This review may contain spoilers
fun enough to watch once for Gong Jun's performance
(Updated Dec 2025)
So typically I'd want to keep my old review but bc I had written a very short review a few months after watching and I'm in the middle of a rewatch to grab scenes for editing purposes and I am finding the rewatch to be an excruciating experience, I'm just starting from scratch. So, firstly, from a BL perspective, I do have to admit that this is pretty epic in that regard. No, there is no kiss bc censorship, but it is unmistakably gay, there is no denying that WenZhou want each other carnally, they have their family unit w Chengling, there are a lot of good scenes demonstrating how deeply devoted they are to each other (i.e. Wen Kexing's willingness to die for Zhou Zishu, Zhou Zishu unwilling to let Wen Kexing die for him; and also the reverse). So if that is the only thing you care about when deciding whether to watch or skip, it's definitely one of the gayest CDramas.
As I said in the headline, Gong Jun's performance is literally the reason the show is as enjoyable as it is. Wen Kexing is a brilliantly written character and he is exceptional in the role. I'm becoming even more enamored with his performance with the rewatch because there are all these little nuances that you can easily miss if you don't know Wen Kexing's backstory. Wen Kexing is smart and strategic, he's been through The Horrors™️but still remains kind-hearted (mostly... if he views you as an enemy, he is Brutal and you are done for), he's fiercely protective of those he cares about and will do anything for that select group of people. Like truly one of the all-time characters, one of the all-time performances. Cannot applaud Gong Jun enough for his work here.
Now onto the negatives...
In my prior review I said that I thought the armory plot was "kind of boring" and this time around I find it unbelievably aggravating. Like wow I have to watch 5 dozen people I despise fight over this stupid key to the armory for a stockpile of weapons (allegedly). I hate basically everyone from the Five Lakes Alliance, I hate everyone from the Scorpion Sect, I hate the majority of the people from Ghost Valley (Luo Fumeng, Liu Qianqiao, Gu Xiang, and of course Wen Kexing you are all beloved and exempt), I hate that old wandering couple, etc etc. Watching terrible people at each other's throats is only fun when it's peripheral, if that is the main story, I just want to blow everyone up. Not involved w the armory nonsense, but I must say it for my own peace: I also hate Ye Baiyi who is seemingly around primarily for comedic relief by being "rude" but I just want to tear his throat out with my teeth every time he opens his mouth.
What I was completely unprepared for with this rewatch, though, was to realize that I hate Zhou Zishu. Like. Oh, he created the torture method that slowly kills members of Window from Heaven if they want to leave. He acts all self-righteous and morally superior when we literally see a flashback that heavily implies he killed a child who was begging him for help after he participated in massacring her family(/village???). The way he "trains" Chengling after finally accepting him as a disciple is straight up child abuse. His shitty mentality of "men don't cry" and constantly pushing this toxic masculinity bullshit (which, to be somewhat fair, is not exclusive to ZZS in this show, but, y'know, as he is the protagonist who we are supposed to view as the moral center... boy it's infuriating!) Like I remembered the first episode being a really unsympathetic set up for him, but I also remembered he had grown a lot on me by the end and I am truly at a loss for how I felt that way the first time. Like... was I just so euphoric about how gay this show was that I had my eyes closed to everything else??????
In my prior review I also said that I felt the final 2 episodes turned unnecessarily tragic and that the ending felt fumbled. Like I don't want to get into huge spoilers (I try not to spoil anything from the last third in my reviews), but basically there's a massacre that feels like the equivalent of the Burial Mounds massacre in The Untamed... except it happens in the penultimate episode so there's no justice, there's no resolution to the horrors that you were just subjected to. It's just like "oh you thought these characters were going to be happy? HAHAHAHA NOPE." FOR WHAT REASON???????? Other than killing off fan favorite characters for Wen Kexing's angst, like literally there is no f*cking purpose for this?????? And then the character who facilitated the massacre doesn't face any consequences??????? What the hell??????????? How are we supposed to feel satisfied at the end when it feels like no one cares about all those deaths for more than 5 minutes?????
Anyway, watch Blood River, it does basically everything that Word of Honor does except better!
So typically I'd want to keep my old review but bc I had written a very short review a few months after watching and I'm in the middle of a rewatch to grab scenes for editing purposes and I am finding the rewatch to be an excruciating experience, I'm just starting from scratch. So, firstly, from a BL perspective, I do have to admit that this is pretty epic in that regard. No, there is no kiss bc censorship, but it is unmistakably gay, there is no denying that WenZhou want each other carnally, they have their family unit w Chengling, there are a lot of good scenes demonstrating how deeply devoted they are to each other (i.e. Wen Kexing's willingness to die for Zhou Zishu, Zhou Zishu unwilling to let Wen Kexing die for him; and also the reverse). So if that is the only thing you care about when deciding whether to watch or skip, it's definitely one of the gayest CDramas.
As I said in the headline, Gong Jun's performance is literally the reason the show is as enjoyable as it is. Wen Kexing is a brilliantly written character and he is exceptional in the role. I'm becoming even more enamored with his performance with the rewatch because there are all these little nuances that you can easily miss if you don't know Wen Kexing's backstory. Wen Kexing is smart and strategic, he's been through The Horrors™️but still remains kind-hearted (mostly... if he views you as an enemy, he is Brutal and you are done for), he's fiercely protective of those he cares about and will do anything for that select group of people. Like truly one of the all-time characters, one of the all-time performances. Cannot applaud Gong Jun enough for his work here.
Now onto the negatives...
In my prior review I said that I thought the armory plot was "kind of boring" and this time around I find it unbelievably aggravating. Like wow I have to watch 5 dozen people I despise fight over this stupid key to the armory for a stockpile of weapons (allegedly). I hate basically everyone from the Five Lakes Alliance, I hate everyone from the Scorpion Sect, I hate the majority of the people from Ghost Valley (Luo Fumeng, Liu Qianqiao, Gu Xiang, and of course Wen Kexing you are all beloved and exempt), I hate that old wandering couple, etc etc. Watching terrible people at each other's throats is only fun when it's peripheral, if that is the main story, I just want to blow everyone up. Not involved w the armory nonsense, but I must say it for my own peace: I also hate Ye Baiyi who is seemingly around primarily for comedic relief by being "rude" but I just want to tear his throat out with my teeth every time he opens his mouth.
What I was completely unprepared for with this rewatch, though, was to realize that I hate Zhou Zishu. Like. Oh, he created the torture method that slowly kills members of Window from Heaven if they want to leave. He acts all self-righteous and morally superior when we literally see a flashback that heavily implies he killed a child who was begging him for help after he participated in massacring her family(/village???). The way he "trains" Chengling after finally accepting him as a disciple is straight up child abuse. His shitty mentality of "men don't cry" and constantly pushing this toxic masculinity bullshit (which, to be somewhat fair, is not exclusive to ZZS in this show, but, y'know, as he is the protagonist who we are supposed to view as the moral center... boy it's infuriating!) Like I remembered the first episode being a really unsympathetic set up for him, but I also remembered he had grown a lot on me by the end and I am truly at a loss for how I felt that way the first time. Like... was I just so euphoric about how gay this show was that I had my eyes closed to everything else??????
In my prior review I also said that I felt the final 2 episodes turned unnecessarily tragic and that the ending felt fumbled. Like I don't want to get into huge spoilers (I try not to spoil anything from the last third in my reviews), but basically there's a massacre that feels like the equivalent of the Burial Mounds massacre in The Untamed... except it happens in the penultimate episode so there's no justice, there's no resolution to the horrors that you were just subjected to. It's just like "oh you thought these characters were going to be happy? HAHAHAHA NOPE." FOR WHAT REASON???????? Other than killing off fan favorite characters for Wen Kexing's angst, like literally there is no f*cking purpose for this?????? And then the character who facilitated the massacre doesn't face any consequences??????? What the hell??????????? How are we supposed to feel satisfied at the end when it feels like no one cares about all those deaths for more than 5 minutes?????
Anyway, watch Blood River, it does basically everything that Word of Honor does except better!
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