How to Shape You Heir’s Future without Him Knowing
Picked this up on a whim after reading some of the reviews here.
It’s basically a walk of growth of the ML Xu Fengnian, the heir of King of Southern (eh was it northern?) Liang. He was against the idea of succeeding his father and practicing marial arts, until he heard the death of his travel companian, the groom Old Huang, who is also the world reknowned swordsman Jiu Jian Huang. Only then did he realized he needed power and martial capability to bring back his Old Huang’s sword box from the walls of Wudi City, and his sisters and brother whom Xu Xiao sent away in order to strengthen ML’s heir position. Thus upon agreeing to be King of Liang’s successor, his father told him to go on a quest to visit his siblings in various regions outside Northern Liang, during which the ML inadvertently acumulated martial art in the various assassinations that he was subjected to.
Xu Xiao is probably most unpredictable king-cum-father figure I’ve ever seen. He looked formidable enough to make people cower around him but in the presence of his heir, he was not be ashamed to cower under him even in the presence of others, just to quell Xu Fengnian’s dissatisfaction. Everything he did was calculated to the minute possibility of Xu Fengnian diverting off, and i would say it looked brilliant at first, but later appeared too staged. Despite being a loving father who dotes on his heir, Xu Xiao was so ruthless that he would not mind having his heir almost killed if it meant for ML to survive with better prospect of kingship later. Looking at their love-hate relationship, i can’t help but thought about Fated Hearts’s ML relationship with his father the emperor. If only Susha emperor was a bit more like Xu Xiao, the broken relationship with his heir wouldnt have been so. And that is why Xu Xiao earned my respect even more!
I am also surprised at how meticulous the makeup team is. Lord of Jing’an’s son was slapped by ML when his assassination attempt failed, and several scenes later the red mark still apparent on the right side of the cheek. It was not an obvious red like most would do, but a faint hue of redness like a real slap would look like.
The songs were great. I love the CGI too, thise adorable baby hukuis were definitely better than Legend of Shenli’s cartoonish chicken-looking-phoenix despite SSS being produced earlier.
However, the choreograph is rather mediocre especially when they rely too much on inner strength battles than the actual physical battle. I also failed to ship the Fengnian-Jiangni relationship. Honestly they looked like brother and sister rather than couple attacted to each other. Jiang Ni looked too childish while Fengnian too predictable. Predictable in a sense that all his actions laid upon this particular sense of fake righteousnous that seemed out of this world for the era he was in. It’s like seeing Fanxian with his unpredictable acts but in a different setting. I just felt like the writers got his surface personality mixed up with the from-the-future-Fanxian.
It was the supporting cast appearances that kept me interested, really. I was thrilled to see Little Fanxian appearing here! That boy’s acting was superb in Joy of Life I really liked him. And I was also excited to see Ah Mai from Fighting for Love, Zhang Tian Ai as Nangong Puye. Too bad her scenes were just in those first few episodes. how I wished for her to follow ML’s journey instead of the death guard Qingniao just so i can see more of her. And boy was I feeling giddy when Liu DuanDuan’s Zhao Kai made an appearance. He is definitely one of my favourite actors, i always get interested with the roles he takes up, cuz they were always of the eccentric kind. Like here Zhao Kai was infatuated with ML’s sister and keep telling people that she was his wife, but at the same time had no problem going on a rampage killing for his future brother-in-law’s life. What a disturbed mind.
I liked the plot up to the last 10 episodes when they started to intensify Fengnian-Jiangni relationship. Also the way Fengnian eventually found himself right back into the trajectory that Xu Xiao has planned for him looked too damn staged that my interest started to wane. I enjoyed Sword Snow Stride but I dont think i’d be eager to watch season 2.
It’s basically a walk of growth of the ML Xu Fengnian, the heir of King of Southern (eh was it northern?) Liang. He was against the idea of succeeding his father and practicing marial arts, until he heard the death of his travel companian, the groom Old Huang, who is also the world reknowned swordsman Jiu Jian Huang. Only then did he realized he needed power and martial capability to bring back his Old Huang’s sword box from the walls of Wudi City, and his sisters and brother whom Xu Xiao sent away in order to strengthen ML’s heir position. Thus upon agreeing to be King of Liang’s successor, his father told him to go on a quest to visit his siblings in various regions outside Northern Liang, during which the ML inadvertently acumulated martial art in the various assassinations that he was subjected to.
Xu Xiao is probably most unpredictable king-cum-father figure I’ve ever seen. He looked formidable enough to make people cower around him but in the presence of his heir, he was not be ashamed to cower under him even in the presence of others, just to quell Xu Fengnian’s dissatisfaction. Everything he did was calculated to the minute possibility of Xu Fengnian diverting off, and i would say it looked brilliant at first, but later appeared too staged. Despite being a loving father who dotes on his heir, Xu Xiao was so ruthless that he would not mind having his heir almost killed if it meant for ML to survive with better prospect of kingship later. Looking at their love-hate relationship, i can’t help but thought about Fated Hearts’s ML relationship with his father the emperor. If only Susha emperor was a bit more like Xu Xiao, the broken relationship with his heir wouldnt have been so. And that is why Xu Xiao earned my respect even more!
I am also surprised at how meticulous the makeup team is. Lord of Jing’an’s son was slapped by ML when his assassination attempt failed, and several scenes later the red mark still apparent on the right side of the cheek. It was not an obvious red like most would do, but a faint hue of redness like a real slap would look like.
The songs were great. I love the CGI too, thise adorable baby hukuis were definitely better than Legend of Shenli’s cartoonish chicken-looking-phoenix despite SSS being produced earlier.
However, the choreograph is rather mediocre especially when they rely too much on inner strength battles than the actual physical battle. I also failed to ship the Fengnian-Jiangni relationship. Honestly they looked like brother and sister rather than couple attacted to each other. Jiang Ni looked too childish while Fengnian too predictable. Predictable in a sense that all his actions laid upon this particular sense of fake righteousnous that seemed out of this world for the era he was in. It’s like seeing Fanxian with his unpredictable acts but in a different setting. I just felt like the writers got his surface personality mixed up with the from-the-future-Fanxian.
It was the supporting cast appearances that kept me interested, really. I was thrilled to see Little Fanxian appearing here! That boy’s acting was superb in Joy of Life I really liked him. And I was also excited to see Ah Mai from Fighting for Love, Zhang Tian Ai as Nangong Puye. Too bad her scenes were just in those first few episodes. how I wished for her to follow ML’s journey instead of the death guard Qingniao just so i can see more of her. And boy was I feeling giddy when Liu DuanDuan’s Zhao Kai made an appearance. He is definitely one of my favourite actors, i always get interested with the roles he takes up, cuz they were always of the eccentric kind. Like here Zhao Kai was infatuated with ML’s sister and keep telling people that she was his wife, but at the same time had no problem going on a rampage killing for his future brother-in-law’s life. What a disturbed mind.
I liked the plot up to the last 10 episodes when they started to intensify Fengnian-Jiangni relationship. Also the way Fengnian eventually found himself right back into the trajectory that Xu Xiao has planned for him looked too damn staged that my interest started to wane. I enjoyed Sword Snow Stride but I dont think i’d be eager to watch season 2.
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