YMMV / Story of Yanxi Palace

• Friendly Fandoms: With Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace. Both series are set during Hongli's reign and feature many of the same characters. In fact, although the series are unrelated, Yanxi is almost a Perspective Flip of Ruyi: a character based on Empress Nara is a villain (named Hoifa-Nara Shushen) in Yanxi and the protagonist (named Ulanara Ruyi) in Ruyi, while a character based on Noble Consort Ling is the protagonist (named Wei Yingluo) in Yanxi and a villain (named Wei Yanwan) in Ruyi. In Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace Hongli is an undisputed villain and domestic abuser. In Story Of Yanxi Palace while flawed, he is fundamentally a good person. In Ruyi, the Empress Dowager's name is Zhen Huan, hates the protagonist Ruyi at first because she is the niece of the Empress who is her Arch-Enemy but eventually becomes her ally. 'Yanxi's'' is named not Zhen Huan but has the last name of "Niohuru", did not hate Shusen but eventually does when the latter tries to get revenge for the death of her father, and she never sends female spies in the harem to make Hongli make decisions that would help her. She is also more explicitly older looking than her Ruyi counterpart.
• Hate Sink: Erqing. She is a jealous, ruthless and immoral person with no redeeming qualities. She deems Yingluo a threat and the worst person to ever exist just because Rongyin likes her and trusts her more than Erqing. She forces Fuheng to marry her under the threat of killing Yingluo, treats her old palace coworkers like dime-a-dozen slaves she can boss around (and even slaps Yingluo when she refuses to prioritize Erqing over the Empress), and when he doesn’t reciprocate her interest for obvious reasons, she has an affair with the Emperor and forces Fuheng to stay with her. Then, she tells Rongyin what she did as revenge for “abandoning her”, and does not feel any remorse when Rongyin kills herself.
  • Hongzhou (Prince He). He assaults Yingluo’s sister, feels no guilt whatsoever years later and even sets his eyes on Yingluo, telling her that he could just force her to be his wife with one word to the Emperor because she’s just a disposable maid. Years later, he stages a coup on his brother out of jealousy over being second to him.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Erqing telling Rongyin who was in huge mourning over Yongcong that she slept with the Emperor with no shame and remorse definitely made her irredeemable in Yingluo, Mingyu, and the viewer's eyes.
  • When Chun sets Yongcong's nursery on fire, killing him and leading to Rongyin committing suicide. Plus, using her acupuncture skills to try and kill Mingyu which lessened her lifespan and lead her to have a short life.
  • The moment where it reveals Chenbi made Mingyu commit suicide to hurt Yingluo.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Despite the good relations between the two shows’ fandoms, the show has been accused of being a knock off of Ruyi's Royal Love In The Palace. Reasons are: Yanxi Palace being produced and finished in just a year during the time when RRLITP was being edited due to laws cutting down on inaccurate historical dramas, the identical setting of Emperor Qianlong’s reign, and the creator’s alleged habit of making shows identical to ones that have not aired yet to exploit the empty space and waiting fans.

---