Review: The Rise of Phoenixes (天盛長歌) (2018)

[phanero]

I AM FINALLY FINISHED WATCHING THIS SHOW!!!!!!!

This review is going to be long as heck because there are a whopping 70 episodes in this show, and there also a lot of characters. Also I'm also lazy when it comes to editing my review posts to this is truly going to be a word dump.

In case you don't want to read all of this and want a verdict, I would recommend it for people who like some romantic melodrama with their political thrillers. The acting is also freaking superb.

Mega spoilers under the cut!



Story

Before I'd started watching this show, I had heard that it was good up until episode 50, and not so good afterwards. After finishing this show, I would say that episodes 1-50 were more of what I'd expect of a Chinese historical political thriller. After that, there was heavy focus on the relationship between Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei. I would say that episodes 50-70 were more romantic melodrama with the backdrop of a political thriller, which had mostly been established in the previous episodes.

Like most of my TV reviews, this is going to be a bit of a word vomit and my thoughts will be all over the place because the story was SO LONG so please bear with me XD

Main story arcs

Ning Chuan Arc

I call this the first arc the Ning Chuan Arc, but it also included the introduction to Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi and their backgrounds. I thought the introductory episodes were really cute, because we got to see Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi in their natural habitats. As they said to one another, Ning Yi will always see Feng Zhiwei as that silly girl, and Feng Zhiwei will always see Ning Yi as that tailor.

The political dealings really started when Feng Zhiwei entered the Academy as Wei Zhi. Feng Zhiwei was always smart and sharp, but she was also rash and reckless. Entering the academy allowed her to grow sharper, more refined, and to become accustomed to court proceedings, something that a woman of common birth never would've had. When she entered the court as the minister Wei Zhi, that was when Feng Zhiwei really got to work.

As for Ning Yi, he was called out of solitary confinement by the emperor who wanted to throw a wrench into the struggle among the princes. He played a fool but he was always smart underneath. He didn't decide to act until Xin Ziyan came to him with the promise he had made to Ning Qiao, to support Ning Yi to become a great ruler.

This was what I'd expect of a typical "preliminary" arc in a Chinese historical drama. Ning Yan and Ning Chuan were both dealt with by Ning Yi. The thing is, both of these princes were not what you would call particularly smart. Ning Yan was tricked by the sorcerer into believing he would become the Crown Prince one day. And Ning Chuan was paranoid and obsessed with his ascension to the throne and seemed to want to get rid of his brothers despite currently being the Crown Prince.

In addition to not being the sharpest, Ning Yan and Ning Chuan were both a little too proactive. Ning Yi didn't actually have to do much for these two characters to meet their end. He just had to nudge them a little and they did the rest.

Ning Sheng Arc

In hindsight, I would say that this was more of a struggle between the Emperor and the Chang clan, rather than one between Ning Yi and Ning Sheng.

Ning Sheng was always a low-key prince. He was steady, and he figured that he didn't need to do anything to keep his power because all of the other princes (i.e. Ning Yan and Ning Chuan) seemed to do it on their own. In fact, he didn't even care much for cozying up to Wei Zhi, who at the time was the Emperor's most trusted advisor.

I felt that Ning Sheng's undoing was due to external factors. I agree with the Emperor that Ning Sheng was led down a dangerous path by his mother and uncle. (However, we can't ignore the fact that the Emperor had purposely set a trap for the clan.) In the end, Peng Pei convinced Ning Sheng that he couldn't gain power without taking it for himself. I felt that was the one out-of-character thing that he did, but I would chalk it up to external factors.

This was a very exciting arc. Wei Zhi and Ning Yi were both at the height of their power, having full trust of the Emperor, which made their takedown of Ning Sheng rather epic.

Ning Qi was introduced in this arc as a bystander, but he'd started putting his plans into place after Ning Sheng was put into solitary confinement. He was responsible for finding a suitable husband for Shaoning, and he took that opportunity to topple Wei Zhi after hearing that he might not have been who he said he was. In the end, Feng Zhiwei confessed to her identity as a woman, but was ultimately pardoned under the condition that she fulfill this next task.

Minhai Arc

This was the first arc away from Dijing. It gave Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi an opportunity to be together and to work together under the watchful eyes of court officials and royal family members.

The story itself was rather simple, but I think it was okay. What propped this story up was the fact that we had Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi working together in full capacity, and the relatively few new characters that were introduced. In particular, I thought that Chang Zhongxin was a great villain, mainly because of his acting.

With Ning Yi away, Ning Qi continued building his rapport within the court. In this arc, he focused on endearing himself to the Emperor, and receiving more court responsibilities.

This arc ended with the reveal of Feng Zhiwei's background. Feng Hao was revealed to be the Prince of Dacheng, and Qiu Mingying was a traitor for harbouring this child. This was orchestrated by Ning Qi after getting some intel. Feng Hao and Qiu Mingying died by the Emperor's hand.

Afterwards, it was revealed that Feng Zhiwei was actually the true Princess of Dacheng, and Feng Hao was just a decoy child. However, that didn't matter at all at that point because she was the child that was left alive from the ordeal. Whichever child was left alive was going to be used by the Emperor anyway.

Ning Shizheng made Feng Zhiwei a princess. Feng Zhiwei hypothesized that it was because Ning Shizheng couldn't kill her (or else Ning Yi would flip his shit) but he also needed to control her.

This event signified Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei's official falls from grace, as NIng Yi had been harbouring the prince (Ning Cheng had thrown Feng Hao in jail), and Feng Zhiwei's existence was a complete nuisance to the Emperor.

Princess arc

I could only call this the Princess Arc because the only thing that seemed to string it together was Feng Zhiwei's status as both Dacheng's ninth Princess and Dasheng's Princess Shengying. I might be a little biased against this arc because of what I'd heard about it (i.e. the dropoff in story quality). I admit the story was kind of disconnected. However, I still tolerated it because it included lots of emotional scenes and relied on the fact that we'd bonded with these characters in the previous arcs, as well as the stellar acting.

This arc also focused more on the romantic melodrama. There was a lot more emphasis on the relationship and angst between Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi. As the viewers, of course we wanted them to be together, but for these two characters, they just kept thinking of reasons why it couldn't happen. I'm not saying that the characters weren't justified, because there are things that they couldn't morally do, but I was never the biggest fan of romantic melodrama so it wasn't what I'd wanted to focus on.

First, Feng Zhiwei agreed to be married off to Helian Zheng to escape the Emperor's watchful eye. The issue with this Jinshi arc was that we were introduced to far too many new characters, all with a role in the plot, within a too short period of time. Because we didn't have enough time to see the characters do anything other than what was required to move the story forward, all of them felt rather one-dimensional. In terms of the actual political events, buildup and preparation took about one episode, and execution took another one episode. In the previous arcs, the buildup lasted far longer. As such, I just didn't see Helian Zheng regaining the throne as something significant or something that he worked really hard to do.

Again, Ning Qi continued to build his cred within the court. In this arc, he focused on removing and discrediting the family and trusted friends of the Emperor, including Zhao Yuan, Shaoning, Ning Sheng, etc. Then he worked to bring in his own people. His mother was too kind-hearted so he brought in Yueling to get close to the Emperor from a romantic standpoint.

The Dayue arc was okay, tolerable. I think the mental battles between Ning Yi and Jin Siyu were interesting because they were both in similar positions but they were not vying for the same throne, so they were not technically foes. The only reason they were at odds were because Jin Siyu wanted to hold onto the Queen of Jinshi for political reasons, and that happened to be Feng Zhiwei.

However, I felt that Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi's strategies were getting a little sloppy. They relied a lot on sneaking around to pass messages and such. This was because they were not on their own turf in Tiansheng's Palace where they would've known the ins and outs of how to operate.

As I was watching the Jinshi and Dayue mini-arcs, I felt that they were a little untimely because of how close they were to the end of the show. I would've expected the final arc to be set more in Dijing, when all characters would go all out in their final political battle. I felt it was less meaningful to have these extended arcs happen outside of Tiansheng so close to the end.

Despite all of the spoilers I'd come across, the one I didn't read was that Ning Yi's mother was still alive. After Ning Yi returned to Dijing to rescue his mother, I really started to feel that the story was relying on emotions rather than plot action to move forward.

Ning Yi gave up his royal status to live as a commoner with his mother. This came as a disappointment to Xin Ziyan whose sister-in-law and child had died and he was out for blood. Ning Qi was ruthless just as Ning Chuan was in removing all of the competition and kidnapped Yale. This eventually led to both Yale and Consort Wang being killed.

Ning Qi with the help of Huofeng, who were loyal to Dacheng, staged a plot to frame Ning Yi. However, it didn't work and Ning Yi ascended to the throne. As emperor, Ning Yi was a little ruthless, especially to the Huofeng people, which pushed Feng Zhiwei away from him. But it was revealed that Yueling was purposely trying to get those two to hate each other in order to provoke Feng Zhiwei.

Starting from the Dayue arc, the plot was moving at a slower pace. I'll talk about this later, but this show was initially very good at clearing up easy misunderstandings. However, this slowed down in the Dayue arc. For example, it should have been extremely obvious to Feng Zhiwei that the potion she was taking would be laced with a drug.

With regards to the misunderstandings, I was pretty frustrated when Yueling and Zhangsun Hong were trying to drive Zhiwei and Ning Yi apart. Ning Yi and Ning Cheng never explained themselves and it drove me nuts because misunderstandings were never a token of this show. For example, when Ning Yi shot Helian Zheng, how easy was it to say that Helian Zheng had a crossbow to Zhiwei so he had to protect her? It was really frustrating.

In this arc, I did find myself tearing up more because like I said, it relied on our emotional attachment and the bonds we'd developed with the characters to put meaning into their arguments or battles.

Ending

Feng Zhiwei understood that her hate for Ning Yi wasn't what she thought it was. However, their relationship didn't return to what it was during the good days. At that point, too much happened between them.

But she just couldn't deal with the guilt that those who wanted to bring back Dacheng would die for her. As long as she was alive, those people would have hope, and they would continue fighting. So she decided to commit suicide.

I think Ning Shizheng's final words to her had an effect to. He said that if she married Ning Yi, they would grow to be a husband and wife that hated each other because that is what happens to royals. Ning Yi would grow to be just as ruthless as Ning Shizheng was, and Feng Zhiwei would grow to hate him. I think Feng Zhiwei would rather their relationship never get to that point as well.

Honestly, I don't hate this ending. I had read a spoiler that Feng Zhiwei would commit suicide. I don't remember what arc I was on at the time, but I thought it'd be a bit different in tone. However, after actually watching the end, I think it was in line with what had happened in the previous handful of episodes. The violence and hatred just kept escalating to the point that Feng Zhiwei herself fell for it. By nature, Feng Zhiwei is a sympathetic person, and one who prefers peace, and I think she felt that she'd be at peace if she was not in this world anymore.

As for Ning Yi, he couldn't join her yet because he'd made a promise to several people that he'd be a good sovereign. It was an indirect promise to his older brother. It was also something he'd mentioned to Feng Zhiwei. And his mother told him to be brave and to do the things that he wanted to achieve, which included living in a world where the law was just.

Other notes

All along, I thought that Feng Zhiwei would be the main character of the story. However, after watching this entire show, I think I'm pretty confident that Ning Yi is THE main character. Feng Zhiwei is an important part of his life, but I think this story is a journey through Ning Yi's life. I'll talk about this more in the character sections.

Writing

Even though this was a political thriller with a mostly omniscient viewpoint presented ot the audience, it didn't rely on misunderstandings or dramatic irony to drive suspense. Most easy misunderstandings were resolved immediately, often in the next scene. Very few crucial pieces of information were purposely hidden from the audience. Because of this way of storytelling, I think the smart characters actually seemed very smart, because they surprised me even with the information that I had. We mostly knew what to expect from the characters in terms of their motives, but the specifics of how they decided to carry out their plots were usually not explained in detail to keep us interested.

I remember episode 30 was the episode where Ning Yi had taken the pill that would show black marks along his bloodlines. Wei Zhi did some quick thinking and put the medicine in everyone's drink so that everyone would have the black marks and Ning Yi wouldn't be implicated/framed. I was so impressed with everything that happened in this episode because all of the characters were just so smart and fast thinkers. This kind of smart thinking was what kept me hooked in the first 50 episodes. This sort of writing didn't really come back for the rest of the show because a majority of it took place outside of Dijing and there wasn't really any time to have any buildup of this calibre again.

Spoilers

Since this show was so long, and I was hardcore shipping Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi, I couldn't keep myself from looking this show up. Let me tell you, I came across a lot of spoilers.

However, in this show, it was always about the how and why and not the what. I found that even though I knew certain pieces of information, it was not easy to see how those pieces of information were revealed and then subsequently used.

I was extremely pleased to see that this was a show where spoilers couldn't hurt me lol.

Technical

Acting

The acting on all levels were superb. Of course, I had to give kudos to Ni Ni and Chen Kun. They were so amazing at bringing these characters to life. In particular, I wanted to shoutout Chen Kun for not being afraid to ugly cry.

Sets

There were only a dozen or so sets that were used for a large majority of this drama. However, I actually preferred it that way because we bonded with the locations. For example, over the course of many scenes, we got to see the actual layout of Fengyun Xuan, where the Emperor held his private court. There were several areas of the room where the Emperor could listen to hearings, work at a desk, play Go, or lie down for a rest. Given that many scenes were very lavish, I thought that it was worth it to see these scenes more rather than to give them just a glance.

Costumes

I thought the clothes were gorgeous. I thought Feng Zhiwei's female costumes suited her very well. In particular, I though the sheer fabric she often wore was a very nice touch. I can't recall seeing that in any other drama, and it's something that I'll now always associate with this show.

I've said this on my personal blog before, but to determine the quality of Chinese costumes, I like to examine the men's costumes. For the women, their clothes could be dressed up with pretty patterns or exquisite jewellery. However, for the men, their patterns were often plainer, and thus drew attention to the actual quality of the material.

The princes' and emperor's clothing were very luxurious looking without a doubt. I am also secretly a huge lover of men's hair ornaments, and some of them were terrific here.

Worldbuilding

I was actually pretty interested in some of the worldbuilding here. In this story, there were three main kingdoms of Dasheng, Jinshi, and Dayue.

Dasheng was where most of our story took place. I think it was based on a stylized version of the Tang Dynasty, and many of the customs were what we'd expect in most traditional Chinese period dramas.

Jinshi took inspiration from the northern tribes, such as the Turkic or Mongolian tribes. That being said, I thought the Jinshi sets were a little lacking in terms of glamour. But that's just my opinion.

As for Dayue, I felt it was more similar to Dasheng, but with an older tone, maybe like Han Dynasty. I'm just saying that because of Jin Siyu's clothes, probably. But anyway, his manor was pretty fun place. I liked the bridges and stuff. And also the contraptions lol.

Romance

I'm not usually a big fan of romance. As in, I wouldn't seek out stories in which romance was the main subject. In this story, romance was a subplot that eventually became the main plot.

While the romance was a subplot, I was a huge fan of the Feng Zhiwei x Ning Yi ship. What I liked about them was how they were both incredibly strong and smart characters on their own. However, when they were together, we got to see how differently they act, how much softer they were. This romance worked because the characters were already fleshed out on their own, and their romance only further enhanced their character.

One moment between the characters I liked was after Ning Yi tried to kiss Zhiwei after they'd narrowly avoided Shaoning's assassination attempt. Later, Ning Yi told Zhiwei that their relationship had to stay in the shadows. The thing is, Ning Yi was really open with his love and affection. I think what he was alluding to was the fact that while they were both political figures, they had to put their relationship second to their duties, but I think he still expressed his love to her whenever he could.

My favourite moment was when Ning Yi was going to depart Jinshi. Feng Zhiwei was going to give him the hairpin that she'd promised to make him while he was quarantined in Minhai. Ning Yi said that sometimes moving on is not the same as giving up, and he told Zhiwei to keep the hairpin. I think he wanted to tell her that while they couldn't be together (and he'd live his life knowing he couldn't marry her), he still loved her in his heart, and he would always help her. And I think he felt that Zhiwei was mature enough to be the same. This form of romance is something that I don't feel we see in media much anymore, with two people loving each other, but not spending every waking moment with each other. (As a disclaimer, I think the Cowherd and Weaver Girl is more romantic than the Butterfly Lovers, so that might be why I feel that way lol.)

I felt some interesting things were revealed when Zhiwei was brainwashed into thinking she was the consort of Jin Siyu. She had memories of being in love with a prince, but she couldn't remember the face, and had assumed it was Jin Siyu since he had made up that story. The thing is, Zhiwei was SO HAPPY when she thought that her beloved had married her. The emotions were so real and I feel dirty that Jin Siyu got to see them rather than Ning Yi, the man to whom those feelings were directed.

Characters

This section is going to be incredibly long, which is why I saved it for last lol.

Feng Zhiwei

For the longest time, I felt that Feng Zhiwei's story line was kind of aimless. I just couldn't tell what her goal was. Towards the end, however, I've come to hypothesize that her story is about survival. She was a child who was never supposed to survive. All of what she did was to stay alive. While Feng Hao and Qiu Mingying had first been captured, Feng Zhiwei had to hide at the academy. From then on, she had to do the Emperor's bidding to stay on his good side. After after her reveal as a princess of Dacheng, she had to go against Ning Yi, a representative of Dasheng, in order to stay alive.

Feng Zhiwei is extremely smart. In the beginning, she was far too rash (but also only 18 years old), but over the course of the show, she learned to operate effectively within the confines of bureaucracy. I would say that Feng Zhiwei was also a sympathetic person. She felt other's suffering, and after all the events of the story, it was too much guilt to know that she was the reason for that suffering, and that is why she decided killing herself would be the best way to achieve peace for everyone.

Feng Zhiwei's relationship with her mother was interesting. She knew that her mother was hiding things from her, and she respected that, but she also wanted the freedom to operate around that unknown information. For exampmle, her mother told her that she had to resign as an official because she didn't want Zhiwei to become too high profile, because her cover might get blown. For Feng Zhiwei, it was difficult to accept that she had to resign "just because her mother told her to." To her, it seemed a possible way of living and sustaining herself.

I think Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi fell in love over the course of their bickering. Nobody had ever been able to match Feng Zhiwei in terms of wit until Ning Yi. (This wasn't the case the other way around though, as Ning Yi grew up in a world of backstabbing and treachery.)

As mentioned above, Ni Ni was a great actress for this role. She managed to make Feng Zhiwei cute, beautiful, and smart, all without making Feng Zhiwei seem like a Mary Sue.

Ning Yi

As mentioned above, I think Ning Yi ended up being the main character of focus of this story.

As a character, he was very focused, which I admire for a show of this length. I was going to write a rant post on why the serial format of storytelling irks me (i.e. starting a story without knowing where it goes) but I didn't. But just know that I like that for most of the time, Ning Yi had direction. His main priorities throughout the show were (1) getting justice for his third brother and his mother, (2) keeping Feng Zhiwei alive to the best of his ability, and (3) being a just and good ruler. He lost sight of the third priority a bit when he decided to become a commoner, but I think he never lost sight of the fact that he wanted to live in a world where rules were just.

Ning Yi was also very smart, but he grew up in the royal family, and he was required to be smart to stay alive. He was sent on a mission to dispose of the former dynasty as an eight year old, which was of course ridiculous. (I also disagree with anybody who held eight-year-old Ning Yi accountable for actual political happenings.)

Despite being smart, Ning Yi was also a kind man. He wasn't kind to his family because as a royal, his family wasn't his family but rather his rivals and enemies. But he was kind to his allies, and those who'd shown him kindness in the past. While many of the princes gained allies through threatening them, Ning Yi gained allies by taking actions to help them and to show them that their well-being mattered. I mentioned this on my personal Tumblr, but to Ning Yi, this was a no-lose situation. He'd never lose anything by showing kindness, and the best thing that could happen would be that he'd gain an ally. Such was the case with allies like Gu Yan.

Ning Yi also had a very interesting way of dealing with plots against him. Even though he was smart enough to sense when something was awry, he would play it out. For example, if he knew someone had poisoned his food, he would always eat it and deal with the aftermath. My guess is that it would be easier to incriminate someone after they'd done the deed. This happened many times, and over time, I found it easier to understand his actions and his calculated risks. He was also always very task-oriented. It was always about getting the job done, and he could handle any fallout or repercussions for collateral damage.

Ning Yi clashed with Feng Zhiwei because she didn't approve of his ferocity. Their first argument over this topic was when Ning Yi intended to kill Ning Chuan, but Wei Zhi was tasked with protecting Shaoning. For Ning Yi, his top priority was always getting justice for his brother and mother, and so he was going to kill Ning Chuan no matter what. While he'd grown fond of Feng Zhiwei, he easily came to terms with the fact that he'd have to remove her if that was what was required to get his revenge.

Ning Yi did care for Feng Zhiwei a lot in his own way. As a prince, he was resigned to the fact that they would never live a happy domestic life. Before he knew of her oath not to marry him, he respected her wishes. The only thing he ever wanted for Feng Zhiwei was to stay alive, and I think he was consistent on this for most of the show. After Qiu Mingying and Feng Hao died, Feng Zhiwei swore a new oath not to marry Ning Yi. I think she did out of grief in anger. Despite that, I don't think Ning Yi stopped caring for her and hoping for her well-being.

Ning Yi first told Feng Zhiwei that he liked her when they were in Minhai. I think he surprised himself by saying that because he'd never thought that he'd be able to do normal commoner things, like telling the person they liked that they liked them.

Knowing that he didn't have much time with Feng Zhiwei on account of both of their duties, he always took the opportunity to flirt with her or to make her laugh. When they were on their way to Jinshi, Ning Yi pretended to hurt his leg. When Zhiwei pushed on his leg, he would make this fake groan, which in turn made Zhiwei giggle despite having been crying just moments before. These fun moments were some of my favourite.

I did feel that Chen Kun overacted a bit when he was playing a fool in front of his father. Other than that, I thought he was terrific in the romantic scenes, and I enjoyed him in the political scenes. As I mentioned above, I was pleased that he wasn't afraid to be an ugly actor, which I think made me take him a little more seriously in his scenes of grief.

Side note: I LOVED the scene when he pleaded with the emperor to have his mother back. The way he said it felt a little childish but that also proved the point that the emperor was extremely cruel for taking a mother away from her child, and knowingly keeping them apart for two decades.

Ning Shizheng

I was on board with Ning Shizheng being a stern but smart Emperor in the first half of the show, when Wei Zhi became close with him. We got to see him as a person when outside of political court (including his family). As he said, Wei Zhi was supposed to be his "orphaned advisor," with no political backing. As such, he was quite candid with Wei Zhi.

My opinion on Ning Shizheng changed dramatically during Feng Hao and Qiu Mingying's deaths. After Feng Hao died, he waved off Feng Zhiwei and Qiu Mingying to be executed so offhandedly that it was shocking to me.

I guess after that scene, I started to see the parts of the emperor that I didn't want to acknowledge. Like many emperors before him and many emperors that were to come, he had an ego and points of pride that he would never give up on. What came out of his mouth was right because he was the son of heaven.

He was temporarily angry with Ning Yi during the Dayue arc, after he'd fled solitary confinement and defied orders, so much to the point that he planned on passing on the throne to Ning Qi. I don't know what made him change his mind to pass on the throne back to Ning Yi.

Ning Shizheng not dying in the end also surprised me. However, he was on the receiving end of some choice words for Feng Zhiwei. As emperor, he caused much pain for Feng Zhiwei and that was something that was not forgiveable. Ning Shizheng tried to explain to Zhiwei that this was what being the Emperor did to people. While he may be right, that still didn't remove the pain from Feng Zhiwei's heart.

Anyway, I really hated this character towards the end, but he still felt human to me. In his heart, there were things that he knew were right, but there were also things that he was really stubborn about.

Zhao Yuan

Zhao Yuan reminded me a bit of the eunuch who personally served the Emperor in Nirvana in Fire. Both were seen as people who were sympathetic to the protagonists.

I liked Zhao Yuan. He was an old kind grandpa. He was a bit stern and hard on himself, but I think that was because it was what he expected of an old'un like himself. He flagellated himself when he realized he'd been wearing a ring laced with poison and was accidentally poisoning the emperor when making his tea. And we also saw him disciplining his underlings in line with the laws.

I think he truly cared for the emperor's well-being. The emperor would say or do things out of anger, but Zhao Yuan recognized the things that would truly make him happy or healthy. For example, he was always mindful of the curse that tied Ning Yi and Ning Shizheng's lives together. He also tried to calm down the emperor in an attempt to stop him from doing anything rash that he would regret (such as actions that would hurt Yale despite their love-hate relationship).

Near the beginning of the show, I remember there being a scene in which Zhao Yuan was putting pressure on Ning Chuan because Ning Chuan was stepping out of line and hurting his family. I thought it was interesting that Zhao Yuan was flexing a bit of political muscle because eunuchs are supposed to be only servants. But as we know in history, eunuchs have often amassed plenty of power themselves.

Zhao Yuan was also incredibly sympathetic to Ning Yi. I think it was maybe just that Ning Yi was good-natured as a child.

Zhao Yuan, good grandpa: 10/10.

Ning Chuan

Our first big bad villain of the show. The thing is, he wasn't that scary because he was pretty rash and a little too proactive. His main backer was Chang Hai, who was kind of seen as the less competent of the Chang brothers. Honestly the only thing he had going for him was that he was the eldest son of the empress, and therefore had first dibs on the position of Crown Prince.

He was in solitary confinement but decided to have one last go to get the throne (after some egging on from Chang Hai). However, Ning Yi was out for blood. Ning Chuan had killed Ning Qiao and Ning Yi needed to exact his revenge.

Shaoning

I'm really glad that a princess character was included in this show. Too often in court political dramas are princesses ignored. Instead, the major female characters with power tend to be the consorts.

At first, I found Shaoning INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. She'd never been criticized in her life (being the only princess and therefore the apple of her father's eye), so when Wei Zhi pointed out that her answer was dumb (after Shaoning had condescended her), Shaoning's only retort was to HIT WEI ZHI?!?!?!?! Anyway, this annoyed me quite a bit.

During the course of Ning Chuan's downfall, Shaoning and Wei Zhi grew close because Wei Zhi was the only one who seemed to check in on her. I thought it was very interesting that Shaoning would try to use Wei Zhi to get back at Ning Yi and despite that, Wei Zhi would still try to maintain a professional relationship with Shaoning (because there was no reason to be on her bad side). Their relationship was severed when Wei Zhi was revealed to be a girl. Knowing Shaoning, I bet she felt completely humiliated.

Though I was excited that there was a princess character, Shaoning was unfortunately very easily used as a pawn. She was quite young, and all that was on her mind was that her brother had been killed by Ning Yi. She very willingly helped Ning Sheng and Ning Qi in their plots against Ning Yi. Unfortunately, the latter was extremely cold and killed Shaoning and pinned it on Ning Yi, knowing that their father loved Shaoning dearly.

I saw Shaoning as a really tragic character. In the end, I found that I didn't hate her, but rather just pitied her because her hate for Ning Yi seemed to cloud her judgment. After a while, it just felt like it wasn't about revenge for Ning Chuan anymore, but getting back at Ning Yi.

Side note: It confused me for a long time why Shaoning would be her name. I was like "...but her last name is Ning??" I had to go on Wikipedia to find out that her actual name was Ning Zhao and her title was Shaoning Gongzhu/Princess Shaoning. So that cleared things up.

Consort Chang

She was a pretty convincing villain. In one of my Tumblr posts, I commented that for Consort Chang, it was more about power and control than anything more concrete, which made her a little more scary. I mean, if Ning Sheng became emperor, she would become the Empress Dowager which was pretty powerful. However, I think just having the power that she had in the Imperial Harem over other Consorts made her plenty happy.

We first saw a crack in her armour when she'd gotten a tip that someone had snuck into Yale/Yanfei's old manor. It was actually Ning Yi (and Feng Zhiwei). Chang Guifei took a peek and saw Ning Yi speaking with "the ghost of Yale," which was really just Feng Zhiwei acting. She left immediately, incredibly rattled. Ning Sheng tried to convince her that it was just Ning Yi playing tricks. The thing is, I think that Consort Chang was probably smart enough to know that it wasn't actually Yale's ghost. I think she was maybe more afraid knowing that Ning Yi was concretely looking for revenge for his mother's death. And Chang Guifei knew that Ning Yi was capable of uncovering her crimes.

Chang Guifei and Ning Shizheng had an interesting relationship. They acted like a loving couple, but they were enemies because Ning Shizheng didn't like that the Chang clan had so much power. However, Chang Guifei instead had her son take the hit when trying to switch out the imperial will.

In the end, Chang Guifei pleaded with the emperor to exchange Ning Sheng's life for her own. Ning Shizheng said that at that point, Chang Guifei seemed more like a mother than she did before, implying that she was responsible for leading Ning Sheng on the dangerous road of treason against his own father.

I found out that Chang Guifei's actor was actually younger than Ning Sheng, but I didn't notice that at all during the show. I'm not saying that Chang Guifei looked old, because she doesn't. She just has a very mature look, and there's something about her face that reminds me of a past era (like a traditional-looking kind of face). In addition, her mannerisms were very befitting of a wise, sly, and glamorous consort. So I think this actress in addition to her look, was very convincing in her acting.

Ning Sheng

I thought he was a pretty interesting villain because of how chill he was. As I mentioned, he was content with just letting his brothers mess up on their own. As long as he maintained the status quo and didn't do anything particularly treasonous or questionable, he was in the clear.

Unfortunately, the emperor's trip of the imperial wills caused the Chang Clan to panic. As the Chang clan member with the most power, he was responsible for acting in the Chang Clan's favour. He was supposed to be executed but his mother died on his behalf. Instead he was put into solitary confinement.

At first, Ning Sheng was sure that his uncle Chang Yuan would save him. Ning Qi was the one to break the news to him that Chang Yuan was dead, and that broke Ning Sheng. I guess he never thought that he'd actually stay in solitary confinement forever until then. As to why Ning Qi drew Ning Sheng out of solitary confinement, it was to eliminate all of the competition. As long as Ning Sheng, a son of Ning Shizheng was still alive, he was always a threat, bound by his bloodline. When Ning Sheng came out of solitary confinement, he just wanted to see his father. At that point in his life, he literally had no one else. His mother and all of the Chang Clan were gone, so he turned to his father to look for familial love. Unfortunately, he died before he got it :(

Ning Yan

He was a minor villain in the first arc. He wasn't very bright, which was why he was so easily tricked by Xin Ziyan and the "sorcerer" and his magic bird that called him the Crown Prince.

Consort Wang

Consort Wang was a lowly consort. She only came onto the emperor's radar when he decided to call Ning Qi back to court. She was a very kind and sincere person. Her servant had said that she'd warm her bed every night for years just in case the emperor came.

Wang Cairen hadn't seen her son in many many years and so their reunion was an emotional one. After the bloodshet with Ning Yan and Ning Chuan, Consort Wang advised her son not to get involved with the political struggles. Unfortunately for her, he did not listen.

Years ago, Wang Cairen had been involved in framing Yanfei and it was something that she still felt guilty about. Ning Yi had tried to get her to admit her wrongdoing in an attempt to expose Chang Guifei's crimes, but she never gotten around to admitting it.

It was interesting that despite Consort Wang's kind nature, Ning Qi didn't heed any of it and continued with his treacherous plan. He did his best to hide all of his misdeeds from his mother. In the end, she felt that her son was a kind boy who had just erred a little. This angered Xin Ziyan because Ning Qi had taken from him, and so Xin Ziyan killed Wang Cairen in anger.

After Wang Cairen's death, Ning Qi tried to get justice for her. He was angry that his father seemed only to care for Yale, but Ning Shizheng denied it, saying that if he didn't love Wang Cairen, then Ning Qi would not have gotten to where he was. I think Ning Shizheng admired that Consort Wang was gentle and pure in her own way. She had minimal interaction with court politics and preferred to keep it that way. She was the little bit of purity in the Palace. Ning Yi acknowledged that Consort Wang was somebody who didn't deserve to die, and he said that he'd be willing to observe a three year mourning period.

I'm going to say it: I thought Consort Wang looked far too young, and I was right. I looked up her age and she was the same age as Ning Qi. The difference between her and Consort Chang was that for Consort Wang, I could actually see it. Her face was rather young-looking, and I found it really hard to convince myself that she was Ning Qi's mother and not his sister.

Ning Qi

During the Ning Sheng arc, Ning Qi tended to lurk behind. He had what I'd called "resting smiling face," and it seemed like he was enjoying the struggles between Ning Yi and Ning Sheng. Little did I know that he wanted in on the action.

Despite both his mother and wife being such kind-hearted and mild-mannered women, Ning Qi got a lust for power. I wasn't exactly sure when this came around. In any case he went along the same route as Ning Yi, first playing the fool and the gaining his father's trust. I covered his actions above, about how he first neutralized his father's trusted advisors, and then replacing them with his own.

I think his weakness was that he had the same paranoia as Ning Chuan. Getting his father's favour wasn't all he was after. He also needed to remove all of the competition, including Ning Sheng who was in solitary confinement, Shaoning who didn't really have a claim to the throne being a girl, Ning Yi who'd given up his royal status to be a commoner with his mother, and Ning Ji just because he was the emperor's son. That is what set him apart from Ning Yi and that was a sore spot for Ning Shizheng too. Ning Shizheng had lost too many children and the prophecy that he'd lose all of his children but one seemed to become truer and truer by the day.

I think Ning Shizheng was blinded by his frustration that Ning Yi was not following orders, and that was why he was leaning towards giving Ning Qi the throne. I think he only started to realize he'd been blinded when the kidnapping of mothers event came around. That was when he realized that his son would do anything for the throne, despite swearing that he wouldn't hurt his brothers.

Ning Qi tried to his frame his brothers with treason, with the help of Huofeng. I don't think he ever found out that they were actually loyalists of Dacheng. After his frame job went awry, he went into hiding, with only Yueling by his side. Yueling kept fuelling the thought that Ning Qi had a claim to the throne and that drove him mad. In the end, Yijun helped to bring Ning Qi back to court. Ning Qi had pretty much gone mad, but Ning Shizheng wasn't going to kill another of his kids, so he sent him to solitary confinement. A tragic end, but I thought his character was very interesting because of how formidable and just plain scary he became.

Yijun

Yijun married Ning Qi when Ning Qi was still living at the border. She knew Ning Qi before he became power hungry. I'd argue that she knew him better than his own mother, seeing as how Ning Qi let his mother when he was very young.

Yijun was a simple, kind, and sincere lady who loved her husband. She understood that her husband had committed grave crimes, and knew he had to be brought to justice. She didn't mind joining him in whatever punishment he'd receive because she loved him.

Yijun deserved better ;(

Ning Ji

A marshmallow!!!!!!

We didn't really see much of Ning Ji for much of the story to be honest. He just appeared briefly in the academy and then briefly in court. He only really came into the story when he started seeking Ning Yi's guidance after Ning Sheng had died and he didn't feel comfortable looking to Ning Qi for help.

After the fight between Xin Ziyan and Ning Yi, Xin Ziyan decided his only option was to train Ning Ji into the next Crown Prince. The thing was, while Ning Ji wasn't as sharp-witted as Ning Yi, he was still smart enough to know that Ning Yi was the most suited to become the next Emperor. During Ning Qi's treason, he also knew he couldn't fight off an army but would die doing what he could to protect his father and his older brother.

In the end, he willingly submitted to Ning Yi as the new ruler.

The way I see it, all the learning at the academy did him good. He told Xin Ziyan that he liked to learn so that he could become wise, and it seemed that he did become wise enough to be able to see things from a perspective that others his age would not be able to do so.

Yale

Though Yale was introduced as a character very late in the story, we'd seen quite a bit in flashbacks and anecdotes to have some understanding of the kind of person she was. Before we'd met Yale, I felt that she was a kind mother and someone who was upright and a bit proud. In the scenes in which she was being accused of treason, she just took it because there was nothing she could do to refute that. But she would not roll over and plead for her life.

When we first saw Yale in person , we saw that she was miserable in solitary confinement. The only person who'd get to visit her was the emperor, and there's no reason to think that she'd like him anymore, after cutting her off from her son for 20 years.

Due to Ning Yi's pledge that he'd give up royal status, she was reunited with her son, and despite their limited time, I still think it taught Ning Yi worthwhile lessons. Yale understood that there was something missing in Ning Yi's heart, despite him being very happy with his new family. She urged him that as a member of the Riluo Tribe, they had a duty to be brave.

She was kidnapped for by the Fenghuobang (on behalf of Ning Qi), and then kidnapped/rescued by Gu Nanyi. Throughout this time, I think she did some thinking and realized that she'd be an anchor for Ning Yi, that as long as he had enemies (in all shapes and forms, as she said), then she'd be used against him. So I think she didn't mind dying if it meant allowing her son to be brave and to live life without regrets.

Lingying

I didn't think Lingying was going to be as important of a character as she was. While not technically an "important" character, she was major in advancing the plot. At first, Ning Yi just really wanted to get her to safety because she'd been a big part of raising him and he just wanted to be with her. But later on, it was Lingying who revealed to Ning Yi that Yale was actually alive, which prompted Ning Yi to finish the deed in Dayue as soon as possible so he could get home and rescue his mother.

Zhanbi

Zhanbi was someone from Jinshi who loved Yale. He was used by Ning Sheng to lure Ning Yi into a trap. And later, Ning Yi used a token from Zhanbi to get a favour done for him while in Jinshi.

Gu Yan

I love him a lot. He's like a nice uncle.

Gu Yan was a part of the last dynasty. He yielded to Dasheng but for that, he'd be seen as an outsider forever. As a part of the last dynasty, it'd make sense that some people in the current dynasty would be skeptical of him. In addition, his sister-in-law Qiu Mingying didn't see him as trustworthy because of his betrayal.

Throughout the show, Gu Yan was an investigator of sorts for the emperor, but also a military force. I'm not sure what their actual duties were though.

Ning Yi gained his loyalty when he helped Gu Yan look for his family. Ning Yi couldn't find much, but he'd gained respect for Ning Yi. He later became a part of the group of Ning Yi supporters who protected him while he was away from Dijing.

In the end, Ning Yi included Gu Yan as one of his most trusted military personnel. While his wife and child would never be brought back to life, he's one of those characters who I hope live the rest of his lives in peace.

Edit: Okay, I didn't know until I looked up on Chinese Wikipedia that Gu Yan is Gu Nanyi's dad??!?!?!?! What??!?!?!?! After doing some more digging, apparently this was made clearer in the novel, but I'm pretty confused why they didn't introduce this in the story. Holy crap. I feel like it would've added another dimension to both Gu Yan and Gu Nanyi.

Xin Ziyan

Xin Ziyan had the biggest bromance with Ning Yi until their big fight. Xin Ziyan was tecnically the headmaster of the academy, but he was also an advisor to the emperor. He appeared political neutral in front of the emperor though so he didn't know that he was actually allied with Ning Yi.

Xin Ziyan was such a fun character because of how slightly odd he was. By slightly odd I mean he liked to speak casually with the emperor. Actually, the emperor was attuned to his antics and I dare say he even enjoyed them sometimes. I remember one time Xin Ziyan kept going around in circles and circles and the emperor told him to just spit out what it was he wanted to ask. In addition, I thought it was fun that Xin Ziyan had his just hangin' out hair, which was his loose ponytail, and his business hair, which was up in a proper topknot.

Xin Ziyan was also a loving husband. Yes, he did like to go to Lanxiang Yuan a lot, but I really think it was just because he liked hanging out with smart ladies who were also nice to look at. In the end, we saw that he actually got along quite well with his wife who was not so demure and submissive. He was also kind and caring of his sisters-in-law, and we saw how heartbroken he was at the loss of Erhua and his unborn child.

Throughout the show, I think he was a little peeved that Ning Yi was so concerned with Feng Zhiwei, who was supposed to be a pawn. Many times, he'd urged Ning Yi to let go of her. But in the end, I think he realized that his attempts were in vain, and when he'd received the emperor's edict to stop Feng Zhiwei's execution, he was so excited to give it to Ning Yi and hurried him out of Dijing to stop it.

After the death of Erhua and his child, he was out for blood, and he visited Ning Yi to strategize. At that time, Ning Yi was with his mother and the rest of his close friends having a family meal. It was like getting stabbed in the heart. Xin Ziyan and Ning Yi got into a fight because Xin Ziyan felt it was the time to attack Ning Qi, whereas Ning Yi was done.

Over the last few episodes, they kind of came around. Kind of. As we see, Ning Yi finally came around to realizing that he could have a profound effect if he were the ruler. But Xin Ziyan was unwilling to take the position of vice-prime minister. At the time of his refusal, I think he was just really demoralized about court politics.

When Ning Qi was brought to the emperor in the very end, Xin Ziyan admitted that he'd killed Wang Cairen. He then asked Ning Yi to exact punishment. The thing is, according to the law, I think he'd have to be executed. The thing is, Ning Yi's ruling philosophy was always that punishments had to be dealt regardless of who the person doing the crime was. So I have a feeling that Xin Ziyan wanted Ning Yi to execute him so he could be done with this cruel world :(

I though Zhao Lixin was a great actor. He made Xin Ziyan a really charming fellow, both a family man as well as a thoughtful advisor.

Peng Pei

He was first an advisor for Ning Sheng and then for Ning Qi. After his cooperation with Ning Sheng was discovered, he was demoted to a prison offier. That was where he discovered a curious person by the name of Feng Hao.

I guess he did hate Ning Yi a little bit for bringing down his plot, and that was why he decided to present Feng Hao to Ning Qi He was with Ning Qi until the very end, I'll give him that. But it seems this guy had the misfortune to always be on the wrong side.

Yao Ying

Yao Ying was a minister who was allied with Ning Yi. At first, I thought he was just a kindly old grandpa. After a court meeting that Ning Yi didn't attend, Yao Ying went over to Chuwang manor to have a snack and to catch up Ning Yi with what happened. In addition, when Wei Zhi was summoned to present the imperial will that was given to him, Yao Ying was kind of looking out for him.

In the end, he was also part of the group of advisors who wanted to protect Ning Yi when he was entering Dijing, coming from Dayue.

Yao Yangyu

We first met Yao Yangyu as a student at the Qingming Academy. At first, he was supposed to be a sort of rich, good-for-nothing kid. He gambled all the time and had no respect for authority. Wei Zhi gained his respect by speaking in a language that he understood, through connecting with their hobbies.

After Wei Zhi was revealed to be Feng Zhiwei, he continued to respect her as an authority figure. Combined with his father being allied with Ning Yi, he became a trusted man by our protagonists.

When Ning Yi first ascended to the throne, we saw that Yao Yangyu was one of his court officials. I think he'd follow in his father's footsteps as a minister.

Yao Ying's daughter

I forgot her name, but I wanted to mention her. She was betrothed to Ning Sheng. During the evening dinner, the princes and the visiting ladies played a game. The emperor had a question, and the princes had to prepare an answer. The ladies would pick an answer at random (it might be their next husband!) and then try to explain it.

Yao Ying's daughter picked a word and it happened to be Ning Sheng's word, and she explained it. However, she said she was curious and asked the emperor to let her pick another word. It was the same word. as the one before.

So I think Yao Ying's daughter was a sharp girl too. Too bad we never saw her again.

Chunyu Hong & Chunyu Meng

These were a pair of generals (father & son) who were loyal to Ning Yi. I believe Chunyu Meng was another student at Qingming academy. Anyway, I just wanted to note them down because I didn't want to forget these two characters.

Qiu Mingying

I wasn't expecting Qiu Mingying to be as aggressive of a character as she was, because I was used to Liu Mintao as Consort Jing in Nirvana in Fire. However, I thought Qiu Mingying was an equally interesting character.

Qiu Mingying was the wife of Gu Heng, who was the head of Xuefutu. This organization was tasked with protecting the members of the royal family. After she'd given birth to twins, one of them was switched out for Feng Zhiwei so that a decoy would be used as the ningth child of Dacheng.

Qiu Mingying's relationship with her daughter was really interesting and one I'd never seen portrayed in media before. I think that Qiu Mingying really wanted to hate Feng Zhiwei. After all, her own child died for this child that she had no relation with. However, over time, she of course felt love for the child. She often sighed while speaking to Zong Chen, saying that now she loved the child as her own. She also insisted to Zong Chen not to force Feng Zhiwei to take up the responsibility of Dacheng. She wanted Feng Zhiwei to be happy more than she cared about Feng Zhiwei being successful or even Dacheng.

As I mentioned above, Qiu Mingying kept her secrets from her child. Despite these secrets, they still loved each other. But I think that many parental relationship are like this to some degree, with parents keeping secrets from their kids, believing that it's for their own good.

I was surprised that Qiu Mingying had limited interactions with the emperor. I would've thought that they'd had at least a few charged conversations but they'd only met twice, the first time in prison and the second time at the execution where Feng Zhiwei was to take the poisoned wine. It was just a little disappointing to me given that Qiu Mingying seemed like a pretty authoritative figure.

As mentioned, Qiu Mingying really wanted to hate Feng Zhiwei and I think that is why she decided that Feng Zhiwei would take the poisoned wine as part of the deal to keep Feng Hao alive. Days before that, Qiu Mingying had already taken a poison pill, so she'd intended on dying anyway. When Feng Zhiwei took the wine, Qiu Mingying's reflexes kicked in and she pushed Feng Zhiwei away, only to have Feng Hao take the wine. I think she never expected Feng Zhiwei to take the wine, nor had she expected it to be such a painful thought to her. In the end, Qiu Mingying told Zhiwei that she had to live.

Feng Hao

At first, I hated Feng Hao because of how he couldn't read the situation. He had none of his mother's smarts and just couldn't keep up. He didn't understand when his mother and sister were doing important things and just cared about the short term benefits.

After he "found out" that he was the Prince of Dacheng, he was kind of pushed off kilter. First, he was in panic mode, and just wanted to stay alive no matter what happened.

On their way to see the emperor, Feng Hao commented on how nice the palace was, and how it might've been somewhere he would've grown up. Though that wasn't terribly out of character for the usual Feng Hao, I thought that that might've been his coping mechanism as well. I think making bad jokes was the only way he could cope with knowing that his family wasn't his family and that his true family had been killed disastrously.

In the end, Feng Hao took the poisoned wine and told his mother and sister not to hide anything from him again. I think he realized that his mother and sister had a special connection, and I think he was often annoying to Feng Zhiwei because he just didn't like that he didn't understand what was going on between them. However, at this point, I think he also realized that he was maybe being dead weight for his mother who'd been burdened with taking care of the Prince of Dacheng, as well as Feng Zhiwei, who he thought was a commoner who'd lost a sibling. So I think he knew he wasn't smart, and that maybe killing himself would give his family a way out without him as dead weight.

Zong Chen

Zong Chen assumed the leadership of Xuefutu/Bloody Pagoda, who were responsible for protecting the royal family of Dacheng. He answered to Qiu Mingying as the wife of the previous leader Gu Heng.

I think he cared for Feng Zhiwei like an uncle (after all, she didn't see him as anything other than her mom's friend). After Qiu Mingying's death, I think he came to respect Qiu Mingying's wish not to force Zhiwei if she didn't want to bring back Dacheng.

That being said, he still answered to Dacheng, which was why he was involved with Zhangsun Hong, which cost him his life in th end.

Gu Nanyi

Gu Nanyi was Zong Chen's student who was assigned to protect Feng Zhiwei. At first, he was kind of a robot who didn't really know how to act like a normal human. This involved normal human conversations and such things as "acting casual." Over time, he came to care for Zhiwei, since Zhiwei made an effort to be inclusive. Gu Nanyi said he'd never had a family and she decided that since they were always together, there was no reason they couldn't be family.

Gu Nanyi started having more of a personality and more agency during the Dayue arc, when he was separated from Zhiwei. He posed as a doctor to get into Jin Siyu's palace. When Zong Chen died by Ning Cheng's hand, that's when Gu Nanyi really started having his own agency. He took the opportunity to rescue Yale and to exchange her for Ning Cheng, as he felt he had to kill Ning Cheng for revenge. However, he'd expressed once that he didn't want to kill Ning Cheng as he'd saved Zhiwei once (and was thus a friend).

His conversations with Yale were the first time we really found out what Gu Nanyi was thinking inside his brain. He felt confused and frustrated with all of these political struggles between Dacheng and Dasheng. He didn't really understand why he was fighting for things that he didn't know much about, and yet everyone around him was suffering. In the end, he bonded with Yale, and I think he felt some guilt for her death.

I'm a huge Bai Jingting fan, but I admit that Gu Nanyi was a bit boring at first. Just in that he didn't have any role other than being Feng Zhiwei's muscle and looking pretty.

Nanyi's motto with regards to Zhiwei was that "wherever she was, he'd be there too." This was endearing at first, but it got kind of annoying and overused towards the end when Zhiwei was running from place to place. What I'm saying it we could've used with it being explicitly mentioned a little less.

As mentioned in Gu Yan's section, I only found out (like, a few minutes ago) that Gu Nanyi was Gu Yan's child (and therefore Feng Hao's cousin). I thought it was curious that they didn't introduce that, but I suppose we could chalk it up to there not being enough time in the story. I really felt that we could see new sides to these two characters though, with Nanyi reconnecting with a family he never knew, and Gu Yan connecting to his family that he longed for. I mean, it's clear that Gu Yan longed for his kids. Maybe we can hope for that now post-main story, since Nanyi would no longer tied to Zong Chen or Zhiwei, and can find his own purpose.

Yan Huaishi

A really great bro. He first met Wei Zhi at Qingming Academy. He wasn't allowed in because he appeared to rich-like. After he got in (by trading for shabbier clothes), he tried to become friends with Wei Zhi. Wei Zhi refused his advances but then he told Wei Zhi that he knew he wasn't a man. At first, I thought Huaishi was going to blackmail Zhiwei, but it turns out he really was just trying to look out for a friend.

Over time, Huaishi became a very trusted advisor of Huaishi, and I admire that for him. We don't see enough of platonic relationships like this and I'm glad that they could have such a deep and important working relationship.

In the end, Zhiwei asked Huaishi to take the remaining members of the Fenghuobang back with him to Minhai to live peacefully. He felt really honoured that she would entrust this very important matter to him. The final goodbye between Huaishi and Zhiwei and Nanyi was really something special. These three had been through so much/

Qiu Shangqi

Qiu Shangqi was Qiu Mingying's older brother. Long ago, she'd begged him to let her live with him. He'd refused after being pressured by his wives, only for Feng Zhiwei to publicly shame the family, thus forcing them to take in Qiu Mingying and the two kids.

Initially, I felt that Qiu Shangqi saw Qiu Mingying as nuisances. We'd never seen him show any level of care whatsoever to the family. The first time we saw him show any care to Qiu Mingying was when discussing politics with her. He knew Qiu Mingying was hiding a child of Dacheng. At first, he wanted her to make a run for it. After he realized that she wouldn't, then he faced Ning Qi together with her and stated that he'd be willing to suffer punishment too.

In the end, he was sent into exile far away by the emperor for his crime of knowingly hiding a child of Dacheng.

I'd wished that he'd had a final goodbye with Qiu Mingying. He was the one who'd discovered that Wei Zhi was Feng Zhiwei. While he was angry with it at first, I think he came to soften his stance. And in the end, despite his hesitation, he decided he'd stand with Qiu Mingying and her family. So I wonder if he'd had anything to say in a final farewell to Feng Zhiwei.

Madame Qiu

Qiu Shangqi's wife. She didn't have a big role. She was kind of a damsel, not really the smartest in the house.

Yuhua

Yuhua was a concubine of Qiu Shangqi. She was called "Wu Yiniang," So I guess Qiu Shangqi had four other concubines?

Yuhua liked to bully Qiu Mingying. Qiu Mingying would take it, probably because she wanted to stay low-key and needed a place to live. Feng Zhiwei hated the condescension and would pick fights with Yuhua. As for Feng Hao, he was none the wiser. Sometimes Yuhua would kidnap him to mess with Qiu Mingying and Feng Zhiwei, but he thought she was just taking him out to have fun.

She did some snooping and believed that Feng Hao and Feng Zhiwei were not actually twins. This set Qiu Mingying off because she couldn't have anybody even joking about that, as it would raise their profile. So Qiu Mingying did something rash and killed Yuhua. This set off the events of the entire story.

Qiu Yuluo

Yuluo was Qiu Shangqi's daughter, and Feng Zhiwei's cousin. Originally, she was betrothed to Ning Yi. The family didn't want that so they sent Feng Zhiwei's information instead (for fortune-telling and checking matchmaking compatibility). As we know, the marriage was eventually revoked (even though Qiu Shangqi saw that Ning Yi had become quite competent).

Yuluo was shown to be not very savvy. When she first saw Ning Yi, she was all over him, which was rude to do to a prince. As well, she was often teased by Feng Zhiwei and Feng Hao because her spoiled personality made it really easy to do so.

Zhuyin

Zhuyin was a courtesan at Lanxiang Yuan. Feng Zhiwei first met her when she came to entertain Qiu Shangqi at his house. After Qiu Mingying and Feng Hao were kidnapped, Feng Zhiwei hid with Zhuyin at the courtesans' house for a bit.

Zhuyin was working with Ning Yi to get justice for the treason case against Ning Qiao. Her parents had died as a result of being implicated wrongfully in treason. She was able to obtain information because the Crown Prince liked to visit Lanxiang Yuan quite often.

In the end, Zhuyin was killed by Chang Hai while trying to hide Feng Zhiwei. She took her chances and tried to kill him while they were alone together, but the plan backfired. I was quite surprised that she would die so early on, because I felt that she was a great ally for both Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi. Zhuyin's death was used as a motive for Zhiwei to continue to work hard in court to get justice though, so that may have been a reason (albeit a weak one) to kill her off.

Young Horse Groom

While at the academy, Wei Zhi stood up for a horse groom when Shaoning bullied her. Wei Zhi got nosy because his level of fighting was not low. She later realized that he was part of Xuefutu/Bloody Pagoda.

Their friendship was short lived, but the young horse groom was inspired to stand up for himself so he no longer had to live in the shadow of the Crown Prince.

I felt that the friendship was slightly forced because it happened over such short a time period and also we never found out that much about him. But I still thought this mini arc about Feng Zhiwei discovering the Bloody Pagoda was interesting.

Dahua

Dahua was Xin Ziyan's wife. She was opiniatied and feisty, which might seem annoying at first, but complemented Ziyan's personality very well. She always supported Ziyan in all his endeavours.

Her child with Ziyan died in childbirth, and soon after she woke she found out that Erhua had died, so she went through tough times.

If Ziyan really wanted to be put to death for his murder of Consort Wang, I wonder what would happen to Dahua. Or if something happened to Dahua for Ziyan to wish death upon himself. He loved Dahua so I don't think he'd just abandon her :(

Erhua

Erhua was so great. She went on missions for Xin Ziyan. First, she saved Feng Hao out of jail, and later on, she went undercover to check out the slave market and Fenghuobang.

Unfortunately, she died because guards had orders from Ning Qi to kill her if Xin Ziyan left his home to conduct business, which she did :(

Before Feng Hao died, he asked Xin Ziyan for Erhua's hand in marriage. It was short lived, but I'd like to think those two would get along nicely. Maybe Erhua can see him in the afterlife, as well as her unborn niece/nephew :(

Helian Zheng

Apparently this guy was the obligatory love triangle character.

He first fell in love with Feng Zhiwei when he was being a rude ass in the streets of Dasheng and only Feng Zhiwei told him off. He later found her in court as Wei Zhi and messed with her by asking Chuwang about getting her hand with marriage.

Heliang Zheng stayed in Dasheng throughout the first few arcs but just as a bystander. When Qiu Mingying and Feng Hao died, he stayed with Feng Zhiwei and tried to cheer her up. Feng Zhiwei acknowledged that Helian Zheng was there for her when Ning Yi was not.

Heliang Zheng got more focused when Zhiwei agreed to marry him to get out of Dasheng. When he married Zhiwei, he said that he wouldn't force Zhiwei into loving him, or anything of that sort. However, over time, he did get frustrated with how concerned Zhiwei was with Ning Yi. I would too, but he kind of didn't have a chance. He himself said he thought he'd be married to Shaoning.

When we got to Jinshi we found out that he briefly had a thing going on with Liu Meiduo, but that now he'd found his true love. That melodrama was something I could do without to be honest, but it didn't take long for that entire storyline to be finished.

Helian Zheng agreed to work with Fenghuobang. They wanted to push Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi apart so that Zhiwei would be hateful enough to bring back Dacheng. For Helian Zheng, it was an opportunity for him to truly win Feng Zhiwei's heart. He pointed a blunt-headed arrow at Zhiwei, which prompted Ning Yi to shoot back in defense. While Helian Zheng didn't die at first, Yueling came by and stabbed him real good.

Looking at this entire character, I felt like I could've done without him to be honest. Every time he was around, I just felt kind of a headache, you know? Romantic melodrama is totally my thing and it seemed his story lines almost only involved that because of his unrequited love for Zhiwei.

Ning Cheng

Ning Cheng was Ning Yi's trusted bodyguard. My guess was that he was adopted into Ning Yi's household as a child and given the surname Ning to signify him joining the family.

When Ning Yi left for Minhai, Ning Cheng wanted to go with him. Ning Cheng said he'd never been apart from Ning Yi for three days, and it broke my heart that Ning Cheng was shedding tears. Ning Yi told Ning Cheng that he was grown now, and how to do adult duties. Ning Cheng eventually joined Ning Yi anyway lol.

Ning Cheng got himself on Gu Nanyi's hit list after he killed Zong Chen. Ning Cheng was willing to take the hit but everything kind of got evened out after Nanyi inadvertently got Yale killed.

After Ning Yi became emperor, Ning Cheng took on Gu Yan's old position as the leader of the Jinyuwei. I admit his actions after this point were a little reckless. He was a little more than happy to cut down dissenters, and this caused some more animosity between him and Feng Zhiwei and Gu Nanyi.

Overall, I liked this character, but I think he suffered from bad writing in the last few episodes when miscommunication was a writing tool that was used way too often.

Ning Qing & Ning Zhuo

They were two of Ning Yi's other bodyguards. They were often sent by Ning Yi to do their bidding. Also reliable bros.

Wu Ying

Wu Ying was originally a spy sent by the emperor. He was caught snooping around a lot until one day Ning Yi finally told him what he was up to, about how he wished to achieve justice. The speech was very inspiring to Wu Ying and he decided that he'd serve Ning Yi wholeheartedly.

Afterwards, Wu Ying became a trusted servant of Chuwang manor.

Chen Shao

He was the pirate who was hired by Chang Yuan to do some dirty work. Ning Yi originally asked him to be a witness in shedding light on Chang Yuan's crimes. However, Chang Yuan had threatened him, and Chen Shao had to retract. However, Ning Yi let Chen Shao go, understanding that he probably he people he needed to protect.

Chang Yuan

Chang Yuan was the older brother of the Chang Clan and therefore the leader. He was alluded to often but we didn't see him until he was summoned to court. That was when Ning Yi tried to incriminate Chang Yuan by presenting Chen Shao's witness, only to have it backfire. (Side note: I love it when we see protagonists have these bad one-offs in court political dramas. It shows that sometimes their strategies don't always work, but they can learn to adapt and work in light of their previously failed strategy).

The thing is, when Zhiwei and Ning Yi went to Minhai, Chang Yuan was already becoming senile. This was surprising to me as I thought he'd be the big bad villain in Minhai. He refused to side with Ning Yi and he didn't seem to have any other ambition, so he was killed by his own son.

So he ended up being a little underwhelming as a villain. The actor for Chang Yuan was one of the major villains in the Longest Day in Chang'an so I'd inadvertently expected him to be just as evil in this show, but it didn't materialize.

Chang Hai

Chang Hai was the other uncle of the Chang Clan. He backed Ning Chuan. However, he didn't seem to have anything else going for him other than the fact that Ning Chuan was the Crown Prince and the firstborn of the empress.

Chang Zhongyi

The elder son of Chang Yuan. He secretly tried to get Ning Yi assassinated. Ning Yi was going to kill him in retaliation. At the time, there was already an imperial edict for Chang Zhongyi to be executed, so he insisted that Ning Yi couldn't kill him. Ning Yi did so anyway, despite it being against the emperor's wishes.

I felt that Chang Zhongyi was more of a plot device.

Chang Zhongxin

I was rather impressed by Chang Zhongxin. His entire thing was his ambition. He killed his father and his brother to be the de facto leader of the Chang Clan and Minhai. He tried to cozy up to Ning Yi in hopes that backing a prince would elevate the Chang Clan again. However, Ning Yi refused because he said Chang Zhongxin already had mud on his name (having killed his own father). In retaliation, Chang Zhongxin decided he'd fight back.

He used several methods, including trying to infect Ning Yi's people by leaving corpses in residence. It later came down to military battles. His war with Ning Yi was supposed to be drawn out. However, Feng Zhiwei had rushed back to Dijing since her mother and brother's identities were revealed. So Ning Yi hurriedly cut off Chang Zhongxin's head, and later tried to trade that for leniency on Zhiwei.

I felt the actor for Chang Zhongxin was really great at his job. He was the kind of guy who just exuded sinister energy. I felt his actor might've done well as one of the evil princes, such as the Crown Prince. I thought he did great considering he was the first major villain outside of the royal family.

Also I felt a little validated after I found out the actor for Chang Zhongxin was one of the lead characters in Burning Ice, which is another drama that it's on my to-watch list.

Zhou Xizhong

He was the official who Chang Zhongxin had asked to help him when he decided to put on a show for Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei to show how he killed his father in order to stop his army from attacking their ship. Yan Huaishi later appealed to him to do the right thing and to reveal the truth.

Hua Qiong

Hua Qiong was a nice character, but I felt her introduction was a little unnecessary. She didn't have any purpose other than to be Feng Zhiwei's friend.

We first met her when she wanted revenge on the Chang Clan. Then, we found out that she was Yan Huaishi's fiancee and that her entire family was gone. She said she didn't want to have family ever again. And then we never saw her interact with Huaishi again :/

She later appeared sporadically, at times when Feng Zhiwei needed to be convinced that she still loved Ning Yi. But like, I don't know, it just felt old after a while. Her biggest role came when she and Feng Zhiwei were captured by Jin Siyu. This was an alright story line. It was a little interesting. But I felt that introducing Hua Qiong just for this story line didn't really seem necessary.

I was thinking, what other close female friends did Feng Zhiwei have? And I thought of Zhuyin. What if Zhuyin hadn't died and had stayed with Zhiwei throughout her exploits? She didn't even have to show up periodically, seeing as Hua Qiong didn't either. And then I thought about whether Zhuyin had to die for plot reasons. Anyway, I just felt not much was done with Hua Qiong, and she died a little unceremoniously too. I could believe that she and Zhiwei were close like sisters because of the great acting though, so I guess I could forgive her characters awkward roles.

Jin Siyu

He was an interesting character. As I mentioned above, he was in a similar position to Ning Yi, a prince who wasn't the Crown Prince trying to gain power. But the wasn't fighting for the same throne as Ning Yi so they didn't technically have to fight. Actually, Ning Yi thought it was a bit of a pity that Jin Siyu might've followed in the same path as him. It was just that he had Feng Zhiwei as his prisoner.

I wonder when Jin Siyu decided that he'd marry Feng Zhiwei after brainwashing her. Was he truly attracted to her? Or did he just want to mess with Ning Yi as retribution for him trying to stir shit within Dayue.

In the end, he didn't expect that Ning Yi would ruin him for taking Feng Zhiwei. Ning Yi, with the help of Jinshi and Zhiwei's allies, worked together. I think(???) they maybe rigged a dam so it would burst? Ultimately, Jin Siyu's manor was flooded and all was lost.

Guo Jun

Guo Jun was Jin Siyu's personal bodyguard. Not a major character in terms of plot, but he was always there.

Helian Lie

Helian Lie was Helian Zheng's uncle, who'd killed his father while he was away in Dasheng, and crowned his younger brother Helian Tu as kind (and making himself regent). Liu Meiduo pointed him out as the murderer of the previous king. However, he smeared the witness' reputation by talking about her past perjury. In the scuffle, he tried to kill Helian Zheng but killed Liu Meiduo instead, and then made a getaway. I thought his escape was super weak.

He eventually came to Jin Siyu and said he could help him invade Jinshi. He also told Jin Siyu who the real Feng Zhiwei was.

So overall, a bad guy.

Liu Mudan

She was Helian Zheng's stepmom and the mother of Helian Tu. I think we were initially supposed to believe that she was an evil stepmother, but we saw that she tried to be a goo stepmom to Helian Zheng. She wanted to be a good mother to Helian Tu but Helian Lie had separated mother and child for too long and the child was more attached to his nursemaid.

In the confrontation between Helian Zheng and Helian Lie, Liu Mudan had appeared to back up Helian Zheng. It was supposed to be epic, since she was the Empress Dowager who'd appeared after being thought to be kidnapped and possibly dead. But we just hadn't had enough time to bond with her. Otherwise, I didn't hate her character, but she just didn't have much to do.

Liu Meiduo

I'll be straight up, her character was kind of annoying because of how hopelessly in love she was with Helian Zheng. She colluded with Helian Lie because she wanted Feng Zhiwei dead. Later, Feng Zhiwei talked sense into her (quesetionable imo) and she had a change of heart, wishing instead to show Helian Zheng the moral part of her.

In her youth, she had falsely claimed that Si Yinlun had raped her in order to break off a marriage betrothal. She tried to protect Helian Zheng when Helian Lie tried to kill him, and ended up dying.

Liu Meiduo insisted that she did everything from Helian Zheng and you know, the melodrama got real old real fast for me.

Si Yinlun

He was accused of raping Liu Meiduo. If I remember correctly, he was locked up, and ever since, he was a little off his rocker. Ning Yi asked him for a favour (after doing a favour for Si Yinlun), to stage an attack at a party that was being held. However, Si Yinlun got a little bloodthirsty and kidnapped Liu Mudan and Helian Tu as well in retaliation for what Liu Meiduo had done to him. Ning Yi had his own people free Liu Mudan and Helian Tu, and that was the end of that.

Si Yinle

She was the sister of Si Yinlun. Gu Nanyi was tasked with following her to gather intel. He didn't get very far though because she actually didn't have that much information. In addition, she was instructed by Ning Cheng on what to say/not say.

Si Xian

I believe he was Si Yinlun and Si Yinle's father. The favour that Si Yinlun asked of Ning Yi was to free Si Xian from prison. He also recognized the token from Zhanbi that Ning Yi had brought with him.

Jiarong

Jiarong was a woman held in captivity by Jin Siyu. It turns out she was also part of the Riluo Tribe, and turned out to be a cousin of Ning Yi. A little too coincidental, as I think the same point could've been made without her being related to Ning Yi.

She was first asked by Jin Siyu to try to get Feng Zhiwei to confess to being the Empress, but it didn't work.

Later on, Ning Yi recognized the scent from Jiarong and asked her to find a herb. She also later helped Ning Yi retrieve a map from the Crown Prince of Dayue that would come in useful against Jin Siyu.

Yueling

She was the representative of the slave market who met with Ning Qi to negotiate the future survival of the market. She would have to do his bidding, and even took a poison to show her loyalty.

First, she used her mixing skills to mix a scent very close to the one that the emperor carried with him all the time. Then, she entered the court as an official. After Yale died, she took advantage of the emperor's grief and comforted/had sex with him. She immediately became a high ranking consort, and was apparently given the title of "Consort Mother?" Something like that. Basically the princes had to greet her as Mufei.

She arranged a dinner to get all of the princes together, and it would be Ning Qi's opportunity to kill the other two princes. It fell through, and afterwards, Yueling returned to Fenghuobang. After Zhangsun Hong's death, she remained with Ning Qi, trying to rile him up and to encourage him to fight for the throne again. It did little good and mostly just drove him to madness. I think she maybe even found pleasure in torturing him like this over killing him outright because of her hate towards Dasheng and its royal family.

It turns out Yueling was the daughter of Sanhu, who was one of the generals of Dacheng. She felt jealousy that Feng Zhiwei had lived in luxury even while in hiding while she'd been sold to a brothel/courtesan house. She was responsible for driving a wedge between Zhiwei and Ning Yi because to her, she needed Zhiwei to hate Ning Yi so that Dacheng could rise again.

Zhangsun Hong

He was first presented as Sun Hong, an assistant to Yueling. However, he was actually the fourth prince of Dacheng, and Zhiwei's older brother. He was also Yueling's lover.

He was the leader of Fenghuobang, and he was very intent on bringing back Dacheng. I think he needed all of the princes to die, and that was why he was fine with helping Ning Qi kill all of the princes.

He was also part of the plan to get Zhiwei to hate Dasheng, because he knew full well how Zhiwei was still in love with Ning Yi. He asked Zhiwei to come when Ning Cheng and the Jinyuwei came to raid their location, and he purposely enticed Ning Cheng into a battle and did little to defend himself. He essentially sacrificed himself in hopes that a Zhiwei would be sparked into anger. It sort of worked, but the truth was revealed by the ending.

I found out that the actor for Zhangsun Hong was actually the director. I found a thread where netizens were complaining about how he was the worst actor and that he had to forcibly insert himself into the show X'D I didn't think he was the worst actor (I've seen worse) but he didn't have that many scenes, so I kind of didn't see it.

Overall

Overall, I would say this show was good. Honestly, it's hard to give this a single rating because this show was so freaking long and there were things that were great and not so great about the show.

I agree that the first 50 episodes or so were more interesting for me because I like court political thrillers. The last 20 episodes were more focused on emotions and romantic melodrama, which may be for some people but not for me.

The acting was on point in this show, especially from the main leads. The acting also carried the last 20 episodes and had me tearing up at many times in those last episodes.

Truth be told, towards the end, I wanted to binge the last few episodes and just be done with it. I guess I just wanted all of the romantic melodrama to be sorted out, and I was just tired because the show was 70 episodes long. But I wouldn't say that the ending was bad, it just wasn't my favourite part of the show.

I'd still recommend this show for people who like both political thrillers and romance.