a dry record of a mortal's dreary journey to immortality
likes
- cute actors
- the sweeping landscape
- some ost were nice
- there were aspects of han li I liked: he was thorough, deadly, shrewd, careful, sharp, calculated, merciful (every single time someone plead on behalf of a life he relented), he never hesitated to kill to protect himself (need more mls like that), reclusive but watchful, mentally strong, an independent and creative thinker, kinda immoral too hehe
-none of the fls were weird, or thoughtlessly written. As ml centered drama heroines usually are. They were all just quite normal thankfully. I did not have a preference bc they collectively did not take up that much screen time, or space in the story. I also did not mind that there was no romance, the writing wasn't good enough for me to care.
- I like that he starts off weak with little potential and was continually underestimated and written off. And i liked watching him level up in his cultivation at the start.
dislikes
-after he left the mortal world his progression became boring and lacklustre, dissatisfying even . watching him gather treasure and herbs and artifacts and other loot? yawn. his level ups after that inspired mehs, no yays.
- I actually think they were going for nostalgia with the aged visuals and stale graphics, but the story progression and characters felt outdated so the whole drama unironically looked like it really was made in 2010.
- all or most of the cultivators were cold, self absorbed, slow and selfish, including the ml for most of the time. and there was nothing entertaining or inspiring about that, or a journey to become one such as that. And Idc what anyone says, cultivation stories should have an element of inspiration and excitement and satisfaction and fun. this drama had none of that.
- paper thin relationships - relationships are the lifeblood of any story, doesn't matter what the story is. But this drama didn't get the memo. han li meets many many people on his journey, but no effort was put into building anything genuine or deepening his connection with any of them. There were flashes here and there, but nothing significant or thoughtful. even if you're a god you still need people.
- hamfisted adaptation - the writing could have been more nuanced. there were things that shouldn't have been in the drama simply bc 'they are in the source material'. not all themes and subjects keep the same shape and form when translated across different forms of media. e.g hanli repeatedly drugging 2fl bcs she knows too much, a bevy of nonsensical 1D characters that you would typically only ever find in a donghua.
- the villain: wang chan 2003 just called, they desperately want you back.
- the drama leaned too heavily on the success of the ip instead of trying to be something that could be considered equally successful in its own right. coming from the team that brought us evernight, I expected much much better than this.
- cute actors
- the sweeping landscape
- some ost were nice
- there were aspects of han li I liked: he was thorough, deadly, shrewd, careful, sharp, calculated, merciful (every single time someone plead on behalf of a life he relented), he never hesitated to kill to protect himself (need more mls like that), reclusive but watchful, mentally strong, an independent and creative thinker, kinda immoral too hehe
-none of the fls were weird, or thoughtlessly written. As ml centered drama heroines usually are. They were all just quite normal thankfully. I did not have a preference bc they collectively did not take up that much screen time, or space in the story. I also did not mind that there was no romance, the writing wasn't good enough for me to care.
- I like that he starts off weak with little potential and was continually underestimated and written off. And i liked watching him level up in his cultivation at the start.
dislikes
-after he left the mortal world his progression became boring and lacklustre, dissatisfying even . watching him gather treasure and herbs and artifacts and other loot? yawn. his level ups after that inspired mehs, no yays.
- I actually think they were going for nostalgia with the aged visuals and stale graphics, but the story progression and characters felt outdated so the whole drama unironically looked like it really was made in 2010.
- all or most of the cultivators were cold, self absorbed, slow and selfish, including the ml for most of the time. and there was nothing entertaining or inspiring about that, or a journey to become one such as that. And Idc what anyone says, cultivation stories should have an element of inspiration and excitement and satisfaction and fun. this drama had none of that.
- paper thin relationships - relationships are the lifeblood of any story, doesn't matter what the story is. But this drama didn't get the memo. han li meets many many people on his journey, but no effort was put into building anything genuine or deepening his connection with any of them. There were flashes here and there, but nothing significant or thoughtful. even if you're a god you still need people.
- hamfisted adaptation - the writing could have been more nuanced. there were things that shouldn't have been in the drama simply bc 'they are in the source material'. not all themes and subjects keep the same shape and form when translated across different forms of media. e.g hanli repeatedly drugging 2fl bcs she knows too much, a bevy of nonsensical 1D characters that you would typically only ever find in a donghua.
- the villain: wang chan 2003 just called, they desperately want you back.
- the drama leaned too heavily on the success of the ip instead of trying to be something that could be considered equally successful in its own right. coming from the team that brought us evernight, I expected much much better than this.
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