I can't believe my first review is to shit on my girl Dilraba whom I actually quite like. However, I must tell the truth, this is very bad drama. I do not understand why people are giving it such a high rating. It's so misleading. I'll try to keep it short but man this is bad:

1. THE CARTOON SCENES: In a bid to save money and time, they replaced all of the war fight scenes with cartoons/anime scenes...and it was so bad. Maybe there will be a time that this technique will work, but that is not the case here. You have to watch it for yourself to see just how bad it is. Even for scenes that were not big war fighting scenes that can eat a budget (like when they met the king of Mobei, or when Khatan's concubine enters the scene) were given the cartoon treatment. It reduces the quality of the drama tremendously to me. It did not feel like an artistic choice but more like a bunch of film school students winging it and trying to make up for messing around the whole semester. It did not pay off.

2. TRASH ROMANCE: The romance was very lacking. No heat no passion. Just lukewarm basura. As stated above I love Dilraba in almost all of the dramas she's been in (You Ahre My Glory is forever that girl). This is due to the fact that the girl could have chemistry with a rock if needed. She plays love scenes and flirtatious scenes so well... except in this drama. But it's not her fault, the screenwriting is just crap. Like, I'm sorry this drama is not some kind of big budget War blockbuster. It's no "The Longest night on Chang's an" or "Joy of Life". It's one step above an idol drama (look there is nothing wrong with that. I'm addicted to dramas. I will watch all of them no matter what lol). So, tell me why this drama was taking itself so seriously? We all came here for Dilraba and Leo (two beautiful people)...just give us the romance. But nooo. It took 20 some episodes to even reveal the romance. They wouldn't show them kissing until EP 40...and it wasn't even a traditional kissing scene. Honestly, I would have been fine with a lip press and a camera spin like they used to do it back in the day. Instead, we got that weird "bird kissing scene" and a bunch of stiff hugs. It was so bizarre. I knoooow some dramas don't have intimate scenes...I'm not western media rookie who is asking for more sex scene here . I wished they'd skipped all together. Because, what's with the freaking birds?

3. RIDICULOUS PLOT EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS LOGISTICS: I get that Leo is very young and I'm not gonna shit on him...but if you guys wanted to created some big serious war drama...he is not the guy...ok. His acting is very subpar and not at that level yet (and I don't believe it will ever be. Some people are like and it's ok. I'm still gonna watch his stuff. I have not issues with a cute actor with a nice body but low acting skills lol). Not that Dilraba is the greatest actress but with a good counterpart she can deliver. It felt that their goals and the casting and scriptwriting were not in alignment.

4. BAD FEMALE LEAD JOURNEY: This was a classic Mary Sue story (don't fight me on this please). This girl is just so pretty and so smart and so this and so that. But the thing is, if you were to actually sit down and examine her actions you'd realize all of it was so dumb. It's one thing to be thrusted into the political arena reluctantly...and it's a whole different story to plant yourself into the mix because of "revenge" or whatever but whenever the opportunity came to actually act on said revenge you either chicken out or you take the "high road". And as a storyline, it made no sense. Wanting revenge informed us of this girl's motivation and actions...but then doesn't. If someone killed your whole family and you're on a quest for revenge...why do you care about the country and its citizens? And if you do...then just admit you're not about that revenge life and keep it pushing. It's just all felt so silly. And like ...is this girl the only one around that can do things? Why do people just give her tasks and hand her high positions? It's not realistic.

If you reaaaaally wanna watch it, go for it I guess. But it's not good!