This review may contain spoilers
I wanted it to end until I didn't want it to end
This drama had all the potential to stand proudly in my top three 2025 cdramas. It even came close to becoming the best (imo) but then the second half of the drama came and what I thought was soo funny and dark became a boring soap series with an unending cycle of drama.
When Destiny brings the Demon starts out following the story of Zhou Yan, a girl form the modern days, who gets into a car crash and sinks into the body of Liao Tingyan whom lives in the world of cultivators and demons. She's a disciple to a minor clan and is chosen to be send to the palace of the Grandmaster (Sima Jiao) along with 99 other ladies. Her slacker attitude and lazy agenda intrigues this Grandmaster because everyone in his entire life has been out to get him killed. But she seems to hold no grudge or fear against him and so the two become close. During many attempts of assassination, Tingyan sticks by her master and proves to him she's not among the assassins and that she means him no harm. Her humor and honesty triggers warmth in him and his cold demeanor begins to fall around her. It's the start of one of the most epic love stories I have seen in cdramas so far.
At first I wasn't sure I could stick to the drama due to the bad special effects and costuming. It gave off a cheap vibe and I couldn't look past it when the Grandmaster's snake started to change size every other second. In one shot it was gigantic and the next second it felt tiny in comparison. The budget didn't even allow for Tingyan to hold onto a saddle when flying a crane. It was a green screen, and a pretty obvious one at that. The costuming looked bad too.
Thankfully, it got better. I see now that most of the budget (at least.. I think it did) went to the fights scenes which are done very well when it comes to special effects.
The story contains a couple of very heavy themes such as: cannibalism and human breeders. It got so dark at one point I couldn't believe they actually showed this on TV. I have never seen anything like it before in anything I have ever seen. I'm glad the female lead got to use her humor to lighten up the episodes every now and then. It created a nice balance of utter shock during the darker tones of the series in between the light and hilarious senes with Tingyan. I absolutely loved the show and it kept getting better and better with each episode until the 20th somewhat episode. The main characters end up losing each other during a great battle and Tingyan is swept towards the Demon realm where she undergoes a Soul Cleansing and we enter a long run of episodes with an amnesia trope.
This is where it all goes down hill.
The story just becomes laughable at that point. Most of the plotpoints get dragged out too much, the amnesia takes way too long to fix itself and our beloved couple spends too long apart. And when they do finally meet, Tingyan doesn't recognise him and even wants him dead. Mostly.. And when she does finally remember him she ends up killing him and it just snowballs into more drama. It felt like something straight out of a soap series and I couldn't help but laugh at everything that happened after that. Especially when we entered another amnesia plot but this time turned around. It was his time to forget everything.... I just wanted the show to end and was happy when I got to the last episode. It was finally going to be over, I thought...
But then I started to crave for more.
I liked the ending. I really do, but I wish they could have shortened a lot of the unnecessary plots in the Demon realm and had more time for the ending. It felt rushed, it felt unfinished and now I'm left with wanting more of a show that I wanted so desperately to end.
Positives:
- That chemistry was electrifying!! I adored the main leads and they adored each other.
- The amount of kisses (and more) in this show was amazing. Usually in dramas all we get is a few kisses and most of them not even deep. But this show gave me all the steam I wanted and more.
- The acting. At first I had to get used to some of the cast members and their acting style but they caught me gradually.
- The (dark) humor in the show was a nice counterweight to all the dark themes.
- A romance done right. The couple, although they did keep secrets, were very communicative with each other so less misunderstandings, no real love-triangles where jealousy became a fourth person or breaks-ups. They were devoted to each other and only each other.
- The first half of the show is the best.
- Chen Feiyu is an incredible actor. The way he portrays his emotions nearly ended me.
Negatives:
- The story became draggy in the later half of the show.
- The female lead can come accross as very dull and dumb sometimes due to her lazy attitude. It makes her seem weak. In the later half of the show she's supposed to be this badass powerful cultivator almost equal to the Grandmaster but we only get to see her do some weak magic. In any other case she nearly always faints or gets hured. She's the classic damsel-in-distress. I would have loved to see her protect her man instead of always being the one who needs saving.
- They use a lot of repetitive themes such as amnesia, reincarnation (I stopped caring if anyone died because practically everyone comes back once or twice) and power struggles.
- They should've given us more time in the real world. It's great to know she's found him again in the real world but I would've liked to know if he got to remember her too. (I really hate amnesia tropes)
- There were some major plot holes. Especially with the second time jump. No one can convince me snakey boy waited 19 years to propose to the love of his life. Or that Tingyan managed to rule both the Demon and Immortal Realms for that many years due to the people believing she killed the Grandmaster when she's obviously mourning him.
Overal I did like this drama. It was a fun watch and I do think I will watch it again sometime but I would skip the later half of the show and just pretend Tingyan's first death is the official ending continued by her going back to the real world.
I do recommend this one. Especially if you're in for a more dark toned drama that's still a lot of fun to watch and are not bothered by dumbed down characters.
When Destiny brings the Demon starts out following the story of Zhou Yan, a girl form the modern days, who gets into a car crash and sinks into the body of Liao Tingyan whom lives in the world of cultivators and demons. She's a disciple to a minor clan and is chosen to be send to the palace of the Grandmaster (Sima Jiao) along with 99 other ladies. Her slacker attitude and lazy agenda intrigues this Grandmaster because everyone in his entire life has been out to get him killed. But she seems to hold no grudge or fear against him and so the two become close. During many attempts of assassination, Tingyan sticks by her master and proves to him she's not among the assassins and that she means him no harm. Her humor and honesty triggers warmth in him and his cold demeanor begins to fall around her. It's the start of one of the most epic love stories I have seen in cdramas so far.
At first I wasn't sure I could stick to the drama due to the bad special effects and costuming. It gave off a cheap vibe and I couldn't look past it when the Grandmaster's snake started to change size every other second. In one shot it was gigantic and the next second it felt tiny in comparison. The budget didn't even allow for Tingyan to hold onto a saddle when flying a crane. It was a green screen, and a pretty obvious one at that. The costuming looked bad too.
Thankfully, it got better. I see now that most of the budget (at least.. I think it did) went to the fights scenes which are done very well when it comes to special effects.
The story contains a couple of very heavy themes such as: cannibalism and human breeders. It got so dark at one point I couldn't believe they actually showed this on TV. I have never seen anything like it before in anything I have ever seen. I'm glad the female lead got to use her humor to lighten up the episodes every now and then. It created a nice balance of utter shock during the darker tones of the series in between the light and hilarious senes with Tingyan. I absolutely loved the show and it kept getting better and better with each episode until the 20th somewhat episode. The main characters end up losing each other during a great battle and Tingyan is swept towards the Demon realm where she undergoes a Soul Cleansing and we enter a long run of episodes with an amnesia trope.
This is where it all goes down hill.
The story just becomes laughable at that point. Most of the plotpoints get dragged out too much, the amnesia takes way too long to fix itself and our beloved couple spends too long apart. And when they do finally meet, Tingyan doesn't recognise him and even wants him dead. Mostly.. And when she does finally remember him she ends up killing him and it just snowballs into more drama. It felt like something straight out of a soap series and I couldn't help but laugh at everything that happened after that. Especially when we entered another amnesia plot but this time turned around. It was his time to forget everything.... I just wanted the show to end and was happy when I got to the last episode. It was finally going to be over, I thought...
But then I started to crave for more.
I liked the ending. I really do, but I wish they could have shortened a lot of the unnecessary plots in the Demon realm and had more time for the ending. It felt rushed, it felt unfinished and now I'm left with wanting more of a show that I wanted so desperately to end.
Positives:
- That chemistry was electrifying!! I adored the main leads and they adored each other.
- The amount of kisses (and more) in this show was amazing. Usually in dramas all we get is a few kisses and most of them not even deep. But this show gave me all the steam I wanted and more.
- The acting. At first I had to get used to some of the cast members and their acting style but they caught me gradually.
- The (dark) humor in the show was a nice counterweight to all the dark themes.
- A romance done right. The couple, although they did keep secrets, were very communicative with each other so less misunderstandings, no real love-triangles where jealousy became a fourth person or breaks-ups. They were devoted to each other and only each other.
- The first half of the show is the best.
- Chen Feiyu is an incredible actor. The way he portrays his emotions nearly ended me.
Negatives:
- The story became draggy in the later half of the show.
- The female lead can come accross as very dull and dumb sometimes due to her lazy attitude. It makes her seem weak. In the later half of the show she's supposed to be this badass powerful cultivator almost equal to the Grandmaster but we only get to see her do some weak magic. In any other case she nearly always faints or gets hured. She's the classic damsel-in-distress. I would have loved to see her protect her man instead of always being the one who needs saving.
- They use a lot of repetitive themes such as amnesia, reincarnation (I stopped caring if anyone died because practically everyone comes back once or twice) and power struggles.
- They should've given us more time in the real world. It's great to know she's found him again in the real world but I would've liked to know if he got to remember her too. (I really hate amnesia tropes)
- There were some major plot holes. Especially with the second time jump. No one can convince me snakey boy waited 19 years to propose to the love of his life. Or that Tingyan managed to rule both the Demon and Immortal Realms for that many years due to the people believing she killed the Grandmaster when she's obviously mourning him.
Overal I did like this drama. It was a fun watch and I do think I will watch it again sometime but I would skip the later half of the show and just pretend Tingyan's first death is the official ending continued by her going back to the real world.
I do recommend this one. Especially if you're in for a more dark toned drama that's still a lot of fun to watch and are not bothered by dumbed down characters.
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