5
41
2
1
3
1
This review may contain spoilers
Swoon and Jebaited
‒Review (Spoilers)‒
Despite its name and early setup of an epic romance between star-crossed lovers, Sword and Beloved is best appreciated as a Xianxia/Wuxia where the fulfillment of obligations and restoration of the world against evil takes center stage.
So let's acknowledge the problems first. The show actually starts with a lot of promise, especially for the romance lovers. But as soon as they swooned for a bloodied stoic Cheng Yi carrying out our FL Li Yitong, the plot pivots for that romance to be put in deep freezer. We get some pairings with 2nd and 3rd leads, but the main couple peaked around ep13. So all the romance folks got all excited, then jebaited, and infuriated at the end. And that's why so many people are pissed, understandable. Also the good guys are way too good at leaving the bad guys alive to do damage later, repeatedly. This includes world's most uncaring dad keeping alive the world's most filicidal dad. And the FL thinking her brother is just an innocent arachnid who needs more kindred love, when he's actually an incest-bro sister-gooner who stares at her creepily with every opportunity. Also the FL keeps calling the ML by the full mouthful of Fugui shaoye, and the ML doesn't bother asking her to use something shorter, and never kills her for syllable abuse.
Yet despite all that, I didn't think the show was all that bad. Given how much consternation the later arcs has caused, I will now defend the drama against the rain of ten thousand swords. For all its faults, S&B is a show (the first Xianxia?) that I was able to complete without intensive vomit-suppression efforts. The acting was convincing, anchored by seasoned veterans, promising youngsters, and resonant performances from Cheng Yi and Li Yitong. There are quite a few scenes‒such as Qin Tong getting tortured at Wang Quan Manor, QT vs. dark QT, and Fugui vs. Fugui‒that the better acting made the difference between gag reflex and resonance. Even the young male stars of Guo Junchen (Rumu) and Chang Huasen (Yunfei) were solid in selling their characters and keeping the cringe to a minimal. This is in contrast to many idol dramas that serve up Wang Hongyish (incest bro) actors, even for the leads‒more on him later.
In addition to the acting, the production quality, and pacing kept me from jumping ship. The sets, CGI, and cinematography is definitely on the aesthetically pleasing side compared to most idol dramas. Unlike shows like Kunning Palace, The Double, Blossom, and too many others to name, I don't feel like I'm watching some psychotic rampage from the cameraman. The fighting scenes were also choreographed, performed, and edited well. And despite the disappointing romance storyline, the plot kept moving, things were happening. I'm sure there were plenty of plot holes‒I didn't dare to examine closely‒but the show didn't waterboard me with its illogical lunacy. Too many other dramas have a nonsense plot, but instead of mercifully concealing it, shines a big stage light on it, and force the viewer to marvel at its stupidity. And dare I say S&B's ending was fine. There was a sensible explanation for the motivations, deaths, and outcome.
But I understand the disappointment, as this had the potential to be a great show that not only excelled in the fighting/action element it does so well, but also deliver the high romance that not only keeps everyone happy, but also make the story more epic and profound. They could have made the theme of demon-human lover pairing work into some epic sacrifice of love between FG and QT. They could have set up QT's sacrifice so it was more poignant, instead of a post-hoc expository explainer. At the hands of skilled writers, this could have been an actual epic story.
‒Meta Commentary‒
All said, this show really wasn't that bad. Most idol dramas are a lot of worse, because they sacrifice everything for romance gooning. But of course, I would never sully the taste of MDL viewers with such a dastardly term as gooning, so I will use rooning instead. The real reason people think S&B screwed up so hard is because there's not enough rooner-bait. It was dangled early, then locked away. And it's upsetting because this had a rooner-worthy setup, with a solid rooner-worthy cast, and flubbed it. Had this been wall-to-wall rooning material, aka Legend of the Destined Female General's Journey to Double Blossoming Kunning Palace Brings the Demon Til End of Moon, people would have ignored all the blatant flaws and called it a masterpiece.
What cannot be ignored is incest-bro, Wang Hongyi. The problem is not that he gets pigeonholed into villainous characters, it's that incest bro can't act and therefore might as well cover it up using rage-inducing characters. Not only does bro instigate a facial anarchy every time he emotes, there's a conspicuous absence of sincerity from his eyes. He reminds of Zhang Haowei in that even when he's playing honest or innocent roles, a glimpse into his eyes convinces you that he's up to some shady shit. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if WHY gets into some scandalous shit in the future. Am I being ridiculously presumptuous, sure, but somebody put some surveillance on that guy. It's in the deviant eyes, I'm telling you.
--Category Ratings--
- Overall - 7 --> 7.5 MDL
- Plot - 7
- Theme / Concept / Impact - 8
- Acting - 8
- Visuals - 8.3
- Audio / Music - 7
- Rewatch - 6.5
- Cultural/Topical Accessibility - 8
- Subtitle quality - 8.5
Despite its name and early setup of an epic romance between star-crossed lovers, Sword and Beloved is best appreciated as a Xianxia/Wuxia where the fulfillment of obligations and restoration of the world against evil takes center stage.
So let's acknowledge the problems first. The show actually starts with a lot of promise, especially for the romance lovers. But as soon as they swooned for a bloodied stoic Cheng Yi carrying out our FL Li Yitong, the plot pivots for that romance to be put in deep freezer. We get some pairings with 2nd and 3rd leads, but the main couple peaked around ep13. So all the romance folks got all excited, then jebaited, and infuriated at the end. And that's why so many people are pissed, understandable. Also the good guys are way too good at leaving the bad guys alive to do damage later, repeatedly. This includes world's most uncaring dad keeping alive the world's most filicidal dad. And the FL thinking her brother is just an innocent arachnid who needs more kindred love, when he's actually an incest-bro sister-gooner who stares at her creepily with every opportunity. Also the FL keeps calling the ML by the full mouthful of Fugui shaoye, and the ML doesn't bother asking her to use something shorter, and never kills her for syllable abuse.
Yet despite all that, I didn't think the show was all that bad. Given how much consternation the later arcs has caused, I will now defend the drama against the rain of ten thousand swords. For all its faults, S&B is a show (the first Xianxia?) that I was able to complete without intensive vomit-suppression efforts. The acting was convincing, anchored by seasoned veterans, promising youngsters, and resonant performances from Cheng Yi and Li Yitong. There are quite a few scenes‒such as Qin Tong getting tortured at Wang Quan Manor, QT vs. dark QT, and Fugui vs. Fugui‒that the better acting made the difference between gag reflex and resonance. Even the young male stars of Guo Junchen (Rumu) and Chang Huasen (Yunfei) were solid in selling their characters and keeping the cringe to a minimal. This is in contrast to many idol dramas that serve up Wang Hongyish (incest bro) actors, even for the leads‒more on him later.
In addition to the acting, the production quality, and pacing kept me from jumping ship. The sets, CGI, and cinematography is definitely on the aesthetically pleasing side compared to most idol dramas. Unlike shows like Kunning Palace, The Double, Blossom, and too many others to name, I don't feel like I'm watching some psychotic rampage from the cameraman. The fighting scenes were also choreographed, performed, and edited well. And despite the disappointing romance storyline, the plot kept moving, things were happening. I'm sure there were plenty of plot holes‒I didn't dare to examine closely‒but the show didn't waterboard me with its illogical lunacy. Too many other dramas have a nonsense plot, but instead of mercifully concealing it, shines a big stage light on it, and force the viewer to marvel at its stupidity. And dare I say S&B's ending was fine. There was a sensible explanation for the motivations, deaths, and outcome.
But I understand the disappointment, as this had the potential to be a great show that not only excelled in the fighting/action element it does so well, but also deliver the high romance that not only keeps everyone happy, but also make the story more epic and profound. They could have made the theme of demon-human lover pairing work into some epic sacrifice of love between FG and QT. They could have set up QT's sacrifice so it was more poignant, instead of a post-hoc expository explainer. At the hands of skilled writers, this could have been an actual epic story.
‒Meta Commentary‒
All said, this show really wasn't that bad. Most idol dramas are a lot of worse, because they sacrifice everything for romance gooning. But of course, I would never sully the taste of MDL viewers with such a dastardly term as gooning, so I will use rooning instead. The real reason people think S&B screwed up so hard is because there's not enough rooner-bait. It was dangled early, then locked away. And it's upsetting because this had a rooner-worthy setup, with a solid rooner-worthy cast, and flubbed it. Had this been wall-to-wall rooning material, aka Legend of the Destined Female General's Journey to Double Blossoming Kunning Palace Brings the Demon Til End of Moon, people would have ignored all the blatant flaws and called it a masterpiece.
What cannot be ignored is incest-bro, Wang Hongyi. The problem is not that he gets pigeonholed into villainous characters, it's that incest bro can't act and therefore might as well cover it up using rage-inducing characters. Not only does bro instigate a facial anarchy every time he emotes, there's a conspicuous absence of sincerity from his eyes. He reminds of Zhang Haowei in that even when he's playing honest or innocent roles, a glimpse into his eyes convinces you that he's up to some shady shit. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if WHY gets into some scandalous shit in the future. Am I being ridiculously presumptuous, sure, but somebody put some surveillance on that guy. It's in the deviant eyes, I'm telling you.
--Category Ratings--
- Overall - 7 --> 7.5 MDL
- Plot - 7
- Theme / Concept / Impact - 8
- Acting - 8
- Visuals - 8.3
- Audio / Music - 7
- Rewatch - 6.5
- Cultural/Topical Accessibility - 8
- Subtitle quality - 8.5
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