A promising start but became a hot mess in the second half. This drama is about the female lead that gets involved with the three most influential men in the desert. To avenge her parent’s death, the female lead switches identities and marries the Lord of the Desert (third male lead). Upon her journey, she falls in love with the male lead who has secret identities. She also gets vigorously chased by the most notorious bandit (second male lead) who claims she is the most beautiful woman in the desert.

POSITIVE:
- Sexy aesthetics, beautiful styling, good looking cast.
- Skinship and lots of spicy scenes (pretty much the best part of the drama).
- Strong-willed female lead.
- Green flag male lead (except that he lies at the start).
- Nice desert settings (actual shots from the desert).
- Hidden identities.
- Mostly angsty.
- Reverse-harem vibes. The female lead only loves the male lead however she does have a lot of screen time with the other two men. Her se*ual tension and chemistry with the Lord (third male lead) is very noticeable, and she is always chased by the bandit who she always rejects (second male lead).
- Contrasting couples. The two couples are pretty much opposites and they share equal screen time. You would either find the main couple romantic or boring, the second couple exciting or barbaric. There won’t be a middle ground. For me, I enjoyed the main couple’s story more.
- Nice OST.
- Good acting from the main cast (considering the script they were given). The most noticeable for me was Alen Fang, every time he was heavily injured/hurt (which happened a lot), I could feel the pain because his acting was that good.

NEGATIVE:
- A hot mess plot. There was not one defined plot but a merge of sub-plots that made the drama very messy. We had switched princesses (that pretty much served only for the romance), powerful desert scrolls (that seemed like the biggest key in defeating the enemy but ended up being totally useless), male lead’s secret identities (that were not fleshed out or explored), power struggle between tribes (probably the only sane thing in this drama), harem competition (the female lead vs the other concubine), female lead’s revenge arc, the desert’s bandits (second male lead’s story arc + second couple’s story), forbidden love between the main leads. So basically, there were too many things happening, the plot was all over the place and nothing was properly fleshed out or explored.

- Illogical. I’m not someone who cares about logic but this drama has a ridiculous amount of illogical parts. The biggest thing that annoyed me is how the male lead was able to walk around freely in the palace which was supposedly the most secure place in the desert. Another thing that absolutely baffled me was the female lead saying to the second male lead "you have pure love" considering he had repeatedly tried to r*pe her.

- R*pe scenes. The second male lead tried to r*pe the female lead at least 3 times. In the end, all the bandits were glorified and almost made to seem like heroes. There are also attempts to r*pe the second female lead.

- Male lead as a side accessory. Unfortunately this drama gave me horrible flashbacks of The Princess Royal where the male lead gets sidelined and his only purpose is to be a love interest for the female lead. The fact that his character had two secret identities and none of the two were explored or fleshed out was disappointing. At the first half, the two males shared equal screen time but in the second half, all the important/key scenes were given to the second male lead (who is listed as support character, not even main). I truly feel injustice was done to Alen Fang.

- Barbaric second couple. Honestly, if you ignore the fact that the second male lead was going to r*pe her, this couple started off as the cool bickering, comedy-relief type. But after a few episodes, the second female lead kept being degraded/humiliated by him as she kept chasing him with zero self-respect. On top of that, he continuously chased the female lead and tried to r*pe her until the very end of the drama. At one point, the second couple killed people and decided to have s*x right next to their corpses. I honestly don’t know what the writers were smoking while writing that part. In the end, this couple was totally chaotic, non-romantic and didn’t really make sense to me. However I know people who totally enjoyed them compared to the leads, so it's all personal preference.

- Insta-love main couple. Although I liked the main couple, their romance felt physical first and emotional later. Within the first few episodes the couple was already infatuated and kissed. Then they separated and had a forbidden/secret relationship while she was married to the Lord. While I did enjoy their love story, I think it would have been more impactful if it was more of a slow burn.

- Dumbed down characters. The female lead started off as intelligent but in the second half became dumb for the purpose of extra angst. The second female lead started off as an independent and skilful fighter but after a few episodes became a mad woman whose sole purpose was to be with the second male lead + a damsel in distress at times. The Lord of the Desert (third male lead and villain) had a lot of potential but at the important scenes was simply dumbed down for convenience.

- Low-budget fight scenes. I think the production tried and some shots were good but most were bad and uneventful.

OVERALL:
I have mixed feelings about this drama. On one hand, it’s very entertaining with great romance, skinship and some strong characters. But on the other hand, the messy plot, many illogical parts and toxic/disturbing scenes make it frustrating to watch. I guess, if you can look past the chaos and are here for the entertainment and beautiful visuals, it’s a decent watch. For me it’s one of those “it’s so bad, it’s actually good” dramas.

TRIGGER WARNING:
Multiple attempts of r*pe (female lead and second female lead).