Overall enjoyable, but not that great. S1&S2 better.

I enjoyed this season, but S1&S2 were better.
I've seen Lee Kyung Young (in drama as Cha Jin Man) in other dramas as an antagonist or villain. In this drama, in my opinion, he wasn't an antagonist. He and Master Kim have different beliefs. It's like on a spectrum both of them are on opposite sides (one on the left and the other on the right). In some cases presented in the drama, it would be hard to determine who is right because both brought in valid points. However, I found myself questioning most actions and words of Cha Jin Man throughout the drama. Most of them I disagreed with. His type of character is quite realistic in a way.
I liked how this drama they focused on support roles such as Nurse Euntak and Jung In Soo. We get to see more of their stories and their background. As far as relationships, there were minor misunderstandings between both couples (Euntak and Areum & Woojin and Eunjae) that were resolved and didn't drag out too long.
The cameo role of Kang Dong Joo was a great addition. His character is like the center of a spectrum. He's a mix of both Cha Jin Man and Master Kim. He may not be perfect, but he balances the two sides.
My issues with the drama is medical-related issues. There's a lot of unprofessional behavior shown and most of it is not even corrected or addressed properly. At times, I was even frustrated with Woojin and Eunjae. The two made very silly decisions sometimes but no one bothered to correct their behavior. The drama made it seem like their choices were reasonable when it was not. Doctors are humans that can make mistakes. But it's important to set your ego/pride off to the side and accept where you were at fault and learn from it.
Also some of the things shown were quite unrealistic as well.

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Different than S1, but still good!

I think most people find S1 better is because it related to the personal stories of the characters so there was more aggressiveness and anger in there.
Their approach to S2 wasn't bad. Most of their stories got resolved in S1, and in S2 they do show that Do Gi still has his trauma & how Go Eun is also trying to move on (with that episode of that religious cult and how two sisters were separated ). They didn't show much, and wanted to tie majority of the cases to the Bishop's organization which is fine.
The unrealistic elements in this drama has always been there since S1, it's just for entertainment and no need to throw logic into each situation. I like how they tried to make this more comedic and lighter whereas in S1 it was slightly more dark. I also think the Prosecutor Kang Hana role in S1 was slightly annoying. The revenge never disappoints though. In each case, the villains get what they deserved.
I felt they tried to make the Black sun similar to burning sun which I'm glad they covered that.
The cameo role for KSY was interesting. But it also feels random that they threw in first taxi driver in there. It just makes me wonder how long this deluxe taxi has been going on for.
As for the cliffhangers, I really wish they wouldn't leave off a cliffhanger unless they planned for S3. They just left a case hanging in the end. I think it was a nice case too since it does happen in the military.

There was obvious product placement in this season. I didn't mind it, but wish they would cut it down a little. I think showing the coffee candy once was enough, same with the tonic.

Acting- They all act so well. LJH acting as a country bumpkin or something else. We saw so many different sides. I was skeptical about SJH's character, but he did good too. I felt some pity for him in the end with that plot twist.

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A few issues story wise, but good overall.

If you want an almost perfect story to answer most of the questions that you had while watching part 1/S1, then don't expect too much. For me personally, the story was okay. There were a few issues. I know people had different opinions and some didn't like it. That's why I'm writing this review to show my perspective. Also note, that I'm going to use pt1-2/s1-2 interchangeably.

These are the issues I encountered regarding the stories & characters:
#1) I don't know if the subtitles were mistranslated, but Master Lee stated that Naksu was not a soul shifter which makes no sense. If it wasn't an incorrect translation, that means there's a flaw in the story somewhere. In S1, she performed the AOS but she had a different target & Bu yeon interfered in the process, leading Naksu's soul to go to Bu yeon's body. People who fail to soul shift also have a blue mark in their original body ( Naksu's original body also had one). In S1, by the temple, Gil joo(Jin mu's assistant) tried to shift souls in Jang uk's body but failed & his soul went back to his original body and he ran wild. In the end of S1, where Naku lost control with the bell & was easily controlled by Jin Mu because he gave his energy to her. She also got petrified, a characteristic of soul shifters.

#2) Jin Mu. I feel like they dragged Jin Mu for too long. I understand that he's the main villain, but there were so many occasions where he could've been rid of both in Pt1 &Pt2. It seems to me they came up with every reason for him to survive just so he could be the villain who brings out the fire bird, the source of chaos 200 years ago. Also Jin Mu's death in the fire with other mages didn't feel good enough. Feel like he should've suffered more.

#3) The fire bird. They made it sound like a huge issue, but it didn't seem like one. They never mentioned it pt 1 that the fire bird was the source of chaos. I feel like it should've been mentioned there & not near the end of pt2? Another thing is if the person of the king's star is able to kill the bird, why didn't master seo gyeong do that 200 years ago with jin seolran. Why did it have to be sealed instead? They made it look effortless to kill that bird. In just a minute, Jang Uk killed it without breaking a sweat. That's something that was never explained.

#4) A lot of things felt rushed. If they wanted to end this in 10 episodes, the amnesia shouldn't have been dragged to like episode 8.

#5) The bells. I hated that they introduced it in S1 (it felt unnecessary), but I don't recall it ever being shown to be used again in Part 2. They mentioned it for like 10 minutes just so Naksu would feel less guilty about her killing people.

What I don't see as issues:
1- FL change. If you cannot handle changes and watch a new face or you cannot accept someone new to play a role since you're familiarized with someone else's face for a character, then don't watch it. My honest opinion is that for the character that was shown in S2 for Buyeon/Cho Yeong, I don't see JSM pulling it off. I could be wrong. I liked Pt1/S1 & JSM, but another thing is that we were already shown GYJ's face as Naksu in pt1/S1. It makes sense to use GYJ face in pt2/s2. It may not be a plausible reason, but it was given in the start of pt2/s2. Before, Buyeon kept Naksu's energy under control to prevent her from going crazy and being petrified. However, when Naksu's energy took over with Jin Mu's energy, Buyeon no longer had control. In order to save her life & reverse the petrification, Master Lee stated that they had to use Naksu's energy and soul, therefore Buyeon's body would have the appearance of Naksu's real body.


2- FL's character. I'll admit I'm into strong FL characters myself, but I don't mind the type of FL character portrayed for S2 because it wasn't a frustrating character (most writers turn females into weak, whiny, jealous, immature, dumb characters which pisses me off the most). I, like others, expected her to go back to her usual self, the badass Naksu who kicked ass. When things didn't go as expected, I understood why they chose it that way and I didn't mind it. It actually seemed better. People (and I) forgot that Naksu was the identity of an assassin. She was used by Jin Mu & killed a lot of people & even stabbed the man she loved (although I really hated that part it was the most stupidest thing writers chose to do but that's for S1). It would make sense for her to want to let go of that identity because it was related to her vengeance and dark past. Additionally, Naksu's reputation would never be cleared in the eyes of the people. You cannot convince an entire country that she was a victim instead and attempting to do so would cause problems and further chaos. So letting go of the identity of Naksu, the elite shadow assassin who kills high level mages, was better for her. When her and Jang Uk were getting married, she said she wanted to use her birth name Cho Yeong. We don't know how Cho Yeong would grow up if she did not suffer that trauma. I'm assuming with the trauma gone, she would act similarly to how she was when she had amnesia. Basically the writers saying that if she hadn't suffered she would be like other female characters in the drama like Jin Choyeon or Yoon ok. Yes, one thing maybe they could've done differently is show a physically strong FL regardless of whether there is trauma or not. For example, in the end, Cho Yeong decides that she would be willing to train her mage powers to Chisu level again to help people. Completely different than being an assassin. But she's using her divine powers of Buyeon to help people instead in the ending that they showed us.

Damsel in distress. I partially agree with damsel distress but she's not weak (maybe physically but not mentally) or dumb. When she was trying to get the jade back, she didn't blindly follow the guy into the trap leading to Jin mu. She used her ability to see energy to follow the correct person (So yi). She also didn't inhale the powder that was meant to knock her unconscious & used her brain to jump in water to avoid it. Seo Yul did help her so yes it's partially damsel in distress. In order to prevent the Unanimous Assembly from taking out Jang Uk's ice stone she gave her being a soul shifter as a reason as to why his ice stone cannot be removed. She knew how to respond in times of stress & didn't make foolish decisions. She also got her revenge on Jin Mu (which the writers ruined by keeping him alive till the end).

What I watched this part2 for & liked:
- The continuation of the slight bromance between CP & Jang Uk. This part included a turtle.
- Maidservant Kim & Park Jin.
- Master Lee.
- The romance between Jang Uk & Bu yeon/Cho Yeong. Part 1 felt more of a platonic relationship & more master-pupil.

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LSM(grandpa) & SJK carry the whole show, FL's character is a joke, rushed ending.

A time-travel plot can be confusing and tends to have many loopholes. This drama just had too many of them which is disappointing. The story starts off with Yoon Hyun Woo, a loyal servant to the Soonyang Family, gets betrayed by them and "killed". His soul (?) ends up in the body of Jin Yang Cheol's grandson Jin Do Joon. He has knowledge of the future & this family and wants to get revenge on the Soonyang Family with it.

What I liked:
- The Grandpa and Jin Do Joon characters. How they were able to make you watch this drama if you had no clue about business, stocks/investment.
LSM nailed it with the acting for the grandpa. JYC is such a complex character. I always wondered why JYC's children turned that way when in the first episode he was mentioned in a good way. When he scolded Seong Joon on his 60th birthday party, he told him about how the employee's livelihood depended on them. I took that as the Grandpa being a good person. But later, through Do Joon we find out he is the typical conglomerate's chairman who thinks of his employees as dogs and disregard the lives of poor people. Then we are introduced to his past as a delivery man and understand how hard he worked to become the rich man he is. We also see the tough love he has for his children & grandchildren. Grandpas character was so well done that I couldn't fully hate him. At some times, I pitied his character. I could see why Do Joon's character was also stuck in between. He wanted to destroy Soonyang which is his Grandfather's everything but he also cared for the Grandfather too. The scene where he protects the Grandfather from the oil crisis and covers up the Grandfather when he peed in the elevator. That scene was touching (the expressions were on point!) Then Grandpa's video after death was also very touching.
I liked Do Joon's journey as well. He has motive for revenge, but he hasn't lost all his emotions. He cared for the Grandfather and his family (the way he got revenge on his aunt first because she humiliated his mother). Although he did some things that ruined the lives of poor people because of his revenge, he wasn't completely corrupt.


What I disliked:
- The slight romance forced on us & the FL's character. There was no chemistry at all. It's not convincing at all that they somehow fell in love with each other. They needed the relationship between Seo Min Young & Do Joon as the reason why she's called the Soonyang Grim Reaper. Her first investigation of Soonyang started because of Do Joon (when he was alive and wanted to use her). That was her character's entire purpose to exist. Her character was not developed at all.
- How some of the supporting characters felt the same as the FL's character. Why do they exist? What purpose do they serve?
Example: Ye Joon. She showed up in Episode 1 and then she wasn't seen till like the last 3 episodes? I was wondering the entire time where she was because she was a part of the Soonyang Family that Hyun Woo knew of. She does almost nothing but helps out her father a little and that's it.

What I neither liked/disliked & had mixed feelings:
- What was the point of revenge plot when it would become meaningless? Hyun Woo went to past and we were lead to believe it's for revenge. He was going to have his revenge since he had money and he wasn't poor. His goal to buy Soonyang was for revenge. In the end he died rich, and got his revenge when he was poor. So, his journey was to prove being rich won't solve your problems? If you're poor you can get revenge too?
- Disappearance of supporting characters. After grandma is found to be murderer, she has no role in the story. What happens after that we don't know. She gave up her shares & is a suspect for attempted murder and is never to be seen again. Her role was over & assume to have died of old age. Mr. Lee also disappears after stepping down as CEO & giving Do Joon his shares.



Where I was confused:
- I get some people survive bullets to the head, but fully functional and recover within a week? What part of his head was he shot in? The brain is so complicated each areas have different functions. Are we supposed to believe bullet just went through not damaging a single part of his brain and he is fully functional?
-The ending.
Hyun Woo said he didn't time travel or possess Do Joon. "My repentance for Do Joon." This is where the major hole in time travel is. Are we suppose to take what he said literally or not? In the previous episode he said,"the one who killed me was me." Here he says he basically accepts that he was that version of Do Joon.
In those 20 years, Hyun woo erased the incident about Do Joon's accident from his memories. When he went into Do Joon's body in the past he didn't remember a single thing about Do Joon and you wondered why. Later on, he remembers that Do Joon died. But it doesn't bother him when Do Joon dies or how he dies. He suddenly remembers how Do Joon dies on the day of the accident.
He cannot say he didn't time travel because he indeed changed the past from what he knew. His birth mom died from heart attack, but when he tried to save her and change the past, she died from suicide instead. The Do Joon of the past that was gifted in investing was Hyun Woo knowing the future and using that for his advantage. One day he remembered his past self almost falling asleep as a driver and went to the same spot. But he didn't see himself since it was another "time".
So why would you repent for yourself?
Also how the hell did Hyun Woo have a recording of that call when he was panicking? If Hyun woo kept the evidence of Do joon's accident with himself the entire time, how did he not REMEMBER that he were to die by his own hands.

Why did they use the same face for Hyun woo & Do joon. Initially, I thought perhaps face of Do Joon is different & we just see Hyun Woo's face cause he took over Do Joon's body. But in last episode, the alcoholic dementia guy Mr. Ha is only one who recognizes him & says he's Do Joon. Are we supposed to say,"it's a coincidence, he has delirium and thought it was him? "

Honorable mention:
- the truck of death.
It's funny how much it's used in kdramas that everytime I see a truck I always assume someone's gonna die. It's not even a surprise anymore.

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Light-hearted, not many overused clichés.

I was a bit skeptical watching this drama because I've only seen one drama of both of the ML & FL. So I wasn't sure about how the acting will be here.
I enjoyed it. It was a nice break for me because I've been seeing a lot of dramas with the same events repeating for a couple (such as breakups, misunderstandings, damsel in distress situations, parents causing problems in relationships, jealous exes trying to sabotage the relationship, etc.)

I like how this drama tried to be as realistic as possible. We have a smart ML but he has some flaws as well. They may not be the best flaws (but it's still different than Yang Yang's flawless character with no struggles in Love O2O by the same writer). They spent a decent amount of time to show his struggles and how hard it was for him to make important decisions for his life. I think that was enough to show that he's not entirely perfect. They also tried to throw in some scenes to show that he's not the only smartest character in there. They obviously didn't focus on the other smart characters because they're not the main focus of the story so I think it's understandable.

I also like how the FL's character is written. She's endearing, has a high EQ, and most importantly not obnoxious for the age depicted. I cannot watch FL characters who are shown to be in their late 20's or early 30's and they act like someone who just turned 12. Jing Jing may be playful, but she's not one of those typical childish/dumb FL. (Those childish FL's who have a crush on the ML and start to cling on them right from the start in such a cringe way. Or they use childish tricks to try to make the ML fall for them. Oh, and those FL's who fall for the man immediately when he leans against her while teaching her or they had some sort of physical contact.) Jing Jing somewhat pursues him by making him her coach but she wasn't all over him and following him everywhere.

Now for the romance. It does take awhile for our couple to get together. (I think halfway through the drama they're finally together). So for some the development of the romance will be slow. I think the pace was fine. Our leads were high school classmates, but they didn't have much interaction then. It was necessary for them to get to know one another in the beginning of this drama. Then you can see them slowly fall for each other. The main problem they faced was before their relationship started, so I'm glad about that. They were very understanding of each other. I like how both of them respected each other and they supported each other. They were also both able to pursue their dreams and have a successful career. Their chemistry was amazing! Once they got together, there were some moments where you couldn't stop smiling or getting embarrassed from watching them.

This drama mainly focused on our main leads. There wasn't much story added to secondary characters which I found okay. They didn't need a secondary couple to drive the story forward, the main couple was perfect enough. However, I just found it a tiny bit annoying, that they added some characters in there and they just suddenly disappeared or became irrelevant (like Yu Tu's friends that he played the game with.)

I'd rewatch it but I'd probably skip some parts.
Also, some people might be deterred because there is a lot of aerospace terminology and won't understand what's going on in the scientific aspect. I probably wouldn't focus too much on understanding those scenes and let it hinder the overall watching experience. There is also some gaming in the start of the show, but it's not something you have to understand much either. The gaming aspect isn't the main focus of the show.

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The story doesn't have anything special when it comes to its plot. But I'm glad they touched up on some issues regarding famous people and their fans. They also tried to show the life of a professional gamer and how society views them. They also addressed the gender discrimination in gaming where people think that female gamers can't be better than male gamers or on the same level as them. I'm someone who played a couple of games myself and ran across a few male gamers who would stereotype female gamers as incompetent.

In regards to the characters, I liked the relationship between the teammates(including their manager Rui and Coach Ming) of Team ZGDX. I think the story did a great job of developing their relationship as a team. I also liked the friendship between our ML and Hierophant, Jin Yang & Tong Yao.
I've seen Xu Kai in other dramas and liked his acting. I think he did a decent job here as Lu Si Cheng. At first it may seem like LSC's character is just cold and arrogant, but after watching it completely till the end you see the other sides of LSC's character.
As for the FL's character, I'm glad to see the writers did not make her an annoying or frustrating character because she is childish and has a few flaws. This is the type of flawed childish FL that won't piss me off all the time. She's not strong, but she's not completely weak either. As for Cheng Xiao's acting, she is a bit stiff. She couldn't quite bring her character into life. I also don't understand why her username was Smiling either, because she didn't smile all the time, but it didn't matter that much.
But if you're looking for a good performance from the FL, don't expect too much. I'd say the stiffness is about the same as ZS's Bei Wei Wei in Love O2O.

I think what makes up for the FL's acting is the romance. The main couple bicker a lot and LSC teases TY a lot which I found very cute. They have quite a lot of kissing scenes and good romantic moments. The kissing scenes didn't appear sloppy either (stating that for people who judge kiss scenes cause I know some people do that).

I'm glad there's no crazy love triangles in here. It's light, there is a clingy ex-bf but it doesn't matter. I pitied the ex-bf but I also know why he ended up that way. There's a bit of comedy here too and I found myself laughing over some of the lines and scenes (especially Lu Yue's scenes).

For the gaming aspect, you don't need to be a gamer to watch it or understand it. I think you can enjoy it without being knowledgeable about the game. I'm not familiar with the Onmyoji game myself, but I liked watching the action scenes of the games.

I'd say this is similar to Love O2O (if you liked that drama), but I find it better than Love O2O in most ways. I think the gaming portion is done much better here and you don't have to watch the main characters dress up in costumes for the game scenes (like it was in Love O2O). It's also less dramatic than Love O2O.
The dubbing is a bit weird but not too terrible. I've seen worse dubbing in C-dramas.

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Satisfying revenge. "Villains can deal with villains"

A drama with a "bad guy" protagonist isn't something new, but it's still refreshing to watch than watching a lot of dramas with a typical "moral, righteous, persistent, strong hero". Vincenzo makes it very clear throughout the drama that he doesn't care about virtues or justice.

I think all the actors/actresses did a great job in their roles. In the start I did find HCY's (the FL) character a bit unusual. It sometimes did feel cringe at the start. However, it didn't take much time for me to get used to her character and like her. She isn't one of those annoying FL characters. In the end, her weird expressions & gestures didn't even bother me. I personally liked the supporting characters (the people of Geumga Plaza). I know some didn't like them, but I felt without them the drama wouldn't be the same. I do wish the supporting characters had a little bit of more background story added into them. We were given subtle hints about most of them but some of them were unexpected. It would also make sense why they were behaving in a certain way in the present as well if we knew their story in the past.
The same I would say for Vincenzo. I wish his background with the Italian Mafia would be expanded on. It's not really important but it would clear up the minor questions I had about his character. (For example, I thought he had PTSD with those flashbacks in the start, but I turned out to be wrong. Then I took another meaning out of those nightmares.)

As for the writing/story, I'd say there are a few flaws in there. There are some things that I felt logically wouldn't make sense, but I didn't really mind it that much as it wasn't something significant to keep me away from enjoying the drama overall. l did feel towards the end it may have been slightly rushed. I also think that certain actions& decisions by the characters went out of character. But I will say the writer did a great job of not having me bored at all throughout the drama. Some dramas tend to drag out and become boring, but it wasn't the case here. They did a decent job of leaving majority of the episodes in a cliffhanger.

As for the comedy, I didn't really find the drama to be that funny. I did laugh but it was a few times. There were some scenes I understood that it was intended to be funny, but they didn't make me laugh.

This drama did have me question my morality at some times. I was rooting for the ML with his way of taking revenge and thinking the villains deserve what they get. It felt satisfying to watch the villains suffer for the crimes they committed against innocent people. It's the satisfaction that you don't always get in a typical drama with a hero with morals where justice is eventually delivered.

The only reason I decided not to give it a 10, is because I felt it was less impactful. I won't be thinking about this drama for hours/days (even if I was satisfied and enjoyed watching it). I can easily move onto another drama without thinking about this drama and its end. (Plus a little disappointed cause I couldn't really enjoy the comedy aspect)

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I was actually hesitant if I would be able to finish this drama without dropping after watching Ep 1. On Ep 1, I didn't feel it was interesting. But I kept watching and it got entertaining later on. Ended up binge watching. I like how it isn't frustrating and can be funny at times.
I would say the drama is divided into 4-5 sections/arcs
In each arc, you see how each of the characters grow and develop.
I love how Zhao Jian's character is written. She's independent and strong till the very end. They may have involved her in a tiny bit of romance, but it still didn't affect the strength of her character.
I also love Yuan Zhong Xin's character as well. Both the FL & ML are intelligent in their own ways. If someone were to deceive them, they will figure it out soon. It doesn't take them a bunch of episodes to figure out something and their intelligence can't be questioned.
What I didn't like is how they handled the ending. It does look like a setup for a season 2 which I saw might happen (but not anytime soon?). But at the same time, you can imagine how the second season would play out even if there's no S2. But by itself without expecting a S2, I would expect them to tie up the ending better since the drama's direction in the start leads to the end.
Also kinda wish their production team did better with the drama. When I watched it there were so many odd cuts it looked like sloppy editing sometimes. Even if the site I used had the fan sub version, I don't think the fan would cut the episodes in that way.


*Spoilers below*
- The start of the drama was the Qi Chuan battle and then we see Yuan Bo Qi captured and being privately interrogated by Liang Zhu.
- Yuan Bo Qi disappears from the drama. Then we see 7th squad on their first mission at the prison camp where we encounter Ding Er/Miqin Mubei, who is from Xia.
- Then the 7th chamber has missions unrelated to Miqin Mubei & Yuan Bo Qi and then after Han Dan Zhuang is killed, the secret chamber is closed.
- Then the part where they're in the Bin Province connects to the start. We see Miqin Mubei and Yuan Bo Qi back into the story. You see the connection and truth behind Qi Chuan battle.
However, they left Miqin Mubei alive in the end. I feel that didn't add closure to the drama.
If the problem of Qi Chuan battle was because of Miqin Mubei, then they should've resolved it. He should've stayed arrested or killed or something. But they took another twist, where he's left alive and Zhao Jian is captured along with her father.
It's a weird cliffhanger that I usually see in animes or some dramas expecting a S2 (but it's rare for dramas to have S2).
A good section of the middle of the drama was about Liao. Han Duan Zhang's + Headmaster's scheme against Liao took majority of the drama and Xia was just brought up in the end again.
The missions showed each of the 6 characters growth and development. I feel as if they should've had the missions more focused on Xia and lead it to Miqin and handle Miqin. Then if they wanted a S2 they could've used the Liaos then or another plot based off an issue of S1.
Cause right now, we aren't even sure how long S2 will take and when it will be released. We don't even know if they filmed yet either. It would be disappointing if there's no S2.
My hope is that they don't turn majority of S2 a damsel in distress type of thing where most of it is them trying to rescue Zhao Jian and she can't do anything.

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Hilarious, Interesting, Light & Less Frustrating, Cliché story

I will start off with saying that not everyone will like this drama. If you're looking for a unique story with major plot twists, then this drama isn't it. It also isn't for you if you can't watch a high school story / drama and want something mature.
This drama is based off a webtoon and the drama's story is a lot similar to teen / young adult romance stories or manga.
I did search online about the webtoon and will have to say I'm glad they altered the drama and didn't follow the webtoon completely.
There may be love triangles, but it's very obvious and not like the webtoon where there's uncertainty and could lean to either side. But what I do dislike about the drama is how they left you with an aching heart for one of the characters in an unrequited love.
I also loved a lot of the characters in this drama and the variety of characters they showed.
Ju Kyung's family are fun to watch. Her sister, Hee Kyung's reversed role relationship. I loved seeing her act in a way that most men are expected to behave in relationships and overall.
The story may be cliché , but I still had a great time watching it and was laughing through a good portion of the entire drama. All of the bromance scenes they showed were pretty fun to watch as well.
As for the story's message and how it was handled, there's not much to expect. But I do know that most dramas really don't emphasize much about the message and often stray away from it to not seem like it's a lecture. But I do wish they at least show consequences of bullying instead of a slap on the wrist like most dramas show.

Acting- I've seen a lot of bias hate towards idol actors like Cha Eun Woo and have to say that CEW did a decent job with his character. I've seen him in MIGB and his character from there is somewhat similar to Suho's. But in this drama, I could see that he's improved more than before. For me, Hwang In Yeop stole the show. He was just enjoyable to watch.

I would re-watch it only for my favorite scenes. I don't think I would watch the entire drama all over again.
As for the OSTs, I have to say they were wonderful, especially Chani's "Starlight".

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It was my first time watching a lakorn and I was a little hesitant about continuing this drama after watching a few minutes of Episode 1.
I'm glad I stayed till the end since it wasn't a bad watch.
The story is quite average and some of the scenarios were very similar to many other dramas I watched .
But surprisingly enough, I was hooked into the drama. The story seemed to be mostly based off misunderstandings. And these misunderstandings keep blowing up bigger, causing problems in relationships and creating a distance between people.
I usually HATE stories like these where misunderstandings are dragged out too long. It becomes incredibly frustrating since I've seen so many of those dramas, but I was surprised that I was able to bear with it in this drama. I was rarely pissed while watching this.
I think one of the best parts is the chemistry between the main couple. Yaya and Mark did a great job portraying that. They didn't have much kissing scenes but you could feel their attraction towards each other.
The next best part was the character of Jee. The recent dramas I finished with a Strong Female Lead tag ended up being a disappointment, but not here. Jee was definitely a strong female lead. She had her own weaknesses, but she was not a disappointment. She fought for what she wanted to protect and she protected herself in so many situations that I was rooting for her. Yaya did an excellent job in acting the character, though I did feel some of the crying scenes were overboard but it happens in most dramas so it's fine.
Her friend, Dao, was my next favorite character. She is an example of a good friend. She may not know everything about Jee's heart, but at least she never had misunderstandings about Jee because she knew her friend's character.
Also Suki, Jee's manager. He has this sassy type of personality and I liked it. He was ready to slap bitches and fight for Jee and it was satisfying.
The characters that I neither loved or hated was : Jane, Jate, and sometimes Thit.
Few things that I didn't like was those molest scenes. Any drama with those scenes just make me uncomfortable and irritated and I had to skip those in this drama and just read the dialogue if there was any and not watch the scene.
I didn't like how it felt that we had a short time seeing good moments between the main couple. Their chemistry is really great and would've wanted a tiny bit more than what they showed in the end.
The misunderstandings can be something tilting, but for me the good parts were able to overshadow them.

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Slice of life type of drama, no major conflicts, less frustrating, but lacking & average story

I wouldn't say this drama has anything major to spoil since there really isn't much to this story to begin with. It’s only a watch for people who can tolerate slow-paced dramas with a story line about people's daily lives and their journey. For me, I was hooked in the first four episodes. Then, it started to slow down and get boring for me. Then, the drama started to pick up near the end and get interesting.

The story has no major conflicts either. There's minor conflicts such as relationship issues for the couples in the drama and that doesn't take long to solve for them. That's one of the good parts of the drama. You don't have to watch a couple in despair because of major misunderstandings between them. Although I do feel that some of the minor conflicts they showed for the main couple was quite childish sometimes for their age depicted.

Like most dramas, this one is also full of cliches such as:
- Poor person/rich person pair up for both main couple and secondary couple. One of the hardships that one of the couples faced, (as usual) came from the rich person’s family being opposed to the relationship.
- Parents trying to control their children’s lives, thinking of their kids as tools.
There’s more clichés, but these two were the most prominent.
I don’t mind clichés as much but here it bothered me because I was hoping to see the “Strong Female Lead” to make up for it.
The FL Oh Mijoo was developed poorly to be considered a strong female lead. We’re shown how she can be bold and say what is on her mind with no fear, but then the next second she backs down and starts apologizing when she should’ve handle it differently to not look so pathetic. I think her character would’ve had more impact if they showed her background earlier in the drama. We were just told her background without any impactful clips of her rough childhood/background that would help us with her character. If they had included the clips of her past that they showed in the last 2-3 episodes, I would’ve probably understood her character better instead of judging it based off my own assumptions with the little information we were given about her background as development for her character.
There is still a promising strong female lead which is Dan ah’s character. Some didn’t like her character, but I liked it.
For main characters, I would say I liked Seongyeom and Dan Ah’s characters the most. They were intriguing characters and their personalities were not so simple.

What I didn't like was how they tried to throw in random conflicts in the story and not properly flesh out some characters.
Main example:
They randomly throw in LGBTQ as an issue for side characters but don’t focus on them because they aren’t the main characters nor do they tackle the issue properly either. It takes near the last few episodes for them to give subtle hints about one of the characters being a part of the LGBTQ community. What that character was experiencing (and what hardships they had in society) was never went into depth with/ wasn't shown. I rather them not even include this issue since they didn’t want to address it in depth or properly tackle it. It almost seems like they’re using LGBTQ just to look good.

Romance aspect of drama- I'm probably part of the minority who thinks the secondary couple was better than the main couple. I felt the chemistry was lacking for the main couple. It didn’t even look like they had feelings for each other till near the end. The development of the secondary couple kept my interest and I wished they had more scenes.

Acting- I think they all did a decent job. I wasn't a fan of SSK's acting in her previous dramas. This role does suit her a bit better.

With most of these negative points, why rate it 7.5? There were still good scenes in the drama that I liked. Some of them were quite inspirational. And as I stated before I liked some characters.

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Had potential to be a great drama but a lot of sloppy editing

It's a long review. I put a comment with spoiler with how the ending is not clear. There's so many endings you can take out of it.
FRUSTRATING ISSUES of the drama: Don't watch on Youtube. Subs are missing sometimes. Had to go to Viki for missing subs but the pacing is different from Youtube and I had to go back an episode on Viki.
The part that frustrated me was that I became too committed to this drama. I really wanted to make sure that I do not miss a single scene, so I watched the drama on both Youtube and Viki at the same time (since YT has 56 eps and Viki 55)
SCENES ISSUE- While watching both the YouTube and Viki version, I noticed that one site had the same scene in dark while the other was in daylight. After reading other reviews, it made sense. The editing team for this drama did a bad job on distinguishing day & night. Some scenes required night filters while others did not. It also made me understand why I was confused as to how some people saw Zhao Yao in broad daylight when she was supposed to be invisible.
The WORST part the editing team did to this drama is Episodes 51-end. The scenes were all over the place and not in sequential order. One episode's content was split amongst these 5 episodes. 51-55 is near the end and it was a critical point for the drama since that's when things are finally wrapping up and coming to an end, & their editing messed it up.
For Episodes 51-55, I watched APrincessofMars re-edit 50-55 and then Viki's 51-55. I see the ending they both aimed for.
As for the names issue some may have, I have no issue with it. This seems to be a pattern with Chinese historical fantasy/xianxia/wuxia genre. I've only watched TMOPB before this and it had the same issue. Characters name suddenly change and you're like confused for a bit till you understand who it is.

GOOD PARTS of the drama:
-The Acting. Especially Xu Kai and Bai Lu. I came to watch this drama after finishing AMA which made me come here for more. Xu Kai is not just a pretty face with a cute smile as some have said; his acting pulled off Chen Lan's devotion, sadness, sacrifice, and so on (you could see the emotion in his eyes). I find myself less attached to characters in general and whenever I do become emotionally attached, that's a sign that the character had an impact on me. When watching the last episode (of the fan edit), I was crying when he made his last sacrifice and what his last words were. Bai Lu did a wonderful job of showing the development of Zhao Yao's character. Shane Xiao also did a nice job by pulling off multiple characters. She had to act like Zhao Yao's demoness character and her own character of a shy, weak girl.
(Regarding Zhao Yao's character, I don't think they diminished her character. When she saved Mo Qing, she was strong, but was clear about her ambition. After becoming a demoness, while she helped people, she didn't do it in the way she originally envisioned, because she lost trust. While she was not in her full strength when looking like Zhi Yan, she still had her great martial art& sword skills. Chen Lan did save her a few times, but during that time they were building romance and try to clear Zhao Yao's misunderstanding of him and rebuilding her trust. They also had to make her realize that Chen Lan was making her original dream come true. Even though her character wasn't the same as the time she was a demoness, she was still strong. And also, when she regained her powers, she had her own battles. Chen Lan let her deal with Ming Xuan on her own and dealt with the phoenix instead. And when Chen Lan was abducted, she went to fight Ming Xuan again. She may have been helped a little, but she did most of the battle. Also strength of a character doesn't depend entirely on physical elements alone. You could see with how she saw through most of the traps set for Zhi Yan that Zhao Yao isn't a completely clueless character as the way Zhi Yan was painted. Zhao Yao also didn't fall for blackmail threats either.
- The Romance. The chemistry between the main couple is hooking. It was the main part of the drama that just kept me going despite there being so many issues with the editing.
- Some of the side characters and their stories (Qin Qian Xian & Shi Qi, Gu Han Guang & Shen Qian Jin, Sima Rong specifically)

What I DISLIKED about the drama:
- Crashing weddings. I didn't care so much about Zhao Yao sealing off Luo Ming Xuan on his wedding day cause he was such a hypocritical being and wanted to kill and killed innocent people. They did a thorough job of making you hate Su Ruo completely so you never felt sorry for her, even though she did evil things out of love and sexual frustration (literally what she expressed about regretting not being able to have sex on their marriage night). But what I was pissed about was our main couple. When they were discussing marriage proposal, I already predicted their wedding would crash, was hoping it wouldn't, but it did.
- How they tried to change Jiang Wu's character last minute and attempt to redeem him. Initially, I had no problems with Jiang Wu, but then he got on my nerves. At one point, Zhao Yao made it clear she likes Chen Lan, but he is still crazily obsessed over her. He crashes her wedding which was the start of me being pissed at this character. But then they try to make him to a good guy who saved Zhao Yao with his heart. BUT THEN he stabs Chen Lan with the Liutenhiayi Sword causing Chen Lan problems. THEN he tries to provoke Chen Lan KNOWING that he has an inner demon and cannot control it. He PURPOSELY made him jealous and causes his own friend's death. But he blames it entirely on Chen Lan and asks for a life in return and kills Ah Da. And they try to redeem him by showing him "sacrificing" himself and then being Zhao Yao's sword against Ming Xuan. If they wanted to redeem him, then they should have made his character less irritating. But his crimes are on the same level of Su Ruo.
- Lin Zi Yu. Her character is worthless in the drama. Should have been deleted.Or they could have just made her the male character from novel.
- Repetition of Chen Lan riding the dragon with his eyes closed. Repetition of same flashbacks.
- Killing off people that are in relationships. I felt like this drama had this repetitive theme. While Zhao Yao & Mo Qing don't start off officially as a couple, they kill her off for 5 years leaving Mo Qing heartbroken and then develop their romance. Then you see Rong's lover Yue Zhu getting killed. Then when Gu Hanguang and Shen Qian Jin come into the story, I was expecting to see Qian Jin to die when she has the Cold Poison taken over her. And at this point, I theorized the drama is killing off all the women in the couples. But nope! They kill off Gu Han Guang. They crush your hopes of a Qin Qian Xian & Shi Qi couple. Why even bother trying to develop romance between them if you're just going to kill them off?
- The ending. Even if I understood both fan re-edit and Viki's ending.. Viki version.. they couldn't do a proper job making it continuous. And make the costumes match. But this is the drama's team fault.
- UNEXPLAINED events in the story which also led to plotholes
- Zhi Yan's weak character. She acted it nice, but sometimes I was annoyed at how clueless and weak they made her look at the start.

Overall, even though it seems like I have more complaints, I still can't say I hated the drama. I did find somewhere about the differences between the novel and drama. I'd say the novel cut down unnecessary love triangles and fillers. Better explanations. Had a better and happy ending that the drama failed to deliver. I think some parts of the drama that weren't in the novel were fine while I also wished they included some parts of the novel such as the ending and less killing of relationships.
If I were to re-watch, it would just be for the romance of the main couple and scenes with my favorite side characters. Everything else I'd skip.

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A small warning - Don't watch the opening/ending songs unless you want to be spoiled for the drama. I'm glad I skipped through them and watched it in the last episode to see what it had, otherwise I would have known too much.

I thought the story would be typical same as any other story where a female disguises herself as a male and runs into romance with someone who she is around as a man. But there's so much more to the story than that.
While there is romance, the main story revolves around the military, politics, and history (Japan vs. China). So if you feel as if it is "Anti-Japanese" as some claim for historical dramas like this, then don't watch it. There's also some funny moments that you laugh to.

Regarding the romance in this drama, I'll warn there's a lot of love triangles in this drama. I wouldn't even call it triangles, it's more like a love tree or some sort of diagram. There is no gushy type of romance here either. You might get disappointed because you don't see kiss scenes between the main couple, but I think because the main story revolves around the military and historical issues, the romance had to be limited. However, I think the romance between the main couple is sweet. In the beginning of the drama, you see a lot of cute, fluffy moments between the main couple, but the story starts to get more intense and you start seeing less of those moments. The relationship between the main couple was built nicely too. The show does try to throw you off with the love triangles. It makes you feel bad seeing one of them in an unrequited love. There was one person who was in a love triangle whose persistence did piss me off slightly, but thankfully, even though it took the last section of the drama, the person gives up and moves on to someone that was there for them which I'm happy about.
I will also add there is tragedy even if it isn't labeled as one. The fact that it revolves around military and battles is a sign that people will die. And these deaths are quite upsetting to see. It didn't make me cry or anything, but it was just sad for a moment because some of those characters, you grow a liking to.

One of the strong points in the drama is the friendship. The academy shows the growth of characters who become a group of friends (along with the FL). Some of them may not get along in the beginning, but over time and with what circumstances they had to go through together, they grow closer together and develop a deep understanding of one another. You also see redemption of one student in the Academy which was nice to see that they did that for him.

As for how the women are portrayed, I think they tried for a realistic approach for them. You're not going to see weak women and then women with supernatural strength. You see most of the women trying to break barriers and being independent for the most part(since in most situations they do receive a man's help). One woman tries to change traditional society's views. Another breaks academy rules and disguises as a man. You slowly see her get stronger to the point that she can handle some situations by herself or be able to fight some men. Another woman is a boss. The nice part is that our FL isn't shown to be dumb. She is smart when it comes to crucial situations.

Overall, I would say they did a good job of showing the growth of many characters in the drama including the ML(he develops nicely and you start rooting for him throughout the drama). Some characters were just forgotten about and held almost no significance. Some things they didn't explain properly regarding some minor characters. There's also so many characters and you have to try to know their names, but some of them end up dead or not shown later on.

I will say the last 9-10 episodes, is where you just get the most hooked. You're stuck with anticipation since that's where it becomes most intense. Everything before that was just building to this last bit. I think they could have cut down on some of flashbacks though. There was a situation where the same flashback was repeated.

I forgot to add, if you want to see some of the deleted scenes of the drama, you can find some of them on YouTube. Apparently 60 minutes were deleted, and some of the scenes had kissing scenes (and comical ones too).

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After watching the drama, I wanted to see how the movie was and I see why a lot of people don't like it.

The only thing I can watch it for is Yang Yang's face and any scene with Yang Yang. His character as Ye Hua is decent (though I prefer Mark's portrayal more). But the rest of the characters are a no from me.

Even if I were to try to look at it differently from the drama, the movie made me cringe ESPECIALLY the cooking scene. That cooking scene could have been reduced and the time could be used in something else. The drama itself had a few questions unresolved. But it wasn't as bad as the movie. If you were to watch this movie without the drama, you would not understand the story much. Watching the drama before the movie helps in filling in the holes. With a roughly two hour time frame, they should have arranged the story better to make it less confusing for the audience and less plot holes.

As for the chemistry between the two leads, I didn't feel it much. Again, for something to be of 2 hours length, the romance didn't build enough for me. It felt fake for me. It's also partially because of the plotholes. They also didn't give a proper development between the two characters.

I didn't like Crystal's Bai Qian either. She did a nice job in acting. But I liked the character of Bai Qian depicted in the drama by Yang Mi.

And I personally felt the CGI effects in some scenes looked more unrealistic than the drama itself (it felt some of them were coming from a Disney movie). In some scenes the CGI was better than the drama but for the most part, I felt like I was watching an animated background with real people in it and it just looked weird.

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(No spoilers in this first section of review)
I went into this drama with low expectations despite seeing all the positive reviews and comments. I haven't watched much C-Dramas so I wasn't familiar with the cast. When I looked at the cover photo and some of the photos of the drama, I wasn't really impressed and had a feeling I wouldn't like the actors at all.

I went into the first episode and I was interested in the story. I eventually got hooked into the drama and binge-watched it. I know this genre isn't everyone's type. It was my first time watching Xianxia as well and I still liked it. The drama also ended up being an emotional rollercoaster. Had some nice plot twists. I watched the opening and ending scene and through each episode I would start theory crafting. I was usually wrong for the most part and I'm glad I didn't figure everything out despite them spoiling a few scenes in those songs.
For some, the first few episodes may seem uninteresting and slow. But I can assure you, it starts to pick up. The one thing I will say is that the drama does throw you off with some wording/subbing. For example, I went into the drama wondering where the demon tribe is since it was mentioned but they mainly focused on the Ghost Tribe. It took me a few episodes (like 6?) to understand that Ghost Tribe=Demon Tribe. They are supposed to be used interchangeably. I'm not sure if it's a translation error, but it did throw me off at the start of the drama. There were other times where they would call Bai Feng Jiu , Xiao Jiu and it took me time to understand they are same person (same with other characters as well). Also, the time. The timeline they use from the Celestial Palace to mortal realm didn't make sense. It would have been better to just add a small note on bottom of screen (like oh this is blank day of mortal realm = blank day of celestial).

Acting & Characters-
I really liked Yang Mi and Mark Chao's acting. They both did a wonderful job portraying their characters.
Yang Mi did a great job in portraying her 3 characters Si Yin, SuSu, and Bai Qian. Each of them had their own personalities, my favorite being Bai Qian. As for Mark, he really made you love his character by acting out as Ye Hua.
Their chemistry was on point! I was pretty much hungry for their scenes.
As for the antagonists, I would say they aren't exceptional. They may have done a good job in making you pissed at them but their motivations were similar. I did want to see more scenes regarding the other support characters such as Zhe Yan, Bai Zhen, and Mo Yuan. They made a side story drama for Feng Jiu & Dong Hua (with Lian Song + Cheng Yu), but I still wanted to see the rest of the characters in more scenes.
Music- I do have to add Bracing the Chill was my favorite! I usually don't comment on music but this one whenever I watched on a higher volume to hear the music, would always add to the emotional scenes.
Rewatch- I don't think I'll get bored. I already rewatched some of my favorite scenes since I wasn't over the drama. But the entire drama I probably will rewatch in the future.


*SPOILERS BELOW* (A long rant about what bothered me & what was confusing, and then the good stuff)

In the first 10 episodes, we see Si Yin's character and Mo Yuan. I already figured out Mo Yuan had developed some sort of feelings for her because he did whatever he could to protect her. I expected Si Yin to have feelings for him as well, but then unexpectedly she falls for Li Jing. I personally didn't want them to have a relationship because I just didn't like the playboy side of Li Jing and I'm glad they didn't get into a serious relationship. I didn't want to see our female lead become vulnerable to him. And in a way it's a good thing she saw his pathetic self who cannot understand her and decides to cheat without using his head.

I was surprised though that they let Xuan Nu steal the tactical strategy for war. I thought at least Mo Yuan would be smart enough to see through it. They didn't show how she stole it, but I assumed she transformed to Si Yin. It could have fooled the other disciples, but HOW did it get past Mo Yuan? If he was available to see through Bai Qian's transformation, why not this?
Then we don't see Mo Yuan for 70,300 years since his spirit is scattered and we learn he isn't the story's focus. The story's main focus is Ye Hua. We all know that he's from the golden lotus but why does he look like Mo Yuan was a mystery. I always thought it was a spirit of Mo Yuan and that's what needs to be recovered for Mo Yuan to come back alive.

When Bai Qian undergoes a trial in the mortal realm, a red dot appears on her forehead. They never really explained its significance? Why did she get it all of a sudden? Was it to show that her powers sealed? But if that's the case then how come Ye Hua didn't notice it? He didn't question why she has a mark on her forehead or look into it. They made it look so normal. Feng Jiu's plumed cockscomb was explained, but not this. Was having a red dot normally seen as a birthmark? But then in the portrait Ye Hua drew of SuSu, the red dot wasn't drawn. Does that mean it was just something for viewers? If so, why make it a viewer thing when we all clearly know that she lost her memories?

Episodes 19-25, we're introduced to Su Jin creating problems. I was frustrated with the drama with this but held through. I was also angry seeing how SuSu's character was weak and gullible. She fell for the same tricks by Su Jin over again causing her to lose her eyes. But seeing how Ye Hua wasn't the same as Li Jing, made me continue. Ye Hua was truly devoted to her in the mortal world, prepared to sacrifice everything for her. But after being caught, he had to pretend to be cold in order to protect her. Although his method was not the best way, he at least didn't betray her and stayed loyal to her.

Episode 26 and onward gets even more interesting. You finally see Bai Qian's character. Qian is shown to be unafraid and smart. They showed how attentive Ye Hua was to immediately figure out SuSu is Bai Qian (you can see how he really loves her just by picking up every detail of hers). The drama slowly built their relationship again with problems as well, but not the same as before. Bai Qian is much wiser and was able to see through Su Jin's tricks. The drama handled Xuan Nu and Su Jin's case pretty well. When Bai Qian regained her memories and took her eyes back, I was cheering for her. That was something I wanted to see badly. The same applies when Bai Qian showed Xuan Nu's true self and went to battle alone. The plot twist of Ye Hua being the twin brother of Mo Yuan never occurred to me. I was always wondering why they had the same face and even when it was in lotus form it showed his face. But that explained a lot about Ye Hua. The part where Bai Qian is upset with Ye Hua after remembering everything and then she didn't even have the chance to reconcile with him teared me up. They went to battle right away and he dies without them being able to have a talk. The ending did satisfy our hearts seeing them together again which I knew they would find a way to bring him alive from the opening/ending songs. But it was nice that they gave us a brief somewhat believable explanation. They just added a last minute (convenient) detail about how Sea of Innocence can help with recuperation along with the coffin being an artifact. The part where he only used the Heavenly Father's power and not his own spirit was believable.

What I wanted to be more clarified/ and see more of:
-A Li's relationship with Bai Qian. It doesn't look like a typical mother/son relationship which was funny and I was fine since she didn't remember him. But, after Ye Hua's death, Bai Qian was depressed for 3 years but didn't see her son? I get she couldn't see her son that much because he has to study a lot with a new burden on him because of his father's death.
- Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen. These 2 are always together. I wanted more of their bromance.
- Mo Yuan with someone else. I felt so bad because when he came back he finds out the disciple he loves is with his younger twin. And every time she mentioned Ye Hua's name he was a bit hurt. But I'm glad they showed Mo Yuan different and willing to give up and bury his feelings.
- Su Jin's maid receiving punishment. I'm sure she did, but they never showed it. The maid was pretty much an accomplice.
- Season 2 of this with Bai Qian and Ye Hua with the same actors again. While the ending was nice for them kinda wished to see more scenes of them with another plot. No more of their relationship issues. Just keep building their relationship. I felt like their scenes were not enough and wanted more. Gotta see their wedding and everything.
- How was Ye Hua easily able to get his arm movement back?

What I didn't like:
- How the main 2 female antagonists (Su Jin and Xuan Nu) are the same. They both hate Bai Qian being the interest of the man they love. It's like they're showing how women go crazy over the man they love and are willing to do anything.
At least give the other antagonist a different motive.
- Qing Cang is just a threat for a few episodes. He's a threat in the start and all we see is him in the bell mostly and then out for a few minutes till he dies. I feel like he could have been shown to be a better antagonist than the ones above.
- Feng Jiu constantly trying for Dong Hua. I just don't like how the character looked almost desperate. It's nice to show her sincerity, but seeing her get constantly hurt was just sad.
- I found it funny how Su Jin was punished by Ye Hua's grandfather when he knew about her scheme to kill Su Su for him. Yet, the grandfather didn't get punished? Where's the punishment for that? If Dong Hua can get punished by the heavens why not him? YH's grandfather pretty much supported Su Jin's scheme for SuSu.
- The drama is too short actually. They should have made it longer & developed characters better. And more YH & BQ Scenes!

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