The euphoria I felt whilst watching the first dozen episodes is indescribable. Finally, I said, finally I found an intelligent series with strong characters and an intriguing plot that was truly riveting; however, by episode 20 the story and characters moved from the palace location to the barracks where we were then introduced to the other players in the game. Thereon, it appears characters that were previously intelligent became stupid, and certain plot points that had seemed inviolable at the beginning were no longer so.
How do the writers explain the Emperor and Empress sneaking out of the capital dressed as guards when the audience had been told previously that they were mostly grounded and rarely ventured outside of the palace grounds without permission? On the other end of the plot advance was Sima Yi who seemed clairvoyant and could deduce future events with almost no clues just because he was supposed to be the intelligent one. In a way the writers were their own worst enemy...they actually thought giving Sima Yi ( and to an extent, Guo Jia) all the clues without us seeing him(them) work through it themselves would make the characters seem smart. They were mistaken. It was lazy and unimaginative.

Enough about the screenplay, let's talk about the actors.

Wan Qian was the MVP of this series. She more than carried the show and had the most realistic character arc of the lot of them. She portrayed an Empress that was at the end of her tether and unwilling to go down with the ship but would rather find a way to right the rudder come hell or high water. Even I was on a knife's edge whenever she came on screen. All I can say is I hope she won an award for this series. Next is Ma Tian Yu. Sigh, I'm not sure I have anything nice to say about his acting skills. His face was either set at "resting stupid" or "slightly less resting stupid". His character was one-dimensioned to within an inch. There was nowhere for him to go so they made him run around in circles for the entirety of the series.

Then there were Cao Cao, Guo Jia, Man Chong, and the lot of them who were all caricatures of beard-twirling villains. If you want to see villains done right then watch Joy of Life or The Rebel Princess where even though you know these guys will kill their unborn babies to advance their positions, they could still evoke pity and even support from the audience. Objectively, I know these issues if isolated are not dealbreakers but combined, everything dragged. The pacing, the story, the characters, everything suffered.

While we're on this subject, did anyone notice when Sima and the Princess Consort fell in love? As in why and how? Lmao, theirs was the most boring and laziest "falling in love" I'd ever seen to the point I wish the writers had just left it out cos Elvis and Dong Jie had NO chemistry whatsoever.