Let's just say that I got into the drama thinking it will be interesting for the main couple, but turns out I was severely disappointed. I first came across this on Youtube, because they uploaded a scene on there, so I wanted to give it a try, because (1) I love the back ground music that was played in this drama, and (2) Another Xianxia / Fantasy drama that looks interesting, but then it turned out that watching clips without the entire context of the story can be so misleading.

Well, before I get into this, first, I do NOT recommend this story if you think it's similar to Three Lives Three World's because it is NOT similar at all, not in terms of where the main love in Ashes of Love is concerned... Three Lives Three World's (Ye Hua and Bai Qian) is 1000000x better than this crappy love story! I can't believe people compare this to Three Lives three world's, Ten Miles Peach Blossom... And they even said Allen Deng (who played Xu Feng) is more handsome than Mark Chao (who plays 'Ye Hua')? Well, how we perceive 'handsome' is subjective, to me, I don't think Allen Deng is handsome at all.... Mark Chao is better looking than him, but this is my opinion

I got into this drama (Ashes of Love) expecting it to be good, and I was keeping an open mind about it, and it did started off okay but as the story kicks in, I just feel so bad for my fav character (Run Yu) in there.

So, let's just let me simplify this for those who haven't watched it...
- Jin Mi (Female Lead) who doesn't know what 'romance love' was (because of what was placed into her at her birth by her mother), was engaged to Run Yu before she was born. And when she was asked, she accepted the engagement on her end with Run Yu because she also likes him, even though it's the 'platonic' kind of love...

- Jin Mi takes things for granted, she doesn't cultivate herself by working hard to get stronger, but instead cheat her way out to gain a higher immortal level by the help of others, that was so annoying of her....

- Well since Jin Mi is the female lead, and Xu Feng being the male lead, the romance goes in their favour....

- Run Yu love for Jin Mi is no less than how Xu Feng and Jin Mi "loves" each other.....

- The Uncle Moon Immortal said he loves both his nephews, but obviously you can clearly see how bias he is, since he favoured Xu Feng (being the legitimate son) on his end...

- When Xu Feng and Jin Mi first met, he was so arrogant towards her, and he even abused Jin Mi of his powers, by turning her into objects to abuse her with... People call this romantic and appealing? -_-

But to put this into perspective, what I hate about this story (and yes, I am talking about Xu Feng and Jin Mi) is.... The writers did a lot to try and justify their love as something 'natural', and that Jin Mi chose Xu Feng on her end, when in the end, it turned out to be the biggest lie...

When Jin Mi have to go down to the human world to do the trial to experience these hardships, Xu Feng went after her to follow her and he even 'SELFISHLY' asked his uncle, the Moon Immortal (which is a Love Deity) to tie the red string around their ankle to pair them up, and you know what this looks like? It's 'manipulation'! Because I'm sure we all know the story behind the power of the red string right? He have the power to make them fall in love if they are tied together by the red string... So considering all this, and it was evidently shown that there was this invisible red string around their ankle when they were in the human realm, it actually gave Jin Mi a chance to "fall in love" with Xu Feng, and that feeling carried back to after she did the trial, and it really frustrates and annoys me how she keeps using her time in the human realm (when she did the trial) as her love for him, when I'm like "NO, it's not.... It was all manipulated", the writers expect me to see their love is natural and true? Are you kidding me?!

Run Yu loved Jin Mi and he is willing to wait for her to love him back in return, to me Run Yu is the most interesting character in this series, he's suffered so many injustices, and mistreatment in this story that actually makes me feel for him. He never wanted anything on his end, not the throne, not fame or power.... He just wanted the woman he loves to love him back... And to me, what he did later on is justifiable, because if Xu Feng did NOT even respect Run Yu's feelings in all this, why should Run Yu consider his feelings? It's only fair...

The thing I hate about Xu Feng, is, he's selfish, yet people / fans still love him and praise his love for Jin Mi... When, he actually used the power of the Moon Immortal to make their love possible... Xu Feng said he feels sorry for what happened to his brother (Run Yu) one minute, yet not long later, it shows he doesn't really mean it...

When Xu Feng found out the date of the engagement between Jin Mi and Run Yu is drawing near, he asked to meet Jin Mi and took her virginity... That's just disgusting imo. I cannot understand how fans can find that scene is romantic... Run Yu and Jin Mi is still engaged, for goodness sake.... So, can they NOT wait until their engagement is called off first?! Did they respected Run Yu's feelings at all when they were doing it? Run Yu is still mourning the death of his mother, how she was killed by Xu Feng's mother! Yet, he saw the whole thing... the woman he loves with his whole heart, making love with his brother, where he once consider him as his dear brother! What I got out of this was, the brother (Xu Feng) literally stole the love of Run Yu's life (Jin Mi) and his fiancé! If this was IRL, this is actually scandalous, and people call that romantic? And even during those time period, they would have been criticised heavily (or be locked up in a pig cage), and yet, people call that love and romantic and support them? Well, ofcourse it will be like this, since the writers only care about Xu Feng and Jin Mi's happiness... Don't do this people, normally, if people are engaged, you should learn to step back and not do anything, or at least wait until the engagement is called off, that's called respect, and that's you for doing the right thing, if that uncle cared for Run Yu at all, he would have not encouraged Xu Feng to chase after her, and stealing Run Yu's fiancé while he knew clear well how Run Yu felt for Jin Mi ..

And Xu Feng have the audacity to come to Run Yu the next day, saying in he's sorry for all that has happened to him(Run Yu), and then when Run Yu knew that wasn't the real reason he came to see him and asked him to get to the point, he was like... "I can give you anything, the emperor, etc etc, but I can't give you Jin Mi".... And you call that feeling sorry for Run Yu?! Isn't that Xu Feng contradicting himself here?!

Honestly for me, I hated how Run Yu have suffered so much on his end... I hated how Xu Feng said he's sorry but his actions shows me otherwise... I hated how the Uncle Moon Immortal reprimanded, and other reprimanded Run Yu telling him that, "Xu Feng didn't do anything wrong to you"... I'm like... "Oh my god, are you serious?! So you call stealing the woman he loves is not doing him wrong?! Having sex with the woman he loves while he's still mourning for his own mother's death, and they did it behind his back is not wrong?!" Please tell me that jerkish uncle did not just say all that?! Because are you kidding me?! But it DID happen in this story...! And honestly, I would have respected them if they have waited.... And not hurt Run Yu and not consider his feelings at all... But in the end, despite they knew all this, they still did it, and it was Xu Feng who initiated, makes me lose all respect for him, them as a pairing...

And the Moon Immortal is such a hypocrite for saying all this to Run Yu, because he was the one who encouraged Xu Feng to chase/steal Run Yu's fiance, since they are only engaged and not married... -_- And when it came to Xu Feng being badly wronged, he will speak up for him and say something like: "That's impossible! I know him since I watched him grew up, he will not do something like this, you all must have wronged him!" and I'm like... "Wow...... so you only saw Xu Feng grew up and not Run Yu...."? -_-

To be honest, for me, I actually find the second leading couple, Liu Ying and Mu Ci love story to be far more appealing than the main leading couple (Xu Feng and Jin Mi) and would much rather focus on them instead. In the overall, what I can say to simplify my feelings is, characters that deserves a happy ending, got an unhappy ending, or they died... Characters who don't, gets their happy ending...

Why did I say this is so unfair? Well....
- Xu Feng who died can come back alive.....

- Jin Mi, who died later, can ALSO come back alive....

- Mu Ci who dies can't come back alive?! And I felt like the writers just want to kill him off to give that pairing a tragic one... But they can revive both Jin Mi and Xu Feng because they want to give them a happy ending... So stupid and illogical imo.

- The writers have Jin Mi find out the things that Run Yu did, and she wouldn't even let him explain or believed in him, but when Jin Mi found out it was "Xu Feng" who killer her father, she would believe in him, etc.... BUT what I hate about this the most is that... Jin Mi NEVER found out that her love for Xu Feng and what they've been through in the human realm was only made possible because of 'manipulation' by the Moon Immortal (Love Deity), yet, she never found this out.... But she used this as her reference for "loving" Xu Feng because of what happened in the human trial -_-

The only redeeming thing for this drama for me is, Run Yu can return to being his kind and gentle self in the end, because that is a first step to his healing process, and at least Kuang Lu and the dream deer is still by Run Yu side in the end, and that allows me to crack my own happy ending, thinking Run Yu will return Kuang Lu's feelings because Jin Mi doesn't deserve Run Yu's love and devotion...

The only thing I love about this drama is:
- Leo Luo, I have to say did an excellent job in portraying his character that made me fell in love with this actor, and it's also the first I've seen him act, because he can really play emotional scenes well on his end, and shows that he really poured his heart and emotions into acting these scenes.
- Zhou Ting Wei as Mu Ci, I love this character back story, and wish he didn't have to die to be honest, since I hope he could have a happy ending, I guess, the useless Xu Feng couldn't save him with his "High Fire magic... -_-"
- Yukee Chen as Liu Ying - She did a great job with her character here, and it's nice to see her love story with the character Mu Ci, again I wish they have a happy ending, they deserve it, but the writers is horrible for mistreating them...

But you know what, I just realized that after searching through Leo Luo's profile that these three actors played in 'And the Winner is Love', so I immediately went and watched that drama afterwards, and imo, between 'Ashes of Love' and 'And the Winner is Love'.... 'And the Winner is Love' is the REAL WINNER for me! Because what I want for Run Yu, i.e. someone who cares for him, someone who speaks up for him, him loving a woman who deserves his sacrifice and love... He got in 'And the Winner is love', so I am glad, I felt like I can take that as an extension to an AU happy ending for "Run Yu" who happens to be played by Leo Luo as Shangguan Tou (in 'And the Winner is love').

Background Music (5/10): I love the background music "Unsullied (不染), that's the ONLY song I love in this drama! I didn't know it came from this drama at first, since someone used this song on a Wangxian MV, which I came to love this song.

Rewatch Value (1/10): The ONLY rewatch value for this is the pairing Liu Ying and Mu Ci and their scenes together. Ofcourse I will want to watch this for Run Yu too, since he's my favourite character in there, but rewatching his scenes will only mean I am watching him being unfairly treated in the story, so I will rather rewatch 'And the Winner is Love' instead...

What I learned from this drama?
- Never trust a clip when you don't get the full context
- Don't let the high ratings by others to mislead you to thinking this is worth the time, 63 episodes is a lot of episodes, it's better to watch something that is worth your time IMO.