I think it’s fair to say I felt insulted while watching, for a few different reasons. First episode I did love and it made me extremely excited, but it went downhill from there. At first I kind of enjoyed it as a hate watch, but later it was just too boring, repetitive and not crazy enough to laugh about. Before you read the review know, that there are paragraphs talking about sexual harassment and rape (TW).

First of all, the focus on sex and impotence and magic potions that will make male slaves’ lower parts useless was just weird. The number of times it was mentioned and presented as the worst type of fate one can deal with… priorities I guess. I’d say, being tortured for years would be worse. They also had a potion that made Chang Ah horny, and it was used as a torture… yeah.

The lack of strong villains was also disappointing. What were the main characters exactly fighting against? More often than not, the bad guys and ladies had valid points. And what exactly were the motivations of the villains? My favorite part was how pressed was Cha Luo about not being able to do the do with her slave man. Like damn, the lady had some major problems.

The worst part of the show was for sure the female lead - Wan Mei. She had no solid personality nor brain. After the first episode I was hoping to see a physically weak, but strong willed and smart character slowly grow, take revenge on the bad people and fight for the good. I wasn't even hoping for an interesting gray character, because I knew this ain’t happening. What I’ve got was a dumb girl who had massive problems with understanding the information other tell her. How many times she was told it’s an assassin organization - and yet she was like “I ain’t killin anyone”. SHE WAS TRAINING TO BE ASSASSIN!

How many times she was told and shown what happens when you disobey the orders, and yet she was like: nah, ain’t doing that. And then she was surprised when the consequences hit her. She was smart when the plot needed it, brainless when it was convenient. She was weak at times, and really good at fighting at other times. I mean, when her targets literally commit suicide to help her, because she is not capable of killing them, it tells you what type of show it is. Truth to be told, FL has no real personality. She is what the scene needs her to be: she is smart AND dumb, she is cunning AND naive... I am confident, this show would be so much better without her.

The love that makes no sense. I’m still trying to figure out why both the main lead and second lead fell for Wan Mei. Fair enough, let's say Chang Ah did spend enough time with her for some kind of affection to bloom. Gong Zi tho literally started to like her because she was pretty and the first person he saw after gaining his sight back. His obsession over her never made sense. Him willing to sacrifice so much to keep her alive, even his own life? Bish why? He was willing to eat a soup made of a maid’s cooked face to hide the fact he is not blind anymore, but a few scenes later he just tells Wan Mei like it’s not important. His IQ dropped so much whenever Wan Mei was close. To be honest, she lowered the IQ of everyone that was close to her - that’s the true power she had.

Another aspect that at some point just started to make me angry was how fake woke this show is. They show this society where the females are the masters, and men are the slaves. Women are making the decisions and have all the power, and the guys are just supposed to serve them - the 180 to the usual historical styled shows, where the women are the voiceless ones. This ain’t good though. This is not empowering at all. Not to mention, with all the women over men rhetoric, male characters were still far superior and better written than female ones.

Female villain going crazy because she can’t have sex with the dude? Playing into women being unstable, unreasonable and overemotional I guess. The fact they literally said the scar on Wan Mei’s face is THE WORST thing that could happen to her was laughable. Yes, it’s worse than her being tortured for days, worse than her possibly dying, worse than her being almost raped twice. Or how Chang Ah was more concerned about that small cut on her face than the fact SHE WAS MUTE! Love the message here: a beautiful woman without any scars is more valuable than one who can speak. Because beauty is what’s important.

And then there is also the whole love for sexual assault. The show opens with Wan Mei being sold to a brothel and almost raped. This did not bother me that much. It was supposed to be tragic, showing how weak and vulnerable she is at the moment. Could they do without it? Yes. But it still made sense plot wise. The thing that annoyed me was the fact she was also almost sexually assaulted by Gong Zi - and people still shipped them. There were comments saying he just loved her so much he could not stop himself. Some even said it was hot. Don't know what is more gross, that scene or people’s reaction to it.

Then, there is a whole sub plot of a CHILD being sold to a brothel and being raped god knows how many times to the point of stopping her mental development. Years later, after being saved, she is gang raped AGAIN, while mentally being a 11 years old child. I guess the writers wanted to be dramatic and edgy. So basically, for 2 years assholes took her virgin blood coz it has some awesome "magical" youth qualities. And when she was oLd eNoUgH (13), they started to rape her. And now at the age 19, after all that trauma, she gets raped again. And literally none of this, and definitely to that extent, was necessary plot wise.

So… does this drama have any good points? Yes. The acting was truly nice - I am impressed with Li Yi Tong for delivering a good performance even though the character she was playing was poorly written and made little sense. Another good aspect was the soundtrack. A Lifetime Waiting For You easily became one of my favorite OSTs. Last thing worth mentioning is - the show is just really pretty. I took almost 300 screenshots.

Overall, I would use it to torture people.