Some scenes you could almost feel the tension and the sparks of both attraction and hatred flying between the FL and ML. And then you have some rather dull scenes.
I feel it could have been possible to cut out some of the side stories and “fluff” without loosing much - a few less episodes wouldn’t have hurt the story much.
Mei Lin, the highly trained assassin, sometimes became a bit passive.
Murong Jing He’s character went through an emotional growth-journey. I kind of liked how we witnessed first the more indirect signs, and then his unashamed declarations of love.

As for the other love stories, Luo Mei’s didn’t really feel that it fit her character. As for concubine Zi Gu, they could have kept it at the emotional level and let her fate end in a different way.

For me, the common message from the love stories here was how love can make people take difficult choices, and willingness to make sacrifices.

I must admit I cried as I watched the last episodes in the middle of the night.

All in all, this had some good acting, the story was mostly ok but could’ve been a bit shorter. There were some scenes where the effects were so-so (I especially noticed in the later episodes), and I mostly enjoyed the music.