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Apr 22, 2022 3:41 PM
#1
| This post will be a part review, part comparison between the source (novel) and the donghua. I will also be presenting my opinion on why certain changes were made, and THIS WILL CONTAIN POTENTIAL SPOILERS. I will do my best to keep spoilers hidden/tagged, but I may slip up and/or they may be required reading to understand some of my analysis. *Warning* Again, there may be spoilers in the following section. *Warning* I'll preface this discussion with what I view the novel to be. The novel can be described and read as one of these 3 types of books:
The novel is considered 80 to 85% from Zichuan Xiu's perspective, or at least follows him about 85% of the time. The rest of it follows the various important side characters like: Zichuan Ning, Di Lin, Sterling, and others, giving us a perspective of the political climate and actions of various forces meant to highlight the events happening around the world while the MC(Zichuan Xiu) is "deployed". The novel's main focus is, however, war and politics, with an important but relatively insignificant subplot involving romance and martial arts/cultivated skills. Romance/love is important as part of the interconnected web of relationships and serves as an important factor behind character actions, motivations and decisions, but it is insignificant because it is very rarely the focus in the novel. Martial arts or cultivation-type skills (like seen in the opening scene of the donghua), are relatively neglected, since the novel's focus on war devalues any acts of individual heroism that might result from a highly skilled/trained super-soldier (most battles in the novel involve armies of 10's of thousands, human wave tactics can easily be used to destroy any scattering of individuals). The donghua, however, puts more focus on building the relationships between characters and opens with a visually stimulating and blood-boiling battle scene (one that is hinted at in the novel but never described). In my opinion, this unfortunately sets the tone/mood of the donghua as one of hot-blooded fights, and later episodes expand and dive move in depth into character relationships. Not all of these changes are bad, some are even necessary, but, in my opinion deviates from what the focus of the source (novel) was on. Some specific changes to the plot and reasons behind it:
There are also some general changes that were made to the donghua that I believe changed to focus and tone of the story. The humor/jokes was largely changed. The humor changes were acceptable because most of it was high school level type humor, but they served to highlight the relatively peaceful nature of the world at that point in time and the MC's carefree, (relatively) innocent nature and surroundings, and youth. There were also rather inexplicable changes to the plot, like Zichuan Ning and her uncle on the front-lines of the defense during the rebellion, which makes no sense since they are 100% non-combatants and would be a huge liability. They also crammed in more fights when individual fights and heroism was generally unimportant (a single individual is rarely able to change the outcome of a battle between 10's of thousands of troops). The last general change was the expanded focus on relationships and romance; in the novel, we can feel the deep relationship between certain characters, like Zichuan Xiu and Zichuan Ning, as well as the innocent love between Sterling and Cardin, but that needs to be shown in the show visually (so I understand the need for this change, even if I dislike it). The donghua also has 2 major failings that are not uncommon to adaptations from text: political nuance and passage of time. For the display of political nuance, the donghua tries its best, but without the internal monologues (character thoughts) it is difficult to completely perceive. Politics and political motivations and balance is actually an integral part of the story, but is much harder to understand because the difficulty in portrayal. Zichuan SanXing (Zichuan Ning's uncle and current leader) is a master politician. He purposely set up the hatred between Di Lin and Luo Minghai so they keep each other in check politically; he allowed Ge Yingxing to be killed/assassinated because he was a potential political liability/opponent despite Ge Yingxing's role in suppressing the rebellion (in novel) and loyalty; he ordered the killing of the officers in EP9 because they were not 100% loyal and had a hint of rebelliousness; Zichuan Xiu was demoted/cast aside because he tried to fight against this "purge", etc. Overall, while there are some changes I dislike, I would say that this adaptation is a good one, faithful in following original source text, while making required changes to build the foundation for new viewers to understand character motivations later in the story (later arcs). We seem to have a mid-season pause coming up after EP20, since they haven't posted any new previews for a few weeks. EP20, based on the preview also, marks about the halfway point of the first arc of the story. If my predictions are right, the 42 episode season will cover the first arc of the story until Zichuan Xiu is declared traitor and is in exile in the Far East *WARNING* FINAL WARNING-This part will explain not yet aired content/predictions and future arc spoilers. I will not be putting spoiler tag/BBCodes since everything beyond is a spoiler. *WARNING* Based on the EP20 preview Luo Bo's trial/court martial will happen, he will get acquitted because Di Lin will announce he wants to personally try Luo Bo prompting his political opponent/hater, Luo Minghai, to defend Luo Bo, accomplishing Zichuan Xiu's request. Then a peace treaty will be negotiated with the other nations of the west and troops from those armies will be transferred over to the Far East to suppress the insurgents. Zichuan Xiu is also deployed, leading to a rather emotionally heart-wrenching scene involving him and Zichuan Ning. (As I said before, this impact would have been less if they had not expanded on Zichuan Xiu and Zichuan Ning's relationship in episodes like 17.) The emotional aspect of this scene stems from the fact that MC tells Zichuan Ning to find a lover, despite knowing she loves him. He is after all, going to be deployed to a brutal battlefield, without guarantee that he will survive. They have a fight and an emotional parting. Zichuan Xiu is then deployed, but rather than head to the front-lines, he ends up going around negotiating with various merchants building a supply line for the Far East troops that are having trouble getting enough supplies even though they have not reclaimed most of the territory and are on pace to win the war. Until the Demon Empire joins the insurgents and rebels shattering the hopes of victory (Insurgents + demon army numbers 1.3 million vs. now defeated and scattered army of Zichuan of about 300k; after battle Zichuan can only gather around 50k against 1.3 million). Sterling and Zichuan Xiu regroups the scattered troops and leads the effort to help citizens to retreat and eventually are surrounded and sieged in one of the cities. After a month or so siege, right before the final demon "take down at all costs" assault, Di Lin using Cardin as a bargaining chip manages to negotiate temporary peace with the demons: Zichuan will return the Cardin (the princess) back to the demons (she was presumed dead by them) and cede the Far East; in return the demons will lift the siege and allow safe passage home to all the scattered troops and 5 years of peace. This ends the war but not the arc, as Zichuan Xiu leaves Sterling and "surrenders" to the demons. The demons of course are not dumb and investigate him, coming to the conclusion that he has no ulterior motives (He was exiled to Far East despite saving capital from siege at age 11, he was discarded after his contribution in suppressing the rebellion in EP7-9; so he must hate the Zichuans); he would also works as a political morale destroyer: "even a famed commander and person carrying the ruling family's name surrendered so why not you too" message. Of course, Zichuan Xiu's goal was to kill the traitor of humanity, Lei Hong. He has the chance to do so at a celebration party; he kills Lei Hong, about a dozen other high ranking generals, and seriously injures about 30 more before being seriously injured. As a final act, he takes Cardin "hostage" and negotiates 24 hours for him to escape. He is actually having difficulty standing at this point but Cardin helps him by acting the hostage (and later pointing the pursers in the wrong direction). During the escape, the heavily injured Zichuan Xiu is pursued for about 7 days before reaching the limits of his strength. His last thoughts before accepting death were about Zichuan Ning, but before being killed, he is rescued by beastmen. It turns out these beastmen were from the village he was deployed to after his exile at the age of 11 and they have a tradition of returning kindness. The beastmen plan nurse his injuries and escort him to the Zichuan border. Along the way, they meet up with his Xiu corps led by Bai Chuan and learn that he and his troops have been declared traitors, because the demons announced he surrendered to them as a way to prevent his return as a hero. And so ends Arc 1 and begins Zichuan Xiu's second exile in the Far East. End of Arc 1; Beginning of Arc 2 Arc 2 is about Zichuan Xiu's military exploits in uniting the beastmen and reclaiming the Far East. Zichuan Xiu settles near the village of the beastmen who saved him, intending to build up his exploits to clear his name and for his triumphant return home. Turns out there is a undiscovered mountain pass there that he plans to use to create a supply line from the Zichuan territory. He attempts to meet with the beastmen spiritual leader in order to help fight back against the demons, but is refused. Their attitude quickly changes as the demons decide to invade their sacred grounds. Zichuan Xiu leads his 50 guards and about 1000 villagers to repel the ~5000 demon army intending to attack the sacred grounds. After this he is given a moniker, King of Light(he who brings the light of hope for beastmen), and is appointed supreme commander of the beastmen. He then gathers the last armies of the beastmen and starts his campaign to expel the demons from the Far East, with his supply line from the Zichuan territory. Because he is human and because he is given his position, he faced 2 major setbacks. The first is when the various clans disregard his plans and push ahead to confront the demon army head on (with their militia type forces) because they are drunk on victories leading to a crushing defeat and nearly ending Zichuan Xiu's Far East Liberation/reclamation. The second is right before the final fight against the Far East's demon commander: the spiritual leader revokes Zichuan Xiu's authority since it was given leading to another disastrous defeat after that leader dies (of cancer before the battle). Luckily in both situations, once the previous dreams and hopes collapsed, the reputation and record Zichuan Xiu built up helped him regain control of the situation, leading to an overall victory despite suffering heavy losses. After the Far East demon commander is defeated, the liberation of the Far East is basically set in stone, until trouble brews back home. The secretary of commerce/head of military logistics Ge Shan notices that prices of weapons, horses etc are weird signaling a potential build up of military troops for war. An order is issued to prevent the free sale of military goods, straining Zichuan Xiu's supply line, prompting his undercover return in order to deal with the situation. This trip leads to Zichuan Xiu's encounter with Liufeng Shuang (the second potential love interest of the series). During this fateful encounter, Zichuan Xiu rescues Liufeng Shuang from assassins and nurses her back to health before she is found by her escorts (she was chased for a day in the snow). Liufeng Shuang is drawn to Zichuan Xiu (romantically) because he has a refined demeanor cultivated from being a soldier on the battlefield and he is not blinded by her beauty. Zichaun Xiu is drawn to her because of her refined elegance, a huge contrast from Zichuan Ning's innocent beauty. Liufeng Shuang is actually quite shaken and disappointed by the fact that Zichuan Xiu has someone he loves (and is visiting in this trip) so she gifts him a special token to give to his lover (Zichuan Ning) before parting, while Zichuan Xiu, in surprise, gifts her his Moon Knife Sheathe (showcased in EP17). Liufeng Shuang then goes to the capital to continue her intelligence gathering operation and is noticed by Di Lin and Sterling because of the sheathe. She is attacked by them trying to find out about Zichuan Xiu, her escorts and uncle are killed leading her to try to exact revenge by killing Zichuan Ning. Zichuan Xiu, meanwhile, proceeds to go to the capital and ends up trying to visit Zichuan Ning's residence (because Sterling and Di Lin's places are heavily guarded and he is wanted), arriving just as Liufeng Shuang is conducting her assassination attempt. He fights against her forces to the point of unconsciousness. Liufeng Shuang notices the gift that she gave Zichuan Xiu and the implications of his defending Zichuan Ning, so she withdraws. Di Lin arrives to whisk Zichuan Xiu away. Next is the soul-destroying reunion between Zichuan Xiu and Zichuan Ning. Zichuan Ning having experienced an assassination attempt and becoming emotionally unstable, decides to accept courtship from one of those pursuing her, right when Zichuan Xiu is visiting after recovering from his injuries. Zichuan Xiu, because of this encounter, has his heart shattered. He emotionlessly gives Zichuan Ning a [wedding] gift, and wishes her happiness before leaving without turning back. Zichuan Ning is left behind, unable to pursue Zichuan Xiu, lamenting her momentary weakness and giving in to her fears, especially after being told that Zichuan Xiu was the mysterious defender that fought to the last on the night of the assassination attempt. Zichuan Xiu, after solving the logistics problems with Sterling and Di Lin, returns to the Far East. Zichuan Ning later approaches Sterling to ask about Zichuan Xiu. She learns of his exploits in the Far East, and feeling infinitely guilty and unworthy of him, almost breaks off her relationship with Zichuan Xiu, before being stopped by Sterling. Sterling having experienced an impossible-to-fulfill love with Cardin, suggest that she try to repair their relationship. She can help him by using her need to "intern" in the government as an heiress to funnel resources to Zichuan Xiu in his time of need. Zichuan Ning accepts. Back in the Far East, they soul-crushed Zichuan Xiu has changed, so much that Bai Chuan, his closest subordinate noticed. In the past, Zichuan Ning was his faith, conviction, reason to continue, but after having his soul-crushed, he went from a compassionate, sympathetic, optimistic, but realistic leader, to a more calculative, emotionless leader. He cared less about individual troops and more of the organization as a whole, cared more about objectives than worrying about sacrifices, deaths became numbers rather than loss of individual lives. After about a year of war in the Far East, they had reclaimed most of the territory, but the Demon Empire was finally aware of the liberation efforts (news had been previously blocked by the Far East Demon Commander). He created a defensive line that could be maintained, at the previous mark of the border between Far East and Demon Empire, and was forced to turn to the Zichuan homeland officially for support, since he could not resist the Demon Empire's attack without official support. Zichuan Xiu returns to the capital and gives up the Far East's independence and achievement of reclaiming the Far East to Zichuan Sanxing (current leader and Zichuan Ning's uncle) in exchange for official military support to resist the demons. Unfortunately, Zichuan Sanxing, as a masterful politician, did not promise Zichuan Xiu leadership of the Far East (since he was afraid of his warlord powers there), transferring him to the west away from his troops. It turns out the reassignment to the west was partially Zichuan Ning's idea, leading to the second tragic reunion between childhood lovers. Zichuan Ning tried to help Zichuan Xiu "return home" by having him redeployed to a more comfortable position, without trying to learn or understand why the beastman fight, why Zichuan Xiu fought. She basically viewed him as the person he was in the past, before being deployed to the Far East during the Lei Hong and beastman rebellion. Unfortunately, Zichuan Xiu had changed from a carefree person to a battle-hardened leader carrying the hopes, dreams, and trust of the millions of Far East residents. This reassignment could be considered a betrayal of him, and his betrayal to the people of the Far East, creating a massive rift between Zichuan Xiu and Zichuan Ning. In the ensuing conversation: Zichuan Ning asks if he would do anything for her. He answers yes, but later back tracks saying he lied, hurting her deeply. Zichuan Ning states that she would give up everything, including the title of heiress to be with him, and asks if he would do the same. He says "No, you were once my faith, but now my faith is the Far East.", showing how deeply her two betrayals hurt him. Zichuan Xiu leaves, leaving behind a devastated Zichuan Ning. And so begins Zichuan Xiu's reassignment and exile FROM the Far East, marking the end of Arc 2. End of Arc 2; Beginning of Arc 3 Brief summary of Arc 3: Zichuan Xiu is reassigned to the western front as a political move. He has some encounters there, especially with Liufeng Shuang, basically cementing their status as lovers. Since the Far East had been recovered as a buffer zone with the Demon Empire, it became neglected as the Zichuan tried to redeploy forces to crush the west leaving the east open to a counter invasion. This opening allowed the demon's first invasion into humanity-owned lands in 700 years. This invasion would be humanity's biggest existential crisis since the fall of the Bright Empire 700 years earlier. Zichuan Xiu is redeployed to the Far East where he can take control of the troops, Sterling, Di Lin basically hold fort as they wait for a pincer attack from Zichuan Xiu's Far East troops. Zichuan Xiu is even forced call on Liufeng Shuang to support the war efforts as her new fiance. The humans eventually repel the invasion, killing the Demon God Emperor (title of demon kingdom's ruler) ending the arc. End of Arc 3; Beginning of Arc 4 Brief summary of Arc 4: Humans counter invade the demons hoping to conquer it and creating a hegemony of the continent for the first time in the human's recorded history (apparently it was done before in the past but that history was lost to the humans). There are some shake ups because the political powers in the capital are afraid of Zichuan Xiu's growing military power and influence in the Far East and demon empire, so they send Sterling as a liaison to try to take credit for Zichuan Xiu's achievements. Eventually a crisis on the Demon Empire's eastern border causes Sterling to be recalled; Zichuan Xiu ends up accepting the Demon Empire's surrender and is crowned the new Demon God Emperor by Cardin (now crowned the Empress) - the exact situation the political powers wanted to prevent, lol, ending what I would consider the 4th arc of the novel. End of Arc 4; Beginning of Arc 5 Zichuan SanXing, wanting to kill Di Lin in order to pave the way for Zichuan Ning's coronation as new ruler, but makes a huge miscalculation leading to Di Lin's rebellion. Sterling gets notified on the attempted assassination of Di Lin and heads to the capital to find out the truth from where he is stationed. Di Lin's men try to detain him to try to prevent him from messing things up only to end up killing Sterling accidentally. The rebellion continues and Zichuan Ning is forced to escape. She ends up rendezvousing with Zichuan Xiu who leads troops back to deal with the rebellion. There are battles between Di Lin and Zichuan Xiu, before a ceasefire is called. Di Lin is basically guaranteed to lose, but in order to prevent unnecessary sacrifices, they settle this with a duel between Zichaun Xiu and Di Lin. Zichuan Xiu wins and Di Lin is left to leave/escape as per their agreement. Zichuan Ning returns to the capital, is crowned leader, before relinquishing her new status and passing the torch to Zichuan Xiu. Now Zichuan Xiu is now the head of Zichuan, de-facto/spiritual leader of the Far East, and Demon God Emperor, leaving two forces/territories not under his control. Since Liufeng Shuang had agreed to marry him, he basically has control over that territory, and for the Lin Domain, he basically extorts them into submitting since they harbored a political criminal who ended up killing Di Lin (right after Zichuan Xiu was given the role of leader by Zichuan Ning). And so an empire that spanned the continent was established. The novel ends with Zichuan Xiu speaking the the graves/memorial tablets of Sterling and Di Lin, unsure of who to choose as his partner. He promised to marry Liufeng Shuang after his heart was shattered again and again by Zichuan Ning's clumsy attempts to help him, while Zichuan Ning took the pain that she caused him to heart, and gave up the world just to be with him, making good on her conviction that she would give up the world for him. Cardin eventually shows up with Sterling's [only] child, and tells him that he should take them both, lol (her father had 11 concubines, her grandfather had 13, lmao). End of the story. Of the other relationships in the story, Sterling and Cardin's innocent first love was probably one of the more tragic ones. They fell in love at the beginning, but passed by each other without meeting many times later because it was not ordained by fate. In the end, when dying, Sterling's last thoughts were: "Cardin are you here to receive me?". The other unfortunate character was Bai Chuan. She followed Zichuan Xiu through everything, thick and thin, but was overlooked by him. We get to see a brief glance of this after she visits Liufeng Shuang and is told of Liufeng Shuang and Zichuan Xiu's promise to each other. |
GPDonghuaApr 22, 2022 5:11 PM
Apr 24, 2022 8:10 AM
#2
| THANK YOU so much for this summary. I couldn't find this anywhere!!! Man, what a bummer.... |
Apr 21, 2023 6:29 PM
#3
| I can't thank you enough, your summary just free my brain, been looking everywhere couldn't find something like this |
Jun 7, 2023 7:44 AM
#4
| Oh no, so 2 of the brothers are dead. This is so sad. Noooooooooooooooo! |
Jun 20, 2023 12:08 PM
#5
| Is there any site were i can read this book for free but thanks for the summary tho |
Jun 26, 2023 12:11 AM
#6
| Oh man I already end the donghua and learn this tragic fate. With this I recognise how deadly was the time of war .it's totally unpredictable when you will die.and mainly there love stories . Oh man why they make such a tragic romance which always make me sad. |
Sep 16, 2023 10:21 PM
#7
| zichuan ning Is so pitiful She have tried her best to fix the mistake and do the best for him until the last moment but he already had new lover I hope her to give up and live for herself And run away from his side It must pain to see her loved marry other woman |
Feb 19, 2:44 AM
#8
| While contemplating whether to start this now or wait until after S2 is released, i came here to check out people's views and stumble upon your detailed review. I admire your energy and dedication to invest your time and effort to do up the comparison. Thank you. After taking a sneak peek at #42 and reading just the last para in your summary, I decide not to pursue this for now. Thanks again for the timesaver. Cheers! |
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