Feel so bad for the Shen Man Qing character. She got dealt just a horrible hand and how can you blame her for feeling abandoned and betrayed by everyone - both her Master and the man she loves. What is frustrating as a viewer though, is that the entire last episode, all the 'good guys' - including Wen Si Yuan - who supposedly had a tight schedule to do things, spent the whole episode standing around, walking slowly, talking at length, etc, etc. The whole episode felt as if, jeez, just pick up the pace a tiny bit and maybe you could have saved her? And then this episode starts off with him just drinking his own sorrows instead of rushing to comfort her? It's hard to empathize with his behavior last episode and here. And it feels like the director / writers / editors are really stretching out scenes to fill episode minutes. This had never seemed the case in the first 26 episodes. At any rate, for poor SMQ to be caught in this horrible forced marriage to Mu Ning is just horrifying. Meanwhile, ZQC still doesn't seem to understand why he keeps messing up between him and SYL. He keeps looking at the relationship only for what it means to him and doesn't yet see the whole of her, including what is important to her in addition to their relationship. And because of that, he continues to act petty and spiteful when things don't go exactly as he wants. He needs to learn to see, respect and value all of her - including the parts of her that have nothing to do with him.
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Plot-induced stupidity at its extreme. For the most part, until now, while the writers have leaned heavily on PIS since the mid-20s episodes, they have doe so primarily on support characters. Not the ML or FL. But now they made SiQng suddenly act incredibly stupid and reckless, leading her to be, once again, captured. This particular bizarre change in behavior was especially annoying and reflects pure laziness on the part of the writers. Why can't they instead have the villains come up with a scheme that doesn't depend on the character acting uncharacteristically stupid?
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Finally, at least a few of the villains of this series are starting to get their overdue punishment. And if nothing else, at least finally Lige is fully revealed for the psychopathic evil piece of crap that he has been all along. It's a little frustrating just how reluctant both BWS and ZQ are to believe how evil Lige is. Lige, to his credit, admits that he has "always been like this" - which is true. He has been a murderous psychopath since he first appeared in the show, willing to sacrifice thousands of lives for his obsessions.Frustrating how stupid Chief Meng was with so many issues that led to a lot of disastrous results. He should never have pre-announced that he was going to destroy the Tower. He should have destroyed it first and announced it second. And he should not have tied his incarceration of his daughter to his own life. That was just stupid and sure enough now she's out causing trouble. These and several other decisions by him and previous leaders of the Dream clan have caused so much harm to so many.
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This episode was so frustrating to watch because while they had spent so much setup in previous episodes emphasizing how tight and urgent things would be to both rescue Su Xuan _and_ save Man Qing from the wedding ... and then everything unfolded SOOOOO SLOOOOWWWWWW. SO much time spent by the good guys just standing around or lamenting despair (including fake, illusion). It was just frustrating to watch play out in slow motion. You almost feel like they deserved to fail because they just did not act with any real urgency. Walking when they should have been running. The pacing and editing of scenes was just terrible. This was so different from say, the way Episode 4 was executed, when they stole the painting and rescued ZQC with urgency and precision in a very exciting episode. I have to assume this one must have had a different director? It was just not a good episode.
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This is a popular notion in a lot of c-drama plots. Nice twist for Zuo Qing Ci to think to try treating Su Xuan's poison with the poison in his own body. There are probably more sanitary methods to do this than letting him bite you on the arm, though! That's very dangerous. It was good to see ZQC and Su Yun Luo were able to have an adult conversation. It is good she finds out that the Leaf got used to save her life and she comes to accept that her life is valuable too. However, he continues to hide things by not explaining his own poison issues and what he did to treat Su Xuan. In fact he failed to let her know prior to doing it so she and the others could be prepared. Once again, he is failing his side of the romance dynamic by failing the, "trust and respect" part. And there are immediate consequences.The 'dark' side of Zhu Yan threw ZQC under the bus with his reveal about using the Ceylon Leaf. Will the 'light' side of Zhu Yan own up to the fact that using it was only necessary because SYL got hurt while saving Zhu Yan?SYL is going deep into trouble now to try to save Sy Xuan from the Mu clan. Willing to sacrifice herself and the risk is it may still leave her master in captivity with the 12 Guards. She's likely going to end up needing the help of her comrades even if she isn't looking for it.
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Like watching a train wreck in slow motion. We all saw this coming. Still hurt to watch happen. ZQC should never have attached curing her master to a wedding proposal (in prior episode). He blurted the offer out half joking in his typical cynical manner and she pounced on it and said yes. Because BOTH those things are what she wants most in the world. How could she resist at that moment? And he should have known that. That was just dumb and immature of him to do because neither a marriage nor the life of her master are joking matters to her. And now this disaster is the result. As I've noted in earlier episodes: ZQC behaves like a 14 year old when it comes to his romantic interest in SYL. He needs to grow up and begin to act like an adult when it comes to love. In particular he needs understand that love is not possession and love requires trust and respect for the whole of the other - including what is different about the other, such as their priorities & choices. Only when he becomes mature enough is their love going to work.And later, when he ended up using the Leaf to save her, he should have told her. I don't blame FL for being furious at not being told. Though she also needs to have some perspective. She literally would not be alive to be furious if he had not used the Leaf. She also has her own immaturities, in particular her inability to see that others don't have the same weighted priorities in the world as she does and that they aren't necessarily wrong if theirs are different. In particular, she needs to accept and understand that to ZQC, _her_ life is more important than her master's life. And that he wasn't necessarily wrong for choosing her life over Su Xuan's. And she ultimately needs to examine the question that ZQC faced: Who's life would she, Su Yun Luo, choose between ZQC and someone ZQC loved more than himself, such as the latter's dear sister?
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The writers once again rely on cheap plot tricks. Most notably, they suddenly transform the up-until-now quite clever and well-informed Baili Wei Sheng into a gullible idiot. They also have nearly completed the transformation of Ten from a street smart punk turned fiercely loyal maid-friend of ZiQing ... into a stupid, gullible henchman of Meng Wan Yue. These character transformations are jarring and totally not believable but of course are apparently necessary for the plot the writers are contrstructing. Other lame tricks are of course keeping Xiao Sheng - a key witness to something important - unconscious so they can drag out the reveal as long as possible. The frustrating thing is that the overall plot they've constructed seems like they could have gotten there without using such cheap, lazy tricks. They could have gotten to the current scenario with consistent characters and fewer coincidental contrivances.
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Finally got the leads committed to each other and even married. It was a legit question whether ZiQing would overcome her reasonable fear of commitment (since if she goes back 'home' she would lose her lover) but she decides to not live with regret and chooses BeiYue with no reservations. This is probably going to be the emotional 'high' point for the series for a while because if this follows typical c-drama arcs, the last 9. episodes will include every possible problem and crisis to try to tear them apart. Overall, a great episode with the only negative is that the writers had to insert a few minutes of the obsessed psychopath Lige in at the very end, just to try to ruin the episode.
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The romantic tension being built in the relationship between Shen Man Qing and Wen Si Yuan is so thick. Both actors. (Deng Yu Li and Zou Ting Wei, respectively) are really delivering fantastic performances. Especially because it has all been built up slowly with subtlety and nuance and not overt romantic events. Both characters have been walking tightropes and forced to stay controlled. But then Shen makes herself so vulnerable, exposing her fragile heart, when the rain puts out the lantern, it's hard not to burst out crying with her. Ironically, amidst an episode where everything else seems to be going in the favor of the bad guys, her actions are low key the only thing that goes against what the bad guys want. Meanwhile, a potential train wreck feels like it is coming in the up & down relationship between ZQC and SYL due to the plot-contrived dichotomy forced upon ZQC between saving SYL's life and his promise to save her master's life. And then there is the inner demon that Zhu Yan is fighting as they seem to be building him out as the cliche' unrequited '3rd wheel' of the relationship. Will the writers send him on a full villain arc?
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MUCH better episode in a long while as we finally got the 4th Prince awake and doing things and he even was able to go and rescue his wife, finally taking some precious screen time from all the annoying side-characters. This episode still featured some epically stupid script sequences, such as the way Chief Meng was absurdly lenient with his rogue offspring. And the weird 'unrequited love' thing that the writers seem to be contriving out of nowhere for maid Ten (fawning over ML) is just bizarre . But we at least got the two leads back on-line and doing things and even getting some cute time together. So overall a big improvement over the last couple episodes.
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This episode once again leans heavily into trying to make us think Lige is a great guy, worthy of sympathizing for. The contrivances by the writers are pretty blatant and annoying. The keep sidelining BeiYue instead of having HIM do things to help save his wife. It's gotten really weird and makes one wonder if something in the nature of the actor's respective contracts is dictating that the Lige character get so much screen time. This episode barely features EITHER ZiQing or BeiYue. ZQ spends her brief appearances running in a jungle and BeiYue spent most of his passed out (with ZQ's maid Ten suddenly eyeing him romantically for some bizarre reason that the writers must want). The vast majority of this episode is spent on other characters, most acting so bizarrely illogical.
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Till the End of the Moon Episode 37
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Not a bad episode. Not a great episode. At this point, the plot is just kinda dragging. The writers have dove all-in on 'misunderstood hero' trope, with everybody blaming him for everything. While he clearly has a plan that requires that. Fine. We get it. Now they are just taking forever to get to the point.
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When is Zuo Qing Ci going to grow up and stop being an immature jerk to Su Yun Luo? And being such a smartass, asking her to marry him in exchange for helping her master was stupid because while it made him happy to hear her say, "yes", it will always be clouded by the question of whether she would have said, "yes" without the condition of helping her master. I do think she likes him legitimately and probably would have said, "Yes", anyway. But it is dumb to make a muddle like that out of a proposal His behavior continues to be that of someone very, very immature about love and romance. Otherwise, while this wasn't a bad episode, it wasn't very exciting one. Mostly this episode was just about the various relationships as they currently sit after the latest battle from last episode. ZQC & SYL, as mentioned, make up and even get engaged. Jing'er and ChanGe seem to be getting closer and the latter swears a blood oath of brotherhood with Zhu Yan. The most intense relationship addressed is Zhu Yan's relationship with his mother/clan master. That does not go well as she coldly pushes him away, trying to keep him out of the coming battles.
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Till the End of the Moon Episode 36
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Ugh. Once again. The "misunderstanding" plot trope. Cang Jiumin gets conveniently drugged and kidnapped by the idiot Nian BaiYu who is incapable of doing basic logic (trying to save his village by helping destroy the world - brilliant). Simultaneously, Di Mian turns traitorous and frames Cang Jiumin for both killing SuSu's adoptive dad as well as stealing the Evil Bone. And of course, because these are the idiots that consider themselves 'enlightened' immortals, they naturally believe the frame job without any questions or investigations whatsoever. And just to re-inforce the plot-trope, SuSu, the only one who doesn't buy into the trope, gets confined to house arrest by the idiot JiWu who has shown that living 500 years doesn't make you smarter or wiser. The whole thing feels like a repeat of the same plot cycle that we've endured multiple times in this show again and again.
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Till the End of the Moon Episode 34
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Feeling pretty mixed about this show at this point. On one hand, the overall arc is fine and the actors are all wonderful and doing a good job. But the plot implementation has really leaned into recycled plot tropes of late and has started to feel like a lot of cheap manipulation. Things like, characters misjudging each other and over-reacting based on lack of or wrong information, key people just 'happen' to be late / missing / in a coma when their presence would resolve drama. Stuff like that. It's all gotten a little tired at this point. I'm also really tired of the fact that (a) people keep spitting up cherry juice / blood every time they stub a toe and (b) no one takes one second to wipe their chin. I feel sometimes like I'm watching a cheap vampire flick.
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