Let me start by saying it pains me so very deeply to rate this drama lower than 10 because I love Bai Lu so much and I like Luo YunXi a lot and their acting here was as incredible as I thought it was going to be.
Bai Lu played her characters something fierce. You could feel Ye XiWu’s inner battle between wanting to kill the chance of the devil lord resurrecting because of the horror she personally witnessed and falling in love with the Tantai Jin who isn’t yet the devil lord. The naivety that was Sang Jiu came through the screens and although Li SuSu was majorly relegated to the background during the final lifetime arc, BaiLu still managed to do her justice at the end part of the series when she finally shared the center stage. Kudos my girl.
But I must confess Luo was indeed that star of this show. He shone so damn brightly. God damn. If you think about it he had easy/hard characters to work with, easy in the sense that you can picture what they are supposed to be and emote it, hard in the sense that you can give either too much or give too little but boy oh boy he gave just the right and perfect amount. I was sold on all the characters. The way he played all the characters is mighty impressive. MingYe indeed felt like the god of war, Tantai Jin in Cheng Kingdom felt like a maltreated hostage and Tantai Jin in the Jing Kingdom felt like an unbeatable king. Cang Jiu Min felt like a sect member, and then what can I say about him playing the mighty and devious devil lord that would do his performance justice, I don’t think I have enough words to describe the performance so I will go with absolute perfection.
Why then isn’t this a perfect score for my rating?. The impressive acting displayed and the wonderful cast were seriously screwed over by their writers and I’m not sure I can convey enough how much the writers royally screwed the actors with this weak, useless and illogical plot. It was sooooooo painful to watch, the only thing that made me not drop the series was the combo of one of my fave actresses in Bai Lu, one of my fave CDrama couple in BaiLu & Luo YunXi, the magnificent setting/CGI, costumes and then the music.
The CGI was top notch, the costumes were so beautiful, elegant and powerful, it was a visually pleasing experience
The music was also so good too. Someone said that some of the outfits worn did not match the scene they were featured in. I kinda of agree with the person. Sometimes they felt overdressed for what the scene called for but I forgave them for that because the costumes were just that spectacular. Since the plot was rubbish anyways I might as well get my satisfaction from seeing beautiful costumes.
But god damn that plot was a total mess. I know with fantasy dramas the possibilities can be endless and the writers have a sort of freedom to go outside the box but that’s not what happened here, I had zero problems with the three lives and all but that’s where any sense in the plot ended. The rest of the plot just felt like the writers just wrote whatever the hell they wanted and to hell with the viewers and just honestly without any regards to the intelligence of the viewers. The writers didn’t feel they had any accountability to the viewers and I for one reached and exceeded my tolerance level for the foolishness that the plot became and I started fast forwarding after the dream arc. Lemme tell you, you cannot make up the incredulous nonsense the writers tried feeding and selling to us and I wasn’t eating or buying their crap. The level of misunderstandings in this drama was just so freaking unrealistic and unbelievable. Most of the decisions and actions taking by the characters did not make any sense. I understand plot device and plot advancement and when it’s done well you can forgive it and suspend your disbelief but when it’s cheaply done, it just ends up playing on the intelligence of the viewers. My friends and family know how much i hate when anyone tries to play with my intelligence or lie to me. I tend to be super unforgiving about any and both of them. It’s really hard to describe how awful the plot was without going into details and I can’t because I doubt the space will be enough and I don’t care to make this review lengthier than it’s already going to be. We have someone who is a known liar and a manipulator (to be honest I could not understand the power that was giving to this character in the first 2 lifetimes, it didn’t make any sense) but when she speaks grown ass people, supposedly smart people at that just take her her word as gospel. The amount of times I posted “so ridic” in the VIKI comments section where I watched can make up a script.
I’m not going to further waste my breath on the character that is Tian Huan and Ye BingChang, she was already giving way too much importance that I’m not willing to give her anymore. Although I do echo someone else who said they were glad that Sang Jiu gave her a solid ass whooping, although it wasn’t nearly enough in my book for what she deserved but alas we got what we got.
The amount of blood they spat in this series was enough to start a drink business lemme tell you. Lol
Gongye JiWu’s arrogance and delusions of grandeur did not evoke whatever the writers thought it would, I just found him super annoying useless. IMO he was basically more weak/useless after every lifetime. It’s unbelievable and he was intolerable to me.
Even though he temporarily betrayed Tantai Jin, one of my fave characters is still Nian Baiyu, the way he was loyal and loved Tantai Jin unconditionally was something for the books.
Another thing that I didn’t necessarily like and was not a fan of at all, was that they went a little too far with the satanic occultist vibes.
Honestly a part of me regrets watching this but I know i would have watched it because of my love for the cast members I stated above. I live by a code, I might not care for something afterwards but if I make a decision to do something, I will stand by that decision. So ultimately I can’t really say I regret it. But I definitely won’t be rewatching it that’s for sure
Rewatch value 2/10
Overall 7.5/10