Well, overall their acting was good, and mainly, what I liked about this story is that it was faithful to its title, Brocade Odyssey. A war for brocade 🥱. It's mainly about brocade during the Tang Dynasty. The story highlights the sufferings, struggles, and successes of a group of people trying to elevate an industry, helping the people dependent on it thrive and gain dignity in their craft.

Ji Yingying: Three men in love with one girl. The female lead … Her growth felt sudden and easy for me 😂 and thrown into slavery. Big orders had to be taken to pay a debt… but I never really saw her complete the order... Also, to complete an order, don’t they need to buy things? Like ingredients for colors? If she gave all the money to her debtor, how did she buy the ingredients or collect them... Also Yingying walked into the Yang's house and agreed to marry to save her mother. That ended weirdly… But anyways, she was trying to save her mother.
Suddenly, FL wanted to start trade with Tabo. On the way, they met bandits, and their acting was whatever… They didn’t really act like bandits. Then suddenly, the prince of Nanzhou revealed his real identity, and a lot happened. The FL got kidnapped, and the trade had to be abandoned. A year later, after being forced into slavery, then somehow they saved themselves....

Ji Nan & His Mother: The brother of the female lead felt useless, but that was his character anyways...... He couldn’t do anything except weave brocade. & also fall for someone.... Also, her mother was always stopping her whenever the FL tried to do something. I understand that She just wanted her children to live a peaceful and happy life.

Nui Wuniang: Nui Wuniang’s ending was weak and senseless. She was suddenly chained into submission and pushed to that ending. It doesn’t fit the role she started as. Nui Wuniang was such a force but ended up in this way 😵‍💫....... It would have been a better story if she had been a villain to the end or maybe turned a good person . I disliked her character because she was bad, and her ending made her character feel useless. If she had to end up like that why did they even had her character 🫠
Zhao Xiuyuan: A person who was just obsessed with Yingying. Even after getting married, he couldn’t forget her, but at the same time, he wanted to be a villain, but couldn’t. I thought he would be a great villain.....
General Niu: He did so many bad things but the imperial didn’t do anything.... I felt that he should have been dealt with by the imperial court. He caused so much disaster, the emperor should have beheaded him. Also, was he really a villain? I didn’t see him much....

Yang Jingyan: A brocade officer. He felt like a lonely fighter. He didn’t really feel like the male lead, I mean, the female lead felt more like a strategist than him. Also, those scenes where he went to the wedding, being hurt everywhere but still standing to stop her from becoming a concubine of his brother, and then proposing to her to get married… Then after some rest, he came to marry her, but the wedding ceremony didn’t really happen out there…😑

Bai: Prince of Nanzhou, but came in disguise, trying to get the attention of all the businessmen of Yanjou. He rejected Yingying at first, then wanted to be friends with her, but he wasn’t sincere enough, though she kept telling him to be sincere. But He didn’t want to… He wanted to be a villain, but didn’t really give off a villain vibe. It’s more like he was just trying to do what his master taught him. He wanted to take Yingying after seeing her talent, but she didn’t agree, and in the end, anyways he died…
I was expecting something good from this drama, but it turned out to be really confusing and all over the place. So many things were happening at once. After episode 25 , I started skipping a lot, and after episode 32, I even took a long break. I ended up watching episodes 33–40 in maybe an hour. Since it was faithful to its title, I’ll give it a 7.