I started this on a whim and funnily, I had already been a fan of the opening OST so I was excited and had big expectations.

At the beginning, they really held my attention and because of the unique plot idea, it was setup to be very magical and give something new. First ep, and encounters, I loved.

However, as the show progressed and I held faith, I never found it getting better. It was always anti-climatic in a sense, here's why:

Plot wise: The beginning was gold, such a great point to start on from, but as the episodes went on, I felt the storyline and production to get sloppy. I understand this is based on a book so I'm unsure if the script was changed by a lot or a little but it just got disappointing. We were always told something big was coming and being arranged, but it was never really giving anything when it did come? Especially in the end. In later episodes, we didn't get the filler we needed. I think it got dragged around halfway which was upsetting, so imagine when i finished the drama and we got whatever they call that as an ending.

Character wise: They were Beautiful. There was some amazing character personalities throughout this drama but to be honest, after the MCS first few interactions, it went flat. I'm not sure if it was the actors fault but the male actor that played Chang An was conveyed so mysteriously and beautifully at the start, as well as FL but then he was simply just boring as fuck. He just never showed any reaction or much reaction, like the female lead and it just looked silly? And....Chang An clearly was not meant to be a king, we could see that, it always looked like he had no damn thoughts going on behind that head and never showed any other reactions other than blank stare. It reminded me of a stubborn rock in the middle of a path that just wouldn't move and would cause inconvenience to everything to pass. That can be said for the main three characters. Wan Mei was nice, her arc seemed promising but when the drama came to an end...what the fuck had she actually done? 😭 all of that damn drama and work for nothing. She just preached about wanting to do something and did nothing logical. There was so much influence for martial arts but we never got to see her training or work hard for what she wanted and that was so disappointing considering the power dynamics were insane in this drama....leading me to the prince. His character was interesting, but he didn't have much of a backbone and i think we got to see that when Yue Ying supposedly left at the end to be alongside the emperor, and girl, i don't blame you. Running errands for a man and risking your life, making that apparent in every way possible just for him to not even acknowledge it, he was such an entitled idiot and I hated him from the moment he touched Wan Mei without her consent, which happened multiple times?? He was just a pig. Xing Feng was a silver lining in moments, Li Guang was a sweetie, Cha Luo was a crazy, villainous bitch and the moment I started to hate her, I just knew she took that role and did such a good job! The emperor of Jing was absolutely terrifying the first time I saw him, he had such a unique persona for a king, i've never seen one portrayed like that so it was refreshing.

Scenery / FX: The FL did a good job working with the special effects but they were so dead. Especially the ones when fighting, they were very poor quality and didn't actually give an "effect" to the watchers.

Overall without ranting too much, It could've done so well with higher production costs and better planning of the plot and adjustments to characters. Maybe that's just how the drama was supposed to be, i don't watch solely historical dramas with action, i watch mostly for romance, and especially romance being in the title, we were so let down. It wasn't consistent at all and watching the prince fawn over Wan Mei when she had rejected him so many times and made it obvious, it felt like they were just trying to fill the episodes. But yeah, i'm not sure what the aim is, whether it was to magnify about self discovery, loss or tragedy but it didn't hit the mark. All things could've been avoided in more ways than one and everything was quite inconvenient. It was pretty annoying to hear them always relay on "god" to determine whatever happens, maybe it was due to the time but yes, definitely not my drama.

Props to the actors and attempt at the unique plot.