I just finished watching the last episode. This show has been sitting in my watchlist for ages (months) and I just never got around to it because I kept hearing mixed things. A lot of negative things: like how the female lead is annoying, the budget is low, the male is is toxic, etc. Just so many things. And there's a bit of truth to all of it.

So let me explain why I continued until the end.

First, I'm going to start with the less than stellar things.

Yes, the budget is low and it shows. The makeup was also pretty bad for a good portion of the time. Example: The second male lead...every time he was on screen, I stared at his unblended wig line rather than his face. The script...honestly, the majority of it was boring except for the instances between the male and female lead. It was repetitive. The show could have been accomplished in half the amount of episodes. The female lead's character was indeed sort of irritating. Lots of back and forth between the two male leads. Out of the entire cast, I only liked three of them. And the story itself was very, very simple.

Basically, there were a ton of little things.

Now for the parts that kept me going.

1.) While the female lead character was far from my favorite (doesn't even rank), that's all the fault of the script. Actress Rosy Zhao played her part beautifully. My only problem was the horrendous script she'd been dealt.

2.) The other character I liked aside from the leads was the best friend of the secondary male lead. Qin Liu Feng. Actually, that doesn't do him justice. Despite being the best friend of the rival love interest, there were times that it seemed like he was the only one who truly put the female's best interest first. He never judged her or any of them really. And when the second male lead was acting possessed or heartless, he stepped in to give perspective. And most notably, in the end, after all went down, he was the one who told the female lead what had happened and bid her farewell into the arms of the main male lead. He was the most supportive one throughout the whole drama, I think.

3.) To be honest, I didn't like the second male lead for almost all of the show. He was too rigid and set in his beliefs. He would have never put the female lead first. Only the morality of the hypocritical righteous sect placed first in his heart. He didn't even really know how to show affection. He was kind of sad, to be honest. He was the product of his upbringing. But in the end, he let her go. He finally realized that if she stayed with him, he would one day sacrifice her for the good of his people and their beliefs. Only the main male lead, who was deemed the bad guy and hated by everyone, would truly put her first in all things and love her the way she deserved.

4.) That leads me to the so called bad guy. He was the one thing that kept me interested in this drama. Shangguan Qiu Yue, played by Li Hong Yi. I saw where a lot of people called him toxic. Here are my thoughts. This show never portrayed him to be a good guy. He was raised in an ice cave, beaten and trained to hate in order to get revenge for his mother. Someone like this, who saw enemies everywhere, would never show love in a healthy manner. But he evolved and grew. Initially, he used her. The female lead was just another pawn. She became less so as he fell in love. Was his love toxic though? I don't think so. He was a villain. He showed up in her room, kidnapped her frequently, kissed her all the time, tricked her, etc. Yes, those things aren't technically socially okay. But it's what bad guys do. He also saved her all the time, even when the second male lead whom she thought she loved would have sacrificed her for the greater good, which happened quite a few times. The "bad guy" always put her first. He just communicated in the way he'd been raised to communicate: violently and by using tricks. Another thing, he also listened to her and did what she requested, so essentially she called the shots in a roundabout way. So no, I didn't have a problem with his character. Not everyone can be cookie-cutter perfect.

Still on Li Hong Yi...

He was beautiful throughout and he kept giving her this expression that was just to die for. It made my heart beat. LOL. It's probably one of the most seductive expressions I've seen in c-dramaland and that's my theory for why it was so popular. <3 People just wanted to look at his bad boy sexy face.

Truthfully, he was the best part of this show. ^_^

Overall, this drama was far from perfect, but I enjoyed it well enough. Probably won't rewatch it though.