ExtraPenguin

Well, yes, but there's a difference between (co-)lead and foil, no? And yeah, the first half really needed a better villain (maybe Puyang Ying is working for Mozi, too/otherwise related to Donghai to tie the plot-threads together better) and Pingjing definitely should've grown up earlier. Or have his arc start with him going "oh shit yeah I should put on my Court Personality" and stumbling with it out-of-practice before ironing out the kinks, then some actual character development.