How to get a happy ending for TTEOTM
Sharing some thought on the ending. Caution, spoilers abound!
1. Apply the concept of ‘death of the author’ – i.e. it doesn’t matter what the writer(s) of a novel/play/drama might have intended, only your own interpretation matters. Disregard whatever the producers or actors may or may not have said in interviews.
2. Whatever the issues may be with gods supposedly not being able to reincarnate, this does not apply to humans/lesser immortals/demons. We also know that demons can come back to life – like Mo Nu. Therefore, you can absolutely imagine that Pian Ran, like YBC/Mo Nu, reincarnates as a human and, somehow and someday, reunites with YQY.
3. Now, tackling the big issue of TTJ’s fate. It’s completely possible to imagine him coming back after recuperating for hundreds of years in the heart protecting scale. Yes, it’s mentioned in the drama that gods don’t have souls and so can’t come back, but even the drama itself indicates this isn’t completely true:
- The obvious example to the contrary is the Devil god himself, who is definitely a god, is basically killed but still schemes and almost comes back after 1000 years.
- Chuhuang is obviously still somehow alive, even though the details of that are never properly explained. She talks to her daughter on some plane in the last episode, and a part of her still exists and is able to react in the harp. In that scene, we also see some unidentifiable other gods.
- LSS expresses hope that Ming Ye and Sang Jiu can meet each other again someday. This would make no sense if it was completely impossible.
4. We clearly see TTJ in the heart protecting scale. Previously, Ming Ye had left a bit of himself in that same scale, and became conscious enough to talk to TTJ when he reinforced said scale with energy. Even so, we only ever hear his voice, which indicates how weak this trace of him is, whereas our hero can clearly be seen, which hints that his presence is stronger. If LSS strengthens the scale every day for 500 or 1000 years with her divine powers, she can help TTJ to finally become strong enough to emerge from it.
5. A further hint towards his eventual return is the phoenix mark LSS puts over his heart. Phoenixes are birds that regularly die in dramatic explosions, only to come back again.
6. Finally, it is a fact universally acknowledged that in a xianxia drama one of the leads has to die/be lost forever but come back in often unexplained and paradoxical circumstances. Some examples:
- In LBFAD, the main hero dies and only a little moon is left. Him coming back is called a miracle, but no one ever bothers to explain how it was possible.
- In TMOPB, everyone thinks the hero has died, but he comes back hundreds of years later after recuperating in a special coffin.
- In L&D, the lead character imprisons himself together with his deadly adversary because there is no other way to keep him contained. However, he somehow escapes without letting said adversary escape as well, with no explanation whatsoever.
Many more examples could be given here.
7. If you are still not happy, remember that this drama allows for time travel. You can imagine a scenario where, hundreds of years later, the main couple’s daughter, having seen her mother miss her dad all her life, decides to give her a mother’s day gift by travelling back in time. She stops Di Mian before he can steal the evil bone, and everyone lives happily ever after.
Last but not least, imagine that many, many years later, Ming Ye and Sang Jiu are reborn as humans. Ming Ye, as befits his previous position as god of war, becomes the ‘war god’ of a big corporation. Sang Jiu becomes a girl allergic to her own tears. Like in their previous life, misunderstandings keep them apart, but, in the absence of a supervillain like Tian Huan, they get their happily ever after as well.
