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Five Stars

Great finale! Love that the final battle was both tangible and intangible. The scale was dramatic and also romantic. Beautiful visuals, especially in Dongfang Qingcang's Heart Sea. Kudos to the two leads, Esther and Dylan, for really great performances throughout this series. The two of them really carried this story with each taking the lead at different moments and always having great chemistry.I'm glad they stopped spending so much screen time trying to make Ronghao a sympathetic character in the finale. They had wasted so much time on him in recent episodes and it just didn't work. He was despicable all the way through and I felt not single tear of sympathy for the creep so all the flute playing and sad memorial flashbacks just felt contrived and manipulative without succeeding. And boy did that slow down those episodes. Thankfully, they left that behind for the finale.I was a little disappointed that the SML, Changheng, started to backtrack on his character growth in the middle of the battle, but he seemed to have recouped in the denouement. They left it hanging whether he will truly grow past where he's been stuck but it was at least looking promising.Most of the other side characters seemed to move toward positive directions that made sense.

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This was a good episode overall. But the thing…

This was a good episode overall. But the thing that is dragging on this whole storyline is that the writers have failed to give us a reason to empathize with Ming Yicontinuing to lie about her identity to Ji Bo Zai. There is no apparent reason for her to continue to do so and it is hurting both of them that she is. It could be accepted if the story presented a compelling reason for why she continues to lie. But it doesn't. So it has become annoying and feels contrived. As if she is only doing so to drag the plot gimmick out. This is a pretty big flaw in this otherwise very entertaining drama, and the flaw is getting bigger as it proceeds. If they don't either explain it or conclude it, it could make the entire series unwatchable as the audience looses empathy with the heroine.

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Tropes, tropes and more tropes.

On one hand, this episode did have some nice moments including by far the most 'action' we've had in quite a while. And the very start carried over some nice 'coupleness' from the end of the prior episode. But otherwise this episode was just a mash-up of stereotypical drama tropes. We get, smashed together in fairly short order: (1) A quiet journey through the woods interrupted by bandits/assassins attacking. (2) We get a chase that ends in a carriage tipping over. (3) We get our heroin falling over a cliff (yes, she survives, of course). (4) We get the assassin hired to kill her ... recognizing her as someone who saved her years ago! (5) the creepy psycho unrequited love a**hole is re-inserted into the plot and (6) she's suddenly blind and so isn't aware of said psycho being near her. That 6 classic cheap drama tropes all crammed into this episode, Come on, writers! Let this just be a case of quickly getting them out of your system and over with! Please don't end up relying on cheap stereotypical plot tropes going forward!

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Sadly, the show did not avoid adding one of the most annoying plot tropes.

This episode formally establishes the pathetic Prince Li as an obsessed, pathetic, unrequited love interest who makes an utter fool of himself trying to entrap and pursue Ye Li. Fortunately Ye Li flat out rejects him but just the very existence of this trope is always a disappointment because it just feels like a lazy crutch for writers to fill episodes with the same stereotypical events and scenes that we get in so many c-dramas. Plus, the rendering of this trope is just poorly done. The idea that Prince Li has any sort of fully-formed romantic interest in Ye Li is just weak because she was a child way back when she left the capital to go to the mountains and he hasn't seen her in over 8 years. And the bit where he accuses her of killing Lu Chang on behalf of him (Prince Li) , saying he knew it was her because he, "knows her methods" is just really bad writing and makes no logical sense. How on earth would Prince Li, "know her methods" since she was a child back when he last knew her and her current methods would almost certainly have been formed during her training at the Li Academy during the years she was away. This is a pretty dumb plot hole. It was an also just weirdly dumb for her to outright admit she killed Lu, though not for Prince Li. The whole scene was just a car wreck after so much good writing in this show up until now. I really hope they don't wast tons of screen time on this stupid subplot as I went from absolutely loving this show to suddenly having a lot of doubts.

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Another boring episode watching the girls be stuck under curses.

Continuing with the Curse of the Wooden Bracelet, the show is as boring as watching a bunch of NPC act out a cut-scene in a fantasy role playing game where the player character can only watch and do only limited things. No freedom to deviate. Ling Miao Miao has become just another NPC, stuck going through (unwanted) motions. The Bracelet's power is just way too strong so until someone else or or something else happens in the story to free her of it, she's no longer the FL. She's just an NPC. Meanwhile, the others of the Four Bamboo Masters are split apart purposely by Mu Yao, who is stuck under a different curse: The Curse of the Noble Idiocy drama trope. This is one of the most hated drama tropes. She has 'pushed away' all her loved ones, determined to take on her mission of vengeance all alone. So the show at this point is just about waiting around until one or the other of our two female leads finally breaks free of the respective curse making them behave these ways.

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When Dungeon Master's blow it

In fantasy gaming, one of the biggest mistakes a DM can make is often the introduction of an artifact - magic weapon, magic ring, whatever - that is just too powerful. It breaks the game balance, skewing everything one way or another for the players. Either it's something that helps them, but because it is so powerful, it makes the game too easy. Or it is something that hurts them and just makes the game impossibly difficult. The Wooden Bracelet that just got inserted into the story is like the latter. It's basically a curse. And because it is made from the Hair of Goddess Mei, it is incredibly powerful. There is no way for the Player Character (Ling Miao Miao) to break free of it. This artifact has taken away her free will and turned her into a Non-Player Character. So we as the viewers are stuck watching what amounts to a cut-scene in a mmorpg now. Until the _game_ events - completely outside the player's control - happen to finally free her of the curse, she will just be an NPC. Miao Miao has no agency anymore. Imagine playing a RPG and the DM keeps telling you, "You can't do this." and "You have to do that" all because of some cursed item you picked up that takes away your ability to choose what you do. That's not fun. And this show just became that for now. Just have to grit teeth and wait for an event that frees her.

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This was a very emotional episode

The way this mostly comedic and edge-of-danger show has woven a very emotional side plot around Miao Miao's relationship with her father was so sweet, sad and touching. You can tell that while on an intellectual level she knows that Lin Lu Shan is not her real-world father she just can't help but emotionally connect with him because she still hurts so badly for the loss of her 'real' father in the 'real' world. And Lu Shan's fatherly connection back is just as strong, doting on her just the way her 'real' dad did. The last moments of the episode when their parting is so sad, it was also so sweet that she remembers a way from her knowledge of the book, how to restore the wealth that was stolen from her father by the Empress Dowager. A very thoughtful daughter! I still hope that the Dowager somehow ends up paying a price for her greed.

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