This is the empowering, female focused historical drama that I have been waiting for. Finally in Li Changge, we get a strong, smart, independent female lead character who seeks meaning in life beyond being just an extension of the male lead and his dreams. Not that Wu Lei's Ashile Sun is anything to throw popcorn at because this man is a total keeper from his fabulous thunderbolt eyebrows all the way down to his baby toes. No, I haven't actually gotten to his baby toes, my screen appears to be ahem... stuck... in a perpetual loop around about his stunning bare chest but I am sure they past muster. Even disguised as a man, Dilraba is such a peerless goddess no male lead ever seems good enough until Wu Lei rocks up to turbocharge this smoking hot OTP into one of my all time favorite drama couples. Don't be fooled by my shameless, shallow gushing, this is so much more than just another idol drama. All of the main characters in this drama start out as young people who don't know who they want to be when they grow up. They go on an incredible journey of self actualization to discover their true values and best selves.

This story begins with Li Shimin's bloody ascent to the Tang throne over the bodies of his brothers, to be the greatest Tang emperor. Li Changge, a fictional character, is his much adored niece and daughter of the deposed crown prince. Disguised as a man, she flees the capital, vowing to avenge her family and tries to marshal her father's remaining supporters to undermine her uncle. Thus Changge embarks on a long and difficult quest, making many friends including the delicious Ashile Sun along the way. She is young, naive and makes costly mistakes with irreversible consequences along the way. In the process, she discovers that the truth is never simple and there are causes far greater than hers; that an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. Dilraba's performance as Changge is several notches above all her other works; she is not afraid to ugly cry or allow grief and rage to ooze from every pore of her being.

I picked up this drama because Wu Lei's Fei Liu is one of my all time favourite drama characters. Who would have guessed that irascible kid would have grown up to be such a sexy beast of an Ashile Sun! And Wu Lei has not lost any of his agility in delivering thrilling, heavy hitting action scenes, with his kick ass fight with She'er being one of the drama highlights. But what really is on fire is his chemistry with Dilraba; their mutual attraction does not have to be expressed in words. When Sun tells Changge "From now on, you are my slave" his entire being screams "From now on, I am your slave." It is so refreshing to have a couple that understands each other, is honest with each other (even about lying to each other) and shares the same world vision. Ashile Sun's manliness comes from the fact that he is not threatened by Changge's independence and strength, he glories in it. Together they find that forgiveness brings peace and liberation. I am also most pleased that not all the men fall in love with Changge, Mimi is more the femme fatale.

Changge's cousin and closest confidante Leyan is inadvertently thrown on a similar journey. They are polar opposites by nature and deal with challenging situations in completely different ways but both show immense courage and fortitude. Leyan is the character that shows the most growth in this drama and even though usually weepy characters give me rashes, I was not allergic to Zhao Lusi's empathetic portrayal. Fair to say, the princess and the icicle is very cliche but Liu Yuning and Lusi really capture what made it such a popular trope to begin with. Sadly they must have cut those scenes where the uptight Haodu thanks Wei Shuyu for buying him looser underwear with tears in his eyes because poor Wei Shuyu never gets any love despite how he redeems himself later on.

As much as I find this drama's character development addicting, it must be said that the plot is flimsy and requires heavy suspension of disbelief. This is partly because the plot development is constrained by historical facts. While it is very cool to journey with our characters to all the historical hot spots and watch them interact with great historical figures while history plays out, the plot itself doesn't amount to much more than that. Changge's mother's story is tragic but anti-climatic as far as mysteries go and that is the problem, the drama doesn't really have a climax. The entire last arc is not only implausible, the main antagonist was mis-cast and their acting was so appalling I really cringed through many moments of the final few episodes. As for the ending, I found it most fitting. Weddings are not the same without family, permission was asked and received and beautiful vows were exchanged. We don't need more than that.

Broadly speaking, men are followers of women in this drama making it is the ultimate female fantasy fiction that on sheer addictiveness and enjoyment factor alone merits a 10/10. But objectively speaking it also has some flaws that make an overall 8.5/10.0 more fair.