Society makes monsters of us all

I am late to the show, but man, what a show it was! I have been picking up and dropping dramas lately, but this one I absolutely felt the need to finish. At first, I thought it was going to be the typical "fairy goddess and evil warlord fall in love and she changes him to be good" trope, but I was so wrong.

Actually, I already could tell how wrong I was within the first episode. None of the characters are really black or white, good or evil. There are many shades of grey. And as I sank deeper into the story, it became obvious that the greatest monster is not the devil god or his minions - it is society who brands a person with a seal, giving them no chance to redeem themselves and inevitably creating the monster they love to hate, thus justifying all the bloodshed in the name of "good". Tantai Jin is such a complex character and I can only applaud Luo Yunxi for his portrayal of what actually amounts to 4 different characters in various shades of grey. And even just in the role of Tantai Jin he is believable as someone not understanding why the world "wants" him to be evil, sometimes trying to escape his fate, but inevitable being forced to make decisions that bring him closer and closer to what he doesn't want to become. He tries again and again to love, to find a place in this world, and he always gets hurt, disappointed and his heart broken by those he thought to be closest to him.

I have read other opinions, but I felt the chemistry between the two leads to be natural and magnetic. It was heartbreaking to see how they came to love one another but at the same time, could not stop hurting each other, sometimes willingly, sometimes by accident or misunderstanding. Love - especially with a fate such as Tantai Jin's and Li Susu's - is never as easy as other dramas make it seem to be. Li Susu, as the apparent "good" character, also has flaws, but to be fair, she comes from a place in time that gave her immense trauma and heartbreak. The fact that their relationship is toxic to begin with feels natural and makes absolute sense.

Excellent acting, so many memorable side characters that actually made me cry. Heartbreaking scenes apart from the main storyline, breathtaking costumes, beautiful soundtrack. This drama has it all. CGI was one of the better ones I have seen, you can tell that they put some money into the making of this drama. If I would complain about something, it would probable be editing, as the last 2 or 3 episodes felt weirdly rushed in some parts and some scenes were a bit difficult to follow. But this could be because I don't speak the language and have to rely on what the subtitles tell me. The Bo're timeline felt a bit detached and could have done with a tighter storytelling, but in the end, a lot of this timeline is necessary because it gives tons of context for later parts of the story. Just, while you are watching it, you want to go back to the actual, "real" storyline, because of course you don't know yet how important this dream will be later down the line.

Yes, there is a lot of what we westerners would describe as the typical cdrama nonsense like going to bed in full dress and ornate hair pieces and spitting rivers of blood. As someone not that into the way acting is often done in asian dramas, I was surprised at the total lack of fake crying and annoying female characters behaving like little girls.

Big fan here, big fan. More of this please, I am an absolute wreck now, in the best possible way. :)

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