Swords of Legends (Gu Jian Qi Tan)

Gu Jian Qi Tan

Swords of Legends is a fantasy Chinese series based of the RPG game Gu Jian Qi Tan.  The story is set in Ancient China, the young protagonist is Baili Tusu. When he is young, an unknown masked group attacks and massacred everyone in his village including his mother. Being the only survivor Tusu loses his memory. Tusu was saved by Ziyin, a Celestial Being from Tianyong City Sect. Tusu becomes his second disciple, but because of a terrible incident he has to leave.  As Tusu travels and learns more, he begins to discover the true relationship between him, the Sword of Solitude and a friend Ouyang Shaogong. 

Gu Jian Qi Tan Game

I am not really sure how I started watching Swords of Legends but once I did.  I did not want to stop. Not because I felt it was so great but I kept hoping it would get better, especially since some people seemed to like it so much.  It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. It was an average good show. One thing I think they could have worked on was creating more intense cliffhangers at the end of each episode.

Baili Tusu

I liked Baili Tusu. I could understand the way he was and why he was that way. The only disappointing part was when he was being controlled by the sword.  This was a great opportunity to really show the difference between the two sides. Tusu that was always calm and hardly experienced any of his emotions and the one that just let go, felt and showed whatever he was feeling without restraint.  The only scene I really saw this was when he was fighting Ling Duan at the Mu Valley Village. Other than that there wasn't really much that could differentiate between regular Tusu and Sword Tusu.  

Qing Xue

I felt like I wanted to like Qing Xue more than I actually ended up.  I was excited when they mentioned that she was related to Nu wa, but this was never really addressed. She was from Youdu, who could summon and served Nu wa. But we never really found out anything more. I was disappointed by how her story ended, because she was of the view that death was a part of life and we should just accept it.  However, in the end she spend all her time searching for Tusu's memories (soul?) on her own, but not while she continued to live.  She just became like an observer.  Never contacting her friends or family. Plus it seemed like she was searching for Tusu, so he would remember and love her instead of being happy that he gets to be reborn and live again.  Which is why the way Ancient Chinese series's portrayal of love and "I will love you forever and not matter what" I find to be problematic.

Shaogong & Xun Fang

I could understand why Shaogong felt the way he did.  His pain from having to go from body to body, always feeling and knowing you were not complete and losing the little happiness you had finally found.   I could see why he could become so stubborn at going against heaven.  Because of all the suffering, I too would have a hard time just accepting, it's because heaven wanted it.  Plus his pain was compelling because almost everyone knows the pain of having lost someone you love and how much despair it can cause.

Xun Fang was a little boring and I did not like her character because of what she did that was revealed at the end.  We find out early that she did not die, but I was always wondering why she did not tell Shaogong. I just felt there was little reason for her to do what she did. Xun Fang and Shaogong were suppose care so much for each other that they wanted to grow old together.  But what happens shows a bit of how some aspect of Chinese culture might view love.  It seemed at times very attached to appearance and status. Because, all the women that are shown to be desirable are physically beautiful and have a measure of status, whether it be royals on earth or to the gods, usually both.  Since Xun Fang was a Princess of a land empire and had spiritual and magical powers. This situation with Xun Fang and Shaogong illustrated one of the reasons why I don't like the keeping of certain types of secrets and important information.  Shaogong started to search and became stubborn in his quest to bring back the dead because he thought Xun Fang was dead. Xun Fang decided to lie to him about being alive because her hair had turned white and her face was scared.   (we can debate whether she was truly old or just had white hair since most Chinese series rarely ever use actual old actors to represent older versions. Old as in elderly, not from kids to adult).  But here, I will say she just had her hair turned white. If their love was anywhere near as grand as was said, her face and hair would not have been an issue, they could not have resolved.  Shaogong was a genius Doctor.   There is a huge difference between the pain one feels when someone they love is hurt versus died and they can never see them again.  How could she make such a decision without really considering what it might do? It almost felt like she had little respect for him and bought into the views that of course he loved her only because of her appearance and status.  Not to say that Xun Fang was responsible for Shaogong's actions.  He made the decisions.  But her actions did contribute to the thought process and view point that he had on things. 

I thought this series was good, although I don't feel there are a lot of things that I liked very much. I neither extremely for or against special effects.  When done right they add so much and takes you deeper into the story.  Other times they take you out and there were scenes here where I was taken out because of the special effects. I liked some of RPG game inspired fight scenes, particularly, the quick speed strikes.  Also the show had some nice songs to listen to. Though the background music was very repetitive. If you had played the game and want to see the story told with some minor changes, then watch it.  Or if you like stories that tend to be cute, otherwise I don't think it's worth watching the 50 long episodes.  You can do a lot worse, but there should be better.