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

[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.

[sunshine304]

Yeah, that could be an explanation for it. Like, MXY's curse was simply dependent on "These 4 asshole must die!" and without more detailed instructions this leaves a lot of leeway. Likely, there was some kind of time element involved in the setting of the curse, otherwise they could've died of old age, which would defy the point. But other than that, it seems to be free game.

[hhimring]

Yes, that would make sense. Poor MXY, his ritual is really more of a howl of despair than a carefully thought-out revenge plot! It is someone else who is doing the careful plotting.

[solo]

Plus, the curse may not even have been completely finished... IIRC it was just a thing WWX was experimenting with, a work in progress, and Mo Xuanyu just ran with it. So maybe it wasn't refined enough yet, or still had loopholes, quite apart from Mo Xuanyu not executing it correctly.

[sunshine304]

Oh yes! WWX doesn't even say that it was his invention in this chapter, only that it seemed that MXY didn't have all the notes on it and how it usually would've worked.
Perhaps we'll get more details later on.