The thing that's bothering me the most is the undermining of Fan Changyu's character. If they were trying to be feminist, they've completely failed.
In the novel, Fan Changyu joins the other army so she isn't relying on husband nepotism and then works her way up. She does start as a commander, but a minor one. She trains, reads, learns from Tutor Tao, and earns her promotions. She saves an entire city by challenging the other side to one-on-one combat and delaying until the other army arrives. She's actually told that if she were a man, her promotions and rewards would have been higher.
In the drama, she's very good at killing people, but she has no strategy, no working her way up, and we're explicitly told her promotions are based on nothing but political schemes. What in the world! That doesn't make her awesome, that's sad and pathetic. They've reduced her to something like a diversity hire. In the novel, she does have trouble hiring teachers, but its because they don't see her potential and don't think they will be able to progress with her. Not because she's an idiot.
To have her go before the emperor and not know protocol? That's insane. The guy standing beside her could have at least said something on their ride up. She would have sought out training! You can die for offending the emperor. Novel!Fan Changyu would never.
