Goodbye My Princess B+

Drama Rating: B+ Plot

The plot of this story is pretty simple. LI Chengyin is the 5th prince of the central plains empire also known as Li state. His older brother, the crown prince, is sent out of Li state on a mission that will surely cause his destruction, and to help his favorite brother Li Chengyin joins him. On their way to Xi State the two are attacked and the crown prince is assassinated. The 5th prince barely makes it out alive and is fortunately rescued by the 9th princess of Xi state Xiaofeng. The story then details the often unfortunate tale of these two as they attempt to defeat their tragic fate. Characters Li Chengyin

Li Changyin, played by Chen Xing Xi, is honestly one of the best male leads I’ve watched in a very long time. He is written with plenty of detail and Xing Xu truly embodies this character it’s almost like they were made for each other. Li Chengyin’s main goal in this drama is to exact revenge for his mother, aunt, and anyone else that has been negatively impacted by the Zhao family. In front of the emperor and empress, he is the love struck 5th prince, around the crown princess consort he plays a cruel unloving husband, and behind closed doors he is a calculating genius waiting for the right players to fall into his traps. For a while Li Chengyin’s ability to switch masks in any given moment seems to be his greatest strength but eventually his love for Xiaofeng is jeopardized because of it. When it comes to character development and just character in general I think the writers did their best on Li Chengyin by far. Before Li Chengyin heads to Xi state he just the youngest prince accompanying the crown prince on a dangerous mission he hates palace politics and the violent fight for power. When his life is nearly taken from him and he is saved by Xiaofeng the 5th prince quickly adapters in a way to save his life and still protect his secret mission. Then when meeting Mingyuan in Xi state Li Chengyin discovers the truth about his mother’s death and refocuses his goals on avenging her. The problem with Li Chengyin getting his revenge now is it will hurt Xiaofeng in every way imaginable. We see him constantly trying to justify his actions by giving reasons for hurting Xiaofeng, But in the end choosing his revenge over love will cost everything. Back in the central plains Yi Chengyin refocuses himself on getting revenge but this time he is a well seasoned in scheming and hiding his true intentions. He can fool not only Sese and Xiaofeng but the prime minister and empress as well. Even his older brother and competition for the throne has to admit that Li Chengyin has grown because of his trip to the Xi territory. His character becomes someone who is crueler than ever and harboring plenty of evil intentions that will hurt the woman he claims to love. Right before Li Chengyin and Xiaofeng marry in the central plains Xiuaofeng discovers the fate of Danchi. Instead of revealing his reasoning behind the massacre and trying to incorporate Xiaofeng in his plans Li Chengyin adopts a cruel and unloving character to alienate Xioafeng and convince the distract the queen from his true plan. Li Chengyin constantly hurting Xiaofeng to accomplish his revenge increases the tragic mood astronomically. It had me constantly thinking and hoping that they would remember their past so Li Chengyin could put the revenge behind him and just love Xiaofeng.

Rating Actor: 5/5 Character development: 4/5 Consistency: 4/5 Xiaofeng

Xiaofeng is this story’s female lead and she certainly acts the part. From the moment we’re introduced to her in Xi state to her journey to becoming the crown princess consort, Peng Xiao Ran can perfectly portray her character. Character development is however a little lacking in Xiaofeng. When we first meet her she is a rebellious young princess of Xi State who is free to go out almost whenever she wants and enjoy the relaxed carefree environment of her home country. Xiaofeng is the only daughter of the queen of Xi State and she’s also the favorite daughter of the king making her already lax environment almost lawless. When she is told that she’s of marrying age and an alliance has been set up between the Xi state and Li state the young princess attempts to run away multiple times to escape her marriage. After hearing her reasoning I could very easily understand her initial reluctance, marrying into the Li empire means that she will be sent far away from her family to a foreign country never to meet with them again. she will be leaving behind all of the customs and traditions she has grown up with until this point top embrace that of a foreign land far stricter and less forgiving than her own. Understandably she’s worried and very scarred but she’s also a princess, an important part of the royal family with a duty not only to her own happiness and well being but that of her family and her whole country. When Xiaofeng finally realizes the importance of the marriage it is far too late many lives have been lost and the destruction done to her own country is irreconcilable. This one instance alone shows her inability or perhaps unwillingness to think beyond her current state and instead focus on the broader picture. However, even after this happened I was still understanding to Xiaofeng. She was after all raised very sheltered and privileged so of course she would not be able to handle the real world immediately, but after she makes it to Li State her immaturity continues up until the end of the show. It seems like she never grows out of being an 18-year-old girl no matter how tough life becomes. When she first moves to Li state Xiaofeng has a hard time learning the rules and customs of this new country. She understandably does not want to accept any customs contrary to how she was raised, but this is her new home and she will be the crown princess consort which means she will eventually be the empress of Li state. Trying to understand the way of life in this new area where she will spend the rest of her life sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Xiaofeng does not see it this way and chooses to complain, grumble, and avoid any “learning” if possible. It gets so bad in one episode that her teacher is strongly rebuked by the queen for being unable to teach the 9th princess even after months. Despite Xiaofeng’s stagnant character development I happen to love her character anyway. She’s very kind and fair in judgment, and she treats everyone even her husband’s concubine with as much kindness as possible. At times I found myself feeling bad for the 9th princess because her free and open home country was so contrary to the ridged, rule-heavy Li state. In a way this new home turned Xiaofeng into a prisoner but she still managed to persevere in Mostar situations. Rating Actor: 5/5 Character development: 1/5 Consistency: 4/5 Gu Jian/Teacher Gu Jian is Xiaofeng’s teacher from Xi state and he is responsible for a significant portion of the misery in Xiaofeng’s life. When the drama starts off Xiaofeng has a slight crush on her teacher and she even tries to run away with him multiple times to avoid her political marriage. Their relationship starts as a very trusting one but due to alternative motives on Gi Jian’s part the love-line between these two is cut.

I found this character a little repetitive and often uninteresting. For a majority of the drama there are situations that the audience and Gu Jian are made aware that the two main characters do not know of. This huge secret, in my opinion, gave Gu Jian an unfair advantage that I feel he used to manipulate characters and their emotions. The worst part is he never appears sorry for some of the hurt he has inflicted or the fact that he chooses to keep important information from the two of them. If the two main characters been privy to as much information as Gu Jian their interactions with him would have been night and day. Rating Actor: 3/5 Character development: 1/5 Consistency: 5/5 A’Du A’Du is Xiaofeng’s best friend and protector. She is from Danchi and her main responsibilities involve taking care of the princess and making sure that she stays safe. She is one of the few people who know the true story of Li Chengyin and Xiaofeng so she plays a key part in all of their story. Her introduction is quite humble but her lasting impact on the stories can be felt quite strongly. Rating Actor: 5/5 Character Development: 1/5 Consistency: 5/5 Zhao Sese

Zhao Sese is the concubine of Li Chengyin and she happens to be another sad character. Li Chengyin uses her in his plot for revenge making Sese feel as though he loves her more than anything. Sese’s love for Li Chengyin surpasses that of any of the other characters making her even more pitiful. Her love for Chengyin however, causes her to become a person full of malicious intents and extreme jealousy. Rating Actor: 5/5 Character Development: 5/5 Consistency: 5/5 Pacing One of my main issues with Chinese dramas happens to be pacing. The drama is often 40+ episodes and the writers struggle to balance action and filler. Usually when a drama starts off strong the interesting parts stop by episode twenty and never pick up again. Then there are other times when Chinese dramas have starts so weak its almost impossible to continue to the interesting second half. Occasionally there are dramas like *cough, cough* “ The Legend of Hao Lan, that are so action-packed they start to become repetitive. This drama successfully avoids all of theses Chinese sinkholes and manages to be interesting and well-paced from episodes one to fifty-two. The minor plots all add up to create the heart wrenching final episodes and build up the major overarching plot.

My least favorites/ Spoilers Here are 4 things in this drama that could have been improved 1. The memory loss 1. This is a plot device that I rarely like The only situation in which I believe amnesia has been done well is Scarlet Heart: Goryeo when Haesoo comes back from the past and initially cannot remember Wang So. Other than that I hate memory loss. It’s almost a cop-out when writers cant figure out how to push the plot along after making a huge mess and destroying their fictional world. In the case of Goodbye my princess the memory loss plot device almost worked for me, I almost credited the writers with having a stroke of genius, Almost. 2. The way memory was regained 1. This part of the plot is exactly why I hate memory loss in dramas. No one ever uses it to create satisfying outcomes, and by satisfying I don’t mean happy these two were never going to have a happy ending. I'm still a little jaded by how they both regained their memory. As I mentioned earlier Gu Jian remembers all the events of Danchi, he knows that Xiaofeng’s mother is dead, he knows that her father has lost his mind, and he knows he along with Li Chengyin are completely responsible for all of it. Knowing all of this he still chooses to approach Xiaofeng in her ignorant state and act like he’s some sort of savior. When he sees that she has become lonely and miserable from living in the palace far away from home and with no way to contact her family he chooses not to tell her the truth. When Xiaofeng and Li Chengyin are about to be married he chooses not to tell her the truth. When Li Chengyin is tormenting Xiaofeng to enact his revenge credibly Gu Xian again chooses not to tell the truth. Only when Gu Jian has finished his Gu family revenge and he has kidnapped the princess does he choose to tell the princess the truth so that he can use it for his benefit. 2. Li Chengyin does not remember anything until it is too late to fix his relationship. He knows what happened at Danchi but he doesn’t know about his past relationship with Xiaofeng. Li Chengyin cannot remember deceiving her in Danchi, marrying her, and then killing her grandfather on the same day. He also cannot remember being the reason for her parent's demise or the fact that she was forced to flee her kingdom in an attempt to escape him. Perhaps most importantly, Li Chenglin can’t even remember that he is the reason she tried to kill herself in the first place, but Gu Jian knows all of this. If Li Chengyin had known how much pain he had already caused Xiaofeng he would not have treated her the way he did once they were in Li state. Gu Jian knowing the whole story allowed him to influence Xiaofeng’s emotions and Li Chengyin’s actions which intimately leads to ruining the couple. 3. A’Du pretending to be mute 1. I really cannot understand how this helped the plot whatsoever. By A’Du keeping silent until the last few episodes she essentially kept Xiaofeng ignorant of her own misery until she had suffered so much it killed her. 4. The Ending 1. I’m not upset about our OTP not ending up together, in fact I happen to love sad endings. Two of my favorite dramas end up with one or both of the leads dying so I am no stranger to star-crossed lovers. I just don’t like that the OTP did not have even one moment together towards the end. The drama went from Li Chenglin being on the brink of death, to Xiaofeng being kidnapped, to the death of Xiaofeng. I needed some kind of moment where they were just together again like in Xi state before Li Chengyin’s betrayal. Almost all of the events from Xi state were repeated except for this one thing and it just feels like a missed opportunity.