Umair Ahmed
Islamabad, ICT, Pakistan
This review may contain spoilers
Its a show which is great at political intrigue and fascinating complicated schemes. All else though has a lot to be desired. Mostly it suffers from unnecessary extra plot lines like romance and some really shallow supernatural elements.
The cliche of protag is always right and everyone accepts and follows him really makes this drama boring. It just devolves into a power fantasy. At first at least he had a friend.
- Romance -
In the beginning the story starts with a heavy influence of a romantic sub plot. Unfortunately, later when the ML gets the girl, the girl becomes a meaningless show piece which turns up for small glimpses. The girl is also really meaningless in the whole scheme of things and ends up as a cliche pawn for others' use.
I do think having a harem would have tantalized this or if the main girl was a lot more active, apart from her supposed beauty. But beauty is subjective, as I found the actress not special at all, completely undeserving of the role. Almost all other love interests around ML were far more beautiful actresses, who would actually even help the ML and be more meaningful part of his life.
- The World -
The overall world also gets a back seat, we don't get much clarity of what the country is about, how it is organized, who it borders etc. Rather we get one or two lines thrown here and there about some front line, some province etc.
- Martial Aspect -
The martial power levels are loosely defined, actually only the the top 3 are ever mentioned throughout. Apart from some supernatural differences of the top level, nothing is clear. Out of thin air the protag mentions a breakthrough but of what, constitutes of what or to what end is never described.
- Story Background -
The story describes the nature of ML and his mysterious mother in a way which in my opinion is similar to shooting oneself dead:
"The past humankind actually died in a high tech era from a Great Ice Age, meaning thousands of years from now. Then this race came about and progressed much like ours till the state in the drama, against infinitely incalculable odds, the world after millions of years, went in the same trajectory as before!"
This supernatural aspect was a botched attempt. I guess, the author realized its premature nature and didn't immediately follow it through as well but its position in the plot made the TV production also unable to move it around.
All the improbabilities to impossibly making the world like ancient China. Even though this mankind is completely different from the humans of past like our ML.
But I understand from experience that rarely Chinese novel authors ever give attention to world details as long as things seem fantastical.
- Overall -
The second half only has its schemes that keep it interesting, there is no strong overarching goal. This is essentially a slice of life drama where we look at how the lead lives his life without any main goal or definite end to attain.
Still this drama, if you care to ignore all its fallacies, is a good one time watchable affair.
The cliche of protag is always right and everyone accepts and follows him really makes this drama boring. It just devolves into a power fantasy. At first at least he had a friend.
- Romance -
In the beginning the story starts with a heavy influence of a romantic sub plot. Unfortunately, later when the ML gets the girl, the girl becomes a meaningless show piece which turns up for small glimpses. The girl is also really meaningless in the whole scheme of things and ends up as a cliche pawn for others' use.
I do think having a harem would have tantalized this or if the main girl was a lot more active, apart from her supposed beauty. But beauty is subjective, as I found the actress not special at all, completely undeserving of the role. Almost all other love interests around ML were far more beautiful actresses, who would actually even help the ML and be more meaningful part of his life.
- The World -
The overall world also gets a back seat, we don't get much clarity of what the country is about, how it is organized, who it borders etc. Rather we get one or two lines thrown here and there about some front line, some province etc.
- Martial Aspect -
The martial power levels are loosely defined, actually only the the top 3 are ever mentioned throughout. Apart from some supernatural differences of the top level, nothing is clear. Out of thin air the protag mentions a breakthrough but of what, constitutes of what or to what end is never described.
- Story Background -
The story describes the nature of ML and his mysterious mother in a way which in my opinion is similar to shooting oneself dead:
"The past humankind actually died in a high tech era from a Great Ice Age, meaning thousands of years from now. Then this race came about and progressed much like ours till the state in the drama, against infinitely incalculable odds, the world after millions of years, went in the same trajectory as before!"
This supernatural aspect was a botched attempt. I guess, the author realized its premature nature and didn't immediately follow it through as well but its position in the plot made the TV production also unable to move it around.
All the improbabilities to impossibly making the world like ancient China. Even though this mankind is completely different from the humans of past like our ML.
But I understand from experience that rarely Chinese novel authors ever give attention to world details as long as things seem fantastical.
- Overall -
The second half only has its schemes that keep it interesting, there is no strong overarching goal. This is essentially a slice of life drama where we look at how the lead lives his life without any main goal or definite end to attain.
Still this drama, if you care to ignore all its fallacies, is a good one time watchable affair.
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