CurlyFries

Whooo boy this was a rollercoaster of a series to watch. I went into it with knowledge of the ending and a few other events, but even with that I ended up with my jaw on the floor at least on three separate occasions.

Despite my score only being a 7.0/10, I did enjoy this series. I thought it had ideas that were great and would suit my taste perfectly, except what bogged it down was definitely the pacing. If I had to guess, it was probably because they adapted a lengthy novel into a series that couldn't go beyond twelve episodes. It's a common issue even Chinese dramas with over thirty episodes face. If it had been given at least double the length, I think it would have been revolutionary in the BL drama sphere. That being said, I still think it shows a good sign for future Chinese BL dramas to be adapted without censorship. I sincerely hope that other novels like Mo Dao Zu Shi and Thousand Autumns can have faithful adaptations to follow suit in future years. I think this spells something positive for LGBTQ+ novels getting adapted, and I'm really happy about that.

Now going into the story itself, there was a lot to unpack. Let me start off by saying that I thought the show looked great for clearly being a lower budget BL series. The costumes were amazing and I liked a lot of the hairstyles as well. The swordplay was nice and fight scenes, though sparse, were hype. Not to mention how they used their environments to the best of their ability and the music was mostly pleasant. I say mostly because there were times when the music would be so loud in scenes that my eardrums would be blasted like I was at a rave. But the songs themselves were pretty nice; not that it's surprising considering most Chinese dramas tend to have decent music. I was just happy seeing a BL be given that same treatment.

The acting was decent, but I never felt that it was extraordinary. That is not an insult to the actors as I think they did well for what they were given, just that none of them seemed to "envelope" their characters in a way that would be hard to replicate for any other actor. The actor that I think did the best was probably Shu He's by a small margin. But that might just be my bias talking as he was undeniably my favorite character in the series. The central couple performed the intimacy scenes well and it didn't feel forced.

The plot was really intense and it felt like there was always something important brewing. I think the short amount of episodes made it hard to feel like there was "period of peace" in-between all of the drama. As I said earlier, my jaw was on the floor multiple times because of how caught off guard I was by certain scenes. I'm not gonna lie, when the crown princes were both cut through I was flabbergasted since I didn't think they'd actually kill them off so early on. I was still parading in the streets when Shu Qian got alley-ooped off the fifth story bridge. I also was feeling whiplashed when both of the old guy emperors were killed off by their sons when they only had like three scenes TOPS. Shu Qian and Zi Ang both had that dog in them, so when they were squaring off on the bridge I was so hype because Shu Qian had finally met his match of crazy. Zi Ang didn't disappoint either since he sent that mofo flying.

Though, an issue I think this series had (or maybe the translation), was that it felt like a lot of plot points were too vague or confusing to the point that when secrets were revealed, I was left confused on just what was happening. I was actually paying attention for 90% of the drama too, so I was even MORE confused on what was happening. When it was revealed on the bridge that Zi Ang was a "spy" for the North and Shu He was shell-shocked, I was just like "Wait, didn't you already figure this out?" because Shu He had been suspecting him since episode one. Then I backtracked and did the mental math and realized "Oh yeah, he only knows he wants to murder his older brother, not that he is on the North's side." There was also a lot of plot points that were briskly mentioned/shown in the latter half regarding the time skip that were hard to immerse myself in because it all had to happen super quick in a short amount of time despite the fact that it needed episodes of build-up before execution. I also had no idea on who was guilty in the past or not and the Prime Minister Gu was just never mentioned nor shown again after Shu Qian died. I also had no idea what the drama surrounding the sudden marriage alliance was nor how it actually ended, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention enough in that episode.

The central core of this series was definitely its characters and I think that was its saving grace. I loved Shu He and the writers truly succeeded at making me sympathize with his character. He was someone that was forced into a terrible situation by the people around him and felt like he had no control over his life, When he said "I am nothing, and I own nothing" I really felt sorry for him because he suffered greatly. A man that only ever wanted to live a peaceful life devoid of bloodshed ended up having to watch his kingdom be razed to the ground and his family massacred. I could relate to how he felt toward his brother since I've also been in a situation where I longed for a family member to acknowledge my existence and not see it in a bad light, yet end up never having that person's time of day nor love. Of course, his situation with Shu Qian was far more extreme than that, but at its core it was a feeling of longing for love from someone that couldn't care less about you. Most of the time in stories I tend to find characters that cling on to people that treat them terribly to be insufferable, but I think they wrote Shu He's situation quite gracefully. His expectations were never too high, yet even he knew the bare minimum of what he expected from those around him would never be met. Then he gets trapped in a borderline abusive relationship with his lover near the end after having to accept that he was a major let down to his people; despite never wanting to be the emperor whatsoever. His exit from the story made perfect sense for how he had been written up until that point and so I accepted it far better than a lot of other viewers probably did.

Zi Ang was definitely a special case for me. I tend not to like characters where their major personality points all are centered around their love interest, but I ended up liking him despite that. I think something that made it tolerable was that his initial meeting with Shu He was never intended to form a romantic relationship, which made their subsequent development of feelings all the more believable. His options post-darkening were also portrayed (in my eyes) in a more negative light, and I could accept them much easier as a result; I'm largely more forgiving of these kinds of characters if the author is self-aware and doesn't sugarcoat everything that they do (which I believed was portrayed through Shu He's suffering and Zi Ang's subtle guilt). I could believe that someone deprived of affection like Zi Ang would latch onto someone like Shu He, a person that was full of love to give. I enjoyed how he wasn't afraid to take the moral low ground in their relationship and when he acted berserk later on my eyes were glued to the screen. That being said, the pacing made it hard to understand why he went berserk to the extreme that he did. Though, he was shown to always have that dog in him, so I didn't find it *that* far-fetched that he turn all yandere; "If I want you dead, you will die. If I want you alive, you will live. Not even the king of the underworld could take you from me," which ended up being proven true since Shu He never escaped him even in death. Something that I didn't like about him was the poison plot they assigned to him; I'll be honest, I'm dead tired of authors using the whole "poison from years ago resurfaces and now I have two months left to live" trope. It's so overused and I have yet to see it executed in a satisfying way. When they brought that plot point up with him I swear I felt my eyes roll so far into the back of my skull that I could see my nerves or whatever else is back there.

The other characters were underdeveloped because of the short run time. Though, they did well as stand-alone characters in the story. Shu Qian was a character that they did a good job of making me despise until even after his death; I did not accept that he was forgiving in the afterlife though-I rejected that on behalf of Shu He. Him going crazy and ending up deranged due to the corruption of power was unsightly, yet believable as history has shown it happen time and time again. I just wish we could have seen more scenes of them getting along as well as the scenes that could show little seeds of doubt being planted in Shu Qian from an early age that conflicted with his love for his brother. I wasn't a fan that most of their backstory was gatekept behind exposition to the point that I couldn't tell when Shu He was being honest or just fibbing for an act. I couldn't believe he'd have an off-screen redemption arc in the afterlife after he tried to murder his little brother right before he died despite his brother trying to defend him. Also, not him calling out his brother for "sharing a bed" with a guy who was playing him like a fiddle; have some decency and don't roast your lil bro like that LMAO. That scene had me dead.

Huo Ying and Shen Song were in a similar boat as I liked them individually, but they were never really fleshed out. I also couldn't care less about any of the romances surrounding Huo Ying. I couldn't even tell he liked Shu Qian until other people pointed it out since I never interpreted their interactions as even 0.1% romantic. Also, working under someone for 17 years when you are barely in your mid twenties is CRAZY work. Seriously, what were even the ages of all of the characters when they were committing all of these crimes??? When it was revealed that Shu Qian was 24 I was dead since it made no sense that people thought he plotted a high treason crime of the Duans if he was really that young back then. But anyway, Shen Song deserved better than to pine for a guy that had no interest in him romantically. I did end up enjoying their platonic relationship though as a result of the unrequited feelings. I liked how Shen Song was a good friend of Shu He, yet I swear 20% of what he said to him had a sexual undertone when referring to Zi Ang like when he whispered that he could "be with him" after treating his wounds in like episode ten. Despite that, I liked his integrity as a doctor and his sassiness was always welcome.

The character that really annoyed me was Huai Ying: Zi Ang's annoying little adopted brother. Seriously, what was his problem? For being a guy that was raised as a monk, he was sure good at switching up as a greasy glazer of his psychotic estranged brother. His switch up was wild and I was mad confused on why he was acting so hostile to Shu He and Shen Song when they both helped him. I was actually waiting for him to stop glazing yet he never did. Then they had the audacity to sit him at the little round table in the final episode and chill with the lot of the characters that were still alive and expect me not to burst out laughing as if they were all homies despite half of them not liking each other. Like, this isn't a Disney Channel special, y'all. Let's be serious.

There were also a lot of high-ranking guys like the Prime Minister, the General, the two Emperors, the Crown Prince of the North along with his sister, that were just thrown to the curb writing-wise. Like, they got sidelined and off-screened mostly and that was disappointing.

In conclusion, I really did like the premise of this story, just not necessarily its execution. I love a good dark romance, and lovers to enemies? Sign me the fuck up! If the novel ever gets an official English translation, I can picture myself buying it as well. I would like to see how the pacing in the source material compares to the series' adaptation. All in all, would I recommend this? Yes, but someone needs a fair warning of the material it portrays as it can get pretty dark. Now, I will go watch edits of this show with "Let the world burn" by Chris Grey playing the background. ╰(✿´⌣`✿)╯♡