Reviews

Changing tides

Muyu and healer learn there are two swords for patriarch. They are exact except for the one still with patriarch that has the secret of Blood River. This is revealed to new patriarch via a secret room the sword opens. There are a couple cute scenes with Rabbit and Lianyue. She steals a blade from him and treats it as love token. When he notices it gone, he chooses to leave it with her, so she may be right. She gets him to feed her medicine and then later a meal. But as charming as she is, he refuses to put off his vendetta any longer and heads to patriarch. The Su clan has changed leadership with no bloodshed. That I find interesting in this clime where death determines who’s in charge. Mercy is a very rare commodity here. Changhe has started his own group identified with rings saying ‘the other side’. This group wants to dissolve Blood River and live their own lives in the light. He offers this opportunity to Muyu who sees it as causing more death and destruction than progress. He seeks the impossible—change with minimum bloodshed. The patriarch has accepted the personal battle with Lianyue and ends up being poisoned again. This time, his end is near. He shares some thoughts with Lianyue about why he was drawn to battle and then addresses Muyu and Changhe. He leaves the sword with his chosen two for them to determine how things will proceed. He shares with them a bit of his history and how he and host were friends like Muyu and Changhe. In the end, despite their differences, his friend sacrificed himself to save him and Muyu was not bound by a life-death contract, but a choice of loyalty and service. These two acts moved him to realize he was not as alone as he had thought. He shared that when young, he too wanted a different Blood River, but that as time went by, he found himself becoming one of them. He told them the Soul Reaper trio were mere puppets for yet another power pulling the strings — that the patriarch was the blade for that power. He bid them farewell saying he would burn the nest to the ground and hoped he would never see them again since he figured he would drop to hell once he died. He hoped Muyu would take up the blade but he knows it will end up with Changhe. As Muyu and Changhe discuss their plans and the fact that however they proceed, they have never lost when working together. This is where Mu Ciling shows up with the water reaper to earn his cure. All he has to do is kill Muyu and Changhe. His challenge is met with Muyu immediately going to 18 sword move and the episode ends. This drama smoothly tells a lot of story in little time. The cast and production team have done an excellent job in making this world real and drawing us in to the story. Whatever source is the power behind the puppet Soul Reaper Hall has a rather insidious means of staying in power by having the best of them cull themselves for the sword ensuring that the patriarch would have no powerful base but themselves to confront them. This ensures the patriarch stays their blade rather than become a rival power source and keeps the Blood River members in perpetual servitude to their wishes. I would really like to see Muyu’s and Changhe’s loyal groups challenge that entity.

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Wounded souls

Episode 3 really made me emotional with the heartfelt conversation between A-Shui and Jiang Fei Yu (Yanmen sect's leader). A certain father who lost his son, but doesn't know who exactly was behind his child's de@th, and a daughter who recently lost her father, and had decided to wed an older man to cover funeral expenses. "Have you ever lost a son? If not, you wouldn't understand.." These words really struck me. Not any person can truly empathise with another if one has never experienced the pain. He isn't entirely wrong. No matter how much empathy one gives to someone who's grieving a loss, they can never fully understand the extent to which the concerned person is going through... May you rest in peace, Jiang Cheng... You will never be forgotten, and live on in the hearts of your dear father, your sect members, and also in our hearts...

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