Black Lotus
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Made me want to vomit blood
Watching all 59 eps made me feel like I was going through my own tribulation. Honestly, the amount of times people spit out blood in this drama is enough to paint a highway. But that’s not the point. Due to the overwhelming positive reactions to this drama I was excited to watch it. The first few episodes were interesting and the backstory of the God of War was my high point. I was interested to learn more but none of that gets revealed until nearly the end. What I got for the remainder of these 40ish eps was a weak ML who got stabbed more than a pincushion, a stupid annoying FL who is controlled by the worst villain to ever exist, hypocritical “righteous” sects who made me feel homicidal to the point that I ended up rooting for the demons, contrived misunderstandings just to drag out unnecessary plot points and so so so so SO MUCH TALKING! Good lord!I was not a fan of the leads going in and while they probably did the best they could I feel the FL is miscast. She does not pull off the duality of Xuanji/God of War well. I kinda laughed at how big her hair piece was and the armor was terrible. The ML was also kind of one note due to the character being selfless to a fault. Watching him getting stabbed, poisoned, tortured over and over again got so boring after the millionth time. It made the character feel pathetic and weak and it felt like the only reason he kept living was the thick slab of plot armor they padded him with.
The story went off the rails once the Star of Mosha returned and things turned weird and made me wonder if this was a BL drama all of a sudden. But to be frank, the actor who played Luohuo Judu pulled off his duality better than the FL anyway. When he’s menacing, he’s terrifying but when he goes soft it’s so believable.
I appreciate that the drama focused so heavily on the FL’s backstory and the ML served more of a secondary role to her journey. It’s kind of a nice role reversal but the writing and characterization was just too elementary and sub-par. While there’s a lot of depth to the villains, the main heroes felt so one dimensional. For 90% of the story FL has no agency whatsoever and is manipulated by nearly everyone around her. The only time she takes control is when she turns into the Star of Mosha who just so happens to be a man. Kind of a bad subtext there. The other female characters in the drama revolve entirely around men as well and have no agency of their own. I began to fast forward a lot towards the end. This could have easily been cut short into a 30 ep drama and saved me a lot of time.
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Come for the pretty actors, stay for the acting
I watched this on a whim not knowing who any of the actors were. I just came purely based on how pretty the main couple were. Hey, that's just how it is in dramaland. Sometimes the story and the acting are just an extra treat. Well in this case I was in for a huge surprise! The FL actor for Duanmu Cui is absolutely phenomenal. Perhaps it's because I'd never seen her in anything before so I didn't have any biased assumption of how she would act. The ML for Zhan Yan is definitely the weaker link but they have such amazing chemistry together that I think the FL's acting more than makes up for his deficiency.The story is also different from anything I've watched. It's Xianxia but the core theme is completely based around Duanmu Cui's personal guilt and feelings of loss. At first you think it's the typical love trope that she can't let go of her past lover but it's much deeper. Once the drama turns everything on its head and the characters go back into the past we explore more of Duanmu Cui as a person. It's a female character study that I am shocked we are getting from a cdrama which is always disproportionately obsessed over male characters.
Anyway, the season does end on an awkward note. Literally it ends on a random episode. I can't wait for season 2. I know a lot of people will be turned off by the sudden change in focus with the shift to the past but I am loving it. I think they already ran out of ground to cover in the present and with there being so many allusions to events in the past it only made sense to take us there. We finally get to see those characters that have been haunting Duanmu Cui for a thousand years and can finally understand how the war took its toll on her.
This is a great drama so far with some interesting takes and a refreshing exploration of a female character in a Xianxia. Despite the usual cdrama tropes I think the acting, chemistry and portrayal of a healthy relationship between the main couple elevates it from its shortcomings. This is the FL I expected from Love and Redemption that I never got. Thank god for No Boundary and Zhang Yi Shang for restoring my faith that not all FL are idiots. Hopefully, this doesn't change in season 2.
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Side characters stole the show
StoryThe drama starts off with a simple premise but the execution is a BIG OL MESS. There are two stories within one and even though I did not like the first 16 eps that much I wish I could have known that. Don't get attached to anyone in the first quarter of the drama because you will probably never see them again. Once the leads suffer memory loss, the story reboots and takes place in Northern Wei and boy oh boy does it feel so much less claustrophobic. There are better actors and better characters to make us all forget about that limp toxic romance that began in the first 16 eps. But no, that only lasts for a while because SURPRISE they get married to each other super fast. Faster than you can say Fashi. Then suddenly the pace of the drama becomes painful as it's harem schemes after harem schemes topped with court schemes and people saying the words "wild ambition" a million times just to remind you of what a womanizer and leech Rong Zi is. This drama should have been renamed as Schemeception because literally everyone and their grandma has a secret agenda here. Don't trust anyone lest they be some conveniently placed spy just to be activated for plot purposes ten episodes down the line. It gets tiring so quickly and you kind of just want Fashi to rise from the grave and kill everyone for being such two faced bishes. I watched this until the bitter end just to see what mental gymnastics the writers wanted me to perform to understand the overall plot of this huge bloated pile of plot carcass. I can't say I didn't see it coming but once again my favorite characters get the short end of the stick and a big FU for being true to themselves throughout the entire story. Evil wins, the end. The main leads get a happy end but it wasn't earned in the least and yes I actually admit to rooting for evil once my faves died because the MC's are so insufferable and whiny I just can't.
Characters
Rong Zi
Hands down the absolute worst character and male lead I've seen. He gives Yuwen Yue a run for his money. The main difference is that Kenny Lin can act while this guy uses one facial expression for the two emotions he can conjure: anger and apathy. I know the actor was only 19 when they filmed this but I feel like he was picked only for his looks. Rong Zi is probably the most despicable character out of them all. A protagonist that is low key the antagonist the entire time. A user and abuser. Everything happens because of him. From the Emperor to the Empress down to court ministers and lowly servants, they react to his actions and cause chaos and suffering to the people around him because they're afraid of him and his "wild ambitions" *roll eyes*. Makes you wonder why they even gave him so much power to begin with? He has no redeeming qualities and even his "love" for Chuyu is just to use her as a pawn until he finally loses at the end. I don't understand how every woman in this drama fell for his cheap tricks and promises. This guy couldn't even woo a turtle out of its shell and yet he's got Huo Xuan, Chuyu and Ma Xueyun churning fire for him. Why? IT MAKES NO SENSE. None of the women who loves him even have a good end. And poor Chuyu has to spend her life with him deluding herself that she's happy until he fakes his death for nth time to make her grieve him and deepen her love. Like WTF how is any of that normal? Oh and let's not mention the ten ton pound of plot armor around this guy. In every scheme and every situation the enemies plot against him he somehow always manages to come out on top and foil their plans because he has the superhuman ability to foresee every single outcome possible. I swear he's enlisted nearly everyone in Pingcheng to join his spy army. Even the almighty Pavilion Master who seems to be pulling everyone's strings in BOTH KINGDOMS somehow loses to him. Ridiculous!
Chuyu
Chuyu starts off with probably 50 IQ points and gradually loses all of them by the end of the drama. Strong female lead she is not. The first couple of eps might have tried to fool you into believing she knew what she was doing but as time went on she quickly started to show all of her flaws. Whiny, stubborn, and indecisive, she's surrounded by much more intelligent people around her and woefully outplayed by nearly everyone, even the palace maids. As an assassin, she's even worse than the one in Bloody Romance. She has no martial arts skills and no smarts, making her short-sighted and falling into every trap left and right. I've lost count the number of times the good characters in this drama have had to scramble to save her worthless life. The actress does an adequate job in portraying Chuyu's playful side but it always comes hand in hand with whining afterwards because Rong Zi won't admit that he loves her. If you watched this drama just for her character growth please reconsider. She's static from beginning to end. They've written her character to simply be the love interest. She is constantly being used by both sides of the chess board and has no agency of her own. It's a disappointing blow to female leads everywhere.
Huo Xuan/Le Yun
Badass General Huo Xuan was my main reason to watch this and I was heartbroken in the end for what they did to her. Here is a character that is everything opposite of Chuyu. Strong, smart, clever and capable. She's main lead material and she steals every scene that she's in and yet they still downgrade her to be a lovestruck woman pining for useless boring ass Rong Zi. The most ridiculous thing they could have done was pit her and Chuyu into a competition to see who will be homeboy's official wife even though he's legally already married to Chuyu like????? In what dynasty would they even renege on a diplomatic marriage all for the sake of a competition? This is when the drama started to lose me and I ended up watching it as a comedy. The one GOOD thing they did for her was give her a new love interest but alas in a drama where there are schemes within schemes it ends up in a disaster and my girl pays for it. Screw you writers and your obsession with tragedy. Nevertheless, her chemistry with Gu Huan the doctor was just out of this world and their scenes together is like Titanic vs main lead actors' CW Riverdale. There's just no comparing. Huo Xuan and Gu Huan emote with their eyes. In fact, they use all the facial muscles they have while the main leads act by screaming, yelling and whining.
The second character she plays, Le Yun, is the antithesis to Huo Xuan. She's a mysterious and ruthless woman, a spy placed by Rong Zi to monitor Prince Kang, and much like every character Bai Lu plays I loved her as well. The way she can easily transition from brave, courageous Huo Xuan to sneaky Le Yun one scene after the other is a testament to the skill differential between her and the main leads. Her ability to have chemistry with any actor onscreen continues to amaze me and it's no different here with Prince Kang than it was with Gu Huan. Even though Huo Xuan and Le Yun were physically identical in looks, I could easily tell which character I was watching just by the subtle ways Bai Lu acted. Le Yun miraculously is one of the few female characters in the show that didn't fall in love with worthless Rong Zi but she was still used by him and didn't get a good end either. Seriously they should just wrap caution tape around this dude.
Other notable characters
Prince Kang is a pretty slimey dude who is kind of like that dumb kid who keeps running into a wall and keeps convincing himself that each time he won't hit his damn head. As a schemer he is pretty weak in the game and he loses constantly but the guy is never discouraged and smiles through defeat. It's a gift really to be this optimistic. One of his major weak points is that he loves Huo Xuan but since she won't give him the time of day he gets the discount version of her through her doppelganger Le Yun. The funny thing is that Le Yun actually falls in love with him and their twisted scenes together are actually some of my favorites. Honestly this drama should have been Prince Kang and Le Yun vs Huo Xuan and Gu Huan. The biggest fail was that Huo Xuan never met her doppelganger and no character on the show EVER MENTIONS HOW MUCH THEY LOOK ALIKE.
Empress Dowager
I recognize the actress from Yanxi Palace and Haolan but unlike those characters I absolutely LOVE the Empress Dowager here. There is something regal but deadly about her. She's more than she looks on the surface and it shows when sad little Rong Zi has to play dead every time she shows her cards. She is the only character on the show that can defeat him and it's so satisfying when she does even though the little weasel manages to walk away unscathed unlike all the people he's used.
Closing
To say this drama is a trainwreck is an understatement. Characters and motivations changed wildly. Suddenly one character emerges as a spy out of nowhere. You get a scheme and you get a scheme! They be cooking this up like it's an apple pie recipe because everybody is evil and nobody is good and you lose all sense of trust when you watch this show and end up becoming as paranoid as that crazy Emperor.
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A genre hotpot that tastes like disappointment
I'm probably not the only victim to Netflix's annoying trailer that always plays when you hover over a show or movie. The one they showed for this drama was of a quirky Zhao Lusi beating up a bunch of men and haughtily flaunting her martial arts prowess. Ok, cool. Badass female lead with skills. Hook, line and sinker.The first few episodes were promising. There was a cool animation and everything giving us the backstory of Hei-Feng Bai-Xi and how they were the most powerful duo in jianghu. That was my expectation going in. That they'd be this powerful couple having lots of adventures and solving mysteries together.
And then the court drama started happening.
And then it's revealed that he's the prince and has all of this baggage and has an evil stepmother who wants to kill him, which just eerily reminds me of the Legend of Lu Zhen.
And then I just slowly started losing my interest because all of this has been done to death and done so much better in other shows.
WHAT I HATED
We are given such a rich backstory with these 7 kingdoms and sects and an overarching conspiracy over the fake token but none of that gets expanded on and for nearly half the show Feng Lanxi's story hijacks everyone else's. Powerful couple Hei-Feng Bai-Xi is really just the Feng Lanxi epic with his gluttonous bff/gf Bai Fengxi who's there to reinforce his Main Character status and make some cute jokes at his expense to show that he's really not as serious as he looks. Cue my eyes rolling into the back of my head.
Not only does Feng Lanxi have a secret identity but so does Bai Fengxi! But why did she also have a secret identity? Oh because she's a carefree girl. Yeah, they say that a million times throughout the show and her brother and father just happen to be so supportive of that, but it doesn't really explain anything!!!
We get no backstory for our FL, no character development, no plot development. NOTHING. She's the same in the end as she was in the beginning. In the same vein, all the male characters, including the ML, are just annoyingly ambitious with no other facet to them. The only outlier would probably be Feng Chang but he's kind of pathetic and actually a psychopath for murdering a bunch of people who know about his epilepsy and the show just conveniently glosses over it because he's such a loving brother to Feng Lanxi and *LOOK* tragic childhood! *WAVES ARMS DISTRACTINGLY* Like hello??!? How is this ok? You've got a FL who swears to kill all corrupt and evil officials and this prince here is abusing his power but he gets a free pass because something something plot reasons.
The show doesn't follow its own logic and makes such contrivances for the sake of its nonsensical plot. The main villain and side villains are also comical. Poor Carman Lee. You went from being my favorite Xiao Longnu to a cartoon evil concubine plotting and killing for power. The only thing missing is some moustache twirling. It's all so very typical and cliched. We don't need to discuss the Third Prince here. He's an idiot and has a punchable face.
The father, the Lord of Yongzhou, seems to be like some sort of all-seeing dumbo who knows how evil his wife and son are but just turns a blind eye and then is shocked when they force him to abdicate. If you hadn't been waffling for over 30 episodes about who your heir was maybe you shouldn't be so surprised that something like this would happen. Worst Father of the Year Award also goes to this loser. With all the resources at his disposal to investigate he still punishes the wrong people and gets swayed so easily.
And then there's the Tianshuang Sect who might be the most useless sect in all of existence. They literally cannot do anything right, get caught ALL the time and have the weakest disciples I've ever seen. How in the world did Bai Fengxi become one of the strongest fighters in jianghu by training with them?? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie pop? The world may never know.
Bai Langhua is insufferable and fits the annoying, bratty sect sister trope to a T. This chick gets sick from being on a boat to the point that she's near death, begrudges Bai Fengxi for the littlest things and then literally stabs her in the back accusing her of murder. If you shake her, you'll probably hear a few screws rattling in that empty head. Nothing she does makes sense. She's a throwaway character whose circumstances are established to fit the plot and to push it along when it's needed. They could literally replace her with a teapot and it wouldn't make any difference to how much depth she has as a character.
WHAT I TOLERATED
The fight scenes were just ok. It's a bit overdone and far too showy for what is supposed to be a wuxia. Like, people have the strength of 50 full sized leaf blowers coming out of the palm of their hands. Everyone is always flying from some internal tornado force. There isn't much intricate choreography here, just sped up sword waving to try and enhance the feeling of a chaotic fight scene.
WHAT I LIKED
Feng Qiwu is BEST GIRL and her relationship with Bai Fengxi is so amazingly wholesome and cute and I could gush about it all day. Dare I say the chemistry between them was much more natural than between the main leads? How I wished this was a GL drama instead but that's never going to happen in our lifetime.
The costumes and cinematography is what I always come for in Cdramas and this doesn't disappoint. I love the clean look, lighting and beautiful sets. The female head pieces are also understated and don't look ridiculous. The male robes, especially for the princes, all look so elegant and cuts a very hourglass figure, funnily enough.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
This drama overpromises and underdelivers. The FL's story is sacrificed for the sake of the ML's boring backstory and side villains. Too many plotlines are introduced and then just dropped. Character motivations and actions are not consistent or sensible but everything is very pretty looking. Have you seen all the pretty actors? Keep looking over there, don't mind all the mess and duct tape that's keeping everything together. If you're bored, go for it. If you want some quality with your entertainment, look elsewhere.
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