Thoughts on Xianxia / Xuanhuan dramas watched and books read

kinda like Chinese version of Lord of the Rings, cos the ppl here do have long lives living in harmony with mundane human folk. Helps that the author is also the scriptwriter so it follows mostly the full story but this time we get to see Xiang Liu's thoughts even if we hardly see his pov in the novels. Really beautiful story and also has the paradox questions - what if , why WHYYYYYYYY and what could have been and who was really her soul mate and did she let her brain choose instead of her heart blah blah blah . The agony of decisions and choices. T_T 

plus you have a freaking amazing cast who are just basically a tour de force of microexpressions cept for that rookie but it's alright he still beautiful to look at lol 

Also really epic in scope , not to be missed, definitely the kind of drama that will be classic like AOL and EL.

First Xianxia watched and I'm glad I did this first and it may also be the benchmark mostly used as a comparison to other xianxia stories. The paradox in the story bothered me for a long time, how to love a man that was split into two, the War God and the Lotus God , would she have love War God first if he told her first? What would happen to her Half Human Half Immortal son. So many questions just remaining in the cloud of my brain. 

The drama was made back then before the 2022 limitation of 40 episodes so it was able to have longer episodes to tell a fully fleshed out story. To this day I still can remember the different arcs of the story without having to rewatch. I normally just rewatch that arc when mortal human died and he was half dead looking for her and then finally realising who she is and doing very alpha things to get her back. Fun!

Another one where the drama was able to tell a big story with many episodes and we truly get to see the majesty and splendor of Heavenly Realm. Very beautiful very epic, ticks all my boxes on what a high fantasy is.  

The worm that remain in my brain from this story is Run Yu's twisted love and backstory and how his arranged marriage did get stolen :(  

I also love the very first time Jin Mi sees Run Yu when he's resting in his Water Dragon form in the lake. Ah the stuff of fantasies. Luo Yunxi was so good here that he definitely makes me want to watch everything he does but then I never did cos those reviews/ratings weren't all favourable and time is too short to watch a less than stellar drama.

Correction, I watched this Xianxia first before Eternal Love but these two stories remain in the top for me.

I love Neo Hou in this, he was truly fun in here , like an age old know it all Lucifer but you don't know what his smiling deceptive face means.

Because it's always dark gloomy brooding atmostphere, it really gives me The Witcher vibes, however while the story is beautiful it kinda goes all over the place and you have to basically use your brain a lot to make the jigsaw puzzle a coherent picture, the director's style of being artistic gets fugging annoying sometimes because he has no sense of sublety and likes to brick slam you with emotions that you tune off. EVERY SINGLE FRAME IS BEAUTIFUL HEAVY TRAGIC EMOTIONAL that you just get tired of it, ok? next? move on to next scene? half the time i paused and look at my socmed then resumed, even went and put it onto 1.25x speed and they still sound like they speak at normal speed.... o.o how much slower do they speak at 1x ?! 

Nevertheless I still enjoy the visually beautiful people brought to screen , seeing the setting and costumes. Would I still recommend it? I still think it offers something different from the normal xianxia fare but you can watch it with  1/3 of attention otherwise if does feel boring and maybe I should have dropped it but the story arcs were actually good....once they get past all the arty farty stuff and show you the story, sigh.... just fast forward

i think i found it pretty interesting that this xianxia is told fully in the Mortal Arc of their lives. The bird has a real hero complex goes damn does this guy go through the wringer for this ditzy female that you want to push off a cliff for stupidity, not really one of my favourites but it made me want to watch whatever Cheng Yi does next time.

The only Xianxia book I read? before watching the Drama, I think the book was better. You felt more and the story was not told well through the drama, and they added an unnecessary "mother agaisnt love interest" trope which I get that they want to add more angst but this just wasted time on how the full and bigger plot could have been better told. 

Drama wise - it wasn't a well told story because they fast forward through the overall plot and then hyper focus on the relationship aspect, ya ya I get it, it's a romance xianxia but as we can see with other xianxias , why their stories linger longer in ppl's brains is because of how the story is told. 

Anyways what sets this story apart from others is that it's about a baby water beast that was personally hatched by ML, so it's a bit of a master disciple trope / childhood sweetheart 

But here we get a very irascible fairy that doesn;t instalove the ml at first sight but disdains him for being a useless weakling lol 

I always love adventuring in stories and here they did get to go to a couple of different places collecting soul fragments to complete the rebirth of a Phoenix Queen which reminds of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles where they have to collect fragments of memory to bring back a princess to life.  The drama's story is quite layered because it has a lot of the past present causal effect situation.

i dont remember >.< 

2025's Xianxia of the Year (for now in Feb)

A beautiful layered story showing cause and effect and reincarnation with really good pacing and everyone's performance was perfect, even the  2nd lead pair were enjoyable to watch , every character's arc was fully defined and redeemed.  

I think what worked in this drama was the focus on the big picture of the overall plot that really held the story together.

Coming into this with zero expectations aside from wanting to see Ao Rui Peng in fancy costumes and watching Chang Hua Sen, this drama reignited my interest in watching other xianxias. I hope I can only be able to enjoy others as much and not burn out.

While it had longer episodes and cheated it by splitting it to 1 and 2 , the thing that really pissed me off so much is the Jealousy trope for the villanous 2nd fl. So when I think of this drama I think of this damn fairy I want to the dagger to prick into 1000 sieves. 

I probably didn't watch this in the right mood so it was really just a chore to kind of finish watching the full series , I'm sorry Cheng Yi and Yang Zi, you both deserve better :(

I don't know if it's Jiu Lu Fei Xiang thing but I generally find the depth of her stories kinda shallow. While I did watch BFTB , I truly can't recall much of what happen to the story. MAybe I wasn't just invested , pity cos I actually like dragons a lot :(  

I think part of it's winning aspect is the high comedic aspect of its story telling so it remains memorable for people . Not really something I'd rewatch but the interesting part of this story is that mortals were sent to 2 different realms for marriages and we get to see the comparison of both realms. Worldbuilding is actually kinda shallow so it doesn't really stay in the mind for me.

it's a bit of a mess in the early parts you have to get through the jumble past ep 7 and it starts to get really good. Basically this Ginseng Fairy - dies and comes back to life a lot, she's so kind and helpful and naive and dies for her stupidity and it's this one moody handsome guy that suffers through this grievances to save her.

If that didn't interest you then it's probably not for you but it was stupid cute and I like watching the handsome ML xD and he has so many xianxia type works lol 

Ah I remember this, watched this cos I like the leads so I was curious and this actually turned out to be a pretty fun Xuanhuan to watch, goes by really fast and it's also very cute. 

While it looks low budget but it does have all the fun magical parts that I love in fantasy - cool magical gadgets and their very own worldbuilding. It's a little gem of a story as I like the adventuring, and the everytime she gathers a lotus leaf she increases to a new level of spiritual power, this is normally not explained in other dramas so you never know how powerful their cultivation is cos you don't know what their levels are . 

Qi Refining Stage
Perfection of Qi Refining
Foundation - early middle late
Golden Core- early middle late
Nascent Soul ( Baby in some translations cos the dantian core takes a soul shape )
various books will have different later stages called other names

Transcendence
Void / Cave Holow etc

eh I came across a FB comment about how good this was and decided to give it a try and it turned out to be my jam cos it's a xuanhuan. Guy dies and gets reborn and comes to take everything back from the ppl that betrayed him , lots of Gary Stu moments sure, because he was a high level being back in a nub body so it made sense that he was always arrogant.

Drama only showed the beginning of his journey but there are Donghua and a book that is still ongoing  at 3000+ chapters (of which I only read about 1550++ chapters after finishing this drama and wanting more)

Anyways what I liked about this is basically the life of a nobody in a sect - since I read a few xuanhuan books already so it's just nice to see it as a live action - him gaining new abilities , face slapping ppl who offends him first etc , him being a know it all in alchemy , weapon refining 

So for those curious about what xuanhuan and disciple life in a sect, this is it . I know ppl complain about a poker face ML but really he's basically playing the role well cos he's an old soul who's a know it all in a young boy so he won't have any wonder of an excitable young man but a cool cucumber presence lol. 

Book read, waiting to air

cant wait to see this come to life since it's Liu Xue Yi as a Fox Demon Priest , I know he will slay at pining with unrequited love for a Craftman's Goddess. 

EDIT

Drama airing now and so far so good ENJOYING IT IMMENSELY and LOVING IT! 

wuxia/xuanhuan

Just watched out of curiosity for the rave hype, turns out that I did saw snippets of this years ago when my mom watched it on cable tv. 

Generally a story about revenge and Evil sect vs Righteous sect but pure things always have dark shadows and twisted insides . My first wuxia before I read any of the cultivation books so it was pretty cool to see zombie/puppet trope , mechanism craftsman arc. 

SPOILER Warning

this author wrote Love Like the Galaxy and The Story of Minglan 

she likes to explore dynamics of people and their relationships. So you'll have past relations affecting current situation, as well the interconnectedness of people's friendship/loyalty and greed surpassing morality. Story is about Righteous Sect vs Demon Sect, but who is really the real demon who caused the sect crisis, and it turns out the Demon Sect is the original inheritor while the Righteous Sect are all deviants of the original teaching :D I don't know how they will fit everything into 40 episodes since there's flashback to the begining of time to 60 years ago and then current timeline. No rebirth but just past legends and history.  Should air in 2025 ,really excited to watch this.

The title of the drama really shows in the drama , the sense of adventure and ambitions of the new generation making a mark in the world. A very fun and straightforward binge . I knew nothing about the donghua or comic/novel, watched first few episodes and one scene where Tang Lian , at the end of his rope gets a burst of spiritual energy and releases his secret skill and the CGI effects were just so astounding, makes the D&D player in me who likes playing Druid characters trip out over the Nature Magic attack. His scenes in ep 2 and 25 always makes me rewatch them.

drama is mostly about the power struggle for the throne and the next powerhouse for martial world.

 this drama gives me everything that I love about cultivation genre - a beast that actually freaking battles, formation and formation cores, regression of spiritual realms from Transcendence to Nascent or progression from Qi Refining to Foundation to Golden Core, refining pills or doing alchemy, going down the mountain for disciple training and gaining experience, disciple getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to enter a secret realm, all these things on top of a master disciple trope, unrequited love from jealous characters, and hey I'm only at episode 20. Good stuff!

24.04.25 watching this now

love the mortal getting her awakening into the scary world of demons walking among humans, she goes on cases dealing with Demon Human conflicts and somehow there's a mystery to why her being human always seems to have Demon conflicts for her family who are all mundane humans with no magical ability. Stories are all beautifully told and I'm hooked and can't wait to find out the full story in the different arcs. Also hey there's zombie trope too! Always fun to see how different drama handles a zombie trope (ya ya i have a thing for zombie shows ) will they ever do an apocalyptic zombie sci fi drama in future....