an engaging story of Xu Fengnian's journey to become the lord of Beiliang

This drama was amazing! If you liked Joy of Life then I would highly recommend this drama or vice versa. The ML is the same person who played the ML in Joy of Life and the story is also similar with it's somewhat comedy/political vibe. The pacing in this drama is great, it never really lags or goes too quick.

The story was very engaging with some parts of it being funny and some parts really hits you with emotions that Xu Fengnian is feeling. The story makes the watcher sympathize with Xu Feng Nian's and it will probably make you cry at some point.

The fights and overall martial arts sequences were very well executed (although some of the cgi wasn't the best) and the different types of martial arts in the show are show cased very well. The Romance was very subtle but also so sweet. Each character was fleshed out very well, with some remaining mysterious for perhaps a big reveal in the next season??

The schemes and logical side of the drama is well written as well. The twist and turns of the plot are not that predictable and the villain or antagonist is well written. The antagonist's goal of going against Xu Fengnian is reasonable and you may even sympathize with him in the end.

The casting is great and I honestly think Zhang Ruo yun should be in more dramas like this. A lot of these actors also prevously worked with him in Joy of Life.

The OST is very on par with the drama (and maybe even some other dramas with famous osts). Although the ost only has 3 songs, the three songs all fit well to the theme of the drama. One of the songs was even sang by Zhang Ruo Yun!

I hope they start making the second season soon as I can not wait!

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The main relationship was kind of... weird?

Initially I was really excited to watch this drama for it's cast. Both MLs are big names (Park Seo Joon and Park Hyung Sik) and this is Taehyung's debuting kdrama. We all know a good majority came for V but his character was honestly the best part but I still had to drop it

The first few episodes were pretty good. We get introduced to our ML Moo Myung and all the other Hwarangs. The story is interesting and the ost is good, but then we get to the relationship. The main reason I dropped the show as because of the main relationship. For a little background info, basically ML gets into the city with his friend who is trying to find his father. Long story short friend didn't make it so he asked ML to replace him and find his father. ML finds friend's father and meets friend's sister. Then they start having an attraction for each other. For the first few episodes, the sister thought ML was her brother. Then they semi have feelings for each other then she finds out ML is not her brother. Then they get into a love triangle. Oh also she cries alot so that's a plus I guess. The relationship seemed a lot like incest to me, while technically it's not but you still get theStep bro/Step sis vibes so I droped it.

I know I didn't get far and maybe farther in the drama the relationship wouldn't be as weird but I just couldn't go on

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Had high expectations, was disappointed

I had pretty high expectations for this drama but in the end it was disappointing. The FL and ML are honestly kind of boring and 2nd ML was what carried the show. FL and ML's relationship was kind of awkward through out the show, the bromance between ML and 2nd ML was better than the main romantic relationship.

The show was supposed to be about FL's struggle with self confidence and society's beauty standard but the show didn't really focus on that. The main focus seemed to be on her love triangle between the Male leads. Honestly for me the love triangle was really annoying and FL should've been with the 2nd ML.

The first few episodes were very good. The humour was great and it got me hooked. After the first 10 episodes it started to get a little draggy and I lost interest. Of course I convinced myself to push through and finish it which felt like a chore

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it was going well until the last few episodes

The first few episodes were great. They were exciting and I was on edge about what will happen next. The characters were interesting and some may recognize the second male lead as xue yang from the untamed. I was enjoying this drama and really looking forward towards what would happen in the end, it was heavily disappointing. The second male lead have more chemistry with the female lead than the Male lead. Quite honestly thought Feng Wu should've been with Yu ming ye.

{Story}
The story was great until towards the end. Exciting and the conflicts in the episodes were good. The scenes where feng wu went to the tower to retrieve the item was really cool and it got me excited. The FL strength was demonstrated pretty well, although she still had to be saved by the ML a couple times. There was a lot of unanswered questions in the beginning and especially the end. We still don't know why or how a modern girl popped into Feng Wu's body and why the master came to go fetch her back to modern society in the last episode. There is too many plot holes in the end and it was very confusing. Too many things happened at once, I still don't know what actually happened to the girl when she was consumed by a bright light.

{Acting/Cast}
The acting was pretty good. I'm not one who can easily tell who is good and who is bad at acting so you can't take my word for it. Originally I watched this drama because of the cast. They had I believe two actors from the untamed that I was excited to see like Wang Hao Xuan and Guo Cheng. They styled Wang Hao Xuan similarly to xue yang which I guess was to attract people like me who saw him in the cast. Although I am disappointed at how they basically wasted Wang Hao Xuan towards the end when he lost his arm (which is also similar to what happened to his character in The Untamed).

{Music}
I skipped the opening and end credit songs 90% of the time. I wouldn't say it's bad but I wouldn't say its amazing. The opening song was not memorable like the untamed end credits or the opening credits of the romance of tiger and rose. Through memorability of songs is based on each induvial's taste but the songs in this drama is something you'll most likely forget in a week after you finished the drama.

{Rewatch value}
Will I ever rewatch this and would I recommend rewatching this drama? No I wouldn't. I would not rewatch this unless I feel like pissing myself off. The ending was terrible and confusing.

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Amazing cast with a lackluster story

Overall this drama is pretty good. It's bingable and it might make you shed a few tears. However, it also has some problems that brings it down. The problems aren't that big of a deal, but it still affects the enjoyability of the drama if you don't ignore it. The good does overshadow the bad, but the bad is still quite prominent.

I split the drama into 4 parts. I will be referencing these 4 parts throughout my review.
Sheng kingdom ( the beginning), Jing Kingdom rise to power/Bo're dream (middle pt1), Fall of Sheng Kingdom (middle pt2), Immortal realm (end).

The Good:
1. Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu have amazing chemistry. Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu's interactions are the best part. I loved the way they portrayed their characters. Their expressions convey their emotions very well. Luo Yunxi is absolutely captivating as Tan Taijin. Bai Lu gives Ye Xiwu/Li Susu such a strong aurora.

2. Cast is really good. Luo Yunxi & Bai Lu (the whole cast really) have great chemistry. If it wasn't for them, I might have dropped this drama halfway through.

3. The costumes are stunning. Not a single costume was bad (as a whole). Some props looked iffy (the demon king's mask) but it's easy to ignore. Everything looked immaculate and represented the characters well.

4. The OST has some good songs. The OST had a lot of songs but only 3 stood out to me, but those 3 songs are really good. It fits the mood in the drama.

The Bad:
1. The story has a lot of plot holes and other miniscule problems. Every once in a while you'll see a scene and wonder "Why and how is this happening?" There are multiple spots where something just magically happens because the plot needs it. Most of these are towards the end. I know they had to cut 16 or so episodes so maybe that's why.
The pacing is also not amazing. Sheng Kingdom (beginning) was exciting, but then things slow down dramatically when we get to the Bo’re dream. The Bo’re dream was really lengthy and it felt unnecessary to dedicate so many episodes to it.

2. The conflict is repetitive. The conflict of middle pt 1 and middle pt 2 (around 25-30 episodes in total) is mainly miscommunication from Tan Taijin and Ye Xiwu. They fall out multiple times and then forgive each other because the past is the past (and because Tan Taijin is a sucker for Ye Xiwu). It gets old real fast when I can predict that Ye Xiwu's actions will make her and Tan Taijin fall out. Sometimes the miscommunication is so frustrating because it would have been fixed if one of them just clarified/trusted each other more. Miscommunication, or rather the lack of communication, still happens towards the end (although it was not as frustrating).

3. Character's thought processes are questionable sometimes. In a lot of instances, I question why Tan Taijin isn't more paranoid about Ye Xiwu. Other characters bring this up too but it's just dismissed as Tan Taijin liking Ye Xiwu . I know he lacks love and what not but come on? She tried to kill you (and almost succeeded) and then said some of the most hurtful things to you, when all you’ve done was to try and make her happy. Why do you chase after her despite all this? When they’re in the immortal realm, Li Susu didn't seem to want to associate with Tan Taijin very much anymore, but then after a single episode of minimal development between the two she suddenly loves him. The end felt like I missed 2 episodes of development.

4. CGI is very hit or miss. Sometimes it looks really good (by cdrama standard) but a lot of times it looks terrible. The cgi in the first 1 episode made me laugh. It looked like something out of a 2000s kids show. It does get better but sometimes the effects just look like jpeg images.

5. Voice dub doesn’t always match up with the mouth. I watched TTEOTM on youtube so the quality isn’t exactly top notch. Maybe it’s only a youtube problem but sometimes (rarely) the sound of the actors’ are completely out of sync with the movement of their mouth.

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