This review may contain spoilers
thank god that's over
An upgrade from another popular show adapted from Jiu Lu Fei Xiang's work, Love Between Fairy and Devil, but only barely so. If you've seen Love Between Fairy and Devil, you've seen this. Obviously the specifics are different, but the amount of times where I was like "oh this plot development is like that plot development in LBFAD" was. actually insane. Anyway let me talk about BFTB in detail lol.
Given how central the romance is, let's start there. Tianyao realizes that Yanhui has the Heart Protection Scale (one of the many parts of his body that he is trying to recollect) and so he decides he wants to gain her trust so she will give it back. To do this he kidnaps her and then a few days later he stabs her to reawaken his powers. So...... not the best start to a romance, but I'm no stranger to romances that start with murder attempts (and technically he didn't try to kill her, he needed her blood for a ritual, but still he *could* have explained and it would have made that whole situation less painful for both of them lmfao). She, understandably, wants nothing to do with him after he stabs her, and he relentlessly follows her to try to convince her to help him in his quest to recollect his bones. Because of his weakened state, she manages to escape from him, but then — thanks to the Heart Protection Scale — she can sense when he's in danger and she feels guilty and comes to his rescue. She then agrees to help him, which annoyed me A LOT. She does not owe him anything. He kidnapped her, his village forced them into getting married, he stabbed her (even if he technically had a "good" reason for it and she was fine afterwards), and then he basically wore her down into agreeing to help. Then we get to what might be the arc I hated the most (and something I haven't seen anyone on here criticize????) — Yanhui being given a love potion where she will fall in love with the first person she touches; that person of course being Tianyao. Yanhui is then extremely enamored with Tianyao. Just can't focus on anything when they're in close proximity bc how downbad she is. It was deeply uncomfortable to watch her autonomy be taken away by a magic spell and have it be treated as haha funny. And as soon as it's finally reversed, now Yanhui is apparently Stockholm Syndrome'd into liking Tianyao. 🤢 Like it's just so painfully forced! Tianyao's feelings also seem to come out of nowhere as he goes from being very closed off and emotionally repressed to randomly being jealous of her spending time with a man she does not like but that she knows likes her. Like....... how did we get here? (Also, tangent, sorry, but the show stresses that Tianyao knows Yanhui deeply, but how is he confident about that given he must've thought he knew Su Ying deeply since he was going to marry her, but then she tried to kill him on their wedding day. Like, how would he ever feel confidently about a Taoist being genuine with him?)
Anyway, whatever, the romance — as I already said — felt super forced and so I didn't really care about watching them grow "closer." Sure, there were some moments I thought were cute and I appreciated them — I liked how attentive he was to her when she was affected by the dark aura and letting her bite him LOL — but bc the foundation felt so damn flimsy, I didn't feel anything about them as a ship. THEN there's the development that a lot of the more negative skewed reviews have an issue with — Tianyao stabbing Yanhui to get the Heart Protection Scale back. Honestly, if the show wasn't pushing this dynamic as a romance, I might've been able to get over this, but because the narrative is so aggressively insisting that these two are meant to be, I can't get past it. Yes, he did it to save those Dragon Valley kids, but he stabbed her and, as far as the audience knew for 10 EPISODES, he left her for dead. And yes, I understand that he was retraumatized by Su Ying kidnapping the kids after the massacre she committed in Dragon Valley 20 years earlier, but come on, if he is mentally present enough to tell Yanhui "I'm sorry," he is mentally present enough to tell her "I have to do it to save them." (ALSO GIVEN HOW THE SHOW HAS STRESSED YANHUI'S PROTECTIVE NATURE AND KINDNESS UP UNTIL THIS POINT, IF HE HAD GIVEN ANY SORT OF EXPLANATION, I'M WILLING TO BET SHE WOULD HAVE TOLD HIM TO STAB HER AND TAKE THE SCALE.) The show tries to gloss over this horrifying action (which, yes, was made under duress, but that doesn't change how Yanhui experiences it!) by telling us later that Tianyao had done something called the Life Swapping Spell so that if someone were to ever fatally harm Yanhui, he would be the one to die instead. But.......... he was perfectly fine when he went to kill Su Ying and upon returning to Dragon Valley he says that Yanhui will die in 3 days without the Heart Protection Scale so............... which is it?????????? Anyway, what I honestly find even more unforgivable than the stabbing is Tianyao's absolute refusal to leave Yanhui alone afterwards. Tianyao spends weeks? months? searching for Yanhui. Upon finding her, she has a panic attack and vanishes with Bai Xiaosheng, the character who saved her life by taking her to the Lord of Dark Aura. Tianyao SEES her terror, has unmistakable proof that she does not want to see him or be near him (which he had even pondered in voiceover while he was trying to find her), AND YET he continuously searches for her, determined to make her listen to his explanation. When she (RIGHTFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) refuses to listen to him BECAUSE SHE OWES HIM NOTHING, another character who knows Tianyao's reasoning for the stabbing relays it to her, and her resolve starts to soften a little. Tianyao then continues following her to "make sure she stays safe" which like........................ again, if he's set the Life Swapping Spell in motion, then he knows she won't die so... he shouldn't be that worried about her being in danger lol. Tianyao, Yanhui, and Bai Xiaosheng then get trapped in this contraption where Yanhui makes Tianyao write up a pact saying that he will leave her alone and, well, knowing that Yanhui/Tianyao is The Romance™️, I knew that shit wasn't going to last, so I couldn't feel any relief about him finally agreeing to respect her boundaries. The three of them are then in Qianqiu — Yanhui and Bai Xiaosheng are looking for a book on a certain cultivation technique, Tianyao wants to make sure Yanhui gets said book and also he's friends with the ruler of Qianqiu. When Yanhui and Bai Xiaosheng run into difficulties in getting the book, of course Tianyao inserts himself into the situation, even though he signed the pact to leave Yanhui alone. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Of course them getting thru this ordeal together is the start of Yanhui forgiving him. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Yanhui and Tianyao successfully getting thru this trial together then leads to an old man insisting they get married 🤢 Yanhui initially fights against this but caves because the show prioritizes Tianyao's feelings lol. Yanhui then completely forgives him upon 1) him defending her and becoming an enemy of Qianqiu by standing by her and 2) learning about the Life Swapping Spell but like....... I've already talked about how this feels like a retcon to soften the betrayal of The Stabbing™️to the viewer, and it does nothing to assuage the issue of him bulldozing her boundaries repeatedly before she was open to being around him. Once she forgives him, there isn't anything I would consider red flag worthy, but it's impossible to overlook everything leading up to this, so I just spent all of their romantic scenes afterwards rolling my eyes.
Beyond the mediocre romance, I also want to (briefly) complain about how weak the writing is. One of the negative reviews on here complained about how people's powers were inconsistent and OH BOY yeah that was super frustrating with the last 10 episodes. At one point the Lord of Dark Aura has captured Bai Xiaosheng, and he very clearly overpowers Bai Xiaosheng and then somehow — literally it is never explained — somehow Bai Xiaosheng escapes and somehow he knows exactly where Yanhui and Tianyao are and somehow he knows exactly what is happening when he arrives and in 30 seconds manages to do the exact thing that saves both of them. HUH? The main villain's goal seems to be that he just doesn't want anyone to be powerful enough to kill him I guess????? The show really does not do a good job making it clear but like.... he wanted to kill Tianyao solely bc Tianyao could kill him...... He wanted that book on the cultivation method to destroy it and keep anyone from learning it...... Like is that really it???? Also apparently he's the personification of everyone's negative feelings????? Like the amount of times the last 10 episodes had me literally saying OUT LOUD "sure, I guess this might as well happen" because it was just getting so absurd that I could barely process the exposition dumps....... like lmao.........
Anyways this show would have been literally unwatchable if it weren't for Bai Xiaosheng and I will never watch any other adaptation of Jiu Lu Fei Xiang's writing bc all that woman writes is abuse apologia and I'm f*cking sick of it.
Given how central the romance is, let's start there. Tianyao realizes that Yanhui has the Heart Protection Scale (one of the many parts of his body that he is trying to recollect) and so he decides he wants to gain her trust so she will give it back. To do this he kidnaps her and then a few days later he stabs her to reawaken his powers. So...... not the best start to a romance, but I'm no stranger to romances that start with murder attempts (and technically he didn't try to kill her, he needed her blood for a ritual, but still he *could* have explained and it would have made that whole situation less painful for both of them lmfao). She, understandably, wants nothing to do with him after he stabs her, and he relentlessly follows her to try to convince her to help him in his quest to recollect his bones. Because of his weakened state, she manages to escape from him, but then — thanks to the Heart Protection Scale — she can sense when he's in danger and she feels guilty and comes to his rescue. She then agrees to help him, which annoyed me A LOT. She does not owe him anything. He kidnapped her, his village forced them into getting married, he stabbed her (even if he technically had a "good" reason for it and she was fine afterwards), and then he basically wore her down into agreeing to help. Then we get to what might be the arc I hated the most (and something I haven't seen anyone on here criticize????) — Yanhui being given a love potion where she will fall in love with the first person she touches; that person of course being Tianyao. Yanhui is then extremely enamored with Tianyao. Just can't focus on anything when they're in close proximity bc how downbad she is. It was deeply uncomfortable to watch her autonomy be taken away by a magic spell and have it be treated as haha funny. And as soon as it's finally reversed, now Yanhui is apparently Stockholm Syndrome'd into liking Tianyao. 🤢 Like it's just so painfully forced! Tianyao's feelings also seem to come out of nowhere as he goes from being very closed off and emotionally repressed to randomly being jealous of her spending time with a man she does not like but that she knows likes her. Like....... how did we get here? (Also, tangent, sorry, but the show stresses that Tianyao knows Yanhui deeply, but how is he confident about that given he must've thought he knew Su Ying deeply since he was going to marry her, but then she tried to kill him on their wedding day. Like, how would he ever feel confidently about a Taoist being genuine with him?)
Anyway, whatever, the romance — as I already said — felt super forced and so I didn't really care about watching them grow "closer." Sure, there were some moments I thought were cute and I appreciated them — I liked how attentive he was to her when she was affected by the dark aura and letting her bite him LOL — but bc the foundation felt so damn flimsy, I didn't feel anything about them as a ship. THEN there's the development that a lot of the more negative skewed reviews have an issue with — Tianyao stabbing Yanhui to get the Heart Protection Scale back. Honestly, if the show wasn't pushing this dynamic as a romance, I might've been able to get over this, but because the narrative is so aggressively insisting that these two are meant to be, I can't get past it. Yes, he did it to save those Dragon Valley kids, but he stabbed her and, as far as the audience knew for 10 EPISODES, he left her for dead. And yes, I understand that he was retraumatized by Su Ying kidnapping the kids after the massacre she committed in Dragon Valley 20 years earlier, but come on, if he is mentally present enough to tell Yanhui "I'm sorry," he is mentally present enough to tell her "I have to do it to save them." (ALSO GIVEN HOW THE SHOW HAS STRESSED YANHUI'S PROTECTIVE NATURE AND KINDNESS UP UNTIL THIS POINT, IF HE HAD GIVEN ANY SORT OF EXPLANATION, I'M WILLING TO BET SHE WOULD HAVE TOLD HIM TO STAB HER AND TAKE THE SCALE.) The show tries to gloss over this horrifying action (which, yes, was made under duress, but that doesn't change how Yanhui experiences it!) by telling us later that Tianyao had done something called the Life Swapping Spell so that if someone were to ever fatally harm Yanhui, he would be the one to die instead. But.......... he was perfectly fine when he went to kill Su Ying and upon returning to Dragon Valley he says that Yanhui will die in 3 days without the Heart Protection Scale so............... which is it?????????? Anyway, what I honestly find even more unforgivable than the stabbing is Tianyao's absolute refusal to leave Yanhui alone afterwards. Tianyao spends weeks? months? searching for Yanhui. Upon finding her, she has a panic attack and vanishes with Bai Xiaosheng, the character who saved her life by taking her to the Lord of Dark Aura. Tianyao SEES her terror, has unmistakable proof that she does not want to see him or be near him (which he had even pondered in voiceover while he was trying to find her), AND YET he continuously searches for her, determined to make her listen to his explanation. When she (RIGHTFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) refuses to listen to him BECAUSE SHE OWES HIM NOTHING, another character who knows Tianyao's reasoning for the stabbing relays it to her, and her resolve starts to soften a little. Tianyao then continues following her to "make sure she stays safe" which like........................ again, if he's set the Life Swapping Spell in motion, then he knows she won't die so... he shouldn't be that worried about her being in danger lol. Tianyao, Yanhui, and Bai Xiaosheng then get trapped in this contraption where Yanhui makes Tianyao write up a pact saying that he will leave her alone and, well, knowing that Yanhui/Tianyao is The Romance™️, I knew that shit wasn't going to last, so I couldn't feel any relief about him finally agreeing to respect her boundaries. The three of them are then in Qianqiu — Yanhui and Bai Xiaosheng are looking for a book on a certain cultivation technique, Tianyao wants to make sure Yanhui gets said book and also he's friends with the ruler of Qianqiu. When Yanhui and Bai Xiaosheng run into difficulties in getting the book, of course Tianyao inserts himself into the situation, even though he signed the pact to leave Yanhui alone. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Of course them getting thru this ordeal together is the start of Yanhui forgiving him. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 Yanhui and Tianyao successfully getting thru this trial together then leads to an old man insisting they get married 🤢 Yanhui initially fights against this but caves because the show prioritizes Tianyao's feelings lol. Yanhui then completely forgives him upon 1) him defending her and becoming an enemy of Qianqiu by standing by her and 2) learning about the Life Swapping Spell but like....... I've already talked about how this feels like a retcon to soften the betrayal of The Stabbing™️to the viewer, and it does nothing to assuage the issue of him bulldozing her boundaries repeatedly before she was open to being around him. Once she forgives him, there isn't anything I would consider red flag worthy, but it's impossible to overlook everything leading up to this, so I just spent all of their romantic scenes afterwards rolling my eyes.
Beyond the mediocre romance, I also want to (briefly) complain about how weak the writing is. One of the negative reviews on here complained about how people's powers were inconsistent and OH BOY yeah that was super frustrating with the last 10 episodes. At one point the Lord of Dark Aura has captured Bai Xiaosheng, and he very clearly overpowers Bai Xiaosheng and then somehow — literally it is never explained — somehow Bai Xiaosheng escapes and somehow he knows exactly where Yanhui and Tianyao are and somehow he knows exactly what is happening when he arrives and in 30 seconds manages to do the exact thing that saves both of them. HUH? The main villain's goal seems to be that he just doesn't want anyone to be powerful enough to kill him I guess????? The show really does not do a good job making it clear but like.... he wanted to kill Tianyao solely bc Tianyao could kill him...... He wanted that book on the cultivation method to destroy it and keep anyone from learning it...... Like is that really it???? Also apparently he's the personification of everyone's negative feelings????? Like the amount of times the last 10 episodes had me literally saying OUT LOUD "sure, I guess this might as well happen" because it was just getting so absurd that I could barely process the exposition dumps....... like lmao.........
Anyways this show would have been literally unwatchable if it weren't for Bai Xiaosheng and I will never watch any other adaptation of Jiu Lu Fei Xiang's writing bc all that woman writes is abuse apologia and I'm f*cking sick of it.
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