I wanted a strong wuxia and this author has been spoken about by many people as being basically the creator of the genre. I know a lot of the actors from previous dramas but with this first compilation of 30 episodes, it was a watered down version of what I had seen in other adaptations. The script that fizzled out with the actors going along for the ride. Not doing pros and cons this time.

I liked the fight scenes; wish there were more of them and that they were more defined. I think the actors did the best they could with what was given to them but felt that what was written lacked any sort of depth and I've never even seen any other adaptation nor read the books. Just as a viewer, I felt that the romances were bland and there was very little chemistry between the characters. I didn't really know why they made it so shallow seeming. YK wasn't as complex as people said from the original and he was just a straight up evil narcissist that didn't struggle much with being good. GJ had very low IQ when it came to everything except martial arts and I still don't know how he "leveled up" each time. The senior martial artists were always asking subconsciously "how did he get this powerful so quickly?" And I was right there with them lol. Unless they showed him practicing, you had no clue how in a span of 2 mins he went from a certain level to full blown grandmaster especially at the end. HR was spunky and smart but her Jing gege voice and way too cutesy behavior was a bit much. The older actors were great to watch fight but I wish we saw more about them.

In any case, my main review will be added to this one on the main page once the other compilations are done but for now, I think this could have been amazing with a strong script.