"I want to travel north with the wind, watching the snow sweep across the land.
I wish to travel east by boat to see the elegant fairy brave the wind.
I wish to travel thousands of miles with the clouds, even the Emperor ruling the court cannot stop me.
I will bathe in the sunlight at the top of Mount Kunlun.
I will witness lush mountains rise at the edge of the ocean.
We shall reunite after a long journey.
But I won't go home until I've seen the world."
- Wuxin, episode 5

If you needed a reason to watch 'The Blood of Youth', the above quote from Wuxin summarises the mood that this show wants to encapsulate. That period of time between infancy and adulthood - where you know enough about the world to believe it is yours for the taking, and not enough about it to realise the world is something no man can own. The moment where you feel so invincible; you manage to fool yourself into thinking you really are.

Xiao Se, a favoured prince, certainly believed he was untouchable; yet, after a humbling battle with a far more experienced opponent, he found himself crippled and alone - in a self-inflicted exile. That day, he thought, was the day that his childhood died; but when he met wandering traveller Lei Wujie, he saw his opportunity to step out of the shadows, and to reclaim the youth that was stolen from him.

If you like Wuxia, then this show is definitely for you, but any casual C-Drama watchers will enjoy it as well. Although at times the over saturation of tropes can be annoying, they are part of the appeal of this show (by now I've accepted that every female love interest in a historical or fantasy C-Drama is condemned to act like a whining 5 year old). Yet, for the most part; the women in this drama are portrayed well, and are not to be trifled with.

The issue comes in part with the pacing; the ending felt rushed in comparison to areas of the Drama which were given time they did not deserve, and for the sake of drama an entirely unneeded character death was thrown in, which seemed to have no other purpose than to shock. For example, one of the leads disappears for half the drama, only to return in an unforeseen but again, irritating way. Many of the plot points felt at times decorative rather than integral to the story.

I criticise the show so heavily in part, because it had so much potential. If the writing had been a bit more tidy and concise in places, it would have been 10's all around - but it's tainted by a seeming need to appeal to everyone, and consequently, not doing any one trope or theme entirely right. This is not to say the drama isn't filled with iconic moments that will leave you wanting more, but I wish it would have found it's feet, and picked a camp to settle down in rather than wandering around for 40 episodes: what should have been an emotional story of the pain and beauty of youth became a half-court, half-martial arts, half-revenge, half-romance, half-tragedy, half-comedy drama, which never really picked what it wanted to be.

Yet, as I said; the reason our sentiments about what went badly are so deep is because what went well was so enjoyable - and flaws and all, I would definitely recommend this show as an essential watch for any Wuxia or C-Drama fan.