long rant ahead. i wish i stopped reading youtube comments when i got to the biggest part. it actually infuriated…
regardless of the unending frustration this drama caused me, i'd still say it was worth to watch (i still have a few eps tho). i wish i could rewatch it but only the lovey dovey scenes of sifeng and xuanji, as well as scenes involving tengshe and the fox. there were instances wherein i got so frustrated and wanted to drop it because i was so tired of it all, but then some amazing scenes would follow and i'd be like "ah... this is exactly why i'm still watching. everything will pay off in the end."
overall, this still wouldn't be part of my "cdrama to recommend to others" list. there are tons of other cdramas that have better written conflicts yet did not resort to the lazy route of making (almost) every character stupid.
long rant ahead. i wish i stopped reading youtube comments when i got to the biggest part.
it actually infuriated me that xuanji got an insane amount of hate and many viewers wanted her to suffer awfully so that she and sifeng will be "equal". that is such a toxic mindset. why do love and pain need to measured and balanced everytime? i thought by the end of the major conflict i would be able to understand why she was so hated, but all her emotions and reactions seem justifiable to me. i feel like many viewers failed to put themselves in her shoes. yes, she can be quite naive and easy to manipulate, but you can't really blame her. the whole sect in which she grew up in, including her own family, as well as the "senior she admired the most" who had a very fine reputation, all led her to a direction she could not possibly avoid. she did try to trust him and kept asking for an explanation- those viewers who say otherwise are lying to themselves and are extremely biased, but even sifeng himself made her believe he's the evil one at some instances. how could she continue to trust sifeng just because she loves him? the whole situation was set up so well that it's almost impossible to not get swayed from her perspective unless you're someone as obsessed as sifeng.
while i do agree that sifeng deserves better and he obviously did so much for xuanji than she did for him, i do not agree with those who wished xuanji would never come back to him. isn't that more painful on his part? having sacrificed your all but still not being with the one you love? besides, i kind of hate the writer for so obviously favoring sifeng. yes, even if they made him suffer a lot, his character was clearly made to acquire the most love and sympathy from viewers. they made sifeng's character almost perfect and too pitiful, as well as gave him the best script lines while making xuanji call "sifeng!" a hundred times per episode. as sifeng is the one always silently suffering to protect her and having no choice but to lie to her, everyone's hate was directed towards xuanji who was kept in the dark and deprived of all the necessary information. what viewers failed to realize is that sifeng has his own flaws too because oh well he is the one silently suffering to protect and not xuanji! it was also utterly absurd of him to expect xuanji to trust him after manipulating her and breaking that trust himself (regardless of his good intentions), but of course viewers will still put all the blame on xuanji because sifeng is too pitiful.
to add, i also think most misunderstandings were poorly written- the writer making almost every character so dumb and unreasonable without a hint of logic in their heads. those sect leaders, especially xuanji's father, are so lazily written that their characters just don't make sense at all. although i hate haochen the most, at least the writer made up some motives for him. everyone else was just there to look stupid. meanwhile those from sifeng's side are likeable and smart, and again, it's obviously because the writer favors sifeng the most. this si why tengshe is my favorite character in the whole series, he's the only who was truly there for xuanji and actually led her to the right direction. everyone else should fuck off.
am i the only one who prefers sajo hyun lmao i love the "enemies pretending to be lovers who secretly tries to kill each other" kind of vibe they give me. ak hee is fun and so head over heels for gyera which is something we really want to see but i really enjoy the tension between sajo hyun and gyera
obviously the production is kinda cheap and the editing and sequence of scenes seem off sometimes bc the pacing is too fast and unnatural but idk im still really enjoying this one 😠it was bothering at first but now i dont rlly care anymore it's entertaining me the way i want it to be and kinda took away my kdrama slump. the endings of each episode never failed to take my breath away. you know how it's technically kinda not giving but at the same time IT'S GIVING SO MUCHHHHH it's keeping you on your toes in a way u cant understand how when there are noticeable flaws
is it just me it felt like some of the dialogues were kinda unnatural (idk how to explain it the scriptwriting…
not satisfied with fl's acting too. some of her scenes just made me scratch my head 😠like the way she fell into jihoon's arms in the ending lmao hopefully it will improve in the next eps tho
is it just me it felt like some of the dialogues were kinda unnatural (idk how to explain it the scriptwriting just wasnt satisfying for me) and the transitions between the scenes were a bit off. tho i am intrigued and will continue to watch it bc this seems to have a pretty interesting story
what were their ages after the time skip (when zhi went to college and met jiaxu in yihe)?? i was a bit shocked when jiaxu said to the old man (when he got hospitalized) that zhi was still a minor. i thought she was already 19 as said by viewers, or was the subtitle not accurate???
does the relationship of the couple get better in part 2? i haven't really found myself connecting to them in part 1 (which i just finished) because niaoniao doesn't seem happy when she's with buyi. i kinda miss it when she was with yao, she was much more smiley and comfortable
i'm so mad that they have written kim nam gil's character so badly. he could show so much more yet they gave him…
and i'm even more mad that ppl are saying kim nam gil is a mediocre actor because of this when in fact it's all the writing's fault. ARE WE REALLY TALKING ABOUT THE SAME KIM NAM GIL
i'm so mad that they have written kim nam gil's character so badly. he could show so much more yet they gave him a boring flat character who's only there to protect miho.
"I started watching this cause of KNG is Jin´s fav actor so I wanted to see his acting and I was not impressed." wow. that's a very offensive comment considering kim nam gil is actually a really amazing actor with multiple awards including daesang. it's illogical for u to say that based on just one drama, and that drama happened to have his character very badly written. if you really want to see how great of an actor he is, then watch his other dramas like the fiery priest or queen seondeok. kim nam gil is one of the most versatile actors i know and island is like the worst one you could've watched from his dramas (atleast from those i have watched already) because the writing didn't do his character and acting justice.
When San woke up on her leg at the end, he really said the same things he said the first time he woke up on her…
they confirmed in the bluray that it was indeed the afterlife and yisan really died that time, but well everything can be interpreted in different ways as much as you'd like
i don't understand how is it unnecessary? it's the most important part of their history. their son had to die (actually their daughter as well but they didn't include it in the drama and a few miscarriages here and there), deokim had to die early, and yisan also had to die years after
overall, this still wouldn't be part of my "cdrama to recommend to others" list. there are tons of other cdramas that have better written conflicts yet did not resort to the lazy route of making (almost) every character stupid.
it actually infuriated me that xuanji got an insane amount of hate and many viewers wanted her to suffer awfully so that she and sifeng will be "equal". that is such a toxic mindset. why do love and pain need to measured and balanced everytime? i thought by the end of the major conflict i would be able to understand why she was so hated, but all her emotions and reactions seem justifiable to me. i feel like many viewers failed to put themselves in her shoes. yes, she can be quite naive and easy to manipulate, but you can't really blame her. the whole sect in which she grew up in, including her own family, as well as the "senior she admired the most" who had a very fine reputation, all led her to a direction she could not possibly avoid. she did try to trust him and kept asking for an explanation- those viewers who say otherwise are lying to themselves and are extremely biased, but even sifeng himself made her believe he's the evil one at some instances. how could she continue to trust sifeng just because she loves him? the whole situation was set up so well that it's almost impossible to not get swayed from her perspective unless you're someone as obsessed as sifeng.
while i do agree that sifeng deserves better and he obviously did so much for xuanji than she did for him, i do not agree with those who wished xuanji would never come back to him. isn't that more painful on his part? having sacrificed your all but still not being with the one you love? besides, i kind of hate the writer for so obviously favoring sifeng. yes, even if they made him suffer a lot, his character was clearly made to acquire the most love and sympathy from viewers. they made sifeng's character almost perfect and too pitiful, as well as gave him the best script lines while making xuanji call "sifeng!" a hundred times per episode. as sifeng is the one always silently suffering to protect her and having no choice but to lie to her, everyone's hate was directed towards xuanji who was kept in the dark and deprived of all the necessary information. what viewers failed to realize is that sifeng has his own flaws too because oh well he is the one silently suffering to protect and not xuanji! it was also utterly absurd of him to expect xuanji to trust him after manipulating her and breaking that trust himself (regardless of his good intentions), but of course viewers will still put all the blame on xuanji because sifeng is too pitiful.
to add, i also think most misunderstandings were poorly written- the writer making almost every character so dumb and unreasonable without a hint of logic in their heads. those sect leaders, especially xuanji's father, are so lazily written that their characters just don't make sense at all. although i hate haochen the most, at least the writer made up some motives for him. everyone else was just there to look stupid. meanwhile those from sifeng's side are likeable and smart, and again, it's obviously because the writer favors sifeng the most. this si why tengshe is my favorite character in the whole series, he's the only who was truly there for xuanji and actually led her to the right direction. everyone else should fuck off.