It Is Better To Have Loved And Lost Than To Never Have Loved At All

If I had to use one word to describe Immortal Samsara, it would be 'healing'. There is so much of it in this epic drama that I have used Alfred Tennyson's famous lines as the heading not because I believe that the pain of lost love is better than not having loved at all but because IS has proven, yet again, how love can be a catalyst for self-reflection and finding peace within yourself. I enjoyed the journey that all the characters took me on and although I was riveted by all of them, the character of Ying Yuan stands out the most for me. He was born with the heavy burden of being the only offspring of a forbidden union that was based on lies and treachery and, grew up being told he needed to prove himself to be better than his parentage. He was also forbidden from expressing his true feelings and as a result, through his actions, ended up hurting the one person who saw through his facade of stoicism into his feelings of intense loneliness, isolation and heavy sense of misplaced responsibility. How he redeems himself and finds his truth is a beautiful journey. I have developed so much love and respect for Ying Yuan that he will go down as one of my most favorite fictional characters ever. He was in turn a catalyst for eliciting change in most of the other characters he interacted with and how his inherently kind and compassionate nature and actions had affected them is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching.

I have to give all the well-deserved credit to Cheng Yi for bringing so much life to Ying Yuan as without his portrayal, Ying Yuan could have come across as the stereotypical cold, wooden, one-dimensional character who puts duty over everything else. However, the subtle and overt nuances that Ying Yuan had within were so well done by Cheng Yi that I yearn to meet someone like Ying Yuan in real life. And of course, providing the perfect balance is Yang Zi as his partner in crime and love :)

Am I completely satisfied by how the drama played out on screen? The answer to that would be a no. There were scenes that could have been done better, characters that could have been avoided/given less screen time, make-up that could have been less jarring but honestly, none of that took away from the overall effect this drama has on me. If you, like me, want stories that go beyond the superficial and into qualities that make humans (and what are divine and other beings if not humans with a little bit of magic) inherently flawed, you'll enjoy this as much as I did. I am really glad I watched it as it aired and, along with some of the commentators on this page who came on this journey with me, for which I shall remain eternally grateful.

Would I watch this again? Yes. And, I am pretty sure I will find something new each time I do as I believe that what we take away from a creative piece of work (books, songs, dramas, movie, etc) depends on who we are at the time we discover them.

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