Time for me to come clean about the obscure c-drama that was a big source of inspiration for Heavenly Tyrant lmao. It's called The Legend of Dugu and it's based on the Dugu sisters, who in history became empresses of three different dynasties. Qieluo from Iron Widow actually shares a historical inspiration with one of them, but in the show she's characterized very differently from how she typically is in popular consciousness. Her eldest sister Banruo (shown in this edit) is depicted as the more hardcore, ambitious one and gets entangled in a power struggle with the villain, Yuwen Hu. Their dynamic is IMMACULATE and contributed hugely to me writing Zetian vs Qin Zheng. Jeremy Tsui may not be styled as an edgy dark lord in this show like Dongfang Qingcang or Tantai Jin, but he very much embodies Qin Zheng for me.
