This drama is pretty much a more mature Love O2O (and I'm not saying that as an insult; I actually enjoyed Love O2O), which I guess is essentially what I was expecting of it. There are a number of obvious similarities between the two beyond Yang Yang and the gaming premise, including many of the traits of the lead characters. However, it lacks the annoying side couple (actually one of the best things about this drama is that there are no filler side couples), and has better acting as well as higher production values. You Are My Glory tones down the tropes a bit and has more angst (but is still pretty low on drama). People who enjoyed Love O2O will likely enjoy this as well, and those who did not enjoy Love O2O may find some of their complaints rectified in You Are My Glory.

I must like Gu Man’s sense of humor, as I generally don’t find Chinese romcoms funny, but the humor in this one (as well as Love O2O) worked well for me. I also found both leads very charming and likable, which is really at least half of what makes a romcom work. Moreover, out of the 10-or-so Chinese romcoms I have completed or seen a significant portion of before dropping, this definitely has the most well-written romance. We get to watch them slowly fall for each other, support each other, and naturally grow from knowing one another. The roadblocks in their relationship are quite normal and don’t seem like manufactured contrivances. Is this the most grounded portrayal of a relationship I’ve seen in a drama? Certainly not, it’s still an idealized idol drama about too-perfect people with plenty of fluff, but it does have proper development, doesn't go in circles, and isn't heavily reliant on silly tropes like accidental kisses and all that jazz. The male lead’s personal conflict is also realistic, well-explored, and quite relatable, I think.

One aspect of this drama I felt was a bit atypical is that parts of it (arguably the most pivotable parts) seem to be told much more from the male perspective than the female one. Romance dramas (especially romcoms) are generally told from both perspectives equally or more from that of the female lead. There are actually certain episodes near the middle of this drama in which the female lead hardly appears. I think such a storytelling choice made sense for this particular story, as the male lead is the much more conflicted character and I’m not sure following the female lead in those moments would have revealed much to us. However, because she was given relatively less focus, until the last third of the drama, I felt like I didn’t know the female lead nearly as well as the male lead. By the end I no longer really felt that way, but overall I’d definitely say there was less emphasis on her characterization and development than his. Especially given the last couple episodes, it seemed like he was the protagonist and this was really his story.

This is also the most well-acted Chinese romcom I’ve seen to date (probably on par with an average Korean romcom). I generally give Yang Yang more credit for his face than his acting, but he’s really quite decent, even good here. Dilraba was definitely better than I expected. I really enjoyed the sweet personality she brought to her character, and I actually thought she did well in the dramatic scenes, something I was rather skeptical of her ability to do, given what I had seen from her past work. In the category of Chinese-idol-dramas-with-actors-under-30, the performances were well above average.

Now for some nitpicks …

My biggest complaint regarding this drama is that it had some issues with tonal consistency. This is not a major problem, since I think the tone always matched the content of the specific scene, but because there wasn’t a more focused tone throughout, there were times when it felt like I had suddenly started watching a different drama. Parts of this drama are your typical fluffy, cheesy idol drama. Then there are a few parts that are rather overdramatic. Like does running tests on a rover really merit such suspenseful music? And then there are parts that seem to be going for a moody, understated drama vibe with the slow-pacing, shadowy cinematography, and mellow, indie-style vocals against simple guitar instrumentation. I think you can accurately understand what this drama is like without watching it by imagining a combination of Love O2O (corny romance dialogue, humor, tropes and character types, gaming), Descendants of the Sun (corny romance dialogue, dramatic aerospace scenes, slow-mo of Yang Yang getting out of a Jeep in the middle of a desert), and One Spring Night (introspection, struggles with self-image and societal expectations, slow-burn romance). I enjoyed all three of those dramas, but I’m not sure the combination entirely works. The former two have overlapping aspects, thus combine quite seamlessly, but I think You Are My Glory’s attempt at the One Spring Night-type tone felt a little try-hard at points. Even though the emotional content of the male lead’s struggles are well-executed, the more “sophisticated” style of the scenes feels a bit out of place when poised against a cringe-y cute idol drama scene. It makes it feel like it’s trying to be something it’s not, because most of the drama isn’t that sophisticated. It’s especially obvious, because this more melancholic, understated style pretty much completely disappears about 2/3rds of the way through the drama, which means the earlier episodes feel quite different overall to the later ones. To state it very simply, the male lead feels like he belongs in a serious, realistic drama, the female lead feels like she belongs in an idol romcom (albeit a relatively grounded one), and their romance meets somewhere in the middle, though it definitely leans pretty hard towards the romcom tone in the last 1/3. To be clear, I’m not really saying anything about the story itself necessarily should have been changed, just that these aspects could have blended together more seamlessly had the style of their execution been a bit more consistent.

The music is really pretty forgettable.

If you’re looking for a gaming drama, look somewhere else. Gaming is just a way to bring the leads together, not the focus of the drama, and the gaming element completely disappears in the later half. That being said, a significant amount of time is spent on the gaming scenes, such that even though I didn’t watch this drama for the gaming, I did find myself wishing they were more exciting. Despite all the time spent practicing, discussing strategy, etc., it’s quite difficult to actually follow what’s going on while the characters are playing, especially since the matches are often shown as fragmented montages. Even when they do show more extensive gameplay, you can’t really understand the strategy since the game has too many heroes and the viewer is only vaguely acquainted with a few. Honestly, it can be hard to even see what’s happening, due to the fact that the game visuals are generally portrayed as they would appear to an actual player, which is realistic, but not very legible. I think the aerospace engineering scenes were actually more comprehensible than the gameplay. Because this drama never intended to be about gaming, exciting gaming scenes weren’t necessarily a requirement, but in that case, I wish they had spent less time making me watch such scenes.

My final nitpick is that it’s rather slow-paced (especially in the first half). This didn’t bother me much, because I like slow-paced romances (if the gaming sequences had been fewer or more exciting, I might not have noticed this at all). There are points when it feels more like a slice-of-life drama than a romcom, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, because it doesn’t have any filler side plots, I don’t think it’s actually more tedious than the average C-drama. Personally, I found it less so.

All in all, I enjoyed this drama a lot. Though I don’t think it’s perfect, it certainly exceeds what I’ve come to expect of Chinese romcoms. I’ll almost certainly rewatch it at some point when I need a no-stress fluff drama.