I started watching this drama a while ago, but gave up after the second episode because I couldn't follow the plot. I'm glad I came back after watching other dramas. They gave me more background knowledge to follow the complex political structures and plots.

While the plot was interesting, it was the characters that really got me hooked, especially Wang Zhi. His character and story had so much more potential and I would love to see a whole show with him as the main character. It kind of blew my mind that he was so young - and while his actions sometimes made you forget that, the show manages to remind you of his youth in some really great scenes.

Overall, the show suffered from the same problems that many shows do: the plot gets too convoluted, the stakes don't fit the established tone of the show and some plot holes are hard to overlook. For example, there should have been a better way to introduce the Empress as a warrior, as it came out of nowhere (twice). While the action scenes were great in the beginning, when they tried to raise the stakes in the last few episodes, it became over the top and felt out of place. Also, some of the serious issues they were trying to address (e.g. PTSD, domestic violence, human trafficking) went nowhere and had no consequences.

Despite these problems, I really loved the show and its main characters. They had great chemistry, and I'm curious to see what a BL adaptation of this show would have been like.