This review may contain spoilers
SCAPEGOATING & BETRAYAL STUDY OR… MANUAL?
“Once you fall for someone, you are no longer indestructible” (Jing Lan An)
Below is an evaluative analysis of some themes detected. As I have no evil bone, my appraisals revolve around the creators’ intentions, to a lesser extent around content or methods. Art is expected to elevate those ready to fly & leave the flightless in peace till they can take wing. It should not reinforce or initiate anti-ethical traits.
MDL does not provide a scale “Ethical value,” so I use the “Rewatch value” to subtract points for any anti-ethical potential, even unintentional. After all, only morally robust works deserve (re-)watching. Technically, the story, acting & music are on a very high level, little to subtract, but the general impression is laden with moral reservations.
TOUCHSTONE OF TRUTH
Main topic is the struggle to the last drop of hope, strength & free will to remain decent in face of the greatest adversity – betrayal. While Tan Tai Jin passes the trial with surplus, yielding more trust & honesty than his environment has earned, it is Ye Xi Wu & her sect (except Zhao You & Qu Xuan Zi) to fail at this touchstone.
WILL WITHIN FATE OR FATE WITHIN WILL
“The Devil God wasn’t born to be evil. His past is his only weakness” – hears Li Su Su in the void. Then it gets contradicted.
If the community had not been vexing Tan Tai Jin out of his mind, would the evil bone get activated nevertheless to complete his radicalisation, or would it remain dormant, like the spleen? The plot might have used its complexity not just to travel back & forth in time but to present multiple alternative plots, like in “The Deliberations of Love” (2023) or “Love Game in Eastern Fantasy” (2024). It need be said that China discourages multiple reincarnation & time travel in fiction, esp. of ‘gods,’ historical persons or couples; dream convention is used to circumvent this taboo.
Though the evil objects operate autonomously, the ‘devil fetus’ has a free will. He can try to prevent absorbing these weapons, as they get activated only when all three enter his body. Thus, a lot of guilt for the final scene must be attributed to Ye Xi Wu, who would not set aside her prejudice, take time to think about the invalidity of her father’s instructions, analyse Tan Tai Jin’s mindset (readiness to cooperate, worthiness of trust), advise him on his participation in keeping the weapons away. Paradoxically, what was required of the couple to save the world was mere passive resistance.
However, do not let the modern dictate of perfectionism force you to judge Ye Xi Wu too strictly. Her time-travel was imposed hastily, with scanty erroneous instructions. She was neither prepared nor impartial. Mortal, unaided, in concealed mourning, in one room with future ‘devil,’ burdened with the mess left by the former inhabitant of her body.
Unfortunately, the heroine later missed countless opportunities to trust & communicate – till the All-in-Distress Way got ignited. To defend her once more: her paralysis of trust is a defence mechanism in face of cruelty, a primordial survival mechanism, instinct stronger than the will. Sadly, Ye Xi Wu felt real love as late as the last episode. Extremely postponed, in comparison with other C-dramas employing the motive of a woman faking affection to get revenge.
VIOLENCE STUDY… OR MANUAL?
She did try… but the scriptwriters encouraged her by circumstances to raise the whip. When external actions still proved insufficient to corrupt her internally, they submerged her in the dream where she was shown as a radicalised demon able to kill & rape. She refused to get mentally engaged in violence till the last episode, but imagine how many viewers would not! Moral/Rewatch value – 5 pt.
HATRED AS ENCROACHMENT UPON UNIVERSAL BALANCE
Tan Tai Jin’s extreme case proves that the experience of unearned hatred is the strongest determinant of all aspects of future life, even seemingly unrelated or dependent on sheer probability. Therefore, persons deliberately indulging in injustice should be perceived as white-gloved, slow murderers. Hatred is virally accumulative, so in a broader context haters should be viewed as trespassers upon collective fate too.
I cannot fully relate to Tan Tai Jin as victim. My experience in receiving unearned hatred is impressive, so I can acutely feel the intensity of his rage & helplessness. In Tan Tai Jin’s world, hostility is a by-product of the justifiable defence mode of the society, misdirected due to superstition. Where I subsist, hostility aims at dissolving society bottom-up. There, the target is each person trying to be evil (or accidentally accused). Here, they hit the decent. There, the promoted values are ethical responsibility, intellectual depth & cultivation of talents. Here, these are grounds for ostracism. There, the way out of violence is to show willingness to do better. Here, you can only either degenerate down to your oppressors’ level, or pretend so.
Notice the awful, anti-intellectual quality of the prejudice shown: e.g. stigmatising a person for what happened before birth. Moreover, when people driven by natural anxiety corner Tan Tai Jin, the next surge of violence comes from common sadists (incl. children, servants), using that opportunity to discharge their atrocity on an easy prey. Some oppressors even go as far as to tamper with evidence, e.g. the magical ‘video recording’ is trimmed & zoomed in to erase the context of pushing Cen Mi by Cang Jiu Min. The blind society also has different measures for malice – no prevention, punishment or reflection on Ye Bing Chang’s cruelty stemming from mere discontent with being second (while Tan Tai Jin deals so much better with being the lastest of the last).
DIGNITY VS SURVIVAL
Where violence is omnipresent, victim’s dignity is traded for survival. If Tan Tai Jin had not chosen to bark like a dog on his oppressors’ command, he would not have reached adolescence. The raven affair shows that he knows how to claim bloody restitution, but he opts for just a nominal amount.
PREJUDICE AS QUICKSAND
Tan Tai Jin understands that prejudice feeds on the responsiveness of the victim. Tossing & struggling is counter-effective, as it reinforces the swamp suction. This is also why his response to the first awkward reconciliatory gestures by Ye Xi Wu is cautious interest rather than relief.
The rapid shift from despised victim to the glorified king is very unlikely in real life. The quicksand keeps the mind in state of paralysis; faith in humanity is impaired, even if one changes one’s environment & social role. The target of prejudice starts off with very little cogency, a factor indispensable for gaining subjects’ respect (not the reasoning, not the victories, not even the free soup).
EMBRACING THE IMPAIRMENT
Tan Tai Jin is born without an ability to feel & understand emotions, lacking a love thread. This is an inborn impairment, yet crucial to the specific metamorphoses prior to the final purgatory procedure. Learning to feel from scratch is an impressive achievement.
Love thread is also absent in Pian Ran’s heart, but not from birth. The woman knows its value & remembers her life with it. Having lost it, she adjusts her life accordingly, & her environment seems to accept it. Torn between the urge to live on & the desire to cling to the dwindling hope for reunion with her soldier, she stays calm, as her act of giving the thread was her choice. It is only on learning that it was misappropriated that she grows furious.
Instead of being perceived as a crippled nine-tailed fox, she has managed to create a brand for herself: a seven-tailed fox is viewed as complete & legitimate, no less than a nine-tailed one.
MUTUAL CONDESCENSION
Ye Xi Wu’s attempt to fulfil her mission at the moment her elders had imagined to be right (the spikes) only brought suffering, frustration & distrust. But when both sides of the sword understood their inevitable role & got prepared, not even an interference from beyond could stop it. Fate also gratified their postponed ordeal with a child.
EUTHANASIA, SELF-SACRIFICE & DEADLY PHOBIAS
Last episodes show Cang Jiu Min’s deliberate preparation for self-sacrifice. To get Ye Xi Wu involved in assisted suicide, he artificially evokes repulsion, fear & pain.
During this preparation Zhao You, with soul intercepted by evil force, urgently implores his apprentice to end his life mercifully. Thus, Cang Jiu Min gets a foretaste of what Ye Xi Wu will feel as his suicidal accomplice.
Ye Ze Yu’s variant of self-sacrifice is the voluntary participation in battle with imminent death. More valuable yet underrated is Ye Qing Yu’s self-sacrifice reflected not in dying or moaning, but in hiding his suffering & taking up abandoned down-to-earth responsibilities.
Pay attention to phobias reflected in the way villains die (rats+burns, poisoned porridge).
EPIC ETHIC FALL
Xiao Lin, role-model for Tan Tai Jin, is a Faustian hero-to-antihero. Driven by an impulse to yoke prohibited lore, the idol’s reincarnation ends up disempowered, reprimanded, discarded by his follower. Taught a moral lesson by the ‘Devil God.’
Xiao Lin wields refined intuition (switched off in every contact with Ye Bing Chang). He guesses the soul swap from Ye Xi Wu’s change in behaviour (unlike Tan Tai Jin, who lives close to her).
Deng Wei’s role gave him little space to unfurl. Few minutes for us to bask in his mild, feline half-blinks. His ‘going awry’ is oddly satisfying to watch, reminiscent of Liu Xueyi in his best fallen angel roles.
WARPED MEMORIES
We witness a deep misunderstanding among Tan Tai siblings as to their shared past (the guilt for face burn is misattributed).
For survival aims, human brain remembers injustice stronger than its lack. When Tan Tai Jin chooses to recollect the questionable crumbles of experienced goodness or neutrality, it shows his exceptionally resilient unrewarding faith in the obscure humanity.
OBJECTIFICATION OF MEN
The prolonged & exaggerated scenes of male suffering & female initiation to violence are so disturbing as to raise a serious question about the authors’ intention. They are also the ones culpable for the plot prolixity. Even if the new Ye Shi Wu has to be careful not to evince abrupt changes in behaviour, there are faster ways to discreetly back off from the barbarism. Down with the glorification of abuse!
Ye Xi Wu’s forced compliments & favours are to artificially evoke emotion in Tan Tai Jin. This man is in need for genuine, patient, therapeutic love. Acquiring his feeling through deep insincerity – even if meant for a ‘greater good’ & even though he is not a saint – is as condemnable as Sang Jiu’s act of raping.
The problem is not that atrocities are shown but that we are evidently expected to accept them.
Pian Ran’s propensity for fleeting affairs also borders on the objectification of men. However, she is sincere towards Ye Qing Yu, explains her state of mind & her limitations, gives him a choice. If only Tan Tai Jin could have enjoyed this level of subjectivity in his relationship, the world might have been saved earlier.
GLITCHES & FAILS
Too many acts are technical actions for the plot, not characters’ free, wise or consistent choices.
Introduction & abandonment of characters, e.g. Sang brothers, Fu Yu.
Ep21: Ye Xi Wu’s lipstick gets paler.
Ep29: two bruises on Ye Qing Yu’s face disappear & reappear.
Ep39: Li Su Su has no marks on her throat, though held up & burnt.
Make-up is exaggerated, face & neck mismatch. Evil characters are too Halloweenish. Abundant haemorrhages distract from the plot.
OST: “Not Over” borrows far too much from “A Fleeting Blossom with Timely Rain” from “Love of a Thousand Years” (2020). Almost identical harmonious structure, speed, instruments, crucial clusters of notes, duet structure, interlude. Coincidence excepted; similarity beyond the limits of inspiration! For the sake of the other, potentially authentic pieces with nice mellow mat quality, I only subtract 5 pt from Moral/Rewatch value.
OST: In the refrain of “Silent Moon” a minor note intrudes upon the major structure within the mediant: a crude dissonance, strangely frequent in many OSTs. If I were Hu Yanbin, I would sing the required E instead of Es; let them fire me if they will. I subtract 1 pt from OST scale.
APPEAL
Let me here again plead with all persons involved in C-dramas to discourage harmful interference in actors' & actresses’ faces: plastic surgery, tweakments, toxic substances in make-up. This will even reflect the recent (2026) demand of China’s main video platforms to promote Xi Jinping thought, to show beauty through nature, simplicity & meaningful content, to promote consistency of appearance with China’s history & tradition, to avoid excess or distortion.
Written by a nationless spirit confined in the decaying Mid-Europe.
Below is an evaluative analysis of some themes detected. As I have no evil bone, my appraisals revolve around the creators’ intentions, to a lesser extent around content or methods. Art is expected to elevate those ready to fly & leave the flightless in peace till they can take wing. It should not reinforce or initiate anti-ethical traits.
MDL does not provide a scale “Ethical value,” so I use the “Rewatch value” to subtract points for any anti-ethical potential, even unintentional. After all, only morally robust works deserve (re-)watching. Technically, the story, acting & music are on a very high level, little to subtract, but the general impression is laden with moral reservations.
TOUCHSTONE OF TRUTH
Main topic is the struggle to the last drop of hope, strength & free will to remain decent in face of the greatest adversity – betrayal. While Tan Tai Jin passes the trial with surplus, yielding more trust & honesty than his environment has earned, it is Ye Xi Wu & her sect (except Zhao You & Qu Xuan Zi) to fail at this touchstone.
WILL WITHIN FATE OR FATE WITHIN WILL
“The Devil God wasn’t born to be evil. His past is his only weakness” – hears Li Su Su in the void. Then it gets contradicted.
If the community had not been vexing Tan Tai Jin out of his mind, would the evil bone get activated nevertheless to complete his radicalisation, or would it remain dormant, like the spleen? The plot might have used its complexity not just to travel back & forth in time but to present multiple alternative plots, like in “The Deliberations of Love” (2023) or “Love Game in Eastern Fantasy” (2024). It need be said that China discourages multiple reincarnation & time travel in fiction, esp. of ‘gods,’ historical persons or couples; dream convention is used to circumvent this taboo.
Though the evil objects operate autonomously, the ‘devil fetus’ has a free will. He can try to prevent absorbing these weapons, as they get activated only when all three enter his body. Thus, a lot of guilt for the final scene must be attributed to Ye Xi Wu, who would not set aside her prejudice, take time to think about the invalidity of her father’s instructions, analyse Tan Tai Jin’s mindset (readiness to cooperate, worthiness of trust), advise him on his participation in keeping the weapons away. Paradoxically, what was required of the couple to save the world was mere passive resistance.
However, do not let the modern dictate of perfectionism force you to judge Ye Xi Wu too strictly. Her time-travel was imposed hastily, with scanty erroneous instructions. She was neither prepared nor impartial. Mortal, unaided, in concealed mourning, in one room with future ‘devil,’ burdened with the mess left by the former inhabitant of her body.
Unfortunately, the heroine later missed countless opportunities to trust & communicate – till the All-in-Distress Way got ignited. To defend her once more: her paralysis of trust is a defence mechanism in face of cruelty, a primordial survival mechanism, instinct stronger than the will. Sadly, Ye Xi Wu felt real love as late as the last episode. Extremely postponed, in comparison with other C-dramas employing the motive of a woman faking affection to get revenge.
VIOLENCE STUDY… OR MANUAL?
She did try… but the scriptwriters encouraged her by circumstances to raise the whip. When external actions still proved insufficient to corrupt her internally, they submerged her in the dream where she was shown as a radicalised demon able to kill & rape. She refused to get mentally engaged in violence till the last episode, but imagine how many viewers would not! Moral/Rewatch value – 5 pt.
HATRED AS ENCROACHMENT UPON UNIVERSAL BALANCE
Tan Tai Jin’s extreme case proves that the experience of unearned hatred is the strongest determinant of all aspects of future life, even seemingly unrelated or dependent on sheer probability. Therefore, persons deliberately indulging in injustice should be perceived as white-gloved, slow murderers. Hatred is virally accumulative, so in a broader context haters should be viewed as trespassers upon collective fate too.
I cannot fully relate to Tan Tai Jin as victim. My experience in receiving unearned hatred is impressive, so I can acutely feel the intensity of his rage & helplessness. In Tan Tai Jin’s world, hostility is a by-product of the justifiable defence mode of the society, misdirected due to superstition. Where I subsist, hostility aims at dissolving society bottom-up. There, the target is each person trying to be evil (or accidentally accused). Here, they hit the decent. There, the promoted values are ethical responsibility, intellectual depth & cultivation of talents. Here, these are grounds for ostracism. There, the way out of violence is to show willingness to do better. Here, you can only either degenerate down to your oppressors’ level, or pretend so.
Notice the awful, anti-intellectual quality of the prejudice shown: e.g. stigmatising a person for what happened before birth. Moreover, when people driven by natural anxiety corner Tan Tai Jin, the next surge of violence comes from common sadists (incl. children, servants), using that opportunity to discharge their atrocity on an easy prey. Some oppressors even go as far as to tamper with evidence, e.g. the magical ‘video recording’ is trimmed & zoomed in to erase the context of pushing Cen Mi by Cang Jiu Min. The blind society also has different measures for malice – no prevention, punishment or reflection on Ye Bing Chang’s cruelty stemming from mere discontent with being second (while Tan Tai Jin deals so much better with being the lastest of the last).
DIGNITY VS SURVIVAL
Where violence is omnipresent, victim’s dignity is traded for survival. If Tan Tai Jin had not chosen to bark like a dog on his oppressors’ command, he would not have reached adolescence. The raven affair shows that he knows how to claim bloody restitution, but he opts for just a nominal amount.
PREJUDICE AS QUICKSAND
Tan Tai Jin understands that prejudice feeds on the responsiveness of the victim. Tossing & struggling is counter-effective, as it reinforces the swamp suction. This is also why his response to the first awkward reconciliatory gestures by Ye Xi Wu is cautious interest rather than relief.
The rapid shift from despised victim to the glorified king is very unlikely in real life. The quicksand keeps the mind in state of paralysis; faith in humanity is impaired, even if one changes one’s environment & social role. The target of prejudice starts off with very little cogency, a factor indispensable for gaining subjects’ respect (not the reasoning, not the victories, not even the free soup).
EMBRACING THE IMPAIRMENT
Tan Tai Jin is born without an ability to feel & understand emotions, lacking a love thread. This is an inborn impairment, yet crucial to the specific metamorphoses prior to the final purgatory procedure. Learning to feel from scratch is an impressive achievement.
Love thread is also absent in Pian Ran’s heart, but not from birth. The woman knows its value & remembers her life with it. Having lost it, she adjusts her life accordingly, & her environment seems to accept it. Torn between the urge to live on & the desire to cling to the dwindling hope for reunion with her soldier, she stays calm, as her act of giving the thread was her choice. It is only on learning that it was misappropriated that she grows furious.
Instead of being perceived as a crippled nine-tailed fox, she has managed to create a brand for herself: a seven-tailed fox is viewed as complete & legitimate, no less than a nine-tailed one.
MUTUAL CONDESCENSION
Ye Xi Wu’s attempt to fulfil her mission at the moment her elders had imagined to be right (the spikes) only brought suffering, frustration & distrust. But when both sides of the sword understood their inevitable role & got prepared, not even an interference from beyond could stop it. Fate also gratified their postponed ordeal with a child.
EUTHANASIA, SELF-SACRIFICE & DEADLY PHOBIAS
Last episodes show Cang Jiu Min’s deliberate preparation for self-sacrifice. To get Ye Xi Wu involved in assisted suicide, he artificially evokes repulsion, fear & pain.
During this preparation Zhao You, with soul intercepted by evil force, urgently implores his apprentice to end his life mercifully. Thus, Cang Jiu Min gets a foretaste of what Ye Xi Wu will feel as his suicidal accomplice.
Ye Ze Yu’s variant of self-sacrifice is the voluntary participation in battle with imminent death. More valuable yet underrated is Ye Qing Yu’s self-sacrifice reflected not in dying or moaning, but in hiding his suffering & taking up abandoned down-to-earth responsibilities.
Pay attention to phobias reflected in the way villains die (rats+burns, poisoned porridge).
EPIC ETHIC FALL
Xiao Lin, role-model for Tan Tai Jin, is a Faustian hero-to-antihero. Driven by an impulse to yoke prohibited lore, the idol’s reincarnation ends up disempowered, reprimanded, discarded by his follower. Taught a moral lesson by the ‘Devil God.’
Xiao Lin wields refined intuition (switched off in every contact with Ye Bing Chang). He guesses the soul swap from Ye Xi Wu’s change in behaviour (unlike Tan Tai Jin, who lives close to her).
Deng Wei’s role gave him little space to unfurl. Few minutes for us to bask in his mild, feline half-blinks. His ‘going awry’ is oddly satisfying to watch, reminiscent of Liu Xueyi in his best fallen angel roles.
WARPED MEMORIES
We witness a deep misunderstanding among Tan Tai siblings as to their shared past (the guilt for face burn is misattributed).
For survival aims, human brain remembers injustice stronger than its lack. When Tan Tai Jin chooses to recollect the questionable crumbles of experienced goodness or neutrality, it shows his exceptionally resilient unrewarding faith in the obscure humanity.
OBJECTIFICATION OF MEN
The prolonged & exaggerated scenes of male suffering & female initiation to violence are so disturbing as to raise a serious question about the authors’ intention. They are also the ones culpable for the plot prolixity. Even if the new Ye Shi Wu has to be careful not to evince abrupt changes in behaviour, there are faster ways to discreetly back off from the barbarism. Down with the glorification of abuse!
Ye Xi Wu’s forced compliments & favours are to artificially evoke emotion in Tan Tai Jin. This man is in need for genuine, patient, therapeutic love. Acquiring his feeling through deep insincerity – even if meant for a ‘greater good’ & even though he is not a saint – is as condemnable as Sang Jiu’s act of raping.
The problem is not that atrocities are shown but that we are evidently expected to accept them.
Pian Ran’s propensity for fleeting affairs also borders on the objectification of men. However, she is sincere towards Ye Qing Yu, explains her state of mind & her limitations, gives him a choice. If only Tan Tai Jin could have enjoyed this level of subjectivity in his relationship, the world might have been saved earlier.
GLITCHES & FAILS
Too many acts are technical actions for the plot, not characters’ free, wise or consistent choices.
Introduction & abandonment of characters, e.g. Sang brothers, Fu Yu.
Ep21: Ye Xi Wu’s lipstick gets paler.
Ep29: two bruises on Ye Qing Yu’s face disappear & reappear.
Ep39: Li Su Su has no marks on her throat, though held up & burnt.
Make-up is exaggerated, face & neck mismatch. Evil characters are too Halloweenish. Abundant haemorrhages distract from the plot.
OST: “Not Over” borrows far too much from “A Fleeting Blossom with Timely Rain” from “Love of a Thousand Years” (2020). Almost identical harmonious structure, speed, instruments, crucial clusters of notes, duet structure, interlude. Coincidence excepted; similarity beyond the limits of inspiration! For the sake of the other, potentially authentic pieces with nice mellow mat quality, I only subtract 5 pt from Moral/Rewatch value.
OST: In the refrain of “Silent Moon” a minor note intrudes upon the major structure within the mediant: a crude dissonance, strangely frequent in many OSTs. If I were Hu Yanbin, I would sing the required E instead of Es; let them fire me if they will. I subtract 1 pt from OST scale.
APPEAL
Let me here again plead with all persons involved in C-dramas to discourage harmful interference in actors' & actresses’ faces: plastic surgery, tweakments, toxic substances in make-up. This will even reflect the recent (2026) demand of China’s main video platforms to promote Xi Jinping thought, to show beauty through nature, simplicity & meaningful content, to promote consistency of appearance with China’s history & tradition, to avoid excess or distortion.
Written by a nationless spirit confined in the decaying Mid-Europe.
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