This might be an unpopular opinion, but this drama left me exhausted. I was so tired of the back-and-forth, push-and-pull dynamic between the two leads. Throughout the series, I kept wondering when they would finally get together and when the FL would make up her mind. I personally disliked the FL’s personality. For someone meant to be strong and independent, she was so indecisive about love, making one illogical decision after another, especially when captured by the Qing.

At the start, the chemistry between the leads was excellent. I enjoyed it—they were very cute together. But due to all the back-and-forth later on, they completely lost that initial spark.

This was the first time I had to look up whether a show would end happily, because if it didn’t, I would have stopped watching—I wasn’t willing to endure endless separations between the leads.

The series could have easily ended at 16 episodes like usual, but it dragged out too much in the second half with lots of unnecessary scenes. Despite how tedious it became, I still rate it an 8 overall because of Namkoong Min’s astonishing acting, the beautiful cinematography, and a meaningful story that depicted war so realistically. After watching, I was surprised I hadn’t seen any of NKM’s work before—he’s one of the best actors I’ve seen. The FL’s acting, on the other hand, felt lacking next to NKM. At times, it felt forced and unnatural.

The ending featured a lot of timeline jumps, as many people have commented. They could have made it simpler and more organized, but I still understood which timeline was which. Overall, I wouldn’t rewatch the show, but I’m glad I discovered NKM, and I’ll definitely watch his other shows.