Story: the story was pretty one note for me, and fell flat a lot of times. it seemed repetitive, and there was way more flashbacks then i think we needed, esp of scenes we already saw before. i do not watch romance dramas, so i knew going into it i would dislike the romance story, and it felt also pushed into the plot rather then a large plot point. i think the show would have been successful without any romance at all, and just political drama. it had a good backdrop of the drama when it came the palace and the harem, but they were not given the same attention as the main CP. I was even intrigued by YaoGui valley a lot, but that was also not given the same attention as the Qin Household.
Acting/Cast: I knew going into this that ZZH and MR are good actors. I am an MR (Mi Re) fan so I knew that I would be rooting for him, but I expected ZZH to have something else in this role. While Prince Qin was a flat role it left me not caring for his end goal and for his romance. He had some scenes where he showed emotion but to have that has the main lead is weird since its hard for the audience to connect. Now I did not like JJY's acting. She at times felt one-demonsional. I was not sure why, but she did not feel natural to me when she acted. While she is a pretty face I do not believe her acting was amazing, but she did what she needed to do. Now for Merxat I can go on and on, since I am one of his fans. But I can say that I really enjoyed his acting. I can be critical of persons acting even if I stan them, but I do believe he stole every scene he was in and his emotions were portrayed with so much raw power, and naturalness that I felt the pain he was in. He created a character that completely fleshed out in mannerisms, quirks, and microexpressions that I felt Qishao was one of the most well-rounded characters in the show.
I do think the supporting cast did a good job (I liked the actor for Tang Li and for Concubine QIng).
Music: I can only remember two of the OST's for this show so it is not memorable for me.
Rewatch Value: I would not watch it fully again. I may watch some scenes again because of the emotional power they had (mainly Qishao's scenes) but this is not a drama I would enjoy watching again.

Overall, I think the show was too many episodes and it needed more closure. I appreciate the costumes and the ambiance the show created. I think if you are a fan of the actors you are more likely to watch the show since it drags on and gets too repetitive. I caught myself dozing off or fighting to continue an episode. Thank being said, I do believe that Merxat did an amazing job in this role, and if it was not for him playing the role of Qishao and carrying the emotion through emotionally charged scenes it would not have succeeded. The show needed some editing but it was not the worst show I have watched,