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The silliness entertained me for about ⅔ of the show
This show is pretty silly. It’s so silly that it can get away with a lot. Super bad CGI and ridiculous SFX? Nonsense plot developments? Idiots everywhere? All in good fun, haha!
I took it easy and just let it roll. And I really was entertained and having fun for a good while, happily blowing through episodes. But then I don’t know if it got less funny or I just got over it, but by 2/3 of the way through or so, I started to sour on it, and by the end I was struggling to finish.
The main character, Li Changshou, is extremely overpowered, but he hides it. His schtick is that he is “steady”, ie doesn’t like risks, plans carefully, anticipates all the different outcomes. This is the theme that a lot of his characterization and development revolve around, but most of the time it just means we get a lot of grand scheme reveals (“it was part of his plan all along! Wow!”)
There is a transmigration framework that’s largely irrelevant, except that a lot of his spells are inspired by modern technology. It took me a moment to realize that it’s not the tech itself, it’s still magic (ie he didn’t recreate any tech).
Changshou is goofy and funny, and it’s fun to watch an OP character with this kind of personality. Most of the time he’s likable and fun and I was rooting for him. But other times, he just... isn’t very nice, and it started to bother me more and more. He is pretty unapologetic about using people with no regard for what they want or even their best interests.
This does go hand-in-hand with his “play it safe” attitude which avoids sticking his nose out for others. But actually, he does try to protect the people he cares about. It’s just that, being a jerk to those he doesn’t is apparently not a thing the show has any problems with- eg nobody is pointing it out or debating him about it (instead, his character development and growth seem to be more about overplanning). I think it’s even supposed to be funny- like, omg, he was a jerk to somebody he shouldn’t have treated so badly, thus setting back his own plans! Haha!
Well, things tend to work out. But not because he cares; more because it just gets brushed off with some laughs, which is a statement about how much the show cares. Gosh, I felt like I was getting gaslit. I still overall liked him, since he’s rushing around saving the day for everyone, but I did also get more and more irritated watching him emotionally manipulate people with no consequences.
That aside, we also have a FL in Yunxiao. I think they tried to make her too distant and unapproachable at the beginning. Later she gets humanized, making her more suitable as a love interest. For a few episodes, their story resembles a classic drama romance with contrasting personalities, minor clashes, and relationship building. It’s alright, just jarring and confusing because I thought she was a different level of being.
In the end, I did not care too much for their relationship. Something about the dynamics and/or the level of development it got, just didn’t do it for me. In fact, I feel like I still don’t have a good read on Yunxiao’s personality or goals, nor do I even know what she is (some sort of cloud?)
The show is actually just very confusing about the different factions and cultivation levels and types of beings, and how they relate to each other. And there’s no sense of scale for the power levels, like the discrepancies seem huge- it’s all just very muddled and confusing. Plus too much Daoist mumbo jumbo, and the term “karma” gets thrown around too much. Like come on, facing the consequences of your own actions is just basic cause-and-effect.
On the good side, the show does have a lot of pretty great side characters. Ling’e is funny, cute, and a good sport; Ao Yi the dragon prince is cute too; but my favorite character is probably Zhao Gongming, the ML’s sect brother. That guy’s deadpan muttering is hilarious. But he only seems to do fly-ins, showing up occasionally, and is not even important enough to factor into the ending. Boo.
By the 20s of episodes, the show starts to get more serious. It still has some jokes to the end, but the tone feels very different. And without all the lighthearted fun that kept me entertained, I realized I didn’t really care that much about the characters or their story.
Closer to the end, the constant stream of unveiled schemes honestly made my eyes roll to the back of my head. From what I understood of it, I was satisfied by the villain motivation, seems unique- but then it all got weirder and weirder. The last few episodes are honestly kind of a mess. I got the gist, but I was also very confused. To be fair, not caring that much probably also factored into my poor viewing comprehension.
For acting, I thought it’s pretty good. Ao Ruipeng is great for goofy roles, and Ai Mi does such a good job too. But my favorite is still the vastly underutilized Zhao Gongming... I never saw He Wunjun before but I hope he gets more roles.
I think the styling is fine, people look quite nice and there are a good variety of costumes. The sets and scenery look decent. Some of the CGI/SFX are pretty fake, but I thought that’s part of the joke. I think the music is done well, always appropriate. And I liked the OST, which covers lots of different styles.
Overall I found this show fun and entertaining for a good long while and I was ready to give it 8 or 8.5 just because I had fun watching it. But as you can see, my rating plummeted. Not only did some of Changshou’s actions bug me more and more, but also once the fun and games ended, I realized that I really didn’t care too much for anyone. Plus the ending is a mess.
By the way, I was surprised at the beginning to recognize this story from a forgettable donghua I watched awhile ago and quickly dropped. In the donghua, the number of buxom young women throwing themselves at the main character got to be too much, and I dropped it because it reminded me annoyingly too much of those harem animes- written by boys for boys. So I don’t actually know how the romantic entanglements end up developing for either the donghua or source material. But for the drama, I’d say the shape of the harem is still here, but it’s very toned down. The girls have a lot more going for them than just their romantic interest, and their crushes feel more like a joke. They aren’t that clingy or obsessed; Ling’e for example, mostly just acts like a little sister. So I had no problem with it and don’t know if I would have even flagged a potential problem if I hadn’t seen the donghua first. I have to say, though, Ao Ruipeng in this show looks uncannily like his cartoon counterpart.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This ends on a cliffhanger. If you ignore the cliffhanger, it’s not quite a happy ending, but it has hope (Changshou will need to take some time to bring back Yunxiao).
Before that point, the ending is a mess of tragic sacrifices, confusing time travel, and things you didn’t know were allowed by the world’s mechanics. And who/what even is “Fate”, who plays childish games and talks like a human? Ok, whatever.
Most of the tragic sacrifices are undone, but you know who stays dead? Dragon crown prince. See, the characters couldn’t be bothered turning back time an extra hour or two to save him, because nobody cares about him. His girlfriend remembers him for about 5 minutes after he explodes in her face, and then everyone forgets about his existence.
But actually, the sacrifice that bothers me the most is from Li Changshou’s sifu’s story. This man’s girlfriend and sifu went on a journey to find a cure for him; I was so confused because the sifu is never mentioned, all the waiting and hoping is for the girl. Then in a random scene he is shown dead, but he isn't mourned or even mentioned. Am I missing something? Somebody died trying to help you, and you can’t even be bothered to remember his existence?
I took it easy and just let it roll. And I really was entertained and having fun for a good while, happily blowing through episodes. But then I don’t know if it got less funny or I just got over it, but by 2/3 of the way through or so, I started to sour on it, and by the end I was struggling to finish.
The main character, Li Changshou, is extremely overpowered, but he hides it. His schtick is that he is “steady”, ie doesn’t like risks, plans carefully, anticipates all the different outcomes. This is the theme that a lot of his characterization and development revolve around, but most of the time it just means we get a lot of grand scheme reveals (“it was part of his plan all along! Wow!”)
There is a transmigration framework that’s largely irrelevant, except that a lot of his spells are inspired by modern technology. It took me a moment to realize that it’s not the tech itself, it’s still magic (ie he didn’t recreate any tech).
Changshou is goofy and funny, and it’s fun to watch an OP character with this kind of personality. Most of the time he’s likable and fun and I was rooting for him. But other times, he just... isn’t very nice, and it started to bother me more and more. He is pretty unapologetic about using people with no regard for what they want or even their best interests.
This does go hand-in-hand with his “play it safe” attitude which avoids sticking his nose out for others. But actually, he does try to protect the people he cares about. It’s just that, being a jerk to those he doesn’t is apparently not a thing the show has any problems with- eg nobody is pointing it out or debating him about it (instead, his character development and growth seem to be more about overplanning). I think it’s even supposed to be funny- like, omg, he was a jerk to somebody he shouldn’t have treated so badly, thus setting back his own plans! Haha!
Well, things tend to work out. But not because he cares; more because it just gets brushed off with some laughs, which is a statement about how much the show cares. Gosh, I felt like I was getting gaslit. I still overall liked him, since he’s rushing around saving the day for everyone, but I did also get more and more irritated watching him emotionally manipulate people with no consequences.
That aside, we also have a FL in Yunxiao. I think they tried to make her too distant and unapproachable at the beginning. Later she gets humanized, making her more suitable as a love interest. For a few episodes, their story resembles a classic drama romance with contrasting personalities, minor clashes, and relationship building. It’s alright, just jarring and confusing because I thought she was a different level of being.
In the end, I did not care too much for their relationship. Something about the dynamics and/or the level of development it got, just didn’t do it for me. In fact, I feel like I still don’t have a good read on Yunxiao’s personality or goals, nor do I even know what she is (some sort of cloud?)
The show is actually just very confusing about the different factions and cultivation levels and types of beings, and how they relate to each other. And there’s no sense of scale for the power levels, like the discrepancies seem huge- it’s all just very muddled and confusing. Plus too much Daoist mumbo jumbo, and the term “karma” gets thrown around too much. Like come on, facing the consequences of your own actions is just basic cause-and-effect.
On the good side, the show does have a lot of pretty great side characters. Ling’e is funny, cute, and a good sport; Ao Yi the dragon prince is cute too; but my favorite character is probably Zhao Gongming, the ML’s sect brother. That guy’s deadpan muttering is hilarious. But he only seems to do fly-ins, showing up occasionally, and is not even important enough to factor into the ending. Boo.
By the 20s of episodes, the show starts to get more serious. It still has some jokes to the end, but the tone feels very different. And without all the lighthearted fun that kept me entertained, I realized I didn’t really care that much about the characters or their story.
Closer to the end, the constant stream of unveiled schemes honestly made my eyes roll to the back of my head. From what I understood of it, I was satisfied by the villain motivation, seems unique- but then it all got weirder and weirder. The last few episodes are honestly kind of a mess. I got the gist, but I was also very confused. To be fair, not caring that much probably also factored into my poor viewing comprehension.
For acting, I thought it’s pretty good. Ao Ruipeng is great for goofy roles, and Ai Mi does such a good job too. But my favorite is still the vastly underutilized Zhao Gongming... I never saw He Wunjun before but I hope he gets more roles.
I think the styling is fine, people look quite nice and there are a good variety of costumes. The sets and scenery look decent. Some of the CGI/SFX are pretty fake, but I thought that’s part of the joke. I think the music is done well, always appropriate. And I liked the OST, which covers lots of different styles.
Overall I found this show fun and entertaining for a good long while and I was ready to give it 8 or 8.5 just because I had fun watching it. But as you can see, my rating plummeted. Not only did some of Changshou’s actions bug me more and more, but also once the fun and games ended, I realized that I really didn’t care too much for anyone. Plus the ending is a mess.
By the way, I was surprised at the beginning to recognize this story from a forgettable donghua I watched awhile ago and quickly dropped. In the donghua, the number of buxom young women throwing themselves at the main character got to be too much, and I dropped it because it reminded me annoyingly too much of those harem animes- written by boys for boys. So I don’t actually know how the romantic entanglements end up developing for either the donghua or source material. But for the drama, I’d say the shape of the harem is still here, but it’s very toned down. The girls have a lot more going for them than just their romantic interest, and their crushes feel more like a joke. They aren’t that clingy or obsessed; Ling’e for example, mostly just acts like a little sister. So I had no problem with it and don’t know if I would have even flagged a potential problem if I hadn’t seen the donghua first. I have to say, though, Ao Ruipeng in this show looks uncannily like his cartoon counterpart.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
This ends on a cliffhanger. If you ignore the cliffhanger, it’s not quite a happy ending, but it has hope (Changshou will need to take some time to bring back Yunxiao).
Before that point, the ending is a mess of tragic sacrifices, confusing time travel, and things you didn’t know were allowed by the world’s mechanics. And who/what even is “Fate”, who plays childish games and talks like a human? Ok, whatever.
Most of the tragic sacrifices are undone, but you know who stays dead? Dragon crown prince. See, the characters couldn’t be bothered turning back time an extra hour or two to save him, because nobody cares about him. His girlfriend remembers him for about 5 minutes after he explodes in her face, and then everyone forgets about his existence.
But actually, the sacrifice that bothers me the most is from Li Changshou’s sifu’s story. This man’s girlfriend and sifu went on a journey to find a cure for him; I was so confused because the sifu is never mentioned, all the waiting and hoping is for the girl. Then in a random scene he is shown dead, but he isn't mourned or even mentioned. Am I missing something? Somebody died trying to help you, and you can’t even be bothered to remember his existence?
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