Is peace an excuse to hold on to imperial power?

If you want well-paced, fully realized world-building, well-written characters and relationships, intriguing political plotlines, and good action scenes, then this is the drama for you. It is the best chinese drama I have seen yet that fits my criteria neatly. It toes the line between classic chinese wuxia and the fantasy elements perfectly. The characters are all multi-dimensional and the plot is carried along through a fun-loving main character who doesn't lack any depth himself. Xu Fengnian is the most interesting main character I've seen in a long time. He tries to embrace both the meticulous scheming as well as the martial foolhardiness and the writers and ZRY are good enough to pull it off

The biggest plus point of this drama is the use of a rather slow plot advancement to build on intercharacter relationships. No character in this series is black and white, complete good or evil and it wrestles with the debate about what peace means in an exploitative imperialist state.

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Possibly one of the best court dramas in any language

A piece of fiction that has all the basics covered. The plot is exiting at every instance, the characters intriguing. While there are many twists and turns that the side characters go through, we see the drama through the focal point of all those twists and hence, the audience is let in on all there is to the drama. The showrunners, therefore, counted on the characters to be relatable and flawed enough that their reactions to those twists to be the anticipated parts of the drama.

The overarching story, therefore, is very simple. It's a story about a man whose family and friends were wiped out by a proud, foolish emperor. Instead of revenge being his driving principle, he sought after seeking justice for their legacy and a better future of his homeland.

Music fixes a lot of the flaws of the drama. It has a romance plot between the protagonist and his former betrothed. Their relationship was sadly not explored enough but the saving grace was the acting and the music alleviated them as much as possible. A lot of characters were also not explored enough. Consort Jing for example never had any role in the story besides feeling sad for the past and helping her son and the main character. Unfortunately, almost all female characters in the story shared the same fate. They had no desires or interests of their own aside from helping the male figures closest to them.

But, despite its flaws, it is possibly one of the best court dramas ever made. It has the right pacing, the right plots, the right actors and the right dialogue to keep audience on their toes. The values espoused by this drama are the same as most dramas that tell age old tales of brotherhood, community and bravery. Hence, I recommend everyone to watch it. It has something for everyone.

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Messy and underwhelming

The writers had no idea how to start or end the story or any of the different arcs throughout the series. What this show provides are some good acting from the main characters aside from the female lead, sometimes poignant quotable dialogue and a piece of story after its predecessor if you really, really want more of that world.

Most of the show is really boring, slow dialogue from the heroes to the villains. The villains aren't intriguing and the protagonists are wholesome but don't have plot to shine. They are always betrayed by poor writing.

The worst offense however is the female lead's acting. Her acting can be compared to a very bad robot. Hope she has improved on her works that followed this one.

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