NiF - please avoid this if it will annoy you

[frith_in_thorns]

I STILL haven't finished Nirvana in Fire, and have finally pinned down my reluctance to do so.


I'm pretty sure my entire watching of it has suffered from it being sold to me in SUCH an over-hyped way. Frustratingly, I think I would have enjoyed it so much more if I hadn't had managed to pick up the impression that it was completely Life-Changing, The Best Show Ever Made etc. Like, it's good? But people similarly tried to sell me on The Untamed as The Best Love Story Ever, The Saddest Thing They've Ever Watched, etc, and just nope.

Also, I guess when I watch things and talk about them as I go on Twitter (with hashtags) I tend to be pretty irreverent? Like, I talk about notable bits to me -- the things I enjoyed and also the things that made me laugh. But I definitely felt when I talked about NiF I hit a vein of "you are not allowed to say anything critical about this Perfect Show", I think unintentionally, but.... yeah. It definitely made me feel I wasn't allowed to enjoy NiF in the way that I was enjoying it, so I... stopped enjoying it.

I'm on episode 50, btw. I've been here for two months? Bleh.

[Edit: Comments now full of spoilers]

Comments

[philomytha]

Ah, that's a shame. I had it recced to me as twisty politics, loyalty galore and lashings of h/c rather than as The Best Thing Ever Made, which I expect helped when I got to the yeti beetle plot... also I loved it, but I did go and make a cup of tea whenever we got to the long love songs for MCS and Nihuang: it's not that I didn't like their romance, but my tolerance for that kind of musical interlude is very limited.

[sheron]

I skipped the entire yeti beetle plot and have no regrets :D

[frith_in_thorns]

Yes on both counts. Also I think one of my main overall frustrations is that the Emperor just carries so much of the Idiot Ball and we see him making the exact same mistakes over and over and over. Like, I get that they're showing him as paranoid and in the process of being destroyed by his own past mistakes, but I have been internally groaning every time there's another scene with him :/

I have been enjoying the twisty politics! That's what kept me going, along with the friendship stuff. Although Jingrei was my favourite and I'm still so disappointed he left :(

[philomytha]

Jingrui was The Sweetest. I mean, he's the kind of character that the term cinnamon roll was invented for <3. His farewell speech to MCS is amazing. I missed him a lot in the second half as well.

I just loved watching Jingyan shout at MCS that he couldn't follow MCS's twisty dishonourable advice because the noble ghost of Lin Shu was watching him... fortunately the show kept on delivering on that kind of scene, plus there was an endless supply of MCS struggling up off his sickbed to do something secretly heroic without telling Jingyan, so again, I'm easily pleased in that regard ;-)

I found the Emperor's tragic/evil/disaster arc worked for me, it was Prince Yu's descent into armed assault on the Emperor that I found a bit hard to swallow, plot-wise.

[frith_in_thorns]

(Jingrui, sorry! I started off with very dreadful subs which had his name as Jingrei half the time -- although I found better subs quickly I have been left with lingering confusion over spelling and keep picking the wrong one.)

Interestingly I found Prince Yu much more compelling/interesting than the Emperor! I was disappointed he was eventually killed off.

I get why MCS and Jingyan did not Just Talk, but arghhhh I have wanted them to for a long time XD