Firebreathinglady

Late to the game as always, and I genuinely thought I’d enjoy this a lot more than I have. Sadly, I have not.

It started off well I think, good at drawing you in and making you want to know more. A really good set up of characters and potential character growth (predictable but hey xianxia’s do be like that sometimes).

Unfortunately, I’m not feelin it at all really. Hot take, I know. I watched it because so many people loved it, and I do like Bai Lu. Either way, I’ll put my positives and negatives below:

Positives-
- Visuals very pretty, good work for CGI team. I actually think they did so good earlier on in the series for scenery (like the sky in Outlanders city) that it did end up leaving the deities scenes a little boring.
- I enjoyed Bai Lu with Ao Ruipeng. This is my first time watching ARP and I liked him. I thought that had a little bit of chemistry. Actually wished I got to see Mumu for a bit longer.
- OST is quite nice.
- Costume and makeup - great work

Negatives-
- The story was baaaaad. Or maybe it was the writing of the show. But it was not good in the slightest. The character growth and relationship development was very jarring. I’m a true sucker for romance which means I can overlook a lot of things. But the love story between the leads felt very sudden with little gradual progression. It just felt like one minute they were cool with not trusting each other (basically wanted to kill each other / at least not caring if the other died) to “You’re the one I want to spend my life with, here let me introduce you to my whole dead clansmen as if you’re my wife”
- Complete overuse of the great OSTs. To the point where I was barely halfway through the show and I could predict exactly what song they were gonna use where and how.
- The baddies were… nothing special. Just a couple of lunatics that did not feel scary in the slightest. Mo Li came close, but still too far away. In fact I found evil Qi Feng & Fu Ling (at their worst) scariest.
- Fan Yue was… weak? Actually I’m not sure if that’s the right word. But all I know is that he kept collapsing, coughing up blood or dying. And each time, Bai Shuo just never did anything, just kept on letting him sacrifice himself.
- The plot twists tried. You can tell the writers tried. The only one that truly got me was the discovery that the stone clan had dug up tombs of the Bai Ze clan, ground up their bones and drank it for medicine. After that arc, the show was on a steady decline.
- The very unique opening that basically revealed the entire story to you.

Characters-
BL as BS -> I wanted to like her. And some moments I did. BL did do a good job, I enjoyed when she was the fake goddess/lotus girl thing. You could tell she was a different person. And she’s always very good with her crying scenes. I remember her tearful kiss scene strongly. But then everytime FY ‘died’, she did not react how I thought she’d react (basically not even a fraction of how she reacted to her dad’s death)

ARP as FY -> I enjoyed his acting. The character started off so strong. Even sometimes reminded me of DFQC from LBFAD. And I think he has a really cute soft face (like when he smiles), but again, I’ve finished the show and all I remember aren’t the sweet, romantic, supposedly heartrenching scenes. It was the fact that he was ALWAYS DYING.

Also just wanted to give a special shout out to Fu Ling and her actress (whose name I have forgotten). I started off absolutely despising her character, but then when she reunited with BS as her sister, I did feel her emotions then too. I feel that what she did was the mark of a good actress.

I will be honest and say that I have just come away from what is probably the best show I’ve ever watched in my life. So I knew that little would come close or even compare, and my review of this might not be totally fair to the show. However, it doesn’t negate the fact that there was bad character development, plot holes, and very annoying things (like the ML constantly sacrificing themselves at the end of c dramas - so sick of that btw) that even great actors couldn’t help hide.

I’m glad people enjoyed it. I just feel that there are way better shows out there. Ones that don’t treat you like a child, telling you every thought/feeling each person has, serving everything to you on an easy platter, doesn’t let you work things out for yourself.

I think I’m just disappointed. So much wasted potential.