gypsy_cloud

A recipe with too many ingredients

It’s a story packed with too many ideas, but the poor execution left me disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely good elements, and it was entertaining in the beginning, at least until about halfway through. After that, it went downhill fast. It honestly felt like two different writers worked on the script. The first half was brilliant, while the second half was painfully bad. If I didn’t know the production spent 300 million on this project, I’d have thought it was a low-budget drama. The cinematography was average. The wardrobe was average too (some side characters literally wore one costume for the entire show). They would change XQS's hair in one scene and change again on the next without reason. The editing was sloppy. The saving grace of the show was the fight scenes and fight choreography.

There are many more points I could bring up, but I’d have to rewatch episodes to fact-check, and I honestly have no interest in doing that, so I’ll leave those out. Here are the main thoughts that stuck with me:

First, I didn’t like how some of XQS’s greatest achievements, despite him being smart and quick-witted, ended up coming down to sheer luck: swallowing a 60-year power pill, being bitten by a mysterious white snake, receiving power from eight heroes, and so on.

Towards the end, I couldn’t understand why Chief Li knowingly drank the poisoned wine, then went back to the palace again fully aware he’d have to face the same poison and might not survive. He’s supposed to be one of the most powerful figures, yet he came across as utterly defeated. On top of that, the Emperor who gave him the poisoned wine acted surprised and even saddened when he learned of Chief Li’s death. It really makes me question the credibility of the writers.

A lot of questionable choices were made. Characters with strong martial arts skills and big entrances were introduced, only to be taken out by trivial things... Crazy Yan, Chief Li, Rong-er, etc. And just before the final fight between XQS and his second brother, why bother with the sand timer on General Wu instead of just killing him off directly?

The show also hinted at a love triangle between Tang Gege (LSF), Tang Fang, and Red Phoenix, then abandoned it, only to patch it up in the final episodes as if it were an afterthought. Honestly, I started losing interest once the story shifted direction and introduced a new villain, while suddenly making the old villains into “misunderstood good guys.” Their past crimes against the heroes were brushed aside and forgotten. For example, if it weren’t for the Power Gang, the Xiaos wouldn’t have been trapped in the safe house without water and would still be alive. But all was forgiven just because they preserved the bodies (of people they helped kill) as evidence and helped track down the killer. If I were XQS, I’d have held them accountable, maybe made them clean the graves every day for ten years or something.

LSF’s hatred of the Xiao family was so extreme that destroying them consumed his every thought. Yet he never truly got revenge on the person behind the massacre, nor did he apologize to the people he wrongly blamed, especially the Xiaos. He caused a lot of damage, but there was no “I’m sorry.” They just swept it under the rug. And with that, LSF’s purpose was lost. The feud between XQS and LSF disappeared without closure, and LSF ended up as a useless character. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one looking forward to their big showdown.

Another disappointing aspect was the lack of a strong sense of brotherhood. It was there, yes, and their friendship was solid, but within the trio, XQS shone brightly while the other two felt like dim little fireflies, simply existing in the background.

By the time the new villain came around, I had lost focus completely. He felt like just another bad guy I couldn’t care about, and I only kept watching to finish the story. There were still good moments here and there, but overall, the mishandling of the storytelling left me unsatisfied.

And a small rant: whoever invented that drinking cup/saucer design clearly intended half the drink to spill on the ground as an offering to ancestors, because otherwise it’s just a terrible design. The tea cups were perfectly fine. 😅 Okay, don’t come for me on that one, it was a joke.

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