Xu Kai's Character/Performance: 10/10


Xu Kai is the only thing that kept me watching this. For me, up until the very last episodes the show was a miss for me outside of Xu Kai's incredible performance. His scenes, every one of them, are incredible but there was noooooo romantic chemistry between his/bai lu's character... and imo they didn't do a good job even building up what about her he was so attracted to. I came to the conclusion it was just supposed to be because her joining as a him was so unconventional and ballsy that he falls for her because he likes whatever is the opposite of what he's "supposed to" but his incredibly beautiful, courageous, loyal love gets NOTHING in return to work with. It's a bizarre dynamic that did not work for me. It's not even good tension. It's just..... nothingness. I don't know if this is the writers fault, the directors fault or Bai Lu's fault for her acting but Xu Kai literally gave more than most humans are capable of to his side of the performance to save this show. I LOVED their chemistry in The Legends so this was a huge disappointment coming from that. The show suffers from not enough early development of the main characters, totally weird choices by Bai Lu or the director on how she should portray her character and way too much of the side characters. The side characters were wonderful but way too much is devoted to their scenes in the first half of the drama and not nearly enough to making Bai Lu's character a well developed character. She's there to fulfill her brothers dream but there is way too little of the show devoted to this motivation. Or the fact that she was depressed and non functional for the 2 years between his death & her joining Arsenal as a boy. They gave so much depth and attention to characters at Bai Lu's characters expense that it made her feel so thin & unusual to me. Maybe it was also the way she thought she had to act portraying a male but it made her character feel like a placeholder.