Light entertainment
Perhaps it's because I'm new to C-dramas and Xianxia, but I don't get all the negativity about this show. Yes, the script is iffy with plot holes everywhere and a lot of repetition, barely justified by the fact that we see the main female character going through four different lifetimes with recurrent elements in each one of them. However, I found this drama entertaining for the most part. It's fantasy after all... does it need to make perfect sense? More attention to detail would have made a big difference though.The acting is a bit stiff to start with but it evolves throughout the story and it isn't nearly as bad as I was made to believe. I imagine that was how the actors were asked to portray their characters. I came here after watching Love Between Fairy and Devil and I can see glances of Dylan Wang's Dongfang Qing Cang in his portrayal of Yuchi Longyan, aka the Dragon King. The second storyline involving another couple's love story could have been interesting but it dragged on for too long without giving us much information. I liked the character of Xue Qian Xun [Lord of Luofeng Pavillion] but his counterpart Qing Qing came across as childish and a little bit irritating at times.
I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the third story arc when the female lead is a General. The idea of a war, political plotting and fighting wasn't that appealing to me... But this part became my favourite in terms of the storyline and the acting. I think they should have ended the drama after that somehow. Instead, we're dragged into yet another life that was supposed to show us a superior level on the "cultivation" journey of this woman's soul but rather felt like a regression to the first, naive incarnation of herself.
The visual effects and characterization aren't the best, especially compared to those of LBFAD (since I don't have much else to compare it with). Some of the early fight scenes remind me of a video game when you chose a weapon to unlock powers while the character stands stills doing nothing. But this story is based on a video game after all.
It's unlikely that I would rush to watch it again. I'm sure there are better fantasy stories waiting for me in Dramaland. However, if like me, you want to see more of Dylan Wang or any of the cast's work and fancy some light entertainment, give it a go - it's not terrible.
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