I have never seen any of prior Novoland installments but heard that one can watch these without much knowledge of the universe so I picked this up anyway. Of course, my biggest attraction towards the drama was due to William Chan and Yang Mi. They are both good looking actors and I'm a big fan of William Chan's acting in whatever capacity I've seen him. Plus, I am still waiting for Yang Mi's next TMOPB successor drama. Alas, this drama falls short of what could have been and ends up being a skippable one if one asks for my opinion.

PLOT:
I understood their world but there wasn't enough fantasy and magic for me to be intrigued to check out any other Novoland dramas. The first episode was solid but the rest of the drama was a compilation of highs, lows and very frustrating hair pulling / facepalm moments. I have to say that the main couple had a lot of potential but the slow burn just dragged on and on till the spark was almost on the verge of extinguishing out. The secondary couple however, are much more complex and interesting than the main one. But if I had to be honest I gave enough crap about Shifu-disciple and evil emperor-abused wife plots to hang around. The court drama was also written well but for me the two couples always overshadowed the true purpose of the plot.

CAST:
I have to say that I was very much pleased with William Chan's performance. His character was like a mute wooden statue and he ended up pulling even that. I liked Yang Mi's portrayal till it got super boring with her as a crossdresser and she was just flat most of the times. Xu Kaicheng played the emperor well and I'd love to see him and Tilan in another drama in the future. I think with a bit of improvement, XKC can become one of the better actors in China. The rest of the supporting cast was also fine but I didn't give much heed to them.

WHAT WORKED:
-Performances of William Chan and Xu Kaicheng along with the Tilan actress
-Slow burn of will-they / won't they
-Baixi and the poison plot

WHAT SUCKED:
-Yang Mi's crossdressing
-Poor communication between main leads
-The abuse emperor posed upon Tilan till he did a 180 degree
-The Ending

OVERALL:
I liked this drama and was always looking forward to the next episode. I liked the mermaid and war-talk but the ending just didn't work for me. This drama was too brutal and isn't even a real story so I fail to see why the writer couldn't have written a better ending. The ones who suffered were doomed from the start and it was like there was nothing to look forward to anymore. Some plots dragged on forever and the fantastical and romantic elements that could've been explored more just underused. I swear this shows that in spite of S+ class budget, Cdramas need better scripts and do some fanservice at the same time. This drama has too many shortcomings to make it to my list of favourites from this year like The Long Ballad (which was much, much better).