#orchid 🤝orihime

[recurring-polynya]

So, I have just finished watching Love Between Fairy and Devil, and I thought I would write up my thoughts on it.

TL;DR version: It slapped and you should watch it.

Slightly longer version: I remember watching the first episode and there were a lot of computer effects and people waving their arms around doing Naruto jutsus and I thought "this is kinda silly but I'm gonna stick with it for a few more eps" and by the end, I was so into everything about this show.

Things that are great about it:

The leads are both incredible actors and it would be worth watching the show just for the facial expressions they make at each other

The love story has such a good balance of "love is an incredibly powerful things" and "love is a thing you build, it is a thing you choose"

Orchid, as a protagonist, was full of love and pacifism, and the show did not make her compromise that

The romance was Big and Epic and full of grand gestures, but it was also cute and supportive and it felt like they actually liked each other and would have had a healthy and supportive relationship if certain evil gods would give them, like, 5 minutes to just exist, you know?

Wonderful fun, meaty supporting cast

The plot had several distinct arcs that kept the show interesting and fresh throughout its length. The Lucheng arc was my favorite.

The world-building was ridiculous and I loved it. There were, what, 5 different versions of Arbiter Hall by the end and I did not care. I would remodel my house to look like Arbiter Hall, if possible. Every place was called something like the "Spirit Shattering Abyss" or the "Soul Transformation Cauldron." I loved the way they would slam you with worldbuilding out of nowhere, like "We are going to inject you with the Bone-Devouring Spikes" and everyone was like "Not the Bone-Devouring Spikes!!" and I was hooting and hollering, I simply love this shit.

Every single thing Dongfang Qingcang wore

45 minute episodes! The perfect length for an episode!

Additional thoughts with spoilers below the cut

I feel like Shangque was built in a lab for me to love him. Surprising no one: I did

💕💖 Jieli and her crimes 💖💕

Changheng wins the #2 prize for "character my affections have done a 180 for", coming in second only to Steve Harrington in Season 2 of Stranger Things. It was 100% due to his himbo stint as Xiao Run, but I continued to like him afterwards. Much like Steve, getting dumped turned out to do incredible things for his character.

Danyin was such a wild character, and I am obsessed with her. She was a bitch and then she went ride-or-die for Orchid, and she broke the law a few time, briefly had a dick, got hit by a car, died a few more times, and turned out cool at the end. I love her.

I liked the way every time DFQC or Orchid had a Nostalgia Montage, they showed the Cloud Whale

The first arc was so precious in retrospect and I loved every time they flashed back to it

Remember the time during the Lucheng arc after DFQC and Xiao Run skipped school to play soccer and DFQC looked straight into the camera and said "Ball is life"? That was magical.

Remember the time DFQC and Changheng went to go see the Arbiter and her Swole Magical Dragon Husband in whatever secret dimension they were banished to, and the Arbiter turned to her husband and was like "Fuck him up" and he did??? Couple goals.

Shangque should have turned into a dragon more often

Lady Chidi was a really cool character and I felt like she really got shafted. I did like that DFQC poured one out for her after she died, I really respected that.

Too much Rong Hao. I felt like the show was trying to get me to sympathize with him and I simply refused.

Xunfeng!!! He was such a bitch and I loved him so much!!!

The show sort of sprawled and gave the characters a lot of room to stretch and breath and I loved that. There was a scene where Orchid and Shangque stood around and had a conversation about how much they both loved DFQC and Jieli even though they are both mildly awful, and I loved this for all of us.

I also loved the scenes where Xunfeng would tell Orchid "my brother has duties toward Cangyan Sea that are bigger than you and I think you should die for him" and she was like "I agree actually and maybe I will". Their energy was insane.

The tribulation mechanic (characters could go live a lifetime as a human where they lost all their immortal memories for the time and could get plus-ups from this, but it put their immortal soul at risk) was really interesting, both narratively and as worldbuilding and I will be thinking about this for a while

Danyin's dad was such a shitty boomer dad, I loved to hate him!! I think maybe he died, because we didn't see him after the timeskip. Mr. P and I discussed this and at first, we hoped he was dead, but then we decided we hoped he *wasn't* dead so that he has to put up with Jieli bringing her himbo husband and all of her horrible adopted street urchins to his house every Thanksgiving.

Speaking of which, I hope that Danyin starts challenging Shangque to swordfights at family gatherings. Just, you know, one sword bro to another, all in good fun.

I was really worried the show was going to try to pair up Changheng and Danyin at the end. A few episodes from the end, I said that my dream ending would be for Changheng's awful brother to die, Changheng becomes the new lord of Shuiyuntian and Danyin becomes his advisor. That would leave it ambiguous, so that anyone who *did* ship them could assume it happened eventually, after they built a real relationship based on mutual respect. As it turned out, I think I loved the actual ending, where Changheng takes a gap year to backpack around the Human World and Danyin is like "I'm gonna take your job actually" and he's like "Hey, good luck! btw you're cool and I'm sorry I didn't reciprocate your crush" and she's like "Don't mention it, also, we're gender neutral besties now because I say so" and he's like "Based." Anyway, I'm mildly peeved that Changheng's awful brother basically didn't face any consequences, but other than that, I love this for everyone.

Speaking of the ending, why does every Asian drama end with someone dying, a somewhat inconvenient period of time passes, and then they come back with no real explanation? This is so specific and I think I have seen at least five dramas that end this way. I do not love it. I mean, the end wasn't terrible, but I definitely lost the thread of what was going on in the last episode. I was really hoping that DFQC and Orchid had switched bodies one more time at the end to screw Taisui, and I stand by that would have been a better ending.

Anyway, absolutely fantastic show. Loved it, would recommend, will probably watch it again at some point.