Too many tropes that kept this from being a great drama: The drama threw in so many things into it- a rebirth story, an independent female growth story in the rigid household, poor family dynamics, counteracting corruption and overbearing authority, princes fighting for the throne, a coup, just to name a few. But because there were so many tropes or storylines, none of the takeaways felt that impactful.  The ingredients were there, the cast was decent, but too many items in the pot and it didn’t turn out well. It almost felt like the drama was like “here’s everything I know that was successful in the past and I will see what sticks”.

It feels like there was a lot of stuff cut from the drama. The storyline with Jiang Si’s mother, her father, Cui Xu and the Princess Rong Yang? Did not get a full explanation there. That would’ve been so interesting but we never got that fully fleshed out.

I also had some qualms with the ending because some of the conflicts didn’t get fully resolved satisfactorily. Yes, Jiang Si made a big fight to separate with her family to protect them, but that doesn’t mean her uncle and grandmother aren’t still horrible people.  It’s as if the screenwriters wanted to create conflict and tension for the sake of it but then didn’t know how to resolve it.

Missed opportunity with rebirth storyline: I really think the drama dropped the ball on the whole rebirth/alternate life story line. We got a few flashback scenes to start, but then Jiang Si didn’t really interact much with the Nan Wu clan until they were needed for story purposes until the end. Instead, the drama was focused on her romance life, her troubles at home and their troubles with the Princess. LITERALLY in the last episode, the drama provides like 2 sentences on what happened to the rebirth. Seriously? It seemed like such an afterthought. We never really knew how or why Jiang Si fell in love with Yu Qi in the first life. Why they loved so ardently. The drama just said “hey this happened so trust us”.  There could have been so much more in this storyline that we just didn’t get.

Weak Antagonist Motivations: Man, Princess Cui Ming Yue was SOOOO annoying. She had no redeeming features as an antagonist because she wasn’t even that intelligent, just spoiled and born a princess. Her tactics weren’t that good and she never hid her wants or needs. This made her more of a nuisance than an interesting villain.  Her mother was definitely more interesting and Huang Yi emanates a powerful aura but again, her motivations still don’t really hit with me. Because we don’t get enough of her backstory with Cui Xu and Jiang Si’s parents, we don’t see truly how she turned “evil”.  

Also – there was just a random line somewhere in the drama I think that stated that the Princess Rong Yang was NOT blood related to the Emperor hence why Cui Ming Yue could be infatuated with her “cousin” Yu Jin. For most of the drama, I was like, why would she want to marry her cousin? Yes yes, I know other dramas allow this but it was still weird there was this throwaway line tucked in MANY episodes later.

Additionally, for Princess Rong Yang to have done so many horrible things under the nose of the Emperor, he must have been EXCEPTIONALLY clueless. Perhaps I’ve watched too many dramas where the Emperor is the big boss but in this drama, he seemed to be completely played like a fiddle. His “sister” kills his wife, blinds his daughter and does many other crimes, and he has no idea? I WANT to think Princess Rong Yang is an evil mastermind but compared to other dramas, her ambitions are rather plain on display. How could the Emperor literally have no clue? It reflects an utter failing on his part.

Anyways, rant over. I enjoyed the drama decently enough but lament the fact that it could have been way better.

Let me know your thoughts!

-Karen