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Nov. 24th, 2019 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Of the three of us, I was the only one who'd read the novel first (
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Personally, I missed the novel's pacing, because half the fun for me is having the contrast between the younger and older versions of the characters played out over the course of the book; also, the show's pacing in general has a way to stop and linger around climactic moments for several episodes in a way that loses a lot of the zippy energy of the rest of it. Also also, in order to maintain backstory pacing, the show has added a whole evil MacGuffin plot that (as
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On the other hand, I did appreciate that the show slithers its way around censorship by replacing all the backstory's moments of fraught mutually oblivious sexual tension with intense explicitly mutual but technically not sexual pairbonding. For example:
BOOK: Lan Wangji, overcome with fraught pining, anonymously kisses a blindfolded Wei Wuxian
SHOW: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have a fraught discussion in which Wei Wuxian says "I used to see you as my soulmate in this life" and Lan Wangji says "I still am"
On the one hand: it's a bummer China can't show makeouts; on the other hand: I think we can all agree that the show's version here may in fact be better.
These changes, plus the amazing array of long-suffering micro-expressions displayed by Lan Wangji's actor, significantly shift the tone of the romance overall. Book!Lan Wangji spends all his time stoically pining for a man he believes is oblivious to his feelings and will never return them; tv!Lan Wangji spends all his time mildly annoyed that his useless undead husband, to whom he has been married for twenty years, forgot another anniversary. Both great tastes and I'm glad to have experienced both!
Speaking of actors, I already loved the novel version of Jin Ling (the bratty nephew of everybody in the cast) but Jin Ling's actor in the show was a true standout for visibly incorporating all the most annoying traits of the actors who played his father and his other variously terrible uncles into his performance. Truly sublime; a very gifted child.
The show also makes a significant effort to give the few female characters more screentime. I'm not sure how well this serves Jiang Yanli, the sweet but tragically doomed sister, who does appear significantly more often but still unfortunately never gets to do anything besides make the same soup recipe ad infinitum. Wen Qing, on the other hand -- an irritable but virtuous doctor from an evil clan who helps our heroes out at a few key points -- has been elevated to a main player, which is probably the best choice the show ever made, except then it makes her disappearance from the story midway through and the absolute lack of women in the future plot significantly more frustrating. Justice for Wen Qing! (as I requested, in my Yuletide letter.)
(If I had to rank my five favorite characters, it would probably go as follows:
#5 - Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, inextricably linked in favor as they are in life
#4 - Jin Ling; I love a furious gremlin child
#3 - Jiang Cheng; I love the man who taught the furious gremlin child all his worst habits
#2 - Wen Qing; the combo of 'irritable but virtuous doctor' and 'irritable but virtuous elder sister' is too powerful for me to resist
#1 - Lan Jingyi, because someone has to love the most mediocre Lan child and that someone was, inevitably, going to be me.)
My other favorite thing about the show: the special effects on Lan Clan members summoning their magical zithers from Z-space with a strum of their fingers. Amazing. Flawless.
I still have not seen the donghua past the first episode but that will probably be next!
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Date: 2019-11-24 08:50 pm (UTC)(I wrote Wen Qing/Jiang Yanli femslash to cope with how much I wish the women could do more and fully plan to do more of that latter...)
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Date: 2019-11-25 01:51 am (UTC)The pacing in The Untamed really is a bit of a mess.
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Date: 2019-11-25 02:11 am (UTC)I suspect the cast will have me coming down on the side of preferring the show, even though the pacing is clearly MUCH better in the book. Plus I love both Wen Qing and Wen Ning so dearly in the show.
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Date: 2019-11-25 02:52 am (UTC)Wow. WOW. How did this child live to the ripe age of 13? (Book!Jin Ling mostly seems to come off as an expy of Jiang Cheng, so adding in ALL THE REST on top of that...)
I haven't watched The Untamed myself but a friend did tell me that WWX DOESN'T invent necromancy in it, which I feel is a major disservice to his character. Commit to WWX's edgelord phase, guys!! On the other hand, I'm glad at least ONE girl gets better character development.
Also, re: the guqin, going to admit at first I confused them for guzheng (which are at least twice as bulky) and felt intensely concerned by the logistics of the Lan clan casually lugging them everywhere. Clearly z-space is the superior aesthetic solution to this problem.
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Date: 2019-11-25 12:05 pm (UTC)I'm up to episode 10 and I am missing the back-and-forth time cuts so much. But everyone is so pretty and they all have such good chemistry.
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Date: 2019-11-25 05:04 pm (UTC)This attracted me a LOT because those zithers are damn heavy.
Who doesn't love Lan Jingyi? Esp the TV version. He's so unabashedly a fan of Hanguang-jun and so very willing to sass anyone. My person headcanon is that he doesn't play the guqin (much; I guess most Gusu disciples have at least a passing knowledge) because it isn't annoying enough. He probably plays the suona, hehe.
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Date: 2019-11-26 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-11-30 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2019-12-01 06:57 pm (UTC)Jiang Yanli not having much of a role in the book explains partially why she never gets to do anything, which is a shame; I did love Wen Qing a lot though, so overall still a very positive change.
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Date: 2019-12-02 01:14 am (UTC)If you like Lan Jingyi, my favorite fandom content about him is this mini AU!comic about "what if LJY were a transmigrator (and how pausible it is)"
https://lee-luca.tumblr.com/post/182848149464/mo-dao-zu-shi-scum-villain-au-scum-villain-au
If you're interested in reading more cnovels, I think you'll enjoy 'Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect' by Priest.
If you've ever wondered what a xianxia novel written by Diana Wynne Jones would be like, this is the closest I've ever read. The story is about a group of terrible children who join a xianxia sect thinking it's an scam rigged by their beloved teacher to get free food and money, and how they realize how wrong they were. But too bad, now they're too loyal to the sect and care too much about each other to leave.
The translation although isn't finished is pretty advanced, chapter 76 of 109. You can find the first part here:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/liu-yao-the-revitalization-of-fuyao-sect/
And next part here(this is a translation from the Thai version but it seems quite reliable):
https://rustycol.dreamwidth.org/