Maika

Glad we got to see GYJ act in S2 this way we have both JSM and her as FL. I liked them both.
I do have some issues with the story, but it's hard to find stories where the writing is perfect. Overall it was nice & I liked the ending they chose for Naksu's character. There was no way they could clear her name since she was known as an assassin & everyone was scared of her. For Cho Yeong as well, her identity as Naksu is probably something she wanted to forget too, because it reminds her of the time where she was being used to kill people (and then the man she loved when she was being controlled by bells).
Just like S1 my most favorite scenes are the slight bromance between CP & Jang Uk. This season they introduced the turtle which was funny to watch. Master Lee's role, Maidservant Kim & Park Jin scenes were great to watch as well.
The issues I had:
- I feel like they dragged Jin Mu for too long. I understand that he's the main villain, but there were so many occasions where he could've been rid of both in S1 &S2. I see they wanted to use him to bring the fire bird (the reason why the chaos started 200 years ago) into the story again. But my question was, if the person of the king's star is able to kill the bird, why didn't master seo gyeong do that 200 years ago with jin seolran. Why did it have to be sealed instead? That's something I never quite understood.
- The soul shifting process &The whole debate on whether Mu Deok/Naksu was a soul shifter or not. In S1, she performed the AOS but she had a different target & Bu yeon interfered in the process, leading Naksu's soul to go to Bu yeon's body. People who fail to soul shift also have a blue mark in their original body. In S1, by the temple, Gil joo(Jin mu's assistant) tried to shift souls in Jang uk's body but failed & his soul went back to his original body and he ran wild. Master Lee said in S2, Bu yeon actually trapped Naksu's soul in her body & that she was not a soul shifter. But that contradicts the end of S1, where Naku lost control with the bell & was easily controlled by Jin Mu because he gave his energy to her. She also got petrified, a characteristic of soul shifters.
- I feel like the last episode was too rushed.

I really liked this drama & how it wasn't so frustrating. I was worried they'd follow the trope of jealous women trying to ruin others just to get the man they love.
Choyeon did lock Mu Deok and try to frame her, but changed. Even with all the love triangles thrown in the drama, I'm glad it wasn't something frustrating. The Crown Prince's character was refreshing & funny but I have a feeling that he'll end up going bad because of last episode.
The last episode was kinda disappointing. I know there's S2, but I was hoping that Naksu would be able to have some free will to stop herself from being controlled by Jin Mu. They just left her character as a puppet in the end. She starts off as one and ended as one. It feels like the middle & the change she had while being Mu Deok didn't matter & had no control over her life.
I don't know how S2 will play out, but wondering how things resolve since she's killed so many.
She was able to give up the ice stone before and dropped her sword when they were trapped, but she couldn't do that in the end since she was being controlled by the bells. It just feels that character development was tossed out just to bring the point that these bells put a curse & turn soul shifters wild.

A decent revenge drama
I don't have to be frustrated at the writers for making the women weak/dumb and dependent on the men. The FL is independent & similar to the ML in terms of intelligence.
I did have some issues with the story, but nothing too big. I was able to watch it fine & it's fine if there's no romance or a slight hint of it at the end. The drama is still enjoyable to watch without it.

After 20 episodes, I have a few issues with this drama so far. I'm writing an essay at this point.

- I feel like the story is all over the place. We're shown all these characters and we have little information to none. It's so confusing to follow the story initially with all these places and names mentioned or events. They explain some of it later on and I understand most of it, but there's still a few stuff that I don't know about. Like I'm on episode 20, I don't understand this "Pitiful Clam?" girl who keeps poisoning people with needles and because of it the older generations are dying cause of the Blue bone piercing something poison. She pops up as a flashback in people's stories and that's it?
They mention all these people of Disha's manor and there's no backstory to them (like Qiu Tianjin is just a dog and is dead?? And there's no clear explanation about Disha's manor and who yu wenzhi is..? (they mention he is royal pillar of state but I have no idea what that means)
- What are the ages of some of these characters? They act like 13 year olds. I'm HOPING to see some character growth. They start off as sheltered brats and as they explore outside, I hoped that they'll mature. But 20 episodes in, almost halfway there, and the only person who thinks properly so far is the ML.
• Li Sheng's character annoyed me the most at the start. He doesn't listen and is fixated on leaving. I understand it's hard to keep kids tied to home where it's isolated from the world. The adults don't even provide an explanation. They probably know it's inevitable the kids will explore the martial art world themselves, but fail to teach them survival skills. They're all sheltered kids who don't understand the severity of situations. They survived by luck. Li Sheng could've been dead on that cliff if Madam Wang didn't come in time.
The Old Madam Wang's death was sad and pissed me off that they didn't think of knocking Li Sheng unconscious. They knew he'd probably be thirsty for revenge. But I thought PERHAPS her death would knock some sense into Li Sheng who thinks he is strong enough to get revenge for his father. But no, after being saved by that Daoist teacher he was gonna go back to risk his life again?? Like dude did you just disregard the fact that people sacrificed THEIR LIVES FOR YOU. But I'm hoping he matured cause ever since he went to learn from that Daoist old man, he changed. Glad to see some character development for him, hopefully he stays that way?

• His sister Yan is still a headache. At some times, it's funny seeing her talk, but then she goes into a teahouse and blurts out that Li Zheng is her grandfather. If Yang Jin was a bad person like the Disha people, she would've been used & dead. The Yang guy only wanted a challenge, but imagine if it was someone else. She also can't fight to protect herself. Then when Zhou tries to rescue her from her hostage situation, she disagrees? I'm like WHAT? just cause the guy is feeding you, you don't wanna go? You wanna be a hostage, like seriously? I know this drama tries to be funny but that wasn't really funny to me. They also repeat how she tries to fake cry each time and I was like hoping one of the characters call out her fake cries. Also she never learns to shut up her mouth. She says everything without thinking about it. I'd understand if she was like 15 years old or something, but I doubt that's the case?

• Now, about our FL Zhou. I liked this drama because I love strong FL types of drama. I love her character but there was like one episode where it felt her character deviated from what she's shown to be. She's not stupid, maybe not as smart as XY but still smart.

- Some of these fights feel so unrealistic.

Don't get me wrong, the acting is great. But the writing is not good at all. It's disappointing. I feel like to enjoy this drama, you need to erase logic from your head and accept things as it is
It's like characters make mistakes they usually wouldn't have, just to drag this drama longer.

Edit: after finishing this drama I still think there's still problems with the story
- If they have ink & have drawn pictures of people to find before (like Chuchu's family)... why didn't the elders draw people of Disha's manor so everyone can recognize their faces. They repeated so many scenes of where people do not recognize Disha's manor masters and create issues cause of that. Drama didn't need to be dragged into 51 episodes.
- They said chuchu's brother may not have died & is probably alive, but till the end we never know if he is alive or dead? Li Sheng offered to help her look for her brother, but that never happened.
- That grave for General Wang Lin was shown in Penglai (the island??) but earlier in flashbacks Xie Yun saw the General's grave alongside his soldiers cause he already dug his own grave.
- If all those older people made this site for Hai Tian Yi Se with their tokens as being keys to it, did they not ever see the treasures inside? Like Zhou Fei's grandpa could've known the antidote to Pitiful Clam's poison if he saw the Book of Medicines inside there? Also, the Daoist teacher Chongxiao (w/e his name is) had a bunch of Phoenix Pills somehow so he must have gotten it from there?? Why didn't he just give the Phoenix Pill to Li Zheng?? I also don't know why they kept only one copy of the medicine book in their big medicine valley which got burnt & the other with treasures. They could've just done what younger generation did & spread the knowledge to trustworthy doctors around? Maybe not spread knowledge of how to make poison, but the antidotes to those poison.
- The timeline of the story just feels confusing. Everything happened 20 years ago? 20 years ago dynasty changed, 20 years ago Shen Tianshu decided to separate from Anping Army because he hated not being favored by Wang Lin so he made the Disha & Gu Tianxian & Tong Tianying followed him from the army. 20 years ago, Pitiful Clam also decided to turn her back on Big Medicine Valley and joined Disha & started poisoning people (her master, Huo, Li Zheng/Madame Duan, Mingfeng Tower Old Guy). The Eunuch guy from older dynasty also joined them. Snow wolf Tiankuang something was picked up by Pitiful clam. What was Tianjin's story? Too many characters.
- Zhou Fei learned Wilted Flourishing Palm from Duan & one of the Blade of North's technique. But she only used it once with them. I never understood that. She never used what she learned again? She only used her blade skills and never did we see her use wilted palm the second time.
- If Chuchu wanted to create manuals for each sect skills & wanted to share it with others so the skills get passed down, is she gonna rewrite Yin Wenlan's manual that she burnt?? She's making a manual of the Snow Cleaving blade anyways.
- Those Buddhist Tongming & other guys were able to help Xie Yun & Jinrong with their poison. They couldn't help Li Zheng? I also don't know cause it looked a lot similar to what Li Zheng did with Duan when getting her poison. I thought those Buddhist priests would be dead. Did they use some other different technique?
- Did that Hibiscus Palm guy die for good when he activated the trap blocking Azure Dragon Master? Ji Yunchen said he probably lived or found a way out, guess not?
- They mentioned Four Guardian mountains, but we never saw fourth one I think? First Dragon master they encountered was Vermillon/Red guy/Mu Xiaoqiao, 2nd was Azure/Green guy/Luo Sheng. Third was tortoise/white clothes/Ding kui. They mentioned the 4th Guardian is White Tiger Master Feng Feihua but we never see him nor know what happened to him. Yin Pei killed Ding & claimed title of dominating the mountain but he named himself true master clear light or whatever.
- Why did Disha eliminate all those from Xignan sect? I never understood the purpose. Mindless killing? Usually Shen tianshu orders stuff but there's usually a reason for it...?
- Ma jili's betrayal I never understood either. How the hell did he get brainwashed by Kou Dan? Like I'd understand if his family were held captives and he was being blackmailed. But just 2 sentences from Kou Dan was enough for him to betray Zhou Fei?? Like he would rather see their homes being further destroyed?? Made NO SENSE.


I wanted to see less of Li Yan's character (which till the end never changed)& less of Li Sheng & Chu couple... They both make questionable decisions. I thought Chuchu got smarter, but after meeting Li Sheng, she made so many mistakes and got herself almost killed. It wasn't smart of her to follow Li Sheng by herself, then used as a hostage & then attacked. She should've brought trustworthy people with her at least?

Good things about the drama:
- Funny part seeing how everyone was crazy over Li Zheng (ZF's grandpa). He was like all the grannies first love. Then his grandchildren is the same. ZF had like 3 guys liking her (including XY) & Li Yan has 2.
- Where Zhou Fei's blade breaks like 6 times. Finally, when Xie Yun makes a blade for her himself it's unbreakable. I kept watching for our ML& FL (main couple) & they had those funny moments too to break the seriousness. I rather watch more of them & they made it more enjoyable to watch. They had cute moments too.
Another positive thing I'll say is that I love the ending OST of the drama.

Overall this drama is okay. The good part is that it's not frustrating. I really hate when things drag for so long to the point it becomes irritating.
I'm glad for once, our FL is not the typical "childish, annoying" character. She is smart and has flaws too. She makes mistakes and learns from them. I'm also glad they didn't take long to recognize who the bad people are & who they should be careful of. They grow up from their naivety phase.
One of the things that I didn't like is the absurdity around time-travel. It randomly happens and she gets a text message explaining her mission regarding the time-travel. It's like a plot that fits into a game where a cell phone says you got a mission, and that you must complete it. The time-travel isn't really explored much. Also, I felt no chemistry between the main couple. Some episodes felt boring and had to watch it on 2x and 3x speed. I rather them spend more time on a better ending.

I really loved how they tied everything together in this drama. I also like how they gave proper closure to each character in the end. It was wonderful seeing the Queen as a realistic character with challenges to deal with and a mother who has to be constantly alert & fighting to protect her children. The politics did become frustrating at some point with the antagonists never tired of coming up with plans to create issues. But seeing how they were dealt with was satisfying.

Ah thanks! I ended up dropping it cause I couldn't take it anymore

What episode do the main leads end up together? Hoping it's not too draggy.

I just finished, and you summed up most of what I wanted to say about this drama (about Changheng, Shangque/Dragon, Jieli, Yunzhong). People thought I dislike this drama (cause of the FL), but I liked it overall. It's just my opinion that it's not something I would give above a 9 for. For me one of the other problems was how FL's character was written. I don't mind Esther's voice but sometimes it got frustrating in the start how "dumb and annoying" her character was made into. Over time, I got used to it and found it less annoying but that was like after the second half of the drama where she grows up a little (after the period they are out of the mortal realm/Lucheng city).
It just reminds me of AOL's Jinmi type of situation where "the FL must be dumb and portrayed naive because she needs to be hidden and protected"
I don't think making the FL less dumb (maybe not extremely smart) would hurt the story and blow her cover away. It also wouldn't catch the attention of people they're trying to protect them from. It should've been like a balance.
Also I dislike that as usual people get a slap on the wrist if they did something bad (Ronghao). But it wasn't a major issue I had. Yunzhong also doesn't apologize for all the mess ups he did.

well, she's naive & innocent probably because her clan members sealed her origins away. But for me, it was dragged too long. I see what you mean like around ep 33 when she's reincarnated she completely changes and too mature. It just feels one dimensional.
"family member tried to protect them so they will be naive, dumb & taken advantage of by others" She had the purest heart out of everyone, wanting peace and no bloodshed so I guess they went for the naive concept, but why dumb?
after watching 75% of the drama, then she slowly matures.
She slowly starts to grow after they come back from the mortal world & she understands things better. After her reincarnation the maturity is so serious and opposite of her playful, naive side. It's like one or the other. There's rarely any in-between (there is some but not much).
I will admit her annoying/dumb character portrayed in the first half wasn't the worst (I've seen worse in other dramas) but it's just tiring seeing this being used too much.

Almost halfway there and FL's character is still annoying. Reminds me of AOL. Tired of these Xianxias dramas that depict a dumb annoying FL or where women are shown to be dependable on the "strong male character" & that they can't do anything on their own. The typical damsel in distress.
The only redemption in AOL was that the FL's character starts to grow up near the end and she becomes stronger on her own. Hope that's the case here. The body switches were funny at first, but the last switch got a bit annoying.
I will say this drama has a lot of lovely OSTs!

Even though he cares for his sister & is worried about her since a lot of people can take advantage of her, his approach is wrong. I understand him not approving XF because he's worried about his sister's livelihood. He does not want her to struggle. However, forcing her to get on a plane (though she didn't get on) was one of the worst things that he's done. She's not a kid anymore. He should've communicated properly and spent time to talk to her about it rather than making decisions for her. It takes a lot of patience.
It's definitely a blessing, but also you gotta be careful with being too overprotective. She was tired because she couldn't understand her brother's overprotective side. They showed the safe side where she came back to stay at Ding's house. There's so many people that take other type of actions in that case and it does not end pretty.
There are those type of people I've seen who walked into abusive situations & they've never struggled before & they had people too overprotective of them. Like you said, the world is not roses. It's cruel. It would suck to see the cruelty of the world in a bad way.
Living a fully sheltered life has its drawbacks too. You never know how long you can be protected by others. No one will be around you 24/7 to protect you. What if that person who's been protecting you suddenly dies? What then? There's so many unpredictable situations. For example, let's say LB died with ZY in that landslide. Would Ariel be able to do a proper job of keeping LY safe?
My point is not to have LY exposed to dangerous situations, no one wants that for loved ones. But having some exposure to the world & learning how to protect yourself, fighting for yourself is also important.

Overall I have no complaints just a few things I wondered about
so that psychiatrist had this disorder (is he schizophrenic??) and he hasn't harmed anyone until he suddenly heard about going to the past from HYX?
I don't understand that part like what triggered him, i dont really care about him he was so creepy and perverted, but what was his obsession with CYR?he went to past initially then did those messed up things & he took over his older brother just to have his younger self turn into a monster like him..
time travels do have some plot holes but this one didn't do too bad and tied it up nicely. The switch scene kinda spoiled some of the story. CYR said she wanted to be the girl LZW likes which is HYX and HYX wanted to see WQS which is LZW so HYX ended up in CYR's body. I think right at the start you know LZW & WQS are same, but you just didn't know HOW since they're two different ages.


next thing - HYX suspected that psychiatrist's older brother was culprit. But why did she trust him so easily...Like why didnt she verify with the older brother first & see if there's another side of story (she did it after LZW died) she just let her psychiatrist show up to her house and trusted him so easily.
another thing- was WQS like dead? and LZW just split his soul into WQS body? cause the other thing that could be trouble some is him using WQS's body just like HYX using CYR's & they are making choices that person wouldn't have done. Like WQS would not fall for a girl or go onto a plane meeting his death.

I think I saw this in the reviews, it's like a hero's journey indeed. Like the airport scene with 2 LZW's the LZW would always go on that plane just to change the past even though the older LZW gave him the option to be selfish & stay by HYX's side. He wanted to save his friend too. And at the end, HYX also makes the choice to set things right, sacrificing their relationship,leaving them to not have memories of each other.
But that ending is kinda bittersweet, the tragedies are gone. They all live. But our main couple LZW & HYX is like open ended, at a hint that they will fall for each other again.
I wish the movie releases soon

it's good drama i ended up binge watching but kinda regret it cause of that ending and I just realized they would release a movie for this next year :'(
how to move on from this

I see why it's rated low. It's slowly going to that point for me. The rescuing part is nice, some parts are frustrating. Ding dingding's character is annoying at times. Also, I don't like LB's (ML) character either. His overprotective brother side is too much. Imagine she ran away and was in danger instead. That's why parents/siblings shouldn't be too controlling. There are better ways to handle the situation he had with his sister.

It's like some characters vanished (Xiao Wei & the boy with autism)
they just helped the plot moving for the couple I guess

I saw comments saying the ML behavior in second half is problematic. I can see why but
the FL kinda pursued him in the same way. He wanted to be alone and she was all around him & lied about him being her bf & then cried in public talking about their child having people watch the commotion. It seems people forgot about that. It doesn't excuse his behavior either of telling her to get out of restaurant or else he'd have everyone kicked out.

He did cross the line by kissing her when she may not have wanted it. But she also tried to sneak a kiss on the ferris wheel thinking he is blind, taking advantage of that. Difference is that he stopped her.
The one thing I found a problem is that they tried to excuse ML's behavior due to him having autism. I would've accepted it if they said because he's visually impaired, he wasn't taught properly how to behave around others & how to treat others. But then again, he did leave his dad's house & lived separately. They also said he didn't attend school after elementary.

The first half really is good it's cute and I loved it.
Their fights though was unrealistic to me. Just felt lack of communication, them hiding stuff & insecurities. But they dragged it out for no reason.
I also felt the editing team cut some scenes cause some scene switches felt weird as if something is missing.
Second half wasn't bad. It was good. I just preferred first half more.

what I don't get is
shaman step - mom's story:
why did she get her out of mental asylum in the first place if she knew she had mental issues
Why take matters in her own hands and try to do some weird rituals cause she thinks she's possessed?
i was more curious about the villain in this movie.
I'm assuming villain's dad died, wondering how? They mentioned her birth mom having the same illness..

but they had to get the plot going so they introduced young seok
I thought the step-mom was terrible abuser but then it became obvious something is wrong with young seok
i think the step mom's rituals worsened young seok's condition though
& if PSH's character wasn't selfish of wanting to see her dad & changing things then the step mom wouldn't have been killed nor the strawberry farmer
I'm actually curious as to what happened before they made changes since Seo yeon never did her research & didn't search her name. That strawberry farmer didn't tell the story either.
It seems that the step mom saw some sort of glimpse of her killing & that's why she killed her otherwise she wouldn't have?
cause before both young seok & her step mom were fine when they came to buy the house but things changed after that & young seok got interested because she realized she had the ability to change future.

there's so many things wrong with this movie
full of plot holes & it's just not even a thriller. The best type of time travel is still Signal for me (even tho that's a drama).
At least in there there's a balance & not just like this where FL makes dumbest decisions ever, but what happened to her is like punishment for being selfish. Love JJS acting though!

I agree! They're both twisted, and Young Seok is just worse with the serial killings
I hate thrillers like these where there's no balance and the character is dumb
it would've never continued and she would've been arrested. I don't think in any situation it makes sense to confront a murderer and say "did you kill them" that's just stupid and putting yourself at risk & others.
idk if Seo Yeon as a child filtered that memory to release herself from guilt & blamed it on her mom...but it is messed up that she treated her mom that way