Completed this drama without fast forward
I rate it 8.4/10
every important character , when near death will have a flashback for their personal story , including how they turn villain
using flashback scenes as important part of storytelling started with 招摇 2019 , the same 金仙 actor in this drama become 二掌柜
this drama does it better because it gives emotional closure while 招摇 2019 was just introduction
IIRC 剑王朝 2019 used this flashback storytelling way too
best actress : doll yimei + director showing doll closeup at the right moment and off 磨皮 filter
best actor : tiger and qi-wu-ji
costume : 7/10 , initial few villians with tall shaman headdress was good but later no more , I only see the weapon belt for the 2 females . other costumers are average , very barely above 6.x so I rate it 7/10
music : 8.5/10 , good effort for the actors to sing but the actress didn't insert songs during death flashbacks are appropriate , opening theme is by legend of her era and ending theme by best drama singer of current era
fine details like matching the mini-doll jewellery to actress , tigress turning the paintbrush with her fingers
when actor actress rolling on the studio floor sand , next scene the stain is still on clothing and hair , doesn't magically disappear as editing blooper , this is good
keep changing location and doesn't stay too many episodes inside a single indoor location
difficult to record on-set voice due to background noise but they did it for the main characters , very good effort , it could be studio re-dub I'm not sure
The very young child actors only appear in single location not moving around expanding their footprint , only the teenagers , didn't get emotional so I rate these 7/10
nobody defected to evil side
doll's motivation is same as the theory about "AI robot making paperclip" , wulidan , qiyanran and that guy's son didn't side with evil to harm fellow human
the elder council and eunuch are there as "chesspiece" to show ignorance and imperial authority , current climate the scriptwriters have taboo to not show emperor being ignorant
vomit blood scenes exceed the previous record holder 听雪楼 2019 and 少年歌行 2022
female lead dying before final episode is similar to 天醒之路 2020 , in this drama lacking romance they didn't even hold hand or say love u , due to unconventional female lead being a fighter not weakling need rescue
could have brought it to higher emotional level if the female lead's final scene have uncontrollable blood loss from wound and mouth , sounds terrible for wanting to see this but some other drama do it to portray the internal organs are busted (宸汐缘 2019)
main plot of the show is brotherhood and 家国大意 , the other shows I rate 8.0 and above frequently have romance as a boost , this show is "handicapped" by lacking this support for higher score
have LOTR feel where the humans must unite and send their best to Mordor otherwise Mordor comes to eliminate them human
romance was moved onto the supporting characters like mo-gu-zi , which was very short and redeemed via flashback
the 2 captains , 二掌柜 , mudan flower can be considered romance too - or at least unspoken admiration
rather balanced in gender as most of the female important characters have numerous fight scenes although is mostly using body double , the soldiers in background are almost exclusively male calefare
great supporting actors for mo-gu-zi and da-lao-ye the paintbrush , these 2 actors are very good in bringing out audience emotion in their numerous costume drama roles
diversity in casting actor actress with dwarfism , obesity , facially deformed
there was 1 specific flashback which was abrupt and I mistaken as current timeline , takes a few seconds to realize it's past timeline , well done to do it unannounced
plot twist ... the cartoon animation at front of ep1 is fake story
main characters get fighting powerup at the island , a little too easy and rapid
the island part is above average , well done no fault
CGI background blend in naturally to the sufficiently big studio ground
last 2 episode have enough time , no rush , bring closure to emotion
rare for a show to not 烂尾 ,the best part of the show are ep18 19 war and the final 8 episodes island expedition
opening theme song get fully displayed in the final episode
minor characters fight video game level CGI gargoyles and rock golems , average
boss fight is 2minute10seconds , sufficiently long since it's expensive to do these
final episode the brothers scene in cave and second chance in forest are well done , deserve to be in the final episode , wu-ji word's are the best quote in the whole drama
plothole or blooper , barren island other furniture are basic wood but there is a crystal casket
human army brought table and chairs for campsite when the transport car had limited space , maybe their craftsmanship can build 1 within minutes using local wood
the human cannot fly except a limited few (the flying sword guy) but the main characters can make a cool flying descend entrance to a fight
wulidan's final scene could be using eyedrops for crying since the camera begin with 2 water droplets on eye
ye-kong-ming (actress 马月 ) who only alive in flashback , doesn't show any magic power except some knowledge of the magic beads on tree , still have princess syndrome , yet included into the "false legend" back to mainland as one of the 5 youths that sacrificed and saved the world
the animation scene at ep1 beginning show the 5 youths , archer , string , spearman , 1 female sword 1 male sword ... I cannot remember if the male sword ever appear in the drama
actress for mother tiger is average in this drama , her best scene I remember was in 宸汐缘 2019 saving the baby by the window , that drama have unfair advantage for high rating because use baby in 3 highest emotional scenes
her other recent drama was 长月尽明 2023
actress for the doll and qi-yan-ran will appear in 一念关山
actress for 黑风 at the earlier episode 4 or 5
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