ScholarSnail
Eversong Woods
A drama with a lot more ‘oomph’ than most
I admit I decided to watch this drama after finishing The Untamed. I was very impressed by the wuxia genre and the potential for deep storytelling. However, and my western worldview might cause this, the series falls into the same pitfalls that I also experienced in The Untamed.
For one, I felt that the series could have been somewhat shorter or at least used some of its scenes for other things. It's also very tiring in the long run. There's this paradox where heavy, informational scenes are drawn out so much that I'm begging for a break, and then when we do get some relief, the scenes feel empty or out of place. There is so much exposition that they tend to drown out each other. There's a sweet semi-plot twist near the end that I didn't even notice until the timed comments pointed it out. I'm just so busy getting caught up in everyone's relations and agendas that I get confused or miss things outright. However, this is probably more of a genre than a specific problem with the series.
What this drama is excellent at, though, is making all the characters very interesting. I'm very picky about b-plots, but honestly had not much of a problem with those in WoH - disregarding the extreme info-dumping.
I won't move into spoiler territory, but I feel that this is a reasonable warning: if there are certain tropes you hate, especially when it comes to endings, you might want to prepare yourself during the last five episodes. It is overall a bittersweet experience, and I was honestly angry at some points because who wants to be disappointed after spending several days on this series?
These are all of my major complaints. However, I do have a lot of praise. This drama has some of the best costuming so far. I cannot help but look at Wen Kexing's outfit in every scene. The costumers spent a lot of time was spent of designing his costumes. The series has a lot of CGIs that are pretty obvious, but it's used to create some gorgeous landscapes and special effects. One thing that blew me away was the fighting scenes! They're so much better than other dramas I've seen. I'm afraid that I won't find anything nearly as good in the future.
If you can dedicate the time needed to watch this drama in its entirety, I think it would be a gratifying watch.
For one, I felt that the series could have been somewhat shorter or at least used some of its scenes for other things. It's also very tiring in the long run. There's this paradox where heavy, informational scenes are drawn out so much that I'm begging for a break, and then when we do get some relief, the scenes feel empty or out of place. There is so much exposition that they tend to drown out each other. There's a sweet semi-plot twist near the end that I didn't even notice until the timed comments pointed it out. I'm just so busy getting caught up in everyone's relations and agendas that I get confused or miss things outright. However, this is probably more of a genre than a specific problem with the series.
What this drama is excellent at, though, is making all the characters very interesting. I'm very picky about b-plots, but honestly had not much of a problem with those in WoH - disregarding the extreme info-dumping.
I won't move into spoiler territory, but I feel that this is a reasonable warning: if there are certain tropes you hate, especially when it comes to endings, you might want to prepare yourself during the last five episodes. It is overall a bittersweet experience, and I was honestly angry at some points because who wants to be disappointed after spending several days on this series?
These are all of my major complaints. However, I do have a lot of praise. This drama has some of the best costuming so far. I cannot help but look at Wen Kexing's outfit in every scene. The costumers spent a lot of time was spent of designing his costumes. The series has a lot of CGIs that are pretty obvious, but it's used to create some gorgeous landscapes and special effects. One thing that blew me away was the fighting scenes! They're so much better than other dramas I've seen. I'm afraid that I won't find anything nearly as good in the future.
If you can dedicate the time needed to watch this drama in its entirety, I think it would be a gratifying watch.
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