Sure I have nitpicks with this, but when I watch a series and start writing fanfic in my head, it's a sign that I liked it a lot.

So glad this came out 4 years ago - it's very bingeable; in fact, took me about 4 days to get through all the episodes. I didn't skip any episodes - something rare for me - but this series does need a judicious application of the fast-forward button (icon? I guess it's an icon nowadays. Sorry, am old).

First let's start with the spoilers: no, I don't mean MY spoilers, those will come later. I mean the fact that the opening and closing credits (5 minutes in all) spoil the entirety of the ending. Like, all of it. WHY. Why do they do this?
If I see the title character wearing a fancy Empress headdress in the opening credits, I KNOW she's not gonna die in episode whatever. And if in the closing credits I see a little boy walking by her side in a tiny, tiny Emperor's outfit, complete with fancy jewel curtain crown, I KNOW that her true love isn't gonna live long (yes, some Emperors abdicated in favour of an heir, but not if that heir was a child).

For those of us who need English subtitles, I advise watching it on Viki. The subs there are miles better than the ones on youtube - I watched on YT up to episode 37/38 (I think) - in the following episode, the subs were mostly messed up and out of sync and stopped halfway.

Now, the spoilers:
Re. the show itself - I really enjoyed it. I liked the main character, even though I found her kind of annoying in the first episode. But then, through adversity, her character really shone through. Yes, her suffering bordered on torture porn in later episodes, and it was overdone. But it usually is in shows of this type, and I never stopped empathizing with her.
I liked all the main guys - I don't know if I had a favourite, though usually it would have been Touba Jun. But when I saw the closing credits and came here to spoil myself, I decided I wasn't going to get attached! Touba Yu was an interesting example of villain who was more of an antihero - towards the end he became really over-the-top, though his death was nicely understated. I liked how even at the end he didn't give ChangRu what she wanted - GOOD. Eat a dick, ChangRu.
Chiyun Nan made me lament that they choose the hottest guys to be the worst sociopathic villains - he ticks all the boxes for me, and then I realise in the first episode that he's a monster. Why, guys.

I found the whole marriage alliance plot to be really interesting, and gave me even more reasons to dislike the fathers on the show - specifically, Prime Minister Li, the Emperor, and even the Rouran Khan.

Like, at first the Emperor is like - sure, the woman we send to Song is gonna die, deffo. So, we can send your daughter, right, Minister Li?
Minister Li - Please, please take her.
Li Weyuong - My dearest love, I will love you forever. Forget about me. If I get raped on the way, I'll kill myself. BYEEEE.

I mean, WTF. And then, what she said actually happened! That was the plan all along! The Song people planned to rape and murder her before she even got to their country, and make it look like it was done by their own people, which is super-fucked up (also, makes me realise why with European royalty, they started insisting on marriages by proxy in the princess's own country - that way, she was already the Consort, and anyone who laid a hand on her would die horribly).

So, ok, fine. The Emperor knew about this likelihood, or that they'd kill Weiyoung as soon as they attacked, and so didn't want to send his own, still very babyish, daughter. But then he agrees to send Touba Di to Rouran??? To marry a man his age or older?? And maybe get raped and killed on the way??

The Khan of Rouran is another monstrous dad. He sends Anle off into the unknown, while also planning to invade. But what's even worse is what he does to Li MinDe - at first it's all: my first-born son, come back to us, yada yada. Then, when we find out what's become of him, it's clear that the intention was simply to use Li Minde to spy, steal a map etc, so they could attack. He literally didn't care about his son at all - instead of arranging a marriage for his son, he arranges one for himself! With a teenage girl whose attitude and behaviour is so childlike the thing borders on child abuse.

If I have something to complain about and agree with other complaints: yes, the ending is kind of a mess. Maybe it's based on the novel, maybe it isn't, but as a lot of things were changed anyway, why not change the Touba Jun ending ? It's a massive plot hole , to me, that all top doctors in Northern Wei, working for 5 years (or so) around the clock, could not replicate an antidote which had been put together by a power-hungry General (Chiyun Nan, you were a total smokeshow, but never struck me as the brightest bulb in the box).

The whole poison thing just bugged me. And why would you have only one antidote but two poisons. Just, whatever.

Still, its fun and enjoyable, has a host of interesting characters, and some episodes can be watched on 1.5 speed.