come out stronger in politics.

Overall they have a similar feel although TROP has better cinematography and live recording, whereas TSOG is dubbed.

FL in TSOG is physically stronger than TROP, it also has more romance.

- Both adapted from a novel;
- FLs are strong, wit and resourceful;
- Historical dramas with political intrigues, but The Rise of Phoenixes is much darker and more complex;
- Both FLs are unfavored by the main branch of the family and forced to marry a controversial and inauspicious man;
- There is also a scene where FL tries to manipulate ML in an attempt to escape the wedding, but ends up being outsmarted by him.