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Dropped: The Legend of Mi Yue (羋月傳) (2015)
I decided to drop this drama after episode 31. I watched episodes 29-31 on fast forward, but I decided that if I didn't want to watch a show on normal speed, then I might as well not watch it at all.
The biggest reason for me dropping this drama was its pace and storytelling. There were some things in the story that I would've looked forward to, but I didn't know that it was worth slogging through hundreds of too-long conversations to get there.
Some spoilers, I guess?
Story
The story was about the life of Mi Yue, aka Queen Dowager Xuan, who was one of the first women in Chinese history to wield political power as Queen Dowager. This drama was meant to be of an epic scale, beginning before Mi Yue was even born, and I would guess that it would end with her death.
Right from the beginning, the pace of story telling was very slow. A relationship or attitude was conveyed by storytelling through several events. For example, it was clear that Mi Yin had a vendetta against Mi Yue, but it was shown through several events when perhaps only one (if any) was needed to get the point across.
When Mi Yue arrived to the Kingdom of Qin, the drama turned into a harem drama. I admit that despite being a big fan of court political dramas, I have not watched a single harem drama in recent history. I will say that I did not enjoy the harem story line. I fully acknowledge that this was a side effect of the patriarchal society at the time. It got old real fast because Ying Si was the only means of gaining power for the women, and so the women's tactics were very streamlined. In addition, there were certain slights that were just too petty and passive aggressive for my taste. Again, I fully agree that this was because of the patriarchal nature of society at the time. With regards to historical dramas featuring princes, princes had far more ways of gaining power and so I felt that shows like Nirvana in Fire and even the Rise of Phoenixes offered more in terms of interesting political manoeuvers.
The fact that Queen Dowager Xuan wielded power in her own right was very interesting, but I don't know whether it was worth watching a full 81 episodes. If the entire drama was only 50 episodes, perhaps I would've held out. But at the pace that the show was moving at, I was not patient enough to keep waiting.
I mentioned that I watched a few episodes fast-forwarded. I admit the only thing keeping me watching then was the hope that Zhu Yilong and Ma Sichun would show up soon. I looked up Zhu Yilong and he played Ying Ji, who was Mi Yue's son, so I figured that he wouldn't be showing up for a long while and decided that I should just bail.
Writing
The scenes in this show were so drawn out. I remember watching the scene in which Zheng Xiu tried to trick Wei Meiren into covering her nose and thinking that the conversation was 15 minutes longer than it needed to be.
I felt that many of the female characters in this show were too black or white in their morality. Almost of the female characters were either kind, good, and fun or evil and despicable.
The only exception might've been Mi Shu, seeing as how she and Mi Yue were best friends, but politics would push them to be rivals later on.
There just wasn't anybody that I wanted to cheer for, not even Mi Yue. While in Kingdom of Chu, I pitied her, but I didn't exactly relate to her. And when she arrived in Kingdom of Qin, I felt that she was not tactful at all in how she tried to conduct her business.
I don't know where to put this, but I will write it here. I read some articles that Legend of Mi Yue was really bothering some viewers because of the historical inaccuracies. For example, Mi Yue's brothers would not have gone by the surname "Mi" in those days. The biggest historical inaccuracy that bothered me was probably Huang Xie and Qu Yuan's timelines not really matching with the time of the events. I felt that Qu Yuan's role was really just shoehorned in to show "Look! Famous person!"
Now I admit that I was a big Huang Xie fangirl. I knew things weren't going to end well for him and I sympathized with him because he and Mi Yue's relationship was so pure. This is going to sound dramatic but I felt a little betrayed when I found out that Huang Xie didn't really rise to power until after Mi Yue died. If that was the case, I think that the writers either should've created a new person, or just written out a childhood love interest. After all, if the point of the story was Mi Yue and not her love interests, it would've been fine to not have such a love interest, right?
Production
Costumes
At the beginning of the show, I didn't think that the costumes were the best. The colours, patterns, and ornaments felt a little gaudy. Over the course of my watchthrough, the costumes did stop bothering me.
But Nirvana in Fire came out the same year as Legend of Mi Yue, and I'd say that the Nirvana in Fire costumes left a bigger impression on me.
Casting
Legend of Mi Yue had the same issue as the Advisors Alliance in which we had a few actors playing characters for long periods of their lives. Near the beginning of the show, Sun Li and Liu Tao had to play young girls, which was a little difficult to get used to. But I think they did a good enough job given the circumstances.
The acting in this show in general was top notch. I felt that most of the actors were doing the best that they could given the script.
In addition, the child actors were quite impressive. There were a lot of child actors, such as those playing Mi Yue, Mi Shu, and Huang Xie as children, as well as Mi Yue's younger brothers Mi Rong and Wei Ran.
Characters
Mi Yue
It's kind of a pity that this was my first Sun Li drama, because I didn't love Mi Yue's character that much. Mi Yue was a rambunctious tomboy which was kind of cute up until she was a young adult, but it became a bit overbearing as the story progressed.
Up until Mi Yue was still in Kingdom of Chu, I still sympathized her. She was constantly being bullied by the Queen and by Mi Yin, and she could do nothing.
I think I started finding her character a little annoying when she arrived in the Kingdom of Qin. She retained her loud personality which I think wasn't appropriate. She'd already been berated by the King once (on Mi Shu's wedding day), but Mi Yue didn't really let up in her aggressive tactics. Mi Yue seemed to bounce between being smart at politics (e.g. when she tried to stop Mi Shu from interfering with Ying Si's plans to go to war with Kingdom of Chu) and being her rash self (e.g. accusing the servant of being an assassin, etc.).
Perhaps Mi Yue would eventually learn the nuances of the harem, but the show definitely dragged that for too long.
Even after Mi Yue had become Ying Si's concubine, her personality remained that of a naive girl, and I think that rubbed me the wrong way. She seemed unaware of her new status and how it would affect how others perceived her, even her own sister Mi Shu.
I think if I'd liked Mi Yue's character, I might've stuck with the drama, but at this point, I've failed to see how Mi Yue has been growing over the course of 30 episodes.
Mi Shu
I thought that Liu Tao's acting was more enjoyable than Sun Li's. I've watched Liu Tao in a few shows now, and her range is so impressive.
Mi Shu started off as a naive girl. She was naive because she'd been shielded from the horrors of the world by her mother, the Queen of Chu, who doted on her. I think Mi Shu also felt a bit of comfort that she was always Mi Yue's protector, by virtue of being a daughter of the Queen and basically the highest ranking princess.
When Mi Shu arrived in Kingdom of Qin, she was way out of her depth. Wei Furen had ruled the harem and Mi Shu had swooped in and taken that authority. The problem was, Mi Shu had never had to deal with court politics and overestimated her own power. As she approached her due date for giving birth, she was locked up and the authority over the harem was given back to Wei Furen. I think this was the first time Mi Shu realized that her authority could be challenged.
I felt that I really saw Mi Shu go through some changes while in Kingdom of Qin. In addition to getting involved in scuffles with the other concubines, she also realized that Mi Yue was becoming close to Ying Si in a way that not even she could. The fact that Ying Si hadn't made a move on Mi Yue was a sign of his respect for her, whereas he probably saw his other wives/concubines as baby-making machines, to put it crudely.
At first, Mi Shu was just kind of sad about the fact that Mi Yue was getting close to Ying Si. Not necessarily because she was in love with Ying Si, because I think she only liked him on a superficial level. I think she had just always expected Mi Yue to play second fiddle to her and was sad to see that that was not going to be the case.
When Mi Yue came to plead with Mi Shu to talk to Ying Si about his oldest princess getting married to an old king, Mi Shu said she would do it. She told Daimao that she wanted Mi Yue to be indebted to her. This was the beginning of Mi Shu really showing her changing attitudes towards her sister. Later when Mi Yue came to bring a gift for her son Ying Dang, Mi Shu told Daimao that this was the first time in their lives that Mi Yue would have something that Mi Shu didn't have.
While I don't like Mi Shu as a person, I appreciated that her character was going through changes and culture shock in her new environment. I liked seeing her attitudes slowly changing as she learned to understand the cutthroat world that she lived in.
Ying Si
He was the King of Qin. I felt he was kind of bland as a character. He was supposed to be kind and benevolent as a man but also strict as a ruler. He ticked off all of those boxes, and I even felt like I understood his character pretty well. But I just didn't think there was anything about his character that made me love him.
Queen of Chu
The Queen was pretty annoying because she was evil to Mi Yue for no reason. She told Mi Shu that she was harsh on Mi Yue because she was the fated "dominant star" who would've been a fearsome sovereign if a boy, but a ruiner of kingdoms if a girl.
She also resented Mi Yue because her mother, Consort Xiang was always a pain in her side.
But overall, there were zero redeeming qualities to this character. She was an evil stepmother and that was all there was to her character.
Mi Yin
Mi Yin was also a character who had no redeeming qualities. As a child, she and Mi Yue were at odds with each other. That only grew as they themselves grew, and was at its peak when Mi Yin wanted Huang Xie for herself.
Mi Yin sucked up to the Queen real hard even as a child. She was stirring shit left and right to get at Mi Yue, but the Queen ignored it because she herself also hated Mi Yue. The Queen only really got angry at Mi Yin when she interrupted Mi Shu's wedding proceedings which could've caused bad luck upon Mi Shu.
I think the Queen betrothed Huang Xie to Mi Yin more because she hated Mi Yue rather than because she wanted to do something for Mi Yin. She'd told Mi Yin several times that it wouldn't end well, seeing as how Huang Xie was so in love with Mi Yue, but Mi Yin wouldn't have any of it.
When Mi Yin interrupted Mi Shu's wedding, that's when the cruel fate befell her. The King Mi Huai told off his own mom for putting together such a bad couple, and it was also made extremely clear that to the Queen, Mi Yin would never be as good as Mi Shu.
Daimao
Daimao was YET ANOTHER character who was evil for no reason. She was basically an extension of the Queen, who followed Mi Shu to the Kingdom of Qin to look after her.
As agent of the Queen of Chu, Daimao was just as mean to Mi Yue. When Daimao went to Qinguo, she was cordial with Mi Yue because the both of them always cared for Mi Shu's well-being. They got into spats, but Daimao understood that Mi Yue would never do anything to hurt Mi Shu.
After settling in in Qinguo, Daimao's trashtalk of Mi Yue started up again. There were several times in which Mi Shu told Daimao that she needed to shut her trap. But towards the end when I stopped watching, I think Mi Shu was starting to get on the same wavelength as Daimao.
Consort Ju/Ju Ji
She was a concubine of the King of Chu (Mi Yue's father). When Consort Xiang was sent away, she took care of Mi Yue and Mi Rong. While I do think that Consort Ju could've looked a little harder for Consort Xiang, I think she wanted to preserve her own life, and I can probably relate to that. In the end, Consort Ju also gave her own life to save Mi Yue and Mi Rong.
Consort Xiang
Consort Xiang was the mother of Mi Yue, Mi Rong, and Wei Ran. At first, she was pretty uninvolved in court politics, seeing as how she was just an accompaniment to Consort Ju when she married the King.
Consort Xiang was forced out of the kingdom after she was falsely accused of having a contagious illness. When she came back, Consort Xiang knew that she had to get rid of the Queen once and for all. It didn't quite work though, and the Queen remained in power as her son was the Crown Prince and ascended to the throne.
Mi Rong
Mi Rong was Mi Yue's younger brother. We didn't see him much, but he does become an important political figure.
Wei Ran
I read that Wei Ran did become a powerful general, and I was honestly looking forward to seeing a grown up Wei Ran coming back and helping out his sister. Just one of the things that I'll unfortunately have to miss out on.
Aunt Kui
Aunt Kui was one of those characters who were indisputably morally good. Her entire life was devoted to Mi Yue, Mi Rong, and Wei Ran, and she never did a single thing to wrong those children. She was fine, but there was nothing special about her character.
Zhang Yi
I'm beginning to think that Zhao Lixin is typecast into these eccentric scholar roles. Anyway, I thought Zhang Yi was fine as scholar/official who was a little reluctant to follow social norms.
Zheng Xiu (Consort)
Zheng Xiu was the number one shit disturber on the Chuguo premises. I liked her because she was not an enemy but not exactly an ally. She only helped Mi Yue when she stood to gain from it.
Plus, she constantly had that smile on, so you always felt like she was on her A game.
Wei Meiren
She was a casualty in Zheng Xiu's harem politicking. Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure what the point of her arc was. It started with her coming into Chuguo and overtaking Zheng Xiu as Mi Huai's favourite concubine and befriending Mi Yue. After being tricked by Zheng Xiu into having her nose cut off, she committed suicide. But I can't tell what Wei Meiren did to advance the story.
Huang Xie
So I fully became a Huang Xuan fangirl during this show. Huang Xie and Mi Yue's relationship was so cute. But after I learned that Huang Xie probably never met Mi Yue, I felt like his story turned into some cheap melodrama.
I admit that Huang Xie escaping his marriage to Mi Yin was pretty fun. Afterwards, he hid in the shadows until he reunited with Mi Yue, but Mi Yue couldn't leave because she wanted to support her sister. Along the way, Mi Yue was attacked and Huang Xie fell and lost his memory as a result of the attack.
Huang Xie took some time to recover his memories. By the time I stopped watching, he'd found out from Zhang Yi that Mi Yue became a royal concubine, and Zhang Yi had stopped him from seeing her.
I'm not really sure what the point of Huang Xie losing his memory was, seeing as how he'd recovered his memories very soon. I admit it was very cute when he remembered who he was, but IT ADDED NOTHING TO THE STORY.
I also felt bad that Huang Xie was just going to be the annoying third member of the love triangle because Mi Yue's heart had already moved on.
As mentioned above, in hindsight, Huang Xie's story line seemed a bit unnecessary. It was fun in the context of when they were still in Chuguo, but after Mi Yue arrived in Qinguo, I felt like Huang Xie was only going to become a distraction.
Eunuch Mu
He was Ying Si's head Eunuch, and seemed allied with Mi Yue. Several times, he helped her out. I'm not sure why, but it seems in line with the habit that cdramas have of portraying head eunuchs as nice guys.
Yong Rui (Medic)
Yong Rui was the medic who helped Mi Yue collect medicine for Mi Shu when she was ill on the journey to Qinguo. I thought he was a pretty cool guy. Later, it turned out that he was probably Madame Ying's lover. Yong Rui also bumped into Huang Xie later on. He just seemed like a very general all-purpose character but at the same time I couldn't really tell what his role in the story was.
Zhai Li
Zhai Li had kidnapped Mi Yue thinking that she was Mi Shu, and intended on demanding ransom for her. Of course, he fell in love with her spirit, and was disappointed to see her leave to go to Qinguo.
I think he's the Yiqu king with whom Mi Yue enters an illict affair later on. According to Wikipedia, Mi Yue bore him two sons but later tricked and killed him. I admit that last part seems like it would've been cool to watch.
Ying Hua
Ying Hua was the son of Wei Furen. She had high hopes for him, hoping that he'd become Crown Prince so that she would become Empress. Despite his mother being conniving, Ying Hua seemed like a nice kid, even feeling sympathy for Mi Yue.
That being said, I think that he'll turn on Mi Yue later on, or fall at her hands, because Mi Yue's son would later become the sovereign.
Madame Ying (Ying Si's older sister)
She was not a Queen Dowager, but she occupied the "female authority figure" role in Qinguo. I wasn't really sure of her purpose in the story though.
Wei Yan (Qin Consort)
Wei Yan was the big bad in the harem. She'd looked after the harem after her elder sister, the previous Queen, had died. So of course she tried to exert power over Mi Shu when she was dethroned. She made big manoeuvers, but she was not above the really petty shit (like decorating the Empress' manor in her sister's memory).
I'm not even going to get into the rest of the consorts lol. They were either categorized into evil or good and no in between.
Mengying (Princess)
Mengying was the eldest princess, who'd befriended Mi Yue. Like Wei Meiren, Mengying seemed like another random friendship to Mi Yue that was only meant to highlight how cool and friendly Mi Yue was.
Mengying was betrothed to the old King of Yan. She hated this at first, but ultimately accepted that this was the role that her father assigned to her. Kind of bullshit, only because they made a point of showing us how headstrong Mengying was.
Overall
I do admit that there were some things in this show that I would have looked forward to seeing.
- Initially I wanted to see more Huang Xie and Mi Yue interactions, but now that Mi Yue is already in love with Ying Si, I don't want to see it anymore because I don't like love triangles.
- I was looking forward to Wei Ran coming back and kicking ass.
- I would've wanted to see more of Mi Yue as Queen Dowager, as opposed to Princess or Concubine. I wanted to see how she gained power, how she went rogue and entered illicit relations with a Yiqu King and then later killed him. I honestly don't think I could picture the current Mi Yue pulling that sort of manoeuver, and seeing as how she's still barely changed her attitude, I'm not hopeful for the rest of the show.
- I was kind of surprised that Ma Sichun and Zhu Yilong were also in the cast. I was hoping to stick around until they popped up. But as I mentioned, maybe it's not worth sticking around for another 50 episodes just for that.
Things that I liked about this show:
- The acting
Things I disliked about this show:
- Dragging story line with conversations that were literally 10 times longer than they needed to be
- Harem politics a little too petty and passive aggressive for me
- Female characters who were either good or evil with little to no nuance
The biggest reason for me dropping this drama was its pace and storytelling. There were some things in the story that I would've looked forward to, but I didn't know that it was worth slogging through hundreds of too-long conversations to get there.
Some spoilers, I guess?
Story
The story was about the life of Mi Yue, aka Queen Dowager Xuan, who was one of the first women in Chinese history to wield political power as Queen Dowager. This drama was meant to be of an epic scale, beginning before Mi Yue was even born, and I would guess that it would end with her death.
Right from the beginning, the pace of story telling was very slow. A relationship or attitude was conveyed by storytelling through several events. For example, it was clear that Mi Yin had a vendetta against Mi Yue, but it was shown through several events when perhaps only one (if any) was needed to get the point across.
When Mi Yue arrived to the Kingdom of Qin, the drama turned into a harem drama. I admit that despite being a big fan of court political dramas, I have not watched a single harem drama in recent history. I will say that I did not enjoy the harem story line. I fully acknowledge that this was a side effect of the patriarchal society at the time. It got old real fast because Ying Si was the only means of gaining power for the women, and so the women's tactics were very streamlined. In addition, there were certain slights that were just too petty and passive aggressive for my taste. Again, I fully agree that this was because of the patriarchal nature of society at the time. With regards to historical dramas featuring princes, princes had far more ways of gaining power and so I felt that shows like Nirvana in Fire and even the Rise of Phoenixes offered more in terms of interesting political manoeuvers.
The fact that Queen Dowager Xuan wielded power in her own right was very interesting, but I don't know whether it was worth watching a full 81 episodes. If the entire drama was only 50 episodes, perhaps I would've held out. But at the pace that the show was moving at, I was not patient enough to keep waiting.
I mentioned that I watched a few episodes fast-forwarded. I admit the only thing keeping me watching then was the hope that Zhu Yilong and Ma Sichun would show up soon. I looked up Zhu Yilong and he played Ying Ji, who was Mi Yue's son, so I figured that he wouldn't be showing up for a long while and decided that I should just bail.
Writing
The scenes in this show were so drawn out. I remember watching the scene in which Zheng Xiu tried to trick Wei Meiren into covering her nose and thinking that the conversation was 15 minutes longer than it needed to be.
I felt that many of the female characters in this show were too black or white in their morality. Almost of the female characters were either kind, good, and fun or evil and despicable.
The only exception might've been Mi Shu, seeing as how she and Mi Yue were best friends, but politics would push them to be rivals later on.
There just wasn't anybody that I wanted to cheer for, not even Mi Yue. While in Kingdom of Chu, I pitied her, but I didn't exactly relate to her. And when she arrived in Kingdom of Qin, I felt that she was not tactful at all in how she tried to conduct her business.
I don't know where to put this, but I will write it here. I read some articles that Legend of Mi Yue was really bothering some viewers because of the historical inaccuracies. For example, Mi Yue's brothers would not have gone by the surname "Mi" in those days. The biggest historical inaccuracy that bothered me was probably Huang Xie and Qu Yuan's timelines not really matching with the time of the events. I felt that Qu Yuan's role was really just shoehorned in to show "Look! Famous person!"
Now I admit that I was a big Huang Xie fangirl. I knew things weren't going to end well for him and I sympathized with him because he and Mi Yue's relationship was so pure. This is going to sound dramatic but I felt a little betrayed when I found out that Huang Xie didn't really rise to power until after Mi Yue died. If that was the case, I think that the writers either should've created a new person, or just written out a childhood love interest. After all, if the point of the story was Mi Yue and not her love interests, it would've been fine to not have such a love interest, right?
Production
Costumes
At the beginning of the show, I didn't think that the costumes were the best. The colours, patterns, and ornaments felt a little gaudy. Over the course of my watchthrough, the costumes did stop bothering me.
But Nirvana in Fire came out the same year as Legend of Mi Yue, and I'd say that the Nirvana in Fire costumes left a bigger impression on me.
Casting
Legend of Mi Yue had the same issue as the Advisors Alliance in which we had a few actors playing characters for long periods of their lives. Near the beginning of the show, Sun Li and Liu Tao had to play young girls, which was a little difficult to get used to. But I think they did a good enough job given the circumstances.
The acting in this show in general was top notch. I felt that most of the actors were doing the best that they could given the script.
In addition, the child actors were quite impressive. There were a lot of child actors, such as those playing Mi Yue, Mi Shu, and Huang Xie as children, as well as Mi Yue's younger brothers Mi Rong and Wei Ran.
Characters
Mi Yue
It's kind of a pity that this was my first Sun Li drama, because I didn't love Mi Yue's character that much. Mi Yue was a rambunctious tomboy which was kind of cute up until she was a young adult, but it became a bit overbearing as the story progressed.
Up until Mi Yue was still in Kingdom of Chu, I still sympathized her. She was constantly being bullied by the Queen and by Mi Yin, and she could do nothing.
I think I started finding her character a little annoying when she arrived in the Kingdom of Qin. She retained her loud personality which I think wasn't appropriate. She'd already been berated by the King once (on Mi Shu's wedding day), but Mi Yue didn't really let up in her aggressive tactics. Mi Yue seemed to bounce between being smart at politics (e.g. when she tried to stop Mi Shu from interfering with Ying Si's plans to go to war with Kingdom of Chu) and being her rash self (e.g. accusing the servant of being an assassin, etc.).
Perhaps Mi Yue would eventually learn the nuances of the harem, but the show definitely dragged that for too long.
Even after Mi Yue had become Ying Si's concubine, her personality remained that of a naive girl, and I think that rubbed me the wrong way. She seemed unaware of her new status and how it would affect how others perceived her, even her own sister Mi Shu.
I think if I'd liked Mi Yue's character, I might've stuck with the drama, but at this point, I've failed to see how Mi Yue has been growing over the course of 30 episodes.
Mi Shu
I thought that Liu Tao's acting was more enjoyable than Sun Li's. I've watched Liu Tao in a few shows now, and her range is so impressive.
Mi Shu started off as a naive girl. She was naive because she'd been shielded from the horrors of the world by her mother, the Queen of Chu, who doted on her. I think Mi Shu also felt a bit of comfort that she was always Mi Yue's protector, by virtue of being a daughter of the Queen and basically the highest ranking princess.
When Mi Shu arrived in Kingdom of Qin, she was way out of her depth. Wei Furen had ruled the harem and Mi Shu had swooped in and taken that authority. The problem was, Mi Shu had never had to deal with court politics and overestimated her own power. As she approached her due date for giving birth, she was locked up and the authority over the harem was given back to Wei Furen. I think this was the first time Mi Shu realized that her authority could be challenged.
I felt that I really saw Mi Shu go through some changes while in Kingdom of Qin. In addition to getting involved in scuffles with the other concubines, she also realized that Mi Yue was becoming close to Ying Si in a way that not even she could. The fact that Ying Si hadn't made a move on Mi Yue was a sign of his respect for her, whereas he probably saw his other wives/concubines as baby-making machines, to put it crudely.
At first, Mi Shu was just kind of sad about the fact that Mi Yue was getting close to Ying Si. Not necessarily because she was in love with Ying Si, because I think she only liked him on a superficial level. I think she had just always expected Mi Yue to play second fiddle to her and was sad to see that that was not going to be the case.
When Mi Yue came to plead with Mi Shu to talk to Ying Si about his oldest princess getting married to an old king, Mi Shu said she would do it. She told Daimao that she wanted Mi Yue to be indebted to her. This was the beginning of Mi Shu really showing her changing attitudes towards her sister. Later when Mi Yue came to bring a gift for her son Ying Dang, Mi Shu told Daimao that this was the first time in their lives that Mi Yue would have something that Mi Shu didn't have.
While I don't like Mi Shu as a person, I appreciated that her character was going through changes and culture shock in her new environment. I liked seeing her attitudes slowly changing as she learned to understand the cutthroat world that she lived in.
Ying Si
He was the King of Qin. I felt he was kind of bland as a character. He was supposed to be kind and benevolent as a man but also strict as a ruler. He ticked off all of those boxes, and I even felt like I understood his character pretty well. But I just didn't think there was anything about his character that made me love him.
Queen of Chu
The Queen was pretty annoying because she was evil to Mi Yue for no reason. She told Mi Shu that she was harsh on Mi Yue because she was the fated "dominant star" who would've been a fearsome sovereign if a boy, but a ruiner of kingdoms if a girl.
She also resented Mi Yue because her mother, Consort Xiang was always a pain in her side.
But overall, there were zero redeeming qualities to this character. She was an evil stepmother and that was all there was to her character.
Mi Yin
Mi Yin was also a character who had no redeeming qualities. As a child, she and Mi Yue were at odds with each other. That only grew as they themselves grew, and was at its peak when Mi Yin wanted Huang Xie for herself.
Mi Yin sucked up to the Queen real hard even as a child. She was stirring shit left and right to get at Mi Yue, but the Queen ignored it because she herself also hated Mi Yue. The Queen only really got angry at Mi Yin when she interrupted Mi Shu's wedding proceedings which could've caused bad luck upon Mi Shu.
I think the Queen betrothed Huang Xie to Mi Yin more because she hated Mi Yue rather than because she wanted to do something for Mi Yin. She'd told Mi Yin several times that it wouldn't end well, seeing as how Huang Xie was so in love with Mi Yue, but Mi Yin wouldn't have any of it.
When Mi Yin interrupted Mi Shu's wedding, that's when the cruel fate befell her. The King Mi Huai told off his own mom for putting together such a bad couple, and it was also made extremely clear that to the Queen, Mi Yin would never be as good as Mi Shu.
Daimao
Daimao was YET ANOTHER character who was evil for no reason. She was basically an extension of the Queen, who followed Mi Shu to the Kingdom of Qin to look after her.
As agent of the Queen of Chu, Daimao was just as mean to Mi Yue. When Daimao went to Qinguo, she was cordial with Mi Yue because the both of them always cared for Mi Shu's well-being. They got into spats, but Daimao understood that Mi Yue would never do anything to hurt Mi Shu.
After settling in in Qinguo, Daimao's trashtalk of Mi Yue started up again. There were several times in which Mi Shu told Daimao that she needed to shut her trap. But towards the end when I stopped watching, I think Mi Shu was starting to get on the same wavelength as Daimao.
Consort Ju/Ju Ji
She was a concubine of the King of Chu (Mi Yue's father). When Consort Xiang was sent away, she took care of Mi Yue and Mi Rong. While I do think that Consort Ju could've looked a little harder for Consort Xiang, I think she wanted to preserve her own life, and I can probably relate to that. In the end, Consort Ju also gave her own life to save Mi Yue and Mi Rong.
Consort Xiang
Consort Xiang was the mother of Mi Yue, Mi Rong, and Wei Ran. At first, she was pretty uninvolved in court politics, seeing as how she was just an accompaniment to Consort Ju when she married the King.
Consort Xiang was forced out of the kingdom after she was falsely accused of having a contagious illness. When she came back, Consort Xiang knew that she had to get rid of the Queen once and for all. It didn't quite work though, and the Queen remained in power as her son was the Crown Prince and ascended to the throne.
Mi Rong
Mi Rong was Mi Yue's younger brother. We didn't see him much, but he does become an important political figure.
Wei Ran
I read that Wei Ran did become a powerful general, and I was honestly looking forward to seeing a grown up Wei Ran coming back and helping out his sister. Just one of the things that I'll unfortunately have to miss out on.
Aunt Kui
Aunt Kui was one of those characters who were indisputably morally good. Her entire life was devoted to Mi Yue, Mi Rong, and Wei Ran, and she never did a single thing to wrong those children. She was fine, but there was nothing special about her character.
Zhang Yi
I'm beginning to think that Zhao Lixin is typecast into these eccentric scholar roles. Anyway, I thought Zhang Yi was fine as scholar/official who was a little reluctant to follow social norms.
Zheng Xiu (Consort)
Zheng Xiu was the number one shit disturber on the Chuguo premises. I liked her because she was not an enemy but not exactly an ally. She only helped Mi Yue when she stood to gain from it.
Plus, she constantly had that smile on, so you always felt like she was on her A game.
Wei Meiren
She was a casualty in Zheng Xiu's harem politicking. Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure what the point of her arc was. It started with her coming into Chuguo and overtaking Zheng Xiu as Mi Huai's favourite concubine and befriending Mi Yue. After being tricked by Zheng Xiu into having her nose cut off, she committed suicide. But I can't tell what Wei Meiren did to advance the story.
Huang Xie
So I fully became a Huang Xuan fangirl during this show. Huang Xie and Mi Yue's relationship was so cute. But after I learned that Huang Xie probably never met Mi Yue, I felt like his story turned into some cheap melodrama.
I admit that Huang Xie escaping his marriage to Mi Yin was pretty fun. Afterwards, he hid in the shadows until he reunited with Mi Yue, but Mi Yue couldn't leave because she wanted to support her sister. Along the way, Mi Yue was attacked and Huang Xie fell and lost his memory as a result of the attack.
Huang Xie took some time to recover his memories. By the time I stopped watching, he'd found out from Zhang Yi that Mi Yue became a royal concubine, and Zhang Yi had stopped him from seeing her.
I'm not really sure what the point of Huang Xie losing his memory was, seeing as how he'd recovered his memories very soon. I admit it was very cute when he remembered who he was, but IT ADDED NOTHING TO THE STORY.
I also felt bad that Huang Xie was just going to be the annoying third member of the love triangle because Mi Yue's heart had already moved on.
As mentioned above, in hindsight, Huang Xie's story line seemed a bit unnecessary. It was fun in the context of when they were still in Chuguo, but after Mi Yue arrived in Qinguo, I felt like Huang Xie was only going to become a distraction.
Eunuch Mu
He was Ying Si's head Eunuch, and seemed allied with Mi Yue. Several times, he helped her out. I'm not sure why, but it seems in line with the habit that cdramas have of portraying head eunuchs as nice guys.
Yong Rui (Medic)
Yong Rui was the medic who helped Mi Yue collect medicine for Mi Shu when she was ill on the journey to Qinguo. I thought he was a pretty cool guy. Later, it turned out that he was probably Madame Ying's lover. Yong Rui also bumped into Huang Xie later on. He just seemed like a very general all-purpose character but at the same time I couldn't really tell what his role in the story was.
Zhai Li
Zhai Li had kidnapped Mi Yue thinking that she was Mi Shu, and intended on demanding ransom for her. Of course, he fell in love with her spirit, and was disappointed to see her leave to go to Qinguo.
I think he's the Yiqu king with whom Mi Yue enters an illict affair later on. According to Wikipedia, Mi Yue bore him two sons but later tricked and killed him. I admit that last part seems like it would've been cool to watch.
Ying Hua
Ying Hua was the son of Wei Furen. She had high hopes for him, hoping that he'd become Crown Prince so that she would become Empress. Despite his mother being conniving, Ying Hua seemed like a nice kid, even feeling sympathy for Mi Yue.
That being said, I think that he'll turn on Mi Yue later on, or fall at her hands, because Mi Yue's son would later become the sovereign.
Madame Ying (Ying Si's older sister)
She was not a Queen Dowager, but she occupied the "female authority figure" role in Qinguo. I wasn't really sure of her purpose in the story though.
Wei Yan (Qin Consort)
Wei Yan was the big bad in the harem. She'd looked after the harem after her elder sister, the previous Queen, had died. So of course she tried to exert power over Mi Shu when she was dethroned. She made big manoeuvers, but she was not above the really petty shit (like decorating the Empress' manor in her sister's memory).
I'm not even going to get into the rest of the consorts lol. They were either categorized into evil or good and no in between.
Mengying (Princess)
Mengying was the eldest princess, who'd befriended Mi Yue. Like Wei Meiren, Mengying seemed like another random friendship to Mi Yue that was only meant to highlight how cool and friendly Mi Yue was.
Mengying was betrothed to the old King of Yan. She hated this at first, but ultimately accepted that this was the role that her father assigned to her. Kind of bullshit, only because they made a point of showing us how headstrong Mengying was.
Overall
I do admit that there were some things in this show that I would have looked forward to seeing.
- Initially I wanted to see more Huang Xie and Mi Yue interactions, but now that Mi Yue is already in love with Ying Si, I don't want to see it anymore because I don't like love triangles.
- I was looking forward to Wei Ran coming back and kicking ass.
- I would've wanted to see more of Mi Yue as Queen Dowager, as opposed to Princess or Concubine. I wanted to see how she gained power, how she went rogue and entered illicit relations with a Yiqu King and then later killed him. I honestly don't think I could picture the current Mi Yue pulling that sort of manoeuver, and seeing as how she's still barely changed her attitude, I'm not hopeful for the rest of the show.
- I was kind of surprised that Ma Sichun and Zhu Yilong were also in the cast. I was hoping to stick around until they popped up. But as I mentioned, maybe it's not worth sticking around for another 50 episodes just for that.
Things that I liked about this show:
- The acting
Things I disliked about this show:
- Dragging story line with conversations that were literally 10 times longer than they needed to be
- Harem politics a little too petty and passive aggressive for me
- Female characters who were either good or evil with little to no nuance