I don't really have that much to write after binge watching it over 3 days. I watched this for Li Qin as Lige and she delivered!

The villains were villainy. To the point of being ridicilous, but hey, that's what you can expect from most chinese dramas with lots chess back and forth. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy it, but I dislike it when villains get away from things, despite the amount of evidence. There were some inconsistencies here and there, but I've seen far worse so I let it slip.

The Shen family was great, the royal brothers were great too. In fact, most of the characters had a purpose and were acted well. The fighting scenes were usually fun, albeit a bit unbalanced here and there. The one thing which always dissapoints me in these dramas, is when they try to depict a large scale war. Yes, I understand that it is costly to produce something which shows a grand scale. But showing maybe 100 people marching, then saying that it is a detachment of 10.000 ... ? It breaks immersion and believability. This series is not the only sinner to do this, so I'll give it some slack.

Episode 1-25 - Great.
25-45 - Decent
46 - 52 - Poor. (I ended up fast forwarding here and there)
53 - Great. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised.

All in all: It had its fun moments, frustrating ones and the ridicilous ones. What you can expect and probably what you're also looking for.

Recommended.