The thread is open.
A few words from @GB.
On LBFD Eps 31 to 36 Rewatch OT
Definite time: Option 1: Friday 7 Oct 2022, 09:30 UTC.
09:30 UTC is:
05:30 pm Singapore
10:30 pm New Zealand (With Daylight Savings)Option 2: Saturday 8th Oct 2022, 08:00 UTC
Option 3: Sunday 9th Oct 2022, 08:00 UTC
Option 4: Sunday 9th Oct 2022, 13:00 UTCPlease Google your time zone equivalent of the UTC time and choose which option(s) suit you or propose a suitable time and weβll see if anyone can make it!
Gifs from belmultifandommess’ tumblr
Enjoy the rewatch!
Aaah thanks @pkml3, you’ve chosen the conversation on the bridge scene gifs. Even just watching the gifs, gets me feeling so much.
*SPOILERY THOUGHTS ON THE END*
The first time on that bridge, she waited for him, not knowing that he was standing up for her (and not standing her up LOL) against the wishes of all his people, declaring his love for her and his resolve to marry her and only her. He had earned his ‘right’ to keep his tryst with her on the bridge, by voluntarily taking on torture for failures which he claimed were his own and not hers. He still made it on time, white faced, and painfully (he kept his promise) although late, and she did not scold him but embraced him and kissed him in welcome.
They failed to tie their love-locks to the bridge because he collapsed with the ill effects of the torture.
This second time on the bridge, they went together but she no longer acknowledged remembering their past. Instead of the people, it is Orchid herself who protests that DFQC should move on from loving just that one ‘plant’ who was gone.
Still, once again DFQC stood up for Orchid. He considered how good Orchid had been to him and how he did not deserve her but would keep his commitment nevertheless, being united with her in memory if nothing else. He pledged to his Orchid that he would love only her by tying the love locks to the bridge, and bemoaned the fact that she would never know what a good person he’d become because of her and that she’d loved him to her death.
The sweet irony is of course that Orchid is right there listening to everything he’s saying to her, and is deeply moved. She never had any doubts about how good he was, but she found, that she needed him to know that she knew this, and that she did not regret loving him, and sacrificing herself to save him and everyone.
Hence, uncharacteristically for Xi Yun, before their final goodbyes, she sought him, saw his unhappy, resigned face, and reminded him as Orchid had done, to smile.
Now that I think about it, this was a crucial step in the trajectory of the plot. If DFQC had not become certain that this was indeed the same Orchid whose Destiny Book was in his keeping, would he have checked that her fate had changed? Would he have at that right time remembered that the Arbiter herself had wanted to change Orchid’s destiny but could not, and that she had said he was the only one who could do so, ‘at the end of the end’.
I love how intelligent the characters are. He realised that Orchid’s pretense that she did not know him, was to spare him another onslaught of grief when she took upon herself, her one ‘fate’ to sacrifice herself to kill Tai Sui. By logical conclusion, he then knew what his ‘fate’ was. He was to take on the mission of Xi Yun to save Orchid/Xi Yun.
I don’t know how immortal Orchid/Xi Yun was supposed to be, but if ever there was a ‘right’ person to be sacrificed, it was DFQC. He was the one, true immortal, who could not be killed. Even in annihilation, his spirit was retained in a bone(?) that did not even need to be planted in order be ‘cultivated’. He was suspended in the air, like the moon in the sky, under what might be the dragon and phoenix headdresses, made of flower wreaths, in Orchid’s garden. I assume (although it is never explicitly revealed) that Orchid made them herself, and filled them with healing power, so that the bone absorbed the means to revive DFQC again.
What clever, consistent logic to the problem of resurrection. LOL.
Hi @Viva, I’m just putting this here early in case you come in before me. I just heard that I may have to take care of my mum-in-law tomorrow. If I am sure that I’ll be away during the rewatch time, I’ll leave some posts here on Ep 31 and 32. You can continue with your rewatch, and add comments as usual. I’ll try to get back to see if you’re still around by the time I come online.
If in the end I’m not needed by family, I’ll come in as usual. In either case, I’ll be reading ya and will probably respond, albeit later!!!
π π€ π π
@GB no problem! Family first! π Hope MIL is OK?
I am a bit busy with work at the moment as it is quarter end reporting time but I have read your review of the Rational Life. Eager to share thoughts about that too once work is out of the way!
Take care!
Hi @Viva! Yes, Family, Work and RL take precedence. Sometimes it gets so, that dramas are what I live for and work gets in the way LOL.
MIL is better now, but if she wants to go to church for the weekday Mass tomorrow, I’ll bring her, and the time clashes with our Rewatch. She was supposed to go today but decided to go tomorrow. The reason I’m not sure if it’s going to happen is that she may change her mind again tomorrow or it may rain!!! π¦οΈ π§οΈ βοΈ (It did rain earlier today) β So we shall see. π€ͺ π
Anyway, it’s likely that I can get home within 1.5 hours, in which case I may still catch the tail end of the rewatch π.
The Rational Life
Yes, I thought of the chat we had about The Rational Life while I was watching it. I didn’t spend time to really think about it, but of course it was obvious that so many comments were being made about the same old or the changing and changed attitudes in that society (and many others) towards women per se, women’s roles in work, in leadership, in family, social life, etc … And also naturally, it would touch on comment about men’s roles, expectations and attitudes which are also changing. It’s a delicate balance, retaining or living with what was ‘customary’ from ages past while entering into the ‘new’.
The emergence of the ‘new energy vehicle’ as opposed to the old fuel vehicle, is a metaphor for the new attitudes that are being more and more accepted and looks to be becoming the norm, at least in cities. Just as there are obstacles put in the way of making new energy vehicles more advertised and acceptable, so too are there blocks to accepting the new attitudes. I guess Show is saying that the new will be inevitable, no matter how much some may want to stall its progress.
On the one end of the spectrum, we have Rou Xin’s Mum (Zhou Yi Lan) and Liu Pei representing the ‘old’ mindset, Qi Xiao, Xu Ming Jie, Zi Yan, Lisa and maybe some others representing the ‘new’ mindset, and then there are Ruo Xin, Zou Cheng, Qi Xiao’s Mum who are in the middle, straddling both the new and the old, but learning how to embrace the new.
The debates to win arguments for and against each option when issues arose, were actually pretty good (I did not, however, try to transcribe them), so I applaud the scriptwriters, Chen Tong and Long Xiao Shan, who are both women. They really made this drama a great platform to air their views on their own roles in their society. π
I can find you both for Friday’s watch! Which is tomorrow!
Been busy with work which is quite some teaching and prep work to teach so I haven’t been checking in much.
Will catch up on the what u all are writing on rational life soon too. It has many points that made me think twice
Hi @grace! That’s great! You can keep @Viva company in case I can’t make it for the whole Rewatch. It starts at 5.30pm SGT.
Heheheheh! Sounds almost like this is the Rational Life chat thread. Suggestion: we can chat about the Rational Life on the What Are We Watching in Oct 2022 thread, since I posted a review of it there.
https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2022/10/01/bitch-talk-what-are-we-watching-in-oct-2022/#comments
Aside from what I’ve said so far… although I think the production itself is good, I don’t accept all its concepts. For instance, the concept of marriage in Rational Life bothered me, although I’m aware it’s pretty widely embraced.
π€ π§ π€¨
BTW, are there any takers for Option 2 or 3 or 4 Rewatch Parties? We should decide on any two of these three, and finish off the rewatch for LBFD this weekend, although I’ll probably still be listening to the OSTs and watching the BTS and the MVs of it even afterwards. βΊοΈ π
@GB,
Did you want a Rational Life Open thread? I can make one for you when I get home tonight.
Just tag me in the “Love in Contract” Keep Calm thread.
Have to leave for the office now. π
Hi @pkml3, that’s sweet of you to offer us a thread for The Rational Life. It would be easier for readers to find it if there’s a named thread for the show. If you think it’s worth the effort, then yes!! I’ll tag you also on the Love in Contract Keep Calm and Think Clearly Thread. π
Hi @Viva, @grace and anyone who’s online here. I’m around!!! I should be able to live rewatch with you.
6 minutes to the Rewatch Party and counting!!!
ep 31 rewatch starts here
DFQC’s sad face after making Orchid leave! Although he switched to a face rather full of hate/determination when he knew the war is starting.
The CGI is very impressive to watch. Everyone’s war outfits help building up the seriousness and tension of the drama.
XF – I think his character thinks that sacrifice is not a problem for the benefit of saving the whole nation. As long as his brother is safe, as long as the moon tribe is safe.
I’m here!
This starts with the heart breaking declaration that DFQC never loved her. Ah…we always said that he expressed love in actions and even though he tore the engagement bracelet apart, I felt it was this action that affected her most. She startled when he tore it.
Sigh…it must have hurt him so much to say such cutting words so that he can save her life.
@Hi GB!!! I am here already. Started slightly early.
MIL OK?
@Hi Grace!!! Glad to see you here!
@Viva, the CGI is really seamless…it would be painful to watch other dramas with CGI less amazing than this. We have been really spoiled by their level of expertise.
I still don’t understand…was MS the one who slaughtered the Xilan tribe previously? I thought it was a RH. Is it something the script writers got mixed up? Or did MS did the deed and RH killed the rest that remained?
On Evil Qi, now I’m wondering if the loss of DFQC’s hellfire is due to the evil qi that ‘infected’ him while in Lucheng or the revival of his emotional root. XF says that the “primordial spirit will gradually be corroded” when one is attacked. Could it be that it was the evil qi that caused the loss of hell fire then?
Chidi also became like a walking corpse later on isn’t it though the irony was that it was used for keeping her primordial spirit alive.
Hi @Viva! Yes, all’s well with family. It’s another rainy day. I went out shopping in the rain – I need stuff urgently. But MIL and FIL do not like to step out in the wet. So I’m happily at home and can party with you. π
When DFQC was about to colluded with Evil God, his Xilan symbol on the forehead lit up. It feels like that has cleansed his mind, like how in ep 36 when the symbol showed up again to wake him up from his Evil God induced “coma”.
@grace, indeed, indeed. CGI, OSTs and their costumes and make up. When Forbidden Love releases in the future, I will have to lower my standard.
Glad all is good with your family @GB! π
It’s been a rainy weather where I am too…cloudy all day. Stay warm!
yeah @Grace, he didn’t. It was RH who killed everyone. But I think @GB (if I recalled correctly) answered me in the first watch saying DFQC caused Chidi’s death. That leads to RH killing the Xilan Tribe.
Hi @grace, thanks for starting us off with Ep 31.
About the Xilan tribe’s slaughter – I believe that no one knew it was done by RH. It was just attributed to DFQC and no one could dispute that since DFQC was tied up in Haotian Tower.
I’ve noticed more than once that DFQC takes ‘credit’ for evil he did not do. Or he does not explain the good things that he did do. Now again, he makes use of the wrong belief to his disadvantage, in order to turn Fairy away from him.
= = =
The belief by DFQC and even by Die Yi is that the return of the emotional root and love, destroys the ability to control Hellfire. So I think it’s mainly that.
I noted the similarities between the evil spirit absorbing Fairy’s spirit energy (and turning her weak) and Chidi’s reliance on evil spirits to keep her from become a zombie.
RH really did her a great disservice by relying on Evil God and evil spirits.
Is DFQC using the evil qi to unlock the 100,000 soldiers??? :O :O :O When his eyes turn black, I assume he has been possessed by Taisui.
I’m so glad that the Heart Curse snapped him out of it. It’s like how can he completely abandon her in a moment. @Viva, the heart curse is not a curse in the end. It is a heart blessing for them. Sometimes what we see is inconvenient in the beginning can be a blessing in the end.
I have to say that this part of ep31 is really exicitng, the bgm, that sense of urgency to save Orchid, the possibility of Orchid dying, CH coming to save her just in time. Then all this while, we know that in the background Moon Trive and Shuiyuntian tribe is waging war against each other. and all the characters we know are dying one by one. As that happens, the bgm changes.
@grace I’m literally in long coat sweater to keep warm. I should have worn long pants too. My knees feel cold!!
@GB I have to thank the weather!!!So rainy day can be good too!!! π
Everyone is dead now. As it is a rewatch I don’t need to cry. I know they will coming back to live soon.
It is still quite sad to see DFQC and Orchid climbing on the sad though. Playing the conversation of Orchid and Shimin when she told Orchid that “Only love is not fate.” I get that – it is a choice.
Hi @Viva, not sure if I was the one who responded to your query on Chidi’s death or the end of Xilan tribe, but yes… DFQC did indirectly bring about that tragedy because RH was out to resurrect Chidi who killed herself to seal DFQC. I don’t know why RH had to kill all of Xilan’s tribe to get to Fairy, but it looks like he did. Also that tribe was a pretty small one by the looks of the numbers who died.
” SM: Orchid, you donβt understand. Thereβs no reason in love. Whether one is good or evil, whether heβs an important or a human, if you fall for him, you just love him.
Orchid: I donβt understand. Could this be fate?
SM: This is not fate. Everything in this world is fated. Only love is not fate. β
Yes, love is a choice. Ahh..lovely reminder.
@GB from memory, I think RH wanted Xilan Goddess? Probably after her healing properties? She can restore Chidi’s broken spirit.
It is very cold here too. Consider we are in spring, I have the heat pump on. Some unseasonal cold blast.
@Grace I feels like watching a movie! Quality is so high.
DFQC’s Xilan symbol dissolves. He will have it back in ep 36 though.
MS was surrounded by black evil as he tries to unseal the Shuo Feng sword, and when we next see him, he no longer has his armour on.
He points the black sword at the top of the Shuo Feng Sword. Evil spirals out of it in waves of black smoke, like a narrow, dense whirlwind, seeking to unseal the sword.
13:50, RH disarms Fairy. the sword flies out of Fairy’s hand and breaks it into 2. It falls a short distance away.
RH then attacks Fairy, levitating her with evil spirits swirling around/surrounding her. By trying to remove the Bone Orchid, he was killing her slowly because she and the bangle cannot be separated. Her pain activates the Xilan Holy Seal on MS’s forehead. He immediately knows that Fairy is in pain.
The Bone Orchid does look tighter around Fairy’s wrist now that RH is trying to get Chidi’s spirit out of it.
MS stops what he’s doing and tries to sense where she is.
I commented in the other thread in reply to @Dinnertime that he behaved differently here ie he flew instead of ‘apparated’ next to Fairy, because I believed her weak spirit after being attacked by RH, was affecting him. When she became tired, fell, fainted etc… he was directly affected too. So unlike before, he could not just appear next to her to save her… he could not exactly tell where she was. The signal from her spirit was too weak for him to know her location, but he had a sense of where to go. He was literally looking for her in that sandstorm.
@grace, yes, love is a choice. Love is a commitment and is not just an emotion. So it’s not fate although we can say that some meetings are serendipitous. π
Ah thanks @GB @Viva, it is really DFQC taking the blame for all the killing that has happened. He doesn’t make excuses.
Honestly love the sacrifice of Orchid in a way that it was such an awesome outcome because it revived all the dead in the battle, it revived Chidi. It cleared out all the darkness that shrouded Xuanxu.
And they made it so beautiful with the green sparkle raining down on everyone as she floated in the end. I’m also so glad she didn’t die completely and got to see DFQC in her last breath. Even though I must have sobbed terribly when I first watched it. I remember the bts of this scene, it was so hard for Dylan to get out of character in this scene.
And the characteristic smile she makes DFQC do even at her last breath.
Orchid and DFQC’s departing scene is one of the best scenes in the drama. So emotionally charged. It only works because we love the characters so much in the last 30 episodes. Although when I first watched I was pretty hopeful that Orchid would come back to live as it was only ep 31.
You are so annoying. But I still like you. T_T
Their crying scenes are so well acted.
Yes, that’s right @Viva… RH was after the goddess for Chidi’s sake.
Ah all these scenes are so emotive. I just watched them a couple of days ago as well. So sad.
= = =
CH suddenly appears where RH is. Distracted, RH lets Fairy fall to the ground.
CH sees Fairy but decides to take the fight elsewhere. (I’m guessing he popped up there because he was suspicious of RH, and was surprised to find that RH was hurting Fairy.)
RH and CH go elsewhere to fight.
17:33
Left alone, Fairy is determined to reach the broken Cheng Ying Sword to kill herself so that she won’t die in such a way that MS dies with her. “No, I can’t die like this. I can only be killed by the Cheng Ying sword. This way he can survive. Everyone can survive.”
(MS attempt to save her life by making her hate him was a dismal failure. Instead she was determined to die by the Cheng Ying Sword to save him.)
MS calls for Fairy. She keeps crawling towards the broken sword.
We see on the battlefield all the familiar members of the Moon Tribe and the Fairies being killed. (It’s a very sad scene. I felt bad for everyone.)
19:10 Fairy keeps crawling and has to rest a while. When she stops in exhaustion, MS also collapses for a while sharing her exhaustion. The battlefield is littered more or less equally with the dead dressed both black and white. Where are the survivors? Are there none except CH and RH?
@GB yeah if we borrow the “apparition” concept form Harry Potter. As apparting is quite complex there.
Or, for effects? Flying is more dramatic and shows more desperation. Just showing up doesn’t feel as painful.
@grace Ah yes the scene of Orchid dying with that OST playing. So many feels. She thought of her master, she looked to make sure DFQC was ok, and plunged the sword in deeper.
I notice that show has 2 or more scenes of things falling/flying. There was snow in Yun Meng. Here we have loads of sand and then Xilan’s fairy lights gently falling on everyone to revive lives. But first the burst of energy from Fairy blasts everyone near her backwards and a pillar of light joins earth to heaven so that the green lights are activated to fall from the sky.
So beautiful, so right.
@GB @Grace and I felt that they use the conversation between the Orchid(before she knows what love is) and Shimin to build that up. The character didn’t say the words out, but showed us in her action, after she knows what love is, after the DFQC said those horrible things to her.
Does she know DFQC was lying? I felt it doesn’t matter to her.
I love how everyone ‘wakes up’ and all can see the goddess in the air, shining like a new star. All automatically know to pay her homage as the giver of their second chance at life. I like XF’s salute.
So good that even Chidi gets a second chance, but unfortunately her life is so corrupted by the evil spirits, that she cannot be happy except in death.
= = =
MS goes to her.
Fairy notes : “Good. You’re fine. β¦ I want to get some sun.”
(OST 4 plays ‘Lingering Feelings’ in which is the hope that remaining years will be changed into a dream of infatuation⦔)
31:12 MS brings Fairy to the hilt of the Shuo Feng Sword to see the sunrise.
Fairy : “Don’t cry. ”
She touches his lips to make him smile like she had done before : “Smile.” He kisses her fingers, tears streaming down his face.
Fairy : “Wooden Head, you’re so annoying. But I still like you.”
Fairy disintegrates into fairy dust and is blown away. MS is left holding only Bone Orchid.
@Viva, I feel that Fairy always knew that DFQC was lying about not loving her. She knew that his hand must have been forced for him to do what he did to be cruel to her. That’s why she decided to get the Cheng Ying Sword, to help him out of the dilemma of keeping her alive while saving the Moon Tribe.
@yes and that is very consistent to DFQC’s character. Despite he should be the evil one, he never blames someone else. He took the thunder penalty. He owns up his mistake. Even though I don’t really think it is his fault, I admire his is so responsible, acts fairly and receive punishment when he thinks he is wrong. He hasn’t abused his moon supreme position and go easy on himself.
@Viva, that’s why we (@grace) and I mentioned that we wanted to add more to the DFQC Appreciation Thread. So much to love about this character, and not shallow stuff at all!!
@GB,Same here, I like XF’s salute. He knows what has happened to her, and he really sees what she has done for everyone.
Poor SQ, after the show is over. I found it quite funny that he missed everything! But of course we are brought back to reality about his relationship with JL who said that everything is all a lie.
Orchid’s sacrifice would have been the highest climax of the whole drama, and then a final climax at the end when they defeat Taisui.
As for Chidi, what is meant to be has to be. I think she first prevented RH from dying, and then RH prevented her from dying. I’m not sure but it is also what Orchid and DFQC did. I think @GB you wrote something about the differences between their love for each other.
It is a good parallel that the script writers has brought in as a comparison to the different kind of love
37:55 RH plays the flute and his Master wakes up. She cannot recall how long she has slept. he lies to her that she slept only an hour.
She still has remnants of memory of when she killed herself as God of War and the image of MS.
Chidi : “No. I’m already dead. ⦔
RH lies that she forgets that she didn’t die but was seriously injured in the great warβ¦that the Goddess of Xishan healed her β¦Since then her primordial spirit had been damaged and she has a hard time remembering things.”
(From something that RH says later, I wondered if this was not the only occasion that Chidi woke up and was lied to.)
= = =
39:57
MS is in a dream where he lies in Fairy’s lap in Arbiter Hall.
They have a happy marriage. He does not want to think of her being dead, calling the reality a bad dream and embraces Fairy ie embraces the dream.
(OST 2 Finding You / Looking for You)
44:04 Fairy complains that they’ve been married for 500 years but he still can’t do her eyebrows well. (We recall how he did her makeup in Yun Meng LOL.)
In his dream he just wanted the quiet life with the one he loves. He did not look to fight. His real nature was peace-loving but he was forced to bear the responsibility of fighting for his people.
In reality MS is lying in a sleep where his primordial spirit is being burnt up for the dream.
@Viva @GB, On lying. I think they knew each other and understood each other’s intentions so well that they can read each other. They had their emotion blockers right? They have reached the point of being in sync. Nonetheless, despite knowing that in their hearts, having to see the denial of the love, and being said those hurtful words is still painful. But love endures on. Real love doesn’t give up so easily.
Ep 32
DFQC is living in his dream. He saw Xiyun and CH’s wedding. This time I notice both characters have no joy in their eyes.
I like CH’s appearance in DFQC’s dream. He acts like what a true friend does. Tell you the truth that you don’t want to hear.
@grace, Yes I was doing comparisons here and there between MS and Fairy, RH and Chidi, CH and Fairy etc.
I feel that Chidi and RH were ‘ill-fated’ because it began on the wrong footing. RH was amortal who had died as a blind child, but Chidi insisted on taking the risk to resurrect him. Siming had warned her that it could bring her disaster and it did. But Chidi decided to not regret it ever.
So when RH did the same thing for Chidi against his better judgement, it was just ‘karma’ of a sort. What was really bad was that he sacrificed thousands of others’ lives out of self-interest. That was unforgivable actually. I feel he got away too easily.
@grace, Yes, that was so telling… despite blocking the feelings and thoughts of the other, they both were on the same page. Real love does not depend on the other person loving one first… real love just is regardless of the response of the other.
Chidi senses something wrong : ” Ah Hao, your sword intent is getting worse. In the past your sword intent always had a mortal heart. But why is there more killing now?”
He says he’d been full of resentment toward the Moon Tribe.
Chidi chides RH : “I told you before, as a warrior, no matter what you have encountered, or lost, you must not be blinded by hatred. Otherwise the war will never stop.” (Chidi’s point of view is similar to Xishan’s and to Fairy’s. Pity RH does not share it. In this way, he is not loyal to his master!!!)
5:08 At the real Arbiter Hall, CH touches the tree hoping to summon the Tianji Mirror. Danyin comes to tell him that Yun Zhong was bringing everyone to the memorial tablet to mourn Fairy (the hypocrite).
CH ignores that. He says that the future she saw in the Tianji Mirror had not yet come to pass. Fairy Orchid would come back to life. He vows to bring her back. I like how CH becomes now… he’s finally so full of action, no more dithering.
What he does now, is done for Fairy, even while thinking that she’ll end up with MS. What MS does later is to revive Fairy, even knowing that she’ll marry CH. Great parallel.
Love that OST when they are trying so hard to wake DFQC up!!! It matches so well, when the Arbiter Hall is slowing breaking down.
When we are deceiving ourselves, we probably knew deep down in hour heart. When DFQC finally say that out loud, I can totally get his emotions. Sometimes we just know.
Do you want to see me marrying someone else
No I don’t
T_T
However despite that, he rather see him marrying someone else and bring her back to life. That’s his choice.
She rather dies so he lives, he rather accept her marrying someone else so she lives. They can put aside their lives or their wants.
Yes – keeping the person you love by your side no matter what, is selfish. Is that true love? Probably not. It is probably an obsession at the end.
This famous scene where DFQC’s illusion disintegrates. The tear-jerking heart-breaking scene. It’s like it wasn’t enough for them to separate the first time, and they have to make us watch them separate the second time.
I also feel like even Orchid’s bit of her is in there, it was not just his illusion but also Orchid’s illusion…that bracelet was that bit of her in there.
I love how the OST ‘The Light’ plays as the Arbiter Hall disintegrates. So much resolve in MS as he dreams and slowly works towards waking up.
Outside the dream his friends are shouting at him to wake up. The whole platform is filled with blue flames.
(OST 5 changes to Opening Credits ‘Farewell to Love / Cutting Off Love’ by Faye Chan – Same song that was played when Fairy died)
MS : “I knew from the beginning that you were not real. So I’m leaving.”
In what must be the next most difficult thing for MS to do after watching Fairy die in his arms, he again has her disappear in his embrace and awakes from his dream.
Rong Hao has a nasty shock and learns the hard way that playing with Evil God means there are no barriers he can put up against EG to protect his ‘love’. He thinks his love for master was ‘pure’ but he is wrong. Like you say, @Viva… it was an obsessive love, he wanted to keep her for himself and not have her alive for her own good.
@GB, @Viva, yes, keeping the person you love by your side is for your own gain, like RH’s case.
The thing is DFQC has CH to snap him out of it. But RH has no one around him to persuade him. Even though, CH was RH’s only friend, he hid his real self and thus CH had no chance to snap him out of it. Then again CH was not as decisive as he was last time as you said so @GB. I love CH’s character arc, even though he didn’t get the girl he loves ultimately, I’m glad he has grown and became a better person.
Yes it is difficult, but I also like that he is brave enough to face the reality that he can’t bear. It is an easy path for him to die in his dream with Orchid. It inspires me somewhat – that we should choose the right path, not the easy path.
@grace, holding on the Bone Orchid was DFQC’s effort trying to keep her dream version alive. In Ep 36, Fairy watched over the Bone Orchid in her garden to let it absorb healing spirit and to help him transform. She didn’t need to hold him. The letting go was more effective than the grasping and the greedy holding on.
Another parallel, isn’t it. Love is not pure when it is mixed with obsession, own’s desires and selfishness. DFQC and Orchid love’s pure by contrast. Strong enough to drive Evil God away.
It is sad to see JL digging her own grave. Danyin is annoying again.
DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS
MS created his own dream to avoid the pain of loss but with CH’s help, he was able to break out of the dream himself to work on changing the reality. He brings about a good result, even at personal sacrifice.
Rong Hao creates illusions (like the Evil God, master of lies) that he is the illusion of a good immortal. He makes the illusion of Siming Hall to trick Fairy and now he creates the illusion of the Bamboo Forest to keep up the lie of his good discipleship with Chidi. Despite her advice he refuses to come clean. His illusions are not life-giving but to hide his evil.
It’s Chidi who has to break the illusion which horrifies her. Chidi faces up to the reality and her responsibilities to accept punishment.
But RH refuses to learn from his master. His so called ‘love’ lacks loyalty’ to her good example and her teaching. RH bides his time in order to do more evil.
Ahh the story of Siming, I’m curious as to how they will branch out with this story. The actress acting Siming, acted in the Go Go Squid 2 as the FL of WuBai…if anyone knows that drama.
(Chasing that now in another turn of events watching Cdramas)
I realize that Orchid tells and shares a lot more with DFQC too, seeing how DFQC also knows quite a bit about Siming.
Why did Siming ask Changyuan to attack DFQC? It’s like this big sister upset for all DFQC has done to hurt her…but she sees DFQC’s ernestness.
@Viva, choosing the right path without compromise is a really difficult thing to do, but we all have occasions to have that choice before us.
Show encourages us to choose the higher good, out of the truer love.
@Viva, yes, it took a while before I could feel it safe to ‘like’ Danyin. I was never sure how sincere she was, after her spoilt brattish bullying of Fairy in the beginning.
Her change to like her sister was however pretty abrupt. I guess show lacked the time to show us a slower step by step trajectory for the sisters.
Ahh Netflix translated it as “Ruins of Myriad Heavens”. Viki used Heavens of Destruction right? The literal translation, to me is “Ruins of ten thousand heavens”.
The CBI is so amazing there. I would not imagine the Ruins of ten thousand heavens to be this beautiful. I would though it would be in the middle of greyish wilderness.
CH’s character is consistently somewhat useless here. He didn’t tell Orchid the whereabouts of her master. OK I forgive you.
@GB ahh..dreams and illusions…living in a dream and escaping reality is ultimately detrimental to oneself and the others around us.
@Viva, I like what you said about choosing the right path, not the easy one. And the right path may be a painful and difficult one.
Siming felt that MS deserved some punishment for the ‘bad things’ he did to Fairy from the beginning to the end. He also believed he deserved it and took it in the chin.
MS : “It was my fault. A slap is nothing…” Seeing him prove his sincerity in loving Fairy, Siming gives them the info they need.
@grace, my take is is mother punishing son in law who hurts her daughter. And DFQC knew he is the one who caused Orchid’s death and willingly took it.
Dragon CY is very powerful too. A small explosion!
@Viva, Oh I like that name translation better.
βRuins of Myriad Heavensβ. Yes, I see “Heavens of Destruction” which did not make sense.
Sounds very poetic.
End of Episode 32. How time flies!!!
So who’s up for watching tomorrow? Option 2 or 3 or 4?
Yeah @Grace I felt 10,000 in Chinese means unlimited. Like in the bible 70 times 7.
Ahh you managed to use the fancy quotation mark! I recalled @GB trained us in one of the threads earlier. I didn’t look up the link. Which thread was it again?:D
I did watch ‘Go Go Squid’. I didn’t like it all that much, but I did watch all of it. I wasn’t much into the actors at that time, but this actress, Li Yi Tong is gorgeous.
@Viva, just google blockquotes and you should be able to find the instructions on how to add the quotation marks.
[blockquote]At the beginning and [/blockquote] at the end. Change the square brackets to angle brackets.
@grace
Wait, hang on… Go Go Squid 2, my husband watched and told me about it. I didn’t watch it myself. It was another ‘noona’ romance with online gaming?
Off to bed now! Thank you very much @GB @Grace! It was so nice to discuss details with you all.
Weekend is usually busy so I won’t vote. I will pop by if time allows!
@GB Netflix translation is def better…and poetic!
Litertal translation of δΈε€©δΉε’ “10,000 skies (usually referred to as heaven) ruins”. I like the way Netflix translates it as Myriad Heavens.
I read up a bit about this place in the story that the opposite of the Ruins of Myriad Heavens is City of Endless Wasteland, ζ ζθε. So it is like a hell in heavens??
There is no day or night, and as CH described a place when you can enter but can’t leave. (Errr…so how did DFQC and CH leave there?)
I don’t think I will watch GoGo Squid 2, I struggled to watch the first part of Go Go Squid 1 because I found the premise of both of them meeting a bit meaningless…literally love at first sight for her but we are at this point wanting to know how he chase her back, this annoying blockhead guy!! haha..worse than DFQC in expressing his emotions.
I won’t be able to make it for the weekend’s sessions, dental appointment just at the option 2 time (if only I can multitask at the dentist chair), and a full day out for kids classes and competition on sunday. How is my weekends crazier than my weekdays? But I still want to finish watching. So I may sneak in a bit of time tonight to watch one episode or 2 and share any new insights here
OK thanks for confirming @Viva and @grace. So if I don’t hear from @Carolina or anyone else, here’s the time I’ll be starting the final 2 rewatch parties. Everyone is welcome to add their comments even after the party time, and anyone is welcome to join in.
Option 2 for Eps 33 and 34
Option 4 for Eps 35 and 36
These will be the episodes with the most ‘melancholy’ as the couples are decoupled and recoupled, and the evil menace grows. But the ending is splendid, if rather abrupt. It’s all so good. π
Hi @GB!!
Iβm here. Iβll be catching up on shows now. I may stay up to watch but not sure if I can make option 2. Iβll come in if Iβm up. I can do option 4 though. Itβs one or the other because otherwise I wonβt sleep lol.
Hi @Carolina, I was wondering when you’d turn up. Actually if it’s just us. we can start any time. Even now if you’re available.
@GB let me get my laptop. Yeay!! This is more fun π€©
OK @Carolina, I’ll get ready Episodes 33 and 34 now!!! Yay!!!
I’m ready. Full disclosure I left off at ep 29 so I’ll be lost for a few minutes. Generally, I catch up on Friday/Saturday late at night.
Let’s start Episode 33
I can give you a brief summary …
FD EPISODE 29 We see less of Fairy this episode. She is sustained in Fuju Cave by memories of her time with MS. She is acknowledged as the Moon Queen but the fragmented spirit of Chidi in the Bone Orchid starts possessing her and drains her spiritual energy.
CH and Danyin get a reprieve but CH is aghast that RH is starting a war with a fake report on DFQC.
Jie Li agrees to marry SQ. JL is ordered to bring Fairy out to Die Yi. JL finds out that SQ has been poisoned.
Li Yuan is ordered to help RH get out of prison.
XF wants to keep the Cheng Ying sword as a means to kill Fairy while keeping MS safe. War is imminent and XF challenges MS to get his priorities right.
Thanks @GB, I was reading the rewatch just now.
I am at the section where CH is sitting across from MS explaining how to bring Orchid back.
FD EPISODE 30 – I didn’t put down any summary but Jie Li refuses to let Fairy get her wedding clothes. Fairy is going to make her own Phoenix Crown for the wedding. She measures MS for his wedding clothes and learns that war is imminent.
CH brings Fairy to the Xishan grounds where she meets Turtle God.
Fairy returns to the Palace to be placed to her horror, under house arrest and she can’t get to see MS, until the end when he is mean to her and pretends that he destroyed her clan. She does not believe he does not love her.
MS : “Your Xilan Clan was destroyed by me. It doesn’t matter to kill one more.”
Fairy shouts : “You’re lying. Do you dare to turn around and tell me that you never loved me.”
FD EPISODE 31 MS breaks the flower bracelet to convince Fairy that he never loved her. She won’t believe him.
RH stops her before she kills herself. He tries to kill her, presumably to kill MS. MS feels her being attacked and flies in search of her. She kills herself.
FD EPISODE 32 CH talks MS out of his dream, MS is willing to go back to revive Fairy and let her marry someone else. They visit the Arbiter. Die Yi sends Jie Li back to her father.
That’s all I have for the brief notes.
OK let’s start Episode 33 now!!!
Aww thanks @GB you are so good. Sad episodes with Orchid getting hurt.
Yes! Let’s starts. I paused it while I was reading your summaries.
EPISODE 33 STARTS HERE
Chang Heng and MS are sitting in Xishan, ready to peel off Fairy’s primordial spirit from MS’s spirit.
When MS brings his primordial spirit into the open, we can see that together with blue light there is a bit of green, the green of the Xishan Goddess.
(I never noticed this on the first watch.)
Ep 33
CH and MS sitting across from each other. MS has that green glow – the goddess primordial spirit. CH helps MS. Looks like it was painful for both of them.
MS has to guard the Goddess’ transformation.
I wonder how CH feels to see that the Orchid Seed lands in MS’s hand. He is quite sad but he bears it in silence.
SWOONY GARDENING Time LOL
MS plants Orchid into the soil in a sweet little pot that he proceeds to bring around with him like it’s a baby. LOL
MS speaks to the orchid : “By the way, I forgot to tell you. I saw your master. And I know where she lives. Don’t you miss her a lot? Grow well. Grow quickly. When you come back, I will take you to visit her, okay? Your master also knew that I made a mistake. She was angry, and beat me up for you. You two have totally different temperaments. You are much gentler than her.”
8:00
When it has sprouted 8 long leaves, MS goes off to get more dew
(OST is OST 2 Finding You by Liu Yu Ning)
It’s interesting that MS is still in his royal robes and with crown on while at Xishan. He was still the Moon Supreme in relation to the plant.
Love how he sat on the grass so sexily or lay down with the pot on his chest. LOL.
Side note here:
I know i’m not supposed to believe everything I read, but I read on a fan page that the dream sequence from ep 32 may have had Orchid’s primordial spirit. Meaning the dream may have been real for both of them because MS has Orchid’s spirit inside of him. Not sure if there’s a quote ORchid mentions later that the fans are holding on to. Sorry for the sidetrack. =)
OH I did notice the seed goes to MS and CH looks sad about that. The first time I saw this It thought it was so cute to see MS taking care of the plant.
Is the song sang by a man here? I thought it was sang by a woman.
Interesting sidetrack thought. Never occurred to me. It seems like their primordial spirit is kind of clueless about what happened to them on the whole LOL. Look at Chidi… she only had the vaguest memories of before and not during the 30,000 years. I guess it makes the fans happy to think that they ‘enjoyed’ their dream marriage.
Inside the ‘mind’ of the Orchid plant, we see Goddess waking up in another dimension/realm? and the God Xuanwu/Turtle God greets her.
X : “Old Friend, we meet again.”
G : “God Xuanwu. It’s been a long time.”
X : “It seems that you have found your destiny.”
G : “Thank you for your guidance. I’m prepared/ready.”
X : “If you wake up as the Goddess Xi Yun, you’ll have nothing to do with all the past events of your life as Orchid. Can you let go of all the sorrow and happiness?” (This indicates that she has a choice to let go or not.)
G : “You once instructed me about the mission of the Goddess. But I was too ignorant to understand it at that time. Now, I’ve seen what I should have seen and lost what I should have lost. Now I understand what love and pain really are, what to pick up and what to put down. From now one I will no longer indulge in private sorrow and joy. I will take up the mission of blessing all beings in the three realms.”
(We find out that this means she will ‘put away’ her romance with DFQC and pick up her duties as Goddess only.)
MS talks to the plan and asks if Orchid still mad at him. He says he knows he was wrong. He counts the leaves and asks why it’s taking him long.
I thought it was weird that he walked away without the plant.
Orchid meets the turtle.
The OST Lingering Feelings / Theme and Ending Song – by Zhou Shen is the only one that sounds like it’s sung by a woman (soprano level!!!) but it’s by a man. I looked him up on YT. Fantastic!!!
You know what I really like about this show? The worldview and logic is consistent throughout. When Fairy wanted to get dressed to meet CH in Episode 2, she had flower petals all flying in a swirl around her. Now that she’s transforming into human form, once again the flower petals come magically.
When I first saw the conversation between Orchid and Turtle I was a bit annoyed at the fact that Orchid accepted the role of Goddess when not long ago she questioned it.
I get she decides to save the people and put her love aside.
X : “I once said that you are gifted and are more extraordinary than all generations of Goddesses.”
G : “I never understood this.”
X : “The Goddesses of all ages have been guarding Xishan all their lives. Although they believed in the same mission as you, they failed to see all beings in the end. But you have traveled all over Shuiyuntian, Yun Meng Lake and Cangyan Sea. You have more than a mission for all beings, but also true love. You’ll create a new and fascinating world as the first Goddess did. Go.”
Among all goddesses, only she truly bothered to get to know the people that she was meant to love. So in a sense, only her love was ‘true’. The others were goddesses in name but less so in action.
Orchid is different though because she knows true love.
That’s a beautiful entrance for the Goddess. All the petals are coming around her. She’s waling to the fallen statue. MS is running is low mtion to her.
Goddess remembers her people and the death of her family. MS comes to see her.
Actually there’s an interesting question… about Orchid’s fate, but I haven’t thought it through yet so maybe I’ll post it later.
Still her destiny was to save all, it just so happened that she also loved 1 and loved all.
Poor MS is now dressed down and looking miserable. I like his simpler clothes here as he waits for Orchid to remember him.
I really like that Shang Que can sit beside MS on the grass and chat with him like a friend, not only as a subordinate, but he’s become a confidant. He acts as MS’s sounding board so that we know what’s going on.
MS tries to talk to Goddess. MS thinks she’s just mad and ignoring him. Dragon walks up to MS and he’s sitting down hands on his temple slouching. Looking so forlorn. I even want to hug him.
MS thinks it will be good that she loses her memory so she won’t remember how he wronged her, lied to her, made her suffer. He hopes to start on a clean slate to win her love again.
18:40
MS asks SQ how he can make her fall in love with him again. They recall all the things he did for Orchid including the building of the Arbiter Hall.
He brings her to the Arbiter Hall or he moved the Arbiter Hall to Xishan β¦and she agrees to live there.
So it’s interesting to me that the new person we see it’s a combination of Orchid and Goddess. Orchid because later we find out that she loves/remembers MS. However, she’s not the way MS describes her as someone who wears her feelings on her sleeve. Goddess is different because she comes across less naive, cheerful, and serious. So MS thinks she doesnt care about him anymore.
MS’s only success is in getting Goddess to live in the Hall that he moved over to Xishan and to get her to take him in as her servant. However in every other attempt at getting her to remember him, he failed.
I like the BGM – light hopeful music.
Yes Dragon is such a loyal friend. Dragon explains that MS can make her fall in love by doing all the things he did before: collect morning dew, cook flower soup, built Arbiter Hall etc.
MS comes up with a plan to have the Goddess fall in love with him again.
I guess Goddess is too aware of everything that is her responsibility and carries the weight of it on her shoulders. In addition, she needs to keep a distance between herself and MS, so she is colder.
Also, I think, she’s deliberately putting on an act to be quite the opposite of how she’d been before, to persuade him to think of her as different from Fairy.
If my sweetheart took so much trouble for me, I think I’d melt and stop pretending to not know him. On the other hand, maybe it’s because he thinks I don’t remember him that I’ll pretend longer and get more good treatment LOL.
I felt so sorry for MS who got rejected and even criticised for being lazy LOL.
Yes, the clothing that MS carries here is simple but really nice. BTW I finally found a picture of all the outfits for MS and Orchid. A set of 9 drawings for MS and Orchid. So nice.
dont know how to share but will figure it out.
LOL Goddess catches MS lying. I wondered what ORchid was thinking as MS was saying that he would be her servant.
I believe there was a twitter link or something to some of the costumes. They were indeed very beautiful.
I notice that cdramas will have their leads in a few different sets of clothes and that we’ll see these being repeated throughout the series. It’s so much less wasteful than an new set for every episode or every scene. I know that kdramas get sponsorhips and maybe a lot of the contemporary clothing is free for the show, but I like the concept of re-wearing one’s good clothes many times. It’s more true-to-life.
Yes @GB I think I would be the same as you. I do not think I could keep a straight face.
MS is trying so hard to get some acknowledgement from Goddess/Orchid. I also think I would want to stay as far away so as not give myself away.
I like that when MS is with SQ now, he’s more friendly although he’s still the lord.
He gives the drink he made for Goddess to SQ to drink and listens to SQ. SQ has to advise him on what else he used to do.
He puts his hand on SQ’s shoulder, just the way Fairy had taught him, to be friendly with others.
Dragon and MS are talking. Dragon explains that the Goddess is the complete opposite of Orchid. MS doesnt want to hear it. He goes to bed wanting to get up early, but when he goes looking for Goddess/Orchid she’s not there.
LOL Goddess call MS lazy. Aww his expression was so sad!!!!
Yeah, I like how she called him lazy… she’s getting her own back now, a lifetime later LOL.
MS recalls the way Fairy had been before and is disheartened at all the rejection of his attempts to get Xi Yun to remember the times he had with Fairy.
Goddess does not want any of the same things, does not need his company, does not even like to sleep anymore.
MS : “She won’t smile at me anymore. I’m useless around her, as if all I do is disturb her.”
He’s so heartbroken.
MS : “Orchid used to ask me to smile more often. When happy you should smile. When you are sad, you should smile even more, because when you smile you won’t feel sad anymore. She’s not right/wrong.”
CH comes.
MS tells CH : “Now she’s not Orchid anymore. β¦ She is not Orchid anymore.”
CH is surprised. He meets with Goddess who greets him : “So you are Chang Heng, the youngest son of Lord Dong. I can’t believe it’s been 30,000 years since I was sealed away by my clan to avoid disaster. During these days, I feel like a lifetime ago whenever I think about it. The marriage between you and me has been delayed for more than 30,000 years. Now that I’ve regained my senses, it’s time for the marriage to be settled.”
CH looks serious and uncertain : “Goddess, why did you suddenly mention this?”
G : “Our Xilan clan and the Lord Dong lineage in Shuiyuntian have protected the peace of the three realms. This has been the contract for generations since the ancient times. It is also destiny for us to get married. After our wedding it’ll be our inescapable responsibility to guard the three realms and protect the living.”
The mission is good but carried out so dispassionately, just as a duty. So unlike the passionate Fairy who would stand beside MS no matter what, out of love.
CH comes to Arbiter Hall. CH tells MS that he should go already because he’s hurt ORchid enough. MS lets CH know that the Goddess is not Orchid.
CH goes to see the Goddess/Orchid. She talks to CH and reminds him of their arranged marriage. He’s shocked that she brings it up.
As CH is leaving (looking a bit upset) MS asks if he’s happy now.
MS tells CH that he should be happy. CH asks MS why should he be pleased.
MS : “Orchid has forgotten all about me. She only remembers that she is a Goddess with whom you have a marriage contract. I’m sure you will soon be able to marry her as you wish.”
Unlike other shows, where the 2ML would rejoice at their rival’s expense, CH is just as serious and depressed looking.
CH turns and comes back : “DFQC, what kind of person do you take me for? Do you think I’m happy seeing her now? You love. Don’t I feel the same?”
MS : “But at least you can be with her.”
CH : “Do you know what you’re talking about? I gave up on her that day in Cangyan Sea and entrusted her to you. But what did you do? Did you protect her well? DFQC, listen carefully, like you, I hope Fairy will come back.”
When I first watched the Chidi and Danyin conversation, I was wondering what was happening. Danyin was full of admiration but Chidi’s mind was focused on killing… maybe there were still the evil spirits in her wanting to be fed.
I actually really liked the response CH gave MS. Although CH had given up on Orchid, he still loves her enough to feel sad about loosing her. I liked that the Show gave us this version instead of the typical triangle.
We can go on into Episode 34 …
EPISODE 34 REWATCH STARTS HERE
Evil God’s influence and even he himself makes more of an appearance in this episode, at least in Chidi’s mind.
Fortunately Danyin is not really killed.
LOL I was annoyed enough at Danyin when she was talking. Chidi Woman hears voices in her head.
Is that the bad qi floating around? It’s read. Thought the evil qi was black
This show is adept at showing us hardly any battles at all. We only see the aftermath of killings usually. The only time we see battle was in the war and when MS and CH confronted each other. But those were not long drawn out scenes.
When we next see Chidi, she’s blood splattered and dead guards lie around her courtyard. Evil God comes into Chidi’s mind.
C : “Evil God Tai Sui.”
EG : “Chidi Woman. How’s the feeling of killing your own people? I’ve been looking forward to it since 30,000 years ago.”
C : “It’s you who bewitched Ah Hao.”
EG : “I just gave him hope. As for you, Chidi Woman, you and all your fairies risked your lives to protect the three realms and stop me from returning. And then what? I didn’t return. But it turned out that it was you who killed so many people.”
C : “Over 100,000 years, you’ve always been playing this trick. These demagogic remarks are useless to me. Have you forgotten it?”
EG : “You’re wrong CW, I’m just here to see you. It’s over. I’m already the winner. I’m not trying to convince you. I don’t need to persuade you either.”
C : “Goddess Xi Yun has resurrected. And I will also remind Shuiyuntian no matter what tricks you play, you will not make it forever!”
EG finds it amusing : “CW, don’t test people’s hearts. People are silly. They always miss the forest for the trees. they can’t see the truth clearly. Just wait and see. No one will believe you. Your immortal body will be mine sooner or later.”
Poor Chidi woman. She knows the tricks of the evil God, but because RH made a pack with the Evil God she’s unaware of everything that has happened. There’s another thread that mentions how the evil God tricked RH. I think you mentioned it @GB and grace and viva I think.
Thanks for the transcribing @GB much better.
Evil God – I may have mentioned how he was like Satan in the way he argued while hiding the crucial truth.
Yun Zhong – he’s so frustrating and annoying here. He refuses to see the true seriousness of EG being out and about. He does not even check the Soul Shattering Abyss, how can he know if EG is still in there or not.
Now Die Yi informs RH that Chidi will be executed, so we know that he’s going to get out of the prison.
Li Yuan looks in on Danyin who’s sleeping and she wakes up. He is on this way to release RH. Danyin is concerned that he had told her that if he was not around she should take care of Jie Li. She wakes up Jie Li.
Li Yuan gets into the prison. Die Yi also pops in. Li Yuan asks for Die Yi to be his hostage and to ensure Jie Li gets the antidote/is detoxed since he was betraying the fairies twice. He intends to kill Die Yi later.
RH is fine with that. Poor Die Yi. Still she remains loyal to RH.
Yun Zhong – that’s his name!
Yes he is a bit extra annoying when he was speaking with CH. Seems only to care for war.
While I like the Jeili character and sometimes Danyan, I didnt care much for the time spent between the two sisters and the father in these last episodes.
Die Yi dies at the hands of Yeili. As RH was escaping, Danyan and her father were trying to fight off Die Yi.
Poor Die Yi after all her loyalty she ends up with nothing.
Danyan and Jeily are together arguing. Danyan wants to go save her father.
d: You showed up and completely ruin my life?
Is this sibling rivalry at its best? One sibling resenting the other one for existing. Sorry flashback to my kids arguing with each other.
Meanwhile Jeili keeps consistent in the way she explains her actions.
J: All I want is to survive. Nothing else. I acknowledge our relationship just to survive.
Jeili continues to explain that to survive she would betray those she cares about. She says she doesnt want to be forgiven. She even talk about her dad being foolish. As she’s walking she claps her hand on her chest and collapses.
Danyin carries Jie Li to Arbiter Hall. SQ lets them in, sad to see Jie Li looking ill.
Goddess tells them that she has forgotten the connection and the deception between them. Goddess says Jie Li can stay and she would detoxify her and extend her life.
Jie Li stares at Goddess, probably shocked to see the change in her ‘sister-friend’.
At last Goddess and CH check the Soul Shattering Abyss and see that EG is really gone.
We see Dragon and MS at Arbitor Hall. MS keeps asking what he can do so that Goddess remember everything. He goes through a list of things (pill, blak jade bed for dreams) but Dragon has to remind them that those things will not work on Orchid.
MS: Why do you always put a damper on my plans?
Orchid comes in and tells MS that she has something to tell him. She says she knows that MS and Orchid almost got married. MS thinks that she might remember something, but she says no.
Goddess/Orchid: Changheng already told me everything that happened before. I’m only here to tell you I’m not Orchid. And Orchid will never return.
MS: You are Orchid. She will come back.
Goddess/Orchid: I’m not.
MS insists that she is Orchid by pointing out the things that are similar like her choice in light colors to wear, the fact she likes flowers/grass, and lives in ARbiter Hall.
Goddess just reminds MS she’s to be married in 3 days.
MS looks so sad.
I forgot to mention…
BROMANCE OF MS AND SQ They sit together like equals
35:18 SQ is burning a love candle in the hopes its fragrance will make the beloved remember the past and reunite with the lover.
MS : “You want to use it on Jie Li? β¦ Ridiculous! You’re my chief guard, how dare you use this trick to gain her favour? (She had deceived and betrayed them.) Are you crazy?”
35:58
SQ : “I may be crazy for her, but as long as she can come backβ¦.”
MS : “She won’t be back. She’s no longer the Jie Li you knew. It was all a disguise.”
SQ disagrees.
MS :”She was a spy for Haishi City from the very beginning. Everything you saw was a disguise.”
(PARALLEL of the hidden beloved. Both Jie Li and Fairy hid the fact that they loved their men.)
SQ refuses to allow MS to throw away the love candle. What a great change from the SQ of old who was always obedient. Who never challenged MS or disagreed with him.”
SQ challenges MS for doing the same thing as him in believing that the women they love are the same as before. MS pours him a drink for the first time. He’s learnt how to be a friend.
Before, he only ever poured a drink for Fairy. Now he pours one for his faithful friend, SQ.
Two sad, heart broken men drinking together. Drowning their sorrows in one accord. LOL.
Yes, Arbiter Hall has 3 sets of couples who cannot be couples.
While MS has his heart broken over and over again by Goddess, SQ too has to face the pain of seeing Jie Li pretending that she does not like him. Danyin always feels sad to see CH and know that they are not meant to be.
OH I completly forgot about this scene with MS and Dragon.
What change in Dragon and MS! Good friends =)
Danyin leaves Arbiter Hall. She says goodbye to Jie Li. She speaks with CH for a while.
Danyin asks if they are friends. He considers her his close friend. (Later she will suggest that they are buddies.) She asks if he really wants to marry the Goddess.
40:30
Danyin wonders whether it was wise for him to marry Xi Yun.
(Another great change in a relationship. No longer a servant with master like Qu Shui and Xiao Run, and mot like a starry-eyed girl with a crush on the lord.)
She said that when she hoped he would look at her although she knew he loved someone else, it was her greed and delusions. It did not belong to her, and would not belong to her. She does not want him to be controlled by delusions.”
CH stops her, he knows it’s not a delusion for him, it is fate and he will swallow the bitter pill. It is so ironic and sad for CH, that when he gets to fulfill his dream to be with Goddess/Fairy, it’s not out of love but again out of duty. He’d spent his years constantly carrying out duty, thinking he’d be able to enjoy being with his love, but it turns out otherwise for him.
Meanwhile RH looks at poor peasants who innocently have decided to take a rest. We know that this augers ill!!!
END of EPISODE 34.
I was trying to count the sets of couples and forgot the CH showed up later. lol
I’m glad that although CH and Danyan are not a couple, they become good friends.
I really liked that in the episodes in the 30s, we see the evolved versions of each character, and the development in the relationships.
So we see SQ and MS
Danyin and Jie Li
Danyin and CH
Later we’ll see SQ and Jie Li, but very briefly.
OVerall I like the 2 episodes but mostly when MS was being such a good gardener. I know later I kept hoping to see glimpses of Orchid personality. I felt as frustrated as MS that he could not get even a smile from the Goddess. lol
Yes @GB good progression on the relationships
The Danyin – Fairy – CH triangle is one that was really spun on it’s head. Show takes the usual stuff and does something different with it.
The Yun Meng period re-established the relationships on a different footing.
In Yun Meng, Danyin became a boy and a buddy of CH and this was what their friendship evolved to become.
CH and MS became allies and they really worked together back in the fairy realm.
Apart from the couples, the other character that grew was Xun Feng. He was unwise, but ultimately he did have the interests of his own people at heart. He came to respect Goddess/Fairy.
Thanks @GB for hanging out with me. It was fun as always. I’m getting too sleepy now. I will not come back on later today. I’ll sleep in hopefully.
Take care!!
It will be the last 2 episodes that are exciting since everything will get resolved. The touching bridge conversation when MS ties the love locks is a real highlight.
I’ll save that for later. I’ll probably be around for Option 4. π
Thanks too @Carolina! Have a good sleep and see you on the other threads!!!
OH yes that’s right!! Darn. If i’m awake i’ll join you. I may be a bit late though.
Come when you can @Carolina. The good thing is that we can always come back and read. π π
@GBI love what they did with the relationships and every character arc in this drama. Every important character had growth. Some characters frowth was mkre tangible like DFQC through his emotions tree and Changheng through his mortal realm trial. Others was mlre subtle such as Jeili, Danyin and Shang Que (with regards to his relationship with DFQC). I liked that a lot in this show. Mayne RH got off too easy but he was a grey character all around that couldn’t be hated entirely.
In ep 33, 34 I know this was the gripe of many that Orchid showed no signs of being XLH, but I liked it. Because it meant that the viewer too wasn’t sure that she indeed was XLH. They kept us in the dark as much as the characters. This is also why ep 35 and 36 felt especially good.
My only gripe with the show is that it never really made me cry. I’ve felt strongly about this show, this is the first show I’ve ever rewatched and 2 months later it’s still in my head lol but I still couldn’t cry. That is my issue as well because I tend to cry more often when it is a slice of life rather than romance that too fantasy with hopes of reincarnation. But I think I mainly blame it on the spoilers that I couldn’t avoid when the show was airing. Cdramas are notoroius for spoiling the audience with MVs etc so I saw that scene from ep 31 ages ago. Though, at least they surprised with the Xilan seal and how everything happened. Ep 36 overall was a great surprise and why I feel it was better because nothing in it was expected. Nonetheless, this show is not getting out of my head anytime soon lol. Weirdly when I want to see a particular scene, I end up rewatching many other episodes because I want to see the build up to that one too.
I’ve really enjoyed reading all of your conversations here and will be often visiting this thread whenever I’m back to hearing the OST.
@wapz
RH was pathetic, tragic, mistaken, greedy, so intelligent and yet so foolish. We can’t feel contempt for him, but at the same time, I’d have wanted him to be held more accountable for the horrors he unleashed on the unsuspecting people.
Besides RH who was grey, there was also Xun Feng. I felt he deserved a bigger slap on the wrist for continuing to chat with Die Yi. Unlike Jie Li, he was not threatened/blackmailed by poison or the loss of a loved one. He also went against his brother’s wishes about letting Fairy hurt herself with the Cheng Ying sword.
However, to his credit, he did prioritise the good of his tribe, perhaps even above his brother. His scathing remark about understanding why their father cut MS’s connection to his emotional root really struck home. To all of us watching from the outside, MS was prepared to practically sacrifice a whole people rather than 1 woman. It was madness to XF, and so I guess his actions were understandable.
Danyin’s character is very consistent. She admired the old God of War, Chidi before, got side tracked by admiring the new God of War, Chang Heng, and then finally decides to become a solder, to pursue her original intention to become a God of War herself. We see this in Episode 36 in her conversation with CH. So her earlier visit to Chidi makes so much sense.
For all these tie ups that make sense, I applaud the show so much.
I was not sure if it really bothered me. Perhaps it didn’t until someone said that it would have been better if we’d be let in on the secret. However, again, we did know from Fairy’s conversation with Turtle Xuanwu that she knew she loved one person but that she was choosing to not let her concern for the one override her love for all. So, in a sense, we had been pre-empted.
I didn’t cry copious tears, but I was emotionally moved by several scenes. I think I also enjoyed the earlier funny scenes a great deal, when Fairy didn’t know she was dealing with a deadly MS and treated him almost like a lost puppy.
About what you say concerning being surprised in Ep 36. I realise that at the first watch, I didn’t know what to expect. I’ll maybe post more on this at today’s/tonight’s final Rewatch.
Yes, this show remains constantly at the back of my mind. I listen to its OSTs and check on the things I thought I remember, just to be sure, so it’s almost like doing mini-rewatches here and there.
All future Xianxia are going to have a hard time holding me if they don’t have enough good plot, or maintain some of the standards of this show. I actually agree with AvenueX’s comment in her livestream. This show was full of integrity. It did a good job of making a good show, which is something normal. What is abnormal is that so many viewers have accepted bad shows as normal, so much so that this one seems spectacular. LOL.
Hi there! I hope @Carolina (and anyone) can drop by early this morning. The Rewatch of the final 2 episodes will start in 4 minutes!!! π
EPISODE 35 REWATCH STARTS HERE!
We see RH with a bloody sword and dead peasants in the country path. RH has killed and refined souls for Chidi, but he’s aghast to see her tormented and going crazy because she keeps needing to feed on them.
RH accuses EG of breaking his promise and harming his master.
EG says : “After I take your master’s immortal body and merge with her primordial spirit, she will be free.”
RH is horrified : “If your primordial spirit occupies master’s immortal body, my master would become a senseless puppet.”
EG : “How dare you treat me as a string of primordial spirit? You underestimate me. I am Tai Sui, the ancient Evil God. I’m different from any living beings in the Three Realms. I’m not any ordinary living creature.”
5:11
EG dangles the temptation : “I’m the darkest desire in everyone’s heart. I was born in the heart of all beings in the Three Realms. Naturally that includes your master as well. Even if I merge with her, she’s still the Chidi Woman. She will still remember her past with you, but she won’t suffer anymore. She can live in seclusion with you and play the zither. practice swords.”
RH says he would not believe EG anymore.
5:44
EG : “You will, because you have no other choice.” (The lie.)
Chidi looks at her face in a broken mirror and it looks disfigured/crooked a reflection of what has happened to her spirit/soul. She wants Ah Hao to kill her.
Chidi : “Ah Hao, let me die. End my pain. I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
RH goes back to EG to extract a promise that he gets to live with Chidi forever if he allows EG to take her immortal body.
In a peaceful garden somewhere, Chidi tells RH that it’s time. She wants to die. He drops his sword.
RH : “Master, Tai Sui will find this place soon. From now on you will never be in pain.” When she hears his plan to let EG take her body she tries to kill herself but RH removes the sword from her grasp.
Chidi : “Your mortal heart (a heart that has an obsessive attachment to a person?) is too strong. That’s why you were bewitched by Tai Sui, and can’t see the fate of life and death. I beg you. Don’t make more mistakes.”
RH : “I was originally mortal. My mortal heart is always there. β¦ ” He considers that she was born a goddess and only cared about the Three Realms and doesn’t understand what he is thinking. He would do anything to keep her alive.
I appreciate that we get a long backstory to Chidi and Ah Hao, not in exposition but in visual storytelling.
Finally on finding out that Chidi had a mortal heart too, like him, and that Chidi’s mortal heart loved him, RH is overjoyed. His greatest wish has been fulfilled. Chidi’s love purifies his intentions, and he sadly understands what he must do out of love for his master, and to break the hold of Evil God.
He embraces Chidi with great love and respect and stabs her.
14:03
Chidi is surprised but relieved. As she dies in his arms he confronts EG in his mind and detonates his primordial spirit to wound EG and kill himself. He looked forward to being with his master forever in death.
CH and MS bury RH and Chidi and pay them last respects. Goddess is eager to get going to eliminate Tai Sui.
“What we have to do cannot be delayed any longer.” CH looks unwilling to go with Xi Yun, while MS looks on sadly.
17:54
Flashback conversation between Goddess and CH
What we did not know is that CH and Xi Yun had already made a tragic plan.
Before burying RH, Goddess let CH know that she was still really Orchid.
XY to CH : “Magic Firefly Stone. β¦I once thought it would be nice if I could pick a star and carry it as a lantern at night. At that time, an old friend told me that a magical jade stone in the Northernmost Ocean is just like a star.”
CH : “So are you Goddess Xi Yun, or Orchid?”
18:23
XY : “I am Goddess Xi Yun and also Orchid. I remember everything in my two lives.”
CH suddenly gets hopeful : “Since you remember everything, why? Could it be that you no longer love him? Or love me?”
Her solemn silence tells him that she still loves MS.
CH : “You still love him. So why did you agree to marry me?”
XY : “The Founder Lord Dong has made a covenant with the Xilan Clan. Only by marriage can you/we activate your/our power. Therefore the two clans protected the Three Realms for generations. That’s why we are bethrothed. This is our irrevocable destiny.” Goddess adds that she needs the supreme power in order to destroy Tai Sui completely.
XY to CH on their need to be married and to destroy Tai Sui : “Whether CH likes it or not, that is the only way.” He asks : “What happens after that/next?”
Goddess : “What about what’s next?”
CH notes : “The Goddess Wuqi drained her primordial spirit in order to kill Tai Sui. If you want to destroy Tai Sui completely, what will happen? Why did you pretend to know nothing and refuse to reunite with DFQC? You will die, am I right?”
Fairy Goddess : “Yes.”
CH : “You and DFQC love each other. You would rather lie to him than let him suffer any more.”
(She is doing what DFCQ did before. Pretending not to love him so that he would suffer less.)
CH : “Then what about me? How could you let me marry you and then watch you die? Have you considered me?”
XY : “CH, I’m sorry.”
He does not want to hear an apology and asks if she also is going to say she has no choice (it was what his best friend RH had said. Poor CH is seeing that he has lost his best friend and now would lose Orchid.)
20:53
XY :”No. It’s because I’ve decided to be the Goddess of Xishan.” (She made a positive decision unlike RH whose excuse and lie to himself is that he had no choice.)
Goddess : “From the moment I reincarnated, I chose to let go of my personal feelings and protect the people.”
CH is in tears because XY was preparing to die and she was asking CH to help her sacrifice her life ie it was likely she planned to contain the EG and CH had to kill her to destroy her and Tai Sui.
Goddess : “CH, only you can help me.”
Ch has tears streaming down his face :”But you’re asking me to sacrifice your life. I can’t do it.”
(In the end MS asked her to do the same and she was able to do it, because her love for all had to take precedence over her love for one, and her love for one meant that she could not allow him to become a mere puppet with Tai Sui possessing him. This was what RH was actually entertaining with regards to Chidi.)
THE BRIDGE SCENE
(My comments on this scene are in the first comment upthread. I find it a fitting resolution to their first visit to the bridge, where they failed to attach the love locks to the bridge.)
MS holds the love lock with Orchid’s name inscribed on it : “Legend has it that if two people hang the Love Lock on this bridge, they can be together forever, for their entire life. That night we were going to hang this lock, but failed. So I hope you don’t mind my asking you to hang this lock with me. In this way ⦔
XY cuts in to say that Orchid is gone/not present.” And she can’t be with you. There’s no meaning to hanging the lock.”
MS : “There is. Although she’s gone, I will never forget her. I will keep the memories of the two of us. That is also a way of being together.”
XY tries the same argument as before : “You have a long life ahead of you. There are thousands of beauties in the Three Realms. Is there no one else to your liking?”
SWOONY LINE Count (Ep 35)
MS : “No. Never. Not in this life, or other lives. There is only her.”
Goddess : “She is just an orchid. Why can’t you forget her.”
MS : “You don’t understand the feelings between us. In this world so many people hated me, feared me, rely on me and admire me. She’s the only one who loved me. She helped me through difficulties. She helped me recover love. She would follow me even if it involved standing against the world. And I am full of thorns, I would only make her sad. I’m a jerk. But she was a fool. She knew I was so bad but she made every excuse to forgive me and hold me tight, even if it hurt.”
“I wanted so much to let her know that I’m not that jerk anymore. I will love her and protect her and not let her suffer. But there’s no chance anymore.”
(Tears are streaming down his face and Goddess is also crying, but MS is too preoccupied to notice.)
MS : “I shouldn’t have asked you to come. Although you look like her, you are not her. I can hang the lock myself. She will always be in my heart. She and I will never be apart.”
XY walks off and he does not see her crying.
MS speaks to Orchid while tying the locks to the bridge : “Now you will never know that I’m not that evil anymore. That Bone Orchid was absorbing your primordial spirit. The only way to break the Bone Orchid and save you was to stop you from loving me. That’s why I lied to you and humiliated you, so that you would not love me. … Why did you love me until the day you died?”
XY is so moved by MS’s love that she visits him before he leaves. He wishes her well in her marriage and says goodbye to her, but as he turns away, she speaks in Orchid’s tone of voice and with Orchid’s expression on her face : “Wait.” He’s surprised.
She pushes up his lips to make him smile like she’d done 3 times before.
(OST changes to Amnesia). We get all the flashbacks of other times when she taught him to smile.
He is stunned but holds on to her arm to keep her from leaving : “It’s you. Who are you? Why?”
She looks at him but says nothing and runs off.
hi @gb i’m here!
I’ll catch up in a minute
Hi @Carolina!!! Glad you can make it. I’m almost at the end of Episode 35. Timestamp 32:00
I can slow down for you, no problem!!!
Now that he knows Xi Yun is really Orchid still and that she remembers everything of their time before, MS considers what the Arbiter had been trying to tell him when she gave him Orchid’s Destiny Book. If not for XY’s capitulation about hiding her identity, MS would never have bothered to think further about what XY’s destiny might be.
Arbiter : “This is Orchid’s Destiny Book. When Xilan was destroyed, her clansmen sealed her into a seed and entrusted her to me. I could only forge the form of an orchid, but not shake her fate.”
MS looks at the Book and notes that there is a new fate in her Destiny Book.
MS to himself : “But she clearly told me that the fate of Gods are the most stable. It won’t change easily. Her fate is broken.” (He sees an image of her dying with Tai Sui.) “She wants to die with Tai Sui.”
He recalls Arbiter telling him “In the end of the end, the one who can change her fate is you, DFQC.”
He thought he understood that it meant and said : “I’ll do anything to revive her.”
Arbiter : “No, you still do not understand.”
In the present time, it dawns on him : “The end of the end β¦ So this is the real end. (And he finally understands what he has to do, ie to do what the Arbiter couldn’t)β¦ I will change her fate.”
I have FFST and was reading your recaps. This is the my first rewatch of this episode. I think on first watch i didnt appreciate the bridge scene as much.
I’ll have to move to another location. We can start on the last episode. My kids woke up so I wont have much time. I’d like to view the last episode with you.
OK @Carolina! Let me put in my last transcription for Ep 35 then we’ll watch Ep 36 together as fast as we can LOL.
= = =
Having made his decision, MS wants to say a proper farewell,β¦ this time not to Xi Yun but to Fairy. He waits outside her room. She senses that he is outside but does not look for him for some time.
However, she too is on tenterhooks after her revelation of her identity. She finally comes out to look for him. He has been waiting for her as well as shown by how he appears directly behind her. Without hesitation he kisses her resolutely, in farewell, looks at her seriously and leaves without a word.
(OST Opening Theme / Cutting Off Love by Faye Chan)
While XY leaves for the wedding, MS prepares to meet Evil God. He says goodbye to Shang Que. Offering a Bromantic Handshake in farewell, unlike any he’d given to anyone else before.
MS walks resolutely in the direction of the Soul/Spirit Shattering Abyss.
REWATCH OF EPISODE 36 – THE FINALE STARTS HERE
As the wedding starts, MS enters the Soul/Spirit Shattering Abyss and sits to meditate. He summons Evil God.
MS : “Tai Sui, I know you’re here. Come out.”
Tai Sui cooperatively enters MS’s mind for a chat.
EG : “DFQC I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. I told you long ago you’d lose her forever. Give me your immortal body and spirit. Only I can help you get what you want.”
MS : “I’ve also been waiting for you for a long time.”
He offers EG his primordial spirit (and immortal body). EG is triumphant at first but when EG comes into contact with MS’s spirit, MS drags EG with his spirit into the Sea of his Heart.
It is a beautiful summer day in his heart, and the Love Tree is blooming beautifully.
EG roiled in angry black smoke in the sky of Heart Sea.
EG : “This is the sea of your heart.”
MS : “This is where you and I will be buried.” MS seats himself cross legged as if to meditate.
EG : “Do you think you can trap me here with your power?”
MS : “I myself may not be enough. But with the power she planted in my heart, it’ll be enough.”
Flashback to when Fairy woke up in the frozen Sea of his Heart and touched the Love Tree. It started to thaw with green light, immediately.
In the present, surprise, surprise β¦ we see the Xilan Holy Seal appear on the bark of the Love Tree, and emit the green light – the power of Xishan. So even without Fairy’s primordial spirit attached to him, MS still had a connection to Xishan through the love tree.
5:46
EG goes chaotically wild, banging himself against the invisible walls of MS’s Heart Sea, when he realised that with the power of the Xishan Goddess, he could not get away.
EG has to find a chink in MS’s peaceful frame of mind so that he can possess him. EG challenges DFQC that he must have delusions. EG plops down in front of MS as a double of DFQC with black evil emanating from him.
EG tries first to make what MS is doing sound stupid. He says MS is crazy for foregoing the chance to live the same life of greatness as the lord of three realms.
EG : “But now you want to burn your spirit for Xi Yun and die with me? Was it worth it? The Immortals will gloat at our death. You are the supreme being of the three realms. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to save a bunch of nobodies?”
MS knows that is taking over the mission of XY to die in order to kill Tai Sui : “Why would I not die for her?”
EG tries to find a crack that he can use to break through MS’s defences. Next he tries to make MS feel guilty about failing his family or losing out : “What about the wishes of your father and brother? What about the revival of the Moon Tribe? Are you going to give up all these?”
MS : “They already have their own destinations.”
EG : “Can you even give up Xi Yun? Don’t forget, if we die, CH will get Xi Yun and they can be together forever and ever. DFQC you can’t fool me, because I’m also you. I know how much you hate and how grudging you are in your heart. If you didn’t have delusions, I wouldn’t be here.”
MS : “Our death can bring her eternal peace. I have no regrets.”
MS closes his eyes peacefully while EG looks like he’s about to burst with frustration.
I”m back had to get some breakfast for the kiddos.
Wow the litle details I missed and forgot. I see the seal on the tree.
MS is pretty smart to have taken him there.
@GB question for you. What does it mean when EG says delusions?
Meaning MS dares to think he can beat EG?
EG says again when trying to play his mind tricks
Yes, I believe the delusions EG refers to are MS’s determination to keep EG trapped in the Heart Sea while still not letting EG possess him. Also the delusions that what he is doing by giving up his life is wise, or not fulfilling his family’s wishes is okay… EG attacked him in these areas first.
9:30 EG thinks of something else to bait MS with.
EG shouts: “You must still have a weakness. It is a delusion to change fate. β¦Do you know what price you have to pay? I’m and ancient god who is immortal and indestructible. If you want to completely destroy me, it’s not enough to burn my primordial spirit.
MS : “I’m afraid of nothing.”
EG : “Is that so. Then your existence will be completely erased by the heaven’s rules, just like you’ve never existed in the three realms.”
MS : “Tai Sui, these are your fears, not mine. I have let go of everything. There is nothing in this world that can shake me.”
EG : “But your Xi Yun won’t remember all that you’ve given to her. All the happiness and pain you have experienced. Even the fight against fate. However strong the love is, she will forget it. She will truly forget you forever. Aren’t you afraid of this?”
(This is the fear that EG plays with, enough to cause a chink in the armour so that he can enter MS. So his delusion was that he would be able to accept being totally forgotten by Xi Yun. In actual fact, it mattered to him that she remembered their love.)
MS tries to delay the inevitable : “So what?”
EG sees the moment of MS’s wavering and attacks to possess MS’s body. MS’s body in the Spirit Shattering Abyss starts to be taken over by black evil spirits. He is levitated into the sky, his hair has turned white and the black tendrils of evil spreading upwards to his face. He becomes the manifestation of EG who had no body before.
In watching this scene, Dylan also had to do another role as Tasui. He changed his voice and looked a bit different from MS. Pretty good.
Evil God finally gets MS by guessing at his fear to be forgotten. So his weakness is that.
MS has been possessed by Evil God.
Yes, this show required the actors to play multiple personalities. I liked his arrogance as Tai Sui. Even as the arrogant MS, he was different. He managed to differentiate MS from Tai Sui.
Although possessed, he is still able to retain his conscious mind against Tai Sui’s control. We no longer hear Tai Sui’s voice, we only see that MS is still himself, trying to keep Tai Sui under control.
XY/Fairy knew he had the strength to withstand Tai Sui.
= = =
Xi Yun is about to place her hand on Chang Heng’s hand to seal the marriage but the sky gets overcast supernaturally as evil takes over the three realms. The light disappears dramatically.
XY : “Tai Sui has regained his immortal body. He is in Spirit Shattering Abyss.” XY looks at CH. Their wedding is still not completed.
Evil spirits fly out from an evil cloud column. Everything looks black and white only. Colour is drained away.
The wedding is stopped and the fairies are formed up for battle near the Abyss. XY recognises DFQC at the top of the column of evil cloud. CH tells her that it’s not DFQC, but Tai Sui. She does not believe it.
XY : “He has a strong mind. How could he possibly be controlled by Tai Sui?”
This belief leads her to conclude that MS was still in control. As usual she insists on seeing him herself to speak with him. She pushes her way through the thick seal of energy that contains EG.
YZ realises too late that what Chidi had said was true.
YZ : “When the ancient gods and Goddesses Wu Qi joined forces to seal Tai Sui, the evil and killing, violent and evil spirits in the ancient barbaric era were also suppressed under Xishan. If he lifts the seal and releases them all, the people of the three realms will be flooded with calamities and will return to the barbaric wilderness.”
All the immortals work together to suppress the evil. A big globe force field/shield surrounds DFQC to seal his evil from the three realms.
XY’s effort to push her way through the shield, is reminiscent of how MS had pushed through the evil spirits to dispel them when they were attacked in Yun Meng.
All the realms are thrown into darkness.
The fairy army has arrived. Goddess/Orchid sees MS and cannot believe he’s been taken over by Evil God because “he has a strong mind”
Lord Dumb: What Chidi said is true. When the ancient gods and goddesses joined forces to seal Taisui, the violent and evil qui in the ancient barbaric era were also suppressed un Xishan. If he lifts the seal and releases them all, the people of the three realms will be flooded with calamities and return to the barbaric wilderness.
Ugh if he had bothered to believe Chid/CH and/or check on Taisui maybe they would not be in this mess.
We only get a moment of the reunion of SQ and Jie Li. Jie Li gets blown back by the energy emanating from Tai Sui/MS but SQ is suddenly behind her, able to catch her.
The Moon Tribe arrive, coming in between the rows of fairies.
SQ is the spokesman : “We Moon Tribe soldiers come to help Shuiyuntian to kill the Evil God Tai Sui, by the order of the Moon Supreme, DFQC.
MS had remembered what Fairy had said when CH came to ask them to purify the fragmented spirits. She’d said that his wish for his people to not be separated from their loved ones could be fulfilled if the Moon Tribe and the Immortals put aside their prejudices and turn towards peace/cooperated instead of fighting each other.
XF says they are not fighting against their own lord for Shuiyuntian but “This is for the three realms. I will never make the same mistakes ever.”
The change in attitude of the Moon Tribe, is manifested in their action.
Yeah, well… pity YZ never gets punished or a redemption arc. He remains the stupid elder brother in charge of the realm because their father was somewhere in seclusion. Bad example given by the father. I wonder why their mother ran away. Abandonment by husband and sick of stupid son? LOL.
Previously Fairy had been brought willy-nilly into Haotian Tower and pushed against her will into a kiss with MS. This time she ploughs her way through to reach him, before Tai Sui and fully regain his power in his body.
Goddess is finally through the shield and able to fly up to meet EG/MS face to face. Once again she confronts a MS with white hair and unable to see her normally, as she had done in Haotian. She plants a kiss deliberately. This breaks through MS’s fear that she’d never know what he did for her, since she was with him at the crucial moment.
(OST Piano version of Amnesia)
The kiss of Xi Yun finally reaches the consciousness of MS who was trying to keep Tai Sui contained in his Heart Sea. Again, they are reconnected through the Xilan Holy Seal. It reappears on MS’s forehead as the kiss continues. MS’ eyes return to normal and Xi Yun enters the Heart Sea.
Outside, the people see the outpouring of swirls of red and white light around Xi Yun and MS, that are new.
CH : “Orchid has awakened the supreme divine power in her bloodline.”
XF thinks it’s Hellfire but YZ recognises it as Glazed Fire.
YZ : “It is the fire of compassion that has been lost since ancient times. The person needs to be tempered by emotions and suffering and still keep his original heart. Only those who have great love and compassion can harness it.”
On first watch on this scene that you described @GB was so thrilling to me. There’s not alot of fighting but just the emotions behind it make it impactful.
This show has very little in the way of fighting actually. Many times we see swords dripping with blood or we see magic flying around, but little in the way of fighting.
I just watched the iQiyi compilation of fights. The only one-on-one battle was with CH in SYT over Fairy, and they used magic not sword combat.
We note that at this time MS requests Xi Yun to kill him, he uses the common ‘Wo’. With Xi Yun/Orchid he is not ‘Ben Zhuo’.
They have returned to their close relationship as he calls her Orchid and she calls him Wooden Head.
MS : “Orchid, kill me. Now that I am one with the primordial spirit of Tai Sui, you can kill Tai Sui if you kill me. Hurry. I can’t hold on for much longer.”
Xi Yun can’t bring herself to kill him at once.
EG is delighted : “That’s right. You can’t do it. Xi Yun, I know you love him more than your own life.”
Xi Yun : “Tai Sui I’m your enemy. Let him go!”
MS to Xi Yun : “Kill me. If I don’t die, Tai Sui will continue to plague the three realms. Then everything you’ve done will be in vain.”
Xi Yun : “It’s my destiny to save the world, not yours.”
MS : “But it’s my mission to save you.” ⦔Hurry I can’t hold on anymore.”
EG jeers : “Xi Yun, how can you kill DFQC with your own hands? You can’t do it.”
MS : “Orchid I can’t hold on anymore. I beg you. Hurry!”
Xi Yun makes the decision to release MS from his misery. She detonates MS’s primordial spirit that contains Tai Sui in the Heart Sea.
Outside, immediately physically, MS begins to return to normal. Xi Yun and MS rise to the realm of space, still in their embrace.
MS : “Little Flower Spirit, I said I would change your fate for you.” He gives a tiny, wan smile, “I did it.”
He touches foreheads with her and moves away.
XY : “Wooden Head. No. Don’t go.”
Just as once before, MS had been the one to cry, now it’s Xi Yun who cries out in grief as MS disappears. Just as before Fairy had been tiny during the rescue at Haishi, or a tiny seed held in the palm of MS’ hand, this time Fairy holds MS as a tiny Bone Orchid in her hand.
500 years later.
We get Xi Yun’s voiceover report that although the hatred and war between The SYT immortals and the Moon Tribe lasted for tens of thousands of years, causing many deaths, one of the most magical and powerful forces in the three realms finally changed all this.
XY’s Voiceover : “That is love. It makes everyone a better version of himself.”
We see Chang Heng in Yun Meng
– -“For the more cautious and restrained people, love can set them free and help them find their true desire.
We hear Danyin’s voice call Chang Heng.
– – “For the most unruly and capricious people, love can make them strong, open-minded and broad-minded.”
Danyin wants to join the army and be buddies with CH.
At Silent Moon Palace
– – “For the most narrow-minded and jealous people, love makes them grow to be tolerant and responsible.”
XF has been holding the position for his brother for 500 years. I wonder when he’ll come back. XF says if he does not come back SQ and he will have to protect all they have to maintain peace and prosperity for the Moon Tribe.
– – “For the most deceitful people, love makes her sincere and reliable.”
Jie Li is reprimanding some children and SQ comes along to be with her.
– – “For someone who makes a momentary mistake and goes astray, love can hold him before he finally falls into the abyss and make him come to his senses.”
We see the graves of Chidi and RH.
Xi Yun remembers her days with MS
– – “Love can make a heartless person understand compassion and love and even give up everything for the one he loves, including his own life.”
We see the flashback scenes of them together helping each other.
OST Liu Yuning
Goddess Fairy visits the Bone Orchid that is suspended in her garden like a little crescent under the double wedding headdresses of dragon? and phoenix?, made of flowers.
She’s about to leave the garden when she hears the sound of a transformation. DFQC is suddenly standing behind her.
MS : “I’m back.” He says with a smile. He wipes a tear from her face and kisses her.
END OF THE SERIES
Irony – Who Killed Whom
In the end, among the main characters, the only ones who did any killing were RH and the ladies. Our most scary devil lord, Moon Supreme, didn’t even hurt a fly LOL.
Chidi killed herself in her first life
RH was the most effective in the killing department, finally killing Chidi in her second life
Danyin in the war, killed a few before being killed herself.
Die Yi got many killed to get evil spirits
Jie Li killed Die Yi
Fairy killed herself
Xi Yun killed DFQC and Tai Sui
Our mighty warriors, Moon Supreme, Shang Que, and Chang Heng didn’t have a scene where they kill a single person LOL. Total failures as God of War and Supreme Lord. In fact MS did more saving of lives than killing anyone. Heh!
I”m a bit behind….
Just catch up with the episode first and read later. I’m putting down notes that I wrote some time back but never posted because of spoilers. I can finally leave them here now. π
Rough Count of When/How Fairy Saved MS
1) By reuniting him with is primordial spirit in Haotian Tower, she started the healing process not only of his body but also emotionally. Unbeknownst to them at the time, she had also put in place the power of Xilan that would be able to trap Evil God later.
2) By the thawing of his Heart Sea, and just being with him so much that he became attached to her and chose in the end to bear the pain of emotions, guilt and love, rather than lose his memories of attachment to his father.
3) By teaching him that emotions are not a burden and how to become close to his brother.
4) (Or is this 2b?) By bringing him and his dead father together so that they would have closure and the real healing of his hatred. It also marked when he became fully accepting of his emotions as he took responsibility as well and took on the lightning strikes for XF.
5) She had an added reason to meet Old MS: it was to save MS’s reputation. He was guilty of killing his father and was going to execute his brother. She didn’t want the world to misunderstand MS.
6) By defending him against XF’s accusations, saving him from XF’s enmity, since MS did not explain himself to his brother. She left the recording of their meeting with Old MS for XF to see the truth for himself.
7) By warding off the evil spirits in Yun Meng, and not letting him drink the poisoned wine.
8) By choosing MS over CH and her home, twice!! Once outside Silent Moon Palace and once at the Memory Loss River. It meant the world to lonely MS who was avoided by everyone because of his status, that Fairy remained by his side out of choice.
9) By proposing marriage to him properly first. She took the initiative with a gift she had prepared, showing again that he was her chosen one.
10) By killing herself with the Cheng Ying Sword so that he wouldn’t give in to Evil God. (She saved not only him but all who were killed and all the sealed soldiers).
11) By killing him when Tai Sui possessed him, so that his own spirit would be free to reincarnate.
12) By placing the Bone Orchid in her healing garden and waiting for the Bone Orchid to be transformed into DFQC.
Awwww sooooo good. I loved the recap of how love heals. That is my favorite in this show. The message of love as healing.
I have a couple of questions @gb if you are here still:
What is the thing that the moon bone is hanging?
Rough Count of When MS Saved (or attempted to save) Fairy/b>
1) When she was thrown into the Haotian Soul Transforming Cauldron. (Episode 3)
2) At the Immortal Exam when Ying Zhao turned into a monster.
3) By giving her the Bone Orchid (which may have done her more harm than good in the end).
4) By saving her from Yun Zhong.
5) By saving her from RH in the fake Arbiter Hall (Episode 15).
6) In Yun Meng from Chidi’s attempt to kill her.
7) By carrying her to the Memory Loss River after the attack of the evil spirits in Yun Meng. And before Danyin started to attack them.
8) By putting her to sleep so that Chidi’s evil spirit would not possess her.
9) With CH’s help, he suffers the removal of Fairy’s spirit from his spirit and tends to her growth and transformation from a seed.
10) By taking on the mission to be possessed by Tai Sui, so that Fairy wouldn’t have to do it and die.
It’s so true about the killing MS and DH never did any. LOL
RH was a good evil guy with doing most of the killing.
The Bone Orchid in XY/Fairy’s garden…
It looks like there are 2 wreaths above it and that it is suspended by nothing ie, it’s hanging in the air like the Moon LOL.
It also looks like there’s power being drawn by the Bone Orchid from the flowers into itself. I call it the healing power of Xilan since it’s Xi Yun’s garden and her powers are of healing and resurrection. It was just exactly the right location to be ‘hanging around’ in if one wanted to be brought back to life LOL.
Nice notes @GB!!
YOu can really see how both MS and Orchid saved each other each time.
I wrote a bit about RH before. He’s a super intelligent person but he used his intelligence for ill.
We can contrast the saving done by MS with that by that Rong Hao. He also set out to save his one true love/obsession, Chidi, who did not want to be saved, causing her more anguish and humiliation than anything else. She preferred to be executed by YZ to continuing in her resurrected life.
It was because he colluded with Evil God to let Chidi continue in many (1,000?) reincarnations, that she suffered so many times, being killed by her beloved in each life.
We meet her in her final life and it is again a miserable one for Chidi. No matter what or where, she’s doomed to be killed by her beloved one. Finally RH kills her which breaks the horrible circle of death.
Being Blind
It’s ironical that RH who had been blind as a child, but who gained physical sight, was blind to what true love was. He refused to see that he had a choice, willing himself to believe in Evil God instead. He remained blind to the horrors he would put Chidi through, by not respecting her wishes, when he knew what an honourable person she was, and how she would abhor evil.
Super ironical because he was actually a smart guy.
Breaking Rules and Changing Fate
It seems that some rules are meant to be broken (they no longer make sense?) but others are sacrosanct and do bring disaster if broken.
Among the sacrosanct Rules (with a capital ‘R’) that should not be brokenβ¦ were the ones that Chidi and RH broke. Chidi unnaturally brought a mortal back to life while RH killed others indiscriminately and colluded with evil. All that turned out badly.
= = =
Other than them, the good guys kept breaking rules (lower case ‘r’) too. But those rules had been made perhaps for the wrong reasons or were out of date. For eg the rule that Moon Tribe and SYT people should not get married. That was a rule made out of pique by the founder of the Moon Tribe, Yannv.
Arbiter is the biggest rule breaker. She broke dragon Chang Yuan out of prison and married him, getting punished as a result. She helped Chidi break the rules by bringing RH back to life. At the end Arbiter broke the rules by giving Fairy’s Destiny Book to MS. She hints that she tried but failed to change Fairy’s destinyβ¦ which means she had tried earlier to break the rules herself. So she hints to MS to do the rule breaking for her.
Chang Heng, with Danyin’s help at times, broke the rules of heaven/his brother? and of his imprisonment. As a human being in Yun Meng, he kept breaking family and school rules. That freedom enabled him to know what he really wanted and to stand up for what he felt was right. Fortunately he became more mature as an immortal and did not retain his human foolishness.
In Ep 1 and 2 – Fairy’s decision to break the rules and change Chang Heng’s fate, did indeed change it in that CH survived. She also broke the rules of her master by harbouring a sinful immortal. However it seems that she was merely carrying out what she was destined to do anyway. If she had only 1 fate, then everything that befell Fairy or that she chose to do, was supposedly predestined.
It was left finally to MS to break the rules and change Fairy’s fate. Tai Sui in their final showdown in MS’s Heart Sea, warned him that he shouldn’t be changing fate (as if it was against the rules).
So while the breaking of Rules (the sacrosanct ones that should not be broken) leads to tragedy, it seems that the breaking of non-sacrosanct rules was necessary to create and resolve conflict, essential for character growth and new trajectories, and ultimately for the triumph of good over evil.
I try to zoom in but it’s not that good resolution. It does look like two things hanging.
Yeah, the rough count of the saving each other thing was fun to try and remember…. but wonder of wonders… it looks like maybe Fairy saved MS more times than he saved her!!! She saved him on the emotional/relationship level too, while he saved her from physical harm.
On the rule breaking. I have to agree that it looks like if there’s a rule breaking that is related to their fate it justs fine. I wasnt clear on how Chidi got punished because she brought back RH.
To be honest with RH doing all the killing, the fact that he got away by just dying didnt seem to fit all the evil he did.
I’ll have to get going now.
Thank you for all the transcribing GB!! It’s been so nice to do this rewatch with you and grace and viva.
I think I’ll be back to read on all the details I missed.
Have a good rest of your Sunday. My day is just starting.
Hugs!!!
See if you can see this… the Bone Orchid just hangs in the air with magic floating towards it. What do you think?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XX6tD_05LrrbQrO8XeNzYXTG2b3azuMU/view?usp=sharing
Bye @Carolina! Thanks for waking up early!!! It was great to have your company. Yes, come back and read and see the pics of the Bone Orchid. Let me know what you think of it as I interpreted it. π
I’ve finished this drama too and I enjoyed it a lot especially watching Dylan. I’m bias maybe because it’s my eldest son’s name too. LOL.
But seriously, it’s true what the ladies said here about the CGI and all effects that it showed. It was so amazing, so good and so pretty!!! I will compare every fantasy cdrama to this and I don’t know if it will ever be taken over. Even the costumes and hair pieces/adornments are fantastic!!!
I liked the twists and how the story unfolded. It just flowed nicely. I guess my only thing was CQ and Jelly’s love story. I didn’t really feel it.
I cried on episode 28-29 when Orchid went to prove that she can be the Moon Queen. So much hardship and so much pain but she proved it. But MS going through it with her, wow. I cried when she died too and when MS finally realised that she is Orchid.
I thought Dylan’s acting in here was top notch, it reminded me of his Meteor Garden drama. I’m looking forward to more dramas for him. I saw that he’s doing a drama with Bai Lu and I’m excited for that one because I like BL too. π
I can’t remember watching Esther in another drama or maybe I just forgot. But I don’t mind her. She did great here as well. Her outfits are really fairy ones. I love it. π
And lastly, I looooooooooooved the kisses here!!! π
Hi @agdr03, it’s so nice to know you liked this show so much too!!! I still can’t get over it. It’s raised the bar so high or rather, the shows we’ve encountered in the past years have set their bar so low, that it feels like it will be hard for other shows to match and beat how well we love this one.
I’m considering more shows by the director of this show. He seems to have the knack of drawing out the best from his crew and making a good show.
I watched this review and am interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vMz28_QjQ
CLJ will remain in my heart as my top 10 favourite dramas ever. It has been an awesome ride watching and rewatching with you all!
@GB, I’m considering that drama too! Meanwhile I have a whole long list of cdramas I would like to try based on Avenue X’s recommendations, Falling Into You is one of them.
Looking forward to Dylan’s Forbidden Love and Camp with Love (the one with Bailu that is only going into filming in November).
Esther Yu’s “I have fallen for you” could be something to check out, recommended by AvenueX that is nice and short 24 episodes.
LOL @grace, same here!! The same shows with Dylan and Esther are more or less on my list. But I also want to keep up with kdramas!!! And like most people here, I’ve got a list of ‘Plan to Watch’ shows in MyDramaList which I’ve been ignoring. π€ͺ π¬ π
I’m still mostly JOMO-ing… and drama watching is supposed to be our form of relaxation but the stress of wanting to watch all those shows at the ‘right’ times sometimes gets to me LOLOL.
Hi @GB ππ»
Yes the bar has been set very high for me after LBFAD. I will always compare, thatβs for sure. βΊοΈ
Iβve seen posts about Falling Into You and heard about the filter issue as well. βΊοΈ Not sure if Iβll watch it though. Iβm not familiar with the leads. π¬
Hi @agdr03, yes, our pleasure in other shows may have been totally spoilt by LBFD. The irony is that it actually just did what a good show is supposed to do, but we are soooo grateful! π€ͺ π π€
After reading all the raves here about Forever and Ever, I will start on it (not on Falling Into You) just to have a distraction. I think I’m going a bit crazy since I’m not exactly free!!! π€ͺ π΅βπ« π³ π¬
Agree @GB, Iβm grateful too. βΊοΈ
Oh weβre allowed to go crazy every now and then so go! πππ»
Girlfriend @Dipa and Queen did like it a lot too so I might join you if ever. Iβll see how I go. π