tiansheng is a country, but its name is repeated so often that it becomes more of a symbol, and then nothing at all. and so does dacheng, bloody pagoda, the title of emperor, the fight for the throne. it’s a 70 episode long journey with the sole purpose of telling us that every step we watch our characters take is meaningless.

as a result you kind of feel the length once the show touches the 55 mark, and various characters who played fairly significant roles get little more than 4 seconds for their death scene and then forgotten shortly after. otherwise i feel like it’s really self-aware? there’s plotholes and details overlooked but the overall story doesn’t get lost. it’s stunningly consistent in tone, in its writing, in its cinematography.

the best part of this production is, in my opinion, feng zhiwei. every character is doomed to a sort of inevitable and cyclical doom, and she’s not any exception, but there are parts of her character arc where she is instead a source of clarity. she knows how everything will end, and she wants no part. she is so surprising and complex…i don’t think we’ll have another feng zhiwei for a long time. anyway yes! it was a worthwhile watch but for certain things more than others.