The Prince of Lan Ling is an excellent historical drama about a real life beautiful military man who ended up a legend because of his military acumen...and a dance that actually ended up being adapted by the Japanese (or so Wikipedia told me). The female character is entirely fictional I believe. Pros: The story is fast moving and solid with well developed secondary characters. The actors are solid; every single one. There is no weak link. The second male lead is one of my favorites of all time. Love how that story evolved. Girl is spunky and doesn't take a lot of grief from anyone through most of the drama. Chemistry is great with the two leads. I still think this is one of my favorite performances by Feng Shao Feng and the hair...love the hair. Cons: They did spend time developing the character of the standard psycho woman that we see in these dramas, which I appreciated. However, I think too much focus on that character slowed down the story and truthfully, I'm kind of over the crazy crazy women in these dramas. A lot happens in this drama, and occasionally the story is a bit contrived/silly but I think for the episode count, it is still better than most. Trope-wise, there is some noble idiocy...more than once. It's not really a pro or con, but I thought the ending could have come together a little better. Overall, I highly recommend this drama, and I do think it is a cut above a lot of the historicals. I think that this perhaps was produced by a Taiwanese company...not really sure, but it doesn't appear to be dubbed so I also think this is a plus. Generally, I don't re-watch some of these longer dramas, but I've actually checked this one out again. One final note: for anyone experienced, you will know that spoilers abound in the beginning and ending music of these dramas. Watch the beginning if you must, but there are spoilers to end ALL spoilers in the ending music. It's a great song, but I promise you, you will regret watching it because there are HUGE HUGE spoilers in it. I mean, I can't believe they did it and still don't know what they were thinking.