A Dream of Splendor is a story of the sisterhood of 3 women who strive to live independently and proudly, despite their position in society. All 3 women have their own stories of struggle in the path to getting where they are now, some of them (*cough* Yinzhang *cough*) are deeply flawed in the beginning but through various hurdles end the story with great character development.

STORY
There is a great combination of romance, comedy and angst in this story. I must emphasize the comedy because not many people mention it, the comedy in this was really to my taste and were some of my favourite parts.

The first 30 episodes are great, in fact I think it was actually steadily improving as it went on . Then we hit the part that sent the story rating straight down to 6.0. The drama was going so well, it wasn't too trope-y, the main couple was actually communicating, they had incredible chemistry. It's important to remember that both ML and FML are both very intelligent people, but when we hit the last 10 episodes, we reached trope-land. Miscommunication like no others and complete idiocy from the ML.

Here's the main spoiler part; FML's father was demoted and their family was given pariah status. After they get together, the ML finds out his father is responsible for the demotion. The same ML who was preaching about communication a few episodes ago starts avoiding her! At the same time, our very independent FML suddenly depends on the ML for money to carry out a very risky business deal. Our extremely intelligent ML decides to leave the money (the old cash note) near an open window. Under an empty vase. On a stormy night. And doesn't tell anyone he left the money. Smart, right? The obvious happens and the paper flies away and gets hidden by other documents, FML in trouble because without this money she (+ the other women) lose everything they own.

Naturally she's mad at him. Despite there being a series of dumb decisions that lead up to this, once she finds the money he left behind, all is forgiven... Something like "It's not that he didn't want to see you, he was scared of seeing you" is said and then they got back together, no discussion about what happened.

And some parts of the plot are badly rushed. Some arcs have no satisfying ending, some have no ending at all, it's just.. there. Especially re: the relationship of the ML and his father (+ uncle). Didn't like how quickly the empress was convinced to come to the good side either. Writing this review made me realise that I kind of filtered out some stuff while watching it.

Also I found Yin Zhang annoying af for most of the series and I couldn't stand her scenes. She did improve majorly at the end though.
Sanniang had the best storyline and I sincerely rooted for her. Best character easily.


ACTING/CAST
Great acting. I didn't enjoy Liu Yifei's acting in the beginning but she grew into the role quite quickly. Had amazing chemistry with Chen Xiao, their romance was just top tier. All of the cast did great. Shout out to the actor that played Chi Pan, thank you for the great comedic relief during the main angst session.

MUSIC
The OST was pretty great, ended up adding a couple of them to my playlist.

REWATCH VALUE
Depends on whether you can stomach the dumb conflicts for a second time lol. Think the storyline suits a rewatching though. Just not for me.

OVERALL
Just give it a shot! My review sounds overly negative but there's a reason why the ratings are high, the acting, the first 2/3 of the plot and the cinematography are also pretty good. But also be aware of how frustrating the last 10 episodes will be.