UPDATE 11/2/25
I’m making this into a general open thread to discuss Episodes 11 to 36, instead of just Episodes 11 to 20. The series already ended, and some of you might want to discuss it freely.
Obviously, spoilers abound.
pm3
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
As I told @ibisfeather, I find the story engrossing. Netflix releases two episodes most days, occasionally one per day. I manage to keep up with the releases but can’t write as often as I want.
Episode 11
The episode description from Netflix.
Ji Bozai and Ming Yi work to expose the truth about Xun Ming’s marriage to Xinliu, while also navigating their true feelings for each other.
My quick takes. Spoilers.
1. The General Xun Ming couldn’t handle the truth that his wife hated him and attempted to kill him. She knew that Xun Ming was helping her cousin Mu Qibai to create an army of netherbeasts and was disgusted with him for his villainy. The word that she kept carving on the wood is “zheng” meaning righteous, just and incorruptible. She didn’t think that Xun Ming was “zheng.”
It’s no wonder then that, when Xun Ming took over JBZ’s consciousness, he wanted Ming Yi to stab JBZ with the same dagger than XinLiu stabbed him with. Though he lost his memories of Xinliu’s attempted murder, he was unconsciously replicating that hate-filled moment. He thought Ming Yi would kill JBZ in the same way, too. Instead, Ming Yi chose to stab herself with the dagger.
As of now, I don’t think Ming Yi has fallen in love with JBZ. She didn’t want to kill JBZ because a) she still needs to get the antidote from him, and b) JBZ was “zheng.”
2. I don’t quite get what Situ Long, the Judgement Hall guy, is up to. I hope his admiration/adulation for Ming Yi doesn’t end up sabotaging Ming Yi’s goals. And what did he mean when he said that Ming Yi couldn’t know about his true identity? 😂 Is he an imposter, too?
3. I don’t quite get what Dr. Yan is up to, either. Is he just pretending to go along with Mu Qibai to protect the princess?
There are so many moving pieces in this drama. I like it.
4. And Ming Yi has a special incantation to seal demons and bad spirits? Interesting. She really must have been a child prodigy.
5. I still like the catchphrase in this episode, “Where you have true feelings for me or not, you’re the only one I love.” Xun Ming wanted to hear his wife say these words to him (she didn’t), but this declaration can very apply to both Ming Yi and JBZ, too.
Episode 12
Situ Ling stirs drama amid Ji Bozai and Ming Yi’s relationship, which is only growing stronger. Ming Yi finds a disturbing letter from Xinliu.
Episode 13
In the Sunken Abyss, Twenty-Seven’s mission goes wrong. Meanwhile, Mu Qibai reveals Ming Yi’s identity and exposes a secret Ji Bozai holds.
Episode 14
Heavenly punishment strikes Ji Bozai and Ming Yi risks everything to save him. Later, they reach an agreement to work together and expose Mu Qibai.
Episode 15
Let’s enjoy the show.
Transferring @ibisfeather’s comment here.
***
Thought#1
I found this last arc (ep9-11) about General Xun Ming’s delusive love obsession to be very satisfying. Memory, self-deception, love and love’s illusions.
A truly slippery fight against Xun Ming, where we learn more about the Youzu Fox tribes methods.
From the fake wedding down to the final minutes, no deceptions between the two leads as to their trust in each other while in action. Finally they are beginning to trust while at ‘rest’ too.
MY starting to use her precious and dwindling store of spiritual energy, albeit when she thinks no one can see.
Although it was very difficult to follow who was inhabiting who in XM’s realm of illusion until I realized that XM’s little red mark next to his eye would appear on JBZ while he was inhabiting JBZ.
The same must have been true of ZhangTai and XinLiu but I couldnt keep up.
Transferring @ibisfeather’s comment here.
**********
Thought#2
Although we are not in the wuxia ‘water margins’ world of wandering heroes and thugs, the xianxia physical location in fairies palaces is starting to seem misleading.
The themes of friendship and comradeship, honor and loyalty, so prevalent in martial arts tales are starting to emerge strongly here too.
Take Situ Ling, who so far seems oversimplfied, hanging onto his boyhood hero-worship of Ming Xian. Willing to drop everything to help him/her.
It is worrisome that he trusts so easily. Betraying her identity to Fu Yue, another of the Youzu foxes seems the height of idiocy? There must be more to it.
Transferring @ibisfeather’s comment here.
*****
ep12-14
We are at the 1/3 mark, as good a time as ever for romance to start to blossom..
Some lovely scenes in 12 and some cute ‘family comedy’ as the moth housekeeper, the dragon companion, or the white cat and the suddenly-arrived Master of MY try to puzzle out the reality of MY+JBZ’s ‘fake’ marriage.
ep13, HMH will break your heart.
ep14, HMH will make your belly ache with laughter.
conclusion, HMH haas a depth and range known to his QiYi fans but not to me, at least until now.
Transferring @ibisfeather’s comment here.
********
Speaking generally, this is one of the best fantasy shows I have seen in many months.
I am rewatching episodes before the sun has set on their day of airing.
Stunningly beautiful, charming and emotionally involving.
Hou Ming Hao turns out to be a great actor; he builds the character slowly but powerfully.
Re. Ming Yi’s spiritual vein
As of Episode 12, she still has 5 leaves left, right? I think she raised her hand when her Master asked how many she still had left. I wasn’t keeping track before because I figure when she comes dangerously close to losing all of them, the drama will keep reminding us.
Re. the color saturation of the fighting scene with the Fox General (Mun Xing).
I get that red is a bridal color. At the same time, the red effectively conveyed intense feelings of obsessive love and berserk rage, as well as danger and violence.
Re. Ming Yi getting them both out of the Mun Xing’s illusion/dream world
How convenient was that that JBZ was unconscious the whole time MY knocked out Mun Xing and carried them out of there?
Re. the little red mark/tattoo
MY’s friend ZhangTai had a tattoo on the back of her shoulder. That’s how MY and JBZ knew that ZhangTai wasn’t the real person but a puppet.
JBZ had a little red mark on his cheekbone when Xun Ming took over his consciousness.
But I doubt that XinLiu/Xun Ming’s wife ever had a red mark because Xun Ming didn’t possess her nor make a copy of her.
From a review I read today, “simpering coquette” to describe MY’s behavior as a ‘fault’ in the LITC writing. I dont see it that way.
MY, a woman raised as a somewhat underappreciated man in a royal family, now wants to approach another man in a foreign country while in disguise. Her femininity is somewhat under-developped — no maids or older women to teach her anything, so she goes for ‘fairy of the pleasure-house’. She gets herself hired to wash floors and learns the ‘simpering coquette’ by observation. Being quite arrogant herself she probably believes that ‘feminine wiles’ are underhanded but effective tools of women against all foolish men.
And in truth, improbably, she is so artless that her target falls for her.
The point being that “simpering” is an uncomfortable disguise for her, but she is only now finding her way to her own way of talking to and being with a lover. She starts in a wildly false position but never reverts back to talking like a guy.
Ming Yi is an alias, not her name Ming Xian, but the name of a real deceased girl from Freezing Hot Waters.
I am thinking now that JBZ has inscribed the alias on the marriage stone, that she will never revert back, and will live as Ming Yi.
ep13
So did the Lovers’ Walk accept MY +JBZ bec:
.. They are so physically close that an inch or less doesnt make a big difference?
..He loves her enough for 2,
or, a one-sided love story is still a love story?.
..or she does love him already but it is deeply hidden…
@ibisfeather,
yes, I saw that Lover’s Walk/Bridge in Ep 13. The only requirement was that the couple were “lovers.”
And by that, I thought the guardians of the bridge excluded:
a. a single person walking on the bridge (e.g., just Situ Long by himself)
b. two individuals who are blood-related (e.g., the princess and the evil uncle)
c. two individuals who are work colleagues (e.g., JBZ and the princess)
d. two individuals of the same sex (we know how the Chinese censors operate, lol)
As for love being a requirement, the guardians of the bridge didn’t:
a. specify “how much” love was necessary to cross the bridge
For sure, JBZ loves her more. But it doesn’t mean that she’s barred from walking the bridge just because her love for him is just in the nascent stage (or in denial stage).
b. disallow the marriage agreement JBZ and MY entered into willingly in Episode 10/11.
The way I see it, MY and JBZ qualified as lovers because:
a. they are a married couple,
b. they do love each other, but in different degrees and varying ways.
@ibisfeather,
I don’t get it. Is “simpering coquette” meant to disparage Ming Yi’s DISGUISE?
I think it’s a genius move on her part to act like a “simpering coquette.” It shows how cunning, conniving and manipulative she can be. She’s engaging in rudimentary “honeypot” tactics that “swallows” (or female covert agents during the Cold War) used to do to extract information from their male target and/or to make their target perform a task for them.
For instance in Episode 12, she was indeed “simpering” when she asked him to make all those so-called artifacts.
Why?
Because she knows they’ll come in handy one day, but she can’t make them herself (because she’ll expend her energy and because JBZ will look askance at the gadgets).
So simpering was a smart strategy.
Really now. If “simpering coquette” was meant to be critical of MY, then the OP should thank her lucky stars that she hadn’t been targeted by a raven (i.e., the male counterpart of a swallow). I bet she’d fall for the “devilish/dashing debonair” hook, line, and sinker.
totally! exactly.
ep17
A difficult episode.
One of the beauties of sageuk and chinese fantasy is that they can enact moral problems we all face.
Here the problem of betrayals, collaboration with unjust oppressors, and of forgiveness, of a sort.
In wuxia, the inner ‘grudge’ (resentment and other negative emotions) must be ‘refined’, because it is a point of weakness in combat.
The heroic ML must refine in seclusion, in inner struggle. Then his choices in action will be clarified.
For many of us the moral struggle over forgiveness of collaborators is awoken by the similarity of Jixing Abyss to many deathcamps in ‘recent’ history, and the mother who saves her son by betraying JBZ is a tough one to deal with.
My own definition of ‘recent’ probably stretches back into ‘early modern’ history, but such is human cruelty and depravity that most of us have some point of reference.
However in RL moral clarity is an ever evanescent goal, and a grudging and unclear charity the best recourse for us all, Buddhists or Christians likewise.
This may be too ‘political’ @pcml3. Feel free not to post.
Lol, @ibisfeather. I didn’t even notice the “political” aspect till you brought it up.
Go ahead and be more specific. I’m not at Episode 17 yet but I’m interested to hear what it’s all about.
ep19-21
Long-prepared-for changes occur. All the actors build upon previous scenes but take it up a notch in intensity. The plot develops a nascent area of conflict amongst the Six Realms.
The Powers of the Warriors and the Politics.
We knew these two lovers were powerful warriors but they have been restrained and careful for so long that one forgets that MY and JBZ have both semi-secretly reached higher levels of cultivation than anyone else, and can compete even against those whose raw sources of power are greater.
HF, backed by an evil prince from Zhushui Spiritual State, decides to use the same soul-seizing torture on MY which he had used to kill JBZ’ master. MY however survives the torture itself, and only needs to be rescued by JBZ from HF’s attempt to simply murder her in his frustration. She begins to use her power more openly.
JBZ’ ability to crush an entire army of netherbeasts with his mind happens almost casually, as he has to hop in and out of meditation when needed by events. He has always held back from politics in Jixing Abyss, but we begin to see why he has been so cautious about confronting Uncle HF’s slow-moving coup.
Love.
The self-revelation/confession of JBZ amidst the heartbreak of ep13, is matched in ep19 by an involuntary confession of MY. Hallucinating while recovering from the effects of the soul-seizing, she tells him directly how much she cares for him. Although once she recovers and finds herself in his arms, she runs away, what is said cannot be unsaid, and she does not (thank goodness) retreat to the unfortunate babbling incoherence of drama FLs again.
ep20
The loving gaze of HMH/JBZ is a miraculous tonic. While still fearful MY/LYX meets his gaze openly, and seems to be shedding that frozen worried frown… whether for more complex emotions remains to be seen.
The love of Princess Tian Ji and Yan Xiao is further explored. They are never used as a foil to the main couple, but always have their own powerful and sad arc.
The companion beasts and the Moth housekeeper, on the other hand, are charmingly available for commentary on events at home. The Cat and the Dragon fight together to defend their master’s interests, hang out at Granny’s restaurant in the Market and bicker charmingly about whose master loved the other’s master first.
Plot.
The ambiguous Situ Ling’s bullying older brothers turn out to be the quarreling princes of Zhushui SS, ill-controlled by their own Emperor. Their interference/interactions in Jixing Abyss casts a different light upon HF, as do flashbacks to his interactions with the Princess and the Physician when they were younger.
On the 3-day long celebration of Prayer Night, many alliances are clarified by ep21 in a positive way. Negotiations with the Jixing Emperor and with Yan Xiao turn out to have been going on in secret.
eps 23-24 — entertainingly intransigent, the show dynamites the trope of noble idiocy.
“If I tell him I tried to get close to him and then fell in love with him..hewont believeme,hewillhateme”..after which the lovers do reveal their secrets and all is fine…that is the way it always goes.
But today, not. A. Ming Xian is prideful. B. Jibozai does not trust.
And the Cat nearly dies!
I am in pieces. One realm-saving battle is barely over and now we have to pull ourselves together over another one. The Lovers have entered a truly old-fashioned “trials and tribulations” cycle.
A few bright points: The Jixing Abyss royal family has finally pulled itself together. At least somebody is happier. And MY’s Master has zoomed back into the picture to help out.
The gender politics of LITC have been amusing from the start, and continue to be so in an underhanded way.
To begin with MY literally gets under JBZ’ guard by snuggling up against him in public when he cant defend himself. The silly, cute lump then falls for her even as he realizes she is messing with him. Just a regular guy, after an abandoned youth getting poisoned in some massive industrial pollution, after being rescued by a martial arts/herbalist master, after lterally fighting his way to being the guardian warrior of the realm, he falls for the first ‘innocent’ cutie who comes his way. Whose the innocent then?
more to come…a day of ruminations on the lovers of LITC
On the Lovers of LITC..ep25-26
So.. now a brilliant contrast to the balance of power in the beginning. Then they were equally wearing masks in public, and at home she was more deceptive.
Now (passing over a dramatic series of events in 25) after the dying MY and the Cat were thrown out of Wugui Sea because she finally decided to steal the GMD instead of asking her doting husband for it, the result is….
Their love affair has gone through a complete reset. Neither wears a mask and he is doing the heavy lifting in the flirting, warrior-to-warrior style. It is funny and its fun.
And MY is now the target of delicious wheedling, from the Empress Tianji (please come forge at the Academy) to Prince Chao Yuan/Situ Ling (promise me you will do whatever I ask you) to JBZ overplaying his wounds, shamelessly clutching and swaying her sleeve…
I think LYX is really showing great skills here. Now it is wonderful to see who she really is as a grown person, and not being emotionally abused by her family. She sets up headquarters at Zhang Tai’s place (who has made $ from her market stall, there’s a practical use of the women in business trope). Her friends who know who she is and accept her gather around. She forges, plans, hangs out with the Master. Situ Ling and JBZ visit her there on her territory. She wears plain clothing befitting her ascetic profession while in training.
HMH’s many fans always praise his acting and I have been eagerly watching his skills. The writer/director have built a show with small reveals as a build-up to real changes in character arcs, and HMH never rushes the gun. Meticlous timing. The character JBZ looks like the std tsundere, but without that paternal all-knowing care that ts’es seem to bust out with suddenly after a few episodes. HMH plays him as a real man, one who deals with his own emotions honestly and treats his lover as an equal inasmuch as he is able to.
Of course the real skill is shown in the episodes between 15 and 25, where confessions, hope, disappointments and love move forward and backwards between the two. I am not able to do that sort of close reading quickly at all, so will stop here.
ep28
Preparing for the showdown at the ‘tea gathering’ (athletic trials?). A nice focus on ‘artifacts’. The FL as a craftswomen making weapons.
Some matters are clarifying between the leads, but both still remain true to character — MY is even more cautious and secretive than BZ. I prefer caution and suspicion to noble idiocy altho it mostly serves the same plot functions.
The Situ Ling arc very very moving, he may become a villain but I will hold judgement until all is said and done. Sign of an excellent script meeting excellent actors — although predictable, it was still moving.
A heart-breaking scene with Situ Ling (he of the onesided life-long love for the FL) in the rain speaking to his ‘friend’ (yousu fox who likewise has an unrequited love for him). She stands behind him holding an umbrella to keep the rain from him, both have brimming eyes.
I feel as if I am over-praising what is essentially a heroic fantasy with good and tasteful non-ironic comic touches. I think because in most of what might be std tropes, the script and actors bring just a little more realism and believability to them than normal for this sort of show.
ep29
A great new landscape on the slopes of Yuoguang Mountain at the tea gathering.
Excellent full entry of Ming Xin (MY’s brother), hitherto only seen in the early eps, as the current up-front antagonist.
Someone in the comment pages celebrated the removal of the similiar Lord Hanfeng from the scene earlier as a good move for these long dramas to avoid the writers’ having to twist themselves into knots to keep only one villain alive long enough. The actor playing Lord Hanfeng and the character himself will be remembered fondly (raise a glass to his face and his arc!).
Buxiu, Meng Yang Qiu, Chen Xi and Zhang Tai pick up the comic ends of the action to varying degrees. This show is a little bit empty because of the lack of older character actors.
Although Cdrama doesnt have the same wonderful, sometimes funny sometimes beautifully sad tropes-with-elders that kdrama does, usually there is more variety in age in the cast than here in LITC. Many have had difficulty telling all the beautiful young men apart in the beginning of the show.
eps30-32
For those interested in the endlessly fascinating dynamics of love within marriage, this is a unique take. The leads separate and reunite several times, and only slowly reach a true and honest understanding between themselves. Very good writing, excellent acting of a much more complicated relationship than one usually sees in fantasy.
I think I have said a lot about the acting so here’s an equation:
really solid dramatic writing of high quality meets good committed actors all around = fantastic fireworks big and small throughout.
The big plot twist has been thoroughly spoiled online, but I still enjoyed it anyway, as other interesting events complicate it.
All concerned viewers on Netflix are now waiting for Wednesday when the last 4 eps begin 1-a-day. This was a Youku/Netflix/Viki close-to-simultaneous viewing, so everyone has to wait until youku makes some money, then netflix and finally viki will finish up, with a less painful drop schedule I hope, since I will rewatch it soon there.
LITC has slowly moved up the Viki TopTen to #4 this week!
@GB’s comment
*********
Hi @pkml3 and @Welmaris,
I had a hard time getting into this series, but slowly persevered until around Episode 7 or so when I got invested in the OTP and their growing relationship.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Since I’ve completed this series, the spoilers include the rest of the episodes until the end.
While I silently criticised the directorial choice to give us so much info mainly from exposition, I gathered it was a money-saving strategy and the main focus was meant to be the people rather than the surrounding plot, sub-plot(s) and action.
It was good that even side characters had their little resolutions, that all baddies had their comeuppance and that the characters grew sufficiently without changing their main objectives (or becoming unrecognisable) to win glory for their own realms.
There were other themes but the ones that comes to my mind: ‘Good leaders are prepared to sacrifice everything for their people, as opposed to those who sacrifice others to amass power for themselves’ and ‘Don’t play around with evil spirits/demons/monsters expecting that they will not be able to control us… the risks are too great and the cost is absolute”.
The relationship development through many conversations was solid, and we understand the motivations and feelings which were well conveyed.
Of course we cheer on the hero for being big enough to let his girl continue in the arena, rather than hide in his shadow. It was a hoot that everyone and the couple themselves expected to always end up going head to head at the tournaments because neither could best the other.
I’d say it was more a typical ‘idol’ sort of romantic xianxia, and pleasing for the development of the couple.
@GB,
As for me, I thought the director and writer paced the exposition very well, considering that amount of backstory there was in this cdrama.
Ming Yi’s trouble, i.e., her loss of her Spiritual Veins, didn’t just happen in the spur of the moment, i.e., her defeat at the Quiyang Tournament.
Same thing for Ji BoZai. His trouble, i.e., vengeance for the murder of his master, didn’t just happen overnight.
He originally planned just to go after Hou Zhao, the corrupt head of Judgment Hall and the de facto warden of Sunken Abyss prison. He, then, went after Xun Ming, the fox general of Lord Hafeng’s army, as he was the one who actually tortured his master, Fairy Bo, to death. His next target was going to be Lord Hafeng aka Mu QiBai because he ordered the kill.
MQ was the “mob boss.”
But in the process of going after MQ, JBZ discovered MQ amassing netherbeasts in secret in Jixing Abyss.
As it turns out, MQ was himself merely a pawn in a much bigger conspiracy. It was his hubris, however, that made him think he could elevate his Jixing Abyss to join the ranks of the Upper Realms. Episode 15 (which I’ll write about next) was very illuminating: even the SON of the Emperor of Zhushui — who wasn’t yet crowned the heir to the throne — could bully him without fear. The son’s treatment of MQ, e.g., castigating him, whipping him in front of his henchman, belittling his homeland Jixing Abyss, etc. showed how powerless MQ really was in the grand scheme of things. He was just a minion himself.
So, what JBZ assumed to be the end goal of his vengeance turned out to be just the beginning of a inter-realm, inter-world rescue.
Unknown to JBZ and MY (and the viewers), the seeds of both their strife were sown a hundred years ago. It began with a fairy and an evil Emperor (who was it, the Emperor of Zhushui?) from the distant past.
That’s why I give kudos to the screenwriter and director for not spilling the beans from the start on how deeply the fairies were involved in this mess. We were only giving hints here and there.
For example, in Episode 3, JBZ was looking for the Soul-hiding Nails on her body (the Nails were supposed to “nail” down the Spiritual Veins and suppress them from activating). Though that info was casually mentioned, I thought it was misogynistic of the people in both the Upper and Lower Realms to single out the fairies when fairies were female.
Then, in Episode 15 (which I’ll write my notes next, I promise), it was again casually revealed during JBZ and MY’s conversation that the “Spiritual Veins Fairies” raised the netherbeasts but were devoured by then. There’s this growing suspicion in me that says that a) fairies aren’t as harmless, innocent, or helpless as they seem, and b) the Soul-hiding Nails were actually a punishment meted out to the fairies for their role in unleashing the netherbeasts.
I say that MY and JBZ merely caught the tail-end — or the brunt — of the Emperor’s interrupted scheme to take over the whole Six Realms. The Emperor was playing the ultimate “long game.” But MY and JBZ had no clue of the snake pit they had fallen into as they went about their original business/goal, e.g., for MY, it was to find the antidote, and for JBZ, it was to seek justice for his master.
In a nutshell, Episode 1 began in media res. It wasn’t the beginning of their problem. They were already deeply mired in the problem before they even knew it.
But as MY and JBZ faced their current problem and solve them step-by-step, they were unravelling the thread of a much bigger, and more dangerous conspiracy. They unknowingly followed the thread back to the original weaver of discord and strife.
I pointed out in My Notes of Ep 4 that MY was telling JBZ that her lies were nothing compared to the more pressing issue. I like it that she was the first one to recognize that there was a nefarious plan afoot. (I guess she had help: she saw the scroll that implicated her Yaoguang Mountain, didn’t she?)
Hence, I credit the screenwriter and director for managing to keep the viewers in the dark. Most viewers couldn’t foresee the next plot twist or the next entanglement/connection because the screenwriter and director limited the revelations to only what was necessary to push the plot along.
Thank you for moving my comment @pkml3. Yes it’s better to just have a thread for everything until the end now that most have watched the series. As I often do, I would have liked the episode count to have been reduced. It was okay as long as I binged it with lots of FFD-ing. But not during the couple interactions which were a sincere as they could be amidst the necessary deception.
@ibisfeather,
It’s out on Viki.
I didn’t buy a Youku membership. One Chinese platform, IQIYI, is enough to feed my cdrama habit. But I have to admire Youku and Iqiyi’s business smarts. They’re monetizing the fans’ weak self-control and their need for instant gratification.
To each his own, though.
I can wait for the next episodes; I have other things to do anyway. But I can’t stand ads and commercials because the seconds and minutes I waste waiting for them to be over can add up. It’s not as if I can stand up and do other things while a 30-second ad is playing. Thus, I’m willingly pay more to be rid of them on Netflix, Viki, and Youtube. 🙂
@GB,
What I would like to see reduced is the romantic encounters of the secondary characters. Ugh! Though I’ve come to expect secondary love-lines in cdramas, this drama had one too many.
I would have preferred the scenes of these couples cut:
a. Princess Tianji and Dr. Yan Xiao. She smiles too much and at the wrong times that, in another drama, her smiles would be considered two-faced. And the guy? I get that he wants to move up the ladder and protect the girl, too. But where are his professional ethics? His common sense? He was poisoning his own patient. MQ’s order should have triggered warning bells in him that MQ wasn’t a good guy that he thought he was.
What makes their scenes especially boring to watch was their bland acting.
b. Situ Ling and the foxy lady, Fuyue. I get that Fuyue’s one-sided love for SL perfectly mirrors Situ Ling’s one-sided love for MY, and that their so-called “love” suspiciously sounds like “savior/saved romance complex” but the drama didn’t have to drill these in to my consciousness every. single. time. So annoying!
c. Zhang Tai (MY’s BFF) and whoever that guy was.
d. Xun Ming (MQ’s fox general) and his wife (MQ’s other niece). That whole segment was too long. We didn’t need to dwell on his obsession, his wife’s real murderous feelings for him, and MQ’s devious scheme to implant a false memory in Xun Ming so he would continue to create the netherbeasts for him.
I guess his fantasy obsession is a ruinous as Situ Ling’s.
@pkml3, yes I’d have liked very much to not have those other couple scenes. Generally all sufferers of obsession ended badly – their stories may be a cautionary tale (or two) at best. But yes, we didn’t need to have our noses rubbed into their messed up decisions.
In fact since exposition was the way to go, it should have replaced those scenes.
Thanks for laying out the overall structure and backdrop to what MY and JBZ were up against. I was missing the forest for the trees. 🙂
Note: as for Situ Ling/Chao Yuan’s obsession for Ming Yi, I don’t mind those scenes. I’ll probably find it fun to analyze how his innocent crush devolved into a deadly neurosis.
It was sad to see that the once bullied person became a bully himself. I was hoping that he’d overcome his past instead of becoming enslaved by it. And I haven’t figured out exactly how MY’s advice/wish for him to live for himself in the next life will work out for the better. Doesn’t “to live for oneself” mean to become selfish, self-centered, self-serving? I get that Situ Ling’s fault was that he was too focused on her, and that everything he did was for her. But how is the alternative, i.e., be more focused one’s self, even better?
To me, this sounded ungrateful of MY because without a doubt, she benefitted a number of times because SL was focused on her needs and fixed a dire situation for her. She took advantage of him, too.
Hi @pcml3, @GB
I just finished the last episode today. The last 4 eps would have been better watched back to back.
SPOILER
All these couples. My thought in the end was that the writer put them all in as sort of a vague balance to the very unusually modern relationship of our lovers.
So Zhang Tai’s sort of rushed romance ends up with a traditional hxcal wedding, lots of cool presents, baby on the way…
Yan and TianJi are a little annoying but wait until you hear how they decide to structure their relationship!
And then there are our two, we finally get the proposal but its a long-distance relationship? Oh OF COURSE, they just hop down into JBZ’s Spirit Well, bend time and space and eat dinner together everynight!!!! And there I thought they would get to date by riding Buxiu!
And somehow all the things that niggled me just melted sentimentally away on cue, at the very, very, very end.
If the msg for the censors was that this would get girls to date, get married, have babies and keep working out at the gym, that’s a lot of spaghetti to throw at the wall for just a xianxia romance!
another ending thought..
The stories of Situ Ling and MY, Situ Ling and and Fu Yue gave the whole show some gravitas. He/the actor almost, almost, almost overacted.. but no, I think it worked; sad, thought-provoking or just plain provoking, Situ Ling nearly stole the show.
Hi @pcml3
Here’s my thought on “live for yourself” — we are in the weeds of Chinese young persons’ version of “find your own self-worth first and then you can be better positioned to give love and get married (and have babies)”.
Judging from the long discussions of what sound like younger persons working their way through relationship ideas in the comment sections of this drama (I really find comment sections very very very interesting..), SITU Ling didnt value himself, therefore he tried to find self-worth by possessing another person’s value/worth.
Fu Yue shows the positive outcome of learning from their debacle — she went off and found a way to be happy on her own. But yet, that undying love trope she expresses to a blue butterfly (Situ Ling or not) — “even if you were in a crowd of thousands, I would still recognize you” was really moving (and obsessive?).
(have to go walk the dog)
Oh, I see. Thanks, @ibisfeather. That makes better sense.
I have to remind myself that JBZ and MY are only 21 years old, and Situ Ling is a lot younger than them. Maybe 16?
Which comment section are you referring to? 😂😂
@pcml3, I feel that I should not reply to ‘which comment section’ on the grounds that the answer might incriminate me/us?
Anyway — the mdl one. They apparently recently acquired a bunch of new subscribers many of whom seem pretty young to me….I still have that teacher-nosiness about ‘the younger generation’, it may never leave me…
MDL? Multidistrict litigation? Huh?
Lol. Oh you mean, mydramalist!
Sorry. I’m only on my second cup of coffee.
I heard that the soompi forum closed in June/July (sometime in the summer), so it’s conceivable that the soompi regulars migrated to mydramalist. Many moons ago, I found their forums’ posters to be young, not only in biological years, but also in mental, emotional, and cerebral age. Hmmm… Their base probably didn’t improve over the years.