The drama with so much potential (in the first few episodes), that didn't fully deliver.

A straightforward plot, with no real twists. A case of too much reveal too soon until there was nothing to hold unto.

Before I start with the pros & cons (I know I have long cons, don't judge), I just want to say if you are starting this drama, you will have so much fun in the first 3 episodes. It was like Cdrama grey ML was back with a mix of Tantai Jin + Xie Wei character, coupled with a Badass Assassin for FL. To top it off Liu Xueyi is an insanely good actor and WunJinyan - you can't mention revenge and a fight scene without her!

However, this show lacked the mystery, scheming and complexity that I was expecting.

Pros :
- Fight scenes : Well choreographed, looked downright dangerous. Best fight scene was of WuJinyan and the Crown Prince's guards.

- Acting of main leads: I might be biased here but I like Liu Xueyi, always seen him as a good and mature actor. His ability to deliver multi expression won't leave you doubting what he is feeling at any moment. His role in first 4 episodes as the unhinged Prince and shadow master (spoilers alert ?), was too good, with the lazy drawl and look. Its a shame they did a total 360 on his character immediately; cause the grey character was more in line with the premise of the story.
WuJinyan pulled off a determined, undying assas*in, whose purpose was to revenge her people's death. She outdid herself with the fight scenes, surviving her trauma and the danger lurking on the path to revenge. Both are beautiful actors who don't care how they look in a scene, as long as they deliver and I like such.
- The chemistry between leads esp. in the first episodes was sizzling and intense! The kiss scenes were good! However, the intensity fizzled out and the romance became more fluffy.
- Sound engineering was ok! I have watched recent shows where the sound is jumbled and messy, but here it's perfect.
- The way they filmed traumatic situations
were quite professional and mature. The leads had deep conversation and worked through their experience together. There was a particular scene where they were stuck in the forest; ML was injured and couldn't feel his nerves and had to relive his trauma. The ensuing incident that occurred could have been labelled laughable or embarrassing if it was not well filmed, but the directors, LXY and WJY outdid themselves in that scene. What came out instead, was a heartfelt moment.
- Cinematography and OST were nice
- MeiLin being a girls girl! Her friends also came through for her a lot in the 2nd arc ?
- Good premise.

Cons:
- The plot in its entirety was quite underwhelming (?SPOILERS, don't read) : The ML's 10 year revenge plan was to train a victim, as an assassin that will try to kill him inorder to reopen the case. All those years could have been used to lay traps and plan better but he spent it on just trying to reopen the case (like this is the reason he used poison on the FL). There were faster ways to reopen the case than that route. Then, after he got evidence, his plan was to tell his dad in the privacy of their Chambers that he is innocent and it was the CP. No backup or anticipated plans whatsoever. The culprit had better plans even though ML had a head start.
Also, when the FL had learned about the real culprit, ML stopped her from kil*ng him as it will be too easy and he wanted justice to be served. Well guess what, there was no real justice served, the culprit died peacefully in the hands of the woman he loved while only few court members knew of his crimes. FL never carried out her revenge directly; ML was sadly still regarded as the mass murder*r, until he had to go prove himself. With the initial setup of a grey ML, I was hoping for a scheming one that will expose the culprit on a wider scale & punish him publicly.

- Went downhill as it progressed: It was gunning for one of the drama of the year with the first episodes, until it wasn't. Everything was revealed too soon. From first scenes, it felt like the CP had a huge red alarm above his head screaming - "I am the culprit?." I didn't mind so much reveal at first, cause I thought there were more twists to come, but nope. The story arc from ep 24 took me ages to finish. I remember rejoicing when the SML left in the 1st arc, only for them to pull a 2nd arc with his obsession more prominent. No offence to the actor cause I love BWJ.

- LuoMei and CP romance: They bored us so much with their scenes. At first, it was an endless cycle of love declaration and refusal. Then all of a sudden, after a creepy aphrodisiac incident orchestrated by him, she fell head over heels and was willing to jeopardise her loyalty, morals and army for him. It weirdly took a nanosecond for such devotion. That was character death inmo. Would be understandable if they made her fall out of love with MJH and started getting a bit attracted to the CP (cause let's be honest, contrary to what too many drama show, no one stays in a hopeless unrequited love situation in real life). But to pull the full switch, to the extent of a general willing to betray her country was crazy writing. They never told us why she ..... the Eunuch; that scene annoyed me.

- Concubine Yan and granddad husband: On all levels its weird, I tried to ignore as they weren't all up on our faces with it, but they had to make her pregnant making us know the fact we were all trying to deny. Yes I know during those periods, such marriages happen blah blah, but that doesn't make it right. It wouldn't have been that bad if the lady's mannerisms were mature. But Yan was clearly portrayed as a naive, cute little girl, looking to live life. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed how cute she was throughout the show (esp. cause I love the actress since her role in 'To get her'), but when it came to the emperor situation, it's not cute!
- Ending: I won't rant about the ending to not give out spoilers, but whenever a show's rating suddenly goes low, you already know it wasn't what people wanted. We didn't power through 32 episodes just for all that to happen (Yes, no spoilers this time ?).

In general, it was a good watch that could have been great if they kept to the initial premise of the story.

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