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Review: The Young Warriors (少年楊家將) (2006)
This was overall an alright drama. The story was pretty tropey, but the main draw was definitely the acting from a large portion of the main cast. I definitely thought it was a very fun drama even if I didn't care too much for the overarching story. The characters themselves were entertaining enough to watch. I'd definitely recommend this as a fun drama to watch, though if you don't know how the story of the Yang Family Generals ends, then you should know that it doesn't end happily as most of them die in war :(
Spoilers.
Story
There were two parts to this drama. One was the overarching political plot. The Yang family was allied with the Emperor. Prime Minister Pan Renmei was allied with the Liao Dynasty for the purpose of overthrowing the Song Dynasty and possibly usurping the throne for himself. The main villains from the Liao Dynasty would be Yelv Xie and a mentor sort of figure, Tianling.
The other part of the drama was related to the Yang family's own challenges, relating to love and family bonds.
Like I said, the story was pretty tropey and it wasn't anything deep, but it did the job. I do think that the story kind of took a bit of a turn towards the end as it became super serious. This kind of surprised me because of how lighthearted the show could be, but it made more sense to end the drama this way, in line with what most Chinese people know of the Yang family.
I'd asked my mom about the Yang family, and she'd said that most of the sons had died in war, and only Yang Liulang actually had a child, which is in line with what happened in the drama. Yang Liulang was the only one who ended up with an intact marriage.
I don't hate the story, it's just based on pre-existing folklore sprinkled with early Cdrama era tropes. It is what it is, and it did its job to serve as a backdrop for the actors to do their jobs.
Production
The production value was pretty good. The acting of course was top notch. While some of the dialogue was cheesy, I never felt that cringed out because the actors were that convincing.
The costumes were beautiful. I love that even in old Cdramas you can tell when high quality clothes are high quality. I especially loved the women warriors' costumes. They were so cute but also striking and when they all wore the armour together they seemed so unstoppable and strong.
The action scenes were also better than the average Cdrama, especially now. We got long action cuts that were shot from afar, not those "fights" that are just made of closeups on the actors' faces.
Characters
Most of the characters were a bit more tropey because they're based on folklore and so the writers only had so much room to add their own embellishments. And yet I didn't hate them because the actors gave the characters so much charm.
Yang Ye
Yang Ye was the patriarch. He was a typical dad. Harsh on his sons because he wanted them to learn to be strong, not too willing to show his soft side except when in front of his wife. In particular, we saw him training Liulang and Qilang to embody the spirit and values of the Yang family generals. He also had a strained relationship with Silang at first because Silang didn't see how he had suffered when missing his son.
Yang Ye met his end when he was surrounded by the Liao forces after being tricked by Pan Renmei and meeting Empress Dowager Xiao for a useless meeting. He'd rather die than submit and so he committed suicide.
She Saihua
Saihua arguably had a more important role than Yang Ye in the family because not only was she a warrior herself, but her job as the mother was to look after the household. She often understood her sons better than themselves and gave them advice. She also saw when her husband was all worked up, either about military/political matters or household matters, and would soften him up in a way only she could.
When her husband and sons returned home from war dead, Saihua continued to be strong for the family because she had to be. She was cleaning up her sons' corpses. Though she was tired, both physically and emotionally, she insisted that she had to because it was a mother's job. I love Saihua as a character because she's able to carry out her duties as a wife and mother but also not lose the part of herself that made her so lively (which was martial arts, and just being a genius lol).
Saihua had recruited her daughters-in-law to help defend the city when their husbands were not able to. Historically, it was said that the women in the Yang family were also great generals, so I loved that they included at least some of that in the show.
By the end of the show, I think it's clear that Saihua remains the matriarch and leader of the family, not only because of age, but because all of her kids and her daughters-in-law really respect her level-headedness and wisdom. Might be my favourite character in the show.
Elder brothers and sisters-in-law
The eldest brother (Yang Yanping), second brother (Yang Yanding), third brother (Yang Yan'an) and their respective wives were really just supporting characters in this show. The sons were established generals and worked with their dad most of the time. As for the wives, they helped Saihua with running the household, smoothing over fights, etc.
One of the first scenes where I found the wives super cute was when Silang wouldn't take his medication (before the family knew he was Silang) and the wives were nagging him until he finally did so. The wives could also be often seen placating Bamei, or easing in the other new wives and making them feel welcome.
At the end of the show, they helped Saihua in defending the city, donning armour and fighting with their spears. I loved that scene, and I love that even after their husbands' death, they loved this family so much to stick together.
Yang Silang/Yang Yanhui
Peter Ho. So fine. He was GREAT in this role as a brooding, aloof man. As a child, he'd joined his parents when they were in a battle and he got lost. He grew up thinking that his parents never loved him because they never came to find him. He grew up under Cui Yinglong's tutelage. Only in his adulthood did he reconcile with his family. At first, he just wanted to return his filial duty and then he'd cut off ties, but the family weaseled their way into his heart.
In the end, he went off to war with his brothers, but got lost again, this time having been saved by a Liao princess. In order to save his life, she made him lose all his memories, and thus he never returned to Song China.
Silang lived his life thinking a lone wanderer, and only knew the meaning of home when he finally reconciled with the Yang Family. I wish the story would have ended with him being brought home again, even if he was dead, because at least he knew that there was a family that loved him and would always take him home.
His wife, Luo Guniang, knew at the back of her mind that he was still alive, and that scene near the end when they kept missing each other in the market was so frustrating. In any case, I don't think she would've been angry with Silang regardless of his performance on the battle field, even if he died. I think she just wanted him to be home, and she would get no closure until she saw his body.
I truly didn't like this ending because like I said, it was just his childhood being repeated. This time, he didn't have the memory of his family, so perhaps it wasn't supposed to hurt for him, but his family was hurt a second time.
Yang Wulang/Yang Yande
Wulang was an established general, but he was a bit rash. He didn't have a big role because of this. Instead, most of his story line was centered around gaining Guan Hong's hand in married.
The other large part of his story line came near the end. The Yang family, being used to war, knew that even if they were walking into near certain defeat, they still had to carry out their duty. Guan Hong was worried for her husband's safety while he was at war, against the values of the family. Though he was assigned to protect the Emperor, Wulang still felt like he let down his family and his country because he was far away from battle while they were being slaughtered.
In the end, Wulang couldn't deal with this guilt, even if his wife was the cause of it, and he became a monk.
Yang Liulang/Yang Yanzhao
Liulang was clearly the star of this show. He started off as a brash and irresponsible youth. He was strong, but he didn't really embody the responsibility and wisdom that a Yang family general should. Over the course of the show, we saw him slowly grow into this symbol of heroism, whether it was helping out his father and Princess Chai in matters of th court, or helping out his brothers and sisters in more personal matters.
Liulang's final battle was against Pan Ying, his second love interest, which was a bit weak for a story because as a consort, Pan Ying shouldn't have as much power as she did. Anyway, there was some angsting between Liu Lang and Chai Junzhu but they ultimately did marry.
At the end of the show, he was the only Yang son left :(
Yang Qilang/Yan Yansi
While Qilang was also a little rash, he was very pure hearted and fun loving. Along with Bamei, he was one of the first brothers to gain Silang's friendship, and I think it was because Silang detected no ill intention from him other than pure friendship and brotherhood.
Qilang spent quite a bit of time away from the family because he'd saved Silang in a duel, injured Pan Bao, was framed for Pan Bao's murder, and sent into hiding by Silang.
Along the way, he stumbled into a love interest side plot, but he returned to the Yang family. Unfortunately, he also died in war :(
Yang Bamei
Bamei was the young lady who had 7 older brothers doting over her. I'd say she was a more straightforward symbol of the love that the Yang family had for each other. She was uncomplicated.
Miss Luo
I have to admit that among the lady love interests, Liu Shishi stuck out as one of the poorer actresses. I actually haven't watched her in anything else, but she didn't seem very expressive. She was a more timid character, so I don't know how much of it was her acting and how much of it was writing/directing.
Anyway, Luo Guniang was a doctress who eventually married Silang. She also joined her fellow sisters-in-law in defending the city when their husbands were away.
After Silang was captured by the Liao princess, Luo Guniang continued to yearn for him. She felt that if he was out there, he would've returned to them, either alive or dead. Like I said above, I don't think she cared for his military feats, she just wanted an answer. She truly had the saddest story line :(
Guan Hong
Guan Hong was a feisty blacksmith. She was straightforward, which I think was what attracted Wulang. However, he'd also been roped into working with Yelv Xie, and over time, came to see his more human and personable side too. She ultimately chose Wulang and married into their family.
Where she made a grave mistake was when she went against the Yang family code. As I mentioned, they were a warrior family and they stuck to a code of honour. They didn't have high hopes for the war but they had no choice but to follow through in their roles as warriors.
Guan Hong couldn't accept this, insisting that Wulang was selfish for putting his country before her. Obviously, Guan Hong was the selfish one here, and I don't think Wulang every truly forgave her for taking him away from the battle ground. At the very least, she didn't consult him or tell him her intention, taking away his agency.
In the end, I still don't think that Guan Hong understood her husband and the Yang family's strict sense of duty to their country. Guan Hong felt that if there was a punishment for desertion, she should've been punished and not Wulang. But that's not how things work at all, and it was clear that she still didn't quite understand that.
Chai Junzhu/Princess Chai
Chan Junzhu and Liulang had a playful relationship from the get go. They were both smart and cunning, and their relationship was based around a lot of working together.
At the end of the show, Liulang was forced to kill Junzhu in order to get an antidote for his soldiers. He obviously had a hard time doing this, so Junzhu did the deed for him, stabbing herself and then taking down Pan Ying with her.
Chai Junzhu magically survived the stab, but Liulang stayed away from her because he didn't want to involve her in any more trouble. It took his chat with Du Jin'e to realize that love was not about longevity, but about supporting each other in whatever short time they had, and that was why he eventually tracked down Chai Junzhu and married her.
Xiaolin
Xiaolin was a girl that Qilang had met at the local entertainment house. She was a servant tasked with misleading Qilang. However, she had a tough past too, and Qilang sympathized with that. I believe she killed herself because she couldn't live this conflicted life anymore, having to work for the Liao but enjoying Qilang's friendship. Poor girl :( She didn't deserve this.
Du Jin'e
I kind of wish Du Jin'e was handled differently. It really felt like too big of a stretch to have her and Xiaolin be played by the same person. Wikipedia tells me that it's implied that Du Jin'e and Xiaolin were long lost sisters, but like, there really wasn't much to back that up except for Xiaolin simply having a spotty past.
Qilang was tasked with training Du Jin'e to be a well mannered lady and they fell in love and got married. Their love story was completely unrelated to anything else, so it felt so random.
Qilang also never got to report his marriage to his family when he was alive, and Du Jin'e only met Liulang afterwards.
Cui Yinglong
Cui Yinglong was Saihua's Shixiong and Silang's Shifu. He kind of played a family friend role lol.
Yelv Xie
Yelv Xie was the first villain we met. His background was pretty simple. He was a Liao general so his hatred for the Song was straightforwad. He also had a love triangle with Guan Hong but ultimately she couldn't love him because of his stance against the Song. Yelv Xie returned to the Liao people as a hero, but whether he truly won was another discussion.
Pan Renmei
One of the big bad villains in this show. He wanted to overthrow the emperor and take the throne for himself. He was always wary of the Yang family because they were strong and morally upright. He wanted to dismantle them so that the emperor had no one else to rely on but him. He also colluded with the Liao people to weaken the Song.
Pan Renmei was also an evil dad. He killed his own son when he was close to death, wanting to use him as a tool to bring down the Yang family. He'd also sent away his daughter for years, only welcoming her when she showed that she could be useful in distracting the emperor.
Pan Renmei was caught sitting on the throne, acting like an emperor, and his commissioned emperor's robe was found in his home. He was sent to the Liao people as a decoy, but the Liao people killed him soon when they realized he no longer help the emperor's favour and was therefore useless.
Pan Bao
Pan Bao was Pan Renmei's son, an official at court, and Silang's love rival. He was your typical rich boy, thinking that he was the most desirable man in town.
He'd challenged Silang into a duel for Luo Guniang's hand in marriage. Though her parents didn't want him to marry her, they were intimidated by him again and again. Pan Bao had taken some sort of performance enhancing drugs so he'd beat Silang, but Qilang came to the rescue. After the fight, the drugs had a huge adverse effect on Pan Bao and Pan Renmei killed him so that he could pin Qilang for murder.
Pan Ying
Pan Ying was initially portrayed as a timid girl who'd been treated poorly by her father and sent away. Things only got fishy when she started actively sabotaging Chai Junzhu and Liulang's relationship. She made excuses to spend more time with Liulang (such as saying she was severely ill), and towards Chai Junzhu she insisted that Liulang said he was in love with Pan Ying.
It was soon revealed that Pan Ying was a wolf in sheep's clothing. She'd always been cunning and malicious. Pan Ying had first met Liulang amid a scene of massacre, and it was revealed that Pan Ying was not a victim, but the murderer. She used everyone around her, including one of the nuns at the temple she was living at, killing her to avoid her history being revealed.
When Pan Ying realized she couldn't ruin Liulang and Chai Junzhu as herself, she made use of the fact that the emperor was intrigued by her, and she became his consort. With her father, she tried to bring down the emperor.
In the end, Pan Ying had poisoned the Yang family's army, and told Liulang that she'd only give him the antidote if he killed Chai Junzhu. As mentioned, Chai Junzhu did the job herself and then brought down Pan Ying with her. Pan Ying said that she was lying about the antidote, but later revealed that they were surrounded by antidotes. I wasn't sure how to interpret this, but I suppose the latter was correct.
Emperor
The Emperor was a typical not-so-smart Emperor that we see in Cdramas where the Emperor is not the main character. He was easily swayed by Pan Renmei.
Zhao Defang/Baxian Wang
Baxian Wang was a Wangye, and was allied with the Yang family. He was usually the only other person with political authority that stood by the family.
Shagui
Shagui was Guan Hong's brother. He seemed to have an intellectual disability and relied on his sister a lot.
Empress Dowager Xiao
She was the leader of the Liao people, but didn't really play a big role. In the end, she reached out to the Yang family to discuss a truce, but she really had no intention of doing so, only wanting to lure out the Yang family for ambush.
Yelv Qiong'e/Princess Yinjing
Princess Yinjing had apparently been saved by Silang many years ago and she never forgot it. Despite knowing that he was a Yang family general, she saved him. He later tried to kill her mother the Empress Dowager Xiao, who said he could only stay if he lost his memories, and this Princess Yinjing brainwashed him.
She was pretty selfish for doing so, but I guess this was the most tragic ending possible for Silang :( Even death would've been more agreeable to him.
Themes
I think the themes of this show were pretty straightforward: patriotism and family.
The entire Yang family was made up of generals and warriors, even the wives. So they all had a very good sense of their duties to the country (except Guan Hong I guess). It was important to Yang Ye that Liulang and Qilang understood this before he allowed them to join him as fully fledged Yang Warriors.
With regards to family love, I'd also grouped romantic love with family love because the men ended marrying their love interests. I think the show did a good job or showing how much livelier and happier life can be when you know you're loved, and you have people to love.
Overall
This was a very enjoyable drama for me. The story was average and tropey, but the acting more than made up for it. I would highly recommend this drama for a fun historical drama.
Spoilers.
Story
There were two parts to this drama. One was the overarching political plot. The Yang family was allied with the Emperor. Prime Minister Pan Renmei was allied with the Liao Dynasty for the purpose of overthrowing the Song Dynasty and possibly usurping the throne for himself. The main villains from the Liao Dynasty would be Yelv Xie and a mentor sort of figure, Tianling.
The other part of the drama was related to the Yang family's own challenges, relating to love and family bonds.
Like I said, the story was pretty tropey and it wasn't anything deep, but it did the job. I do think that the story kind of took a bit of a turn towards the end as it became super serious. This kind of surprised me because of how lighthearted the show could be, but it made more sense to end the drama this way, in line with what most Chinese people know of the Yang family.
I'd asked my mom about the Yang family, and she'd said that most of the sons had died in war, and only Yang Liulang actually had a child, which is in line with what happened in the drama. Yang Liulang was the only one who ended up with an intact marriage.
I don't hate the story, it's just based on pre-existing folklore sprinkled with early Cdrama era tropes. It is what it is, and it did its job to serve as a backdrop for the actors to do their jobs.
Production
The production value was pretty good. The acting of course was top notch. While some of the dialogue was cheesy, I never felt that cringed out because the actors were that convincing.
The costumes were beautiful. I love that even in old Cdramas you can tell when high quality clothes are high quality. I especially loved the women warriors' costumes. They were so cute but also striking and when they all wore the armour together they seemed so unstoppable and strong.
The action scenes were also better than the average Cdrama, especially now. We got long action cuts that were shot from afar, not those "fights" that are just made of closeups on the actors' faces.
Characters
Most of the characters were a bit more tropey because they're based on folklore and so the writers only had so much room to add their own embellishments. And yet I didn't hate them because the actors gave the characters so much charm.
Yang Ye
Yang Ye was the patriarch. He was a typical dad. Harsh on his sons because he wanted them to learn to be strong, not too willing to show his soft side except when in front of his wife. In particular, we saw him training Liulang and Qilang to embody the spirit and values of the Yang family generals. He also had a strained relationship with Silang at first because Silang didn't see how he had suffered when missing his son.
Yang Ye met his end when he was surrounded by the Liao forces after being tricked by Pan Renmei and meeting Empress Dowager Xiao for a useless meeting. He'd rather die than submit and so he committed suicide.
She Saihua
Saihua arguably had a more important role than Yang Ye in the family because not only was she a warrior herself, but her job as the mother was to look after the household. She often understood her sons better than themselves and gave them advice. She also saw when her husband was all worked up, either about military/political matters or household matters, and would soften him up in a way only she could.
When her husband and sons returned home from war dead, Saihua continued to be strong for the family because she had to be. She was cleaning up her sons' corpses. Though she was tired, both physically and emotionally, she insisted that she had to because it was a mother's job. I love Saihua as a character because she's able to carry out her duties as a wife and mother but also not lose the part of herself that made her so lively (which was martial arts, and just being a genius lol).
Saihua had recruited her daughters-in-law to help defend the city when their husbands were not able to. Historically, it was said that the women in the Yang family were also great generals, so I loved that they included at least some of that in the show.
By the end of the show, I think it's clear that Saihua remains the matriarch and leader of the family, not only because of age, but because all of her kids and her daughters-in-law really respect her level-headedness and wisdom. Might be my favourite character in the show.
Elder brothers and sisters-in-law
The eldest brother (Yang Yanping), second brother (Yang Yanding), third brother (Yang Yan'an) and their respective wives were really just supporting characters in this show. The sons were established generals and worked with their dad most of the time. As for the wives, they helped Saihua with running the household, smoothing over fights, etc.
One of the first scenes where I found the wives super cute was when Silang wouldn't take his medication (before the family knew he was Silang) and the wives were nagging him until he finally did so. The wives could also be often seen placating Bamei, or easing in the other new wives and making them feel welcome.
At the end of the show, they helped Saihua in defending the city, donning armour and fighting with their spears. I loved that scene, and I love that even after their husbands' death, they loved this family so much to stick together.
Yang Silang/Yang Yanhui
Peter Ho. So fine. He was GREAT in this role as a brooding, aloof man. As a child, he'd joined his parents when they were in a battle and he got lost. He grew up thinking that his parents never loved him because they never came to find him. He grew up under Cui Yinglong's tutelage. Only in his adulthood did he reconcile with his family. At first, he just wanted to return his filial duty and then he'd cut off ties, but the family weaseled their way into his heart.
In the end, he went off to war with his brothers, but got lost again, this time having been saved by a Liao princess. In order to save his life, she made him lose all his memories, and thus he never returned to Song China.
Silang lived his life thinking a lone wanderer, and only knew the meaning of home when he finally reconciled with the Yang Family. I wish the story would have ended with him being brought home again, even if he was dead, because at least he knew that there was a family that loved him and would always take him home.
His wife, Luo Guniang, knew at the back of her mind that he was still alive, and that scene near the end when they kept missing each other in the market was so frustrating. In any case, I don't think she would've been angry with Silang regardless of his performance on the battle field, even if he died. I think she just wanted him to be home, and she would get no closure until she saw his body.
I truly didn't like this ending because like I said, it was just his childhood being repeated. This time, he didn't have the memory of his family, so perhaps it wasn't supposed to hurt for him, but his family was hurt a second time.
Yang Wulang/Yang Yande
Wulang was an established general, but he was a bit rash. He didn't have a big role because of this. Instead, most of his story line was centered around gaining Guan Hong's hand in married.
The other large part of his story line came near the end. The Yang family, being used to war, knew that even if they were walking into near certain defeat, they still had to carry out their duty. Guan Hong was worried for her husband's safety while he was at war, against the values of the family. Though he was assigned to protect the Emperor, Wulang still felt like he let down his family and his country because he was far away from battle while they were being slaughtered.
In the end, Wulang couldn't deal with this guilt, even if his wife was the cause of it, and he became a monk.
Yang Liulang/Yang Yanzhao
Liulang was clearly the star of this show. He started off as a brash and irresponsible youth. He was strong, but he didn't really embody the responsibility and wisdom that a Yang family general should. Over the course of the show, we saw him slowly grow into this symbol of heroism, whether it was helping out his father and Princess Chai in matters of th court, or helping out his brothers and sisters in more personal matters.
Liulang's final battle was against Pan Ying, his second love interest, which was a bit weak for a story because as a consort, Pan Ying shouldn't have as much power as she did. Anyway, there was some angsting between Liu Lang and Chai Junzhu but they ultimately did marry.
At the end of the show, he was the only Yang son left :(
Yang Qilang/Yan Yansi
While Qilang was also a little rash, he was very pure hearted and fun loving. Along with Bamei, he was one of the first brothers to gain Silang's friendship, and I think it was because Silang detected no ill intention from him other than pure friendship and brotherhood.
Qilang spent quite a bit of time away from the family because he'd saved Silang in a duel, injured Pan Bao, was framed for Pan Bao's murder, and sent into hiding by Silang.
Along the way, he stumbled into a love interest side plot, but he returned to the Yang family. Unfortunately, he also died in war :(
Yang Bamei
Bamei was the young lady who had 7 older brothers doting over her. I'd say she was a more straightforward symbol of the love that the Yang family had for each other. She was uncomplicated.
Miss Luo
I have to admit that among the lady love interests, Liu Shishi stuck out as one of the poorer actresses. I actually haven't watched her in anything else, but she didn't seem very expressive. She was a more timid character, so I don't know how much of it was her acting and how much of it was writing/directing.
Anyway, Luo Guniang was a doctress who eventually married Silang. She also joined her fellow sisters-in-law in defending the city when their husbands were away.
After Silang was captured by the Liao princess, Luo Guniang continued to yearn for him. She felt that if he was out there, he would've returned to them, either alive or dead. Like I said above, I don't think she cared for his military feats, she just wanted an answer. She truly had the saddest story line :(
Guan Hong
Guan Hong was a feisty blacksmith. She was straightforward, which I think was what attracted Wulang. However, he'd also been roped into working with Yelv Xie, and over time, came to see his more human and personable side too. She ultimately chose Wulang and married into their family.
Where she made a grave mistake was when she went against the Yang family code. As I mentioned, they were a warrior family and they stuck to a code of honour. They didn't have high hopes for the war but they had no choice but to follow through in their roles as warriors.
Guan Hong couldn't accept this, insisting that Wulang was selfish for putting his country before her. Obviously, Guan Hong was the selfish one here, and I don't think Wulang every truly forgave her for taking him away from the battle ground. At the very least, she didn't consult him or tell him her intention, taking away his agency.
In the end, I still don't think that Guan Hong understood her husband and the Yang family's strict sense of duty to their country. Guan Hong felt that if there was a punishment for desertion, she should've been punished and not Wulang. But that's not how things work at all, and it was clear that she still didn't quite understand that.
Chai Junzhu/Princess Chai
Chan Junzhu and Liulang had a playful relationship from the get go. They were both smart and cunning, and their relationship was based around a lot of working together.
At the end of the show, Liulang was forced to kill Junzhu in order to get an antidote for his soldiers. He obviously had a hard time doing this, so Junzhu did the deed for him, stabbing herself and then taking down Pan Ying with her.
Chai Junzhu magically survived the stab, but Liulang stayed away from her because he didn't want to involve her in any more trouble. It took his chat with Du Jin'e to realize that love was not about longevity, but about supporting each other in whatever short time they had, and that was why he eventually tracked down Chai Junzhu and married her.
Xiaolin
Xiaolin was a girl that Qilang had met at the local entertainment house. She was a servant tasked with misleading Qilang. However, she had a tough past too, and Qilang sympathized with that. I believe she killed herself because she couldn't live this conflicted life anymore, having to work for the Liao but enjoying Qilang's friendship. Poor girl :( She didn't deserve this.
Du Jin'e
I kind of wish Du Jin'e was handled differently. It really felt like too big of a stretch to have her and Xiaolin be played by the same person. Wikipedia tells me that it's implied that Du Jin'e and Xiaolin were long lost sisters, but like, there really wasn't much to back that up except for Xiaolin simply having a spotty past.
Qilang was tasked with training Du Jin'e to be a well mannered lady and they fell in love and got married. Their love story was completely unrelated to anything else, so it felt so random.
Qilang also never got to report his marriage to his family when he was alive, and Du Jin'e only met Liulang afterwards.
Cui Yinglong
Cui Yinglong was Saihua's Shixiong and Silang's Shifu. He kind of played a family friend role lol.
Yelv Xie
Yelv Xie was the first villain we met. His background was pretty simple. He was a Liao general so his hatred for the Song was straightforwad. He also had a love triangle with Guan Hong but ultimately she couldn't love him because of his stance against the Song. Yelv Xie returned to the Liao people as a hero, but whether he truly won was another discussion.
Pan Renmei
One of the big bad villains in this show. He wanted to overthrow the emperor and take the throne for himself. He was always wary of the Yang family because they were strong and morally upright. He wanted to dismantle them so that the emperor had no one else to rely on but him. He also colluded with the Liao people to weaken the Song.
Pan Renmei was also an evil dad. He killed his own son when he was close to death, wanting to use him as a tool to bring down the Yang family. He'd also sent away his daughter for years, only welcoming her when she showed that she could be useful in distracting the emperor.
Pan Renmei was caught sitting on the throne, acting like an emperor, and his commissioned emperor's robe was found in his home. He was sent to the Liao people as a decoy, but the Liao people killed him soon when they realized he no longer help the emperor's favour and was therefore useless.
Pan Bao
Pan Bao was Pan Renmei's son, an official at court, and Silang's love rival. He was your typical rich boy, thinking that he was the most desirable man in town.
He'd challenged Silang into a duel for Luo Guniang's hand in marriage. Though her parents didn't want him to marry her, they were intimidated by him again and again. Pan Bao had taken some sort of performance enhancing drugs so he'd beat Silang, but Qilang came to the rescue. After the fight, the drugs had a huge adverse effect on Pan Bao and Pan Renmei killed him so that he could pin Qilang for murder.
Pan Ying
Pan Ying was initially portrayed as a timid girl who'd been treated poorly by her father and sent away. Things only got fishy when she started actively sabotaging Chai Junzhu and Liulang's relationship. She made excuses to spend more time with Liulang (such as saying she was severely ill), and towards Chai Junzhu she insisted that Liulang said he was in love with Pan Ying.
It was soon revealed that Pan Ying was a wolf in sheep's clothing. She'd always been cunning and malicious. Pan Ying had first met Liulang amid a scene of massacre, and it was revealed that Pan Ying was not a victim, but the murderer. She used everyone around her, including one of the nuns at the temple she was living at, killing her to avoid her history being revealed.
When Pan Ying realized she couldn't ruin Liulang and Chai Junzhu as herself, she made use of the fact that the emperor was intrigued by her, and she became his consort. With her father, she tried to bring down the emperor.
In the end, Pan Ying had poisoned the Yang family's army, and told Liulang that she'd only give him the antidote if he killed Chai Junzhu. As mentioned, Chai Junzhu did the job herself and then brought down Pan Ying with her. Pan Ying said that she was lying about the antidote, but later revealed that they were surrounded by antidotes. I wasn't sure how to interpret this, but I suppose the latter was correct.
Emperor
The Emperor was a typical not-so-smart Emperor that we see in Cdramas where the Emperor is not the main character. He was easily swayed by Pan Renmei.
Zhao Defang/Baxian Wang
Baxian Wang was a Wangye, and was allied with the Yang family. He was usually the only other person with political authority that stood by the family.
Shagui
Shagui was Guan Hong's brother. He seemed to have an intellectual disability and relied on his sister a lot.
Empress Dowager Xiao
She was the leader of the Liao people, but didn't really play a big role. In the end, she reached out to the Yang family to discuss a truce, but she really had no intention of doing so, only wanting to lure out the Yang family for ambush.
Yelv Qiong'e/Princess Yinjing
Princess Yinjing had apparently been saved by Silang many years ago and she never forgot it. Despite knowing that he was a Yang family general, she saved him. He later tried to kill her mother the Empress Dowager Xiao, who said he could only stay if he lost his memories, and this Princess Yinjing brainwashed him.
She was pretty selfish for doing so, but I guess this was the most tragic ending possible for Silang :( Even death would've been more agreeable to him.
Themes
I think the themes of this show were pretty straightforward: patriotism and family.
The entire Yang family was made up of generals and warriors, even the wives. So they all had a very good sense of their duties to the country (except Guan Hong I guess). It was important to Yang Ye that Liulang and Qilang understood this before he allowed them to join him as fully fledged Yang Warriors.
With regards to family love, I'd also grouped romantic love with family love because the men ended marrying their love interests. I think the show did a good job or showing how much livelier and happier life can be when you know you're loved, and you have people to love.
Overall
This was a very enjoyable drama for me. The story was average and tropey, but the acting more than made up for it. I would highly recommend this drama for a fun historical drama.