Twelve Legends (2021)

Another Mary Sue Drama~

Twelve Legends narrates the story of Jasper Liu, Jin Xing Jian, a stone deity who tries to resurrect her lover, Ye Ming, a night pearl played by Guli Nazha. The story started after Jin Xing Jian sealed Ye Ming’s memory and put her to sleep. As a stone deity, Jin Xing Jian has “seals/stone stamps” – which is his original form. It all started because Ye Ming defied heaven’s will against Yu Shao Bai's death, which causes a domino effect to Jin Xing Jian, Ye Ming, and others. The drama storyline then focuses on the journey of Jin Xing Jian finding his 8 scattered seals and Ye Ming trying to figure out her past.

I gave this drama a 3.5 is because of its draggy storyline. There are a lot of side couples and stories in this drama. Almost every seal collected comes with a background story. The background story includes the right amount of suspense, action, emotion, and comedy. For instance, I find the nine-tailed fox side and xiao hu’s story touching. However, some of the side stories are presented longer than necessary, causing uneven pacing. As a fantasy/ supernatural drama it lacks lavish images, CGI and choreographed action scenes. But still, the choreographed action is still decent. From what I can see, this drama might have a high budget, and I can say that they allocated the budget well. Even though some of the CGI is terrible and fake (e.g. the mermaid, nine-tailed fox, dream eater). The CGI does not fit into the overall drama. And the transition was downright terrible. There are a lot of cuts, jumps and weird transitions and effects that looked like this whole drama is being edited on iMovie by a high school student.

In addition, the climax also lacks intensity. The protagonist and antagonist were killed easily. In the beginning till the end of the drama, the protagonist, Jing Xing Jian was shown as basically an unparalleled deity with strong superpowers. However, the reason for his death lacks logic and coherence. And Ye Ming did not have any character growth at all. She remains as weak and innocent or could I say dumb. Jin Xing Jian sacrificed so much for her, but she barely did anything. The only thing she did was reciprocate his love only by the last few episodes of the drama, she realized everything too late.

Jasper Liu did a tremendous job in portraying a cold and distant yet loyal and caring man. Meanwhile, Guli Nazha did an okay job. I watched some of her dramas before such as Weaving a Tale of Love, and her acting did not have any improvement. However, I gotta say that Guli Nazha looked very charming in this drama, she is very charming and beautiful especially when she is in a qipao!! but still, her characters evoke a 呆/ dumb vibe (Guli Nazha should pick a better script, almost every character that she acts evokes a 呆 vibe). But Jia Cheng and Zhi Ying did a great job as the second couple. I love seeing how they grow as a demon and a demon fighter to lovers. And there are also a few really awesome supporting cast, such as the Ye siblings.

Secondly, the costumes and set were pleasing to see. The republican era costumes such as the qipao, suits, dresses were very well made and detailed. The set such as the Hua Xue gallery was also well-made. And lastly, the OSTs were very fitting into the overall ambience, however, it is not catchy and memorable.

Overall, Twelve Legends is an average-bad drama. Some aspects of the drama are bad, however, if you watch it without thinking much, then it will probably be an okay drama. If you have a lot of extra time or if you are a fan of the actors, go ahead and watch it!!

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This is the kind of drama that you might watch if you are a fan of one of the actors/actresses, but there's still some things in this drama which might make it unwatchable regardless if you are a fan of the actor or not. The storyline is sort of made up of mini stories along the way, which contribute to the overarching plot (the male/female lead's story), which I personally don't mind. In fact, the mini stories were more entertaining than the male/female lead's storyline, which...is not the best in terms of making an engaging drama. To be honest, I skimmed the leads' storyline to watch the side stories and I'll explain why in a bit. My takeaway from this drama was "love makes you do stupid things." If that's a trope you don't mind, then maybe this is watchable for you.

*Major spoiler territory ahead*
Plot: Love, greed, and selfishness basically drives the actions of the lead characters. The main gripe that I have for the leads' storyline is the "secret" of the past. The female lead's memories were wiped and the male lead refuses to tell her anything. With the way they crafted this "mysterious secret that the ML couldn't tell FL" I expected a bigger shock when the "reveal" came. Instead, the reveal was very disappointing since I already guessed what had happened so that defeated the entire purpose. If ML told her the truth in the beginning, so much time could have been saved and prevented misunderstandings and FL being manipulated by antagonist (who was the only one willing to tell her anything). I personally didn't understand ML's rationale for keeping the secret from her; it was a pretty weak reason.

The side stories were pretty entertaining; I liked some more than others. Some of them were short (2 eps) while others could span for 5 or so eps. I didn't mind them since they had a part in advancing forward in the plot. The beginning few episodes were pretty engaging, before it became draggy in the middle and then the pace started picking up slightly towards the end. I skimmed through the boring parts and you won't miss much if you do.

Climax: I thought ML was too OP, especially in the final battle. After all the trouble that antagonist goes through to gain new powers and all that, the final fight was so short. Like they traded a few blows and then ML just defeated him. Felt very anti-climatic, especially considering all the effort the antagonist went through for those powers. I was half-expecting him to be revived since the fight was so unconvincing as the "big finale" but it was.

Acting/Characters: I have never seen Gulnezer in another drama so I can't compare her acting. It was okay, if you don't expect too much from her "emotional" scenes. Crying scenes fell extremely flat to the point where I felt more sympathy for antagonist when he was trying to get pity from FL than for FL herself during her sad scenes. FL's character is kind of naive and fits the bill of "love makes you do stupid things" but I didn't feel that her character was overly dumb. At least she was still wary and made her own decisions at times and not totally helpless since she can fight.

ML is example 2 of "love makes you do stupid things." His character is usually pretty rationale and smart, until it comes to the FL. While he doesn't do anything outrageous, it's his hesitance that draws out the storyline/probably leads to avoidable deaths. I liked Jasper as an actor and he did a pretty good job at portraying ML. His voice is dubbed in this drama, if that makes a difference.

The second leads (Li Xian, Xiao Qing) bought some comedic relief with their antics and they were pretty good side kicks to ML. I have never seen these actors in another drama, but in this one, they played their roles well. Their love story was better written than ML/FLs. At times, you might get frustrated at Li Xian for his hotheadedness which leads to unfortunate consequences but that's part of his character. Shame that they made him so weak for the sake of plot - he didn't have any victories against the bad guys.

The Ye siblings: The sister was really annoying at the beginning but she becomes less annoying later on. I skipped most of her parts in the beginning because it was very cringey...and how much she harped on about being a "modern woman" all the time. Her character redeems herself later on. The brother was great all the way through, the definition of a true friend.

Antagonist: I have seen Liu Chang in other dramas and I have to say I was pretty impressed with his role as a villain. The dubbing was quite off at times (especially when he did his evil laugh) which made it quite awkward. His acting has improved lots from his older works and he played his part pretty convincingly, especially the parts where he tries to gain sympathy from FL.

Overall, not the best drama. Time will probably be better spent on other shows, unless you want to watch for a fav actor/actress and a mediocre plotline. CGI was alright for the most part; my bar isn't set that high. The only CGI that looked really weird to me was the mermaid tail.

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