i watched for gao weiguang and zhang yaqin. their story was wonderfully compelling, but dragged down by the fact tht this show was simply.... not about them lol. didn’t care much for yang mi and ethan ruan’s characters (though they did quite well with what they had as actors), and attempts at depth often just feel very shallow and are forgotten by the next story arc. the worldbuilding was interesting for sure, but fuyao’s story wasn’t, not because i don’t think she’s a good character but because i don’t think the formula of “extraordinary woman suffers an extraordinary amount (a fraction of which is gendered violence)” is a great storytelling vehicle at all.