I've always loved the world of Ancient Love Poetry (a series I hold dear to my heart because it's a top-tier xianxia and it's my introduction to Liu Xueyi), and I'm happy to see it expand in The Last Immortal, a drama about every kind of love: a love that sacrifices, a love that stubbornly wants to live on, a love that waits for a thousand years and more, a love that insists on changing destiny itself. I love the characterization of Gu Jin/Yuan Qi a lot because it's a rare thing I witness in xianxia dramas: he's a main male lead who is expressive, talkative, goofy, and earnest-- a refreshing stand-out from the slew of disinterested, cool ice princes we always get. His character makes for interesting dynamics with the sweet but fierce Ah Yin/Feng Yin, building up a playful friendship that slowly and surely becomes true love. A toast to the writers for writing the characters so well, with beloved heroes, reliable supports, and compelling antiheroes/villains, as well as to the actors for bringing them to life. Special mention to Hua Shu, with her complexity and fluctuating character development/regression, and Hong Yi and Yan Shuang, with their mischievous will-they-won't they dynamic; I was cheering for the two the whole time.

The drama's plot is kind of like characters doing side quests that contribute to the main quest, which makes it easy to digest, and solid enough that when you skip, you're bound to miss something important. It's not unnecessarily [too] tragic, and the problems are resolved gradually, so the ending does not feel so rushed. The effects, choreography, and set/costume designs are wonderful as well. The only problem is the quality suffers a bit from the editing, showing some inconsistencies with scene continuity, and there are times the transitions between shots feel awkward. Other than that, it's a series with a lot of unique strengths to bring to the genre, definitely up to par with its parent story.