What's this? A new post????
So I know it's been a while since I've posted anything - my year end reviews not counting. I mean, let's be real here - 2020 was a shit show. I did actually have posts planned, but eh. Life. A quick re-cap since I never ended up posting about The Untamed/CQL and my thoughts on Wangxian (tldr: I love them. They are my OTP of OTPs): I became a huge fan of Xiao Zhan right off the bat after watching CQL, and then about half a year later also became more interested in Wang Yibo--at least as an actor (although I do think he's hella cute in a "didi" sort of way).
Which leads me to Legend of Fei! Which was a drama where Wang Yibo played the male lead, Xie Yun, opposite Zhou Liying who played Zhou Fei.
I know it's been a while since I've done a drama review of any kind, but I really wanted to do one for Legend of Fei because it's one of those dramas where objectively it was not a great drama, but I loved one (1) thing about it so much that subjectively I don't care that it was not a great drama. Like enough that I would watch episodes raw because I was too impatient for subs and can't stop refreshing AO3 in the hopes that people start writing fic for this.
Now. For those who don't know - Legend of Fei is based of a web novel by Priest who is famous for mostly a bunch of BL novels (Guardian, Sha Po Lang, Mo Du, Tian Ya Ke). Guardian has also been adapted into a drama and the other ones I listed are already getting their own adaptations made, or will in the future. Legend of Fei is one of Priests few het novels, and was also widely popular. Unfortunately English translations of it so far only go up to chapter 6 out of 170 so I will never be able to read it, but from what I could tell people really loved it. When I saw the trailer for this drama and read the premise and details for it, I also got really hyped because it seems like the type of story I would love. Interestingly, even though the the name of the drama and novel appear to be the same when written in English, it is not the same! The TV drama is 有翡 and the novel is 有匪. It doesn't make a huge difference necessarily, but it does already kind of show that the adaptation... was definitely an adaptation.
Onto my review (warning: potential spoilers for the entire plot - both from the drama and potentially the novel).
Basic Premise:
Going into the drama, this is what I knew of the plot: Zhou Fei is the daughter of a long history of martial arts hero's who have been labelled "bandits" and has never left her home, the 48 Strongholds, which was made up of 48 sects united by her grandfather. She's always wanted to leave the strongholds to prove herself and one day she does. Before this happens though, Xie Yun, a mysterious guy with lots of ~mysteries~ breaks into the strongholds and whisks her dad away. Zhou Fei reunites with Xie Yun years later and they somehow get entangled in a plot that includes the reigning imperial family and a secret known as the "haitianyise".
This is the basic plot of both novel and drama, although the novel is infinitely more complex while the drama... has some many plot holes it's practically a sieve. This is because, from the knowledge I've gathered, the drama changed some pretty large essential plot points that practically breaks down a large portion of the novel's plot. This isn't a huge issue for me since I've never read the novel, but it makes me desperately want to read the novel because the drama kept enough that I could spot the pieces of a greater story.... and then does nothing with them or actively destroys them. If I cared a bit more I probably would've been hella frustrated, but I didn't. But this is a warning for future watchers to manage your expectations via plot. This was... not a smart drama. In fact, I think it was a drama that actively invited you to be very dumb.
What I loved:
Yunfei. Which is the ship name for Zhou Fei and Xie Yun. They get together in the novel too, but it is not a romantic novel at it's heart. I don't know how much the drama amped up the romance, but whatever they did was great. The funny thing was I actually had hesitations at first. I loved Xie Yun and Zhou Fei from the start as individual characters. Xie Yun was funny, witty and flirty, but you could tell he was hiding stuff and I wanted to know MOAR. Zhou Fei was just flat out bad-ass and constantly ready to throw hands at anyone that so much looked at her wrong. They made an incredible team. One was sharp with their words, and one was sharp with their sword.
But yes: hesitations. I remember distinctly thinking at around episode 8 or 10 or thereabouts: they're cute, but I didn't get why Xie Yun was so immediately ride or die for her. I also remember at the time thinking Chuchu and Zhou Fei were a more obvious ship because oh my god you could not tell me that Chuchu didn't have the biggest crush on her. I swear they only stuck her with Li Sheng because they realized Chuchu's crush was too obvious. I was clearly fooled though because I thought that was the extent of Xie Yun already showing how much he adored Zhou Fei. I was wrong. So. Wrong. Oh my god by the time episode 22-31 rolled around I was rolling around on my couch as I watched because that was when I realized oh, no, he's in love AND THEN 36 onwards we have Zhou Fei, finally, fully reciprocating all that love and it's just so !!!!! *chefs kiss*. Oh god when Zhou Fei is talking to Mu Xiaoqiao and she's just like "Have you experienced wanting to sacrifice anything just to have someone talk to you again". And then from episode 38/39 onwards they're just fully married without actually being married. They're just glued to the hip and they don't give any fucks. They are a packaged pair. MARRIED.
I can't even really point out to you what the subtle developments in their relationship were because they really were just that subtle and natural! At the beginning of the drama I definitely got the "teasing, but obviously just for fun" flirting vibe from Xie Yun and an exasperated acceptance from Zhou Fei. And then just... slowly their relationship develops, but it's actually pretty incremental? Like sure, there are the "big moments" where he is actively teasing her or saving her or they're caught in a fight together, but when I sat back and thought about it, I realized there were actually just a lot of scenes where Zhou Fei and Xie Yun would just... talk to each other.
I know, this is wild. Two characters, TALKING? But that's what I mean! I realized there were actually a lot of scenes sprinkled throughout, whether they were talking about themselves, or planning strategies, or just hanging out, where you realize, oh, they get along. They work well together. Even when things are calm they enjoy spending time with each other and find value in each other's company. It's not something I thought about much at first, but as their relationship got more and more romantic it really just hit me like a truck.
So yeah. Yunfei was 95% of the reason I love this drama. God they're so cute. I seriously loved all the little details - how they were always holding hands when together, back hugs!!!, how they make each other laugh?? THE FEEDING??? And it was all just presented so nonchalantly like "yup, we're just gonna walk and hold hands and oh look, Xie Yun is feeding her whatever". When they're together, even when they're being badass they're also simultaneously just so. fucking. soft. So soft. Just. The softest. You really got the impression that they just loved and cared for each other so much. T-T THE CUTEST.
Anyway, moving on:
Other things I liked:
The acting overall was really good. Especially from the leads. I've heard people say this wasn't Zhou Liying's best work and I guess I can see where they might be coming from? She's good, but I'm not sure if her performance would have made me assume she was one of China's top actress's at the moment. For Yibo on the other hand, truly did an amazing job in relation to his previous stuff I've seen, which is CQL and Gank Your Heart. Together they made an amazing pair though and neither one outshone the other so I think it worked out. Also all the other actors were amazing too! This drama was truly held afloat by the actors and they really deserve all the credit and praise.
Li Yan/Yanjing/Yin Hecong ot3 throuple. They were amusing. I enjoyed them for the most part.
Amazing set up for fun post-canon in-law shenanigan dynamics. Li Yan adopts Xie Yun as her "couin-in-law" almost instantly (I screamed when she refers to him as her "jie'fu"). Li Jinrong being all "Chuchu, my darling who can do no wrong" and then just side-eyes Xie Yun. I mean, even after he gets better, somehow I feel like she's always going to be slightly disapproving of him. Zhou Fei/Xie Yun kind of mirroring Li Jinrong/Zhou Yitang also makes me chuckle. Anyway, I just enjoyed seeing Xie Yun interact with people from the 48 Strongholds. Also. The fact that Zhou Fei has both her parents and they are both hella supportive of her and don't die at the end. Once again. IN-LAW SHENANIGANS.
The music. I didn't think about the music so much but by the time episode 25 rolled around I had developed a pavlovian reflex to the song Wu Hua (and not in a good way because oh my goooood so sad T-T). The rest of the OST is pretty sweet as well. I enjoy listening to it.
Villains/former villains: Shen Tianshu was a decent villain. I enjoyed his character. Mu Xiaoqiao, especially towards the end. I am living for the friendship he could have had with Zhou Fei that Xie Yun would have hated (there can only be one drama queen in her life and it must be him). The eunuch was bad ass--wish he could've been around longer.
All the badass ladies.
Less Positive Things:
Like I said, the plot for this drama had so many holes it was like a sieve. Even when the plot tried to be consistent it just didn't have the right set up. I mean, the drama had 10 scriptwriters and you could tell. It was like different writers were assigned different plots lines and then they were just cut up and lumped together to form an episode script--and also, I haven't read the novel but I felt like different writers probably had different levels of care for details in the novel ranging from: tried to keep the key important stuff to didn't give a flying fuck. Again, shoutout to the romance plot though, the only thing they aced! But seriously, the production quality was terrible, the way the drama was edited had so many issues - you would literally just jump from one plot point to the next. The editing was SO JUMPY. One of the most glaringly obvious one was when A'Fei is all prepared to beat up Ding Kui's people at the inn, and then it just cuts to them already having their ass-kicked and it was like ???? um... what???
This drama truly suffered from bad editing/pacing. It makes the jianghu seem like a super tiny area where you can reach every other town, walking, within a day. Like characters would just... teleport to places within the same day? As if they just walked maybe 30min at most to get there even though I'm pretty sure they had to walk down a whole mountain? Or travel to an entirely different town??? And same with the An Ping Army! It would just... show up whenever convenient as if they were always close by. Just???
I feel the last 10 eps were the worst with this - probably because that was truly when the plot went completely off the rails from the book. But so much stuff was just ??? Granted I was watching without subs so I maybe missed some details, but even then? Like I love how they spend all this time showing the disha desperately trying to get into the Big Medicine Valley, but the gang just happens to find a kid who leads them RIGHT THERE. Also Xie Yun just like... shows up (I know A'Fei left him a sign, but still, he's just there suddenly--again, teleportation!). And oh!! General Wen Zhu's soldiers ALSO get in there somehow? And you just see shots of the villagers running, and it's like where are you running to? Are you all STILL in the valley? (apparently they are because then it shows them all leaving the valley at some point). It's just SO WEIRD.
Also the convenient earthquake when they're in the treasure cave with the very fake rocks. So many fake caves and fake rocks and fake backgrounds and trees in this drama. And they were glaringly fake.
So basically, I didn't really care for a lot of the plot due to poor execution/production/plotting/ everything besides acting. So many side characters killed off before you could develop them or care about them in a way that mattered. You'd have some scenes that were so long and draggy of conversation that had important bits, but definitely could have been cut shorter. Most glaring example: the scene just before they depart to Big Medicine Valley where the gang are just... talking about who should go and I was like ??? It was like a good 5-10mins! Yin Pei's arc was just arggh I skipped through so much of it. Li Sheng and Chuchu were alright, but their characters just felt a bit bland to me.
Another thing: who the fuck is Yu Wenzhi and seriously what is going on with the politics. Who is the An Ping Army even fighting since in the novel it's a war between the Northern and Southern dynasties. There is no split in the drama though. There is just Xie Yun (former Xiao dynasty) and the current Chen dynasty. And the An Ping Army isn't fighting the Chen's because Xie Yun is pretty buddied up with the third prince so???? They aren't really fighting the disha either so ???? The An Ping army is supposedly fighting on Xie Yun's side, but what side is that even?
Which leads me to how Third Prince Zichen is the most useless fuck. Which is disappointing because I think in the novel his equivalent character is actually quite important and helpful to Xie Yun in many ways. But Zichen. Oh my lord this boy. He's the true damsel in distress of this drama. His only benefit is that it's because of him that we got Xie Yun's eventual proposal to A'Fei (which by the way, that entire sequence from when Zichen shows up to the 48 Strongholds to Xie Yun's proposal is so good, I love it, the comedy of it all is glorious). A'Fei supports me in her absolutely distaste of Zichen. Once again - hilarious in-law dynamics to pursue in fic (I seriously live for that moment in the final ep where A'Fei is just like ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS???). Like if Zichen wasn't important to Xie Yun she would have just let him die, let's be real.
Okay. I'm going to have to stop here because this got way too long and rambly. I guess this is the result of 1 month of thoughts with no one to share with. If you read until the end, oh my god thank you.
Final score for this drama?
Objectively: 6.5
In my heart (subjectively): 8
It's fun if you turn your brain off regarding plot and are simply looking for a really awesome cute power couple where the man is a whipped puppy in awe of his bad-ass sword wielding girlfriend/wife who is ready to throw down at any second.
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