This cdrama has been out for so long and was so popular that I can’t really say this is a review but I didn’t know what else to call it. I guess this is just my thoughts and a kind of review as I finally finished the whole thing!

I started watching it when I was in Africa (Rwanda) last year in April. I caught what I thought was the middle to the end of the drama but what I now know was basically the ending episodes. I legit only watched 5% of the drama when I was in Rwanda.

Then when I came back I was like, “I’m going to watch this drama!” I even mentioned it in my Fuyao review but somehow it took me a year to finally start the drama and then a couple of months to finish it. Procrastination y’all.

Having watched it from start to finish the original thoughts I had about the drama have completely changed. Characters I thought I would like annoyed me and characters I didn’t care about before I ended up loving.

For those who still haven’t watched the drama I will just say it is a journey. You follow Bai Qian mostly and then Ye Hua (he’s introduced later). They are the couple pairing but wow do they suffer to be together.

There are people who try to get in between them, misunderstandings and memory loss. It’s a whole thing.

But that’s not all, whilst that is going on you have the war between the Ghost tribe and Kunlun Mountain and you have secondary love plots.

So it is a very rich drama, with amazing set design and good CGI. It’s not film quality but it’s good enough for television. Plus the acting was really good so whatever they were fighting I believed they were fighting it. (There are a lot of mystical creatures).

It does have a happy ending for the main couple, Ye Hua and Bai Qian so you don’t have to worry about that. I mean the drama will make you suffer first but in the end they get together.

 

Ok so that’s the non-spoiler version, now onto the spoiler version. So if you haven’t watched the drama or read the book (it is adapted from a book) stop reading now!

 

Have you stopped?

 

Ok.

 

First Bai Qian, she’s a feisty, proud and a smart woman. We start our journey with her and we end it with her. She goes through so much honestly!

Yang Mi is such a good actress. She really captured her character well from when she was young and naïve to when she was older, wiser and more experienced.

I especially loved the change in her when she was Susu. When she was Susu she was meeker and less confident because she’d been robbed of her life experience prior to being sent to the human realm.

However her core personality was still there and you’d see it shine through in how she’d warn Ye Hua about what she’d do if he broke her heart. Oh and she still couldn’t cook as Susu.

As Su Yin she was herself but more boisterous and generally loveable. However I feel like Mo Yuan babied her way too much. How did she not know that he knew she was a woman? I mean come on! He didn’t treat any of the other disciples the way he treated her.

He even took her trial for her. That was wrong, girl should have studied and taken it herself.

As you can see, Mo Yuan’s teaching style and mine do not mix.

Then her romance with the Ghost Prince Li Jing…

Ok time out was he or was he not so gorgeous? The Ghost people had the best designs. I mean it’s nice to look pretty but it’s also nice to have older worldly designs like the ghost princes had. I’m sad they didn’t really get a redemption, although Li Jing’s last moments were a redemption in a way.

So yeah their romance. It was genuinely cute and then Li Jing messed up and I was just as mad as Bai Qian. He shot himself in the foot honestly. They could have been together but his insecurity won out.

So when they broke up and he ended up shackled to Xuan Yu I thought he would move on and perhaps fall in love with someone else. But no he spends the rest of the drama pining for her!

It got so annoying I honestly wanted to slap him. He had a tribe to take care of! Who has time to mop?! Especially with that troublesome brother of his.

Bai Qian cuts him some slack in the end when she realises, “Oh this is how he must have felt for me” when she was obsessing over Ye Hua but girl no, he was pathetic. He needed to let go.

It’s ok to have a mourning period but man never left mourning. He mourned till his death… his death!

It killed my crush for him.

Then there was the whole thing with Mo Yuan. I honestly thought she was in love with him and that’s why she wouldn’t accept anyone else. I mean she stole his body and gave him her heart blood so that he would come back again.

So it was the biggest shock to find out she saw him as a father. I’ve heard of being friend zoned or brother zoned but dad zoned? That’s a whole new level!

I’m glad we were right about Mo Yuan fancying her. I felt so sorry for him when he found out how she saw him.

So then that begs the question, did he come back for her? Was that why he was so sad when he came back?

Now onto his twin Ye Hua.

I’m glad they actually explained why they looked alike. Sometimes shows just brush that under the carpet but no, they actually addressed it and they be twins born at different times due to mystical intervention done by their father to save Ye Hua.

It’s interesting that he fell in love with Bai Qian too but I expected it from when he was in the lotus. Lotus Ye Hua was crushing hard.

Ye Hua as a character was very uptight and followed the rules. I felt like he was trapped by his position and, barring his uncles, didn’t really have any true friends or any means of escape.

When he met Susu, she was a breath of fresh air for him and he was able to be himself and I think that’s why he fell in love with her.

He was nothing if not loyal, not once in his dealing with Susu/Bai Qian did he ever waver or cheat. Even when he was changed into a human for his trial he still didn’t cheat, as a child! He stayed loyal till his death (in his trial).

Given the nature of the people from Qing Qiu and Bai Qian this is exactly what she needed, a passionate, loving and loyal man, because the Qing Qiu people are loyal!

The only thing I didn’t like was him pushing himself on her when her memories were gone. To him he was kissing his wife but for her it was a stranger kissing her and without asking, quite forcefully too.

I did not like that. It only happens twice but it rubbed me the wrong way. I wish he would have waited.

Also because he lived a life of strict rules and no freedom when he met Susu he went a little wild. He did not think things through and that annoyed me because Susu is the one who ended up suffering. Plus if he had simply communicated his plans half the problems would not have happened.

However he made up for all that by suffering and learning from his mistakes. He lost his arm and his life for her. I mean…

About his life, she keeps his body like she did Mo Yuan but she doesn’t get away with it this time as they all know she did it and where she lives. Then they take his body to the sea place to be buried.

The way the translation was I thought they were genuinely going to bury him in an ocean but no, it’s some mystical place.

So because of the energy there he manages to come back. That got me thinking, if Bai Qian had allowed them to bury Mo Yuan in that place would he have come back quicker? Because Ye Hua comes back much quicker than Mo Yuan due to that place… and Mo Yuan never said “don’t bury me there” all he said was “I’ll come back” so… did Bai Qian create her own problems? Did she cause the opposite of what she wanted?

Essentially I think she also shot herself in the foot.

The villains in the drama are Qing Cang who really doesn’t do much to be honest. He causes most of the problems but his screen time is short. That’s a skill, to be able to cause that much drama whilst inside a bell. Then there’s Xuan Yu and she was dramatic, unhinged and full jealousy and insecurity. I didn’t like her till the end. She was so annoying, evil and not smart. Some of the decisions she made I was like, “Really? How will that benefit you?” “Have you thought this through?”

Last but not least the worst villain of all, Su Jin. Oh, how I wanted to slap her. Oh how I wanted to fight her. She was smart and cunning and evil!

The fact that she framed Susu and took her eyes, her eyes! When Bai Qian regained her memory and took back her eyes… the joy I felt.

I loved that when Bai Qian was Bai Qian even without her memory she could easily spar with Su Jin. It really highlighted how much Qing Cang’s seal had tampered with Susu’s (Bai Qian’s) abilities and wit.

It was satisfying to see Bai Qian beat her time and time again and it made up for the sorrow I felt watching her suffer as Susu.

Can we give a shout out to Nainai? She was the best most wholesome character along with Mi Gu. They were just too pure and loyal *sends hugs and kisses*.

*ahem* Anyway so yes it was satisfying but Su Jin never gave up. She kept trying to get rid of Bai Qian so she could have Ye Hua to herself when he didn’t even like her! He stabbed her! He fully tried to kill her for what she did to Susu!! How did it not sink in? I just don’t understand that level of delusion.

Also she did not love him. If she truly loved him she would have wanted him to be happy and loved and she would have supported him with Bai Qian. No, she was delusional and possessive of something that was not hers.

She honestly thought that with time he would love her… after she got the love of his life killed? What?

Listen folks, if you fall in love with your childhood best friend but they don’t fall in love with you, let it go. Don’t be toxic like Su Jin.

I’m glad she got sent to the human realm but it’s interesting that even there she still did the same thing. So was it an innate part of her character? Did she need therapy? (Yes… lots).

Also what happened to her servant and evil accomplice Xin Nu because I wanted to slap her too.

Alright last but not least, Zi Lan and Yan Zhi. They could have been together. They could have totally been together! It annoyed me how their story ended sadly when they were my favourite couple! (Yes you read that right, my favourite).

They were so cute and I just loved their dynamic and Zi Lan was so hot and cool, the way he stopped Xuan Yu from killing her *faints* man, I’d marry him.

It makes me sad that he’s going to be alone forever and her too! Her whole tribe is dead and all she has is one little girl (Xuan Yu and Li Jing’s child). Seriously, after her brother and his loyal subjects were wiped out trying to defeat Qing Cang they didn’t get mercy? Kunlun still didn’t forgive them?

I feel like the writers just wanted us to cry for no reason. There was wiggle room, they could have been together. If Shao Xin and Sang Ji could be together then Zi Lan and Yan Zhi definitely could.

I was so mad I refused to cry.

So yeah those are my thoughts. I’m leaving out Dong Hua and Feng Jiu because they have their own series that I am going to watch now that I’ve finished Eternal Love. When I originally watched Eternal Love I loved their side romance but when I watched it from start to finish, they annoyed the hell out of me, especially Feng Jiu, she was so whiney. Yes, I know you don’t agree but I actually prefer their characterisation in Eternal Love of Dream. They have a more fun dynamic and I love it more and it’s true to the book so… I’m excited and I’ll talk about them in the review of Eternal Love of Dream.

I wonder if they’ll keep her relationship with her father the same. In Eternal Love he’s harsh but loves her and wants the best for her. He even asks Dong Hua if he’d marry her! And those moments when she’d be playing with his hair and he’d let her… so cute. So yeah, I wonder if it’ll stay the same.

Ok, that’s truly it. Those are mostly all my thoughts. I just have some shout outs, first to my husband Lian Song (I loved him so much, he brought light and wisdom), my third husband (after Zi Lan) Bai Zhen (I had a soft spot for him and when he came in to fight during the last episodes… so hot… I have a problem) and my favourite uncle Zhe Yan. I loved Qing Qiu essentially.

I did not like heaven and the king was a douche bag who let most of the problems happen especially with Su Jin and yet he was surprised when she got out of hand. I’m so glad Dong Hua was there to clean up the mess he made. He was low key a villain.

I said what I said.

 

So what were your thoughts on the drama? Do you agree with mine or disagree? Feel free to say.

I would give it a four out of five, there were some slow moments and so I wouldn’t say it was 100% perfect.