Mo Xuanyu's revenge was evolved only in his family. We Wuxian wounds (revenge wounds) healed after Ziyuan, A-tong…
It wasn't against the family, it was against ALL his enemies (or people he perceived as enemies/tormentors), among them the Mo Clan, some of the servants, and then the arch-enemy (JGY/MY).
You'll notice that, though it was NHS teaching him how to get the self-sacrifice spell, he doesn't consider NHS an enemy at all...
It took me a month to watch this. The first quarter was better as a story but also a lot slower (strangely) and…
When GangTae finally lets go and pouts all over the place wanting to go on his road trip - that sequence of scenes was the BEST :D The drunk scene too. LOL, he was so frustrated :D I loved that part :)
... And also each and every part where he's shown suffering - this man can do deep heartache like nobody's business, and those EYES, a bit teary... ooof, my heart!
It took me a month to watch this. The first quarter was better as a story but also a lot slower (strangely) and I could leave it for long periods of time. Then the second half was mostly romance (and heartache) and not as good, actually, as the first part (IMHO) and yet I kept going back to it like a bee to pollen, LOL. So I don't know - I think it's mostly KSH's face that made me come back again and again...
And also, very much so, Oh JungSe's acting. I am in awe. If I'm left with anything from this drama, is a deep appreciation of OJS's acting skills. I don't think SangTae - as a character - falls into the actual lines of ASD, as maybe that would have made the character almost impossible to use, but he's there for a long time (particularly in the beginning). And he's endearing.
The psycho plot was meh, TBH, and it would've made a better final if the killer/psycho remained gone.
Overall, this does NOT fill my KSH thirst, LOL, he needs to do another drama where he's all looking handsome and (not so quietly) suffering, and I'll be there in an instant :D
We don't do logic here, but who cares. Let's just watch these two cuties fall in love all over again.
GAH now that I know, I can't help it but recognize JongHo singing A Day over the ending scenes, such a lovely song.
PS That freaking killer is seriously the lowest point of the whole story. I like even the b!tchy film studio manager over him, and she's only been in the story for 5 minutes tops.
I promised only mild spoilers for WOH, LOL, but seriously, they broke the censorship bureau. After them, no other danmei was (officially) allowed to air. And it's been a while now...
Poor grandpa, only going dancing, maybe doing some psychological cheating or something. I bet those two are also…
RIGHT??? You wouldn't forget someone like HIM. Leave aside he's towering half a meter above her, LOL, he is the only one coming to pay respects AND giving her some comfort. You wouldn't forget someone like that, ever...
Or maybe she kind of remembers him, but doesn't link the GwiJu in the past with this one. Maybe she'll retcon her memories later on and remember him being there for her...
If he doesn't go, she doesn't get saved. Now he CAN change the past and change the future in turn, he can't miss…
Actually, LOL, it's not a new concept in time-travel scifi. There's a 50s short story by Bradbury about changing a very small thing in the very distant past (basically they kill a butterfly by mistake some millions of years ago while time-travel-seeing) and that leads to a major change in the present that nobody much remembers, because for them it never was any different. Because the story needs a plot, there is a person remembering, but he (also probably) gets killed before having a chance to undo the major historical shift... so that the world remain AS IT EVER WAS, LOL.
And there are many of the same kind. I almost remember one that had a team sent back in time to kill Attila (or Hitler, or some other important historical figure) before they became who they became, and actually succeed, but when they come back, they discover that the EVENTS still happened, it's just that the person in the focus' name changed... but they themselves cannot tell the difference, LOL, for them it was always that same (different from the original) person! I don't remember the author, maybe some short by Heinlein, but I'm not certain.
Time travel scifi and time travel paradox are awesome :D I highly recommend Steins:Gate the anime, it's one of the best stories about time paradoxes.
In THIS present timeline where he's saving her and she's being saved by him, things appear not to change, because they did go as they did go in their past. But there's still a possibility that there are other timelines, now discarded (or where their other versions are) where things didn't go as they are going now...
I don't think I'm getting one thing here. Why does the ML wants to save the FL from the fire? It was in the past…
If he doesn't go, she doesn't get saved. Now he CAN change the past and change the future in turn, he can't miss saving her or everything goes away.
And now that you've asked... I wonder how many times / universes he had to go through before finding the ONE person he actually CAN save in order to regain his own preferable future... Imagine him going through his life with not saving DaHae - empty, maybe some drink-related illness, his daughter estranged, his parents (eventually) gone, what would he have to live for?
So now I guess he DID sift through all possible futures until he stumbled upon the one where he can do something useful for once, and save himself too, in the process...
Poor grandpa, only going dancing, maybe doing some psychological cheating or something. I bet those two are also…
Maybe with trying to make her commit adultery or something, I don't know SK laws... (I mean, it would be the husband - IF he is the husband, I think they're in this together - doing the suing.)
And grandpa probably told her a few of his marital woes... She knows he can't afford a public shaming because of his wife. He's a sitting duck for them.
ETA Google says SK did have a law punishing adultery that was only abolished in 2015. I guess either grandpa doesn't know about the law, or that it wouldn't apply anyway, since he didn't do anything at all, but maybe there's still some public cultural thing against adulterers, even if not punishable by law. In any case, he can't afford to go public because of his wife, so...
Poor grandpa, only going dancing, maybe doing some psychological cheating or something. I bet those two are also…
She was a loner, no family left, nobody went to greet her dad on his funeral - and this mysterious stranger comes, bows three times, and then comforts her for how long...
I would definitely remember something like that.
But well, it's dramaland, anything and everything is possible.
Oh sh!t, I was right about the Precious, LOL. GwiJu's mom: ... You know what he's like. DaHae:... You know what…
Poor grandpa, only going dancing, maybe doing some psychological cheating or something. I bet those two are also swindlers. Shame on grandpa for stealing the lottery ticket, GwiJu didn't mean it for him!
Also, that sacrifice incurred when the powers are mutating... don't tell me GwiJu's going to either 1. be killed or seriously hurt in the fire way back (but suffering in the present timeline once he returns) or 2. get lost in time!!! T_T
Still, why doesn't she remember him, now he's gone back and comforted her at her father's funeral?!
I dont understand what is it about the ring? Is it supposed to be just 1 or 2?!? It's never explain before, right?…
She had the ring from even before coming into the house. It's now explained she got it from the man who saved her in the fire.
The ring happens to be the Bok family ring, the one the bride of GwiJu was supposed to have.
So logically, HE is the one who went back in time and gave it to her in the fire, before saving her, and so in the present time, when he hasn't gone back yet, the ring is still in the safe. He has both - present and future - rings for a little while, I expect (he's probably going to start trying to get to the day of the fire again, soon, and give the ring to her.)
GwiJu's mom: ... You know what he's like. DaHae:... You know what he's like.
The MIL and DIL are already bonding over the poor HTB, LOL.
Also, poor swindler uncle, he doesn't know what he's getting when he's teaching the game addict a new game - but she's cheating!!!!!
ETA I don't know about anybody else, but I am 100% rooting for girlpower and DoHee and swindler sis to bond forever and remain BFF for life over their distrust of men, LOL, and reciprocal respect!
Want spoilers or do you want to see if you can get it by the end of the drama? They won't directly tell you :D
Errr, MXTX only wrote three danmei (Chinese BL) novels, there's a rumour she's writing a fourth at this time.
MDZS (Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), Scum Villain's Self-Saving System and Heaven Official's Blessing are all danmei :) So there's just guys loving guys - uncensored, in the novels, also kind of in the open, in the audio dramas, almost in the open, in the donghua, sadly censored in the live-action drama... of which, HOB already has a progressing adaptation called Eternal Faith. But China being China, there's a current ban on much danmei-inspired dramas from being released. (Though someone did something and "mistakenly" released a danmei-inspired drama recently, The Spirealm, inspired by Kaleidoscope of Death, another famous danmei horror novel.)
SVSSS is hilarious - it's a transmigration novel, so the shou gets pulled into a novel he's been reading and loved to hate - but he's the villain who will definitely die if he doesn't change things... and there's a controlling System who won't let him change things too much or too fast, because that's out-of-character (OOC). There's a first season donghua based on it, it's also hilarious. From MXTX's novels, it's the shortest and it makes use of way too many tropes that are made into puns, LOL.
HOB (or TGCF) is kind of long (her longest to date), intricate (about four lifetimes and reincarnations) and a lot of the story is intermingled with the Heavenly Realm's affairs. Which is to say, it makes use of the wuxia/xianxia standards for the three realms AND cultivation, and they're a headache to take note of (on the basis of them being a headache for me to take note of, LOL). There are two seasons of donghua based on it, and the animation is beautiful (better than the one for SVSSS). But it's a good, long tale :) (And Hua Cheng always reminds me of Howl, who I've always loved :) )
From live-actions... If you want to see some (cute, but censored) danmei, there's always Word of Honor, Guardian, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (xianxia/fantasy/costume dramas). Some of Priest's novels (author of Guardian) made it over to other countries, so now there's a BL Taiwan-made modern drama based on her Da Ge novel, called Unknown (already finished airing, great story :) ) and also Thailand took over another danmei novel (by another author), called Professional Body Double - the drama is airing, but they're following the novel to the letter, it's amazing. The drama is My Stand-In (highly recc'ed, though the story is VERY abusive and dog-blood, just be warned.)
And sometime, in the (hopefully close) future... if we're VERY VERY lucky and China loosens up a bit, we'll get Immortality, based on The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (hyx/2ha), starring Luo YunXi and Chen FeiYu as the main leads. There's a small chance of that, though... *sigh* 2ha is the other famous xianxia danmei novel of all times (so far) and they filmed it right after TU made such tsunami-like waves, but now it's been shelved for years... Argh.
Anyway - enjoy the SE and the books! They're worth it! :)
Want spoilers or do you want to see if you can get it by the end of the drama? They won't directly tell you :D
I was wondering how it went after your latest update, LOL, you binged the rest, didn't you? :D
After the SE, there's the donghua (also FIRE! and another great OST of their own), the manhua, the audio drama and obviously the novel (I think you wrote somewhere back you're already on the books? Sorry, not a stalker - I just love this drama and tend to read the comments on its comment section :) )
All MXTX's novels are also highly recommended - I'd push for Scum Villain's Self-Saving System next, if you like her style, since it's my other favourite, but Heaven Official's Blessing is also great :)
Want spoilers or do you want to see if you can get it by the end of the drama? They won't directly tell you :D
Bingo :D More precisely, it was WangXian (in-drama it's called WuJi, but it's the same theme) that LWJ played for him in the cave of the XuanWu monster (more like, hummed it for him :D)
Our smart boy can remember every song he ever listened to - and LWJ never played it for anyone else, so unknown flute player controlling fierce corpses that happen to be Wen Ning, LOL, using a song only LWJ and WWX had ever heard... obviously the flute player has to be WWX :)
I love that OST, it's still on my repeating list :)
Well, technically, a few of the Wen Clan people (including Wen Ning) did hear it while WWX was playing his longing for LWJ around the Burial Mounds, but it's all in the past, right? :)
3 
You'll notice that, though it was NHS teaching him how to get the self-sacrifice spell, he doesn't consider NHS an enemy at all...
... And also each and every part where he's shown suffering - this man can do deep heartache like nobody's business, and those EYES, a bit teary... ooof, my heart!
And also, very much so, Oh JungSe's acting. I am in awe. If I'm left with anything from this drama, is a deep appreciation of OJS's acting skills. I don't think SangTae - as a character - falls into the actual lines of ASD, as maybe that would have made the character almost impossible to use, but he's there for a long time (particularly in the beginning). And he's endearing.
The psycho plot was meh, TBH, and it would've made a better final if the killer/psycho remained gone.
Overall, this does NOT fill my KSH thirst, LOL, he needs to do another drama where he's all looking handsome and (not so quietly) suffering, and I'll be there in an instant :D
GAH now that I know, I can't help it but recognize JongHo singing A Day over the ending scenes, such a lovely song.
PS That freaking killer is seriously the lowest point of the whole story. I like even the b!tchy film studio manager over him, and she's only been in the story for 5 minutes tops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icGyEwDdsYA
I promised only mild spoilers for WOH, LOL, but seriously, they broke the censorship bureau. After them, no other danmei was (officially) allowed to air. And it's been a while now...
Or maybe she kind of remembers him, but doesn't link the GwiJu in the past with this one. Maybe she'll retcon her memories later on and remember him being there for her...
... I mean. It's fate, He said so, too, LOL.
And there are many of the same kind. I almost remember one that had a team sent back in time to kill Attila (or Hitler, or some other important historical figure) before they became who they became, and actually succeed, but when they come back, they discover that the EVENTS still happened, it's just that the person in the focus' name changed... but they themselves cannot tell the difference, LOL, for them it was always that same (different from the original) person! I don't remember the author, maybe some short by Heinlein, but I'm not certain.
Time travel scifi and time travel paradox are awesome :D I highly recommend Steins:Gate the anime, it's one of the best stories about time paradoxes.
In THIS present timeline where he's saving her and she's being saved by him, things appear not to change, because they did go as they did go in their past. But there's still a possibility that there are other timelines, now discarded (or where their other versions are) where things didn't go as they are going now...
And now that you've asked... I wonder how many times / universes he had to go through before finding the ONE person he actually CAN save in order to regain his own preferable future... Imagine him going through his life with not saving DaHae - empty, maybe some drink-related illness, his daughter estranged, his parents (eventually) gone, what would he have to live for?
So now I guess he DID sift through all possible futures until he stumbled upon the one where he can do something useful for once, and save himself too, in the process...
And grandpa probably told her a few of his marital woes... She knows he can't afford a public shaming because of his wife. He's a sitting duck for them.
ETA Google says SK did have a law punishing adultery that was only abolished in 2015. I guess either grandpa doesn't know about the law, or that it wouldn't apply anyway, since he didn't do anything at all, but maybe there's still some public cultural thing against adulterers, even if not punishable by law. In any case, he can't afford to go public because of his wife, so...
I would definitely remember something like that.
But well, it's dramaland, anything and everything is possible.
Also, that sacrifice incurred when the powers are mutating... don't tell me GwiJu's going to either 1. be killed or seriously hurt in the fire way back (but suffering in the present timeline once he returns) or 2. get lost in time!!! T_T
Still, why doesn't she remember him, now he's gone back and comforted her at her father's funeral?!
The ring happens to be the Bok family ring, the one the bride of GwiJu was supposed to have.
So logically, HE is the one who went back in time and gave it to her in the fire, before saving her, and so in the present time, when he hasn't gone back yet, the ring is still in the safe. He has both - present and future - rings for a little while, I expect (he's probably going to start trying to get to the day of the fire again, soon, and give the ring to her.)
GwiJu's mom: ... You know what he's like.
DaHae:... You know what he's like.
The MIL and DIL are already bonding over the poor HTB, LOL.
Also, poor swindler uncle, he doesn't know what he's getting when he's teaching the game addict a new game - but she's cheating!!!!!
ETA I don't know about anybody else, but I am 100% rooting for girlpower and DoHee and swindler sis to bond forever and remain BFF for life over their distrust of men, LOL, and reciprocal respect!
Here's why (very mild spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7idnHG6QJnM
Still censored though - but TBH, there's not that much to censor, Priest doesn't write too many explicit scenes anyway.
ETA seriously NOT stalking, I'm here taking a walk down memory lane since I mentioned WOH recently LOL.
And maybe even How to Survive as a Villain? (... Yup, still a novel.)
MDZS (Mo Dao Zu Shi / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), Scum Villain's Self-Saving System and Heaven Official's Blessing are all danmei :) So there's just guys loving guys - uncensored, in the novels, also kind of in the open, in the audio dramas, almost in the open, in the donghua, sadly censored in the live-action drama... of which, HOB already has a progressing adaptation called Eternal Faith. But China being China, there's a current ban on much danmei-inspired dramas from being released. (Though someone did something and "mistakenly" released a danmei-inspired drama recently, The Spirealm, inspired by Kaleidoscope of Death, another famous danmei horror novel.)
SVSSS is hilarious - it's a transmigration novel, so the shou gets pulled into a novel he's been reading and loved to hate - but he's the villain who will definitely die if he doesn't change things... and there's a controlling System who won't let him change things too much or too fast, because that's out-of-character (OOC). There's a first season donghua based on it, it's also hilarious. From MXTX's novels, it's the shortest and it makes use of way too many tropes that are made into puns, LOL.
Wanna take a look? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc181MPOwak
HOB (or TGCF) is kind of long (her longest to date), intricate (about four lifetimes and reincarnations) and a lot of the story is intermingled with the Heavenly Realm's affairs. Which is to say, it makes use of the wuxia/xianxia standards for the three realms AND cultivation, and they're a headache to take note of (on the basis of them being a headache for me to take note of, LOL). There are two seasons of donghua based on it, and the animation is beautiful (better than the one for SVSSS). But it's a good, long tale :) (And Hua Cheng always reminds me of Howl, who I've always loved :) )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vVska4pwqk
Danmei has plenty more to offer - and for some of them we're treated with (at least) donghua, aside from the novels. There are so many great ones...
Wanna see another bait, errr, donghua FMV? (The 4th donghua is A Thousand Autumns): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px4kG4bYSKQ
From live-actions... If you want to see some (cute, but censored) danmei, there's always Word of Honor, Guardian, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (xianxia/fantasy/costume dramas). Some of Priest's novels (author of Guardian) made it over to other countries, so now there's a BL Taiwan-made modern drama based on her Da Ge novel, called Unknown (already finished airing, great story :) ) and also Thailand took over another danmei novel (by another author), called Professional Body Double - the drama is airing, but they're following the novel to the letter, it's amazing. The drama is My Stand-In (highly recc'ed, though the story is VERY abusive and dog-blood, just be warned.)
And sometime, in the (hopefully close) future... if we're VERY VERY lucky and China loosens up a bit, we'll get Immortality, based on The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (hyx/2ha), starring Luo YunXi and Chen FeiYu as the main leads. There's a small chance of that, though... *sigh* 2ha is the other famous xianxia danmei novel of all times (so far) and they filmed it right after TU made such tsunami-like waves, but now it's been shelved for years... Argh.
Anyway - enjoy the SE and the books! They're worth it! :)
After the SE, there's the donghua (also FIRE! and another great OST of their own), the manhua, the audio drama and obviously the novel (I think you wrote somewhere back you're already on the books? Sorry, not a stalker - I just love this drama and tend to read the comments on its comment section :) )
All MXTX's novels are also highly recommended - I'd push for Scum Villain's Self-Saving System next, if you like her style, since it's my other favourite, but Heaven Official's Blessing is also great :)
Our smart boy can remember every song he ever listened to - and LWJ never played it for anyone else, so unknown flute player controlling fierce corpses that happen to be Wen Ning, LOL, using a song only LWJ and WWX had ever heard... obviously the flute player has to be WWX :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYqRq_MewX4
I love that OST, it's still on my repeating list :)
Well, technically, a few of the Wen Clan people (including Wen Ning) did hear it while WWX was playing his longing for LWJ around the Burial Mounds, but it's all in the past, right? :)