As is typical of the Chinese deity genre, this story pits the heavenly realm against the demon realm. We immediately have the striking juxtaposition between a humble, bullied, lonely, extroverted, physically-broken Orchid fairy and a prideful, bullyish, popular, introverted, emotionally-broken Demon Lord.

Fate brings them together and a love curse strikes the Demon Lord, causing him to be spiritually, emotionally and physically linked to the fairy - anything that happens to her also happens to him; if she suffers, he suffers; if she dies, he dies.

Chinese dramas don’t make the mistake of making their heroine strong because of her masculine traits. Instead, our Orchid fairy is strong because she is the ultimate healer and spreader of empathy. Yet, her opposite, the Demon Lord, is the ultimate destroyer and the epitome of someone who lacks empathy.

Orchid fairy expresses courage in her goals, conviction in her morals, and is willing to risk danger and death for what matters! In contrast, Demon Lord expresses cowardice in his goals, is unwilling to risk danger and death for what matters, and is constantly keeping the fairy safe just to protect himself from the love curse.

The love curse works its magic on him, as he is able to see a whole new way of being through the magic that links their souls together. Through keeping her safe, feeling her emotions, and experiencing the purity of her soul, he begins to see the beauty in her soul and begins to want to be like her.

We get taken to Demon Lords backstory where we learn that he was magically tortured as a child in order to purposefully remove his emotions and allow him to be a powerful enough psychopath to successfully rule the demons. Orchid discovers how he is actually an emotionally damaged boy at heart and promptly begins working on healing his soul.

The two prove their love for each other by voluntarily facing magical torture in order to save each other, evincing that the value of love is greater than the cost of pain.

In the end, their relationship triggers a war between the nations, and Orchid must choose between her love and the lives of the people.

Demon Lord loses his hell fire magic when he is healed from his psychopathy. But he gains a new crimson fire magic when he follows Orchid’s path as a hero for the people, symbolizing that often a greater power can be gained when we sacrifice our toxic and manipulative techniques for more friendly and prosocial techniques.

More reviews: https://transcendentphilos.wixsite.com/website/post/the-philosophy-of-chinese-dramas