A community for fannish manifestos (This thing is AMAZING. Here's why.)

48 episodes, available on Viki and iQiyi.

In 15th-century China, a quick-witted, low-ranking government official named Tang Fan (Darren Chen) who writes romance novels under a pen name, gets pulled into investigating a murder, teaming up with an Imperial Guard/military veteran Sui Zhou (Fu Meng-Po) in the process and crossing paths with Wang Zhi (Liu Yaoyuan), the palace eunuch wunderkind the Emperor put in change of the Western Depot when he was only 17 as one of the only officials he felt he could trust... and we're off!

Frankly, what's not to love here? It's got a beautifully complex plot, the sort where you'll find yourself thinking back over it and still not being quite sure how they managed to pack so many interwoven cases and stories into only 48 episodes. Within this plot, the character development is believable and consistent as are the relationships, often between characters that had very good reasons to dislike each other to begin with. A lot of this is down to the script but frankly a lot of the credit should also go to the fantastic acting across the board which makes it all come to life. Plot wise, it manages that hardest of all things, to convince you a character is doing 'X' which is just stupid, only to find out they were doing it for all the right reasons - People, I'm trying to avoid spoilers here! Honestly, I don't remember the last time I was rooting for so many characters while hoping so many others would die in a fire and all at the same time. This series has it all. Partner worry, FOUND FAMILY (yes, it's a bit of a thing with me), loyalty, treachery, sacrifice and love in all its forms, not just the usual romance you see in dramas. It even throws in a few fandom tropey things for good measure like tons of hurt/comfort, whump, moving in together, random child acquisition, evil twins, one of the main characters being disguised as a woman and undercover as a couple. Even the emperor is only a bit of a bastard on the 'Emperor Bastard' scale (probably a 3?), cares about his people, loves and admires his noble consort and is mostly likeable. It was produced by Jackie Chan and the fight scenes are brilliant! Ultimately, these characters care so much about each other and their society and its citizens that you can't help but care about them as well. It took us ages to watch all 48 episodes and I'm already sorry we've finished.

The most popular ships are Tang Fan/Sui Zhou, Tang Fan/Sui Zhou/Wang Zhi... and another one I'm not going to mention because *spoilers*. Personally, I'm here for the Tang Fan/Sui Zhou and Wang Zhi & Dong'er. If you don't love Dong'er, I'm afraid it's pistols at dawn!

( Two fun gifs, trailer, fanvids )
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