Swivla
Mediocre Fantasy
Very mediocre drama. Watched ~11 eps, may put it on in the background to see where it goes, but spent more time being confused and frustrated by the writing than enjoying myself.
The good:
- As a fantasy production it is pretty decently put together. Not poorly produced, decent effects, decent filming angles etc
- There are some characters with charm, though a lot of this falls apart when the writing muddles their personalities and motivations. I feel like the actors were probably good, but the scenes and arcs that were written for them just failed their characters
- If you want to watch a show with intention to heckle it, turn on comments and there's a stack of people just laughing at it or tearing it apart
The bad:
The writing is really frustrating in its lack of consistency and its lack of respect for character motivations.
The FL:
Her characterization jumps all over the place, is she clever or an idiot, is she strong and willful or a baby. She doesn't feel consistent at all. In theory she starts out as having grown up on the streets among younger street kids who she takes care of, but as soon as she is off the streets she becomes the ultimate spoiled child. There is no sense that she has street smarts, she is completely gullible, and she acts like a total dependent child - there is no sign at all that she used to shoulder all the responsibility for a group of kids. She is shown to have never relied on anyone when she was homeless, but immediately just becomes completely dependent on every man we encounter once the show starts.
To that point, the FL is regularly portrayed as child-like when around any men, while they are almost universally portrayed as interested in her. It really gets to be pretty creepy with the grooming and possessive vibes, to a degree that even many xianxia "cutesy" FL's don't come across this bad.
Eventually as we forget that she was ever a street kid, and accept her new baby persona, the writing still can't stay consistent. Will she suddenly be willful or will she just let people push her around? Will she suddenly inexplicably be competent and powerful or will she just be mowed over? Will she make the absolute dumbest decisions just because the writers need to set up a misunderstanding plotline, or a persecution plotline? It all just jumps all over the place, and it makes it really hard to stay engaged and invested.
The ML:
Is a wooden block at best, but seems to just be grooming and keeping the FL isolated and we are meant to take it as romantic? Ew.
Other characters:
Too many love interests, basically every man we encounter, and almost all of them give no reason to care or root for them. Personally the most annoying is these romantic interests are regularly just totally disregarding the FLs autonomy. Tons of wrist grabbing and talking over her and "pushy flirting" which is really gross.
Basically no women anywhere. The only other woman in this show is the "bully" who also will be portrayed just as inconsistently in power and authority just suddenly ramping up, despite her also being new to the cultivation world.
The good:
- As a fantasy production it is pretty decently put together. Not poorly produced, decent effects, decent filming angles etc
- There are some characters with charm, though a lot of this falls apart when the writing muddles their personalities and motivations. I feel like the actors were probably good, but the scenes and arcs that were written for them just failed their characters
- If you want to watch a show with intention to heckle it, turn on comments and there's a stack of people just laughing at it or tearing it apart
The bad:
The writing is really frustrating in its lack of consistency and its lack of respect for character motivations.
The FL:
Her characterization jumps all over the place, is she clever or an idiot, is she strong and willful or a baby. She doesn't feel consistent at all. In theory she starts out as having grown up on the streets among younger street kids who she takes care of, but as soon as she is off the streets she becomes the ultimate spoiled child. There is no sense that she has street smarts, she is completely gullible, and she acts like a total dependent child - there is no sign at all that she used to shoulder all the responsibility for a group of kids. She is shown to have never relied on anyone when she was homeless, but immediately just becomes completely dependent on every man we encounter once the show starts.
To that point, the FL is regularly portrayed as child-like when around any men, while they are almost universally portrayed as interested in her. It really gets to be pretty creepy with the grooming and possessive vibes, to a degree that even many xianxia "cutesy" FL's don't come across this bad.
Eventually as we forget that she was ever a street kid, and accept her new baby persona, the writing still can't stay consistent. Will she suddenly be willful or will she just let people push her around? Will she suddenly inexplicably be competent and powerful or will she just be mowed over? Will she make the absolute dumbest decisions just because the writers need to set up a misunderstanding plotline, or a persecution plotline? It all just jumps all over the place, and it makes it really hard to stay engaged and invested.
The ML:
Is a wooden block at best, but seems to just be grooming and keeping the FL isolated and we are meant to take it as romantic? Ew.
Other characters:
Too many love interests, basically every man we encounter, and almost all of them give no reason to care or root for them. Personally the most annoying is these romantic interests are regularly just totally disregarding the FLs autonomy. Tons of wrist grabbing and talking over her and "pushy flirting" which is really gross.
Basically no women anywhere. The only other woman in this show is the "bully" who also will be portrayed just as inconsistently in power and authority just suddenly ramping up, despite her also being new to the cultivation world.
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