Snowy

This hurt my soul...in a bad way

First and foremost- I have never made a comment or review on ANYTHING I've watched here on MDL but this drama...man this drama made me feel some type of way to compel me enough to write a review.

Before I even start complaining, I want to at least shine some light to the good parts of this show. The chemistry between the actors were great and I've actually seen the other drama (Love is Sweet) that had the same main lead cast :)
The music was amazing and some of the plot was actually really entertaining to see through- especially when they went through the Bo're Life. The outfits and costumes were also just as stunning as the music and some of the visuals. Although CGI is never great in most chinese dramas- I've gotten very used to it haha but this one is not so bad to be fair compared to most!

Now let's get to the crappy part of this show. I was honestly so hyped when a teaser appeared for this show and when it fully came out, the reviews were mostly positive! So I was really excited to watch this but what I ended up getting was severe disappointment. The only reason why I was able to watch through all 40 episodes was because of the cast and the actors themselves but even then, I found myself actually SKIPPING and taking days break from this show (something I almost rarely ever do) because of how terrible it was.

The characters. God the characters...bless the actors for doing so well playing their characters but whoever wrote the script really needs to do a better job in the future because the character development was so butchered- it hurt my soul. Li Su Su constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY repeated her mistakes and didn't bother even trying to "fix" her faults till the V E R Y end which will always and forever piss me off. Tantai Jin was the only character that had a somewhat decent character development throughout this show but even he had many moments where he would also repeat his mistakes to the point of annoyance.

Ye Bing Chang and Xiao Lin we're honest to god a joke. Ye Bing Chang entire character felt like it was thrown under the bus so the audience had something or someone to hate when Li Su Su was literally no better than her half the time. Xiao Lin was a good man as a mortal so why did he end up being so evil when he came back as a member of an immortal sect? Pian Ran and Ye Qing Yu were the only characters that I genuinely liked :/

Moral of the story- I love the actors but holy crap, this drama needs to be redone in SO many ways. For any future watchers, please be weary and don't have your hopes up like I did.

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A beautiful story

I have been waiting for this drama to come out when I stumbled upon the trailer months ago and safe to say, it did NOT disappoint!

The visuals, music, and my god the chemistry between the main leads and even the secondary couple- absolutely amazing. And can I just say how happy I am to see the main couple actually held trust with each other? I've seen so many be mislead in the most stupidest way- so seeing how healthy they were with each other is the biggest highlight of this show.

The only negative thing I have to say is the amount of times Fan Yue died like- brother please- someone give this man a break ToT

Oh and Tian Huo and Mu Jiu- I think the idea itself was cute but their relationship felt rushed, extremely unpolished, and felt more out of place then anything. While story-wise, everything made sense, their screen time felt too short for them to have been a "couple". But on the upside of it, it made it more impactful I suppose. It was heartbreaking to lose Mu Jiu before their relationship could fully blossom and that in of itself is a different kind of heartbreak not many shows do.

I highly recommend watching this guys, everything about this is so worth watching.

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An amazing story from start to finish!~

This drama is far from perfect, especially with it's storyline but it remained satisfying and captivating for me to continue till the very end. So with that said, I'll go ahead and break my review into two main parts!

PROS: When you get first introduced to the main leads, there's a certain narrative that's being told to the audience. But soon enough, the audience gets told the actual events being unfolded and I just want to give some highlight to this specific moment. These two contrasting scenes honestly gave me vibes of "history is written by the victors" statement and it couldn't have been any more true then in that moment. I really love how this was portrayed in the story and how much this echoed throughout the entire show!

Not only was the chemistry between the two main leads were really amazing, the other couples in the shows were also awesome with each other. One thing I want to also point out is that I really like how a lot of the other couples that were shown in the show weren't taking up too much screen time. They were there, yes, but the show never made them the focal point- giving the main characters the pure spotlight they deserved!

I also want to give a little bonus note about Su Yu. With such a twist of fate, I love how he goes from someone you, as the audience (and ofc myself), can find him likeable to someone you so painfully despise yet hold the faintest of sympathy despite it all. I really enjoyed the absolute insanity he ended up driving himself into yet making him still so human. He's genuinely the epitome of human greed, regret, and desperation.

CONS: Now I have two major icks with this show and that's towards two main characters, mainly our two main protagonists. Wei Jiu and Dun Tian.

Although Wei Jiu is more of a supportive protagonist (that ends up becoming an antagonist instead), his character is very..."one trick pony" type. His overall character just felt too shallow and his character development was horrendous. There were moments where the show hinted or even went in the direction of character development with him, it suddenly does a 180 and we're essentially back to square one with him. His sudden change of character occurs at the very last episode with a very convenient time jump/pass. I really wish his character development was built more developed instead of throwing a random character change at the last second of the show :/

And Dun Tian- oh man. He's the main protagonist and I just want to point out that he's probably the lamest protagonist I've seen in a while. Like every story with some form of a villain, there's always a reason why they became the way they did and his reason is as shallow as Wei Jiu's personality.

He claims and cries to the universe that he regrets giving up his wife and kids for immortality and ya know, for a little bit, I could completely see that. After all, he lived his life trying to be righteous and he was more or less in a tough position at the time which was take the chance to kill the demon lord from the world or save your family from the demon lord and potentially ruin your one chance to kill the demon lord.

But what completely shattered this perspective and his overall motivation is when he met his wife's resentment of him abandoning her and his kids. He went on a self righteous speech towards her and how killing the demon lord was more important than them. He not only refused to take accountability for his actions but back tracks? What's even more interesting is that we get a glimpse of his life as an immortal and how he had asked one of the immortals there about his wife and kids and potentially bringing them back. The immortal told him that he needed to let go because even if he wanted to bring them back, its been HUNDREDS OF YEARS. So not only did he do nothing or find a way to bring them back but instead pester someone else about it. I was left baffled guys-

What I find really funny is during peak fight with Dun Tian, Mu Qing Ge called him out saying his reason to destroy an entire realm over a regret he supposedly had was ridiculous and borderline childish. I couldn't help myself but let out a laugh when I heard her say that.

I think they had a solid enough reason for Dun Tian's motivation but completely butchered it to be honest. If they had just fueled his regrets and obsession correctly instead of having this back and forth narrative, I think it would have been a solid 10/10 villain for me.

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In love with this show~

This is by far one of my favorite dramas out there to be fairly honest.

When I first started to watch it, I debated on dropping it within the first few episodes BUT the more I continued to watch, the more I started to adore and value the smaller things that these main leads cherished so much. The simple things they desperately so desire that many of us often take for granted in the real world felt so refreshing to me.

The biggest highlight of this show is that all the characters had such a wonderful development throughout the course of the show. Especially FuRong who I personally believe to have the biggest character development throughout the entire show.

I think the only character in the show that I don't like is MoFang. His development and importance in the show felt very butchered- like he didn't really have a personality which sucked. Even when they showed snippets of ShenLi's and his childhood together to XingZhi, it didn't save anything regarding to him as a character. His character overall was so devoid of personality to the point where his death was very lack luster, I showed and felt very little about it.

And a bonus note: It's really rare for me to stumble upon an ending I truly love. From personal experiences, I've watched a lot of shows where the ending felt either very abrupt, rushed, or it feeling like a massive cliff hanger. The ending to this one was really wonderful and I absolutely love the fact that we get to witness a little bit of their life AFTER they've been reunited.

Overall- the chemistry between all the casts were awesome, the story felt solid and beautiful, and I would 100% rewatch this and recommend everyone else to give this show a chance :)

Also, I found out that the main leads are in a different show called Princess Agents and since I crave to see their chemistry once more- I shall waltz on over there and check it out!

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Nice twists but weak plot

As much as I love the main characters and their chemistry- the plot started to fall really weak somewhere early on to be honest. But let's start with the positives!

PROS: I mentioned it before but the chemistry between the two main leads were awesome! I genuinely loved their love story despite the back and forth but that kind of thing is kind of common to see in cdramas so I guess you can say that I got used to it lol.
I know for some people, the episodes containing their mortal lifetimes felt like too much filler but I really loved watching them because to some degree, they mattered. I do think they could have condensed it a little bit but all in all, it was fine :)

CONS: So there's quite a bit of cons here for me personally so I'll do my best to go through them.
I mentioned the plot falling weak at some point but honestly? It was more in waves then it was a steady decline. It had moments where the show would pick itself back up and then fall into a fat pit of bs.

I want to start off with the second main couple of this drama. Their relationship was honestly...ridiculous to watch. Mainly because of Lu Yao (second female lead). She was unbelievably insufferable in so many ways. I don't mind female leads being stubborn and strong-headed, my issue with her was the weird beef she had with Hong Ning (main female lead) and her odd fondness towards her brother, Lu Jiu, despite having little to NO relationship with him.
Yes, you do see little clips where they DID interact with each other but I swear, it's like the same two clips consistently repeating throughout the show as if this was the directors way of saying "this is why she cares for her brother!" which is both really weak and pathetic to me. The ironic thing though is Lu Jiu kept denying her and never saw her as family throughout the show which I liked because it's more or less realistic. And no, she honestly did nothing to better their relationship expect pushing all of his boundaries. However, they ruined it at the end where she more or less was going to die and all of a sudden, he acknowledges her as his sister???
As for weird beef with Hong Ning made like...no sense. Yes, she was justify to be upset initially when her wedding with Jin Xiu fell through because of Hong Ning. But at the same time, Lu Yao never loved Jin Xiu and even said it was for political reasons. So her weird hatred continuing despite so much time passing never settled well with me at all.

Now onto my biggest annoyance of the show and the biggest weak point of the show was Bai Cha, one of our main villain. His reasons for being a villain in the first place was already weak as shit. I won't discredit that he didn't go through a hard time and faced injustice by the divine beings because he did! He really did but for whatever odd reason, that wasn't what fueled him at all.
What basically broke the camel's back is he believed that Hong Ning was going to abandon him once she comes an immortal. Throughout the show, he more or less becomes more unhinged like any villain would but he did it in a way where at some point, it just didn't make much sense. Like- it strayed away from his original reason as to why he became the way he did in the first place.
The longer you watch him plot against Jin Xiu and everyone else, the more you're just sitting there saying "But why? what is the point of doing this bro? you proved your point, move on already." It became such a drag and at the end, it felt so ridiculously pointless that I couldn't help but just sigh from relief when he dies. Not because I was happy that they "overcame evil" but that he was so pointless to the overall plot that it just felt like taking a breath of fresh air after he dies.
He honestly felt like he was there purely to just give the main characters something to do/overcome just because and nothing more LOL

Last but not least- this one a little minor compared to everything else I've written but I wanted to still point it out. Cdramas never always had the most amazing cgi's or whatnot but for some reason, this drama in particular was really lacking in cgi skills. There are some blatant mistakes and a bunch of weird cuts you see in the show that really breaks the immersion.

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Defying Fate

I'm not sure why people felt like the plot of the story fell off around ep. 28-30 and some even disliking the ending. Personally, I think this drama started and ended pretty strongly.

The plot twists, the shocking discoveries- all of them was awesome to face. Even the side characters story that they share brought so much world building and while I understand not all of them impact completely to the main plot, it gives sub context to who these people were and why they were even mentioned in the first place. This entire drama is about cause and effect. Choices and defiance. So having these side-stories was immensely fulfilling, beautiful, and heartbreaking to witness from start to finish.

Everything that has occurred in the drama happened for a reason due to someone else's actions or simply the unfairness of the rules their Heaven casted onto them. And the characters reacted appropriately (realistic) to every crisis and fallout.

I don't think people really appreciate the complexity and world building this drama did tbh. Especially SML- he's a SUPPOSED to be a bad person yall & a victim. His choices, his belief, all bound to that shitty Vast Heaven simply for the sake of "order" regardless if it was righteous or not. The moment he chose to find his OWN path wasn't supposed to be some kind of redemption arc but a change. A change he was never able to make until he found the strength to do so. Belief and desire is a powerful thing and his character did an amazing job at showing what it can do to a person when they try to hold onto both, even if both their desire and belief is wrong.

This is all my take of course, take it as you all will haha.

In terms of the cast- I love them. The chemistry was on point with the main leads and the SML did a fantastic job at his role! All the actors who played the side characters did an amazing job too and their chemistry with each other was awesome~

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