#mdzs still has me happily in a chokehold

[unfortunatelycake]

Finished watching Ashes of Love and have a need to ramble.

OK so first off I literally only watched this show because YT suggested me a live video of Zhou Shen performing the end theme with Sa Dingding and the lyrics made me think of hualian so I decided this is a show I can get behind. 

Then I looked up the cast and saw Deng Lun was in it, and I’d enjoyed his character in Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity so figured I’d give this drama a try too.

Also have to note that watching this I understand how Luo Yunxi got cast as Chu Wanning in Immortality because holy shit?!?! 

Seeing him play RunYu (and YanYou pretending to be RunYu) was a fucking delight. RunYu is such a multi-faceted character who undergoes such dramatic changes of personality shows so much emotion, and LYX nailed it every damn time. 

Anyway. On to rambling about actual plot and stuff...

Was pretty much Team RunYu the entire way through. I just... couldn’t find myself caring about XuFeng? He was most likeable in the arc where he and JinMi were experiencing hardships in the Human Realm, but other than that just... eh. Whereas RunYu seemed like such a sweet soft boy at first (ahaha)

JinMi totally fell for the wrong guy (once she could fall for someone) !!! 

I mean yeah XuFeng is righteous and courageous and whatnot but look at all RunYu did for and gave her. Like holy shit, how much would he have sacrificed for her sake??? 

At the same time he went full on yandere at one point and that does not deserve reward like jesus christ RunYu chill.

And also he’s a dumbass. It was kind of disappointing at the end that he’s sitting in the Heavenly Realm being all miserable and alone when like. KuangLu and Beast of Dreams are both Right There. And KuangLu had repeatedly pledged her unending loyalty to him. 

I mean I guess there’s meant to be parallels with RunYu’s unrequited love for JinMi and KuangLu’s unrequited love for RunYu but UGH. At least acknowledge that you aren’t entirely unloved and alone, stupid dragon! dsfkshgl

Aside from them, omg Liuying and Muci. 

They deserved better, damn it 

I really enjoyed their story and cared about them and what happened with them a lot more than I cared about the XuFeng/JinMi ship. Muci is such a sweet character, I loved his quietness/stoicism and slight awkwardness in comparison to Liuying being so much more forward and badass. 

But they deserved better. Like a fuck ton better. Find each other in the next incarnation, damn it.

Also was it just me or did YanYou and MatchMaker just not appear in the last few eps? 

Like is the last we saw of them seriously them in the Floral Realm being sad that JinMi was dead???? In that last episode, wouldn’t MatchMaker be like... aware that JinMi was in the Human Realm living her best reincarnated life with XuFeng??? Being that he’s like... in charge of human marriage and stuff??? 

As for YanYou I just want to know what happened to him, at the start of the drama he seemed like he would be such a trouble maker but he turned out to be such a good boy. 

I loved those two characters in particular (along with Runyu, haha) so it was pretty disappointing not to see them amidst the others during those last ‘tying up loose ends’ kind of scenes. =/ 

Also loved MatchMaker and YuanJi messing around, would have liked to have seen more of those two 

...but I’m judging Yanyou for having a thing for Suihe like sure she has great makeup and some of the best costumes but damn Yanyou, seriously??? (Also where the fuck did that storyline come from so late in the drama??? I’m assuming it’s more important in the novel and doesn’t come across like some random Extra Ship thrown in at the last minute?)

Also LiaoYuan? That poor guy did not get paid enough and then he died. Boo.

AND. A little grumble that Netflix subs did a disservice to the scene towards the end (ep 62? 63?) where XuFeng and RunYu are talking outside [human realm place where human! XF & JM met] 3 years after JinMi’s death, and RunYu walks away to leave and XuFeng calls out to him, ‘Ge.’

But Netflix just subbed it as ‘Runyu’

I know that stuff like ‘ge’, ‘gege’ and so on is hard to translate to English (and honestly I know like zero Chinese so I may be talking out of my ass) but just using Runyu’s name kind of detracted from the significance of XuFeng calling out to him? 

Like... after the last 60-odd episodes of drama, fighting, hatred and misunderstanding, and they’re on speaking terms and their relationship is kind of healing so like... XuFeng calling him ‘Ge’ feels really significant in comparison to just calling him by name =/ 

Aaaa I’m rambling into the void here, TL;DR:

Team Runyu!

Yanyou, Matchmaker & Muci BEST BOYS

Liuying & KuangLu BEST GIRLS

Best of Dreams BEST NON HUMANOID