Maika

I dropped it. And most of the critical reviews have a valid point. It's something I see as an issue as well. I skipped through episodes 10-13 (including the end) and just couldn't really watch it.
It doesn't really feel like a college story to me. It would be more realistic if it were high school. I don't know how colleges are like in Korea, but as a college student myself, not everyone in your major's department knows each other. And one person isn't famous across all departments. They said "our school's beauty" referring to Soo Ah several times and Gangnam Beauty/Plastic surgery girl for Mirae and everyone on their campus knew about it? And all the rumors about Kyung Seok's family. That kind of stuff feels like it would spread around high school faster to everyone and for everyone to care about. But college? I don't think every college student has the time in the world to know who these people are or care about them. Yes, college students can be immature as well but this type of scenario with the bullying fits a high school setting more.

Setting aspect aside, the story's message needs more. They're trying to show how bullying about looks lead her to do plastic surgery which makes her bullied again. Pairing her up with Kyung Seok was to show how not every guy cares about looks, but character. But then they don't show any other good guys? They were trying to show Tae Young who claims there are guys like him who like girls with Tae Hee's weight and it was going great. But then you see he is no man and ashamed of her AND he desires Soo Ah. Basically the drama saying, chubby girls/healthier girls have no chance at being in a successful relationship??

Also, why try to redeem Soo Ah or make her seem pitiful when she is not. She would be pitiful if she did it to plastic surgery girls like Mirae because of her past. But she pretty much mislead every other guy including Tae Young (Tae Hee's boyfriend) and giving him the wrong impression to the point he breaks up with his girlfriend (which in a way is great we found out he's a terrible person who can't be loyal BUT STILL).

Not really a fan of SSK's acting from watching her previous dramas, debating whether to try this or not. Is her acting any different here?

I guess people like it because of the message it gives (?) but I just don't like how it's going so far with them showing a dense female who keeps falling for the girl's lies repeatedly and keeps believing that the girl is nice to her. I get it she was bullied and had less social interaction, but c'mon how can you not suspect anything.

Viki/iQiyi official Ending: (the scenes were still not sequential but this the idea they gave)
- They tried to make the part where Mo Qing locks himself in secret chamber and Shi Qi watching him has to be part of the vision she saw leading up to their battle in Sword of Tomb, a vision of the future. Zhao Yao saw it by looking at the broken Heart Prying Mirror. In order to prevent that vision from happening, she searched the library and they found a formation in order to seal the sword. Mo Qing is meditating for 5 years and Zhao Yao is waiting for him. He comes out of meditation and they seal the sword for good. Then you have the kids scene at the end.
(this is the messed up happy ending they tried to go for at the end)

Problems with the Viki ending:
- The scenes don't quite match. The mark on her forehead and heart prying mirror is gone when she's wearing a white dress in the last episode, but then they suddenly put her back with the red dress , mark on forehead, and heart prying mirror in the end of the last episode.
- For a "vision", that's a lot of series of events to include. Too specific.

Fan Re-Edit edit by A Princess of Mars/There's also other fan edit by alway.sone on IG
- They find the formation to seal the Wan Jun sword in Sword of Tomb. They head out and attempt to seal it first. Mo Qing seems to be recuperating after and says it seems his demon essence is under control. Then Luo Mingxuan kidnaps Mo Qing knowing he no longer has his Wanjun sword. To break free and help Zhao Yao, Mo Qing summons Wan Jun sword back. After Mingxuan's death, he loses control and kills those people in the library. Zhao Yao tries to find an alternative solution, but Mo Qing locks himself in secret chamber to prevent for the worst. He can't kill himself, and ends up losing to the demonic dragon.
The battle between Zhao Yao and Mo Qing in Sword Tomb actually happens and he gets stabbed. 5 years later, we are shown that Zhao Yao has been waiting for Mo Qing by the Sword of the Tomb each year & that Mo Qing is meditating. In the end, the Sword of Heaven (liutenhiayi) that pierced him comes to the surface with Mo Qing saying Zhao Yao.
(emotional ambiguous ending that some people will think Mo Qing is alive now at the end)

While the scenes/costumes match for the most part the fan edit can't solve :
- How ending it ambiguously with the sword on surface explains why the characters (Zhi Yan's) dialogue said Mo Qing was in seclusion/meditating for 5 years and Zhao Yao has been visiting the Sword Tomb every year waiting for him to come out. When Zhao Yao visits Rong, he asks her if Chen Lan isn't out yet. And she tells him to save his tea when he's out from seclusion, they both together will come for tea.
So in order for her to be saying that, there must be something that gave away to the characters that he is meditating, implying he is still alive.
But then if you look at Viki, the scene before the 5 years later time frame where Zhi Yan says Mo Qing is in seclusion, Mo Qing himself says he needs to go into seclusion with Liuhe sword to dissipate his demon essence.
- The ending episode where Zhao Yao looks for Mo Qing and is digging and then they show Mo Qing crying with Zhao Yao in his arms. It is the same scene we saw few episodes back when they were in the illusion trap of Mountain Lingting(?) and Zhao Yao saw Mo Qing doing the same thing. Finding her body and holding her. But the truth was that Qin Qian Xian actually took Zhao Yao's body and preserved it. So it felt like they were alluding to Zhao Yao looking for Mo Qing after him being stabbed was just an illusion, part of the dream.

One of the main issues of the dialogue translated:
"Your demon essence still survives.
Using the formation, you may not be able to seal Wan Jun sword completely.
If demon essence goes out of control again, it will certainly be rejected by it.
By then there will be no sealing it.
In formation, don't lose your head.
I understand. First I want to take Liuhetianyi sword with me to dissipate some of my demon essence."
- This dialogue suggests that they tried to get rid of the demon essence somehow otherwise why is it still "surviving"
- It also says that they cannot seal the sword again if he loses control of his demon essence.
- He suggests he will meditate/seclude first and then try to seal it.

My alternative theories of how things lead to the end: (alternative #1)- and yes these are theories not shown or explained by drama itself.
-Events unfold just like fan re-edit. He actually gets stabbed by the Liuhe sword and falls off the cliff. The Liuhe sword doesn't kill him but gets rid of the inner demon inside him. Jiang Wu said that the sword kills inner demons but Jiang Wu was never a human to begin with, he was born as Qin Qian Xian's inner demon. Mo Qing was actually born as a human and his father transferred the demon essence into him. So perhaps, after getting stabbed and down the hole, only the connection between him and Wan Jun separated and not Mo Qing dying(even though he fell quite far down in he somehow survived? just like ZhaoYao did). And that's why Liuhe sword resurfaces and calls Zhao's name. And that's how they all know he is in seclusion and cannot be seen. He is probably in seclusion to recuperate. And then after Zhao visits him, Mo Qing is in that world finally free from Wan Jun and came out of seclusion. The Kids happen just like novel. But no actual scene of them reuniting.
(alternative #2)
- It just follows the same story as the drama. BUT with them trying to seal the sword twice. They once tried it without a formation b/c of Rong's suggestion of tossing it into Sword Tomb and sealing it. But then that did not work and the second time they finally found a formation. He meditates, gets back out, and seals it. And you just ignore their costume and appearance changes.
Note: I'm not trying to critique the fan re-edit in a rude way. I was trying to state my opinion and confusion.

thanks I'll try that!

soo.. apparently watching this on youtube/other drama site vs viki is different. I went to viki to see the missing subs off youtube and saw each episode has different times and both sites have same amount of episodes? and youtube/other drama sites have scenes all over the place while viki has them in the correct order. I also noticed one site had cut scenes while the other site included extra scenes. Kinda confusing/irritating at this point having to switch back and forth sites to see if its consistent and match up the order of the scenes

I had to read this review after like 5 minutes into the drama. The scene where JoJo's friend Jiyeon invites the guy while skating just to see if the alarm rings was pretty stupid imo. I founded the summary a bit eh, but watching the first few minutes is already cringe. Why must you need an app to tell you if someone likes you? How do you know if it's accurate? What's the LOGIC behind how it knows you like someone/or if someone likes you? Why even need an app to tell you that? We have a brain and we should be able to use it to assess or understand people's emotions. But no let us just blindly trust this app and try to be nosy asking who it was that caused someone's love alarm to ring. Even if I had to turn a blind eye to that, I wanted to see if it was worth continuing but thanks to your review, I saved my time!

Yes, but that's where I'm saying the problem is. He shouldn't have stayed quiet and that's his fault. They had the kids when? 2019? The kids are about 1 year old right? When the surrogate mother was 7 months pregnant and she wanted an abortion, I'm sure he wasn't dumb enough to realize why. He should've been well aware about his visa situation too. If quietly pursuing the matter in the first two months didn't go well, then he should have exposed her on media then. He waited till Jan 2021 when he could have exposed her in like April 2020 or something, hoping the public would pressurize her. But yes, since that isn't helping either he is now going to take the matter to court. I'm saying he didn't use his time properly. Whatever is happening now and what will follow after this news, could have happened last year a few months ago and saved time.

I didn't know that since I don't keep up with everything. But that's still a separate matter from the child situation. If she framed him for cheating, tax evasion that still shouldn't have kept him quiet from exposing about how they have kids and she abandoned them since he has proof (audio recordings). Even if she accused him of having a kid with some woman he cheated on, I'm sure he had some sort of evidence to prove that it's their kids in the recording. Sure, he's not famous, but I'm sure it's not like he was in poverty if he was living in US for a long time and had enough money to drag her to court. And if the audio files being leaked can harm her now, it would've done the same back then so he has no excuse to have been quiet till now.
As for the fans harassing him back then, now people know the truth regarding the cheating so it will be her turn to get hated for that matter.
But as for the child situation, it still should be both parties receiving the blame.

I always have mixed feelings about that innocent until proven guilty statement especially in cases like these. I'm not aware of SK laws but from what I've heard and read on for other cases, it seems like it's hard to get someone indicted for a rape crime there.
It already gives women a bad reputation when they falsely accuse someone of rape that when it actually happens to a woman, people start doubting her for wanting to falsely accuse someone for money, etc.
But in cases like these I keep wondering 2 scenarios.
It's possible that she framed him and he's labeled as this rapist which is stuck with him forever unfortunately.
But it's also possible that he did wrong her and she had to drop charges because she had no proof and she couldn't stand the public humiliation. There are so many rape victims who go to court and have to go through that trauma over again where they have to explain everything and there are cases where the defense lawyer asks so many questions to humiliate her in public. So many women are scared of that experience and either don't go to court or are forced to drop charges.
So I can't say he's innocent or guilty. And it's people's choice whether to watch his dramas/movies or not.
I do feel bad if he's actually innocent and getting all this hate for no reason. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you're famous. Just read another celebrity's scandal today and whether it's half of a story or fully true or not, we won't know.

Yeah, but you can't excuse the ex-husband for his actions either. It seems like all the hate on the matter is directed towards her alone, while the husband seems like a clean guy when he is ALSO partially responsible for this situation. He has money and all the resources. First he shouldn't have even agreed to surrogate mother thing and looked up any legal issues. And when the child was 7 months in and she asked for abortion, then he should have started to think about what options he has. Should have used the audio files to threaten her back then.. kinda irresponsible from him too and now he's also saying he's just gonna let them go away for adoption since his visa will expire. They are both bad period, but not in equal terms.

It already takes Chinese dramas quite awhile to air after filming and I completely forgot about this drama thinking it would be out already, but because of the Korea-China thing it had to be further delayed. It sucks for people who will end up suffering the losses because of one person's personal life issues.
It was irresponsible of her and her ex-husband shares some of that irresponsibility. Before even thinking about using surrogate mothers, they should have thought about the legal issues and if it was the right choice to make. But since they already made that mistake, Zheng Shuang should have done her part and at least help the children get to China so that they aren't being tossed around for adoption.
I think they should just air whatever dramas she had filmed anyways and maybe add a condition to sort out her personal matters. People who do not like her after this incident will protest her drama and not watch it anyways. People who want to watch for entertainment purposes and to see other actors will still watch it. It would at least be less of a loss for those other people involved in the drama. No one in the future should be affected by her at least. After this incident, it seems like her career would be put on hold. No one would want to work with her because they don't want their work to be affected by her scandal.

I've only watched Eternal Love (TMOPB) and just couldn't get over it and watched it again mainly to see the main couple scenes. I didn't really like Bai Feng Jiu & Dong Hua's story in Eternal Love either but seeing the positive comments about ELOD, I might just watch it although I'll probably miss the Bai Qian x Ye Hua couple there. I just felt that the ending of TMOPB wasn't enough for them.
When I first went to search for TMOPB, I ended up on The Eternal Love but I realized it was the wrong one after seeing the character names not match up to MDL.

don't worry. I had the same concerns. That section of the drama does get frustrating but it will pass by soon and it gets better soon. I also was hella angry seeing that and gave it a chance cause if it continued any longer I'd drop the drama.

Mysteries and underdeveloped characters-

For Mok Dan(MD):
- How did she survive the attack from the people who killed Kang To's father and guards? In Kang To's memory he considered her dead because he remembers seeing a sword near Mok Dan's head. How did she survive and end up working under an American Doctor (Dr. Albert) and became Esther?
For Ueno Rie:
- What exactly did the Koreans do to her family? I don't think they specified that.

In general regarding other characters:
- Why did Abe have a soft spot for Kang To? Even when they raided Dongjin's base, it seemed like he was looking for Kang To's body and quite upset looking at the other dead bodies. There was no explanation. All we can assume is that he is soft-hearted. Then why did he become an Imperial Policeman? I'm sure being Japanese he had other opportunities he didn't need to be a policeman. He's almost like Shunji's beginning character but it still stayed the same till the end.
- They never developed Katsuyama's character. All he is a bodyguard who follows orders and rarely talks. But all of a sudden he senses tension and was ready to protect Ueno Rie from the Chairman of Kishokai and his man. And then you find he has feelings for her? That was just unexpected, but then you also felt bad for him.
- Haesuk is a questionable character. It seemed like he didn't like what his father was doing from the start and wanted to help Koreans but didn't have the guts. Then why give care-free type of advice to Kang To as well?

@MinaVIP super late response, but had to say something. You have to consider the time period. This is after Japan colonized Korea and annexed it. A lot of Koreans would obviously have nationalist pride and would hate the Japanese for taking over their homeland and treating them like shit. Japan was taking every part of Korean culture (language, clothing, etc) away from them. The comfort women for example as well. They didn't consider Koreans as human beings. Yes, they initially showed Shunji as someone who isn't like the other Japanese; he respects Koreans at the start. But you need to look at both of their families and values as well. Mok Dan's father is an independence fighter and Shunji's father and brother are Imperial Policemen who torture Koreans and don't care about Koreans. You think Shunji's family would accept Mok Dan as Shunji's partner if it happened or vice versa? They wouldn't be love partners either ways. Mok Dan has nationalist pride like her father. She wouldn't want to be in a relationship with a guy who's family murders her own people. That would just put them in an uncomfortable situation. Yes, she was part of the reason why Shunji went completely nutso along with Kang To but you cannot blame her for not wanting him because he's Japanese.
It's like saying during/after the Holocaust, a Jew woman (proud of being Jew and cannot tolerate injustice towards other Jews) did not want to love a German guy (even though he is not Nazi and seems nice to Jews. But his family are flooded with Nazis.)

They showed human NS to have suffered because he was separated from his mom and he rebelled so many times and wanted to see her badly but could not. And I pitied him. They showed his side for caring for his friends (Young Hoon) as well, and you know that he's not a bad guy.
It makes sense that seeing his mother have a robot replace him would make him upset. He never had a robot mother comfort him; he was all alone without her and couldn't see her. Yet she comforted herself by making a robot with the thought of him in her mind.
However, they just went extreme with the human NS character. He stopped caring about Young Hoon in a way and just went straight up evil. He started to test the people who cared for him (Young Hoon and his mom). He ended up trying to want to kill people as well. I felt that was a bit too extreme to his character. But if they wanted to go with that route on his character where "some semi-good guys can go bad", they should have dealt with his character better.
"Oh hey, I knew Seo Jongil was a bad guy but I teamed up with him anyways and I would trust him and his words over my own people."
And then realize he gets deceived but wait didn't you know he was like that? You let yourself be manipulated by him.
And then after being kidnapped & realizing the truth of his mom's death "Ah, you're not a bad robot. Mom died because of me"
Then we get a 1 year later but shouldn't he have apologized to Young Hoon at least for what he did and to others?
In a way he sort of redeemed himself by bringing back the robot. But that does not mean he apologized. They did not show his remorse/guilt. It was just with one line but towards his mom and it almost lacked sincerity.

As for Ye na, I like what they did with her. Yes she was blinded by love for Sin, but not completely blind. She used her brain sometimes and notified people whenever she had a feeling he was up to no good. She also did something brave by gathering evidence against her father. That's not an easy thing to do.

For the mom character, they showed more of her motherly side than her robotics genius side. I understand that. Her dilemma was the two Sins. She feels guilty about her real son but also guilty for treating her robot Sin that way. In the end, she came to her senses and tried to stop the Kill Switch. But I do not like how they used her death and her death message to bring back the human Sin to his senses.

I know you posted this months ago and probably don't remember but still wanted to share why I wanted one more episode. Cause it wasn't really perfect for me. I still enjoyed the drama, but I felt a lot was missing.
Your points are valid in your comment; and it's true dragging the drama further would make people hate on it more.

Soo Ho never explained to Kang Ho why he lied and sent him to jail (Only we as viewers know why). You saw Kang Ho change to a better person, he decided to let go of the hate and in his letter to So Eun he said she changed him to become a better person. He let go of the hate he had for his mom and brother and begged his brother for help and apologized; and his brother after hearing "Hyung" softened his heart and helped him. Of course their relationship won't change so soon, and they did show Soo Ho self-reflect and wanting to become a better person himself. It's just that I wish they showed Soo Ho being straightforward like Kang Ho's character for a bit in the last episode. Kang Ho told him why he hates him pretty much, but Soo Ho never cleared up his feelings with Kang Ho. It would also be nice to show Soo Ho reflect on how his testimony let a rapist go free and how hurt So Eun and her family is.

It's true it would be a bit cliche but I kinda was hoping the twins and mom could be reunited. They don't need to get along in a cringe way since siblings can still fight and not get along. But wanted to see them as a family healing. We were able to see them sorta heal individually. But wanted to see them together.

I also wished that in the last episode that the Prosecutor who was sexually harassing So Eun would be imprisoned. They only proved So Eun's innocence in the trial about her not being guilty. The Prosecutor can just roam around freely sexually harassing other women during that time. We can only assume on our own that he would be tried but they don't have evidence besides witness testimony. I really wanted to see Prosecutor Hong get the punishment he deserved.

Sang chul was just left in a weird situation. His dad knows he betrayed him, but what is Sang chul's goal now? He's not tied down by his father and is free but he hasn't really moved on from So Eun either? He's allied himself with Hanyoung but is he going to still follow his father's footsteps? I know attorneys have to defend their client no matter what crime they commit and keep it confidential, but they still have the right to choose their clients since it's a private firm. Is he still going to choose to defend bad people like Lee Ho Sung, etc? To me it seemed like he wouldn't change and he doesn't realize why So Eun thinks Kang Ho is a good person. There's no self reflection for him?


Also these people don't know about the twins yet? or don't realize?
Like when Kang Ho walked in court room as witness shouldn't Prosecutor Hong be like wait aren't you Soo Ho?? He just stood there not confused as if he knew they were twins but he doesn't. He was only angry about the testimony against him. But that didn't bother me too much.

But yes overall like you said, main stuff was resolved. It's just these side things that I wished was also resolved.

Dong Rae ( I think that's the name of the friend of Heo Joon that was helping him make money. They never told us tbh, so I made two assumptions: 1) Either he was killed by Heo Ok and his friends after telling Heo Joon & his mom's whereabouts 2) After Heo Joon's mom death he probably figured out it was his friend who spilled the info and their friendship was broken because of it so he no longer was shown.
They also never told us what happened to Heo Ok's mom either. Assuming she repented after seeing her son turn in or suffered after seeing her son in prison paying for his crimes?
Old guy is a monk, but seems like Yoh Gwang didn't recognize him? He also seemed to have knowledge about elixir of sacrifice that Choi HyunSeo didn't have so idk, he wasn't explained.
Yeon Hee probably swapped the contents like she did before. She knew Heo Joon was prepared to die and probably saw elixir or Yoh Gwang told her like someone said.
Kinda wished there wasn't so many unexplained things in this drama.

yeah it's so sad. A lot of people claiming it's rigged or only awarded to people who attended. Whether it's true or not, it's not fair to say "X" didn't deserve it, "Y" should've gotten the award. Everyone out there worked hard, there's no reason to make someone's happy day into an awful one with negative comments saying they don't deserve their win. Should just support everyone for doing their best in this year of pandemic.