Lan ling Wang...

This drama started out strong and fortunately, finished on a strong note too. The plot was tight, well-written and followed closely real Chinese history.

Ep 1-20 was the highlight for me. These episodes kept me on my toes and I sacrificed my sleep to watch 'just one more' episode each night. And yes, these episodes were what pulled me into the series.

However, from ep 20 onwards, things started to take a sudden turn at the appearance of an antagonist but what made me annoyed or even infuriated was that the main characters' personalities were not like before (strong and smart) and I started to feel that they became dense, Lan ling Wang especially.

Nevertheless, that too, was soon over and things became more politically complex from that point on.

I have to admit, the beginning of the series was a lot better than the middle (which caused it to lose its steam) and the end but I sat through all these 46 episodes for Feng shao feng and Ariel lin which was, in my opinion, worth it. Since it was a Taiwan-Chinese production, Ariel lin was a bit awkward with her Chinese accent and could sound somewhat strange but the acting for both the main characters was the key point for me to finish this series.

The love triangle between the 2 male leads and Xue wu was great. Both deserve her and love her dearly but I can't help but feel sad for the second male lead, Yuwen yong, because time after again, it was him who saved her without caring about his status or even his life. Second male lead syndrome is strong in here.