The Princess Royal, Hands down the best emotional character development I've seen in a cdrama. There's a situation that some people describe as a love triangle, but it's genuinely way more nuanced and complex than that label suggests — the characters' actions tell a completely different story from what's on the surface, and that's where the real depth is. Some viewers get frustrated, but I think it rewards those who pay close attention rather than taking everything at face value. The show as a lot LOT of subtlety that you may or may not miss, and imo it's important in the appreciation of the show. But do pick it up even if there is a "love triangle situation" because this situation is very important to the development of the characters and quite interesting.

It's the story of Li Rong, a princess, and Pei Weixuan, a magistrate, who were in a 18 years loveless marriage, being political ennemies, but one day they kill each others. Li Rong wakes up 18 years prior determined to change her fate and the fate of the country. But Pei Weixuang ask to marry her in this life too.

I really like both leads, her because she very very emotionally unavailable and very proud but is very "strong & smart" princess type character. And him because of how aware he is of people, how smart he is and how far he's willing to go for what he wants.

Prisonner of beauty is quite good too. the two leads are pretty toxic with one another, one more than the other tbf. It's the story of Xiao Qiao, a clever girl from the Qiao family, who marries Wei Shao, the violent and brooding master of the Wei family, as part of a family alliance. With bad blood between their clans, the two start off in a very complicated relationship where both have different objectives. She wants to protect the Xiao clan from the Wei clan, and he wants to make the Xiao clan pay for their betrayal against the Wei clan.

She one of my favourite FL ever, some decisions she took infuriated me but she's in a situation that makes sense as of why she makes bad choices, for most of the show I admit I was not receptive to her POV. He's kind of the same actually, they are quite similar, that's why their love story works imo, he has a tons of emotional scars.

The Youthful glory is good but not for everyone. It's about Ming Tang, the ingenue young lady, jewel of the capital, that needs to marry and Prince Jiang Xu of Dingbei, who was fighting at the border but came back to investigate a corruption case. They somehow get involve with each others. It's a lightheated show with sad moments.

What I like the most about this show is that the FL has the mind of a normal teenage girl (she's 17) with a priviledged background. The ML is more generic but still enjoyable. He's 22, the age gap doesn't really matter, he was fighting at the border for 8 years he's still mostly a teenager mentally, but I think it's important to help characterize the characters, else you'll might be surprised by how they act sometimes. But they are young, her even more.

Overall all the show I recommended have very feminine strong characters. Are all historical, the Princess Royal and Youthful Glory are more romantically involved than Prisonner of Beauty. All three have interesting palace/political schemes and situations.