Love of the Divine Tree

heavy on romantic fluff, too light on the plot

If romance is what you are wanting then you will probably find this drama very enjoyable. The focus is completely on the love story between the leads. It is visually stunning from the sets, to the costumes, to the CGI of the magic it delivers constantly beautiful, well choreographed scenes and the plot circling around the romance makes this a decent watch. These two characters provide a home for each other when they are each at their loneliest.

Overall I did like many things about this. Mu Qingge's character is patient and kind but also smart, strong, reliable, and loyal. She is everything I like in a female character and watching her as Yi Shui's master is truly perfection. Her portrayal of this character's steadfast morality and playfulness as she teaches him was my favorite part of the entire drama. Su Yi Shui is also portrayed very well in his young, angry at everything kind of introduction to the way her falls in love because of the first show of kindness he receives. He contains that protective quality I also love to see in my main men. The pair has a likeable chemistry and watchable presence.

What this story lacks however is a decent plot to carry the romance. There is absolutely no world building in this drama. From episode one to the end you are just thrust into a world they never properly set up or explain to the viewer. You have no real grasp of what kind of world this is, how the magic system really works, the destictions between the sects or even the mortal and immortal worlds and how they work. Instead the story constantly just plunges along with the sole focus of creating drama for the two leads to have to overcome.

While I love Mu Qingge, I don't particularly like Ranran as much. Her constant lovesick version of Qingge makes her scenes start to feel repetitive and boring. While it can be seen as loyalty I often more felt it annoying. This drama is also way too long for what the plot offers. There are several episodes where it felt repetitive as they go in the same circle of him pushing her away, her getting upset but then chasing after him again. On and on again until the end. It also does not help that my two least favorite tropes (master/disciple relationship, and amnesia) are used multiple times in this. The first was okay when Qingge was the master purely because Yishui was a reluctant disciple and never really called her that, but once they switch I found myself cringing everytime I heard her say 'shifu' toward the latter half of the drama. Her amnesia also went on for far too long just for them to end up switching again.

Many characters are also vastly under developed. Mu Ranwu is there to be the villain but with not enough interaction to make the viewer understand why she feels the way she does. I also found the first actress that portrayed her did a much better job. Most other characters are also set up and behave exactly the same even though she is supposed to have reappeared 18 years later. In that time characters would have aged, matured, or grown stronger but they are all exactly the same as when she dies the first time making the time jump irrelevant.

Overall this drama is okay but the writing does not do a good job of building a world that makes you feel invested nor does it provide any kind of emotional response from the viewer. The reveals are all easily predictable and uninteresting by the time they happen.

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some details

in the form of a story, it is very interesting not too bad ,good writing

really really unnecessary to make 2 versions, confusing, basically all the episodes have the same scene, only the order different,
in version 1 in episode 1-6 and to eps 8 from first meet to 18 years later,
version 2, ep 1-2 and then ep 2-8 from 18years later remembering 18 years ago,
and the all the others eps are the same, the different scene editing only in version 1 eps 6 and version 2 episode 8 , and in both versions have different introduce inside the drama, maybe only in the first 8 episodes,, there is a version that writes the names yutong and yuchen and duke kangping, but the other one doesn't write it

too much timeskip, too many scenes to be shown but the duration is not enough, only 40 episodes if less maybe it will be very perfect, what happened throughout the fanyao battle, suyushui in jiuhua sect how long?,

but appreciation because in this drama every episode beginning and end are connected, because basic details like this for cdramas now are very rare, I feel they did the best job, trying to change the missing story pieces in the form of flashbacks, but if they change the scenes that repeating, maybe they can replace them with other different scenes, because I see some flashback scenes repeating only adding a few lines of dialogue

for acting, honestly not bad, FL in the character of muqingge and xueranran really have different auras, and almost unrecognizable even though I know they are one person, 她做得很好, not too bad for the quality of a newcomer, all actors and artists do well,


1. since the beginning, the person who know the tree has two fruit are cengyi and suyishui? , but why the mastermind can know it?
2. ‎Tujiuyuan in front of the tree calling muqingge as "姐姐"?
3. ‎how long did the fanyao war last? not shown at all, too many timeskips, it was a war between suyu fams and suyishui fams right? and about the white tiger, did its play a role in the war? it is not clear in the drama, because after bringing the tiger, not long after muqingge was immediately surrounded
5. What did the mastermind do in front of the well that he energized?
6. Wenrongshan face? who hurt her?
7. Muqingge did not want to leave the mortal world because there was someone she could not let go of? What does that mean?
8. Previously it was said that the Gaocang family had a relationship with Suyishui, so he accepted him as a disciple, then it was said that the Baibaishan family had also helped "西山古人" so that why Suyishui accepted him as a disciple?
9. Regarding Suyu's health condition? Nothing was shown about it, how it happend
10. Why was 朱雀 sealed by Duntian?
11. Suyishui can cure 怨水 from Muranwu?
12. ‎ep20, muranwu and muqingge are connected, but she tries to kill muqingge with the formation that once caused her to perish too?
13. ‎ep21 muranwu use many times the great amulet for a trivial fight? and showing it in front of many people?
14. ‎when suyishui entered the dragon's body, they said that if the body is not connected to the soul within 24 hours then it will not be able to return, but his body was immediately found and disconnected again for 5 days?
15. ‎ep27, ranran said if the 神魂 returns then he will reach the huashen stage again and can suck the drop of 灵泉 with the xuanyin bottle? Meanwhile, when using ice lotus, suyishui is also in the huashen stage, but he can't suck it out
16. ‎ep30, 幽界，the power is reversed , affects ranran suyishui and weijiu, but when fighting with the mastermind, of course the power is greater than ranran, but its power did not weaken at all
17. ‎灵泉gone? completely? even though previously it could only be sealed?
18. ‎why didn't they invite zhoufeihua?
19.

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I Watched the drama for the handsome Male Lead

This Drama started well for me but then went Downhill. I love Mu qingge and not Xue Ran Ran because she is soo naive, innocent, likes to cry and unnecessarily kind. I liked when She was Mu qingge because she was baddass and awesome one of the reasons I decided to watch it. Xue RanRan is your typical female lead innocent, kind and naive and I really don't like such female leads. I hate that she regained her memories very late.

Then I was disgusted by Dun Tian, Mu Ranwu and Su yu. They were very annoying and obsessive. That's why I decided to skip directly from Episode 7 to 23. I liked Su YiShui becasue he's very handsome. The visuals were very good. I also love my villain couple (Wei Jiu and Elder Tu) I found him very cute. Someone mentioned that the amnesia arc was annoying. Which is true. Also, I don't like the fact that they like to explain to their opponents. Just fight already you don't need to explain your plans.

the ending was good.

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This was an ok drama for me. Idk, it was good the first half, like I wanted to keep watching, but when I reached the twenties I kinda lost the urge to keep going. But since I thought I was this far already, and I dislike dropping shows and only do so when my interest 100% drops and continuing is like wasting my life, I continued. Around the end of the drama my interest re-piqued and it was an enjoyable ending. I appreciate happy endings especially in wuxia dramas where 90% of the time one of the main couple dies a tragic death trying to save the other. Su Yishui (Deng Wei) I have to say went through many different shades throughout this drama. He changed a lot which sometimes I didn't quite follow how bro literally shapeshifted through so many different personalities, but I'm glad he found his peace with Mu Qingge (Xiang Hanzhi/Julia). Overall, a solid 8/10. Maybe I expected it to be better bc of the high rating on MDL which is lowk impressive, but ig u can watch it if you want to, it's not really really bad, it's not really good either but its just ok. (Ignore my rating for music unless its really good I just put a two for everything)

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Ah.. I'll just note the missing elements first. But probably the first few episodes was because it was told by a story teller that they embellished it with some elements that are not there i. e. The white tiger. In the first few episodes, we see it fighting with Mu QingGe but in reality, it didn't even appear based on Su YuShui's recollection.

Mu QingGe's sister is really selfish. Her elder sister already gave everything for her and yet she still wanted more... She wanted to become the crown princess to get the love of SuYu (the crown prince), and wanted to be powerful like her sister and gain everything, so she wanted her sister dead. What an evil sister! She's hopeless! And in the end, she just lost her mind for missing the one who truly love her - Wang Shui Zhi - a previous disciple of Mu QingGe.

I really wonder why these Cdramas chooses FL's who aren't that pretty. Cute yeah. I guess it's her bubbly personality and her seriousness to act like she seems mature and innocent at the same time. But in terms of beauty, others surpass her sadly. Other women here are prettier than her.

Tiu JiuYuan - the female partner of Wei Jiu of Scarlet Sect is beautiful (even her younger self). Even Yu Tong, the female guard of Su YuShui, is pretty. Xue RanRan's friend is also cute.

Good that the FL is smart as well as the other characters. I'd love to have her pouch which can hold even a human. 😅

The crown prince Su Yu has his own charm. Liang WuMeng looks handsome too.

I wonder why these Immortal Cultivators are very easy to deceived. They still believe this vicious and treacherous woman whom they believed to be Mu QingGe. They were already given a lot of circumstances to doubt her. First when she took one of the elder's power core and during one of the trials. Now she is deceiving them again and they still believed her wholeheartedly?

When Su Yu Shui lost his memory after he sealed the Spiritual Spring, his voice changed and I hate it. Why is his voice altering? Was he sick or was that from a different voice actor?

Well for all that it's worth, what are the damn immortals doing when they know that a fallen immortal is wrecking havoc in the mortal world? Are they all sleeping??? Well that answers my question. But aren't they even more powerful than the mortal cultivators???

Well somehow a good story. All the elements fit into one big conspiracy made by Dun Tian - a powerful immortal who fell just because he regret not saving his family (wife and 2 daughters) by defeating the Mortal-Demon Lord. He planned everything from the start.

He adopted and trained the 2 sisters Mu QingGe and Mu RanWu to cultivate. He even made Su YuShui into his pawn as the Demon's Child. He also used Su Yu and was pulling strings from the background. All to fulfill his great ambition of crossing the 3 thousand realms and finding his family again. But what he didn't count on was Mu QingGe's good values in helping people, including her own disciple Su Yu Shui, even sacrificing her own life so he wouldn't fall into being a demon and them also falling in love; thus defying him in every turn. Su Yu Shui just realized her sacrifice for her on Ep. 38 during the last few episodes.

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A decent watch with good thematic focus

This show is a decent watch, but for me it didn’t quite move beyond just decent. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t set off my imagination or make me fall in love the way my favorites do.

Let’s start with characters. To begin with, I really like Mu Qingge. We get about 5 episodes of her upfront. She is always smiling; nothing can ruffle her. It works so well because it’s paired with a good deal of confidence, ability, and a sort of infallibility. Altogether, you get a warm and kind character who truly loves the world and can save it, too.

Her adopting Su Yishui as a disciple feels a bit like a good-hearted person taking on a difficult foster child. Their relationship really does resemble parent and rebellious child, and later Su Yishui gets a taste of his own medicine. It’s a fun joke in the first third-ish of the show.

While I love Qingge, the FL is more accurately Xue Ranran. An interesting thought exercise: if you take the same awesome personality but strip it of its amazing abilities, what do you get? The answer is, apparently, a really cutsey type character with too many doodads in her hair and a penchant for babbling about her crush to strangers.

Don’t get me wrong. As far as FLs go, Ranran isn’t bad. She’s quite smart- with or without abilities, she’s able to use her plot-armor-level intelligence to work her way through many situations. She’s brave, uses her abilities well, acts with kindness, and is anything but useless.

But she is also really cutsey. At first I thought they changed voice actresses, because her tones were so different from Mu Qingge. It’s not the worst cute-acting I’ve seen, but enough to annoy me. She is also totally obsessed with her crush. I mean, I get that she’s a teenage girl, but it doesn’t make me admire her.

Gosh, I think I missed Mu Qingge as much as those two guys.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t quite get behind Xue Ranran, which took a lot away from my enjoyment of the show. To be honest, I would have been disappointed if Su Yishui just fell in love with Ranran for who she was. Luckily for me, there’s room to interpret it as him being into Qingge rather than this cute-acting teenage sap. But still- at the point they did get together, I actually lost interest and took some time off watching.

On the other hand, I found Su Yishui, the ML, to be a very compelling character. I’m used to a gradual reveal of backstory, but here we already know the “past” even as the protagonist (Ranran) is still figuring it out. I liked this because it allowed me to appreciate Su Yishui as simultaneously the cold, knowledgeable, and strong figure of authority that Ranran sees him as, as well as the traumatized, guilt-ridden, and despairing lost soul who doesn’t actually have all the answers. It makes for quite a complex character, and I really empathized with him all along the way.

The villains are sort of a rotating cast- including some characters you feel sorry for despite rooting against, leading to some mixed feelings- until the final villain is revealed about ¾ of the way in. The late-reveal final villain works here because it’s foreshadowed throughout, and also ties in well thematically. This villain has the setup to be thought-provoking, but ends up being somewhat one-dimensional and lame by the end, which is too bad.

Characters aside, the plot is decent. It gets a bit loopy at times, like people sacrificing for each other back and forth and back and forth, but “sacrifice” is sort of a theme so I guess it’s only fitting.

And one thing this show does well is maintain good focus on a few decently thoughtful themes. Sacrifice, for example: pretty cliché, practically the definition of drama. But here, as we’ve been with Su Yishui on this entire journey and watched him deal with the aftermath, we start to think a little deeper. By the time he’s lamenting his lack of choice, we’re ready to clap for him because it’s something we’ve started to realize, too.

Other themes and concepts explored include regret and repentance; and the idea of how much a person’s memories make them who they are. These ideas fall obviously out of the main premise, but then later come back in different ways, which is pretty neat.

Overall I give the show a thumbs up for the themes, but by the end I felt like they were beating me on the head with them. These ideas get discussed so often towards the end that they lose some of the original subtlety that made them so thought-provoking.

In terms of world-building, xianxia has never been great about logic and consistency, but I’d say this show ranks in the top half in terms of nonsense. For example, cultivation terms are thrown out helter skelter with no explanation. World truths are introduced and forgotten as needed. Many spells and charms are so specific they could only ever work in the exact context in which they show up, clearly tailored to advance the plotline. etc.

But at least, the constantly shifting tangle of who knows who is whom got so complicated that I couldn’t keep track, thus I was unable to identify any plot holes or inconsistent behavior related to it.

In terms of execution, I thought the acting is quite good. With all of Su Yishui’s personas, Deng Wei convincingly shows quite a bit of range- not just happy vs angry vs cat, but also various levels of cold and authoritative. For Julia Xiang as the female lead, while I found the cute-acting as Ranran a bit annoying, I think that’s more the story / director’s vision and voice acting than the actress herself. I like her adorable smile and her Mu Qingge (I also like the VA’s Mu Qingge). The supporting actors, like Chen Xinhai (Su Yu) and Deng Kai (Wei Jiu), also have good performances, with great facial expressions.

The fighting is ok, a bit of sword fighting and spinning (decently executed) but mostly just arm waving and CGI. The CGI is overall decent- in the better half of what I’ve seen- but sometimes a bit too much, especially in the battles. There is way too much blood spitting.

The settings and music are both not bad, but nothing I kept thinking about after the show was over. I found the costumes to be nice-looking if sometimes highly impractical… so many floaty layers and long trains.

Finally, for better or worse, I didn’t feel as worried watching this as I do with some other shows, probably because there’s a decent amount of plot armor and the show itself just doesn’t feel that dark. Therefore I’d still classify this as light-hearted, despite having some sad stuff. I do wish it had more humor- there were some laughs, but I think they could have done more with this material.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





This show has a happy ending, including a full half episode of epilogue-type stuff like scenes of their wedding and their happy married life together. It’s not quite at the level of Legend of Shenli which gave us an actual fun story, but still satisfying. Most of the side character stories also get tied up to some extent, though not quite all to my satisfaction.

Mu Qingge comes back for the last 5 or so episodes, both her memories (therefore her person, imho) and her abilities. Apparently this is a break from the novel, where she doesn’t get her memories back until the extra. I’m glad for this change; I would have rated the entire show lower if it were Xue Ranran to the end.

At first, Qingge and Ranran seem more like a split personality, but I think the Qingge traits ended up dominating. This allows her relationship with the ML to evolve into a really amazing, actually equal partnership, which is a joy to watch.

I’m not too big a fan of Ranran, but here I’ll admit she was necessary. Despite the show trying to hint at it, I refuse to believe Mu Qingge fell in love with Yishui. So the only way SYS could get Qingge was for her to also have this dual personality of Ranran.

Su Yu, the crown prince, is the character that left me feeling most conflicted. His good-bad duality is a bit exaggerated and overdone, but I still fell for it and felt bad for him. Ultimately I was satisfied by how his story ended; being able to reclaim his dignity was more than I had expected for him.

I still think the setup of the main baddie and how he’s defeated are lame, and the last two episodes have too much cheese. But I guess the show can’t be deep everywhere. Nothing like a good save-the-world plot to lighten everyone’s mood.

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Well Done

I wasn't really keen in watching another fantasy C-drama. But for some reason I got intrigued by the synopsis of the drama. I thought it was already complicated, but I was interested in enemies to lovers that involved second chances, stuff like regression and reincarnation. I gave it a try and I didn't get hooked hahahah maybe because I was tired watching overly dramatic scenes that are only possible in dramas with magical powers. So after some time, actually after it finished airing I watched the pilot episode again and this time, I was more interested but not totally willing to watch until the end. Fortunately, Mu Qingge was really intriguing, it was the first time that I had a crush on an actress and her character, well Crystal Liu was my childhood crush, that's beside the point, it was definitely a new feeling considering I never felt that way besides when I was a child. I also really liked the dynamic of Su Yi Shui and Mu Qingge in the beginning that, I find the starting dynamics of Xue RanRan and Su Yi Shui boring, still it was fun, and had good comedic moments, but the romance felt like watching another series from years ago. Still as it progressed, I find it ok especially when RanRan was starting to chase Su Yi Shui and when RanRan was starting to know her true identity. After that it was really nice. The chemistry was there but it didn't felt like they were truly in love, if you know what I mean, chemistry that would make you ship them IRL. I also liked the amnesia era of Su Yi Shui, we saw a mix of Mu Qingge and Xue RanRan trying to make Su Yi Shui fall in love again, that was fun. The chemistry and acting between them was much better in the last episodes, well It should be because it's the end game but still, it was definitely a noticeable improvement. This drama also had great supporting characters. Wei jiu was really comedic, they did a great job transitioning him as a annoying villain to a hesitant stupid villain friend. His antics with Elder Tu was definitely nice. Even though in the beginning they were serious in killing the leads, can't forget that even if they were friends in the end, but hey it's a fantasy drama. Dun Tian was a typical villain in a sense, he felt like a kids movie villain, was a chill character in the start but is secretly evil because of some regret in the past, a trope I see in animated movies. Still, it was ok , the character was definitely amazing at scheming, my guy had numerous back up plans, I honestly believe that without plot armour the Leads would've lost. Mu Ranwu and SuYu, they felt the same but had different upbringing, one was a prince, while the other was a normal person who wasn't as talented as her sister. The effort, the beliefs of both was very similar, at least to me, the obsession they had was only second to Dun Tian. Man were they annoying but respect for not giving up until they literally couldn't go on. The other died and the other is broken. Still, I understand in a world with powers, I too would wish to have at least a decent strength, I would want the ability to at least make my self safer and easier, still hot damn my girl was definitely way to jealous of her sister. Unfortunately for the Prince he got hoed by his brother, without that as a starting point of his change in nature, maybe his obsession with Mu Qingge wouldn't be that great and he might've looked at Fei Hua, and also without the manipulation of Dun Tian. The two subordinate and three disciples of Su Yi Shui. They are friends that I would like to have, so loyal and upright, a real one to each other and the leads, nothing much to say, exemplary characters that should be reflected in real life. Mr. Zheng is also one of them, my guy was really chill, bro was a great friend and also a great teacher, he had realistic opinions, he's a real one too. The heavenly sects. I thought they would be annoying until the end with most dramas having them like that, very close minded and even at times greedy and well evil. They were actually, well most of them, were upright and just. Still, they were close minded, and had a great development, accepting even the notion that demonic sects are all not evil. This move is something I really like, something different from the cliche of heavenly sects in drama's. The story well although not unique, was really well done, adding things that are uncommon, making it more enjoyable. The music was also nice the production knew when to use them. The Effects although at times noticeably bad, was good. Overall, it was great drama. This review is one of my longest one probably, goes to show I really enjoyed this drama. Also looking forward for Julia Zhang's career.

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Oh ... Ma gad!!!

Every time I say I won't watch. Any more XianXia/WuXia dramas because they are too long for me, I go down the rabbit hole all over again and my freaking curiousity gets the best of me and I start one.

This drama is great, but as much as I like it, I hate it so much.
The story is really interesting but I'm basically watching it for the romance which is my first mistake, these wuxia dramas has a billion side quest the two leads have to conquer a whole new realm and do a bunch of shenanigans to reach a god knows what end, and I sit here like a potato trying - and failing - to understand what is going on for 40 episodes.

I understand that it's a whole genre, take it or leave it but why does these stories has to be so interesting, ugghh!!!

The two leads, actually the whole cast are amazing, I still don't understand the whole bad to good or good to bad personality shift for side characters but I guess that serves the plot so who am I to judge!!

I still however can't stomach a few things that making the whole "I'm torturing myself for the sake of the good romance here" more unbearable.
The main thing is the whole cultivation thing, some weird sh!t happens and we all supposed to be like "yeah yeah that makes sense" like what is these things!!! What do you mean her golden globe core is missing and what's with him breaking his transmigration !!! The only thing that is broken is probably my mantal stability,, What is that? And what is with the spirit thing!! Don't get me started with the sister and that evil guy *facepalm*
But it's ok, because if somehow I understood one thing, I'll probably have to do a yoga pose for 30 mins to cultivate this new information and I'll probably be up a level or something....

I'm not trying to be funny nor that I'm sh!tying on the drama but I seriously have to follow the bread crumbs of little romance between the leads till the end, and despite being really interesting, 40 episodes are just too many 🤦🤦

I want to rate this higher but I'm putting it on hold at ep27 ... I finished 27 episodes which is an achievement for me tbh ~~
I just hope of someone reading this, just watch the drama if you like the genre, if not or you are like me can't do long dramas, just don't get tempted to start it, fled immediately and call for help!!!!

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UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE OF 2025 that goes in my all time fav list

This drama is actually the best of 2025 and I am surprised that other dramas of 2025 (especially some modern ones) have a higher rating on MDL.
I completely trust the chinese sites on drama ratings and reviews and so I decided to watch it. Its good enough to deserve that an 8.8 rating considering MDL standards.

Why?
1)Plot - The plot has your general Student Teacher relationship with a twist. You get to see both the leads playing the student and the teacher. The premise revolves around FIGHTING DESTINY FOR LOVE and it has been done so well❣️

2) Characters and acting - The FL is truly the star of the drama. The way she has portrayed two very different personalities is worth praising. Its commendable. You fall in love with HER WORLDVIEW ❣️

The male lead's character sees tremendous growth during the entire drama and its believable. He has NOT been written like an all righteous and perfectly tame ML. I loved that. It was a treat to watch him.

The villains are your classic xianxia villains. The OG delulu jealous villainess and her pathetic one sided hatred. Then you have the nice second lead guy in love and of course the cute side couples who make the entire journey worth watching.

3) Romance : Slow burn 🔥 and interesting. Amazing chemistry. The push and pull is great.

👎Cons - The plot gets very slow at 20 something and and picks up again after 6-7 episodes . My complaint with this is my complaint with MOST CDRAMAS...its TOO LONG! 30 episodes would have been ideal

Overall, it was a great watch.

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Abundant themes and ideas with a major ethical reservation

„Love of the Divine Tree” harbours an impressive number of themes in the neat chain of causality. However, some ask for ethical reconsideration, so prepare for a bitterness overload.

YIN & YANG. It is pleasing to observe how these clash when the two strong leads are confronted, then gradually mix and form a delineating curve. When the plot tears them apart, the yin and yang start rattling anew, searching for a new equilibrium.

Su Yi Shui is tagged as a sample of yin. He displays a total immersion in a belief or feeling. All he needs is freedom and appreciation. His opening up to love reveals his hidden nature of a giver. After the loss of his master, his remorse grows immense till it blocks his ability to participate in life fully. Followed by a short period of calm, his amnesia phase sees a radical depletion of his potential.

Deng Wei in this role is brilliant at expressing those wuthering heights, this wild turmoil – especially by means of one-second movements, gestures, glances, outbursts with graded volumes of fury, longing or regret. He is immersed in this character so deeply that each cell seems to play the role. He is a black diamond of hundred facets, each imprinted as a dark hot flash in our memory. The dignified frame and silky movements add to the impression. Note the actor’s awareness of the meaning a body position may convey: when exposed to a comparison against Wei Jiu, Su Yi Shui chooses to stand half-turned away from the crowd: perplexity and unwillingness to participate. Regardless of the prevalent Asian standard of beauty, he has been adorned with wavy hair; both black and white wigs match the complexion. Alert – he cannot hold a baby safely.

This character would not be complete without Xu Yi Ming and Zhang Jing Yi, performing scenes from Su Yi Shui’s childhood. The scene with the mother’s door shut is truly heart-rending. I am not in favour of stripping actors of their natural voice, but the selected voice actor (Sun Rui Yang) yields a matching timbre for exasperation.

Mu Qing Ge vel Xue Ran Ran is a specimen of yang, with self-certainty, pride, joviality. Her readiness to take responsibility, straightforwardness, lack of fear or regret are also bright. A lady in red, her broad smile and directness in flirting challenges to surpass the Chinese convention of modesty.

Han Zhi Xiang did well in depicting both the mature master and the budding apprentice. Worth noticing is her capability of presenting the purged memory, the unprepared youth. When confronted with the masked stranger, she tosses all the paper spells at him. The voice actress (Duan Yi Xuan) did her work so diligently that I thought there are two.

RESOCIALISATION. The subjugation of Su Yi Shui is not an isolated occurrence. Mu Qing Ge has a vocation, an innate tendency to rehabilitate. Apart form building a mixed-ability team of apprentices, she manages to convert Wei Jiu, as soon as Tu Jiu Yuan has cracked his callousness. She also reshapes the world-view of the sects that once killed her, and catalyses a bond between two ex-enemies.

The prolonged presence of Spirit Spring inside Su Yi Shui’s heart is a symbolic reminder that childhood abuse drags on, requiring time, empathy, willingness on both sides. Unfortunately, the drama involuntarily challenges the boundaries of interference in another person’s integrity.

OBJECTIFICATION OF MEN. In most C-dramas man has to serve woman, which is hardly acceptable. There is a heavy load of possessiveness in Mu Qing Ge’s acts. The chains she put on her apprentice are no different from those of the Eternal Sect or in his nightmare. After the memorable scene with lamps, she ruins the mood by insisting twice on his eating fruit and drinking alcohol. Once means an offer, twice is coercion. The scene in which Su Yi Shui receives cat pets and starts purring (vol up!) shows that the heroine fails to respect his dignity.

SHORTAGE OF TRUST. We gather enough evidence that the young man knows his aim, the risk of hosting an evil force, and his eagerness to quit crime once he breaks free. The prophetic book shows merely a dispute who would become the new emperor – not the end of the world. Princes’ rivalry has always brought a bloody fight. So Mu Qing Ge had better advise rivals to take a duel, instead of bloodshed that depletes the army. Su Yi Shui does not pose threat to humankind, his intentions deserve no distrust. Unlike Dun Tian, with whom she shares her plans.

LACK OF SENSE OF JUSTICE. Mu Qing Ge disregards the long list of persons Su Yi Shui’s father once ordered him to eliminate. A punishment for the past would serve as a practical guidance better than irrational blame of potential future crimes. The worst example of validation of cruelty is the justification of Su Yi Shui’s mother through her dishonest letter. At the Marrow Cleansing Pool, supposed to accept cultivators after they leave their obsessions, Xue Ran Ran and Dun Tian somehow manage to retrieve theirs.

FALSIFIED HISTORY. The opening legend is all twisted on purpose. Mu Qing Ge is its main victim of accumulated superstitions that brought about a ‘witch process’ and foddered the hypocrisy of observers. Even Su Yi Shui’s hitting the formation wall is misinterpreted as his attempt to kill his master. The legend leaves out Mu Ran Wu’s enactment.

COMMUNICATION ISSUES. Much plight results in insufficient communication. It was given the form of a muteness spell. In spite of her eloquent quirk, Mu Qing Ge / Xue Ran Ran proves unable to circumvent the spell (by gestures, metaphors) or detect its symptoms on others. She seals Su Yi Shui’s and Zeng Yi’s mouths, being aware of ensuing injustice. Note her negligent attitude to other sects and her sister as regards the information flow. She indeed is warm but frank towards Su Yu, and reasonably instructive towards the rehabilitated Wei Jiu.

Mu Qing Ge fails at overhauling information gaps. She takes Su Yi Shui’s integrity as obstinacy. Having been around her sister or Dun Tian, she remains unaware of their evil nature. As Xue Ran Ran she is unable to recognise her master in Ling Xiao. When she talks deprecatively about Su Yi Shui to his rival, the content is abusive enough, the wording even more.

BASIS OF LOVE. A drunken kiss brings pain. Trying to reignite love to regain memory, the leads hastily kiss and fail. It shows that love needs an emotional basis, not physical. When forced it can be unrewarding. It takes work to find and maintain a point of convergence. What triggers Su Yi Shui is a promise of a home, light, good food (alco and cicadas excluded!) and understanding.

LOVE AFTER LOVE. This is relevant for viewers who experienced the loss of their beloved. It touches subtly upon the aspect of age difference in a relationship, attitudes and expectations, similarity vs sameness.

APPROACH TO THE LOSS. Unlike many dramas indulging in time travel, this one disdains the idea. Changing one’s fate is possible, but only in alignment with its temporal development. We must embrace the bygone. The greatest offence is made by the worst villain, Dun Tian. His family love is vitiated in confrontation with the spirit of his wife, whom he grabs by the throat. Mu Ran Wu is punished for ousting a person, Su Yu for drawing someone unwilling. The conflict between particular interest and common good is relevant here.

INSTABILITY AS A CIVILISATIONAL THREAT. There is a symbolic scene at the invaded Mount Wester, with dilapidation and nauseatic rolling movement of grey, disintegrated settings, and the death of the Reincarnation Tree. It may stand for today’s world’s decay, atomisation. There is nothing left to adhere to, no point of reference.

TRAP OF PROFESSIONALISM. Mu Qing Ge is so self-assured in her moral teaching skill that she trespasses the boundaries of Su Yi Shui’s integrity. Even if the outcome turns out to be right, it is not THANKS TO but IN SPITE OF the intrusion. He separated the good he received (love, home, sacrifice) from the accompanying bad.

Mu Qing Ge’s sect’s recruitment pattern is gathering youth whose talents fail to comply with the expectations of the competitive sects. She is adamant in defending them – and proves right. Su Yi Shui’s process of recruitment proves wrong: what matters is devotion, mere skill is insufficient, pride is disruptive.

The married leads organise chores to reflect their past turn-taking at supremacy. This model builds independence and yin-yang completion. However, the eldest son should have been taught to wipe off his stain.

NOTES

The flow gets disrupted by redundant verbalisations, reappearance of longish proper names. Still fewer in comparison with the artifact data in “The Blood of Youth”. It makes a viewer feel like a PC gamer, having to “select the weapon” to be allowed to move. The imagery also needs trimming: too many symbolic trees, twigs and one-use beasts.

OST: some phrases will stay in my memory for long. However, I reserve max 10 pt for creative masterpieces like in “The Blue Whisper” or “Kill Me, Love Me”.

The YouTube version might be abridged. Probably this is why it is not clear when Wen Hong Shan claimed to be disfigured by Mu Qing Ge, when Wang Sui Zhi left the Wester, when Su Yu got poisoned or when Tu Jiu Yuan gave birth. For final battle resolution, it took an irrelevant dragon immortal and her motionless child.

APPEAL

My appeal concerns everybody involved in determining C-drama’s future development directions. The genre has become a chance to evade being under the fusillade of the Western convention: this one spark of hope left to preserve dignity, creativity, modesty, true development, faith in humanity and more. Please avoid the Western ‘aesthetics.’ One of the greatest threats is the indulgence in unnecessary plastic surgery and tweakments as breach of authenticity, as interference in actors’ and actresses’ integrity, in their sacred bodies and countenances – the beautiful mirrors of their souls.

Written by a nationless spirit confined in the decaying Mid-Europe.

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THOUGHTS!!

Love of the Divine Tree

This drama was so interesting and definitely kept me hooked. I wasn’t completely obsessed tho, which is the only reason why it’s not getting a 10/10. I loved the visuals and the plot lines and the character arcs for everyone though and no episode was boring to me. Definitely definitely recommend.

Ok, instantly. The visuals in this drama are insane. The setting, the characters, and all the colors are all so gorgeous. Deng Wei’s facial features are so sharp. With the mask and the markings on his face combined with his sharp facial features, *chef’s kiss. THE VISUALS. THE VISUALS. THE VISUALS. Everything is literally perfect.

Wow. The 1st episode was so good. It definitely hooked me into the rest of the drama. I love the switched plot of this drama. Master-disciple turns into disciple-master. The power that Su Yishui holds.

What happened in their past life together because Su Yishui is already head over heels in love with his past master. The look in his eyes when he sees her wearing the red robe from years and years ago. It’s just, this early on, he’s probably still in love with her master’s old identity and not her new one. We’ll see though.

Only episode 5 and Su Yishui has already started caring about his master even when he “hated” her at first. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I kindve want the drama to go back to modern times though. This backstory is nice but I want their new reborn life to be shown again. Yup he’s a goner now too. He called her “master”, accepted her, smiled when spending time with her, and wants to protect her from injuries.

Only episode 6 and Su Yushui gave up years on his life just to save Mu Qingge. Dedication, devotion, and all of the above is all I got to say. I love how he gave her the benefit of the doubt and remained kind and caring without jumping to conclusions. This shows that true love can beat any type of spell or poison. He’s already kissed her forehead this early on, holy. “You told me to protect the mortal world with you, but it’s only worth it to me if you’re in it.”

No way this drama is making me cry at episode 7. The desperation in Yishui’s voice when he realized that his master was protecting him and never wanted his power. She never got the spirit yet made sure that the other immortals thought she had it. She put a silencing spell on Yishui so he couldn’t tell the truth about him being the demon child. Most importantly, she told everyone she was the demon child and therefore, sacrificed her life to keep Yishui safe. This is a real master-disciple relationship. Yishui trying his best to get to her and stop this, but couldn’t. The raspy voice that he had plus Mu Qingge’s love in her eyes for him at the last moment. All she ever wanted to do was protect him. And then Yishui saving her soul to allow her to be reborn again. Wooh! That was a lot.

Ohhh…I see how this drama is set up. It breaks in the modern plot for several episodes to give us the backstory, then resumes right where it left off. It’s actually pretty smart. I take my words back, I like the background to better understand the situation.

I know that Su Yushui isn’t supposed to feel any emotions anymore, but I can quite literally see the love and care he still has for Mu Qingge. I have no idea how that’s possible, but he’s kinder to her. He cares about her wellbeing differently than all the other disciples. He wants her to be happy and can basically, never say no to her.

EVERY SINGLE CDRAMA ACTOR LOOKS SO GOOD IN WHITE HAIR I SWEAR. I FEEL LIKE I’M SAYING THIS IN EVERY SINGLE REVIEW, BUT IT’S SO TRUE. DENG WEI IS NO DIFFERENT.

Episode 17 is actually insane. There is one word I can describe this whole drama with, literally and figuratively: AURA! When Su Yishui touched that demonic power and had that dark look in his eyes, it was over. “You dare hurt my disciple.” Poof. They’re gone. His eyes are so expressive.

Ughhh the start of episode 18 made me want to claw my eyes out, scream and kick my feet in admiration, and yell because of the miscommunication. Su Yishui confessing his love for Mu Qingge and how he just can’t let go of her, while Xue Ranran doesn’t know that she is Mu Qingge. So, Ranran thought that Yishui still loves someone else. I felt so bad for her when he kissed her twice because in her mind, she wasn’t the person he was envisioning. But, the truth is, she has been all along.

Those episodes in the very middle of the drama when Yishui was pushing away Ranran in order to protect her made me rlly aggravated but I also understand him as well. He has so much power that he doesn’t know how to uncontrol. Mix that with the guilt of his actions in his past life and he’s bound to want to distance himself. But, the hurt that they both felt when he did that was so painful.

When Ranran found out a little more about the truth of Yishui, I’m so glad she’s strong minded and understands her master. “You’ve protected me from the very start, so I will never abandon you.” Even though Yishui doesn’t realize it, Ranran is trying to protect him just as much as the other way around. Those harsh words still hurt tho, Ranran has to endure the fake words that Yishui is saying to try to push her away. If she wasn’t as strong minded, this drama may not have a happy ending, but we’re hoping. Just please Ranran, don’t give up on Yishui. Keep on fighting.

Yes yes yes. Finally, she figured out the truth. Now that her true identity is out, her and Yishui are working together again and caring for each other again. Wow, the cinematics in this whole drama is so beautifully done. The green dragon and the vermillion bird both helping Ranran and Yishui. Them reuniting in their original bodies on its back. This drama is actually so beautifully done. Gorgeous gorgeous.

Holy. The dedication between them 2 in order to protect each other. Ranran gave up all of her spiritual power in turn for Yishui reaching the Transcendence stage. She’s now more vulnerable than a regular person to injuries and she can’t cultivate anymore.

I actually despise Mu Ranwu. How are you getting mad at your sister when you were the one that tried to take her soul to begin with? Mu Ranwu is a horrible person who doesn’t do things for the goodness of the world, which is the major difference. There is a reason why good things go to Qingge, it’s because she’s a better person. Mu Ranwu is just demanding and annoying. She even got mad at her disciple and humiliated him when all he wanted to do was help her.

I despise these misunderstandings though. The forgetting memory around episode 30 made me want to actually quit. They’ve been through so much already, they didn’t need another road block in their relationship. I feel like we’re back to day 1 again. Still though, Yishui protects him with all of his power, he just has this instinct. Ranran truly makes Yishui a better person, influencing him to think abt the good in the world and not his own selfish desires.

Omg, Yishui was completely taken over by the demon, but he was somehow able to stay in his own consciousness and fight his way back to Ranran. He not only saved himself from killing her, but he shattered his own essence core to expel the demon.

One of the last scenes in Episode 39 with both Yishui and Ranran working together and in synchronization, it was so harmonious. Even though both of them were stunned by their attack not working, you could really see how they are equals now and not master and disciple. They are both working together, protecting each other, and trying to protect the world.

I loved the HE. It ended great for most people and even those that ended up dying, they all were meant to. It was the best decision for themselves to stop their suffering and give themselves up for the greater good.

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