The thing that I find the most fascinating about the story is actually is that it’s the first one I’ve seen that tackles what’s it like to have the “mortal experience” and then it’s done but you still have feelings after it and then what.
The closest I’ve seen a drama come to it was with Dong Hua and Feng Jiu in Three Lives where he went to mortal world ostensibly to experience a tribulation with her but in reality because however miserably it would end it was the only way he could experience love with her. But that was different because it dealt with preexisting feelings on both their parts and added stuff on top. Here, this is so different because the thing is - neither of them had any interest in the other as their divine entities (yes yes fat hints they were couple unknown to present them but I am talking insofar as they are aware.) And the amazing thing is she falls in love despite knowing it’s all an elaborate play only with amnesia, an elaborate Truman Show where she’s the only one aware this is not her reality.
And what is even more amazing she does not fall in love with immortal Chu Kong who she still barely knows, she falls in love with the very very mortal Lu Changkong and the thing is, I cannot imagine the mind trip it is to fall for someone who you know is not really real, who is at best a memoryless sliver of the actual person, who will cease to exist forever soon. I find it so telling that even as she’s dying, this js her concern:
And just in case we weren’t clear what she means:
And he does not get it at all, of course:
And then she comes back and the immortals are all “mortal affairs stay in the mortal world don’t be sad” the way you talk to a kid who got a little wound up about a make believe play. But the thing is, it’s not make believe to her, the feelings were real. And so she desperately wants to know how LCK has been since she dies, and actually keeps begging to see him again and again (though of course he cannot see her - the scene where by her grave he says he kept his promise and didn’t kill himself so please to give a sign and her tear falls into his palm is poetry!)
And she keeps seeing them as separate entities entirely - when she’s worried if LCK is still alive she reassures herself that Chu Kong is not back and that means LCK is alive. This is such an interesting take and rings so true - because what makes us be us are personality, memory, experiences etc etc - I mean nobody would argue identical twins are literally the same person tho they have identical DNA.
Ooof! Oooooof
