Firstly, I was not expecting to be this in love with this drama because when I first started it I had no expectations.

Everything about this drama was breathtaking.
A smart, beautiful, intelligent, and strong female lead.
A powerful, handsome, wise man who treats his woman as an equal.
A healthy loving relationship between the leads.
Strong chemistry between the whole cast.
OST that matched the drama.

Can we just take a moment to applaud the casting director because they were able to get Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi to act together– who knew we needed this ship in our lives?? And the rest of the cast were just as amazing.
It's astonishing to see Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi act together because they have so much good chemistry together– on screen and off screen (yes I love this drama enough to see the behind the scenes clips lol).

Honestly, I love the two actors so of course I'm biased but during this whole series I enjoyed both of their acting. They have improved so much! It’s like they were made for these characters!! Yang Yang just portrays Hei Fengxi/Feng Lanxi so well and Zhao Lusi does such an amazing job at acting as Bai Fengxi/Feng Xiyun. We can see her aloof and carefree personality as Bai Fengxi but once she’s Feng Xiyun– she gives more mature and intellectual vibes.

I am in love with Bai Fengxi/Feng Xiyun because for once we have a smart, independent, strong female lead. She doesn’t need anyone to help or rescue her because she can defend herself and the whole world literally knows it too!! I love how as the series progresses we can see more of her charms unfold. Literally everyone is impressed with her.

The love between Bai/Hei Fengxi is the dream relationship I hope everyone would strive for. They have such a healthy loving relationship and this is a rare occurrence in Chinese dramas. Even in the beginning Hei Fengxi sees Bai Fengxi as his equal and this continues on for the whole series. We don’t just have the male lead rescuing the female lead. We have the female lead who can defend and save the male lead too. A strong man and a strong woman makes the perfect power couple. We can see how much the two love and care for each other. There really needs to be a real Hei Fengxi out there because we all want a man like him in our lives. What man can share their throne with their woman? He is really willing to do anything for her and we can see that she's really the apple of his eye. They are both able to give their lives for each other.

The storyline was great but definitely could have used some improvements. We got a good amount of politics, fighting, waring, and romance. However I feel like they focused way too much on the drama with Feng Lanxi’s family and we barely got to see Feng Xiyun as Princess of Qingzhou. I’m still mad that her brother and dad were killed off because they were so supportive of her but we did get to see her become Queen so I guess that makes up for it.
The fighting scenes were really cool to see too, especially since we got to see Bai Fengxi fight (supposedly Zhao Lusi did all her stunts).

The side characters just really added to this amazing series: my poor Hanpu and Feng Xie Yue (Bai Fengxi's brother who died a tragic death), Feng Chang (he deserves more after what his horrible mother did to him), Qi Wu (another strong female character), Huang Chao (we love a man who protects the innocent but also achieves what he wants- and he really wanted Bai Fengxi as his queen. I mean who wouldn't right??), all of Bai/Hei Fengxi's supportive comrades/military leaders.

ughhhhh i have to go cry in the corner now because the series ended. about to go re-watch this 20+ times