suzannahgawks
This review may contain spoilers
Spectacular enemies to lovers content (mild spoilers)
First quarter/Sheng arc: 10/10. Absolutely spectacular enemies to lovers content. In the future, the fabulous girlboss Devil God is slaughtering all the immortal sect heroes, namely, everyone immortal warrior girl Li Susu knows and loves, in front of her eyes, while they desperately try to send her back in time to stop him. 500 years in the past, Tantai Jin is a sad and skinny hostage just trying to survive in the deadly Sheng court and Li Susu wakes up inhabiting the body of his psychopathic young wife. She decides to cure him with kindness, but when Jin develops a taste for demonic magic, then kidnaps her and flees to his home kingdom to run a coup, she decides that he definitely needs to be put down like a rabid dog. She tells him this while saving his life a bunch of times because if he dies on her too soon then he will ascend to Devil Godhood and it will be game over for the world. Jin is understandably confused by this, but can't help responding quite well to Susu's intermittent kindness because he has been a kicked puppy literally his whole life and can't help imprinting on the first person ever to stick up for him.
Second quarter/Clam arc: 7/10. Everyone is sucked inside some dragon's dream memories of something that happened 10,000 years ago when Susu was a clam princess at the bottom of the Mohe River and Jin was the emotionally constipated god of war she adored from afar. This arc feels longer than it is, but it sets up a whole lot of backstory and the next stage of the plot.
Third quarter/Jing arc: 9/10. Susu commences Operation Bin Jin. Step One: make Jin fall in love with her! Step Two: ask him to marry her! Step Three: murder him on their wedding night! The only problem is that now, they might actually be falling for each other for real...and Jin declares that Susu is the only reason he has any faith in humanity. This arc is everything I could have wanted from this show, though I'm docking a star for how slow it gets towards the end, when there's a simply unconscionable amount of blood-spitting and angsting. Want an enemies to lovers scenario where the villain love interest is a complete simp for the lady of light? Where he will let her walk all over him just because she's the only thing he lives for? And then hisses the line, "If you don't want my affection, then have a taste of my hatred"? Ladies: Tantai Jin.
Fourth quarter/Immortal arc: 8/10. Having completed her mission, Li Susu is overjoyed to wake up in a future where she's prevented the rise of the Devil God. Or has she? This quarter was...messy. On the one hand, we get the triumphant completion of Jin's character arc and much romantic fluffiness. On the other hand, much of this quarter felt slow, until the ending, which felt terribly rushed: quite a few loose ends are left fluttering, and the show seems not to know how to use Susu herself, sidelining her offscreen or unconscious for long periods while other (male) actors take centre stage. The second last episode is a return to form for the show, but the final episode, though satisfying, feels quite abbreviated and leaves off a last-minute eucatastrophe.
Overall, despite its flaws, when this show was at its best I was going absolutely feral for it. I love Tantai Jin, an Evil Cinnamon Roll who badly needs a hug and never loses that core of selfless regard for other people. I loved Li Susu, even though her stubbornness sometimes frustrated me, for her all-or-nothing gallantry, her fierce sense of justice, and the way she flipped a whole lot of gender tropes. I loved the handsome stickler general and the gorgeous Bad Fox he loves, and I even came to treasure the secondary leads who seem at first like a vanilla boy scout and an irredeemable harpy but have hidden depths.
The show was VERY smart about many of the tropes it uses. For instance, this has one of the only justified uses of the Break Their Heart To Save Them trope, very downplayed. It DOES do the cdrama thing of making the whole climax about the male character's agency and character growth, but this doesn't bother me as much as it did in LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL because a) it DOES let the female character have a complete, if understated, character arc and b) while it puts emphasis on HIS agency, it doesn't feel like there's a cost in terms of HERS. I didn't like that even at the end of the show, the male lead is still lying to the female lead for her own good. Still, I WILL overlook a multitude of sins for a female lead who is depicted for so much of the show as smart, active, and stronger/more protective of the male lead.
Both lead actors do a great job, but the male lead is given a lot more to work with, and he rises to the occasion beautifully. It's the first drama I've seen him in, but it won't be the last.
The drama's theme is not quite as strong nor graceful as the one in LBFAD, but it seems mostly to have to do with love and fear. The greatest obstacle in the way of our leads' love is their fear of what he may become, and this came to a triumphant conclusion. I also loved the nature vs nurture theme. Jin's whole live has been arranged by the Devil God to turn him into a lonely, embittered, fearful vessel ripe for the Devil God's incarnation. There is much of his fate that he cannot defy, but his choices, and the faith Susu gives him in the power of kindness and love, enable him to rise above this. Even though the ending was rushed, the thematic consummation is what made this show such a satisfying experience.
Second quarter/Clam arc: 7/10. Everyone is sucked inside some dragon's dream memories of something that happened 10,000 years ago when Susu was a clam princess at the bottom of the Mohe River and Jin was the emotionally constipated god of war she adored from afar. This arc feels longer than it is, but it sets up a whole lot of backstory and the next stage of the plot.
Third quarter/Jing arc: 9/10. Susu commences Operation Bin Jin. Step One: make Jin fall in love with her! Step Two: ask him to marry her! Step Three: murder him on their wedding night! The only problem is that now, they might actually be falling for each other for real...and Jin declares that Susu is the only reason he has any faith in humanity. This arc is everything I could have wanted from this show, though I'm docking a star for how slow it gets towards the end, when there's a simply unconscionable amount of blood-spitting and angsting. Want an enemies to lovers scenario where the villain love interest is a complete simp for the lady of light? Where he will let her walk all over him just because she's the only thing he lives for? And then hisses the line, "If you don't want my affection, then have a taste of my hatred"? Ladies: Tantai Jin.
Fourth quarter/Immortal arc: 8/10. Having completed her mission, Li Susu is overjoyed to wake up in a future where she's prevented the rise of the Devil God. Or has she? This quarter was...messy. On the one hand, we get the triumphant completion of Jin's character arc and much romantic fluffiness. On the other hand, much of this quarter felt slow, until the ending, which felt terribly rushed: quite a few loose ends are left fluttering, and the show seems not to know how to use Susu herself, sidelining her offscreen or unconscious for long periods while other (male) actors take centre stage. The second last episode is a return to form for the show, but the final episode, though satisfying, feels quite abbreviated and leaves off a last-minute eucatastrophe.
Overall, despite its flaws, when this show was at its best I was going absolutely feral for it. I love Tantai Jin, an Evil Cinnamon Roll who badly needs a hug and never loses that core of selfless regard for other people. I loved Li Susu, even though her stubbornness sometimes frustrated me, for her all-or-nothing gallantry, her fierce sense of justice, and the way she flipped a whole lot of gender tropes. I loved the handsome stickler general and the gorgeous Bad Fox he loves, and I even came to treasure the secondary leads who seem at first like a vanilla boy scout and an irredeemable harpy but have hidden depths.
The show was VERY smart about many of the tropes it uses. For instance, this has one of the only justified uses of the Break Their Heart To Save Them trope, very downplayed. It DOES do the cdrama thing of making the whole climax about the male character's agency and character growth, but this doesn't bother me as much as it did in LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL because a) it DOES let the female character have a complete, if understated, character arc and b) while it puts emphasis on HIS agency, it doesn't feel like there's a cost in terms of HERS. I didn't like that even at the end of the show, the male lead is still lying to the female lead for her own good. Still, I WILL overlook a multitude of sins for a female lead who is depicted for so much of the show as smart, active, and stronger/more protective of the male lead.
Both lead actors do a great job, but the male lead is given a lot more to work with, and he rises to the occasion beautifully. It's the first drama I've seen him in, but it won't be the last.
The drama's theme is not quite as strong nor graceful as the one in LBFAD, but it seems mostly to have to do with love and fear. The greatest obstacle in the way of our leads' love is their fear of what he may become, and this came to a triumphant conclusion. I also loved the nature vs nurture theme. Jin's whole live has been arranged by the Devil God to turn him into a lonely, embittered, fearful vessel ripe for the Devil God's incarnation. There is much of his fate that he cannot defy, but his choices, and the faith Susu gives him in the power of kindness and love, enable him to rise above this. Even though the ending was rushed, the thematic consummation is what made this show such a satisfying experience.
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