Reviews

Was Promisinig Until it Wasn’t: Dropped after ep 5

I’ll just start off by saying that I have dropped this series after 5 eps (gave it half the series), and idk if I will ever finish this

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Initial Thoughts:
I didn’t really see any promotions for this series and I just found it on iQIYI and decided to watch it since it was another Thai BL period drama, especially since I absolutely loved Love Upon A Time (LUAT) so much. When I first started this series, I tried not to compare the two, but they were just so similar that I couldn’t help it and this series fell far short of LUAT, I’m so sorry, but this series has been boring and disappointing. The plot has so many holes and just things that don’t make any sense whatsoever and it gets annoying and infuriating.

*******WARNING: This reveiw contains SPOILERS for BOTH Love Destiny AND LUAT***********

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The Plot: (very similar start as LUAT, but just not as good)

The story follows a surgeon, Great, who gets shot back in time, approx 300 years into another body, Gaew, and Dech, the second son of the High Lord of the region. Gaew was taken in by Dech’s family as he is a relative of Dech’s mother (are they blood related? I’m foggy on these details, so forgive any errors here) when they were young b/c his was orphaned. Gaew would grow up alongside Dech and his older brother, but when they are adults, Gaew is a mischievous troublemaker, who seems to cause problems for Dech (who watches out for him) and Dech’s mother, who is an annoying ass character, who for some unexplained reason, has always wanted to kick Gaew out of the manor without showing him any love or care that we (the audience) are able to see.

One day Gaew and his close servant, Yam, knock over Dech’s Mother’s boat, causing herself and the people aboard to fall into the stream. They lost a servant in the water and when she came back home, she immediately accused Gaew of the ‘crime’ and urged her husband, the high lord, to remove him from the household, which they refused (*****Side note: the stream looks fairly shallow and shouldn’t everyone know how to swim since they frequently travel by boat and live right by the river, so how did they lose a servant??? Also how did no one on the boat see or try to stop Yam from tipping over the boat, like HE WAS LITERALLY OUT OF THE WATER holding onto the side of the boat, like HUH?????******). So the high lord and Dech, instead, decided to perform a spell at the behest of mother, that doesn’t harm the innocent, but kills those guilty of the crime. (**Side note: so Dech and the father both didn’t want to kick him out, but were willing to perform a spell that could kill Gaew?? makes no sense*****) Anyways, Gaew obviously dies, b/c he guilty and this causes a lighting strike to hit Great (in the present time) sending him back in time 300 years into Gaew’s body.

That’s all ep 1, after that, the plot just slows so much and becomes boring. They introduce some characters, but the plot mainly consists of Great (Now as Gaew) trying to repair Gaew’s relationships and reputations and for some reason, he always seems to end up in jail or in trouble. They introduce Dech’s older brother and a powerful and rich foreign lord, but they don’t seem to be adding to the story. Great doesn’t seem to have any goal nor does he seem to do anything, other than help a person here or there with his medical skills. He tries to go home for like a split second, but then gives up?? (I think), they don’t really make it clear if he wants to stay or go back home?? Anyways it just got so boring

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Plot holes / Things that just pissed me off:
1. I didn’t like how similar it was to LUAT, at least they could have done something a little different. Things that were basically the same:
- someone gets sent into the past (gernally same era) into the body of a lord’s son (so they themselves are lords)
- Has a close servant who helps them with everything (Chuai v. Yam)
- Has a close relation and will end up in a relationship with the respected Lord’s son who liked them first (Phop v. Dech)
- The annoying mother figures and their servants ( the second and third wives of Phop’s father v. Dech’s mother and servant)
- It’s the lord son (Phop v. Dech) who finds him (Klao v. Gaew/Great) and looks for him first
- After time traveling, the ML has to solve a case (Klao with his father’s execution and Gaew/Great with him as the accused murderer case)
- also both casted the same actor (Dech’s father LD and Meng LUAT) which made it even more difficult to not draw the similarities between Love Destiny and LUAT

This was just the similarities off the top of my head, but there are a lot more, and sadly, LUAT surpassed and outperformed and out-scripted Love Destiny in every aspect.

2. anytime any boat was being shaken to capsize, no one ever saw nor tried to stop them from tipping over the boat. LIKE the boat has no walls, it is in an open space, and NO ONE can APPARENTLY see the person ‘jumping’ up and down on the side of the boat???? Like be for real, seriously

3. When Great woke up in Gaew’s body, he ran out and ended up saving a servant who had a large cut in his thighs and was bleeding out. He would end up saving him. First off, this servant has a large cut in his thigh and has been bleeding for a while since he got there, that servant SHOULD BE DEAD BY THEN, how did he live, who knows????!!?!?! Second, when Great/Gaew was treating him, no one seemed to act when any sense of urgency at all, Like are you kidding me?? If this guy is still alive, which he shouldn’t be, he surely ain’t going to survive much longer and no one has any urgency??

4. Aren’t Gaew and Dech related through Dech’s mother??? so how can you have romantic feelings for each other, you were raised as brothers. (At least in LUAT, it was made clear there was no familial connection and that they all grew up as close friends, not as siblings under the same roof and parents)

5. Why doesn’t Great just say that he is Gaew, like come on, everyone thinks you are different and that you are acting suspicously, just tell them you are from the future and that you are no longer Gaew (this would also solve the previous issue, as Dech could have developed feelings for Great) though that would still be weird as he would look like his ‘brother’

6. In the assassination attempt of the Foreign lord guy, after the lord won the fight, why did he just yell and scream at the assasin to reveal who he was and how sent him instead of chasing him, HE WAS LITERALLY STABBED and was walking out of there, like the Lord could have just run after him and caught him, but NOOOOOO. This entire sequence of scenes made absolutely no sense

7. Continuing from 6. When Great/Gaew was accused and arrested for being a murderer, why didn’t Dech just say that Great/Gaew was passed out drunk last night and that he watched over this the entire night b/c Great/Gaew was asleep, OMG an alibi, who would’ve thought that was important and excused him from being a suspect??? Like DUHHHHHH (to which there was no reason or evidence to even accuse him btw)

8. one of the eps (forgot which) literally had no plot and was just a Durian fruit advertisement for no apparent reason, just was HUHHHHHHH

9. One of, if not the most annoying thing, was that they included long LONG end credits which showed the scenes in the future (so instead of like LUAT, returning to the same time, they left, Love Destiny decided to continue the present / future time plot alongside the past). I wouldn’t mind the dual plots, but I didn’t like how they put all the future scenes which were long and important at the VERY END of the ep, I think i missed the first few. It just made it feel disconnected from the series as if it wasn’t even a part of it. For me, I also didn’t like how EVERY person who was in the past, is SOMEHOW in the same hospital the Great’s body is unconscious and being treated in. It just made it feel weird.

10. Dech’s older brother and this entire plot are entirely useless, they add nothing to the story, and should be completed erased from the series. We didn’t need to see him anymore, they could just have written him off as working in the capital or something (also just my opinion, but i didn’t like his visuals)

Keep in mind: These are only the issues I have found 5 eps (halfway) into this series

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The only good thing was Leng, August, and Na’s visuals. Dech for me, was the only interesting character and only character worth watching.

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Overall Rating: 5.5/10. (expected a lot more from this series)

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Tae was done wrong

I'm going to be honest; I wanted Tae and Jaeyeon to end up together & not just because Tae has literally no one else in his life. They had history. Jaeyeon and Geonwoo knew each other for a couple of days before they kissed & who really knows how long they were together before agreeing to date. Yes, I know attraction doesn't work like that & Tae was only ever seen as a friend, but I can't help feeling that Tae was honestly never given a chance. I also feared that he was just going to disappear from both of their lives once he learned they got together. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had just given Tae a boyfriend at the end to show us that he really did move on and found happiness.

We don't see Tae and Geonwoo rebuild any part of their relationship either. Jaeyeon seems to be the only thing making them talk to each other. Why couldn't we have gotten some resolution there? Tae said he's glad they are happy in the time-skip, but that isn't enough. They already were doing a lot in the little amount of time they had; they could have included a little brother heart-to-heart. Especially if Geonwoo was going to end up with Tae's crush of like 10+ years.

Also, what chance did the fortune teller give him? From what I saw, there was no chance for him, so that part just felt unnecessary.

What happened to the stalker who stabbed Geonwoo? What happened to their mother? The woman was apparently glued to Geonwoo as a child, so where is she now? And like I said above, did Tae move on? If he did, I don't believe it was easy at all since EVERYONE he's loved has chosen Geonwoo over him. It felt like the show was enforcing the saying "once second best, always second best" in the cruelest way possible.

This is far from the worst short BL I've ever watched, and I think that's why I got a bit upset with the way they handled the brothers' relationship & the romantic relationships. If they weren't going to actually do anything with the stalker other than use him to push Jaeyeon and Geonwoo closer, then they could have just cut him out completely. If they were going to end up together, they would be stabbing or no stabbing. Use that time instead to fix the brothers' relationship. Use it to make it believable that Jaeyeon and Geonwoo like each other. Use it to give Tae a decent ending! Give this abandoned boy some love from SOMEONE!

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Crazy Meets Crazier… WilliamEst! The Tension!!!

I have been so excited for this series and it’s finally here. WilliamEst are so perfect together and they have amazing chemistry which is shown so well in this series already 1 ep in. I honestly wanted to watch this b/c of WilliamEst, but KinBarcode took me by surprise and now I can’t wait to see their story too.

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So far, the story follows a playboy influencer, Dean (William), who has a colorful sex and social life (to say the least) and a cold-hearted illustrator, Moth (Est) who rejects any romance that enters his life. Dean’s best friend Ten, likes a vet, Pun, who has had a long time one-sided crush on his best friend Moth, but won’t pursue Moth b/c he fears Moth will cut him off. Ten wants to pursue Pun, so he asks Dean to pursue Moth to get Pun to move on, in order to give him a chance with Pun.

This is already such an interesting storyline, especially for GMMTV and I am so glad that GMMTV is finally moving on and creating more red flag / more mature and serious series, not just the cutesy ones we are used to seeing. WilliamEst are doing a phenomenal performance and KinBarcode, I am so excited to see more of them.

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So far, this series is a 10/10, will be updating this review progressively throughout :)

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Something is missing

Something is missing in this series, and I am not actually sure what exactly. The thing is, it didn't hit me like "I Feel You Linger in the Air", even though the story is quite similar. I like that it's a historical drama — some of the political and historical stuff makes it refreshing compared to typical GMMTV productions. I fully appreciate that they're trying to explore different types of stories.

What I didn't like was the second couple's story, despite the fact that I like both actors. What is not working here for me is the lack of realism. And I am not talking about having a happy ending — I am fully supportive of that. But the relationship between them is not deep enough to make me feel like they actually care for each other.

The first couple has more realism in the way their relationship is portrayed. However, it's still not super believable that from the very first moment they saw each other, they had this spark in their eyes, like they had already fallen for each other. Where is the tension building here?

Plus, I think the actor portraying Rati could also work more on his expressions. He always seems surprised or startled.

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Short and enjoyable watch with good development between the leads

This show is a decent, short watch. The FL gets a forced face swap- not body, brain, or anything else, it’s still her (somehow that kept tripping me up)- and marries into the ML’s household. A big part of the story is the development of their relationship, which I thought is really sweet and cute, and made me smile a lot as I watched. I like that he respects her boundaries and is always just waiting for her consent. The show is above-average spicy / explicit, though that’s not really saying much.

Actually their backstory is as fairy tale as it gets- they secretly pined over each other for years only to be coincidentally brought together again now. It’s practically the definition of “only in movies”. We see some of said backstory but never how it resolved, so I’m not sure why the two didn’t just exchange information back then. But you know what, it’s ok, it’s a drama meant to make us feel good, so fairy tale it is.

The characters themselves are likable, though not particularly special. The ML is a general and of course impressive, also very supportive of her; the FL needs to be protected but is not useless, overall a kind, normal, and likable person. She’s pretty relatable and her actions make sense. She is also an artist, which factors into the plot, but her skill level is not a particular focus.

As for the villains... do the SML and SFL count? They are not good people, but also not as evil as villains often are. Throughout the show, I at various times felt extremely frustrated at one or the other of them- they are both way too obsessive for reasons I cannot understand. The SML, especially, really pushed my buttons with the way he just wants what he can’t get, while failing to appreciate what he does have. What an idiot. But I also at various times felt sorry for both of them, and secretly hoped everything would work out.

The plot is not overscoped and moves along at a good pace. I was never bored, and even my annoyance at some of the behaviors was short-lived because the show quickly moves on. It’s too short to have developed side characters, but the few I saw were likable (eg the ML’s advisor, the FL’s best friend). There is a background of politics and some plotting involved, but I’d say the main focus is the development of the romance, which I enjoyed. There is also a pretty great twist towards the end.

For the acting, I thought it’s quite good. This is Cheng Lei before he got famous- I actually thought it’s a better performance than some of his later well-known dramas, but maybe I just have lower standards for short dramas. Everyone is believable.

The production is alright. Styling is ok, not the best and not the worst. For music, the OST at four tracks is longer than most short dramas, though I wasn’t a huge fan of the songs personally. But I think they and the BGM are used pretty well to set moods, and I did like some of the BGM. A lot of the sound effects were too loud though, like footsteps and peoples’ breathy little noises.

Overall I liked the show- quick and complete without other short-drama pitfalls like lack of development or being too disjointed. I found the villain situation a bit annoying and wish those characters had more depth, but I was invested enough in the main leads’ development to not mind so much. I’d give it a 7.5-8 but rounded up for being nice and short- watchable in one sitting with moderate binging skills.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





I think it’s a pretty happy ending. It works out well for the main leads and they form a happy little family. The SML and SFL both meet tragic ends, though they were both so unrelatably obsessive that I stopped caring that much. There is a flash sighting of them at the end which I did not understand.

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Mature and feet kicking

I think this is my first time watching Elvis Han in a drama and I really liked his character in this.
Xu Zi Quan and Tang Ying was so freaking mature and cute.
They started out strong as friends and communicated with each other, shared their feelings, everything and they didnt judge each other too much. Yes there were some misunderstandings but they cleared it up by having a mature converstaion.
I didnt care much about the other characters LOL. Sorry. I was all in for the their chemistry.
Overall, it was a good watch and I am glad it was short.
We should have gotten a wedding!!!

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Immense chemistry

A story that initially seems like it’s simply about two red flags turns out after two episodes to have so much more depth. The characters are layered, complex, and far more intriguing than they appear at first glance. And the chemistry between Dean and Moth? Absolutely immense.

WilliamEst and BarcodeKin truly bring their characters to life, showing just how much acting talent they have through every look, expression and subtle emotion. The cinematography is stunning, the pacing keeps you hooked, and every scene feels intentional.

Beautifully written, brilliantly acted, visually gorgeous, and already impossible to look away from.

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Ah là là, on la laisse vivre paisiblement svp !

When we thought Aunty Yvonne found her people, a choosen family that accepts her for who she is, they stabbed her back stealing her chance to finaly live well.

WHY DO WE HAVE TO SIT PERVERSLY WATCHING HER GO THROUGH HELL AND BEYOND !

What do we get from this ?

This movie really lost its chance to serve a greater purpose.

We know damn well that the world we live in and the world she lives in despise her but by the end we understand that the movie wants to see her suffer as well.

I like tragedies, dont get me wrong, but its not what it is, there is not even pity for her, this movie was made for no other purposes but to torture its main caracter, its so lazy and disapointing.

Aunty Yvonne, my heart breaks for you dear, I am so so sorry that this world was cruel to you.

I want to create a world for you where you are loved, you deserve so much more.

I am so frustrated that we have to daydream a world where we are not hated for who we are.

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This was a solid slice‑of‑life workplace drama that works best when it lets its characters act like adults. I loved the grounded moments — Ji Yoon shutting down her boss trying to steal her work, that clean and satisfying breakup with Ga Eul, and Si Woo’s steady, thoughtful presence throughout. The office politics were annoying but believable, and several episodes delivered genuinely mature storytelling. But the show definitely falters when it slips back into tropey behavior, especially with Ji Yoon’s childish backslides and No‑Ah’s exhausting need to have a man in her life. Mr. Ko’s petty obsession dragged things down too. Still, the cast was enjoyable, the workplace setting kept things relatable, and even with the frustrating detours, the slice‑of‑life vibe carried it enough for me to land at a 6.5 overall.

9/6/26

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I might actually rewatch this some day

My thougts in no particular order, written down while watching the episodes.

Music was actually memorable, in a good way.

Finally, the FL (who has a naturally perfect RBF) is emoting. Hurray! Really good acting on her part, equally on drama and comedy relief. Everyone embodied their characters really well. Nthing much to say about ML, he was good at acting and portrayed the character's struggle in great detail. Oh, yeah, every time he came on screan next to other people, all I could think about was ''he's so tall''.

I love historic dramas, but by gods I hate what they do with the horses. It is fucking painful to watch.

This is the wildest ''I can change him'' trope I've seen so far. My bigest tripe with the overall balanced and interesting plot, is the amount of personal growth FL needs to put up with from the ML. Even if sophisticatedly written and human, abuse should never be excused, which is what happens here. ML behavior is always excused by something, and yes, he changes, and yes, he comes to love her, but in no way this is a healthy relationship to begin with, so not glorifying that.

The humor is natural, good natured and doesn't feel forced. Comedy is well written, easily played out in between drama and shows the complexity of characters.

Plot is easy, excellently written and slow paced. This is not a fast romance, but a very slow building of human relationships. All twists are easy to follow, it's always clear who the bad guys are. Good guys are super loyalists.

The two leads are such dorks when it comes to each other.

Second lead relationship is meh, but each character by itself is interesting, general Liang Wei being the main comic relief and the actor is great at physical comedy. Xiaotao is the only character I found murky because it was never clear what her deal was (or I missed it). She's still a well flashed out and consistent character. Also not sure abut Mr Wei, the way he was acted out was... odd at times. I got the idea that was behind him, but the physical acting sometimes was weird.

Good camera work, scene setups and sets. Finally no unecessary slow motions.

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