Completely worth watching for a beautiful plot

Don't get me wrong, just because my score isn't a perfect 10, doesn't mean I don't love this drama to bits.

The Untamed was my first exposure to this series. The characters have a lot of names and at the beginning, it was extremely convoluted and hard to follow. This struggle almost made me drop the drama, but I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't!

The story is beautiful. Everything eventually falls into place and all the questions are answered by writers. It's beautifully written and the subtle bromance and relationship between the two leads had me hooked. I usually hate subplots in dramas, but The Untamed made sure that the subplots of all the other characters were interesting and important to the main plot! Wen Ning's story and leading to how he became known as the Ghost General, Yanli's relationship with Jin Zixuan, everything was like a perfect puzzle, nothing out of place. I haven't watched a show this long with a plot written as finely and as perfect as The Untamed in a long time. The 50 episode count had me baffled at the beginning, but the episodes flew past me so quickly that by the end I realized that barely any episodes were wasted, unlike some dramas I have seen.

The points I've deducted are for a few things. They don't affect how much I love this show, but they did affect my quality of enjoyment while watching the show.
1) I had to skip through a lot of this drama. Especially the long few episodes spent by the Jiang clan just mourning over the death of their people. Yes, I know it's supposed to be sad and showcase the change in behaviour and emotions towards the Wen clan, but letting it take at least two episodes? For me, it was too much.
2) The beginning was just so confusing. Now I know it's probably because I have no prior knowledge of cultivation and the concept of having two or three names, but it made it very hard to follow, especially with the flashback that lasted 30 episodes. After finishing the drama I went on to watch the animated adaptation, just to get a better sense of what the original plot is about, and was very pleased by the structure of the show. It cut between present and past and made it very clear what was what. This structure made the story much easier to follow, and I wish the drama could've taken better steps to make things clear, especially for new audiences like me who weren't fans of the story prior to watching the drama.
3) The acting wasn't very good at some scenes. I usually get very emotional watching dramas, but for some reason, I barely cried during The Untamed. Only Yi City arc had me in tears. Of course, you don't need to cry to get invested in a show, but sometimes the acting or the awkwardness of some fight scenes or "emotional" scenes ruined the moment for me. (Like Jin Guangyao's sobfest at the end. I don't know why but I just couldn't feel sad at all because the crying was just funny to me)

Overall, I'd watch this again, because I feel like this is the type of show that just gets better the more you watch because you'll see more of those tiny details that you missed earlier. And of course, the best reason to watch this show is for the story. The story is amazing, though a little convoluted and dragging at times, it's perfectly written to the point that I was amazed when everything began to come together and make sense.

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