The MDZS novel readalong - chapters 1 & 2

[solo]

And here we are, our discussion post for Novel chapters 1 & 2, or web serialization chapters 1-5. The format might be refined as we go ^_^ - let's get started!

What happened?

- We got the general gloating at Wei Wuxian's death
- first info on the siege and how Wei Wuxian died
- Wei Wuxian's resurrection 13 years later
- an evil left arm running rampant at Mo Manor
- the introduction of Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi
- a glimpse of Mo Xuanyu's sad life
- Lan Wangji making an epic entrance
- and finally Wei Wuxian departing with the donkey.

How are we feeling about it all?

Any character observations? What did you make of the character intros?

Anything that surprised you even on re-read, or coming from the adaptations?

Spot any difference to other MDZS media?


Discussion notes

Spoilers for all adaptations are permitted.

The questions above are meant as potentially helpful starters, not mandatory. :)

Commentary and comparison with other translations is welcome, as is commentary on the original Chinese. (The readalong mods don't speak or read Chinese so this won't come from us, but any dedicated thread or un-dedicated observations will be received with delight.)

Jumping into threads and replying to other people's comments is not just encouraged, but part of the point.

Disagreement is fine. Keeping it friendly is encouraged, keeping it civil is required.

We encourage tracking the post or coming back to it over the week - the fun part of doing this on Dreamwidth is that discussion can happen over time and doesn't have to be instantly!

If you have any questions or concerns you want to ask the discussion mods, feel free to email us at haikuesque@gmail.com.


The reading schedule

Saturday 22 January: Chapter 1 Reincarnation + Chapter 2 The Intractable (web serialization chapters 1-5)
Saturday 29 January: Chapter 3 The Prideful (web serialization chapters 6-10)
Saturday 5 February: Chapter 4 The Elegant Flirt part 1 (official translation pages 119-168, web serialization chapters 11-(halfway through) 16.6, ending as the group set out for Caiyi )
Saturday 12 February: Chapter 4 The Elegant Flirt part 2 (official transllation pages 168-204, web serialization chapters 16.6-18)
Saturday 19 February: Chapter 5 The Sunny Pair (web serialization chapters 19-22)
Saturday 25 February: Chapter 6 The Malevolent (web serialization chapters 23-27)
Saturday 4 March: Chapter 7 The Morning Dew (web serialization chapters 28-32)

Comments

[solo]

The most obvious difference here IMO is that it's 13 years, not 17 as in CQL, before Wei Wuxian returns. I admit I prefer this greatly not only because it reduces the time Lan Zhan has to suffer all alone, but also because it makes Jin Ling 14 and the rest of the ducklings maybe 16/17, which maps better onto the previous generation's ages at the Cloud Recesses summer school. To me, that just seems a better age range than having them in their early 20s.

(Lan Shizhui is obviously a problem all by himself, since he appears to remain the same age for several years, from pre-Sunshot to Lan Zhan finding him...)

[sunshine304]

Isn't it 16 in CQL? I think that what the youtube subs say (two times, even if that doesn't work that second time around but continuity? I don't know her).
But I'm very much with you on that! I also like it better that the Juniors are younger. Firstly, because it makes it more believable that they rely a lot on LWJ and WWX and are sometimes out of their depths. And secondly, because it parallels the former generation much better. This time around, the kids shall be all right! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

(Yeah, how old is A-Yuan anyway? XD)

[wearing_tearing]

Isn't it accepted that Sizhui is a bit older than the other Juniors? Or did I make that up...

I also do appreciate them being younger here since the potential for chaos is bigger that way lol

[alessandriana]

IIRC, didn't CQL just screw up the math, and it should also be a 13 year gap there? It's been a while since I watched but I remember something to that effect...

[sunshine304]

What I found immediately interesting and also funny (with the knowledge of what happens/happened) is the prologue in general. The novel creates this expectation of WWX as this super evil entity, who started out privileged and liked and then turned so incredibly cruel that in the end even his shidi turned against him and actually killed him!
It's super dramatic and it also gets you hooked quite well. What happened here? Why did he turn supervillain?
Funny in that they are like, "Whoa he killed 3000! No 5000! Wasn't it 3000, ah well it might have been 5000!" XD Can't help but think about CQL where you have, like, 100 people standing there at most. XD That made me chuckle. It's also quite similar to CQL, though they do not mention LWJ's presence here.

And then we get to know WWX and he's going on about his evil reputation in this kind of indignant way, like, "Excuse me, you all feared me in the past, how dare you kick me now?!" I felt like we get a better grasp of him here because we get more of his understanding of MXY. In CQL, I was very confused about his erratic behaviour because everything happens so quickly!
But in MDZS we get some of MXY's backstory and that everyone considers him to be a total lunatic, we have the weird make up etc. And so it becomes much clearer that WWX uses this reputation to his advantage and plays it up to get what he wants (like the Spirit Lure Flag, becaue he wants to check if the Lans did it correctly).

I found there was a a bit of a discrepancy in his thoughts about himself, which are often reminiscing on his past reputation as if he wants to remind the reader about how evil he was, while many of his actions speak of a good character: He speaks up when Madame Mo gets angry at the Lan Juniors because he sees they are still young and out of their depth with this mystery that is much more difficult than they first thought, so it is unfair of Madame Mo to drag them so while they are trying to help. He kicks Jingyi so that he will save Sizhui from the evil arm; he makes the very obvious comment about the left arm so that Sizhui gets on the right track. He first tries to simply humiliate the Mo family to see whether this is enough to lift the curse instaead of killing them immediately. He is even close to interfering more with whistling and therefore being in danger of giving hismelf away completely and lucks out that LWJ arrives before he does it.
All of this speaks of a character that isn't as bad as the prologue wants us to believe, of someone who wants to help and who hates injustice.

I liked the introduction to the Juniors and also think that it's good they are a bit younger here than in the show. It makes some of their behaviour more understandable if they're like 16, 17 instead of early 20s. LSZ is introduced as a calm and kind person who is very rational and even friendly and helpful to someone who is ostracised by his family. You immediately like him. LJY appears to be a bit forward and cheeky, also quicker to throw down. XD

The mystery of the evil arm was easier to understand for me than it was in CQL. Even on rewatch I sometimes get confused because they are all killed by the evil left arm but then suddenly it's a sword spirit? Okay. XD But I get that they didn't want (or couldn't because censorship) get into the whole dismemberment bit with body parts having to be collected, so I guess that was the next best thing.

I'm reading both the English and the German translation and so far haven't noticed any big differences. There are some different wordings at times, like in English the Juniors say they have to "arrest" people who are screaming and running away (when it gets dark), in German it's "We have to stop you" (or sth like that, I don't have the copy at hand rn). But nothing major stands out. The German tl has some typo issues (like, three on the very first page, come on! (¬_¬ )), but is overall easy to read.

[jo_lasalle]

Funny in that they are like, "Whoa he killed 3000! No 5000! Wasn't it 3000, ah well it might have been 5000!" XD Can't help but think about CQL where you have, like, 100 people standing there at most.

LOL, yes, the CQL visual makes this even funnier!

I found there was a a bit of a discrepancy in his thoughts about himself, which are often reminiscing on his past reputation as if he wants to remind the reader about how evil he was, while many of his actions speak of a good character: He speaks up when Madame Mo gets angry at the Lan Juniors because he sees they are still young and out of their depth with this mystery that is much more difficult than they first thought, so it is unfair of Madame Mo to drag them so while they are trying to help. He kicks Jingyi so that he will save Sizhui from the evil arm; he makes the very obvious comment about the left arm so that Sizhui gets on the right track. He first tries to simply humiliate the Mo family to see whether this is enough to lift the curse instaead of killing them immediately. He is even close to interfering more with whistling and therefore being in danger of giving hismelf away completely and lucks out that LWJ arrives before he does it.

Yes, that's a great point about his internal commentary on himself! (And worth watching out for later. Not every character who has some subjective views on a matter is an unreliable narrator, but I do think WWX comes by that designation honestly.)

*waves* you commented on my DW recently and I will reply soon, I was just too squeezed for time last week

[brownbetty]

I was going to remark on that! I think it's interesting to see what the prologue is doing as a piece of writing. It introduces a lot of the themes that will be important:

• WWX's reputation is contested! It's not really clear what the truth is, and we can tell just by the way it's talked about, before we even meet him, that the reputation has outstripped the man behind it.
• The idea of betrayal, both that WWX betrayed the clan that raised him, and that Jiang Cheng used his intimate knowledge of WWX to betray his weakness to the cultivators who came to kill him.

(Also, these unnamed randos are referring to him as Jiang Cheng? Show some respect for Sect Leader Jiang!)

[barbiejedi]

I found there was a a bit of a discrepancy in his thoughts about himself,

I love your thoughts on this! I see it almost like he's digging in on his reputation in a "Oh yeah you think I'm bad? I'll SHOW you bad!" kind of way, but it's all talk and he can't bring himself to actually follow through. Like he's internalized all the bad press he had before he died, and hasn't broken out of that thought process yet.

[jo_lasalle]

Things that stood out to me in these two chapters:

1. I found the info on Wei Wuxian's death at the start very interesting. My first read of the novel in fan translation was in late 2019, and I remember ending up very confused how exactly WWX actually died. Now, that read was a bit of a blur in general, so this could have been entirely me and not the novel staying mysterious about that, but it's a thing I've wanted to keep an eye out on this re-read. Now there seems to be very clear info right in the opening two pages, but on the other hand, with what the novel says about public reputation and the fickleness of public opinion (the "three thousand, five thousand" exaggeration is right there), I'm taking everything "people say" about WWX in the opening bit with an extra grain of salt, so... I'm intrigued to find out if the people are right about him here or if there was a bit of rumor about that too.

2. For exactly the same reason, the description of Jiang Cheng, especially the parts about him having planned the siege, intrigues me in a "we'll see" kind of way.

3. I still found the "In the first year, all was peaceful... In the thirteenth year, all was still peaceful..." bit amusing, but not as hilarious as the ExR translation that went for "In the first year, nothing happened... In the thirteenth year, nothing happened either." I have no idea if the official translation is more accurate here, honestly, but I just remembered that I found the "nothing happened" sequence LOL-degree funny. *g*

4. And so, when the hundred and twenty stone beasts required to seal a mountain were set down at the peak of the Burial Mound, every major clan began conducting frequent soul-summoning rituals. They also strictly monitored for cases of possession, sought far and wide for abnormal occurrences, and heightened their security to the max. - I liked reading this worldbuilding bit how it was quite common for people to expect WWX to come back for a good while, giving more context for Jiang Cheng's readiness to believe a returned Wei Wuxian behind every tree every gothy cultivator.

5. I found it interesting that both WWX and JC are referred to by their birth names in the opening gossip chapter.

6. The whole Mo Manor plot makes so much more sense than in the drama. (And I had forgotten that it's much more contained - the scars all seem to be done?)

7. Wei Wuxian swept me right up with his irrepressible energy. He really is a force of nature.

It’s not pretend. I’ve actually been dead for many years. - this is interesting re: his awareness of the time he was gone, but it also made me LOL.

8. On the other hand, Mo Xuanyu had such a sad life - IDK if it's because I've read more fic with the character in the meantime or am just more ready to process it, but that really hit me this time. Poor, poor guy.

9. Truly, out of the mountains a tiger can be bullied by a dog, in shallow waters a dragon can be mocked by a shrimp, and a plucked phoenix is lower than a chicken. Stripped of their privileges, the strong will be belittled by the weak. - This is giving me the strong vibe that it's about a bunch of proverbs I'm not familiar with, but the idea of WWX as a plucked phoenix amused me a lot.

10. I had totally missed last time that WWX gets back at Mo Ziyuan by implying the guy ~visited a known cutsleeve at night. It's... interesting.

11. I was aware and remembered that novel!WWX is much more oblivious regarding LWJ and that they're not as close friends pre-timeskip than they are in the drama, but it was still a HUH moment for me to realize / be reminded that there's really zero pining on WWX's side - no sad grass blade fluting, no nostalgia over seeing LWJ - in comparison to the drama at this point.

12. The writing/translation style was admittedly a bit hard for me to get into with the opening chapter and my eyes kept drifting off the page at various sentences feeling choppy, but I caught more of a groove by chapter 2. I meant to read the German translation as well, but ended up too squeezed for time to do that this week.

I am really looking forward to reading more now! Wei Wuxian's energy and voice just really grabbed me. :D

[sunshine304]

1/2. We are basically told two different versions of his death here, though both are very descriptive! His shidi killed him even though it pained him, but justice had to be served! No, he was pulled apart and devoured by the evil ghosts he himself had raised, what a fitting ending - shows you should keep to orthodoxy! I'm with you and am very much side-eyeing anything people are saying here, about WWX and about JC.

3. The online tl is definitely funnier, I remember that! XD The official tl seems to be closer to the actual text. I went to see what it says, and there's an idiom used for that second half of the sentence, "风平浪静" an idiom which lit. means "breeze is still, waves are quiet" and then gets translated as "all is quiet" (says the online dictionary). For a funny bit, the "nothing happened" hits better and it's basically what it means.

4. I thought so, too! In CQL it seems like JC is the only one being on the look out (except for LWJ and his sad 16 years of Inquiry), but here we get the context that returning souls were rather commonplace and they feared his return.

6. Yes! It's much better explained. Also I was surprised that MXY's curse is done with? I think I remember hearing that before, but I had forgotten.

8. I also felt so bad for MXY! We don't get much about him in CQL, I can't even remember if we every get a lot of backstory - info dumping in the first episode by Madame Mo perhaps? Still, I definitely do not remember so much detail about it. What a fucked up life. :(

9. This is in Chinese: 真是虎落平阳被犬欺，龙游浅水遭虾戏，拔了毛的凤凰不如鸡。 I googled it and these three phrases are indeed all classic folk sayings meaning the same thing. The tl actually offers the meaning in the next sentence (this sentence is not in the Chinese original). The plucked phoenix is really funny! XD

11. No pining and sad grass flute and remembering meeting him for the first time in the ethereal light... T_T I found his exit and his "Uh oh we've clashed before, better get out of here!" also quite sudden with CQL in mind.

[barbiejedi]

4. And so, when the hundred and twenty stone beasts...
I liked this part too! I kind of hope the stone beasts/other anti-WWX stuff gets mentioned again, like when the story goes back to the Burial Mounds for the second siege. This will be my first time reading the novel all the way through, and tend to connect with writing a lot more deeply than I do with a lot of visual media, so I'm excited to see more little world-building things that may not have come across as strongly in visual/audio adaptations.

12. The writing/translation style...
I had that same issue-- I read the first volume of Scum Villain first, and it took a couple of chapters before I really got into the swing of it. This one seemed to go easier for me as far as finding that groove.

[weatheringtea]

6. The whole Mo Manor plot makes so much more sense than in the drama.

This was my biggest takeaway. The live action just felt like... I was always missing something (even after I understood it, it wasn't coming through clearly). But the novel version was crystal clear and I actually had reason to feel for proper sympathy Mo Xuanyu.

7. re: his awareness of the time he was gone, but it also made me LOL.

He's just so casual and unfazed with how he addresses it lol.

11. but it was still a HUH moment for me to realize / be reminded that there's really zero pining on WWX's side - no sad grass blade fluting, no nostalgia over seeing LWJ - in comparison to the drama at this point.

This hit me too. WWX just completely peaced out when LWJ showed up. The novel world in my head is using the CQL actors, so the abruptness mixed with how I remember CQL handling it was a little jarring (and sad ;A;)

[solo]

I liked reading this worldbuilding bit how it was quite common for people to expect WWX to come back for a good while, giving more context for Jiang Cheng's readiness to believe a returned Wei Wuxian behind every tree every gothy cultivator.

True, that gives it a lot more context! Makes him seem not quite so... excessively passionate.

Thank you for highlighting the plucked phoenix, somehow I missed that but it will now live rent-free in my head.

I'm not quite sure how WWX can know how long he was dead... it's not like there's a convenient calendar hanging somewhere or some other useful way of telling that time has passed. This also makes me realize that neither here nor in CQL does he actually actively try to find out just how much time has passed. He'd get an idea by the time he realizes Jin Ling is Jin Ling, but until then, it could have been a year, or 10, or 100...

[wearing_tearing]

I also really really enjoyed the prologue! I remember being so shocked that the opening line of the novel talked about how the main character was already dead lol It did make more sense to me than the chaotic scene from the CQL opening, though I also loved that for different reasons.

I do think of Wei Wuxian as an unreliable narrator here and it was pretty interesting, personally, to experience that both the first time I read the book and upon rereading it. I do find his character in the book to be a bit more intriguing than the show because... how do I put this... He's a little bit more morally gray here and I like that. He is aware of what he's done and caused and is even willing to lean into the reputation he established for himself (despite some of the the things attached to his name being exaggerated or utter lies) without making any excuses for it. And at the same time, through his actions, he also manages to show us that yes, although he is/was the Yiling Patriarch, he's not an all bad person like the Wei Wuxian we hear about in the prologue.

The thing that surprised me most while rereading this was Jingyi lol I'd somehow forgotten how hilarious he is and how he's not at all afraid to speak his mind. I just really really love him and what he brings to the story :'D

[sunshine304]

It's definitely an intersting way to start your novel! You've read the blurp on the back cover? Fun fact, the protagonist is dead! XD I think in retrospect they did well with adapting it for CQL, with the prologue text in part being used as story telling and us seeing the scene from that perspective. Evil YLLZ killed by his shidi, yay! But it was super confusing first time around.

I also like it quite a bit that WWX in MDZS is more morally grey and that not all of his actions can be excused. CQL absolves him a lot of the blame with JGY's interference, but sometimes a protagonist can have actual flaws and make decisions that are hurting people even if some of his intentions were good. I see that CQL had limitations by censorship and also by making the character attractive for a wide audience so that the show be successful (the hero must be good!), but it's more interesting if there are flaws that actually have serious consequences.
WWX really seems to lean into his reputation in MDZS from what we've seen so far. Interested in how this will continue.

[brownbetty]

One of the things I was paying attention to in this readthrough was detail on Mo Xuanyu (our most mysterious character!!)

It's noted that his house is actually large, and we know he has a bronze mirror, and make-up in his prison, so I wonder if we could infer he was imprisoned in his mother's old quarters? Either that, or someone has been smuggling him supplies, because we know he's not let out even to use the toilet.

(Also his food is slid in through a dog-door, which I think is very cute to think about!)

re: WWX, I think it's interesting that there's two different points where he can't do anything, so he just sits and waits. (It may be implied that he's meditating? He sits lotus position.) Anyway, this is a very different energy than the somewhat ADHD!fanon WWX from CQL.

I also thought it interesting that when he is accusing Mo Ziyuan of robbery and detours into insinuations, he says, basically, that MZY shouldn't have visited him at night because this would compromise MXY's reputation and make it hard for him to get a man. WWX appears to be implying that MXY's reputation is governed by the same rules as would apply to an unmarried woman, which, I mean. I feel we will get plenty of evidence throughout the book that WWX's expertise on The Gays is very suspect.

[brownbetty]

A fun thing that happens is also! When Madam Mo is telling the Lan kids that Mo Xuanyu is their suspect, she's like "His dad was a cultivator, he probably learned demonic tricks from him!" which is. She is accusing Jing Guangshan of demonic cultivation! Although I guess he probably doesn't have that great a reputation in Mo Village, plus he's super dead at this point.

Dismemberment Count: Four people had an arm removed, and one arm is on the loose without an owner, so either 4 or 5, depending on how we count.

[solo]

I also thought it interesting that when he is accusing Mo Ziyuan of robbery and detours into insinuations, he says, basically, that MZY shouldn't have visited him at night because this would compromise MXY's reputation and make it hard for him to get a man. WWX appears to be implying that MXY's reputation is governed by the same rules as would apply to an unmarried woman, which, I mean. I feel we will get plenty of evidence throughout the book that WWX's expertise on The Gays is very suspect.

Haha, excellent point. Yes, I think he's making it up as he goes, just trying to translate common het stuff into m/m territory. Poor guy has no idea. :)

[hhimring]

I remember noticing that Mo Xuanyu in some ways is set up a bit like a mirror image of Wei Wuxian: many details entirely different, obviously, but a few remarkable similarities in their back stories. This could even be why the summoning works so well, although maybe that is too fanciful. Anyway, Wei Wuxian doesn't seem to notice this. But it is not the sort of thing he does tend to notice, I guess.

Also, he really does so little directly to get the Mos killed that I felt it is almost surprising that the curse is satisfied. The Mos and the arm mostly do the job for him, or am I remembering that wrongly? Of course, he does egg the Mos on in their self-destructive behaviour.

(I didn't manage to order my copy in time, so I am commenting from memory of the first chapters of the fan translation, at present.)

[sunshine304]

He really doesn't seem to notice some important things in general. XD I also would've expected more commentary on the golden core - though MXY's spiritual energy is very low, he has a weak golden core, which should be a huge thing for WWX now, the ability to go back to the orthodox path again, even if it will take time. But perhaps there will be more about this later on.

Yeah, I wondered that, too. It's excused with "Weeeell, WWX did invent the spirit lure flags, so it was kinda him who summoned the arm, and therefore he is responsible." But it was in such a roundabout way, that I'm side-eyeing it quite a bit. XD Perhaps the curse also counts that he makes Mo Ziyuan so angry that he wants revenge and gives the arm the opportunity to choose him as the first victim. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[barbiejedi]

I wonder if the curse is satisfied that they died, and it doesn't matter so much exactly how? It's mentioned in the translation that MXY didn't do the ritual 100% correctly, because he should have whispered instructions at some point and WWX didn't hear any, so maybe part of that mistake manifests in a less specific curse than otherwise would have happened.

[eternal_dreamer]

I really liked how the prologue started. The evil WWX has finally been defeated, be happy everyone he's forever gone rightfully punished for all his wrong doings. I laughed at the bit where some argued about how many ppl had WWX killed (3000? 5000? yep 5000 sounds better than 3000). Also I enjoyed the fact that we are basically told two different stories of how he died, killed by Jiang Cheng and ripped apart by the evil spirits he controled. It'd be interesting to see if it'll be revealed later in the novel what really happened.

Another thing that stood out to me as I was reading were the details about Mo Xuanyu's story because if I remember correctly both in CQL and MDSZ there's very little to no info about him besides being the son of Jing Guangshan and was kicked out. Poor guy.

Dunno if it was only me but the writing/translation gave me a bit of hard time when I first began reading and I caught myself often drifting away, the wording sometimes seemed off and sentences caught off suddenly. Perhaps it's because it's my first time reading the novel but I'm sure I'll get used to it as I go on.

I can't wait to see how the story unfolds in the next chapters!

[sunshine304]

Yes, the prologue sets the scene very well and gives the reader certain expectations. It's a cool start.

More details on MXY also made me feel much more for the poor guy. He isn't all that old, really (I think he's estimated at sth like 25-28? Have to check the timelines), but he's gone through some shitty stuff in his life already, and to think that it became so horrible that he was willing to sacrifice himself for revenge is... wow.

Some others here have also said that they stumbled a bit with the tl. I didn't notice this much myself, a bit more in the German version (but that was likely due to me not having read a German book in... forever XD). But I think this might just be the issue from translating from Chinese, which doesn't make it easy on the translator.

[barbiejedi]

I'm reading the official English translation, but before this I've seen the live-action, listened to the Chinese Audio Drama with subs, and read Fanyiyi's fan translation of the first several arcs. I'm going to go ahead and put my first thoughts down here before I read everyone else's.

Something I noticed while reading this time was the translator using more colloquial "unscholarly" language for the rumors from populace about Wei Wuxian's death, which I don't remember noticing in other translations/adaptations before.

No matter how many times I see it in any adaptation, I never get tired of Wei Wuxian going full Chaos Mode in Mo Manor when he is first resurrected. XD

I noticed when Wei Wuxian starts looking for corpses to use against the demon arm, he rejects the first crowd of fierce corpses that the Lan juniors were at Mo Manor to take care of in the first place, and it mentions the corpses "had never gone through his training." I know the live-action glossed over the "demonic" part of demonic cultivation because of censorship, and now I'm curious how much of the nitty-gritty details we're going to get in the novel. A lot of fuss is made about WWX inventing a new method of cultivation (and inventing things like the spirit flags and evil-detecting compasses) and I'm hoping we see more of his mad scientist side in the novel.

I'm also curious about how the official translation will treat the names of the Lan's musical cultivation songs-- we got "Eradication Tone" in the end of chapter 2. I'm in the middle of a live-action rewatch with a friend and Netflix's use of "Absterge" for "Cleansing" confuses me every time, so I'm super curious what this translation is going to go with.

[weatheringtea]

A lot of fuss is made about WWX inventing a new method of cultivation (and inventing things like the spirit flags and evil-detecting compasses) and I'm hoping we see more of his mad scientist side in the novel.

Ohh that'll be fun to look out for! I didn't realized they dialed back on the 'demonic' for censorship in the live action, so it'll be neat to see just how much was left out on that. I'm totally on board for mad scientist WWX lol.

[weatheringtea]

This is my first time reading and all I really have is Untamed under my belt. So, the thing I got most out of my read was how Mo Xuanyu was filled out more for me. His circumstances felt very vague in CQL. The novel took time to better explain who Mo Xuanyu was and why he summoned WWX. The whole opening at Mo Manor made a lot more sense in the novel. Also WWX's decisions to act manic for lulz worked better in print than on screen lol.

The novel makes better contrast of WWX's reputation vs his character too. He seems really proud of his reputation as a villain, yet his actions are that of the good guy. That contrast doesn't hit as hard in live action.

I like the 13 years vs 16 years too on the timeskip too, mostly for the age of the Juniors/Lan Sizhui

I found it odd that WWX straight up bailed when LWJ showed up w/ zero emotion to it (with my head remembering how it went in CQL). Reading other comments, I didn't realize his feelings for LWJ don't come up in the novel until later, so now I know to keep that in mind for later chapters >>!

[sunshine304]

Yes, I'm with you on the whole MXY bit - he is more of a character in the novel and we understand him much better. It makes his sacrifice more tragic. I'd also always been a bit confused by the whole bit at Mo Manor because we don't get much about WWX's motivation there, so his erratic behaviour just seemed OTT: In the novel it's made clear that he plays up the "crazy cousin" thing.

Re feelings for LWJ: That seems to be a huge thing in the novel, because WWX really has no clue about LWJ's feelings and LWJ acts quite differently. I only read bits and pieces of the fan tl and know the general gist of the differences between novel and CQL, but this will be an adjustment for sure! But I think it'll make it much more plausible in the end, that WWX is so surprised by LWJ's feelings if they didn't get that close in their youth.