When the spoilt and cruel Princess Shunde (顺德公主) captures a rare, beautiful, but stubborn merman, she wants to bend him to her will. Her desires are for him to speak the human tongue, give up his tail for human legs, and be completely loyal to her. Of the 4 existing demon-subduing groups, the Demon Subduing Valley (驭妖谷) is the most powerful, and Ji Yunhe (纪云禾), the best demon master (驭妖师) there. So Princess Shunde sends the merman to Demon Subduing Valley to be tamed into submission, setting in place a series of horrific events that slowly unfolded.
Okay, wow. This is a xianxia (chinese fantasy) story that really put my emotions through the wringer. I’m don’t normally enjoy stories that are very 虐 (torturous on the emotions) but after watching The Blue Whisper on Netflix, I wanted to know if its original novel was as frustrating as the drama. Yet, as exasperating as the show sometimes was, it still managed to make me cry my eyes out.
I was pleased to find out that the drama had followed the novel pretty closely. Yes, there were differences, but I wasn’t like, discombobulated when I read the book. There were more details and explanations in the novel that made sense and cleared up some of the confusion I had for the drama. However, the drama offered more POVs than the novel did.
I really like the merman, Chang Yi (长意). Capable and dependable, he’s also adorably innocent and sticks vehemently to his principles. Despite the cruelties of humankind, he still maintains a goodness in him.
The romance between Ji Yunhe and Chang Yi was incredibly painful and frustrating, with typical xianxia themes of self-sacrifice, perceived betrayal, for-the-greater-good and I’m-doing-this-for-your-good-but-I-won’t-tell-you. Argh. Communication, people!
Romance aside, there’s also Princess Shunde the maniac, and her equally crazy master. The torture scenes were urgh. Again, with typical xianxia themes of power seeking, and revenge for one’s fallen loved ones.
The ending felt very abrupt and could have been more fleshed out. There was so much more I wanted to know! But all in all, I still enjoyed this roller coaster of a story, although there was more pain than sweetness.