This review may contain spoilers
Was Promisinig Until it Wasn’t: Dropped after ep 5
I’ll just start off by saying that I have dropped this series after 5 eps (gave it half the series), and idk if I will ever finish this
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Initial Thoughts:
I didn’t really see any promotions for this series and I just found it on iQIYI and decided to watch it since it was another Thai BL period drama, especially since I absolutely loved Love Upon A Time (LUAT) so much. When I first started this series, I tried not to compare the two, but they were just so similar that I couldn’t help it and this series fell far short of LUAT, I’m so sorry, but this series has been boring and disappointing. The plot has so many holes and just things that don’t make any sense whatsoever and it gets annoying and infuriating.
*******WARNING: This reveiw contains SPOILERS for BOTH Love Destiny AND LUAT***********
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The Plot: (very similar start as LUAT, but just not as good)
The story follows a surgeon, Great, who gets shot back in time, approx 300 years into another body, Gaew, and Dech, the second son of the High Lord of the region. Gaew was taken in by Dech’s family as he is a relative of Dech’s mother (are they blood related? I’m foggy on these details, so forgive any errors here) when they were young b/c his was orphaned. Gaew would grow up alongside Dech and his older brother, but when they are adults, Gaew is a mischievous troublemaker, who seems to cause problems for Dech (who watches out for him) and Dech’s mother, who is an annoying ass character, who for some unexplained reason, has always wanted to kick Gaew out of the manor without showing him any love or care that we (the audience) are able to see.
One day Gaew and his close servant, Yam, knock over Dech’s Mother’s boat, causing herself and the people aboard to fall into the stream. They lost a servant in the water and when she came back home, she immediately accused Gaew of the ‘crime’ and urged her husband, the high lord, to remove him from the household, which they refused (*****Side note: the stream looks fairly shallow and shouldn’t everyone know how to swim since they frequently travel by boat and live right by the river, so how did they lose a servant??? Also how did no one on the boat see or try to stop Yam from tipping over the boat, like HE WAS LITERALLY OUT OF THE WATER holding onto the side of the boat, like HUH?????******). So the high lord and Dech, instead, decided to perform a spell at the behest of mother, that doesn’t harm the innocent, but kills those guilty of the crime. (**Side note: so Dech and the father both didn’t want to kick him out, but were willing to perform a spell that could kill Gaew?? makes no sense*****) Anyways, Gaew obviously dies, b/c he guilty and this causes a lighting strike to hit Great (in the present time) sending him back in time 300 years into Gaew’s body.
That’s all ep 1, after that, the plot just slows so much and becomes boring. They introduce some characters, but the plot mainly consists of Great (Now as Gaew) trying to repair Gaew’s relationships and reputations and for some reason, he always seems to end up in jail or in trouble. They introduce Dech’s older brother and a powerful and rich foreign lord, but they don’t seem to be adding to the story. Great doesn’t seem to have any goal nor does he seem to do anything, other than help a person here or there with his medical skills. He tries to go home for like a split second, but then gives up?? (I think), they don’t really make it clear if he wants to stay or go back home?? Anyways it just got so boring
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Plot holes / Things that just pissed me off:
1. I didn’t like how similar it was to LUAT, at least they could have done something a little different. Things that were basically the same:
- someone gets sent into the past (gernally same era) into the body of a lord’s son (so they themselves are lords)
- Has a close servant who helps them with everything (Chuai v. Yam)
- Has a close relation and will end up in a relationship with the respected Lord’s son who liked them first (Phop v. Dech)
- The annoying mother figures and their servants ( the second and third wives of Phop’s father v. Dech’s mother and servant)
- It’s the lord son (Phop v. Dech) who finds him (Klao v. Gaew/Great) and looks for him first
- After time traveling, the ML has to solve a case (Klao with his father’s execution and Gaew/Great with him as the accused murderer case)
- also both casted the same actor (Dech’s father LD and Meng LUAT) which made it even more difficult to not draw the similarities between Love Destiny and LUAT
This was just the similarities off the top of my head, but there are a lot more, and sadly, LUAT surpassed and outperformed and out-scripted Love Destiny in every aspect.
2. anytime any boat was being shaken to capsize, no one ever saw nor tried to stop them from tipping over the boat. LIKE the boat has no walls, it is in an open space, and NO ONE can APPARENTLY see the person ‘jumping’ up and down on the side of the boat???? Like be for real, seriously
3. When Great woke up in Gaew’s body, he ran out and ended up saving a servant who had a large cut in his thighs and was bleeding out. He would end up saving him. First off, this servant has a large cut in his thigh and has been bleeding for a while since he got there, that servant SHOULD BE DEAD BY THEN, how did he live, who knows????!!?!?! Second, when Great/Gaew was treating him, no one seemed to act when any sense of urgency at all, Like are you kidding me?? If this guy is still alive, which he shouldn’t be, he surely ain’t going to survive much longer and no one has any urgency??
4. Aren’t Gaew and Dech related through Dech’s mother??? so how can you have romantic feelings for each other, you were raised as brothers. (At least in LUAT, it was made clear there was no familial connection and that they all grew up as close friends, not as siblings under the same roof and parents)
5. Why doesn’t Great just say that he is Gaew, like come on, everyone thinks you are different and that you are acting suspicously, just tell them you are from the future and that you are no longer Gaew (this would also solve the previous issue, as Dech could have developed feelings for Great) though that would still be weird as he would look like his ‘brother’
6. In the assassination attempt of the Foreign lord guy, after the lord won the fight, why did he just yell and scream at the assasin to reveal who he was and how sent him instead of chasing him, HE WAS LITERALLY STABBED and was walking out of there, like the Lord could have just run after him and caught him, but NOOOOOO. This entire sequence of scenes made absolutely no sense
7. Continuing from 6. When Great/Gaew was accused and arrested for being a murderer, why didn’t Dech just say that Great/Gaew was passed out drunk last night and that he watched over this the entire night b/c Great/Gaew was asleep, OMG an alibi, who would’ve thought that was important and excused him from being a suspect??? Like DUHHHHHH (to which there was no reason or evidence to even accuse him btw)
8. one of the eps (forgot which) literally had no plot and was just a Durian fruit advertisement for no apparent reason, just was HUHHHHHHH
9. One of, if not the most annoying thing, was that they included long LONG end credits which showed the scenes in the future (so instead of like LUAT, returning to the same time, they left, Love Destiny decided to continue the present / future time plot alongside the past). I wouldn’t mind the dual plots, but I didn’t like how they put all the future scenes which were long and important at the VERY END of the ep, I think i missed the first few. It just made it feel disconnected from the series as if it wasn’t even a part of it. For me, I also didn’t like how EVERY person who was in the past, is SOMEHOW in the same hospital the Great’s body is unconscious and being treated in. It just made it feel weird.
10. Dech’s older brother and this entire plot are entirely useless, they add nothing to the story, and should be completed erased from the series. We didn’t need to see him anymore, they could just have written him off as working in the capital or something (also just my opinion, but i didn’t like his visuals)
Keep in mind: These are only the issues I have found 5 eps (halfway) into this series
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The only good thing was Leng, August, and Na’s visuals. Dech for me, was the only interesting character and only character worth watching.
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Overall Rating: 5.5/10. (expected a lot more from this series)
====================================
Initial Thoughts:
I didn’t really see any promotions for this series and I just found it on iQIYI and decided to watch it since it was another Thai BL period drama, especially since I absolutely loved Love Upon A Time (LUAT) so much. When I first started this series, I tried not to compare the two, but they were just so similar that I couldn’t help it and this series fell far short of LUAT, I’m so sorry, but this series has been boring and disappointing. The plot has so many holes and just things that don’t make any sense whatsoever and it gets annoying and infuriating.
*******WARNING: This reveiw contains SPOILERS for BOTH Love Destiny AND LUAT***********
====================================
The Plot: (very similar start as LUAT, but just not as good)
The story follows a surgeon, Great, who gets shot back in time, approx 300 years into another body, Gaew, and Dech, the second son of the High Lord of the region. Gaew was taken in by Dech’s family as he is a relative of Dech’s mother (are they blood related? I’m foggy on these details, so forgive any errors here) when they were young b/c his was orphaned. Gaew would grow up alongside Dech and his older brother, but when they are adults, Gaew is a mischievous troublemaker, who seems to cause problems for Dech (who watches out for him) and Dech’s mother, who is an annoying ass character, who for some unexplained reason, has always wanted to kick Gaew out of the manor without showing him any love or care that we (the audience) are able to see.
One day Gaew and his close servant, Yam, knock over Dech’s Mother’s boat, causing herself and the people aboard to fall into the stream. They lost a servant in the water and when she came back home, she immediately accused Gaew of the ‘crime’ and urged her husband, the high lord, to remove him from the household, which they refused (*****Side note: the stream looks fairly shallow and shouldn’t everyone know how to swim since they frequently travel by boat and live right by the river, so how did they lose a servant??? Also how did no one on the boat see or try to stop Yam from tipping over the boat, like HE WAS LITERALLY OUT OF THE WATER holding onto the side of the boat, like HUH?????******). So the high lord and Dech, instead, decided to perform a spell at the behest of mother, that doesn’t harm the innocent, but kills those guilty of the crime. (**Side note: so Dech and the father both didn’t want to kick him out, but were willing to perform a spell that could kill Gaew?? makes no sense*****) Anyways, Gaew obviously dies, b/c he guilty and this causes a lighting strike to hit Great (in the present time) sending him back in time 300 years into Gaew’s body.
That’s all ep 1, after that, the plot just slows so much and becomes boring. They introduce some characters, but the plot mainly consists of Great (Now as Gaew) trying to repair Gaew’s relationships and reputations and for some reason, he always seems to end up in jail or in trouble. They introduce Dech’s older brother and a powerful and rich foreign lord, but they don’t seem to be adding to the story. Great doesn’t seem to have any goal nor does he seem to do anything, other than help a person here or there with his medical skills. He tries to go home for like a split second, but then gives up?? (I think), they don’t really make it clear if he wants to stay or go back home?? Anyways it just got so boring
==================================
Plot holes / Things that just pissed me off:
1. I didn’t like how similar it was to LUAT, at least they could have done something a little different. Things that were basically the same:
- someone gets sent into the past (gernally same era) into the body of a lord’s son (so they themselves are lords)
- Has a close servant who helps them with everything (Chuai v. Yam)
- Has a close relation and will end up in a relationship with the respected Lord’s son who liked them first (Phop v. Dech)
- The annoying mother figures and their servants ( the second and third wives of Phop’s father v. Dech’s mother and servant)
- It’s the lord son (Phop v. Dech) who finds him (Klao v. Gaew/Great) and looks for him first
- After time traveling, the ML has to solve a case (Klao with his father’s execution and Gaew/Great with him as the accused murderer case)
- also both casted the same actor (Dech’s father LD and Meng LUAT) which made it even more difficult to not draw the similarities between Love Destiny and LUAT
This was just the similarities off the top of my head, but there are a lot more, and sadly, LUAT surpassed and outperformed and out-scripted Love Destiny in every aspect.
2. anytime any boat was being shaken to capsize, no one ever saw nor tried to stop them from tipping over the boat. LIKE the boat has no walls, it is in an open space, and NO ONE can APPARENTLY see the person ‘jumping’ up and down on the side of the boat???? Like be for real, seriously
3. When Great woke up in Gaew’s body, he ran out and ended up saving a servant who had a large cut in his thighs and was bleeding out. He would end up saving him. First off, this servant has a large cut in his thigh and has been bleeding for a while since he got there, that servant SHOULD BE DEAD BY THEN, how did he live, who knows????!!?!?! Second, when Great/Gaew was treating him, no one seemed to act when any sense of urgency at all, Like are you kidding me?? If this guy is still alive, which he shouldn’t be, he surely ain’t going to survive much longer and no one has any urgency??
4. Aren’t Gaew and Dech related through Dech’s mother??? so how can you have romantic feelings for each other, you were raised as brothers. (At least in LUAT, it was made clear there was no familial connection and that they all grew up as close friends, not as siblings under the same roof and parents)
5. Why doesn’t Great just say that he is Gaew, like come on, everyone thinks you are different and that you are acting suspicously, just tell them you are from the future and that you are no longer Gaew (this would also solve the previous issue, as Dech could have developed feelings for Great) though that would still be weird as he would look like his ‘brother’
6. In the assassination attempt of the Foreign lord guy, after the lord won the fight, why did he just yell and scream at the assasin to reveal who he was and how sent him instead of chasing him, HE WAS LITERALLY STABBED and was walking out of there, like the Lord could have just run after him and caught him, but NOOOOOO. This entire sequence of scenes made absolutely no sense
7. Continuing from 6. When Great/Gaew was accused and arrested for being a murderer, why didn’t Dech just say that Great/Gaew was passed out drunk last night and that he watched over this the entire night b/c Great/Gaew was asleep, OMG an alibi, who would’ve thought that was important and excused him from being a suspect??? Like DUHHHHHH (to which there was no reason or evidence to even accuse him btw)
8. one of the eps (forgot which) literally had no plot and was just a Durian fruit advertisement for no apparent reason, just was HUHHHHHHH
9. One of, if not the most annoying thing, was that they included long LONG end credits which showed the scenes in the future (so instead of like LUAT, returning to the same time, they left, Love Destiny decided to continue the present / future time plot alongside the past). I wouldn’t mind the dual plots, but I didn’t like how they put all the future scenes which were long and important at the VERY END of the ep, I think i missed the first few. It just made it feel disconnected from the series as if it wasn’t even a part of it. For me, I also didn’t like how EVERY person who was in the past, is SOMEHOW in the same hospital the Great’s body is unconscious and being treated in. It just made it feel weird.
10. Dech’s older brother and this entire plot are entirely useless, they add nothing to the story, and should be completed erased from the series. We didn’t need to see him anymore, they could just have written him off as working in the capital or something (also just my opinion, but i didn’t like his visuals)
Keep in mind: These are only the issues I have found 5 eps (halfway) into this series
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The only good thing was Leng, August, and Na’s visuals. Dech for me, was the only interesting character and only character worth watching.
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Overall Rating: 5.5/10. (expected a lot more from this series)
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