Not a wasted moment in this episode. Every scene advances the plot setup. The visuals are stunning, from the battle scenes to the coffins on the street.Plotwise, an unexpected reveal is given to the audience in Lady Wei having a flashback to her son Jun's last words before leaving for the battle. He told her he planned to marry upon returning. This makes Lady Wei believe Chu Yu's story that she and Jun had a promise to marry. So she has become an unexpected aly for Chu Yu in her integration into the Wei family.It's still not clear whether Yu and Jun _did_ have a promise to marry. Maybe Jun had not yet discussed it with Yu. But he at least planned to take that step.
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Right off the bat, the visuals are really impressive in this show. Great costumes, sets, camerawork, lighting - the production values are very high in this first episode. The characters introduced are all interesting with some very experienced, talented actors. Plotwise: The initial setup of Yu creating a 'faux' romance with eldest brother Jun in order to provide cover for an investigation is interesting in that she and Jun actually seem to have some initial chemistry. If we didn't already know from the show premise, that they are not, it could almost kick off a show where the leads grow from a non-romantic fake romance to a real one. Short version: There is some tangible chemistry between Yu and Jun and a legit loss of at least a confident and friend, if not a lover looming due to the show's fated premise.
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Much better episode. Nice to see some real growth among several side characters (Sheng, ChuChu & Yan). It would be nice if the two leads could move past the 'he flirts and she growls' stage. They've been stuck at that level for a long time, despite going through quite a lot together.
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Weird 'battle' scene. This episode had all the structure to be a good episode. But the 'battle' scene where the defenders of 48S face off against Gu Tianxian and his Disha goons is just bonkers weird, with everyone just standing around.Standing around talking instead of doing is unfortunately a recurring problem with this show. The cast & characters are great. And the overall plot is actually pretty good. But the pacing is just terrible. The directing and editing are just plain awful.
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Too many long conversations. I get that they are trying to supply a lot of exposition this early in the series, but this episode had a few really, really, really long, boring conversations when the character should have been doing stuff.That said, this episode did have a few nice action / fight scenes. And it did progress the plot, including first interactions with the main villain and start to build a relationship between ML & FL.
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This was a welcome, surprising shift away from the 'unrequited stalker' trope. Wei Yan was never held to consequences for his uninhibited behavior but now finally has realized that because he crossed lines of what is appropriate behavior - even if he kept some of it private - he has caused damage to his family and people he cares about. Even though the rumors of the affair are fake and spread by others, it was HIS behavior that opened the door for those rumors. Learning this lesson was a huge character growth step away from the never-blame-self psycho that his character type usually is in dramas. And he is selflessly going to take the hit to try to fix things.The performances of both Liu Yuning and Liu Duan Duan, playing deeply emotionally flawed characters (in different ways) is amazing and very intense in this episode as they come both to a boiling point and then back to their brotherhood.
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Much, much better episode than recent ones, with the leads returning to acting like the brilliant characters they were in the first 10 episodes.
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Still disappointed in this whole 'Wei Yan' arc because the ML & FL have apparently become stupid. Holding out hope that the writers will return them to form soon. Also disappointed that ML has not had any character growth - in particular healing of his severe emotional trauma - for quite a few episodes. That's a slow process and it will feel silly if it all happens at once late in the series.
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A little frustrating that the writers have resorted to making characters act uncharacteristically stupid in order to move the Wei Yan plot-line. This span of the series is a massive let-down in story quality over the earlier episodes because of the sudden reliance on tropes and plot-induced-stupidity. They've also leaned into adding the stereotypical obsessive-stalker-psycho villain (Wei Yan) that is so common in c-dramas. In other words, a lot of this stretch of the series feels lazy and put together with off-the-shelf parts. It has lost the originality and cleverness of the first 10 episodes that did not rely so heavily on tropes. I hope that they get past this phase soon and get back to original story-telling.
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An extremely event-filled episode. This one had by far the most 'action' so far, starting with the FL getting impulsively expelled from Xindu by the ML and as a consequence having to take multiple decisive actions in order to prevent tragedy, including saving the ML's army from disaster. The ending of the episode is particularly dramatic and emotional - in part on purpose by the FL as she has to really hammer home how bad the consequences of the one bad decision by the ML could have been. The ML has a lesser role in this episode other than his initial, revenge-fueled, impulsive decision to expel her, and then later, his show of actual concern for her safety and more subtly, his remorse for his impulsive earlier decision. He seems definitely chastised and this should mark a distinct change in their relationship. This episode also introduces someone (her cousin & former fiancé') to play the classic 3rd-wheel-on-the-bicycle, 'other guy' in the form of a classic, self-absorbed, obsessive stalker type who confuses past friendship with love. This trope character is extremely popular in asian romance dramas and apparently this series is not immune to using it. I hope they don't spend TOO much time on him, though.The FL learns in this episode that she misread just how deep the ML's hatred still is ingrained in him and that was a dangerous mistake. The ML learns that his impulsive, hate-fueled decisions can have disastrous consequences. He has to be a good leader in peace as well as combat. He also learns that she has real value as someone who will make smart choices that benefit him. And notably, the episode closes with Qiao Man Man making a distinct choice of Wei Shao (for a variety of reasons) over a (superficially) safer, ostensibly allied suitor (the cousin).
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Finally, characters are talking to each other and revealing much needed truths. Not sure why the writers insisted on making the otherwise brilliant Ming Yi so clueless when it came to the obvious facts around her lineage but it's almost all revealed now. They still have her for some reason not recognizing that the symbol on JBZ's forehead is the same as on her adoptive mother & father's foreheads.
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Slightly better episode than last because in this one they finally clarified a few plot points: JBZ blatantly told Situ to stay away from his woman. Situ finally seemed to admit to himself that she has zero romantic feelings for him. Situ completed his turn to villainy by merging with the netherbeasts. And Ming Yi finally was allowed by the writers to show an inkling of common sense regarding Situ's suspicious and dangerous nature.But otherwise, this episode again spent just way too many minutes on Situ feeling sorry for himself. So sick of that.And the writers still need to stop portraying Ming Yi as so clueless. She's supposed to be this brilliant warrior and yet continues to act blind to obvious clues about so many things.
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The Seven Relics of Ill Omen Episode 19
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The Dark Mu Dai / Red Shoes story arc was a big improvement over the first three arcs. The writers didn't rely on contrived shenanigans to move the plot. And Mu Dai's personality convergence was well done..
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The Seven Relics of Ill Omen Episode 10
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This episode was better, but overall this series is pulling a plow. And wasting a lot of time on weak comedic setups to contrive drama events. The 'humor' of Cao and 13K's idiocy has gotten old.
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The Seven Relics of Ill Omen Episode 6
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I hate when the writers depend so much on having characters behaving incredibly stupid or irrationally just to create either plot events or contrived tension. They do it again this episode, and again with 13K being an idiot, irrational jerk who hides potentially key info from the group.I'm sure next episode will reveal some sob backstory which explains why he didn't reveal the info and it will try to make us feel sorry for him. Lame. Doesn't change that the writers are just leaning on the plot-induced-idiocy trope and then providing episode sob-story filler to 'explain it'.
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