drama-tically

I also think his acting has improved. Although not a drastic improvement, really. It's kinda hard because his character in this one is almost exactly the same as in My ID is Gangnam Beauty and the character is a lot of time very cold and emotionless. So it's hard to see him as a good actor

I think his acting improved in this drama tho. Also at least his crying scenes are more believable than Moon Ga Young's fake crying which is so fake I–

I agree with everything you said here! Seo Jun is honestly the most legit second male lead I've seen and I've never had second lead syndrome so bad until this drama happened. Honestly the drama could have ended at Ep 13 and I would have been fine but they just had to drag it out and add unnecessary drama and break ups. And that was when I really really felt for Seo Jun :( *sigh*

And yes the teacher!! I feel bad but I always laugh at his scenes even when he's being sad but I can't help it because he's just so overdramatic and hilarious I always end up laughing.

unfortunately this is common in chinese dramas. I don't know why they find it so hard to get a younger actor to play the younger version of a character, or why they get such old actors to play young characters. I couldn't buy Charmaine Sheh playing a young girl in The Legend of Xiao Chuo, especially not after seeing her play empress in Yanxi Palace. But I guess it's inevitable if these actors / actresses want to play the main roles because Chinese dramas usually has young characters as main roles and there aren't many dramas with older characters as the leads. I remember AvenueX on Youtube mentioning something about this issue when she was talking about Yang Mi and how she always seems to be playing the same kind of young girl characters in her costume dramas. I found the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPjAKWJlzTM)

I did think of that but I thought they don't really get reborn again so fast lol I really don't know but maybe you're right

pretty sure it's just the terrible story telling. I already finished the drama and still don't understand the whole 20 years thing. it makes zero sense

many people feel the drama got better but as someone who like you, felt like dropping the drama early on, but continued because of what people said, no it does not get better. just drop it, it's a waste of your time.

The romance starts to blossom more in ep 26 / 27. I can't remember but I don't think they had a proper confession it just kinda slowly happened. First kiss was ep 39 though

I can't say I love the leads but they're pretty much the only characters that are likeable in this drama because everyone else is literally so dumb. I think for anyone who is not interested in the leads / not interested in the romance or romance alone is not enough to satisfy them, then it's best just to not watch.

Oh wow you dropped the drama even though you were so close to the end? I can understand though. I just finished it and...totally not worth it

what a legend

10 Episodes in - This drama is a mess! I’m so disappointed right now. I was looking forward to this drama because it’s Zhao Li Ying’s comeback drama but so far, it’s just been a huge let down. The pacing is off, it’s super slow. And the characters keep getting sidetracked, wayyy too many flashbacks and too many extra characters with their own stories…at this point, I don’t even know what the main storyline is even about anymore. I don’t know how the rest of the drama is going to go.

13 Episodes in - More villains introduced…*sigh* seriously how many villains do we need? And the writing is so terrible! it’s stupid. It’s like they will waste one entire episode on a scene that could have easily been finished in half an episode. They just do stupid stuff like sit around waiting for the villain to come and only after the villains arrive and are ready to attack that they decided to escape?? What the hell?

20 Episodes in - ahhhh I was considering dropping this drama but then i decided to just go on with it. But now,,, I am seriously getting bored. Like extremely bored. Some of the characters like Li Yan are just really stupid and annoying. A Fei and Xie Yun’s interactions are enjoyable I guess but then again the rest of the drama is just meh. And there’s just wayy too much talking. Also like 20 episodes in and they’re still not back at 48 strongholds?? I don’t get why they’re always so sidetracked and never really on that one proper mission. It’s really annoying.

23 Episodes in - How is it that A Fei and Xie Yun have the time to be all lovey dovey and exchange cutesy smiles at all the serious times? Even when there are multiple dead bodies around them, they’re just smiling at each other. And Xie Yun!! I get that his character is supposed to be one that cannot really fight, and so he uses the smart talk to delay enemies and all. And I do enjoy it quite a bit, but like he’s always smiling and happy! Even when the situation isn’t a happy one. I don’t get it. He’s always acting cheeky especially around A Fei even if they’re in the middle of a fight or something. It doesn’t make any sense. And the characters are just so unaffected by the deaths of people they’re somewhat close to?? The emotions are just not there. And they sometimes just talk too much before they start fighting like??? Are you guys here to have a discussion or to fight?

30 Episodes in - Somewhere around episode 26 / 27 I started to find this drama a bit less intolerable than before. Even so, there’s still plenty of stupid stuff happening. For one, I don’t understand why every single time they’re trying to escape from danger they ALWAYS stop for a while and literally start chatting. Like, now’s not the time to chat!!! oh my god. Secondly, I’m still not really getting the plot. I’m guessing right now that the whole story is about the martial artists chasing after Hai Tian Yi Se? But like they never really explained what exactly Hai Tian Yi Se is, and I finally found out why in the recent episodes I watched. It’s because the characters themselves don’t even know what the hell Hai Tian Yi Se is. That’s so stupid. It’s like I’m watching 《小女花不弃》aka I Will Never Let You Go all over again. In that drama they kept going on and on about Bi Luo Tian without actually explaining in detail what it really is. Sadly, as terrible as that drama was, it’s still loads better that LOF because at least it had a much more coherent storyline. Unlike this drama where 30 episodes in and the storyline is just getting even messier than before. Also, they’re still introducing more characters, and more and more characters are getting dumber by the day. Why am I still watching this, again?

40 Episodes in - I am…running out of things to say about this drama. Most of it is just the same stuff that’s been happening since the start. Like how never have I seen a broken blade in a Wuxia drama but Zhou Fei keeps breaking her swords like nobody’s business. Is it because she’s so superior in her martial arts skills? Or are her blades just low quality? I’ve lost count of how many blades she’s broken already. Also, again with the tokens like water ripple token or something. Once again, nobody even knows what it is. And yet they keep chasing after it. I don’t know anything anymore. Also, at this point I just keep wishing some characters would die already because the plot doesn’t seem to be moving very well because of … some characters. I just want to be done with this drama already. 10 episodes left!!!! Jia you to me :“)

44 Episodes in - someone please tElL mE wHy every time they get the villain, they never straight away kill the villain? why? why let them get away and escape? it’s happened so many times that they should know by now that letting the villain escape just means more future trouble!! oh my god. can they just stop?! also, these people just talk big but they’re just really useless. all these freaking martial arts elders be screaming revenge but they can’t even fight properly. Lastly, HOLY SHIT GIRL! li yan calling head of disha 老伯伯？？I– (i’m done) I get that she’s supposed to be really naive and all, but it’s too extreme. She’s too dumb and only creates trouble for others.

46 Episodes in - you know how at the start, they made such a big scene out of xie yun calling Lord Gantang / A'Fei’s dad to the army? Yeah well I thought that was because Zhou Fei’s dad was going to be some important character who’s going to achieve great things and put forth changes or something grand like that. turns out his character….is useless? he literally does nothing. what a waste of a character might as well make him dead from the very beginning. same goes to a fei’s mum. also useless

also I only just realised that there are 5 tokens altogether for hai tian yi se. what are the 5 tokens then? I HAVE NO IDEA. i think one of it is yin pei’s sheath, and also the water ripple token or whatever the hell it is. and chu chu's lock. the other 2? I really don’t know. I’m five episodes away from the end and i’m still lost and don’t really know what the hell hai tian yi se / tokens for it are supposed to be. Did I miss it or was is just the terrible storytelling?

…… :/

Up till last episode - ok here's the thing. all this while, I thought the entire big medicine valley got destroyed and completely annihilated. but apparently, there's still people living there??? also, I guess the last couple of episodes are supposed to be the climax but never before have I felt so unexcited about the ending. It just was not exciting at all. and like....THEY BASICALLY DID ALL THE WORK FOR THE BAD GUYS what even is this??? oh my. when I finally got to the last episode, I played it but wasn't really focusing but it was basically just a bunch of fighting in the first half. hmm yeah. and then the ending.

thoughts after finishing the drama - uhhhh hands down the worst cdrama i've watched to date. that's all I have to say. I don't really have a problem with the acting but still there were some parts there were a bit meh. I'm a fan of Zhao Li Ying but honestly, her acting in this drama wasn't even at her usual standard. And there were some parts (mostly in the first half of the drama) where you could see her staring off into space. Like you can tell she's not mentally there, you know? And she does look really tired. At the end of the day, I think the biggest problem with this drama is the storyline itself. It's just really bad storytelling, and that puts me off so much. also, someone commented saying that this entire drama was about the journey to forging a blade that never breaks and....honestly I agree XD WHAT ELSE COULD THIS STORY BE ABOUT?! (hint: hai tian yi se :") but whatever you don't even find out what hai tian yi se is until like the second last episode so)

For anyone who is unsure of whether to watch this drama because of the mixed reviews, I recorded some of my thoughts that I had while watching the drama at various intervals from start till end. You guys can read it down below. I tried to keep it as spoiler free as possible so there might be some mini spoilers but none of it is a major or explicit spoiler. I'll still just put it under the spoiler tag though, just in case. You can read it and then decide for yourself if you want to watch this drama. My opinions are pretty skewed and generally negative but..yeah just read it and decide for yourself I guess.

number one rule of taking a photo in which people are not following safe distancing rules: don't post it on social media. lol why do people give other people proof that they are not abiding the law?? it boggles my mind

for me it's mostly because I just want to know how it ends. Even if while watching the drama i find the storyline extremely bad and I'm not even that interested in it, I still want to know how it ends. Technically I can just search up the spoilers but...I just torture myself instead by watching the entire drama

girl i'm already at episode 45 and it literally doesn't get any better. i'm still bored I regret not dropping this drama but I can never bring myself to drop a drama!!

it's literal torture for real. when the drama is so bad but you can't even skip cause you don't want to miss something. and then you ask yourself why you don't just drop the drama

I'm going to blindly take your word for it and continue with this drama. I've only watched 17 episodes so far and not enjoying it at all, which is sad because I was anticipating this drama a lot. I've been seriously considering dropping this drama, something that I've only done to one drama, which i still ended up finishing anyway. But I'm going to take a leap of faith and trust that this drama is going to get better. Let's hope I don't regret this decision ಥ_ಥ

Ahh I see thanks for answering!

lol that's probably true too but generally speaking the average rating on MDL seems to be about 7 - 7.5 so shows tend to be rated slightly higher than what one would expect