I've been really interested in the whole story eventhough many scenes were really heartbreaking.
The storyline is easy to follow with a good pace and interesting plots. Some scenes are everything but soft and others are rather unexpected. We have some nice and poetic moments as well.
It's all about sisterhood, brotherhood and betrayals. It is although about power and plots to get the THRONE. At first, we have a mad emperor who kills whoever he wants, drunk most of the time, of course he will be replaced by a very good one who wants to instaure the Han system but is in bad health so he will be assited by his Queen .... It's quite interesting to see how a female will impose herself and become the Regent all mighty ! Quite rare in c-drama. We have in this drama 2 strong female leads, quite different in behaving and values.
Love is very present too. Unfortunately, to me, couples don't really match (maybe because of the age difference : female leads are mostly older than male leads... something seems wrong with the chimistry ....)
The acting is really good that's the reason why you are stuck to this drama. Special attention to Peter Sheng for his character (horse breeder).... quite free and wild and unfortunate (from ep. 45).
This drama is certainly not a must watch one but it' s quite interesting for its surprising or heartbeaking scenes. I'd also like to point out how elegant and beatiful the Queen is with very nice outfits. The production did a very good job with costumes, sceneries and scripts.