*WARNING: this post is (kind of) humor-free.
This is a more detailed First Impression of the drama Love And Destiny. If you have not seen our Basically video on this drama, you can find it here.
The drama has been airing for a while so honestly, we’re not even sure if this post qualifies as First Impression at this point. But anyway, that’s what it is. Here are the things that have not been mentioned in our Basically video.
The Good
1 – Ni Ni – call us biased but we believe Ni Ni is the best thing about this drama. She carries out exceptionally well the role of a bubbly, optimistic, and headstrong young girl who does not lack womanly qualities and depth.
2 – The humor – just like in this team’s last production, the minor characters here are just excellent at keeping the show engaging with their unexpected humor.
The Thunder God definitely has a streak of humor hidden behind his villainous scheming.
Shisan and Si-ming are a jesting duo; and Yunfeng and Qingyao add to the charm of the story with their slow burn of a romance.
3 – A different kind of male lead – a few episodes into the drama, we realized that Jiuchen is not that much of a typical cold, stoic male lead who can’t smile at anything except his love interest, although that IS the foundation of his character.
Jiuchen also has a believable sense of humor, is caring towards others, and respectful towards his superior (specifically the Heaven King). He keeps friends around and actually maintains a relationship with them through communication (with actual words… yes, Bai Zihua, we’re talking about you). In short, Jiuchen is not one of those who go around, making questionable decisions while putting on superior faces because the script allows him to.
We cannot promise that his character won’t be ruined like most drama characters towards the end, but this is a good start.
The Bad
1 – The Female Lead
Here goes: this is the most disappointing aspect of this drama so far. As a female lead, Lingxi has done very little to make us (just QuippeQuest, we don’t speak for everyone) want to root for her. And while Ni Ni is excellent in presenting a character with depth with her performance, we are not so sure if the character actually has depth.
Let us explain:
One would think that having been locked up in the Peach Blossom Woods her whole life by her father, Lingxi would want to go out, explore, make friends, or at least do something more than being a frozen guy’s maid. Yes, she takes the opportunity to leave her father’s place, becomes friends with Shisan and Huayan (the maid), but that’s about it.
She devotes most of her time to waiting on Jiuchen hand and foot. Everything Jiuchen believes is also her truth (because this is a first impression post, we won’t include spoilers. So… you’ll see it when you’ll see it 🙂). As of now, most other female characters in here have a direction with their lives except Lingxi.
Yuan Tong, for example, might be ruthless and blinded by her loyalty to her family, but at least there is a specific reason behind everything she does. Qingyao, needless to say, is highly opinionated and acts upon what she has been raised to believe. Etc.
Lingxi, however, is obsessed with only protecting and pleasing Jiuchen.
It is completely acceptable that she wishes to care for Jiuchen, however, the problem is that she has no ambitions beyond Jiuchen. Her life revolves around someone else at this point, making it difficult to pin down her personality.
Are we supposed to be on board with this romance because Lingxi is doing a lot for Jiuchen and is the only one who never questions him?
(No… seriously, that was a real question.)
2 – Plot holes – these things keep happening at an increasing rate. We will only list a few here as so you will not be spoiled too much:
Lingxi’s refusal to give Jiuchen back his Longevity Charm (ep. 2) – feel free to enlighten us on this one if you know the answer, but as far as we can see Lingxi has no reason to hang on to something that’s not hers – that doesn’t even spark her interest that much in the first place – and to lie to Jiuchen about her not having it.
And if this charm is so important to Lingxi that she just absolutely cannot give it back to Jiuchen, why could she not have kept it somewhere safe so that it wouldn’t be dropped and picked up by someone else later?
Lingxi standing still when Jiuchen’s sword comes at her (ep. 2) – As endearing as we find Lingxi’s truthful explanation to this is, it does not make any logical sense. Ducking something coming at you is a reflex. Why does Lingxi trust this guy she’s just met a few days ago so unconditionally and is also willing to jeopardize her own life to prove that to him?
It’s episode 2!!!
Lingxi being abducted by the Thunder God (ep. 2) – is there just no protection of any kind around Jiuchen’s place? Any random guy can waltz in and take his people away?
Lingxi having to bring Jiuchen his medicine during the banquet at the Heaven Palace because he happened to forget to take it along — the one thing that can help him maintain the balance of his energy — while these initial episodes are all about people finding ways to help him regain the balance of his energy (ep. 4) – yes, that pretty much says it all.
The Pool of Xixian (lit. to wash away immortality) – this is a pool capable of stripping away an immortal’s powers and sending him/her to the mortal realm for punishment. Yet, not one guard is to be found anywhere and any random person can just walk in with their pet.
Later on, a fight between Lingxi and Yuan Tong breaks out at this pool and Lingxi is nearly claimed by this powerful water because, once again, there is no security whatsoever around.
Yes, we know that an adorable scene in which Jiuchen displays his care towards Lingxi follows, but that’s the point – the accident could have been easily prevented and the plot hole makes the emotional scene much less believable.
Etc.
3 – Cliches – ice-cold guy, bubbly girl who walks around worshiping him, girl carrying evil energy within her that might destroy the world. There’s nothing wrong with these tropes, of course, but at this point, they have been overused so they can be a bit of a bother (especially if you have already seen Journey of Flower or Fuyao). If you have never come across any of these tropes anywhere before, however, you will enjoy them here since they are being carried out by a couple of talented actor and actress.
4 – The number of admirers the male lead has – this is no doubt a trope found in other dramas as well. But since we have never spoken up about the issue before, we will go ahead and discuss it a little now.
There is nothing wrong with a fictional person (male or female) having a lot of admirers. However, in most dramas we have come across, admirers (especially villainous and obsessive ones) are usually employed to 1) create unnecessary angst, 2) heighten the value of the female lead, 3) make the male lead look more desirable without having to elaborate on his personality too much.
Let’s hope none of those is the case here.
ANYWAY, these are only our initial thoughts on the drama based on the first set of episodes we have seen; and to be honest, we are being extra harsh in our analysis because hey… it’s a project Ni Ni and Zhang Zhen (Chang Chen) signed up for – the standards are different (or at least we think it should be so).
As of now, we still find the drama immensely enjoyable and hope that the general charm of the story will be maintained in later episodes.
*If you are confused as to why most of these names are written as one word:
This is because most characters in this universe, being gods/goddesses and deities, have only given names and no surnames (same concept with Thor, Loki, ect), and it is a common rule in Pinyin conversion to connect multiple syllables of a given name. Sometimes they are connected by hyphens. The only characters with surnames here are people from the Yuan family – Yuan Tong, Lady Yuan, Yuan Zheng, etc.
There are a few names we are not certain about, Lingxi is one of them. The post will be updated once we know more about her identity.
Heyyyy, I’ve been obsessing over this drama lately and there are some things that I would like to clear up. Lingxi doesn’t go out and make friends because:
A) Shisan has told her before about the rules in the nine heavens and she summed it up by saying that she can’t go anywhere because it’ll cause trouble.
B) If I’m not wrong, basically everyone has told her not to go out without permission.
And Lingxi is someone who’s mischeivious(?) So she wants to keep something that belongs to Jiuchen. Idk how to properly explain this one but she wants to keep it cause she admires him and stuff. You know, like taking your crush’s stuff or things like that.
And she doesn’t back away cause she like really really really admires him. And she’s a really innocent and pure person, so she wholeheartedly trusts him. She did flinch tho, but just didn’t back away.
I hope that explained some stuff and I hope that you’ll keep watching it cause it really is a great drama.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! Yes, it is a really enjoyable drama. We’re still watching and will likely be making a Nutshell video for it. Hope you will stick around to see it😀
About Lingxi, her situation probably doesn’t allow her to go out and make friends, our issue is just that she has very little desire to do more than be around Jiuchen. It’s just a small issue right now, of course, and Ni Ni is a wonderful actress so we enjoy watching Lingxi anyway🙂
In my head cannon, she took the thing in the first place because she is a bird and birds like shinny things. When he asked for the charm back, she got mad because she told him so herself, “you haven’t thanked me yet for saving your life, so you want your charm, I’m not giving it back to you”. So she kept it to teach him a lesson, because she was being petty. She was gripping about it later as well, calling him stingy and cursing him behind his back. She delights in small, momentary victories. Remember, this is a girl who actually would held a grudges against a bird and then actually took her time to fight it and then to crow over the defeated bird.
She read as being very young to me in the first 10 eps. But then I remembered that she was very sheltered and very spoiled as well. And the darling of the family, even her younger brother who bickers with her all of the time, indulge her.
The sword thing, I think it was him who pointed that sword as her. This is actually a trope as well. If you suspect somebody of being a spy, you let them snope around on their own, spring something unexpected on them and see if they reveal their true self under duress. The fact that she didn’t react is because this girl is absolutely sure of herself and the black and white of the world. She did nothing wrong, therefore nothing harmful could happen to her. In my culture, we call this the “fearlessness of a new born calf”. When that trust got shattered in the later episode, it was heart breaking to watch.
I think he let the Thunder God took her. Part of that test, as well. Put her under pressure and see if she will break. I was wondering about it as well, and then realized I wouldn’t put it pass him to put her through another test. And when he see that she wouldn’t break, he took her back to try something else.
The pool thing, yeah I have no explanation for that either. But on the other hand, later when a character was stripped of their immortality, the Celestial Court didn’t just push that person down the pool but actually went through a procedure. So I dunno, maybe for them it’s just like a volcano, if you fall down, you die, if you want to stand on the rim and enjoy the scenery, it’s fine as well. But yeah, a total plot device, I agree.
4. About the admirers.
I think at the point of him coming back, he had attained some sort of a legendary status. Here is a heroic figure who fought the last battle which bring 50k years of peace to the world. People wrote books and told stories about him. Of course he got fans, and Lingxi is one of his biggest fangirls. Oh and he ranked third in heaven, only below the TienJun and his sifu. I’ll be supprised if the number of his admirers aren’t a lot more.
What I find particularly nice about this is, you have got this set up between an all powerful, invincible, top of the food chain figure and a lowly, young immortal. How do you throw them together? The script writer did it by effectively nerfing him and making him vulnerable. He can’t just walk around doing whatever he likes, he must pay for his action.
Well as you can probably tell by now, I really like this show. Can’t wait till you get to certain eps read your thought and analysis on the matter
Hi! Thanks for leaving us your thoughts. We’re still watching this show and will definitely publish more analyses.
We agree that it is reasonable for Jiuchen to have a lot of admirers, but as a storytelling device, this trope is being overused everywhere and usually plays a big role in creating very unnecessary angst and villainizing female characters. That’s our issue with it.
About Lingxi not dodging the sword, as we stated above – getting out of danger’s way is an instant’s reflex. It’s one thing to knowingly and fearlessly walk into danger like a newborn calf, but another to not have a physiological response to incoming threat. The more innocent you are, the more likely you are to run for your life immediately and not think about whether you did something wrong or not.
All being said, we’re glad you like the show and hope you will stick around for more of our analyses 🙂
Actually, the whole saying is “new born calf has no fear of tigers”, so they don’t know to enough to run away. But I see where you are coming from, it doesnt fit common sense at all. I’ve never realized how steeped I’m in Chinese tropes that her reaction was just perfectly logical to me. If you want to gain the trust of someone, don’t even flinch when they threaten you with death, it will show that you trust them 100% with your life. Lol.
Anyways, I came to your website via your YouTube channel. I laughed like a loon at your “he probably doesn’t like you” video then I started watching the rest of them. To be honest, I’ve never even seen any of those Cdrama, just know them and the storyline through cultural osmosis you know. Like I knew everything I need to know about Games of Thrones despite never watching an episode.
Oh and your “Things that make an “ideal” drama” listed all of the reasons why I don’t watch them. I got the cringe so hard and I tried so many times as well. I read the 3 lives novel and quite like the imageries in it so when the drama was released, I tried it. I think I turned it off within the first 10 minutes, the moment she get to the gate of the school, I think.
I grew up with TVB series and those was still the definitive versions to me. Andy Lau and Idy Chan was my Yang Guo and XiuLongnu and no other. There are something about mainland dramas that just don’t click with me at all. Movies are good but dramas, it’s the grandiose posturing that I don’t like, I think. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense. And the overuse of wind tunnels and slow motions. And the lack of acting skills.
Anyways, I hear you about the villanization of other females characters. I read a lot of Chinese fictions and it has always annoyed me so much that the main female character almost never have any females relationship that was not antagonistic. There were such wonderful books as well with strong characters building and yet all the other females in that world will always ended up betraying our female leads.
Anyways, the point is this is my first Cdrama and I’ve been obsessed, hope you will enjoy it as much as I did and I look forward to reading your thoughts and analysis.
The good news is, I read somewhere that the script writer wrote this script when 3 Lives was in productions. So I bet she was just as frustrated with certain elements of 3 Lives as much as we were.
P.s : I finally went back to watch 3 Lifes, while waiting for Love and Destiny to be released, skipped all the first 12 eps and started with the Susu storyline and then stopped around the time when Moyuan was about to wake up. Yang Mi was bad really in her portrayal of a high goddess, she just put on that defensive posture that I find very uncharacteristic of a being as powerful as Bai Quan was supposed to be. That whole head lowered, eyes averted, shoulders hunched thing that she does you know. The love scene for example, she was supposed to initiate it, in the book she straight out asked Yehua, if what he wants was some fun with her, in the show, she was passive. *sigh*
We’re glad you like our YouTube videos!
We agree with you on Bai Qian’s character. The way she’s presented in the drama makes in hard to decide whether the character is bad or the actress is bad. It’s so confusing that one of us had to write a whole analysis on her on this website. Yes, passivity is her character’s biggest problem and she also promotes the idea that aloofness, status and powers equal “strength”. It’s also true that Yang Mi’s postures didn’t exactly help.
Most dramas nowadays are adapted from popular web novels and it certainly looks like demonizing female characters is a trending trope.
We didn’t grow up with TVB but we agree with you that recent dramas from mainland overuse slow-mo and just don’t invest enough time in the writing.
We enjoy Ni Ni and Chang Chen’s acting in Love and Destiny immensely despite all the drama’s flaws, it’s one of the better ones out there this year. So you’ll be likely to see us make fun of it a lot in our future videos like we usually do with dramas we like since we did take the time to watch every episode😂.
Oh I can’t wait. I fan but I also bitch. Lol. I was running an internal snarky monolog in my head during the first episode like oh why are you wearing a coat over your armors in battle, why are your hair long and flowing, why are everybody so black and white, like, there is not going to be murky line between good and evil, we are going to explore as a theme right? Judging on how your demon lord is literally a demon. Like in the 2nd eps, I actually scoffed and and said exactly the same thing you did. Some high lord you are that anybody can just waltz in your palace and take anyone they want. Eventually the actings, and the set designs won me over. One of these days I fully intend to write my “architecture elements and its significances in character design in Love and Destiny” essay. If only screen capping takes less time.
Anyways, we nitpick and we analyze, because we love. Looking forwards to more of your videos.