Martial Universe (2018)

The cast and acting is okay, nothing to nitpick there. However the story line is completely ruined. I understand that when good novels are adapted into dramas there are many changes. However this one was just too much, one of the main antagonists Lin Langtian is apparently some good guy, who actually cares for Lin Dong, and his father, and a bunch of other bull shit, and is only led astray or something. Complete BS!!! Somehow Lin Dong meets all the girls from his harem right from the get go, okay i understand they had to speed some shit up cause it's a drama. But somehow Ling Qingzhu is already falling for Lin Dong, like right away. Plus these two were suppose to start out as enemies, yet they start off as some kind of hero and damsel situation, where she is already falling for him. Yet one of the most BS thing is, in the drama Lin Dong is apparently really shameless, and his shamelessness knows no bounds, WTF is this!!! And Ling Qingzhu is falling for his shamelessness,... OMG this story is just completely ruined because of this. Plus the way the three brothers meet is complete BS, and the Marten's personality is utter BS.. Ai... there's too much BS to even nitpick that I'm already bored and tried of it.....
However if I never read the story, I suppose the drama is not all that bad, just a little to fast...

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Only if you really want to watch fantasy

Overall I would say that this was not very good. You would have to really really just want to watch a fantasy show to watch this.

The good:
Honestly there is not much. One lead female actor tries to give a good and dignified performance, and does really well. The other lead female actor gives a fun and charming performance, and does really well. They both do well but just are not enough to salvage the rest of the show being so rough.

The bad:
Personally my main issue is that the main character seems like something a 14 year old boy would think is cool. Just a lot of unearned swagger, and everything always works out for him just because.

The other main issue, and the one that probably everyone will struggle with, is the pacing. The story is indecypherable for multiple episodes. We bounce between character arcs without any real idea of who they are or why we should care. The story momentum randomly seems like its picking up and then just flounders and resets, multiple times. If you watch on Viki and turn on comments, you will just see a stream of people being frustrated and giving up on the show over the course of the first 6 episodes.

The other thing about the writing is that plot points are written exceptionally badly. Like really badly, to the point I was regularly confused how it even made sense that a character would say or do things. Do not expect any character's to behave in any consistent way, or to do things that make sense.

Beyond those main issues, there are more issues, just generally very bad and cheap looking costuming. The fights are not filmed well. These points I personally did not care about that much, and would have forgiven if the story was better, but alas failing on all fronts really has me questioning how much I have to just want to watch a fantasy show to stick with this one.

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