Withered And Abandoned

Some 27-36 episodes critique

Although I ADORE this drama and absolutely IN LOVE with it, I have some critique to say (because this beautiful thing could be more beautiful).

First 26 episodes of drama are perfect, I can`t say anything against. But then the tempo of storytelling rushes forward and the timing of scenes goes wibbly-wobbly. And it causes some problems:

💔 After a huge catharsis in ep. 26, instead of solving the main problem that disturbs heroes from being together, the plot revolves around Girl being future Moon Queen. But the conflict is still running and Girl didn't take Devil's side in it! There should be more political things in order to solve the main problem. Girl could try to convince Changheng in nessesarity to stop the war (since he became friends with Devil and knows that demons didn't kill 3000 immortal soldiers. The friendship with Devil is a Chekhov gun that unfortunately didn't fire). Maybe there could be somehow solved the problem of Changheng mother's crime or even of the betrayal of the First Moon Supreme. Instead of it there was a bunch of unnessesary masochistic acts and sufferings (and screenwriters even forgot about bone-piercing spikes immediately after showing us their effect). Not to mention the fact that receiving of these spikes and spitting out the antidote against Heart Curse is the biggest act of stupidity of a man who knows that everyone in Demon Realm wants to kill him if he is weak and that the war against his people can start at any moment. So, 12 hours per day he was being unable to lead his troops and at the time of Fuju Cave he is 24 out of 24 hours was unable to do something and even to defend himself.

💔 The Battle in ep. 31 is not epic enough and ends up in a strange way. They all were dead and then they are resurrected. They respect Goddes of Xishan but will it stop them from proceeding? Devil is in coma, Heavenly Emperor is still prejudiced and would take an opportunity to wipe demons away for good. So why did this truce start? I need more screen time for explanation.

💔 If there is a truce, show us widows who get their husbands back from the battlefield! It`s quite more interesting than half-of-episode-Jieli's-family-problems. 💔 Speaking of Jieli, the plot line about her being daughter of a fairy and a demon leads to nowhere. It didn't help to get peace between tribes, her father didn't persuade Heavenly Emperor not to kill demon people out of love for his daughter and lover, demon sister didn't force Danyin to do something to prevent war. This plotline is useless and takes too much time out of the main story in the final series. Jieli's story is fine, but everything in the scenario should work for the main story and this plotline doesn't. I would explain about Jieli`s fate much shorter.

💔 Demons are nice. Even little jerk Xunfeng is very loyal. Their Lord is not almighty anymore and tries to commit suicide because his heart is broken and they all respect him anyway and are not trying to kill him and take his place now, when the situation is not fatal anymore. Why then it was stated at the beginning of the story that demons adore only power and will kill everyone for it? I saw many viewers were nice surprised that Xunfeng was not hypocrite but this sudden loyalty of all demons feels unrealistic according to the rules of this certain universe. 💔 I don't think that «Oh, Chidi was right, it's Melkor!» and «Oh, Dongfang Qingcang is demon but can drive compassionate fire, not all demons are scum» was enough for Heavenly Emperor to change his mind. I understand that it`s uncommon for Chinese dramas to punish Emperor for his mistakes, but I definitely needed more intrigues at the Heavenly Court. Maybe Changheng should have stood up for his friend Devil (because in this drama is was stated that they are friends but no one did anything friend-like for another). Maybe Changheng should have found out the truth about his mother's crime or betrayal of the first Moon Supreme that could solve some misunderstanding between tribes. (It was hinted that there was something interesting behind GoW's mother's and Demon Tribe founder's stories but it never played out.) Or even more, Changheng could show to everyone that his brother is hypocrite who wants to achieve his goals even if it means to kill those who are not guilty and Jieli`s father and Danyin could support GoW to overthrown his brother. 💔 I think it should be known by viewers pretty earlier that Melkor wants to posess an immortal body and there are only two of them – Chidi's and Qingcang's. It would make suspense thicker and a tragedy of Rong Hao deeper. And I would give them more screen time to show that Chidi is strongly against her reviving at such cost. 💔 The moment when demons come to save Three realms by Devil`s order (to kill him) is nice but looks not so epic as it could. I would like to see that before demon reinforcement came fairies were exhausted and half dead, they were near to failure. So it would cause more feelings in viewers. 💔 Returning of Qingcang's powers was not epic enough. Only by rewatching it for the fourth time I understood that Girl wakes his consciousness up and he drives his new Fire to take Melkor aback for some moments. I would give this fight more time. (Here is a pretty complicated situation – this fire should be activated because of great love and to be seen by Heavenly Emperor in order to stop him being such a jerk, but in the moment when it appears, the main hero is Girl, so Devil can't rise and shine. So maybe it should be just an extended scene of Devil resisting Melkor.) 💔 In this drama there were a lot of hints (Chekhov guns) that didn't play out. The most memorable for me – the pill against every type of poision that Devil gives to Girl as betrothal gift. I waited for Jieli to steal it to cure herself. Why didn't she? And another thing: that was stated that only one who can defeat Melkor (when there is no Goddess) is Devil and, besides, his Fire can cleanse everything evil. But when his Fire came back even more powerful than before, he couldn`t fight Melkor, he only won a few moments of consciousness for himself. Why?

💔 It stated that Goddess' powers should be activated after her marriage (OK, let's leave the mechanics of it aside). It was activated in the final battle while she was kissing possessed Devil, but we couldn`t see it in a full glory. The same green light was in mortal realm when she protected Devil from evil spirits, nothing special. Why?

💔 Devil's Blood of Heart coming to Girls hand is a nice visual parallel with Xishan grass seed coming right into Devil's (not Changheng's!) hand, but I didn't understand why. It would be more logical (and more soul-tearing), if Girl would fight for it in that Galactic Mind Palace or would go to mourn her beloved into Demon Realm and would find there in some of Devil's caskets Bone Orchid bracelet. At last it would be better than this straightforward cheating with «Look! Everyone's primordial spirit vanishes without trace and only Devil left a huge piece of his! How mysterious!». 💔 I would like to watch Girl raising his soul, talking to it, making magic/healing manipulations just as we saw him doing it for her (and it was nice). 💔 I would like to see a normal epilogue. These 42 seconds of reunion feel like a fever dream of a poor Girl. (The same feeling I have got when I watched «Blue Whisper». I absolutely sure that merman made his girlfriend up inside his mind at the very end while waiting for her to come back out of volcano and no one can make me change my mind). This type of endings is very typical for Chinese xianxia dramas (It is some kind of curse indeed, only «Love and Redemption» ended in satisfying way). Maybe it`s the attempt to sit on two chairs: HE-lovers could see here HE and BE-lovers could see here BE, but I would like to see 20 minutes more of what happened after their reunion.

💔 Because of what I said above the ending of the story doesn`t bring the cathartic feelings. I think that the end of the mortal story arch was more satisfying and the battle in ep. 31 was more epic (still not enough, but though) than the very end of the story. These beautiful characters and the whole awesome story deserved better! I had higher expectations from the ending of this drama because first 26 episodes were P.E.R.F.E.C.T. so I was a little bit upset. But even if I have some critique to voice, the scenario was adorable, so many things were tied up together and mirrored each other! I don`t know if I ever can write something so well played out! These are not screenwriter problems. These are scene timing problems.

I LOVE to chat, so feel free to write your opinion to me.

I love how here his subtle embarrassment is shown. Btw in the next ep his mom covers him with the cloak the same way. So he could recognize this gesture as some sign of affection.

Blossom 九重紫 (2024) Dir. Zeng Qing Jie – Ep. 8

How to fight your doom (Pt. 4)

Episodes 13-19 To fix the situation the story needs deus ex machina, and because the power of accidents is very huge in this story, it`s not a problem to have one represented by Shop girl Jieli. She brings to Girl a simple thought: it always matters only what you DO for each other, not what you SAY. Words can be a lie or can be misunderstood, but deeds are always deeds. Girl thinks carefully and finds out that Devil is in fact very caring even if he said he was pretending. So, just a monster turns back into a caring criminal AND a monster. And then she finds out that he was so heartless in ancient times because of his dead Feelings Tree and is willing to revive it for him.

 There is the hint to the main plot of a story we don`t know fully yet: he says that even ancient gods can`t fix someone`s primordial spirit or Tree of Feelings, but later we will learn that she IS an ancient goddess and she can fix primordial spirits as well as Trees of Feelings.

She likes that he cares for her and because of that she likes him too. She really wants to repay his kindness by doing something important to him but she also thinks that she can fix him and turn him into an ordinary demon (whom it will be easier to like). It`s an illusion that lovers often have: if there is something disturbing in people we like, we often think that we can fix it with the power of our love, our fairy power or whatsoever. We like not a person that in front of us but an image of this person in our mind.

Then he saves her from Haishi city and their mutual care starts to be very obvious to each other.  On their way home Girl takes a chance to look into daily routine of demon village and she learns that war and hatred took from them too much. Demon people are in pain, their wish to take revenge is understandable, although she can`t support them at this point. And Devil demonstrates that he is an EXELLENT LEARNER once more: he doesn`t force Girl to take off the hairpin to bare her feelings nor will he do it later even as he will be badly in need to know about them, because she asks him to respect her private mind space (she likes him at this moment already, obviously, and doesn`t want him to know it).

Devil`s father is really a jerk. Like God of War before, he represents that type of people who sacrifice their love according to fulfill their duty. Maybe it was the right way in those circumstances (it`s a popular moral dilemma IRL), but it unbearable hurts those who are sacrificed. To be sacrificed by the most beloved person in the world, to be called a patricide and to be hated by only left relative so much that he gave up on the whole realm to kill him hurts Devil a lot.

He was a very sensitive child and now, returning to his real self, he is in huge pain. He wants to be free of it by any means because there is no chance to calm it (as he thinks).

Before, he told Girl that he is Moon Supreme and doesn`t need someone to love him, but the whole story is about him craving love (from his father and from Girl later) and willing to give much more in return if someone will be willing to love him first.

Girl is very eager to help him to be the man from her fantasies about how he should be, so she makes huge effords to recover his feelings, to reconcile him with his dead father and his almost dead brother. And she moves from these legends about how awful Devil is to the thought that he is something other than stories she has been told in Fairy realm. A little bit better that that.

Sometimes external pain is much bearable that internal, so here Devil`s punishment of himself starts. He saves his brother but also punishes himself for all of these years when he didn`t care of what he has done.

And then he shows us that he is a really GOOD LEARNER: he simulates his illness to get attention of the girl he likes the same as she faked her illness before to lure him into Fake Arbiter Hall and to swap their bodies.

And when life gives him a chance to learn how to express his affection to his nearest, he embraces this opportunity fully. He embraces his ability to be merciful, in love and empathic even if he knows that it means to him being in pain or losing his great power. He knows he will lose it as his Feelings Tree will recover so he is terrified when he finds out Girl really has cured it but then he chooses by himself to feel good things as well as bad things. There is no use in great power if you are a living corpse without everything that makes you a living being.

Knowing that Girl likes him back (according to her care and eagerness to help him in recovering his soul and body no matter what) he thinks they can be together and he can make her happy by making the biggest wish of her come true. There is no lack in his way of thinking: his goal as Demon lord is to avenge his people and to wipe away their enemies and her wish is to have an opportunity to go back to Fairy realm. He can kill two birds with one stone. And she is terrified of his words because her rose-tinted glasses have broken. He can`t be just an ordinary demon and live with her happily ever after because it is in his power to wipe her nearest and dearest people away just by flicking his fingers and, what is even more awful, it`s his duty to do so. It is the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in a nutshell.

He confesses his love for her once more («I don`t care who you are, I only want you to be by my side forever») but she refuses him. Although she is in love, she finally understands their misalliance and pushes him away. It hurts her as well as him and he can`t understand the reason. «You took so much care of me, you did so much for me, was I wrong thinking you liked me?» he asks her in another words. Although her explanation of a problem is pretty clear («Can you give up on your home and friends for me?» «And you? Can you give up on your duty for me?»), he doubts that she refuses him only because of that  (and this is so HUMAN – to be in complex, hopeless situation, to suffer from it, not knowing if you should leave it for later or let it go completely). So he doesn`t give up on his plans although he is in pain and loves her and she also decides to disturb his plans although she is in pain and loves him too. No one chooses love over their duties by now (just as Devil`s father and God of War did), but love is still an option and neither Devil nor Girl wants to give this option up.

The Romeo and Juliet problem has got two ways to be solved: either the conflict is not huge and could be resolved (or someone turns side), or you just broke up (and someone optionally dies in process). This story orders us it`s variant of the Romeo and Juliet problem salvation, which is not death (at some point of view).

Episode 1-7 Episode 8 Episodes 9-13 Episodes 20-26 Episodes 27-34

Li Lun, a villain I feel for (Pt. 2/4)

So, by the beginning of the drama LL says that he wants to kill all of ZYZ’s new friends. In fact, he just likes talking. He says: “Let’s kill ZYZ’s friends starting with Baize Goddess, like the previous time” so the viewer thinks he killed previous goddess off, but later we learn that he didn't do it. Even if he has a perfect opportunity to kill someone of ZYZ’s new friends without ruining his own schemings, he does pretty nothing to achieve it. He just stands and talks. Because he doesn’t really want to kill anyone, including ZYZ. He wants to attract ZYZ’s attention and to make ZYZ stop ghosting him.

Li Lun speaks to Big Bad in Mask while possessing a courtesan. Meanwhile, he lends Truth Eye to Ao Ying so she could see his true self.

LL joins hands with Big Bad in Mask, not knowing he was the one who tortured demons in that bloody dungeon (yeah, LL is not the smartest guy of the Universe). By doing it he tries to achieve his own goals. First, he wants to break free from his custody, and second, he wants to get attention from ZYZ, who ignores him.

In order to break his chains LL works as matchmaker for ZYZ and his girlfriend, so they could fall in love with each other and find and unite pieces of Baize token, because only if the token is intact, it can be broken and its spells can be dissipated. He is not a saint, so he kills some folks (by possessing them or just because) and tricks other demons into helping him, although he is said to value his own kind more than anything. It means he goes through break-up with ZYZ so badly, that even his principles fade into the background for his anger and pain. Or it’s just another script flaw.

Li Lun behaves himself very much as a ghosted ex-boyfriend (in fact, he is), and I understand him well. He goes through stages of acceptance: throws himself from denial (ZYZ is no better than me, why don't you treat him the way he treated me?) through anger (ZYZ, I’ll kill your friends and make you suffer!) to bargaining (Why does he find you better than me? What if you would be like me, would he still love you?).

To talk about his feelings with someone, he uses the only way to leave his dark lifeless place of imprisonment, which is possessing others. At first, this ability and an omnipotence of it looks intimidating, but later we learn that he cuts his lifespan by a half each time he does it, so his need to talk to someone is very desperate. (Later, LL says that it was his way to enjoy the world and freedom but GJM never showed us such a use of this LL's ability). ZYZ knows that destroying LL’s leaves (through which he possesses bodies) will hurt Li Lun, yet he does it anyway, and LL kinda... enjoys it bitterly. As if the fact of him being not ignored by ZYZ is more important that his wellbeing. It's miserable and pathetic, but understandable.

And anytime LL tries to get some answers for his questions, ZYZ and his friends say something like “You don’t understand a thing, I won’t bother to explain, though.” or “We have friends and ZYZ is our boyfriend, and you are a lonely loser!”. How it supposes to help LL understand his wrongs? I have no idea.

Ghosting your ex is the sure way to make him a villain.

LL breaks free from his jail and destroys a “support beam” of the “wall” around demon ghetto. An accent on “I’m destroying the wall” is strange, because I can’t understand the gain demons will have when they aren't in their ghetto anymore (and it obviously should be). Would Great Demons even the scores of victims if not only humans would catch and torture demons but demons would also catch and torture humans, or what? However, it sounds pretty fair, as long as said Baize Goddess’ and ZYZ’s protection of demons consist in only preventing them from going outside their ghetto without passport, LOL.

Although LL is free from the seal, he is still dying from the fatal wound causing by ZYZ 8 years ago. His true body is smoldering slowly, so he has got not so much time left.

For plot purposes, the main heroes need to visit LL’s birthplace to get the last cup of magic water to fix Baize token and to restore a “support beam” of ghetto’s wall. What would a normal villain do, knowing about it? Yes, he would spill it. What does LL do? He, in fact, hands it over to the main heroes. Yes, stained, but LL was a student of Mountain God, too, so he could know that there is a way to restore the pureness of magic water, and the best way to destroy the token for good is to spill this water.

During their visit LL kidnaps ZYZ’s girlfriend (it is funny that the main heroes don’t notice it for something like first five minutes 😅) and has a phycologist session with her (in which she is a psychologist). They have a superstrange conversation, something like: LL: “ZYZ supposed to be my friend but ghosted me for no obvious for me reason and I’m hurt!”. WX: “Oh, it’s because you are a loser with no friends, ZYZ did everything right!”.

Then ZYZ and his current boyfriend come and LL tries once more to tell ZYZ that he is hurt, but ZYZ has absolutely no desire to talk to him or to explain to him something and acts like they were never boyfriends and LL is his archenemy.

So, they fight and ZYZ hurts LL with Everburning Wood once more, now deliberately. LL dies, and although ZYZ has red eyes at this moment he never thinks of LL again. So, LL is right: ZYZ is a hypocrite with double standards. It is such a contrast with the stories of the main heroes and ancient dragon gods, in which killing your friend for Higher Goals is a tragedy.

But there is a plot twist ahead!

Here is Part 1 Here is Part 3 Here is Part 4

"That porridge was not poisonous."

My journey to you 云之羽 // Episode 13

What happend to Kylo and Rey in TFA + TLD

I tried to recover for myself the chain of events that happended to Reylo in TFA and TLD. So here we are: Kylo takes Rey from Takodana because he feels something inside her. (Maybe because the Force has created her as an opposite to Kylo. She is an inhibitor to his darkness).

In the interrogation scene he realizes that their abilities are equal (because she is his inhibitor). Kylo feels compassion. Thеn he reports on the girl to Snoke. Snoke notes this.

In the forrest battle Kylo realizes that she is the Awakening in the Force (his darkness rises and her light to meet it) and says “It is you”.

Snoke makes a plan. He bonds his apprentice and the scavenger`s minds. He knows that there is still light in Kylo and hopes Rey see it and try to help him turn to the Light Side. And this intention will be her doom.

But our heroes touch each other`s fingertips and see their future. They don`t know exacly how it will turn out to be but they are on the same side. Rey thinks Kylo will turn to the Light side and help her to destroy Snoke (She totally forgets about the Balance). Kylo thinks she will share his power and rule the Galaxy with him. They talk about it in the elevator and get angry because they don`t understand each other`s intensions. Then they kill Snoke and his Guards and see their future from the vision has come true. So they get hope again and the last talk is a huge disappointment to each of them. 

So Kylo thinks he does right things to do but he is absolutely lonely and goes crazy because of that. Rey feels a little bit better but her expectations are broken in pieces. 

Kylo and Rey are galactic idiots.

But they still matter to each other: Rey doesn`t kill unconscious Kylo in the throne room although she knows his intentions. Kylo lets her fly away by Millenium Falcon with the rest of the Resistance. They still share Forcebond even when Snoke is gone.

In the end Luke tells us that noone is really gone (about Ben) and Rose tells that the victory is to save the ones you love, not to kill the ones you hate. And Yoda tells us that mistakes are needful things to do. So I think these words can be related to Kylo and his relationships with Rey. 

What`s scenario for Reylo in IX?

Kylo and Rey finding the Balance and getting away from politics and wars;

Rey saving Renperor (maybe Hux will attempt assassination agains him or something) and getting away from all this;

Rey and Kylo ruling the Galaxy in some sort of autarchy or constitutional monarchy;

Rey carrying out her duty and killing Kylo despite her feelings;

Kylo and Rey commiting suicide to brind the Balance to the Force.

I can`t imagine something different by the moment. Redemption arc for Kylo means disbalance in this case. They should be equal grey or some sort of yin and yang.

What can be seen in the next movie?

1) Timeskip. Even if Raddus was saved by Holdo (some fans are thinking so) there are no people in the Resistance to fight against the FO. But we have seen a new generation of rebels in VIII. They should grow up.

2) The true villains are rich people that sell weapons to the both sides of the conflict. There could be something about them.

3) Luke as the Force ghost (Luke said to Kylo “see you kid” or something like this). He can affect Kylo`s character alot.

4) Yoda`s, Rose`s and Luke`s phrases should affect our story. Rey can save Kylo by her love and make him complete, balanced.

So what do you think? Tell me your thoughts =)

English is not my native language so I`m sorry for mistaces. 

Fu Ling and Chong Zhao: all in one. Part 2 of 2

But all good things come to an end, and the evil demon master (who tried to kill Chong Zhao off so many times, LOL) finds out that Chong Zhao is the shell of the Devil deity he wanted to resurrect all this time, so he accomplishes his mission, and resurrected Devil deity occupies Chong Zhao's body.

"The Deity is back, bitches!" I don't like that the former dweller of deity's shell in this drama is another person, not a part of deity's soul, because I'm against reproducing by budding while having genitals it cuts off deity's potential of broadening their mental horizons: while fusing their main soul with the "mortal" part of it, they could learn something that can be experienced only by mortals/humans. Although I find this plot decision strange, both in the main heroes' as well as in Mo Li's cases, I understand that otherwise it would be probably impossible to kill Mo Li the way he was killed: it would requite to study Mo Li's character and to remove focus from the main heroes to Mo Li's inner processes, and the luxury of it is affordable only for the main characters. The mechanics of interactions between Chong Zhao and Mo Li looks like the one of the different parts of the same consciousness, though. So, Mo Li is back. He regains control over his shell, and the first thing he sees when he wakes up is a lover of his "mortal" consciousness, lying unconscious on the floor. If I would be a deity, who absolutely doesn't care about the previous life of his "mortal" part of the soul, I would overstep her unconscious body and go further, but look what did this deity do:

Bridal carry [3], as a deity. He says that he didn't kill her because it would upset his future wife Bai Shuo (the main heroine, Fu Ling's mortal sister), but the truth is, he doesn't give a damn about Bai Shuo's unhappiness, Fu Ling doesn't matter in their "let's marry or I'll destroy the whole planet" thing. So, there is something else.

"He is still here, in the furthest corner of my mind. I know everything he knows". Btw, the Devil deity Mo Li is absolutely adorable (in a devilish way). He has nothing in common with Chong Zhao: he is charismatic in a way, infinitely bored with his unlimited power and full of crazy thoughts: for example, to kill everyone (but dude, why? you are the most powerful creature in the world anyways, no one is a threat to you!) or to have a forced wedding with a girl who doesn't like him (and, moreover, he doesn't like her either! What a crazy man!).

"You? Will kill me?"

The situation is desperate: Fu Ling is imprisoned in Mo Li's palace, her lover is a tiny part of Mo Li's consciousness now, and Mo Li himself is invincible to the killing attempts of mere humans/demons/whoever. Yet Fu Ling stupidly proceeds attacking him:

"Keep trying to kill me, I like it".

"Why wouldn't you kill immortals and humans for me, as you did it previously, when you were Fu Ling?"

It feels so painfully delicious: she knows her lover is gone, but, at the same time, he is somewhere there, inside of this ethereal, inhuman being. And the deity, in his turn, is slightly interested in her, not romantically, but still. If Mo Li and Chong Zhao were two parts of one consciousness, I would say it is the echoing of Mo Li's other self who loved her. Their feelings could be fused. A deity is too ethereal to fall in love with someone (Xing Yue laughs hysterically at this statement), but his mortal part isn't, so, when Chong Zhao would mingle into Mo Li's soul, he would bring this shade of unfamiliar for deities feelings with him, and it would look like this slightly different attitude towards her.

They look at the starry sky [2], Mo Li x Bai Xi version. "This purple moon won't protect any of them".

"Tomorrow it all will be over".

And now it's time for their story to be over. She was attracted to him since they had met each other for the first time as children, and he was touched by her attitude towards him, too. She wanted to keep him safe when they met each other anew, and he wanted to keep her safe, too. And later, as he became the Devil deity, he didn't plan to kill her either (can't say the same about her, but her attempts were hopeless and her goal was to free her lover's body from being possessed by the deity). But it happened that he did kill her. Unintentionally. She has shielded her sister from his spear with her own body and died.

The next scene is the most powerful moment of this drama for me. A heartless deity doesn't even understand at first what happened to him: a little piece of his consciousness takes over the body for a moment, fueled by the power of his grief over his deceased lover, and the deity starts crying:

And it is here where the destiny plays out: if Fu Ling would stay alive, no one could ever defeat Mo Li, because the only weapon that can kill him is the long lost Divine Bow of Xing Yue deity. And this bow is Fu Ling's soul.

This plot twist was so beautiful! It broke my heart, but, at the same time, left me highly in awe. I like it, when the only reason for a villain to get defeated is his own decisions. The unintentional killing of his lover that allowed his enemies to get the only effective weapon against him is truly marvelous plot decision. She could be the person, who would care about him the most, but became his death. Their fates were intertwined long ago, but it was still up to him: was it "destined to love" or "destined to kill" fate, - and he chose the latter.

The Divine Bow in use. To summarize: this story deserved to be the main plot line of some drama, and I see the potential of another ending for it if it would be the main plot line with more screen time for the last character arch. But alas, every main character in China should be bleached till they lose all their moral greyness and complexity, so I should accept my fate and proceed enjoying secondary characters, outliving their deaths, fixing their stories in my Mind Palace and not giving up on hope to see someday a good, heart-wrenching story again. Here is Part 1

How to fight your doom (Pt.1)

Episodes 1-7 I LOVE how this story starts (because the beginning circles up with the end like Ouroboros)! The Girl breaks the Heavenly rules to save her beloved one and changes his fate, so he wouldn`t die from Devil`s shattered primordial spirit attack. Because of that she falls right into the arms (and onto the lips) of the Worst Monster in Three Realms. And CURES him.

She gathers his shattered in 7 pieces soul (it`s very Chinese thing, I often see in novels that immortal beings have 7 souls and 9 spirits or something like that), puts it back into his body and heals even those injuries that were caused by his father long before his "death". This beginning feels right. Their journey starts with curing and IS about curing each other in different ways.

Devil is allpowerful and fearsome but also feral and broken, so the only way for him to accept his chance to be cured is to put him into the situation when he is forced to behave in another, unfamiliar way. So there is a curse that helps him to understand feelings that he`s gonna be able to feel for the first time in 38 thousand years and prevents him from his standart way to solve problems (such as to kill the girl).

(Btw I LOVE how this show is accurate to the details: if she is injured, the same bruises we can see the whole day on her as on him.)

Forced to take care of Girl`s safety and mood, he (with the great killing intent) learns how to do nice things to others and to be empathic.

But he is not thrown out into the endless sea of feelings without lifebelt, Girl guides him, explains to him what`s going on with him (and he can`t even kill her for that, LOL). And some feelings he needs to learn by his own. (Later we will see that he is an exellent student and embraces his ability to feel and to love fully).

I like how entangled the most part of their relationship look like: he is forced to do nice things to Girl and in process starts to ask himself, why does she feel what she feels and why does he feel something about it. Why does he care if she is happy not to see him again ever in her life? Why does she blush when she speaks about her dream beloved? Why does she drink his flower soup when it tastes awful? We can see even tiny green sprouts of jelousy start to grow in his heart little by little (it`s not so much about romance, but about his warrior`s fame at first). Only by force he could begin to think about it and the curse helps him with that a lot.

On the other hand, Girl is very naïve, she doesn`t understand that Devil is Devil indeed and that he forced to be nice to her, so she supposes that he really likes her. Her soul is injured too: she has been bullied by other fairies, she lives all alone, no one takes her words seriosly, she is quite ordinary, quite invisible. And Devil gives her (against his will at first) opportunity to feel how it is when someone cares. It could be wicked cheating of fate if Devil would not be so fluffy and soft in his soul. But he is. Episode 8 Episodes 9-13 Episodes 13-19 Episodes 20-26 Episodes 27-34

My favorite character from Solo: A Star Wars story

SM: You got me out of the jail. Thanks! DZ: What have you just said? I didn't get it. SM: THANK YOU! DZ: It's so loud here, can't hear you. Repeat, please. SM's friend: I have heard it well. He said he likes you. SM: He has misheard it, don't listen to him. SM's friend: Well, I have misheard it, indeed. He said he would like to marry you. SM: Shut up! DZ: 😎 SM: 😰 SM's friend: 😈 And later:

I like your train of thoughts, guys!