I think if you are wondering whether or not to watch this drama you need to know the following:

- This is an historical drama, with the laws and values of the bygone era
- It takes place in a harem. The ML has a lot of wives and children from different women.
- Although it is a historical drama, there is a fictional license used to tell the story.
- It's a slow romance. To some too slow and not enough.
- It's not an action drama, don't expect a lot of kung fu fighting scenes
- There is a big age difference between the leads

I say this because if you already know you don't enjoy these kinds of things, then you probably won't like the drama even if you do like the actors.

Overall I enjoyed the series. The Sword and Brocade was a beautiful production. The costumes and sets were well done. And I loved the music.

Seven and Wallace had a nice chemistry. Were they on fire? No, instead this is a love filled with patience, trust, respect and good humour. This is a story about finding love within an arranged marriage.

I think the story was nice, but there were a few repetitive tropes that I think they should have done differently. It's easy to get very frustrated with the antagonist, and some of the ML family members. I wished writer was better at scheming. I think it was one of the weak points of the story.

Shiyi was a lovely leading lady. She isn't Seven's usual character. She was mature, calm and more restrained. I was glad to see Seven play a more adult character.

Houye was a very dashing leading man. His character on the surface seems like a saint but by the end you can see that there was flawed husband whose pride and neglect often times hurt the women who served him. Wallace is good at playing sensitive romantics. I very much feel he was staying in type here.

I won't breakdown all the characters, but I will say I was very disappointed with Madame Xu's character. She was very bias, and stubborn in her character. For 40ish episodes I didn't see much character growth in her character. She made me feel grateful for my own Mother-in-law. I really hated her character.

The Sword and Brocade was a sweet slow romance and that provide some insight into the life of married women of those times.

In fact, I think it's the harem dynamics that is the best part of the story. They did do a good job at showing us challenges, heartbreak, and general unfairness of women of that time.