Princess Wei Young wrapped up tonight, and I thought of writing a couple of things to remember this fun ride of a drama.
What I liked about the show is that it’s quite nicely paced – there is mostly something that happens every episode. Although in the second half there were a couple that faltered, I thought that the pace was rather good, and it was a satisfying drama. The show also managed to flesh out the characters, and there was never a really “bad” character in our main leads (not Chi Yun Nan). We could understand the thoughts and motivations of each character, even though we disagreed with how they carried it out. In particular, it was quite surprising to see how much Tuoba Yu regretted the death of the Emperor, and how Chang Le was conflicted by the plight of Tuoba Jun, although she didn’t do anything to help him.
I found the actors winning in their roles, and all of them were quite good. (Although Chang Xi did make me cringe in the last episodes.) I personally don’t think that Vanness Wu suits period dramas, but I think I kinda grew more used to it haha. I thought Chang Le was portrayed quite well too, starting from a very obnoxious, spoiled noble girl to a more nuanced and layered character.
Another thing I’ll like to address is the death of Tuoba Jun. The show could have pulled a miracle that somehow saved Tuoba Jun, but I liked how it remained realistic, as it has done most of the time. There wasn’t much angst in this show either, which is something that I appreciated. The lead couple stood true to each other, and there were no annoying mechanisms that purposely pulled them away – even the misunderstanding over the death of TBJ’s mother was quite quickly resolved. I think the death of Tuoba Jun showed the nature of inevitability, and it also reminded us that although the lead couple were best together, Wei Young remains a strong woman on her own. We can understand why Tuoba Jun would save her, and she knows that she now carries the weight of their love and their commitment to doing good.
Overall, I did enjoy this show, and do leave your comments below as well!
dramalala 
Hi there, thanks for all the recaps. Came across your website from youtube. the drama was good overall but i thought it was bit of rush towards the end. i was hoping for more “happy scenes” like TBJ did had 10 years to live,, could they show us some happy times rather than rushed to the sad ending.
Some questions i have are:
1. what happened to WY, CL, CR’s father ?? and the younger sis, CX (deep down i know no one really care much about her! ) and her mother (did she really gone crazy after CR fake death!?)
2. what happened to CR’s kid ??
3. What happened to that CYN’s servant?? she should be punished!!
4. As well as TBY, CR and CL faithful servants?
Anyway, thanks for all your recaps. Now, what do you plan to watch next? =}
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Yeah I do agree that the show didn’t really wrap up that well in terms of accounting for everyone, but I kinda understand that it wasn’t entirely necessary because they have accounted for the main characters? I do think definitely they should have included more of the Chi Yun family though – with Chang Le’s death, she effectively wipes out whatever remaining “power” they had. We’re shown that Hong Luo gets arrested (along with Chang Le and her maid, Tan Xiang), it’ll have been nice to see that after all they’ve done, the Chi Yun clan is totally destroyed.
Hmm about CR’s baby, I just assumed that she would have left the baby in the care of her servant, Rong’er, when she entered the palace. But I guess neither CR nor TBY really cared about the kid.
TBY’s servant is Cheng De, and he married Jun Tao 🙂
Hmm I haven’t decided what to watch next, any recommendations anyone? 🙂
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Not much angst? Not sure if we were watching the same show here lol. Weiyoung became almost completely useless in the last stretch of the drama imo, and the lack of resolve towards her enemies and basically same antics they have been throwing at her got pretty tiring and frustrating to watch. I know you can’t have win ’em all, but I personally wished it was Weiyoung who was able to prove her innocence in the Crown Princess murder case and catch the real culprit in her lies. They could’ve still had Changle punished by death in the end for it. Then of course her not being truly aware of the extent of Changru’s crimes such as her involvement with the Crown Princess’s murder. Maybe I’m asking for too much here, but you can’t tell me it’s complete bogus that she even showed signs of sympathy towards Changru even after knowing she was the one behind Bai Zhi’s death and her attempts in framing her that almost got her killed. Then she just stood there and pretty much let Changru throw all sorts of unfounded insults and accusations at her. She didn’t even confront Changru about Bai Zhi’s death ffs. Poor Bai Zhi you put your life on the line for a mistress who would avenge the death of another who betrayed her, but not yours.
Yet she wouldn’t let Li Min Feng go for essentially beating to death the maid who betrayed her and whose name I could care less to remember. Of course LMF also contributed to her family/kingdom’s downfall so it’s natural she wanted to kill him.
Weiyoung is very inconsistently written, just like the drama itself. Which is a shame because I liked her (and the drama) so much in the beginning, and thought if she continued her initial badass ways for the latter half of the drama there was strong potential for her to be one of my favorite female characters in dramaland.
End of rant
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Thank you so much for recapping this because I don’t think I could have lasted through 50+ episodes. For some reason I kinda lose steam after about 15-20 episodes and then I’m searching for reviews and recaps and that’s how I came upon your blog. Although it was more like 7-8 in this one. I love the main otp and I really needed to know which one of the them was going to die bc all period cdramas always always always ok maybe like 90% of the time one of them DIES. I really enjoyed the two together. Any fantastic period c dramas that the otp actually like each other from the beginning til the end and don’t die?
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Please re-cap General & I ! I loved your recaps for Princess Weiyoung and it kept me going until the english subs were upload. THank you so much 🙂
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