Big_Red_1011

First three episodes are available on Hulu/Disney+ in the U.S.

Really wish they’d make season 2 of Vagabond 🥺😳😟

I don’t remember the exact episode they become a couple, but they live under the same roof almost from the beginning. There are no misunderstanding per se (at least, not the typical tired tropes as in many other dramas). In general, the leads have a good relationship with each other and fight against bad people. There are some plot twists related to reincarnation, but it’s easy to handle. This is not one of those dramas that will make you want to curse screenwriters or make you feel very anxious. I’d say it’s like Love Between Fairy and Devil, but slightly less stressful and with more kissing 😘. But vibes are similar and lead couple is ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

There has been no movement to up- or down-rank this drama (unlike many other dramas recently). It’s just a really lovely drama that is based on a pretty popular source (but not SUPER popular). The chemistry between the leads is great (tons of kissing 😘 scenes), the plot is pretty enjoyable and overall community in the comments have really enjoyed it watching the show. LoFG was a good show too (even given sometimes illogical screenwriting) and it has very, very good rating on MDL (it was 8.7 last time I checked but maybe it dropped to 8.6 now; it probably should be about 8.5).

It’s all going to be much less stressful than most other dramas. Characters are pretty smart :)

Yes, ML is the strongest character.

Thank you! I learned a lot from all the commenters and then did my own research to figure out broad strokes of what happens with Han Li & important characters at the end (I cannot wait until 2040 when donghua is finished 😳). The second novel (“Immortal Realm”) has an interesting main theme — battle between totalitarian Heavenly Court (determinism, “fate”, preordained linear flow of time) and rebel Reincarnation Hall (cyclical nature of existence and, broadly, ability to change things) 🤔 📕

Insofar as world building is concerned, the ruthless world of cultivation & sects is a metaphor for corporations & workplace in general. When you are a low-level worker, you are constantly trying to survive (keep being employed) while navigating sometimes difficult relationships with coworkers who are oftentimes not your real friends and use you for their own personal gain. And just like there are no truly “good” mega-corporations, things are not black & white when it comes to sects in the drama. Even “good” sects don’t always do the righteous thing — they care about the sect. Same for leadership — just like CEOs & executives lay off tens of thousands of employees easily, very high level sect leaders here also don’t care about wellbeing of low- or mid-level disciples.

Wonderful review as always. For those who are interested in reading the source material, for the full story you have to read the second novel too (another 1300-1400 chapters) as it fully concludes the storylines (even the origin of the green vial is only explained in the second novel). There is an ongoing donghua (animated) version that people enjoy and is available for free on YouTube. It has advanced quite a bit past live action, but will take years to finish up (only have done about 1/5 of combined two novels).
Finally, for video game fans — they are working on a video-game adaptation too. But even without a video game, watching drama DOES feel like playing a game because Han Li constantly has to fight for survival, level up, get better gear/equipment, etc.

Now we all want a modern drama with the leads 😊 And, yes, longer modern arc would’ve been great but it definitely wouldn’t make censors very happy. As of now, creators could pretend in front of censors that it was all a dream while everyone else would know it’s a 4th lifetime.

What Hunter described would happen in Season 2, theoretically. And it’s more complicated than that But, to add to the pain of Miss Mo, Han Li will learn much, much, much later in the novels it IS possible to cultivate without the spiritual root.

I’ve never watched the donghua (or read the source novels), but everything seemed pretty clear to me. True, I did have some questions (like whether origin of green vial will ever be explained) but those were mostly about future events.

I like NGW and how she fits in the overall story of both novels, but — to be fair — HL ends up with multiple women in the end, so everyone is happy, I guess 😁

Minki4 explained everything well in another comment under your post, but — basically — the drama doesn’t show when/how SJ ended up in the modern world with the memories of their previous 3 lifetimes together. But using what he knows about LTY (like she likes resorts), he’s been trying to get in touch with her.

The ending is that way because of censorship rules (as you probably know). But this drama did a very good job throughout the show of emphasizing certain things that make it pretty clear everything was not a dream.

It’s pretty definitively a happy ending. A lot, a lot of hints throughout the series and at the end tell us about that. But the creators have to make censors happy so they aren’t able to put it in big bold letters THIS WAS NOT A DREAM! 😁

We all do :)

Yes, the creators gave a lot of hints that this is going to be the 4th lifetime for the leads together. They just couldn’t come out and say it because of censorship rules. In addition to what you said, SJ stayed behind and missed his flight waiting for LTY. And their ending scene on the staircase is a callback to their initial staircase scene.

You are very close to the point where romance will be turned up to 11 (by C-drama standards) and then some things will happen to make the plot more interesting/change it up. But, at its core, this drama is about our heroes’ fight against the bad sects and the eternal love between the leads.

The chemistry between the leads is sizzling ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥