A decent watch with good thematic focus
This show is a decent watch, but for me it didn’t quite move beyond just decent. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t set off my imagination or make me fall in love the way my favorites do.
Let’s start with characters. To begin with, I really like Mu Qingge. We get about 5 episodes of her upfront. She is always smiling; nothing can ruffle her. It works so well because it’s paired with a good deal of confidence, ability, and a sort of infallibility. Altogether, you get a warm and kind character who truly loves the world and can save it, too.
Her adopting Su Yishui as a disciple feels a bit like a good-hearted person taking on a difficult foster child. Their relationship really does resemble parent and rebellious child, and later Su Yishui gets a taste of his own medicine. It’s a fun joke in the first third-ish of the show.
While I love Qingge, the FL is more accurately Xue Ranran. An interesting thought exercise: if you take the same awesome personality but strip it of its amazing abilities, what do you get? The answer is, apparently, a really cutsey type character with too many doodads in her hair and a penchant for babbling about her crush to strangers.
Don’t get me wrong. As far as FLs go, Ranran isn’t bad. She’s quite smart- with or without abilities, she’s able to use her plot-armor-level intelligence to work her way through many situations. She’s brave, uses her abilities well, acts with kindness, and is anything but useless.
But she is also really cutsey. At first I thought they changed voice actresses, because her tones were so different from Mu Qingge. It’s not the worst cute-acting I’ve seen, but enough to annoy me. She is also totally obsessed with her crush. I mean, I get that she’s a teenage girl, but it doesn’t make me admire her.
Gosh, I think I missed Mu Qingge as much as those two guys.
Unfortunately, I just couldn’t quite get behind Xue Ranran, which took a lot away from my enjoyment of the show. To be honest, I would have been disappointed if Su Yishui just fell in love with Ranran for who she was. Luckily for me, there’s room to interpret it as him being into Qingge rather than this cute-acting teenage sap. But still- at the point they did get together, I actually lost interest and took some time off watching.
On the other hand, I found Su Yishui, the ML, to be a very compelling character. I’m used to a gradual reveal of backstory, but here we already know the “past” even as the protagonist (Ranran) is still figuring it out. I liked this because it allowed me to appreciate Su Yishui as simultaneously the cold, knowledgeable, and strong figure of authority that Ranran sees him as, as well as the traumatized, guilt-ridden, and despairing lost soul who doesn’t actually have all the answers. It makes for quite a complex character, and I really empathized with him all along the way.
The villains are sort of a rotating cast- including some characters you feel sorry for despite rooting against, leading to some mixed feelings- until the final villain is revealed about ¾ of the way in. The late-reveal final villain works here because it’s foreshadowed throughout, and also ties in well thematically. This villain has the setup to be thought-provoking, but ends up being somewhat one-dimensional and lame by the end, which is too bad.
Characters aside, the plot is decent. It gets a bit loopy at times, like people sacrificing for each other back and forth and back and forth, but “sacrifice” is sort of a theme so I guess it’s only fitting.
And one thing this show does well is maintain good focus on a few decently thoughtful themes. Sacrifice, for example: pretty cliché, practically the definition of drama. But here, as we’ve been with Su Yishui on this entire journey and watched him deal with the aftermath, we start to think a little deeper. By the time he’s lamenting his lack of choice, we’re ready to clap for him because it’s something we’ve started to realize, too.
Other themes and concepts explored include regret and repentance; and the idea of how much a person’s memories make them who they are. These ideas fall obviously out of the main premise, but then later come back in different ways, which is pretty neat.
Overall I give the show a thumbs up for the themes, but by the end I felt like they were beating me on the head with them. These ideas get discussed so often towards the end that they lose some of the original subtlety that made them so thought-provoking.
In terms of world-building, xianxia has never been great about logic and consistency, but I’d say this show ranks in the top half in terms of nonsense. For example, cultivation terms are thrown out helter skelter with no explanation. World truths are introduced and forgotten as needed. Many spells and charms are so specific they could only ever work in the exact context in which they show up, clearly tailored to advance the plotline. etc.
But at least, the constantly shifting tangle of who knows who is whom got so complicated that I couldn’t keep track, thus I was unable to identify any plot holes or inconsistent behavior related to it.
In terms of execution, I thought the acting is quite good. With all of Su Yishui’s personas, Deng Wei convincingly shows quite a bit of range- not just happy vs angry vs cat, but also various levels of cold and authoritative. For Julia Xiang as the female lead, while I found the cute-acting as Ranran a bit annoying, I think that’s more the story / director’s vision and voice acting than the actress herself. I like her adorable smile and her Mu Qingge (I also like the VA’s Mu Qingge). The supporting actors, like Chen Xinhai (Su Yu) and Deng Kai (Wei Jiu), also have good performances, with great facial expressions.
The fighting is ok, a bit of sword fighting and spinning (decently executed) but mostly just arm waving and CGI. The CGI is overall decent- in the better half of what I’ve seen- but sometimes a bit too much, especially in the battles. There is way too much blood spitting.
The settings and music are both not bad, but nothing I kept thinking about after the show was over. I found the costumes to be nice-looking if sometimes highly impractical… so many floaty layers and long trains.
Finally, for better or worse, I didn’t feel as worried watching this as I do with some other shows, probably because there’s a decent amount of plot armor and the show itself just doesn’t feel that dark. Therefore I’d still classify this as light-hearted, despite having some sad stuff. I do wish it had more humor- there were some laughs, but I think they could have done more with this material.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show has a happy ending, including a full half episode of epilogue-type stuff like scenes of their wedding and their happy married life together. It’s not quite at the level of Legend of Shenli which gave us an actual fun story, but still satisfying. Most of the side character stories also get tied up to some extent, though not quite all to my satisfaction.
Mu Qingge comes back for the last 5 or so episodes, both her memories (therefore her person, imho) and her abilities. Apparently this is a break from the novel, where she doesn’t get her memories back until the extra. I’m glad for this change; I would have rated the entire show lower if it were Xue Ranran to the end.
At first, Qingge and Ranran seem more like a split personality, but I think the Qingge traits ended up dominating. This allows her relationship with the ML to evolve into a really amazing, actually equal partnership, which is a joy to watch.
I’m not too big a fan of Ranran, but here I’ll admit she was necessary. Despite the show trying to hint at it, I refuse to believe Mu Qingge fell in love with Yishui. So the only way SYS could get Qingge was for her to also have this dual personality of Ranran.
Su Yu, the crown prince, is the character that left me feeling most conflicted. His good-bad duality is a bit exaggerated and overdone, but I still fell for it and felt bad for him. Ultimately I was satisfied by how his story ended; being able to reclaim his dignity was more than I had expected for him.
I still think the setup of the main baddie and how he’s defeated are lame, and the last two episodes have too much cheese. But I guess the show can’t be deep everywhere. Nothing like a good save-the-world plot to lighten everyone’s mood.
Let’s start with characters. To begin with, I really like Mu Qingge. We get about 5 episodes of her upfront. She is always smiling; nothing can ruffle her. It works so well because it’s paired with a good deal of confidence, ability, and a sort of infallibility. Altogether, you get a warm and kind character who truly loves the world and can save it, too.
Her adopting Su Yishui as a disciple feels a bit like a good-hearted person taking on a difficult foster child. Their relationship really does resemble parent and rebellious child, and later Su Yishui gets a taste of his own medicine. It’s a fun joke in the first third-ish of the show.
While I love Qingge, the FL is more accurately Xue Ranran. An interesting thought exercise: if you take the same awesome personality but strip it of its amazing abilities, what do you get? The answer is, apparently, a really cutsey type character with too many doodads in her hair and a penchant for babbling about her crush to strangers.
Don’t get me wrong. As far as FLs go, Ranran isn’t bad. She’s quite smart- with or without abilities, she’s able to use her plot-armor-level intelligence to work her way through many situations. She’s brave, uses her abilities well, acts with kindness, and is anything but useless.
But she is also really cutsey. At first I thought they changed voice actresses, because her tones were so different from Mu Qingge. It’s not the worst cute-acting I’ve seen, but enough to annoy me. She is also totally obsessed with her crush. I mean, I get that she’s a teenage girl, but it doesn’t make me admire her.
Gosh, I think I missed Mu Qingge as much as those two guys.
Unfortunately, I just couldn’t quite get behind Xue Ranran, which took a lot away from my enjoyment of the show. To be honest, I would have been disappointed if Su Yishui just fell in love with Ranran for who she was. Luckily for me, there’s room to interpret it as him being into Qingge rather than this cute-acting teenage sap. But still- at the point they did get together, I actually lost interest and took some time off watching.
On the other hand, I found Su Yishui, the ML, to be a very compelling character. I’m used to a gradual reveal of backstory, but here we already know the “past” even as the protagonist (Ranran) is still figuring it out. I liked this because it allowed me to appreciate Su Yishui as simultaneously the cold, knowledgeable, and strong figure of authority that Ranran sees him as, as well as the traumatized, guilt-ridden, and despairing lost soul who doesn’t actually have all the answers. It makes for quite a complex character, and I really empathized with him all along the way.
The villains are sort of a rotating cast- including some characters you feel sorry for despite rooting against, leading to some mixed feelings- until the final villain is revealed about ¾ of the way in. The late-reveal final villain works here because it’s foreshadowed throughout, and also ties in well thematically. This villain has the setup to be thought-provoking, but ends up being somewhat one-dimensional and lame by the end, which is too bad.
Characters aside, the plot is decent. It gets a bit loopy at times, like people sacrificing for each other back and forth and back and forth, but “sacrifice” is sort of a theme so I guess it’s only fitting.
And one thing this show does well is maintain good focus on a few decently thoughtful themes. Sacrifice, for example: pretty cliché, practically the definition of drama. But here, as we’ve been with Su Yishui on this entire journey and watched him deal with the aftermath, we start to think a little deeper. By the time he’s lamenting his lack of choice, we’re ready to clap for him because it’s something we’ve started to realize, too.
Other themes and concepts explored include regret and repentance; and the idea of how much a person’s memories make them who they are. These ideas fall obviously out of the main premise, but then later come back in different ways, which is pretty neat.
Overall I give the show a thumbs up for the themes, but by the end I felt like they were beating me on the head with them. These ideas get discussed so often towards the end that they lose some of the original subtlety that made them so thought-provoking.
In terms of world-building, xianxia has never been great about logic and consistency, but I’d say this show ranks in the top half in terms of nonsense. For example, cultivation terms are thrown out helter skelter with no explanation. World truths are introduced and forgotten as needed. Many spells and charms are so specific they could only ever work in the exact context in which they show up, clearly tailored to advance the plotline. etc.
But at least, the constantly shifting tangle of who knows who is whom got so complicated that I couldn’t keep track, thus I was unable to identify any plot holes or inconsistent behavior related to it.
In terms of execution, I thought the acting is quite good. With all of Su Yishui’s personas, Deng Wei convincingly shows quite a bit of range- not just happy vs angry vs cat, but also various levels of cold and authoritative. For Julia Xiang as the female lead, while I found the cute-acting as Ranran a bit annoying, I think that’s more the story / director’s vision and voice acting than the actress herself. I like her adorable smile and her Mu Qingge (I also like the VA’s Mu Qingge). The supporting actors, like Chen Xinhai (Su Yu) and Deng Kai (Wei Jiu), also have good performances, with great facial expressions.
The fighting is ok, a bit of sword fighting and spinning (decently executed) but mostly just arm waving and CGI. The CGI is overall decent- in the better half of what I’ve seen- but sometimes a bit too much, especially in the battles. There is way too much blood spitting.
The settings and music are both not bad, but nothing I kept thinking about after the show was over. I found the costumes to be nice-looking if sometimes highly impractical… so many floaty layers and long trains.
Finally, for better or worse, I didn’t feel as worried watching this as I do with some other shows, probably because there’s a decent amount of plot armor and the show itself just doesn’t feel that dark. Therefore I’d still classify this as light-hearted, despite having some sad stuff. I do wish it had more humor- there were some laughs, but I think they could have done more with this material.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This show has a happy ending, including a full half episode of epilogue-type stuff like scenes of their wedding and their happy married life together. It’s not quite at the level of Legend of Shenli which gave us an actual fun story, but still satisfying. Most of the side character stories also get tied up to some extent, though not quite all to my satisfaction.
Mu Qingge comes back for the last 5 or so episodes, both her memories (therefore her person, imho) and her abilities. Apparently this is a break from the novel, where she doesn’t get her memories back until the extra. I’m glad for this change; I would have rated the entire show lower if it were Xue Ranran to the end.
At first, Qingge and Ranran seem more like a split personality, but I think the Qingge traits ended up dominating. This allows her relationship with the ML to evolve into a really amazing, actually equal partnership, which is a joy to watch.
I’m not too big a fan of Ranran, but here I’ll admit she was necessary. Despite the show trying to hint at it, I refuse to believe Mu Qingge fell in love with Yishui. So the only way SYS could get Qingge was for her to also have this dual personality of Ranran.
Su Yu, the crown prince, is the character that left me feeling most conflicted. His good-bad duality is a bit exaggerated and overdone, but I still fell for it and felt bad for him. Ultimately I was satisfied by how his story ended; being able to reclaim his dignity was more than I had expected for him.
I still think the setup of the main baddie and how he’s defeated are lame, and the last two episodes have too much cheese. But I guess the show can’t be deep everywhere. Nothing like a good save-the-world plot to lighten everyone’s mood.
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