How impactful the story is depends on how you feel about the FL

TLDR: A really well put-together XianXia drama whose story impact depends on how you feel about the FL's character.

The drama is absolutely stunning. From the CGI, writing, costuming, choreography and music - everything showed how much love and care was put into the show. From the acting side, everyone was on point - Wang De Hi, especially rocked his role as the ML Dong Fang Qing Cang and chemistry between the main leads was great. Story-wise, the plot and dialog was carefully crafted with detail and no filler.

However, how you feel about the drama will probably come down to how you feel about the FL's character. While the FL has moments where she does shine, she is cast as the naive, weak and pouty, damsel-in-distress for most of the drama. A lot of the issues that arise in the drama are a result of her (innocent/bad) choices. If this kind of character does not appeal to you, STAY AWAY. As incredible as the rest of the drama is, you will not like it. Even if you can tolerate this type of character (because everything else is so good), be prepared to be a little disappointed.

The whole story hinges on the idea that "Love Conquers All". That in itself is not the problem. The problem was that they won't be able to convince you that love (in this case) was worth it if you're not in love with the FL's character yourself. This is not due to the acting - the leads had great chemistry and their love was believable. Or even the concept of the story - the FL's character matched very against the ML's perfectly, and DFCQ wouldn't have been as great of a character as he was without her.

But the story probably won't hit you the right way if you don't like the FL. The ML takes on the vast majority of the pain and suffering for their love, even taking on blame for things I didn't think were his fault. Anything the FL did for him, he would do for her and more. As a result, I felt that the relationship was too unbalanced - ML gave far more and endured much more pain than the FL.

So then it comes down to, did you like the FL enough to feel that all the suffering ML had to endure on her behalf/because of her was worth it. The answer for me was no. After a re-watch, I appreciated her character for what it was. She was what the ML needed to grow into the person the ML ended up being, she made the right choices when she needed to, and her character made the ML's character much more endearing. But at the end of the day, she's not the type of character I like or would adore. Frankly, I couldn't love her as much as DCQC seemed to, so I couldn't empathize with his willingness to suffer so much for her. The last few episodes before the finale where he kept beating himself over things that weren't his fault were especially difficult to watch.

For those who absolutely adored FL's character, this wouldn't have been an issue because she would have been worthy of it all. But for me, the ending was lukewarm, only mollified by the fact that he earned (through suffering) an even greater power (that never really got to show off) and that the love the ML showed in the last few episodes was soul-crushingly endearing, I still enjoyed the show but I think the first 3/4 of the story left a better impression than the last 1/4. But perhaps I just wasn't the target audience for this drama.

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