L13

I know, right? I hope JK acknowledges him later on.

He couldn’t refuse a direct request from the king, so I don’t blame him, but when we were first shown that scene I also thought he would never get his body back.

What stumps me is why Uk is supposed to be the king’s son. It’s true the king’s soul was in JK’s body at the time, but genetically, Uk should be JK’s child. I guess that’s where magic comes in.

I'm on episode 11 and I'm liking this a lot so far. It's mostly serious and mature, but it has some genuinely funny, clever gags; it's not just a romcom in the sense that it's stupid and fluffy. It's so rare to find a romcom that really makes me laugh these days.

I really like the two main characters and their personalities too; the way their younger selves are used to explain their personality types and the differences between them is well done and really carries over to the main narrative in the present day. In other words, the flashbacks at the beginning of almost every episode serve an actual purpose and improve your understanding of the characters.

I find Liu Jing most relatable on a personal level, but surprisingly I like Fang Xin and her love story the most. Fang Xin is a really well drawn character; she's supposed to be this beautiful naive princess who always gets everything she wants and doesn't understand how the real world works, which is usually a very annoying character type--as the drama openly acknowledges!--but her characterisation is so detailed and well fleshed out that you really see her as a three-dimensional, likeable human instead of a stereotype. Plus, the drama uses her to show the dark side of being a beautiful woman in a sexist workplace. Despite her timid, non-confrontational personality, she finds ways to stand up for herself and doesn't compromise with her strong sense of justice. (I really liked the scene showing how she can't lie at all and would rather face humiliation, despite her self-consciousness, than do something underhanded. It really presented this as a character trait, like she just couldn't lie because it wasn't in her nature and would rather face the consequences, rather than as more proof of how noble and pure she is.)

As I said, I like her love interest and the way their story is progressing the most too. I hope we see more of them in the coming episodes. (And that the creep who harasses her at work gets his comeuppance.)

The secondary characters, like Song Chao and Lao Gao and Wang Jicong, Wenwen, Liu Jing's mother, etc. are all compelling too. What I like is that each of them gets a moment to shine under the spotlight; Lao Gao when he demonstrates his talent as the Zhuge Liang of nightclubs, Wenwen when she expertly manipulates her father in front of Liu Jing, etc. Even when they serve to advance the character arcs/subplots of the three main characters, the more minor characters get trademark character moments that are often funny and memorable.

I think Xia Meng is an interesting, well drawn character, but so far she's the one whose story least excites me. Her arc has been all about her personality flaws so far and she hasn't done anything to address them. Her ridiculous lies to Lu Bin are also keeping their relationship from progressing, so their scenes together are not that interesting yet.

I was quite put off by the abrupt shift in the leads' relationship in the middle of episode 4. They went from rivals in one scene to working together in perfect harmony in the next and then to drinking late-night wine in their sleep clothes without any transition or explanation. Like, what even happened? Their relationship development could be much better.

She's 13 when they first meet, then there's a time skip until she's 20.

In the webtoon, there's a larger age difference between them because Sookwang is already a university student (I think) while Seulbi is a sheltered 13-year-old, and even though it's obviously not romantic at that point, their first meeting has bad vibes IMO. So I am really glad they changed Seulbi's age for it.

I think her behaviour is explained by how sheltered and lonely her upbringing was. She's not acting like a child; she's acting like someone who was kept away from society for the first 22 years of her life.

He was trying to convince her that some stranger was too old to be called oppa. That’s not concern; it’s jealousy. Same with the overreaction to her song and outfits.

Also, finally, and this isn't a spoiler, I really like how soft Sookwang is with Seulbi. He takes care of her in the webtoon too, but Na Inwoo has added some great flourishes to Sookwang's character here. He tells himself he has no desire to get involved with Seulbi but keeps treating her with so much care. It's only been a few days and he already thinks of her as part of his life. It's really fun and romantic IMO.

Minjoon is more of a help to Seulbi and Sookwang at this stage of the story (as far as I remember), and more interested in proving himself to his father. In the webtoon, he kinda goes with the flow, but here he has this desire for his father to see him as capable of making his own luck that wasn't present in the webtoon. I think this change makes him a more interesting character and I'm curious to see how it will affect the plot. He also covers up for Seulbi and Sookwang more.

Seulbi can influence people's thoughts by touching them as opposed to simply seeing their future and giving them luck. So there's more to her powers here.

Seulbi's mother had a romantic history with the chairman at some point and he betrayed her feelings. In the webtoon, she had a brief romance with one of the chairman's underlings in her youth. Also, she's pretty physically energetic. In the webtoon, she's so spent from using her powers to help the chairman that she can no longer walk.

The secrets surrounding the chairman's brother and father and the fact the father is still alive apparently are also new, I think. I think the chairman's nephew/Minjoon's cousin (I forget his name) is being set up to become a bad guy/catalyst for plot development. The drama is placing a lot of emphasis on his ambition and his conflict with his father.

In general, I think the drama will make more of this shaman thing than the webtoon did. Seulbi's mother can use magic to find Seulbi, for example. Again, as with the brainwashing touch thing, it seems the webtoon has given these women additional powers.

I'm halfway through episode 3 and I'm already noticing some small differences from the webtoon storyline that were presumably introduced to make the story better and more complex (since they still have to fill up 13 episodes and they've already covered a relatively big portion of the webtoon--both the secondary characters and the main mystery need to be enriched to make a whole drama). I'll list some points of departure from the webtoon that we've seen so far in a spoilered comment below:

It might depend on your country of residence. I know some Netflix dramas have dropped all at once after airing in some countries.

She has a new agency and is reviewing scripts for a potential comeback! That's great news. I'm curious to see what drama she picks and hope she has some good choices.

I don’t have anything more to add because I’ve said everything that needs to be said. You had a breakdown at the suggestion the cdrama industry learned common CGI techniques from Western studios and deranged fans are now claiming they’re copyrighted by Ashes of Love. That’s enough entertainment for me.

And thy don’t make sense.

If you reread my comment, you might realise I said xianxia dramas have computer-animated scenes that are visibly inspired by Marvel movies, not that Marvel invented xianxia.

Also thank you for the new links, which are even more ridiculous. “Airy pavilions” and “waterways” are now Chinese intellectual property? What? Of course ancient China had more multi-storey buildings than ancient Korea, which was less rich and populous. But this is a fantasy story that takes place in a made-up setting that is clearly richer than the actual Korean kingdoms. So it takes traditional Korean architecture (which is heavily influenced by traditional Chinese architecture) to new heights, as befits a fantasy setting. This isn’t plagiarism or stealing; it’s called being neighbours for 2000 years. Chinese snd Korean historical fantasy will obviously depict similar imaginary settings.

Thank you, that was very helpful.

There are no claims of actual plagiarism in the first video except a few shots of CGI. Since Ashes of Love also used CGI to depict magic, the claim is those shot compositions were stolen from Ashes of Love. I find the similarities very unconvincing, given that you can find the same CGI in other xianxia dramas and they were all influenced by Marvel movies anyway.

The rest of it is… elaborate haircuts? Chinese clothing? Blindfolds? None of that is in any way copyrighted, or a serious and reasonable thing to get upset about.

After reading all the butthurt comments on this page, I’m still not sure what exactly this drama is supposed to have “plagiarised.”

Everyone knows that Korea used Chinese characters until (and long after) the invention of Hangul, that many religious and philosophical movements, like Confucianism, spread to Korea via China, that Korea adopted various aspects of Chinese social and cultural life, such as the civil service examination and the scholar-official system, etc. etc. etc.

In return for the rich culture it exported to Korea, China forced Korea to pay tribute as a tributary state, interfered in Korean domestic politics and treated Korea as a colonial outpost throughout its history.

This is a common dynamic between regional empires and peripheral states. The Byzantine and Roman empires had similar relationships with foreign states and other empires like the Mughal, Abbasid and Ottoman ones also functioned as vectors of cultural influence in more complex ways.

It doesn't mean that literary genres that spread outside of the empires that created them are "stolen"; on the contrary, Korea has paid for China's cultural influence in rice and blood. Xianxia dramas, neo-Oriental fantasy settings (this is the popular term, not my invention) and other pan-Asian fiction based on Chinese literary models are the shared cultural heritage of all countries that fell within China's cultural sphere at some point... If China is mad about that--but why would anyone be mad about more fun fantasy dramas being produced?--it shouldn't have pursued an imperialist policy for centuries.

In any case, South Korea is currently the premier producer of murim (wulin)/gangho (jianghu) webtoons in Asia and the manhwa industry has made major innovations in the wuxia comic genre. Popular webtoons like Legend of the Northern Blade, Wandering Warrior of Wudang, Yeon Lok Heun, Poison Dragon, Cold Moon Chronicles, etc. etc. etc. all take place in fantasy Chinese settings, but they're unmistakably Korean in execution.

Basically, you're not even wrong; you're just missing the point spectacularly and saying stupid things. I don't even know what to say to someone so ignorant of the complex cultural exchanges that enriched the literary arts across East Asia.

Lost all patience with this drama when the FL stayed in a relationship with a man she had ZERO interest in for EIGHT episodes while KNOWING the man she liked liked her back. Insanely stupid.

Also the choice to have her finally break up with her so-called boyfriend (whom she couldn't even bring herself to kiss) only when he HIT her (and her boss still had to step in and tell her to dump him) was so cheap. She had absolutely no reason to be in that relationship in the first place and the implication that, if only Su Weiran hadn't become physically abusive, she would have stayed with him indefinitely despite having a much better and more meaningful rapport with the ML, just because SWR and her best friend pressured her into going out with SWR a couple of days before the ML confessed to her, is, like, anti-romance. Romance only works for me when I can tell the people involved want to be together! Why should I root for a FL who places no importance on her own feelings and actively sabotages her happiness for no reason?

I agree; great chemistry and adult intrigue between the leads to start with, but terrible decision-making from the FL and typical jdrama nonsense toward the end making you root against the main couple. All I want is one jdrama with sexy angst where the leads (especially the FL) visibly want to be with each other, actively choose to be with each other and do not hurt each other for the sake of pointless self-denial. I don't understand what jdramas have against female leads who know what they want.

I love the blackbellied ML type, but what I love even more is the idea of a blackbellied ML AND FL. This sounds really entertaining; I hope they do justice to the premise and give us witty banter and elaborate intrigues from both protagonists.