Love and Destiny (2019)

Another Mind-numbingly Boring Xanxia

I don't have much to say about this drama. It involves the trials and tribulations of a half-blood immortal fairy, who, like all the Xanxia protagonist in C-dramaland, she has no opinions of her own, no real personality, she behaves like a 9 year-old girl inside a 30 something year-old's body, and we are supposed to like her childish passivity because of her overt femininity and "quirky" way of tripping her way into random predicaments.

Nini, you are gorgeous. You have the face and body of a goddess, to be sure, but other than having the exact look of a goddess, and being "nice", what was your character's relatability supposed to come from, if not from having a rounded, interesting character?

I don't think it's necessarily Nini's fault so much as the writer's. I just want to one day see a Xanxia protagonist character with more than just amazing looks. Yang Mi in Ten Thousand Miles of Peach Blossoms started out as a somewhat interesting and interested character, but Yang Mi can't act, and her character became more and more complacent and obedient and less interesting rather swiftly. I can't really think of anything I've seen Nini in where she wasn't playing the same inquisitive, but ultimately passive, demure, and colourless character. I realize I am being harsh towards female characters, but they are supposed to be the main characters around which the drama is built. Replace Yang Mi with Dilraba, replace Dilraba with Nini, it's all the same character in every drama! It just drives me absolutely crazy.

Anyway, back to this Xanxia. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. This one had a lot of money splashed its way for CGI and costumes. Costumes are the same draped fabric Xanxia pastels you will see in every Xanxia, but I do appreciate the interesting beige-ish coloured robes they gave the FL to hint at her not being quite heavenly. If only they would have put that into her character as well, maybe she could have been a bit different and unique.

Rest of the cast was average at best, and nobody really stood out, so their storylines were just a waste of time. With no interesting characters, what's the point of watching a 50+ episode drama?

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Episode 1-60 was awesome. After three episodes I was completely invested. I heard someone compare it to the turn on the eternal love a.k.a. 10 miles of peach blossoms but I don’t think it’s remotely similar. Though the atmosphere may seem the same in terms of having the Lords, masters and etc. The vibe is different and the plot appears to be completely different as well. I will absolutely admit that this is in my top 5 along “ten miles,” this series can absolutely stand on its own and will surpass many of the recent historical romance dramas. You will get some good laughs with the supporting cast and enjoy their loyalty. Heartfelt moments will come from the least expected cast and that makes it even more appealing. I would say in terms of similarities this one is closer to ashes of love with character content. You’ll get your misunderstandings, revenge, love, longing, loyalty, fight scenes, hilarious characters and more. It can be a little slow at times but the content is well cast and well written so it’s not boring.

When you reach the mid to end of the series you will on the edge of your seat. You’ll also wonder what’s going to happen. Each character offered something to this series and absolutely loved each of them. No long confusion. Just sweetness all around. I loved it and watched many episodes more than once.

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I had difficulty getting passed the first few episodes. After that, the story gets interesting and keeps moving. Some of the theme and characters are similar to Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms but it is definitely different. I find the male lead unattractive and clumsy; this is the first work I've seen of the actor so maybe that's the character but it not the omnipotent God of War. Beyond the cons of the lead male character, the drama made up for it with pros of great cinematography and CGI characters. I enjoyed the humor and the second/third leads love story. The story is paced well and evenly where I did not feel dragged down at any one part.

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I pretty much started watching this because of the YouTube fan vids and overall, I really enjoyed what I watched. However there were quite a fews bumps, especially with the story, that prevented me from savoring it as much as I wanted to.

The story and some of the characters are what I have major issues with. Here are some of the problems I had:
1. Pacing. In the first 20 or so episodes, I was really impressed with the pacing. Events unfolded much faster than I anticipated and it made for a very engaging watch. They pretty much finished the entire synopsis of the story within that time frame and it made me think there was much more to come. Unfortunately that's where I was wrong; the pacing slowed down noticeably during the mortal arc (about halfway through the drama), and there was (IMO) way too much time spent here. I also felt some conflicts were drawn out much longer than they should've and some just became so predictable that I ended up fast-forwarding until the arc was over. I also didn't care much for the Shang Ling storyline after the mortal arc. The ending also seemed rushed and left a lot of unanswered questions. The pacing didn't get back on track for me until the last 10 episodes or so, by which at that point I was relying on the OTP and 2ndary OTP to carry that last section so I wouldn't get bored.

2. The villains. Specifically Yuan Tong and Zhong Hao (more on Jing Xiu later). I felt like these characters lived too long and were milked out as the bad guys through the entire show. I almost felt bad for YT being the punching bag of the whole drama, but she really was a bad person. Her clan must've really saved the world or something for her to continuously get pardoned when she really should've died early on. We don't even get to see her die; she kills herself off camera, which is so cheap (I was hoping to see Jiu Chen kill her ugh). Zhong Hao was also someone who should've died early on but again got stretched out to carry on being the villain until Jing Xiu took over.

3. Fake-outs. What I mean by this is that a character would say something is impossible and the leads shouldn't do that thing, but inevitably the leads do that impossible thing and conveniently gets out ok. I can't count how many times Si Ming would constantly warn Jiu Chen not to interfere with Ling Xi's trials or bad things will happen to her but he still can't leave her alone (once or twice was ok, but more than that was pushing it) and still makes it out fine. These types of situations happen a lot in the last half of the drama that made me take situations less seriously and I just couldn't think too much about it or I'd go crazy.

But I still finished this drama and I really liked it. Here are the things that kept me going:
1. Our leads, obviously. Their love story was pure and beautiful and I was doubtful at first because of how much older and colder Jiu Chen was. But wooow we really see how Ling Xi melts his hearts and how they would both do anything to protect and be together. I was quite moved by their love story, although I was quite miffed when Ling Xi pushed Jiu Chen away after the mortal arc; while her reasoning was valid, I wish it was executed better. I also wish their ending was better; it wasn't bad per se, but as someone commented it was like getting a snack when I was really craving a meal. They had a happy ending but it was kinda anti-climatic. I also wanted more OTP scenes when they reunited (I also felt cheated out of seeing them get married lol).

2. 2ndary OTP and side characters; most were amazing and kept me watching. I loved Qing Yao and Yun Feng's love story although again, I wish we had more OTP scenes from them. I also really liked Si Ming and Shi San, and wished we could've seen them grow to love each other. I also really appreciated that the Heavenly King here was a wise leader with sympathy, and had the best interests of our leads at heart. 

3. Jing Xiu. He really is an enigma, in the sense that he's not a completely bad or good person. I went through a wave watching him; I liked him in the beginning as a morally grey advisor, then hated him when he was pining over Ling Mo, then I felt pity for him in the end. He was really dealt with a bad hand in life and did what he could to survive. I agree with him being the main villain, although this should've happened much earlier and with better conviction; at that point, he became the demon king because he saw no other way out. I wanted to see his redemption and wished the writers gave him some sort of an ending because we don't even know what happens to him after he gets sealed up. 

I loved the music in this show, no question. It was beautiful and guided the mood very well. I pretty much have most of the songs in my playlist.

If they had cut some episodes, and refocused on our main leads, this would've made a better watch. But I'm still happy with what I got because I was ultimately here for the OTP and got a wonderful, heart-wrenching love story from them. I will certainly re-watch for them and would recommend you watch too, although with caution regarding the story pacing.

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Love and Destiny .. so far

The production quality of Love and Destiny is very high, and the acting from the actors were great too. I wouldn't want to rattle on and on about the series. If you want a good tragic and frustrating love story that plunge you to the depth and then raise you up to the heaven, (Its didn't work for me). then you are watching the right series. But as for originality, this is where the series falls short, it's too similar to Eternal Love, which is from the same universe, and this time the lucky guy who gets to fall in love this time is the God of War. Another reason this series doesn't really gets me is the plot, it is terribly weak, to be honest there isn't one. The script is terribly written, there isn't much you can sink in, not even the romance bit. Its all fluff and aimless. Among the trilogy of the Three World Three Lives, this is the worst. I snarked at Eternal Love when I first watch it, I think I have to retract that, its is the best of the three. What a waste of talents and beautiful set! What a let down by the script.

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I think this one of the few dramas that really caught my attention. Everything was in place, not draggy but rather on point. In the beginning I was hooked up with Jiuchen n Long xi couple but as time went on my heart fell for Yunfeng and Qingyao couple. They really made me glued on the screen n hooked up to the series especially when Jiuchen was spending his time in the mortal realm with A- mo.
I liked the state preceptors love for A- mo but he just killed all that when he killed her mother. I guess ling xi would have been more generous to him if she knew that he killed her grandpa because he forced him to betray his family.
Apart from all these the heavenly emperor was my favorite character. He was like a supporting father to jiuchen and best uncle to Yunfeng. He really did a lot for these two as if they were his own children.
The character that brought me to attention in this drama wa Le bo, ling xi' s father from peach forest and it really hit me hard when he unjustly died.

The music was on point, I liked everything about the music in this drama. It expressed all types of emotions from every characters point of view. I just downloaded the whole playlist and I am loving it.

The rewatch value is not quite high since its really long but if I have to rewatch I will give it a try especially on the parts of Yunfeng and Qingyao. Hope these two have a drama of their own in the future.

In general the story was beautiful and well written and directed. I didn't see any problems with the CGI or mistakes from the editing. It was a beautiful gem.

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Destiny is the villain

First of all, I think that this series was not for me, yet the plot was good, not excellent, but good. It is a good drama with a clever screenplay that avoids most of the Deux Ex Machina I found in a lot of dramas.

However, it's still not my cup of tea.

I found two major problems, but these are just from my point of view, totally subjective:

First, what I loved from Ten Miles Of Peach Blossoms (I can't avoid the comparison sorry) is that the mix between bad fortune —destiny— and wrong decisions made by the main characters was on point, completely equivalent. I really appreciate those type of characters that must face the consequences of their decisions, the result of their mistakes. Ye Hua committed a lot of wrong decisions and he couldn't protect Su Su.

But in this case, all of the bad deeds that our characters must face are given by fate ('cause the plot needs this). They try to overcome that injustice always, always, and at the end I felt sincerely exhausted.

Second, and I think it's a consequence of the first problem: I couldn't get attached to the characters.

Because they didn't face any other problem than that given by destiny, I couldn't empathize with their feelings or their pain. There was a lot of pain, yep, but that was not enough for me. I couldn't care less of them, most at the last 5 chapters. That was the worst part and I almost laughed when they were separated (over again). How they managed to separate the main couple even in the last chapter? I cannot explain, it was almost hilarious.

So... That's it. I wanted to love this drama, but it was not made for me. And I think that the problem lies just on me.

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An amazing drama with so much tenderness and love! ))

.. One of the super exciting ones! She will capture you completely and will not let go until you watch to the end! )) watched without stopping! + very beautiful music and songs! .. In my opinion NI NI and Cheng Chang perfectly complemented each other! Such a harmony they have . all films or series with them are always excellent, spectacular! )
everything is so well done , the costumes , music and effects also the storyline is quite interesting built ! I lived through the whole drama for the main characters haha
As for Ling Xue, although he played a villain, he has his own charm ... to some extent, he was calculated by the character.
Maybe they must to make less episodes coz some moments was not really necessary but at all , all I liked ) and I think this OST deserve to be rewatched ))

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I watched most of this series during my winter holidays (no work, just binging dramas!) and I'm going to be honest, if it were not for the fact that I rarely drop shows I have started already (unless they're absolutely terrible), then I probably would have dropped this halfway through.

Maybe it's just not my thing in dramas, but the pacing for this was absolutely snail-like. It also didn't help that a lot of the scenes were just eerily quiet with no background music at all. I struggled to get through the beginning episodes, and while it did get better and vaguely more interesting, the whole plot just wasn't engaging enough for me.

Ling Xi and Jiuchen were mainly what I kept watching for and kept my interest for the most part, but I just was not as invested in their relationship compared to the main couples in other shows I've watched. I liked how Ling Xi eventually stopped relying on Jiuchen so much and stood her ground on things, but what irritated me was that she was kept in the dark about most things from basically everyone around her. Side characters I found mildly entertaining, but all other side character relationships, again, I didn't care for, nor did I care about the Shanling tribe which they really pushed in the beginning.

All in all, definitely not a show I would ever rewatch (not even certain scenes), but it was mildly entertaining enough for me to watch 60 episodes of during the holidays.

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The most the most best immortality drama i've watched!

First the Story, y'all should know this story really interesting, the story between God of War and Fairy really caught my attention at first. Even the background story similar with Ten Miles Peach Blossom (10 miles of peach forest) but the story really interested, i still don't get it why this drama really underated huhu. Overal the Story really interesting, from the begin till the end, since the main role also supporting cast really play well with their character

Acting. Lorrrrrd how can i said, even the main Actor here look little bit more oldies but yall should know if Chang Chen played as Jiu Chen really well, as the god of war. I really love his charisma, i think he is the manly and charismatic God of War that i've meet in Chinese Colossal drama. I will put 9.0 for his acting, so on point. For everyone who watch this, i'm preety sure you will fall in love with him😭✋

And for Ni Ni who play as Ling Xi, as the innocent fairy, she's not pretty innocent, like others fairy you eve watch in another drama (Like Jin Mi in Ashes of Love), she is so innocent, but she is also smart and strong too, really— she won't let anyone touch her or fooled her cause she preety savage lmao, i laughed a lot when watching this drama. I really like her character here when played as Fairy who Live in Peach Forest in her whole of her life. When you first time saw her i'm preety sure you will fall in love too with her. I rate her acting for 9.0 too!

And for the soundtrack, you don't need to hesitate. Cause almost of the soundtrack really catch well on my ears especially for romantic scene. Dang you will never forget their chemistry! I really love all soundtrack from this drama af!

Rewatch Value? OFCOURSE YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS MORE THAN 3 TIMES. I MEAN— SERIOUSLY I STILL CAN'T MOVING ON, HOW JIU CHEN PLAYED WELL AS THE GOD OF WAR HIKS. I WANT HUG HIM SO BADLY!😩😩😩😩

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This is a good one if you are not looking to binge watch a show but want a good romantic xanxia style drama that you can put down and pick up with ease. The story is good but not very original, which frankly I don't always want new and different. It's like a comfortable pair of shoes. You know what you are going to get and it's comfortable. I did feel like it really dragged at a lot of places and then all of a sudden something major happens. So, instead of spending a lot of time on something that really didn't further the story they should have focused on how that major event took place, how the feelings developed, etc. The comparison to Ten Miles of Peach Blossom (TMPB) and Three Lives Three Worlds (3L3W) is only fair in that it's part of the same world. So, there will be some things that remind you of both dramas. It is not a remake of either one but it is sophomoric.

The cast was decent. There's a lot of strange comments about the Male lead not be good-looking enough, but I'm like what about his acting. Well, I'll tell you, he was great. He was cold and aloof but turned on the heat a few times. But mostly he was very serious like the God of War would be. The female lead is stunning, so it made it hard to truly evaluate her acting. But she did a good job of portraying the growth and maturity of Ling Xi. But the second couple was what I really looked forward to watching. They were great together. And I ended up loving them the most.

I hated the music. It was boring and annoying.

Overall, I love xanxia & wuxia style dramas, even though this didn't deliver much in martial arts the fantasy and love story were enough to entertain me for a while. It's not my favorite but I'm glad I finished it. I might even edit the review later on when I've had time to think over the show.

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A flawed drama but still a 10 for me

It is a struggle for me to give this a rating..... This drama does not have the perfect execution, the plot is full of angst and tragedies too, but in the areas that it is strong in, it is so strong that these inadequacies become negatable.


Its weaknesses
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- Plot is quite old-fashion, and full of tragedies. In Chinese, I would describe it as 老掉牙的剧情。 Especially when FL was a mortal, it felt like I was watching a ‘90s Taiwanese soap opera.
- Inconsistent plot development and pacing. This drama has 3 acts, acts 1 and 2 are well-connected but act 3 felt out of place. Plot development and pacing slowed down a lot in act 3, making the finale felt rushed and left out a lot of details. Giving it a somewhat incomplete (but happy) ending.
- Time and Logic. Unlike AOL and TMOPB, where it was explained 1 year in mortal realm is 1 day in immortal world, there was no such explanation in this drama. Time pass in a very illogical way when FL and ML were in mortal realm. Eg: while everything is progressing in mortal and heavens, when Jing Xiu left FL to go to the wounded princess, he seems to take a very long time to reach her. As an immortal, he could have tele-transported or flew there? And getting the pill to recover the princess' health, shouldn't have taken him such a long time?
- Overdose of background music. Sometimes the background music got too much, that it overpowered the dialogues.
- Hairstyle designs for the men. Hairstylist gave the best bald design and hairstyle for the male villain (Jing Xiu), while ML and the supporting male characters have really boring hairstyles. Hairstyles for female characters are average. Only in act 3 that the FL got a more interesting hairstyle and beautiful costumes.


Its strengths
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- The sets and CGI. It really invested in building the sets for the key places, and director made full use of them in the shoots. In most cdramas we do not get a full view of the houses, but here the wide angle shots and characters movement give you a clear perspective of both interior and exterior of the sets. It makes the houses feel real as you can actually count how many rooms are there on each level. The CGI is also much better than the average Xianxia drama.
- The dialogues. If you understand Chinese, you would appreciate the scriptwriters’ efforts in the writing. Especially Qing Yao’s lines. She has some of the most philosophical lines in this drama. There are a few scenes of Qing Yao’s that I re-watch a few times because the words are so wonderfully written. Unfortunately, subbing is a challenge here. Its English translation can only capture the meaning, the beauty of the Chinese words are lost. The dialogues for comedy effect are very original and exaggerated too!
- The acting. ML and FL gave phenomenal portrayals of their characters. Chang Chen’s God of War is the best that I have seen. He played the silent, stoic God of War very well, and the tender and sweet moments after he fell in love. Ni Ni….. she’s got a very good role with a wide array of emotions, and gave it a best actress level performance. Ethan Li’s Jing Xiu is captivating to watch-- he conveyed his character’s hopelessness, tenderness and sinister-ness just with his eyes. The remaining supporting cast did good work in their roles too, especially FL’s 2 fathers.
- Attention to details. I love-love the little scenes with extra mundane details, of FL doing everyday tasks (cooking, washing clothes, sweeping). In most Xianxia dramas, they only talk about winemaking, here we witness FL preparing the peaches for wine cultivation. These scenes add to the realism of the characters.
- The OST. This is a 60 episodes drama, yet I seldom skip the opening and ending songs. Both songs are wonderfully melodic and express the drama’s theme well (they are written for the drama). A cdrama reviewer has even done a cover of the opening song on Qin https://youtu.be/DgHz88f6z6o


In conclusion, this drama is not the most perfect, but the acting, dialogues, etc are so good that you are left longing for more (wish there are more episodes).

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