The 1st and 2nd parts are not just different but not even the same genre.
I enjoyed the 1st half it was warm and light with serious and intense scenes in between to keep things interesting, it was really well balanced with really funny moments.

The 2nd part was a melodrama with the whole generic fights about the trône and hidden identity, it heavily relied on troops with some light scenes here and there. I found the constant angst overkill and ended up fast forwarding most scenes.
The chemistry and build up was still good and the only thing that kept me watching