i am usually a very strong lover or hater of a drama but I am super unsure about how I feel about this drama! I suspect I might be spoilt by Yanxi and Scarlet Heart so I constantly draw a comparison with how this was done.

Pros:

- I always like Wang An Yu and I didn’t feel much about Landy but I liked them both here! acting was great, the cuteness, sweetness, the seriousness and the tears were all great.

- NO ANGST between the main couple thank god. well, minimal, in that while FL was unsure about her feelings in the beginning, ML was always sure. and once they found each other, it was always them against the world. love it.

- Minimal angst between the sides in the fight for the throne, even if there was any, it was quickly resolved. (I’m a hater of misunderstandings and angst for no reason)

Cons

- how the f can the entire harem and politics be one handedly played by one woman who gets her happy f-ing ending in the end?????? and it was all because of her jealously????

- nobody really gets their just desserts ^ refer to above. maybe they want to stick close to history? but they already deviated at some points (i.e. missing out Yinxiang’s 10 years of confinement until Yongzheng took the throne) then just kill some people!!! like the 8th, 9th, 10th prince or the Consort De…? unsatisfying.

- I think I draw too much comparison with Yanxi and Scarlet Heart which are both longer than this so the history depiction is more accurate and also happens to be abit more serious. this has a less serious tone, so probably I’m nitpicking.

all in all, this is an ok watch, I like Wang An Yu and the cast, especially Kangxi. but there are definitely loopholes and wtf @ Minghui lol.