nathan

Recent episodes show XXX is slowly gaining and learning about emotions, beginning to experience complex feelings like regret and heartbreak. This suggests that while his nature is different, growth is possible. We see the "right" way to approach this growth in scenes like:

🦋Ding Suo (Ep. 25): He demonstrates how to engage a Ren by asking questions and encouraging them to talk about themselves.

🦋WNY (Ep. 22): Her "judgment" of him provided a rare moment of proper, meaningful conversation.

🦋 The Dream Sequence (Ep. 31-32): WNY hurting him through dreams is a turning point. She explicitly wanted him to feel the same pain she feels. Previously (in Ep. 29), XXX claimed he could live with hate if it meant they stayed tied together, but experiencing her actual pain in the dream sequence forces him into a state of genuine regret, a new and heavy feeling for him. This is like a child falling down, getting their knees dirty and bruised, so that the mistake isn't repeated. By forcing him to experience the weight of her heartbreak, she is initiating a painful but necessary change in his emotional capacity which might be necessary for their happy ending to happen.

Deserved? No. Toxic? Yes. Improvement? Also Yes. WNY hates him right now, but she knows she cannot hurt him through traditional means because he is almost inhumane. Instead, she strikes through emotions, the only territory where he lacks strength. This reveals that Yins have their own dangerous patterns: WNY condoning her father and is very empathetic, the brother’s fear of affection, and the mother-daughter duo "playing with fire."

The drama strips away the romanticized "love conquers all" trope. Instead of a typical romance, we are watching a raw attempt at the terrifying process of them learning to love each other exactly as they are, even when their nature is fundamentally incompatible with their own.

Strip away the domestic sweetness and the gentle giants, and their situation is a kind of cosmic horror: a bond where one party is always unsure if the love is real, and the other is only just beginning to feel the weight of a heartbreak they couldn't previously comprehend. Yet, that is exactly what makes this drama good. This drama seems to be in a path destined to lead XXX toward a more human empathy, and perhaps that forest is just the answer.

I agree with Remo666 that it would be hard to fix a relationship if one party chooses to off themself than stay together. There is still a possibility the "boiling kettle" was just an accident. She wasn't eating properly and was still grieving. But if it was not an accident, instead of blame-shifting, I would think that just like most couples new to relationships, both of them struggled with the one thing that can make or break a partnership: compromise.

"WNY" had the tendency to fixate on things, a strong personality trait (like when she confronted him in episode 22 at 10:24, and again in episode 27 at 1:55), but it is also a weakness, making her prone to jumping to conclusions before making the correct decisions. While "XXX" unfortunately lacks the ability to see and show empathy, thus, does not understand that blood is thicker than water and that lies can hurt someone very badly. The "hard drive" incident was a big failure on his part because he could have just told his "past" story, but again sadly, empathy is missing in him. And yes, her way of handling things hurt her too, which she could have avoided by initiating "proper" concessions instead of just pushing him (literally) or other people away.

You can see Rens are mentally unstable persons (MUP), but a Yin is definitely NOT a psychologist. It would be hard for her, or anyone in fact, to just think about "understanding a Ren." Speaking from experience, being with MUPs seriously needs patience, time, and effort—sincerity is just NOT enough. And MUPs, in this case a Ren, don't care about others except for their obsession. Remember Mai, the one who forgot he was suicidal cause he formed an obsession? I see that's how a Ren's brain works; they get attached and hurt/love their source of obsession (SoO) or themselves unless something breaks it (like rare short bursts of words/feelings from their SoO, see their realizations in episode 19 at 3:13 and episode 27 at 14:11).

Ding Suo in episode 25 at 14:35 demonstrates a good way of approaching Rens. My observation is that Yins also have a problem with handling heavy things to the point of danger—WNY condoning her father, the brother scared in showing love; even the Yin mother and daughter duo loves playing with fire. If this is indeed the case, the real source of the problem is fundamentally rooted in the nature of being a Ren or a Yin. Now I just see them as two young people, still new to these feelings, in a world where there is still little research about the Ren and Yin partnership, mate, marriage, whatever you may call it.

This quote suits their situation of lacking in compromise: "𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯—𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘖𝘳 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦." — Dalton Lewis Fanney & Logan Martin from the song "Close"

Without the gentle giants and the sweet domesticity; then their world/situation is a kind of cosmic horror in itself. Imagine yourself in her shoes, always unsure if his love is real, and imagine if you're him, never ever feeling what she feels.

Totally not good to judge a book by its cover, but to judge one with wrong information though, is just pure hate spamming.

Are the BTS on YT? PS: Found it, members only content :<.

It was just a theory by Ding Suo, and you can see it did not work. Physical intimacy, as always, was what solved the problem in the end.

I see, thanks!

I'm confused, won't it be 6PM?

Thank you!! I'm so happy my review resonated with you. Isn't it just the most perfect song for this drama? I completely understand having it on repeat; it's so hauntingly beautiful. It's nice to know I'm not the only one still not over this story. I'm thrilled you felt the same way about the cast and crew cause they truly created something special. First comment and so you really made my day. 💗

Those who got Jin Guangyao is silently agreeing with a smile on their faces...

Her line cemented this one to my PTW. 🤭

Same here for me. TSL was super enjoyable and balanced with great writing, it was a solid 11/10.
You should give 'Love of the Divine Tree' a chance, it is also one of the best Xian Xia in years in terms of plot and char dev. But I loved the FL character more than the ML - it reminded me so much of 'Ancient Love Poetry'. I'd also like to count in 'A Moment But Forever'.
I can't rec TTEOTM as it gave viewers a trainwreck of a plot and I am not sure if I could even count it as a 'great' Xian Xia. Yet I still gave it a 9/10 for the OOTW acting of the leads.

It's still an ongoing manhwa, currently at Ch56.

The time interval of uploads is inconsistent so you might have to be patient.

Just reached the most recent chapter of the manhwa. Its not an exagerration to say the writer is bold but also insane in a brilliant way for compiling those gut-churning topics to surround the main characters.

They said the novel gave more tears and headaches to the readers, of which this drama was based on, so higher expectations for this one.

I only hope they don't white wash the personality of any of the characters nor dye down the story's raw intensity. I deeply appreciate writers/directors who does not show mercy to the reader's minds and present societal problems nomatter if its real, new ones, or fiction. On to the PTW you go!

You won't regret it. Even my grandma who only watches local shows, found this so irresistible and rewatched PA(her first CDrama) so many times I stopped counting after her 5 rewatches . Even my brother loved the soundtrack by GEM and plays it on loop everyday and he only mostly listen to Eng songs lol.

Great list, congrats to all in this ranking ✨ May I ask if you know what this means for this drama? ~

Cheng Yi's 'Fu Shan Hai'

I hope they release on spotify free. ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁) I dont want this to be like Love of Nirvana with beautiful songs from amazing artists yet less reach from music platforms. >.<

I see, thank you so much! Aint that great to see for novel readers? I really dont know what's going on in SYS's head in the Novel (especially when he 'looks' at Ran, OR will there be atleast one chapter featuring his POV?

Sorry too many questions...I hope you didnt mind... I'm still at CH24 and I'm super excited to know more about their past! The writer keeps me engaged and keeps pushing me to like the current timeline and its great and all but part of me wants to finally get rid of the doubt about the probably fake 'Mu Qingge'. The way she behaves, trying to be respectful to SYS, I think she's not it cause from 'stories', MQG is known to be playful and does whatever she wants, there's no way she'll be that reserved and just let SYS be rude to her if she was really his Master lol.

Oops again sorry,... for ranting >.< I just wanted to talk more about this drama, I really cant wait for this to air soon !!! <3

I'm currently reading the novel as my curiosity got the best of me lol xd.

Do anyone have a clue if the drama would start with the same timeline as the novel?~

I forgot this existed. I hope they resolve the copywriting issue soon. TTqTT