This is my final thought, ramble, rant... call it what you will.

This may have a mild spoiler proceed with caution.

Good plot, good acting, excellent OST. Interesting main and side characters who all managed to standout on their own. Good pacing but it did lag towards the end. I really think they could have worked to make this ended at 42. Unnecessarily dragging it out to 49 did the drama a great disservice.

What I liked:

* Hao Du - Best boy. Only character that mattered from the get-go! You can’t imagine how much I like him. I watched Zhao Lusi for you TT (okay, I'll admit this character fitted her well but still... only for Hao Du!)

* Changge- was she perfect? No. But she was a great character to watch. A strong, defiant, smart and fearless character who puts loyalty and country above personal grudge. She is impulsive, cold, unreasonable at times too. The drama shows you how each experience shapes her, how it layer by layer peals off her shell, her anger, her resistance. Overall, this was a very well developed character.

* Li Shimin - okay the actor did really well in this role (this role fits him so much better than the one he played in LoF. He really came off as comical in that)
I'm a little disappointed though that we only got to see the empathetic side of him. He's Emperor Taizong and he's considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history! You don't become someone like that by ruling with benevolence alone. He had to also have been shrewd, cunning and calculative and a bit of ruthless to some extent. All great men who leave their mark on history are and I'd have liked to see a little bit of that instead of just showing his kindness.

* Minister Du - I know a well written character when I see a character that you initially dislike or feel is going to be the antagonist to the end but as the story progresses you see parts of their personality that makes you reevaluate your initial impression. Not because they went through a redemption arc, they are still the same people with the same principle but you find that you understand them better now. This was a character I didn't expect to be moved by this much but I nevertheless was (why am I surprised, he raised Hao Du!)

* She'er - this is a very stereotypical character. The arrogant, seemingly cruel misunderstood character but is in fact the innocent of them all. I think I like him because he's a cliched character, sometimes there is comfort in the known.

* Princess Yi Cheng/Khatun - regardless of how you may feel about her, I thought this was a very good, multi-layered character. Unrepentent to the end, which’s a large part of why I like this character, she still manages to pull on your emotions. She is not just one person - an innocent girl, an abandoned princess, a wife, a mother, a Khatun - in every version of her I have found genuine reasons to either empathize or sympathize with.

* Richard Wang's cameo - even if it was brief, the man showed up looking like an elf and giving me LoTR's crossover images I didn't know I needed.

* Underrated CP: Xu Feng and Shi Ba ❤️

What I didn't like:

* Li Change's lipstick - and this is why I HATE cross dressing/gender bending dramas. The lack of commitment. Dilraba did a very good job acting as Li Shi Si with her demeanor and aloofness but yet time and time again they have her in bright shades of lipsticks. Why? were they afraid she wouldn't look attractive enough for fans? Didn't she still get criticize for the 2 hair strands? If you can't please anyone at the very least commit to your craft. I don't need all my leading actor/actresses to stand out. I rather they play a convincing role. I'm already suspending logic pretending I don't see their chest.

* The anime- I had initially thought it was actually pretty cool to incorporate the anime in the drama but the drama ended up replacing ALL the battle scenes with manhua. WTF! It was very underwhelming. How are you going to ask me to be invested in the outcome of a war when I'm looking at drawings? I want to see blood, and stabbing and cutting and hacking. I want to feel the panic of watching the enemy creep up on a character from behind....There was no tension whatsoever so it was less impactful. To add to this, the badly CGI'd actors pretending to charge into the manhua scenes was so ridiculous, I burst out laughing each time.
Ya, I'm not buying this was due to COVID. It may have started that way but it feels like it's Tencents way of saving money. You'd think at least they'd spare some change and get Changge a 2nd outfit. The girl wore the same blue outfit from Ep 39-46.

* Wei Shu Yu - I know air is free but really we still shouldn't just waste it. Consistently mediocre, a glorified messenger, has neither brain nor spine... I could go on but I don't want to waste any more time on him.

* A'Sun in ep 42 - I really wanted to reach through the screen and throw him off the balcony. It's fine though because Hao Du exists. (okay, this reason is petty and I know but I don't care)

* Mimi Guli - annoying for most of the drama. Am I sad? Yes, but she is still annoying as a character and the dubbing voice didn't help at all. Every time she whined my ears suffered.

Editing this to add how much I hated the birds. This drama should be proud of its accomplishment in making me have strong averse reaction to two cute birds.