This review may contain spoilers
All the genres you can imagine in one buquet of delightfull special effects
I do not have many experience in the CDramas especially historical. I think I have watched meaby 4 xianxia's back to back. So I'll review this based on what I do know.
Where do I start? With the genre of this drama. If you are looking for a time travel meets cdrama meets xianxia world with an OVERDOSE of bold romantic scenes covered in special effects scenes including a 3 dimensional bolding then you have found your madness.
Story: Scenario wise, it was so complex that is was bound to have many plot holes. But what made me keep going was the unexpected bold romance. I WANT MORE. Please recast them again soon. Back to the main issues....in all the previous xianxias that I have watched I was used to the lifetimes being equally divided to the number of episodes. Yet here it was not the case. Which made it more difficult to follow. However I liked the fact that even though the lifetimes were uneven the main leads were developed properly both as individuals and as a couple. The other charaters....oh my.....a pure migrain. Some were made consistent ish. Some were left in the oblivian. Like literally you wonder what happened to them in the end. Some got what they deserved which felt really fullfiling. But a lot of them were completely usless and just to fill in the room and the tension. The emperors of the 8 palaces were another kind of evil....the one that genuinely belives that its good and that its every action its justified and to the common well of everybody involved. Basically polititcians with superpowers and god like aspirations. Some of their actors were amazing. Some of them were stiff as hell and made me simply skip their screen time. There are 3 characters in this show that really deserved more screen time and more consistency. First Ruling/Honglou .... her main purpose was to free her family from the demon relam, but she was abruptly turned from the Celestial Palace assesin into the FL's BFF after tones of betrayels. She then passed not one but TWO lifetimes in a SITIUATIONSHIP with Nianju....that we never knew how it ended because they had to constantely be putted on pause because on of the leads was dieing. About her family its also unclear what happened. Tingyan united the Demon Relam with the Celestial World but still it was no mentione of Ruling's family at all. She was also reborned curiuosely with no memory of her past life and even though both main leads had the capacity to remember things, Honglou did not remember much. The actress is gorgerous and very talented but I feel like she was just used over and over again. Besides she never got her wedding scene. The secound character is Nianju....he appears and dissaperas and you never know his next move. He is loyal to his master, to his lover and to his friend but somtimes he is like a silly kid and does not really know what to do to avoid pissing up the others. He never got a conclusion. After the first life of Tingyan he was used as a walking and flying GPS to find Tingyan's soul while his master played sleeping beauty. After the first life of his master ended he was used again as GPS to find his soul and to solve possible political issues. Any issues that is not his lover cause what do you mean they spended 19 years togheter and he still has not even proposed to her? And the third one is Bi An that was possesd by Yu Yan. She was born with Fengshang blood she was saved by the leads and considered them some kind of godparents. Cause they even named her when she was a baby. Then she grew up (the only character in this drama that actually got older) and was turned into the villan. After Yu Yan was sended into the celestial prison she was just left there on the ground...we never found out if she survived or not, what has she done after getting back her body? Did she died? Did she got reincarnated? Nope....all vanished cause the FL had to turn back to the present. The finale was mega rushed. We do not know what happend to any of the characters in the xianxia world. Sima Jiao's mother? The palace from the mortal relam, the demon relam and the imortal relam....everything vanished into thin air. AND...they messed up big time everything that happened into the modern world. Our FL got into a car accident. And from her flashbacks it looked nasty. She needed CPR (in the rain for dramatic effect), she needed a lot of doctors or nurses with seringes around her cause she was having sessures...and yet when she finally woke up instead of telling us she was in a long coma....nope....she has a concusion. Once she wakes up she can leave. She wakes up. She leaves the hospital. Teleports to her workplace. Takes another taxi even though she just woke up from a prior accident that also happened in a taxi and she believs herself flowerpower and abandones the taxi for the bicicle to make it on time to a meeting god knows where. She did not even had recovery time yet she has to solve everybodys lives AGAIN. She accidentaly meets her prince charming....THE END. Like what? You kept me 33 episodes rolling like Alice in wonderland only to end it up like that? Bruh....
Leaving aside my frustration about the lack of conclusion I actually liked how the action evolved and how the events were linked between each world. We got our modern era girl that travels back in time and into a fictional world in which she has no power and no will to gain any. Her main buisness is to eat, sleep, enjoy vacation time and ocasional 3d bonding with her master. She gradually becomes the most powerfull human being on the 3 relams. Going from Beifang Mountin prison, through the 8 palaces, into the demon world which is her birthplace in the xianxia world, then into the mortal world and then back into the modern present world. Her counterpart Sima Jiao also known as Jiao Jiao goes from being a monster locked in a mountin, to number one political enemy of the palaces, to being a fire god of two of the 3 relams and the Lord of kindness...to being reborn as a mortal king with no cultivation and then as a modern clicheic CEO... a roller coaster indeed. Layered perfectlly between words.
Setting and special effects: VERY MUCH on point. I have never seen a drama with this many settings and such impressive decorations. Also the wordrope worke plus the makeup was HUGE in this project. Like every new location unlocked new kind of clothes and jweleries and even foods. It was like a never ending Chinese Hanfu Parade. Delightfull. Both for women and men. Music was also beautifull and on point. Though I would have liked it better if they had more then 2 OSTs. Like they had so many special effects, so many sets and location for filming a wordrope enough to dress the whole population of China for a ball but only 2 songs?
Production wise I really liked the work done. Especially post production with all those effects that made even the most usless fights a delight to watch. I felt like a kid watching animes for a secound.
And special congrets to whoever was in charge of writeing and directing the romantic scenes in this show. With the kind suggestion of NEVER leaving the secound couple in the oblivian EVER again. Preatty please!
My praise for the main couple of this show. For them I would rewatch this drama someday in the future. They really elevate the rewtach value of this and not just because they were some hopless romantics. But they were GOOD in everything they did. When Jiao Jiao was pissed Artur's face was full of veins pooping out of his forehead. When he was sad, Arthur became kind of sober. When he was happy and loovey doovey, Arthur became snicky and kind of funny. Same for her....she has some beautyfull eyes and face features then made her look diferent then some other chinese actresses that I had scene. She transmits a lot from her eyes. Its like her eyes change togheter with her moods. And she had a wiiiide range of moods in this drama.
Soyi....in conclusion, solid drama having into consideration its magnitude. If I am not wrong the drama started filming in 2023 and ended in 2024. Which means that 2024-2025 alone was post production work. Hats down for how much the entire team behind When destiny brings the demon has worked to achieve this. Nevermind the plotholes....the romance was tooo good, and the effects made it a master peace. Did I mentioned I want more?
P.S Both Arthur Chen and Gao Han are so freaking beautyfull and hot. And the 2 female leads are like 2 princeses. Where have they found this quartet? I laughed so muc with their sillyness... I am going to miss them!!! To all 4 of them....xiexie!! You really got me out of my drama slump.
Where do I start? With the genre of this drama. If you are looking for a time travel meets cdrama meets xianxia world with an OVERDOSE of bold romantic scenes covered in special effects scenes including a 3 dimensional bolding then you have found your madness.
Story: Scenario wise, it was so complex that is was bound to have many plot holes. But what made me keep going was the unexpected bold romance. I WANT MORE. Please recast them again soon. Back to the main issues....in all the previous xianxias that I have watched I was used to the lifetimes being equally divided to the number of episodes. Yet here it was not the case. Which made it more difficult to follow. However I liked the fact that even though the lifetimes were uneven the main leads were developed properly both as individuals and as a couple. The other charaters....oh my.....a pure migrain. Some were made consistent ish. Some were left in the oblivian. Like literally you wonder what happened to them in the end. Some got what they deserved which felt really fullfiling. But a lot of them were completely usless and just to fill in the room and the tension. The emperors of the 8 palaces were another kind of evil....the one that genuinely belives that its good and that its every action its justified and to the common well of everybody involved. Basically polititcians with superpowers and god like aspirations. Some of their actors were amazing. Some of them were stiff as hell and made me simply skip their screen time. There are 3 characters in this show that really deserved more screen time and more consistency. First Ruling/Honglou .... her main purpose was to free her family from the demon relam, but she was abruptly turned from the Celestial Palace assesin into the FL's BFF after tones of betrayels. She then passed not one but TWO lifetimes in a SITIUATIONSHIP with Nianju....that we never knew how it ended because they had to constantely be putted on pause because on of the leads was dieing. About her family its also unclear what happened. Tingyan united the Demon Relam with the Celestial World but still it was no mentione of Ruling's family at all. She was also reborned curiuosely with no memory of her past life and even though both main leads had the capacity to remember things, Honglou did not remember much. The actress is gorgerous and very talented but I feel like she was just used over and over again. Besides she never got her wedding scene. The secound character is Nianju....he appears and dissaperas and you never know his next move. He is loyal to his master, to his lover and to his friend but somtimes he is like a silly kid and does not really know what to do to avoid pissing up the others. He never got a conclusion. After the first life of Tingyan he was used as a walking and flying GPS to find Tingyan's soul while his master played sleeping beauty. After the first life of his master ended he was used again as GPS to find his soul and to solve possible political issues. Any issues that is not his lover cause what do you mean they spended 19 years togheter and he still has not even proposed to her? And the third one is Bi An that was possesd by Yu Yan. She was born with Fengshang blood she was saved by the leads and considered them some kind of godparents. Cause they even named her when she was a baby. Then she grew up (the only character in this drama that actually got older) and was turned into the villan. After Yu Yan was sended into the celestial prison she was just left there on the ground...we never found out if she survived or not, what has she done after getting back her body? Did she died? Did she got reincarnated? Nope....all vanished cause the FL had to turn back to the present. The finale was mega rushed. We do not know what happend to any of the characters in the xianxia world. Sima Jiao's mother? The palace from the mortal relam, the demon relam and the imortal relam....everything vanished into thin air. AND...they messed up big time everything that happened into the modern world. Our FL got into a car accident. And from her flashbacks it looked nasty. She needed CPR (in the rain for dramatic effect), she needed a lot of doctors or nurses with seringes around her cause she was having sessures...and yet when she finally woke up instead of telling us she was in a long coma....nope....she has a concusion. Once she wakes up she can leave. She wakes up. She leaves the hospital. Teleports to her workplace. Takes another taxi even though she just woke up from a prior accident that also happened in a taxi and she believs herself flowerpower and abandones the taxi for the bicicle to make it on time to a meeting god knows where. She did not even had recovery time yet she has to solve everybodys lives AGAIN. She accidentaly meets her prince charming....THE END. Like what? You kept me 33 episodes rolling like Alice in wonderland only to end it up like that? Bruh....
Leaving aside my frustration about the lack of conclusion I actually liked how the action evolved and how the events were linked between each world. We got our modern era girl that travels back in time and into a fictional world in which she has no power and no will to gain any. Her main buisness is to eat, sleep, enjoy vacation time and ocasional 3d bonding with her master. She gradually becomes the most powerfull human being on the 3 relams. Going from Beifang Mountin prison, through the 8 palaces, into the demon world which is her birthplace in the xianxia world, then into the mortal world and then back into the modern present world. Her counterpart Sima Jiao also known as Jiao Jiao goes from being a monster locked in a mountin, to number one political enemy of the palaces, to being a fire god of two of the 3 relams and the Lord of kindness...to being reborn as a mortal king with no cultivation and then as a modern clicheic CEO... a roller coaster indeed. Layered perfectlly between words.
Setting and special effects: VERY MUCH on point. I have never seen a drama with this many settings and such impressive decorations. Also the wordrope worke plus the makeup was HUGE in this project. Like every new location unlocked new kind of clothes and jweleries and even foods. It was like a never ending Chinese Hanfu Parade. Delightfull. Both for women and men. Music was also beautifull and on point. Though I would have liked it better if they had more then 2 OSTs. Like they had so many special effects, so many sets and location for filming a wordrope enough to dress the whole population of China for a ball but only 2 songs?
Production wise I really liked the work done. Especially post production with all those effects that made even the most usless fights a delight to watch. I felt like a kid watching animes for a secound.
And special congrets to whoever was in charge of writeing and directing the romantic scenes in this show. With the kind suggestion of NEVER leaving the secound couple in the oblivian EVER again. Preatty please!
My praise for the main couple of this show. For them I would rewatch this drama someday in the future. They really elevate the rewtach value of this and not just because they were some hopless romantics. But they were GOOD in everything they did. When Jiao Jiao was pissed Artur's face was full of veins pooping out of his forehead. When he was sad, Arthur became kind of sober. When he was happy and loovey doovey, Arthur became snicky and kind of funny. Same for her....she has some beautyfull eyes and face features then made her look diferent then some other chinese actresses that I had scene. She transmits a lot from her eyes. Its like her eyes change togheter with her moods. And she had a wiiiide range of moods in this drama.
Soyi....in conclusion, solid drama having into consideration its magnitude. If I am not wrong the drama started filming in 2023 and ended in 2024. Which means that 2024-2025 alone was post production work. Hats down for how much the entire team behind When destiny brings the demon has worked to achieve this. Nevermind the plotholes....the romance was tooo good, and the effects made it a master peace. Did I mentioned I want more?
P.S Both Arthur Chen and Gao Han are so freaking beautyfull and hot. And the 2 female leads are like 2 princeses. Where have they found this quartet? I laughed so muc with their sillyness... I am going to miss them!!! To all 4 of them....xiexie!! You really got me out of my drama slump.
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