I am relatively new to dramas and haven’t seen that many. I fully admit I am most interested in the romance followed by the plot. And for about 50 episodes this was shaping up to be a great one.

- Tortured hero check
- Spunky FL check
- Funny side characters check
- Drama check

I could get past the fact that our hero somehow single handledly fought off at least a dozen assassins every time he fought and how he vaulted on to his horse like he had a pogo stick for legs, and I could even get past how he could do all that with an arrow sticking out of his chest for most of one episode. This is not a drama for realism. By the same token, it’s pretty unrealistic that the FL who can barely read would be some kind of math genius and make not only the hero, but the emperor, the empress and the consort all chuckle at how “real” she was. This is secondary to the palace intrigue and romance that is being told to us.

What I can’t get past… spoilers…..


I can’t get past the fact that the FL finds out the ML secret and his plot for his revenge days before their wedding. She confronts him about “do you have anything you want to tell me…” at least 3 times. Once, he declines to tell her and two times they get interrupted but he still leaves her in the dark thinking she is preparing for their wedding. I get the revenge was important to him. I get it was necessary. But it was not necessary to go down the way it did. First, the ML was an eye witness to who the bad guy was and the bad guy’s murder of General Huo. He didn’t need proof. That was proof that he has had since he was 7 years old and yet he has said nothing. Second, the emperor loved him like a son and has already let him get away with a bunch of transgressions by this point. And the emperor was deeply saddened by General Huo’s death so the reason for not cluing the emperor in on his plan escapes me. And third, the fact that he won’t tell the FL, does this knowing she will not marry him, and also spent their entire relationship forcing her to tell him every insult she ever received when he can’t even tell her his real name really cheapened the great love story they were building.

Bottom line: I wanted to love it and there is a lot to love. The actors and the drama are good for the most part. It’s entertaining. But it majorly falls off in the end. And then there is a 5 year jump before the last 2 episodes and you just know the FL will forgive him because he almost dies rescuing her. He does apologize but it’s too little too late for me.