Season 1 left off on a positive note with a promise of a lot of future character development. Unfortunately, season 2 did not develop said development.

Niao Niao (NN) was portrayed as an abused and neglected teenager who learned how to navigate life with her intelligence and ingenuity. Unfortunately, this intelligence and ingenuity was left in season 1. In season 2, we didn't actually see the thought process behind her ingenuity. She liked to build things. But we never saw her build anything. We only saw the finished product. On look, she built a small cross bow. Oh look, she can do a deep tissue massage. Oh look, she can improve farming equipment. What? How? We never saw her learn how to do anything. For someone who did not actually enjoy learning, it remains a mystery how NN achieved these tremendous heights.

When it came to character development, there was no character development moving forward. We knew NN was an intelligent and independent free thinker. But, there was nothing intelligent about her in this season. She was actually quite self-absorbed. Ling Buyi was a total package. He had the power and influence. He was a warrior general in charge of an army. And he was head over heels in love with her. She was previously concerned about missing out on a good husband, yet her bitching about him supposedly "oppressing" her because he cared too much was legendary. He was a bit too over-protective but he did nothing in bad faith. She agreed to marry him and then told him to his face that she wanted him out because he kept giving her unsolicited advice. Apparently, for someone who cared about boundaries, having a conversation about setting boundaries was out of the question. I didn't even know why he was in love with her at that point. In season 1 she was intelligent, courageous, quick-thinking. In this season, she was stubborn, unreasonable, and self-absorbed. All the qualities that made her interesting were gone.

Instead of giving her the transformation she needed, the writers arbitrarily decided to give NN unearned princess treatment. She quickly became the new palace darling who could do no wrong. Everything she said was gold. Everything she cooked was delicious. Everything she made was awesome. Everything was handed to her without her making any effort to earn it. The most ridiculous thing was that her teenage wisdom was completely unquestioned. Basically NN: I am only 15, but let me teach you about life.

She stuck her nose into everything and always had something to say, which quickly became very annoying. When Ling Buyi asked her not to interfere in palace politics because it was literally bad for her health, she made it all about him trying to control her for the Nth time. The emperor and empress seemed to have replaced her parents, which was a stupid plot development because her entire character rested on the premise of her parents abandoning her. There were so many scenes where NN could reconcile with her parents, particularly her mother. For example, mom bringing her a blanket could've led to an honest heart-to-heart conversation. Instead, we got the usual scene where NN asked mom an uncomfortable question, mom looked away, NN walked off. Later on, the writers made her parents virtually non-existent. Her entire time at the palace was spent cozying up to the empress as her new mom, instead of receiving lessons and moving on with her life. Even the lessons were just a pretext to create more drama for the sake of drama, which contributed nothing to NN's character development. It would've been way more interesting to have her learn to navigate through conflict using her intelligence to outsmart her enemies, making friends and allies, and then winning using her brain. Instead, she either went to the emperor to complain or poured dirt on someone because she was "vindictive". Her vindictiveness made her look just as bitchy as those spoiled brats who bullied her in the first place.

NN's relationship with Ling Buyi was also very confusing. There was a very sweet moment at the empress' birthday party where she drank from the same cup as him because the wine tasted "better" that way, and then she gave him a kiss. They looked very much in love. But, as soon as he found out she was pushed into a lake, we were back to square one how he was oppressing her and how she was "afraid" of him ... because he wanted her to confide in him? The writers never made it clear why NN was afraid of him. He was always nice to her. And now apparently every bad thing that happened to her in the palace was his fault. Huh? "I've always been like this! Why must you force me to change?" How dare he ask her questions about being bullied. Seriously, who decided this was good character development? She was absolutely insufferable.

Yet, everyone loved her and she could do no wrong. The writers couldn't have made her more mary sue level boring together with her perpetually constipated looking fiancé with no personality. (And there was still no wedding date!) Even the freaken canning of Ling Buyi was instigated by the emperor to make NN finally act on her feelings for him. *barf* Everyone literally became an NN simp. Speaking of Ling Buyi, he had a whole of two expressions in the entire drama - constipated and more constipated. This was some of the worst acting I've seen in a c-drama. Even for a stoic, no nonsense character, there should've been times for him to inadvertently show emotion for a person he cared about.

This show had such tremendous potential, and it was completely wasted on martyrization of the main character, turning her into a perfect princess, while making everyone else continuously kiss her princessey arse without her actually deserving it. What a waste of time.