Dryadris

One Word Spell: WATCH

This drama is no ordinary drama. Not one that you can just watch on the side. It's hard to put into words what the drama really is. So many times it just seems out of this world. Every scene is masterfully realised and the cinematography is breathtaking. Every frame emphasises the tone of the scene or creates a very special atmosphere. The drama takes the viewer on a journey, if they allow themselves to. We experience the joy of friendship, the deep bond between siblings, the pain of remorse and guilt, the anger of betrayal, the danger in passion, the heavy burden of loneliness, the faint spark of hope for a different and better future, the struggle against one's own nature and the overcoming of prejudice. We feel the sweet bitterness of love. Not only romantic love, but also the pure, untainted love between soul mates. And we have to endure the sad power of sacrifice.

Every character in this drama is complex and multi-layered and there is no real good or evil. Every character has their skeletons in the closet and that makes them tangible. For me, the drama plays a lot with the theme of what good or evil means. If the goal is good, if you do it for the greater good, does that really give you the right to use any means, even if they are cruel? It questions morality many times and makes you think. Each of the antagonists has understandable reasons for their actions and I often asked myself how I would have reacted if I had been in their shoes.

Everyone's acting performance was absolutely impressive. If you look at the performance of Lester Lin, who later played two such contrasting characters, Bai Jiu and Li Liun, at just 13 years old - wow. Just wow.
Everyone, really everyone, embodied their role so well that every emotion was not only visible but palpable. Something that not everyone manages to do.

I think it will take a few more days before I have digested the emotional ending, but in my heart I will never forget this drama. It will always have that special place.

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A very mixed bag

As the headline states this season was a very mixed bag for me. The highs were really great and entertaining but the lows - Well they committed the cardinal sin of *boring* me. Maybe I was bored because I knew what was going on, or maybe I was bored because nothing was happening at all. Backstories are certainly needed here and there, but not to the same extent as with Chen Duo. A character that would only survive one season. They could have cut quite some of that time and used that time for backstorys for the temporary workers we learned little to nothing about during the whole season. We learned little to nothing about Ma Xian Hong plans or motivations or reasons during the season unless the last minutes on the last episode when we get the big infodump. Why? He will presumably be the antagonis of the next season so why no proper buildup? It feels like someone mentioned near the end of the production that they forgot to give us some insight on him, so they just dumped everything at the end instead of weaving it in during the season. He is an important character in uncovering the truth about the Eight Supremes but for me he was threated like a throwaway character during the season. Sidelined for a character that will die anyway.

The casting of the temporary workes was great and everyone of them lived and breathed their personalities. Something I cannot say about the casting of Zhu Ge Qing. Zhu Ge Qing is charismatic and humorous. He can be joking one moment and bitterly serious the next. The changes come completely naturally. But despite his easy-going nature, he is surrounded by the sly old fox vibe. Nothing of that I could see here. He was too serious the whole time and scenes that should be funny felt forced. I had the feeling to watch a complete different character. For people who watched the first season and now the second, without watching the animation or reading the comic will have a huge problem to understand why the friendship between him and Wang Ye is so messed up all of a sudden. Last season he gave Wang Ye the selfless promise to do everything he can to help him whenever he needs him and now he is a jealous, selfish prick.

I liked the first few episodes and the last few episodes. A lot of great moments between the temporary workers. Funny and entertaining. These moments were what saved this season for me overall. Otherwise I think I would just have speedwatched through it if watching it at all.

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