I started this drama with very high hopes. I enjoyed all three of the main actors (li landi, ren jialun, and xu zhengxi) from previous dramas. The fight scenes looked great, the acting was pretty good, and the cinematography wasn't bad. The conflicts and motivations of each character were clear in the beginning. But as you watch on, you'll see that the female lead seems to have the least depth to her character. The drama felt very much weighted toward wei zhao's story and pei yan's story. They felt like the true main characters by the end, and the true equals of the show, rather than it being between the female lead and male lead.

And that's not a bad thing, but the problem is that they didn't elevate jiang ci's character. Her character's agency and fierceness disappeared over the course of the drama. She constantly felt stuck in the same place (literally, sometimes!) and rarely saved herself. Even her anger over wei zhao's white lies (and straight-up lies) felt a bit tamed. Toward the last third of the drama, it felt like so many men around jiang ci were making decisions for her, making decisions about her status and life. She had no say. She could not leave where she was. We didn't even get to see her on screen very much. It was beyond frustrating. I almost dropped the drama.

By the final third of the drama (around 30-35), when one more serious sub-plot tried to surface, I gave up on this dragged out storyline and just skipped a lot of it. I just wanted to know what happened at the end.

The drama started so high, but ended as just 'meh' for me. I couldn't bear how much the female lead was suffering because of the men in her lives.

If you like stories that have less romance and more of the scheming and battles (and sad tragic realities of war), this did pretty good. I was really sad for the state of Yueluo, who have to send slaves to the Liang state and who have to suffer humiliation from the Liang state. That pain is really well shown.