Love of Nirvana Review: A Tragic Story Carried by Extraordinary Character(s)
Now first things first. When I thought about starting an analysis/review blog, I didn't think this show would be the first I would review or that I would even have so much to say considering I didn't even like it all that much lol But things work out in strange ways. Anyway, without further ado, lets get into the review!
1. Overall Review [No Spoilers]
I finished Love of Nirvana just recently, and I definitely have Thoughts. Love of Nirvana is one of those dramas that is always just a hairs breath away from greatness but falls shy of it every time. Yet, it somehow leaves a lasting impression anyway. Its a political romance built on revenge, sacrifice, loyalty, and impossible choices. While the plotting occasionally stumbles and certain storylines feel more compelling than others, the drama somehow succeeded where it mattered most: its emotional core.
At the center of that success is Wei Zhao, a protagonist whose journey transformed what could have been a fairly standard revenge drama into something memorable. Around him is a cast of morally complicated characters who cannot be defined simply as good or evil. Its not an exaggeration to say that the characters carried the show on their back despite the weak writing in several parts of the show.
The series isn't perfect by any means. The pacing is uneven, the romance is a mix of heartwarming feels and super frustrating misunderstandings and the show surely could have done without some of the character arcs. Yet when the show focuses on its strongest themes—the cost of vengeance, the burden of responsibility, and the sacrifices required to protect ordinary people—it becomes incredibly compelling.
Fair warning though, this show is ultimately a tragedy. Not just because of how it ends, but because of the choices the characters make throughout the story. Nearly everyone is trapped by duty, loyalty, revenge, ambition, or love. Sometimes all five at once. Overall Rating: 6/10 (with 3 stars for Wei Zhao alone, 1 for Pei Yan, 1 for the ending and 1 for everything else)
2. The OST
I need to start by admitting something.
There are OSTs I enjoy.
And then there are OSTs that actively improve the drama they're attached to.
Love of Nirvana OSTs definitely belong to the second category.
I especially appreciated the soundtrack “Ordinary” by Liu Yuning and honestly? His songs are always 10/10 no notes anytime I hear his vocals in a drama it always elevates the viewing experience. Another track I really liked was the Yueluo Ballad. It begins with a child’s voice and it never fails to evoke those feelings of home and belonging. I think it was a particularly nice touch that it was heavily integrated into the drama itself as well.
Overall, there were scenes where I genuinely think the music did half the emotional heavy lifting.
3. The Script / Plot [Spoilers]
!!!Spoilers Ahead!!!
For me, the greatest strength of this drama lies in its thematic consistency.
At its heart, it asks a simple question: what is the cost of pursuing justice when revenge has consumed your entire life?
Wei Zhao begins the story driven by the desire to avenge his family. Like all the other revenge protagonists, he initially believes that exposing the truth and punishing those responsible will bring peace. What makes the script interesting is that it gradually challenges this belief.
As the story progresses, Wei Zhao's priorities shift. Rather than becoming increasingly obsessed with vengeance, he repetitively shows that his priority is protecting people. His growth is not about abandoning his admittedly painful past but learning that justice which arrives at a cost to innocents is meaningless.
As for Jiang Ci... well.
Unfortunately, she spent most of the drama reacting to the narrative around her rather than actively shaping it, with the exception of the middle half of the story where she positively impacted the people around her.
Personally, I found her to be the weakest-written major character in the show. It felt as though the writers wanted to portray someone so fundamentally good-hearted that she struggled to understand the moral ambiguity of those around her. Instead, she often came across as a selective moralist, harshly judging some characters while readily excusing others simply because she cared about them more.
On the whole, its a shame that the script itself was not always as strong as the themes supporting it. Nor did the pacing make sense.
There were stretches of the show which were, at best, unnecessary and at worst, frustrating. I know the show was originally supposed to be a romance but the way they handled the romance left me feeling that maybe if they had focused on the romance less, the show would have been better for it. There were of course sweet relationship building moments, but there were also several unnecessary conflicts between the leads (all three of them, I must say).
The ending... was devastating but appropriate.
A happier ending might have been more emotionally satisfying, but it would have undermined many of the themes the drama spent 40 episodes building. The tragedy works because it feels like the natural conclusion of Wei Zhao’s character journey.
4. The Characters
Wei Zhao/Xiao Wuxia AKA Shameless Cat
I have a confession. Around halfway through this drama, I realized I had stopped evaluating scenes objectively. My rating for any given scene was basically becoming:
"Is Wei Zhao in it?"
If yes: excellent scene. If not: probably not that important.
I'm joking. Mostly. :D Anyway, to summarize, I adored Wei Zhao throughout the show. He was consistently smart, capable and able to turn the situation to his advantage. It was fascinating to see how he subtly manipulated the people around him, the Emperor included, to achieve his goals. For instance, even when he was defeated by Pei Yan and Jiang Ci in the Envoy case, he used the situation to his advantage to plant a doubt in the Emperor’s mind that Pei Yan could be trouble. Even later on, he and Pei Yan teamed up to manipulate the two Princes to rescue Jiang Ci from the Emperor’s false charges.
Another admirable trait about Wei Zhao was that he was very clear and consistent about his aim of getting justice for his family. And despite being described as ruthless since the start, I found that he wasn't one to carelessly take lives. From the first episode to the last, he cared deeply about the people around him. The ending, too, absolutely preserved him (even if it failed to preserve his life..) and the fact that he carried the show on his back.
Something I really loved was just how sincere he was, throughout the show. He was sincere towards his people, his homeland, even Jiang Ci. I could see his sincerity in the way he repaired his old home and made it exactly like how Jiang Ci described. I could see it in how he gave up on revenge immediately to protect the people. He genuinely implicated himself and his family in front of the Emperor and everyone else, just to give a chance to the very people who were hostile to him for most of his life. These moments are what elevated him above being just another revenge protagonist.
Speaking of, one of my favorite recurring aspects of the story was the contrast between how other people perceived him and who he actually was.
To the court and everyone else, he was dangerous and intimidating.
To his enemies, he was ruthless and cunning.
To the emperor, he was first a loyal subordinate and eventually a suspicious enemy.
But over and over again all we saw was a man who genuinely cared about ordinary people.
The irony of Wei Zhao's story is that the closer he got to achieving his goals, the less revenge seemed to matter to him.
The drama spent forty episodes teaching us exactly who Wei Zhao was.
And when the ending arrived, it asked him to act accordingly.
And he did.
Of course he did.
Jiang Ci AKA Xiao Ci
I know this is probably (definitely..) an unpopular opinion, but Jiang Ci never fully worked for me.
This isn't to say I disliked her. There were moments where I appreciated what she brought to the story.
She was extremely smart, to the point she could figure out Wei Zhao's schemes.
She had strong principles and stood for what she thought was right.
She was brave and deeply caring, choosing to help others even at detriment to herself.
She was often one of the few people willing to see Wei Zhao as a human being rather than a political tool, enemy, or a commanding officer.
But other than that, I found her frustratingly inconsistent.
One episode she would display remarkable insight and emotional intelligence. The next, she would make decisions that felt completely disconnected from everything she supposedly understood about the people around her.
During the third quarter of the show, I even wondered where that independent young lady we had gotten to know disappeared because she, for some reason, passively accepted her fate of being confined in the palace despite her initial initiative and risk-taking behaviour during the time she escaped from the Pei Residence.
On that note, part of my problem is that I somehow felt she and Wei Zhao were not on the same wavelength, due to whatever conflicting priorities.
The relationship often felt emotionally lopsided.
By the finale, I of course ended up liking her more than I did at the beginning.
But "more than the beginning" is... well, not exactly a glowing endorsement.
Pei Yan
Pei Yan ended up being one of the biggest surprises in the entire drama.
When I first started watching the show, I honestly did not like him. At All. My initial impression was that he was ambitious, controlling, and kind of sleazy. He seemed like the type of character who wanted power everywhere—in court, in politics, and even in his personal relationships. His feelings for Jiang Ci often felt like a desire to possess and protect something he considered his.
Looking back now, I realize I owe him an apology.
What makes Pei Yan's arc so satisfying is that he never feels inconsistent. He grows, but he never becomes a different person. He always had goodness in him, we were shown that when he didn't hesitate to save a random girl who literally trespassed into the peace talks.
The problem was that his goodness had become buried beneath his insecurities.
The more I thought about his character, the more I realized how much of his behavior stemmed from his upbringing. We are shown what kind of a person his mother was. She controlled him in the name of protection. She dictated his path in the name of wanting what was best for him. She justified every manipulation as an act of love.
Being his only example for what love is supposed to look like, Pei Yan adopted the same habits. Thats why his feelings for Jiang Ci often manifested as possessiveness and why he constantly wanted to decide what was best for other people.
But once he was actually challenged on this by Wei Zhao and Jiang Ci? Once he was forced to confront what his mother had become with his own eyes?
He actually did some self-reflection.
He realized that the person he was becoming was not the heroic Marquis that Jiang Ci had once admired.
His experiences in Nanling were particularly important. Losing Jiang Ci's respect. Losing the trust of others because of his poor judgment. Watching his family fall apart. Instead of becoming bitter like any other SML would have, he learned from them.
One of my favorite moments in the entire drama comes much later, when he reflects on his relationship with Wei Zhao and realizes that they were never truly enemies. When he tells Wei Zhao he sees him not as a rival, but as a confidant and friend, it felt like the culmination of his entire journey.
That growth is ultimately why I was so happy to see him become Chancellor in the end. He definitely deserved it by the finale, even if he didn't deserve it in the beginning of the show.
I think Pei Yan’s character evolution is something I will remember for a long time.
The Antagonist: The Emperor
Watching the Emperor was like watching someone repeatedly ignore every warning sign while insisting they were in complete control of the situation. But it was also so realistic? Because it was his utmost insistence that he was right, till the very end, that made him so human.
The writing was particularly good in the case of Xie Che because when I saw him in the beginning few episodes, I could never have guessed that he was the one behind most of the problems our leads were facing.
Frankly, he was an effective antagonist. His paranoia, while irrational, made sense in the context of his life. It forced us to examine what a lifetime of competing for supreme power can do to a person. And how it can also lead to one’s downfall.
His problem wasn’t that he was ambitious, it was that he let his ambition for power control every single relationship in his life, even with those who truly saw him as their own, like Prince Qi. At the end of the day, he ended up a paranoid old man who pushed away the brother who loved him, the lady love of his life, the child he had with the consort he loved, his niece, his own sons and ultimately, the very throne he did all this for.
Master Yan
Man, I hate her.
Now you might be wondering why I bothered to write about her at all, but as a character who haunted the narrative almost the entire length of the drama, I thought it only proper that I give my two cents.
Okay so. The show clearly wanted us to see her as a loving aunt who was deeply protective of Jiang Ci. Unfortunately, all I felt was deep, vitriolic hatred.
For one, she was immensely arrogant. She looked down on almost everyone in the show and stated her opinions as if they were objective facts. When she accused Wei Zhao's father and sister, she did so with absolute confidence. Later, when it became clear that they had been wronged, she didn't even have the grace to admit she was wrong.
But what bothered me most was her relationship with Jiang Ci.
From the moment she appeared, she acted as though she was the only person capable of protecting Jiang Ci and that everyone else was out to hurt her. The more I thought about it, the more unsettling it became. Jiang Ci was shown throughout the drama to be incredibly likable. People met her and immediately wanted to help her, sometimes even at great personal cost. Yet we're told that back in her hometown she was bullied and had no friends.
Maybe I'm overthinking it, and I don't think the writers intended this interpretation, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Master Yan deliberately fostered that dependence. It felt like she wanted Jiang Ci to rely on her and only her, ensuring that she would remain loyal and under her influence.
As a result, I never saw Master Yan as a loving aunt/master/guardian. I saw her as manipulative, controlling, and deeply self-serving.
So no, I didn't feel particularly sad when she died.
In fact, I was more upset that Wei Zhao felt guilty about it, considering it wasn't his fault at all.
Honorable Mention: Madam Rongguo
Madam Rongguo was terrible.
I mean that as a compliment.
Every time Madam Rongguo appeared on screen, I found myself looking forward to whatever terrible plan she was about to come up with next. She was clever, ambitious, manipulative, and most importantly, entertaining. Of course, that doesn't excuse the fact that she was a terrible person and especially a terrible mother.
Still, I loved how clever she seemed with her various half-baked schemes. She tried to outmaneuver Wei Zhao too, and while she did not manage to fool him, she was dangerous enough that even he couldn't simply ignore her. Her meddling eventually forced him to return to her and deal with the consequences of her plotting, or as she put it, “He doesn’t have a choice” LOL
One of my favorite aspects of her character was how ruthlessly self-serving she was. When she manipulated Master Yan and ultimately did not keep her promises, it didn't feel like a shocking betrayal. It felt completely in character. Madam Rongguo was always looking out for herself and her son first, and I appreciated that the drama never tried to soften her edges or redeem her unnecessarily.
My only complaint is that she was ultimately a minor villain.
5. The Romance
The romance was probably the most hit-or-miss aspect of the drama for me.
For a while, I was genuinely warming to Wei Zhao and Jiang Ci as a couple. Their dynamic had a lot of potential, and I enjoyed watching them slowly move from distrust toward understanding, despite their VERY rocky start. The way she teased him by calling him Shameless Cat, slowly losing all her fear of him, their banter and then their increasing reliance on each other during the Nanling and then Yueluo arc.
But then Master Yan returned, and my investment in the romance took a significant hit.
To be fair, the final stretch of the drama did recover some of that goodwill. The last few episodes gave us several lovely romantic moments, and I could absolutely see why these two people cared for each other. My problem was that it all felt a little abrupt after everything that had happened before (namely, the forced misunderstanding due to Master Yan).
Look, Jiang Ci’s anger at Wei Zhao for using her despite their growing affection and trust was 100% justified. What wasn’t justified was how they continued to have a misunderstanding even afterwards when they returned to the palace, with zero communication from either end. I think this is where the writing severely suffered, because it felt less like two people struggling with mistrust and betrayal, but more like a conflict forced on two characters in a story.
Perhaps that is why I found myself wishing the romance had been structured differently. I would have loved for them to begin as enemies, remain hostile for longer, and then, once they finally chose each other, become completely inseparable. Personally, I have never been a fan of the "forced breakup after getting together" trope. Those conflicts are usually far more compelling when they happen before the relationship is established rather than after.
Had the drama allowed Wei Zhao and Jiang Ci to spend more time united instead of separated, I think Wei Zhao's eventual sacrifice would have hit even harder. The tragedy was already effective, but a stronger, more stable romance would have made the emotional cost of that ending even greater. (One might notice I did not mention Pei Yan here at all and well. A lot of his obsessive love scenes were infuriating, thank you, I am glad Jiang Ci did not entertain it at all.)
6. The Bromance and the Sismance
This deserved its own header because there were several relationships I liked in the show which had nothing to do with our main cp. First and the most obvious would be Wei Zhao and Pei Yan. Yes, they were rivals for most of the show. But the way their relationship began from a cat-and-mouse chase and culminated into a brotherhood was fascinating to watch. Both of them came a long way from their initial head butting and I was really happy to see them supporting each other at the end. Secondly, I also found the relationship between Jiang Ci and Ziming very charming. They had essentially nothing in common when they first met, but they quickly became close as they interacted more and thus formed the basis of a very sweet bond. What was even better that it did not culminate into a romantic attraction and stayed a solid friendship. Honorary mention here for the bond Jiang Ci formed with the various ladies of the show, like Yu Lian, A'Yan and Second Lady Dong. These friendships really were not given much time due to the not so nice pacing, but they absolutely deserve a mention because who doesn't love girls supporting girls? I wish they had gotten some more depth.
7. The Ending
The ending was tragic, but it was exactly the right ending for this story.
What made it work for me was the sheer impossibility of Wei Zhao's situation. The odds were not just stacked against him—they were insurmountable. How do you even get justice when the SOLE wielder of justice is also the culprit?? Worse, how do you win when that person is so convinced of his own righteousness that he never even acknowledges his wrongdoing??
This is what made the conflict between Wei Zhao and the Emperor so compelling. It was never a battle between equals. By the final act, Wei Zhao had allies and people who cared for him, yes, but he was still fundamentally fighting alone. He never gathered the kind of power that protagonists in other dramas often do to even the odds by the end of the drama.
And so, when the only thing left for him to gamble with was himself, his life became the final go stone he could place on the board to secure his victory against the Emperor.
Tbh, Wei Zhao was never going to defeat the Emperor through power. He never had enough of it. Instead, he won simply by burying the Emperor in a grave of his own making. In doing so, he avenged his family while also protecting those he loved from the Emperor’s growing tyranny.
One of my favorite moments was actually the scene where the people of Yueluo came to pay their respects to Xiao Wuxia. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. After a lifetime of hostility, seeing his people finally acknowledge and honor him was incredibly moving. Its a shame that Xiao Wuxia himself never got to see it.
8. Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, Love of Nirvana is a drama that succeeds because of its characters.
The plot isn't perfect. The pacing is all over the place. Some storylines work better than others. But when I look back on this drama, those aren't the things I remember.
I remember Wei Zhao's intelligent scheming and his endless loyalty.
I remember Jiang Ci returning to do what is right again and again, despite wanting other things out of life.
I remember Pei Yan slowly becoming someone better.
I remember Master Yan testing my patience on a weekly basis.
And I remember an ending that hurt exactly as much as it was supposed to.
