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Pulpy wuxia
I am convinced that Ed Guo is the Robert Rodriguez of cdramas. He has a very specific style and clearly is very enthusiastic about the things he likes in this genre.
Which means, if you like it, you will LOVE it. But if you don't like it, then it will be extremely cringe. For me, this means just picking the right mood to watch this.
For one thing, they don't follow small actions at all. Instead we spend most of our time doing dramatic poses and looking cool as hell. As I said, if you are having fun then you will have lots of fun, but if not... cringe as hell. It almost feels like this show is more of a music video than a drama.
Speaking of music, it is the most jarring, abrasive, and overused soundtrack of all time. The heavy handed use of music to scream "this is cool as hell!" has got to be the worst part of this drama. Well besides the dumb plot decisions in the last half.
I really enjoyed the first arc. The characters are interesting and everyone has a distinct style and characterization. It felt a lot like My Journey to You, though I think the similarities drop off as the story progresses.
The world is also pretty interesting, especially in the first arc there is a *flatness* to the social hierarchy that sidesteps a lot of typical palace drama tropes. We don't really focus on power dynamics and social positions -- the ensemble each have their own unique identities and we just aren't doing filial plot stuff at all. I like that it avoids those dynamics, but it might go a bit too far in the flattening because it also means there are a lot of battles that are just a draw. Not really many definitive outcomes and everyone is kind of ambiguously evenly matched. I guess that is necessary so we can have as many fights as there are without taking anyone off the board.
The later half of the show still had some worthwhile things, but I think the beginning could have gone in a different direction that was more grounded. Instead the plot rapidly starts to feel like they are just drawing cards for what happens. Did they actually play madlibs to write this? It literally feels like it, in a single moment they will unveil the most absurd plot points. To me, it really cheapened what could have been an amazing drama.
No but for real, THAT trope was already questionably stupid and lazy, but then they reuse it? Inexplicably?
And worse, the ending, to me, is garbage. Not even an issue of "bad/sad/tragic", it more just is pointless and dumb. All emotional weight is lost.
I could probably write a spoiler filled rant about a lot of things in this drama, but the truth is that it never presented itself as a drama with deep emotional detail or quality narrative writing. So holding it to those standards feels like I'm ordering a milkshake at home depot. Instead, I recommend just accepting it for what it is -- beautiful visuals, fun magic, stylistic fights, and endless aura farming.
Which means, if you like it, you will LOVE it. But if you don't like it, then it will be extremely cringe. For me, this means just picking the right mood to watch this.
For one thing, they don't follow small actions at all. Instead we spend most of our time doing dramatic poses and looking cool as hell. As I said, if you are having fun then you will have lots of fun, but if not... cringe as hell. It almost feels like this show is more of a music video than a drama.
Speaking of music, it is the most jarring, abrasive, and overused soundtrack of all time. The heavy handed use of music to scream "this is cool as hell!" has got to be the worst part of this drama. Well besides the dumb plot decisions in the last half.
I really enjoyed the first arc. The characters are interesting and everyone has a distinct style and characterization. It felt a lot like My Journey to You, though I think the similarities drop off as the story progresses.
The world is also pretty interesting, especially in the first arc there is a *flatness* to the social hierarchy that sidesteps a lot of typical palace drama tropes. We don't really focus on power dynamics and social positions -- the ensemble each have their own unique identities and we just aren't doing filial plot stuff at all. I like that it avoids those dynamics, but it might go a bit too far in the flattening because it also means there are a lot of battles that are just a draw. Not really many definitive outcomes and everyone is kind of ambiguously evenly matched. I guess that is necessary so we can have as many fights as there are without taking anyone off the board.
The later half of the show still had some worthwhile things, but I think the beginning could have gone in a different direction that was more grounded. Instead the plot rapidly starts to feel like they are just drawing cards for what happens. Did they actually play madlibs to write this? It literally feels like it, in a single moment they will unveil the most absurd plot points. To me, it really cheapened what could have been an amazing drama.
No but for real, THAT trope was already questionably stupid and lazy, but then they reuse it? Inexplicably?
And worse, the ending, to me, is garbage. Not even an issue of "bad/sad/tragic", it more just is pointless and dumb. All emotional weight is lost.
I could probably write a spoiler filled rant about a lot of things in this drama, but the truth is that it never presented itself as a drama with deep emotional detail or quality narrative writing. So holding it to those standards feels like I'm ordering a milkshake at home depot. Instead, I recommend just accepting it for what it is -- beautiful visuals, fun magic, stylistic fights, and endless aura farming.
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