The Usual Stone Cold ML melted down by the Cutesy FL
Sima Jiao is the last of his clan, with blood so precious it is coveted by cultivators all over the realm for being potent for cultivation and healing. But also because of this, Sima Jiao is held prisoner by the 8 Palaces upon the annihilation of his clan 500 years ago when he was just a little kid. As he is on the verge of breaking free from his prison, a Liao Tingyan is sent together with 99 other palace disciples in the name of serving him but in reality each carries a mission of either killing Sima Jiao or mating with him to bear his descendant. The demon cultivator Liao Tingyan did not even remember her own mission because she is actually a modern soul that had transmigrated into the ancient realm just before she was sent to Sima Jiao. The initial suspicion of Sima Jiao towards Liao Tingyan turned into curiosity as the latter keeps refusing to kill the former despite so many chances he gave her. And so, when he finally broke through his seal placed by the 8 Palaces, he decisively brought Liao Tingyan with him in order to further investigate the origin of her mission and figuring out how to topple 8 Palaces altogether. And of course, after going through life and death, both fell in love with each other.
Cant help but notice how much of a trope this show turned out to be. It is the third work of Wang Yinglu’s that I saw, also third of Arthur’s, and sadly I could not finish it. Honestly I totally love her as Feng Baobao in I Am Nobody, and I adore him as Ning Que and Duan Xu, but no amount of adoration I have for both actors could make me finish this.
Liao Tingyan, the body that FL transmigrated into in this title, had been fun to watch in the first 10 episodes as she tries to adapt to the new foreign world, but she grows annoying as she started to fall for ML, and went full on acting baby-ish and cutesy when the ML reciprocrated. I especially couldnt stand how the FL was written to be too naiive, dim-witted and not too bright to read the room, this on top of being a damsel-in-distress just turned me off completely.
Support characters also lack depth and background that I failed to feel any connection with them. The Snake guy, Ruling, Yuan Che - all fell short. Basically they were not impressive - the absolute fillers to the plot. I wish I could push on to the finish line, but as FL’s voice becoming more and more whiny as the episode progresses, I realized I just could not stand her anymore.
As for romance, the kissing scenes were somewhat sweet in the beginning, but when the writer decided to blast scene after scene of their hands and lips all over each other, even while suffering from flesh injuries, honestly they just grew intolerably boring and much too sappy for my liking. I lost count how many times I fast forwarded with rolled eyes. I also realized this show had a tremendous amount of scenes of the main characters in bed, either making out, comforting the injured half, or merely conversing, but the number definitely surpass any other shows that I’ve seen in just the last 5 episodes I saw. Look, I get that in this world, your soul partner could heal you by entering your consciousness, but whats up with the overzealous kissing and feeling each other up while doing the healing, complete with the injured losing all their clothes in the process (but funnily the healer did not)? Was the screenwriter insinuating that they shagged? How did they shag if they were inside the soul manor thing? The dorkiest one would be when Sima Jiao was ‘gravely injured’ and Tingyan was supposed to have performed the soul manor healing thing, then Jiao was awake and pulled Tingyan back while Tingyan plead, “I can’t take it anymore!” Is that a hint that theyre doing it while dual cultivating or something? Oh lord, make it make sense. 🙄 The amount of such scenes made me feel like I was watching amature soft porn skit instead of the usual romance/xianxia kind of show. Not sure if they had this in the novel or the adaptation amped up such scenes just for the fans.
The amount of precious Sima blood being spilled was also overbearingly ridiculous. For a 500yo grandmaster, it is funny how Simu Jiao’s power keeps getting toned down with each battle, rendering him gravely injured each time (but still strong enough to keep saving FL and make out with her every chance he get). He basically has the supreme blood and powers compared to the rest of cultivators who were mostly born after his imprisonment except for 3 palace heads, and yet he keeps narrowly escape their siege with serious injuries that left him incapacitated for days after each confrontation (read: more making out when Tingyan performed the soul manor healing on him 🙄😒). This character just doesnt exude supremacy at all.
I love Arthur as an actor, and boy I keep seeing the innocent Feng Baobao which I adore so much when I saw Liao Tingyan, but this plot is a strain to my eyes as I keep rolling them episode after episode. Not only was the romance too overbearing and looked cheap, the action choreograph also failed to garner any wows from me. I guess I’ll just move on now.
Cant help but notice how much of a trope this show turned out to be. It is the third work of Wang Yinglu’s that I saw, also third of Arthur’s, and sadly I could not finish it. Honestly I totally love her as Feng Baobao in I Am Nobody, and I adore him as Ning Que and Duan Xu, but no amount of adoration I have for both actors could make me finish this.
Liao Tingyan, the body that FL transmigrated into in this title, had been fun to watch in the first 10 episodes as she tries to adapt to the new foreign world, but she grows annoying as she started to fall for ML, and went full on acting baby-ish and cutesy when the ML reciprocrated. I especially couldnt stand how the FL was written to be too naiive, dim-witted and not too bright to read the room, this on top of being a damsel-in-distress just turned me off completely.
Support characters also lack depth and background that I failed to feel any connection with them. The Snake guy, Ruling, Yuan Che - all fell short. Basically they were not impressive - the absolute fillers to the plot. I wish I could push on to the finish line, but as FL’s voice becoming more and more whiny as the episode progresses, I realized I just could not stand her anymore.
As for romance, the kissing scenes were somewhat sweet in the beginning, but when the writer decided to blast scene after scene of their hands and lips all over each other, even while suffering from flesh injuries, honestly they just grew intolerably boring and much too sappy for my liking. I lost count how many times I fast forwarded with rolled eyes. I also realized this show had a tremendous amount of scenes of the main characters in bed, either making out, comforting the injured half, or merely conversing, but the number definitely surpass any other shows that I’ve seen in just the last 5 episodes I saw. Look, I get that in this world, your soul partner could heal you by entering your consciousness, but whats up with the overzealous kissing and feeling each other up while doing the healing, complete with the injured losing all their clothes in the process (but funnily the healer did not)? Was the screenwriter insinuating that they shagged? How did they shag if they were inside the soul manor thing? The dorkiest one would be when Sima Jiao was ‘gravely injured’ and Tingyan was supposed to have performed the soul manor healing thing, then Jiao was awake and pulled Tingyan back while Tingyan plead, “I can’t take it anymore!” Is that a hint that theyre doing it while dual cultivating or something? Oh lord, make it make sense. 🙄 The amount of such scenes made me feel like I was watching amature soft porn skit instead of the usual romance/xianxia kind of show. Not sure if they had this in the novel or the adaptation amped up such scenes just for the fans.
The amount of precious Sima blood being spilled was also overbearingly ridiculous. For a 500yo grandmaster, it is funny how Simu Jiao’s power keeps getting toned down with each battle, rendering him gravely injured each time (but still strong enough to keep saving FL and make out with her every chance he get). He basically has the supreme blood and powers compared to the rest of cultivators who were mostly born after his imprisonment except for 3 palace heads, and yet he keeps narrowly escape their siege with serious injuries that left him incapacitated for days after each confrontation (read: more making out when Tingyan performed the soul manor healing on him 🙄😒). This character just doesnt exude supremacy at all.
I love Arthur as an actor, and boy I keep seeing the innocent Feng Baobao which I adore so much when I saw Liao Tingyan, but this plot is a strain to my eyes as I keep rolling them episode after episode. Not only was the romance too overbearing and looked cheap, the action choreograph also failed to garner any wows from me. I guess I’ll just move on now.
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