thoughts about the new svsss extra so far?
hmmm... i want to preface this by saying that i love seeing the fandom excited and energized by getting new content, and i don't want to detract from that excitement! however, i don't personally share that same sentiment, and am feeling hesitant to read the new extra(s) once it's available to me 😅
i'll put my thoughts on it below the break, as they'll include both spoilers for the extra content and also me just generally being a party pooper lmao.
mxtx wrote svsss when she was in high school a full decade ago. personally, i find that my writing style and tastes changes by some amount year-to-year, and even thinking about writing an extra for something i wrote five years ago feels... odd, let alone ten years. especially if that original piece was done all the way back in high school, when i was still very actively learning and receiving an education in literature and writing.
even if i were to attempt to write something that continued the universe of a story i'd written that long ago, i know with great certainty that it wouldn't quite fit. it would be shaped by my present tastes rather than the ones i had that long ago... to be blunt, i actively dislike the stuff i wrote that long ago, and so i think that any "extra" content i'd write for stories that old might even be somewhat antithetical to how i intended the original story to be read.
i'm sure that this isn't the case for everyone. however, based on what i've learned about the new svsss extra(s?), i think it is the case for mxtx.
let me disclaimer this next part by saying that i think it's very possible that there's been a game of fandom telephone, and my understanding of the extra content is not accurate to its reality. how i understand the extra, though, is "lbh knew sqq was a different person all along, including when he was a child / pre-abyss."
i think this is a very good example of an edit being made that goes against (how i saw) mxtx's original intent of svsss, but that fits (how i see) mxtx's more recent tastes.
lbh not knowing that sy!sqq was a different person is a source of very interesting conflict. rather than "sj doesn't like me, sy does," it's a game of "sqq didn't like me, now he does, what did i personally do that changed his mind? was i being tested? will it happen again?"
lbh choosing to eventually trust sqq despite not fully understanding the change in sqq's behavior is very compelling and interesting to me, especially when that trust gets betrayed at the edge of the abyss. sy!sqq's own internal struggle as he's forced to stand in the role of lbh's abuser is also interesting, especially when he chooses to act out the abyss scene seemingly as sj!sqq would have in PIDW rather than trying to find a more gentle method to send lbh down.
it's also a level of conflict between bingqiu that didn't really seem to make an appearance between any other main couple in mxtx's following books - to me personally, it felt like the conflict between wangxian was less than that of bingqiu, and the conflict between hualian is much less than wangxian. this reads to me as mxtx's own tastes growing to prefer a more harmonious main pairing with most of the conflict driving the plot externally rather than internally.
this isn't a bad thing, of course! but it does feel like - based on my personal reading of mxtx's works - putting out an extra a decade later saying "actually, lbh knew all along" is an attempt to re-contextualize svsss to fit that more recent preference of hers.
i do think that lbh is clever and sharpminded enough to eventually figure out that sy!sqq is not the same guy that sj!sqq was. personally, i think this is a realization he's most likely to have after jinlan city, while he's looking into methods to try and resurrect sy!sqq (aka, trying to find a way to call a soul back into a body). i also think that it's important closure for lbh (and sy!sqq, tbh) to have as they enter a proper relationship together post canon.
i just think that putting that realization when lbh is so young removes a lot of interesting conflict between them, and re-contextualizes the rest of the novel in a way that doesn't seem to fit quite as well to me.
...not to mention the implications that lbh, a child, figured out the whole soul-swap thing but that not a single other person in that book was able to realize it the entire time. that's a different essay rant, but i think it's disrespectful to the characters of the peak lords to make such an implication.
i've also seen some rumblings that part of the extras is "sy wakes up in the hospital, and lbh and mbj reverse transmigrate to find sy/sqh and live their new lives out in the modern world." again, i don't know how much of that is accurate VS fandom telephone, but i'm more or less ambivalent to this one. i think it's good for lbh's character but bad for sqq's, if that makes sense... i think with time they'd both overall be happier in the modern world, though good fucking luck to lbh now that he'll have to deal with sy!sqq getting a reinforcing dose of societal expectations and homophobia, lmao. i do also roll my eyes at "and then they all woke up and were back in the Real World" endings because they take away some of the magic for me, but i am a fan of getting canon names for sqh and sqq's little sister!
i won't speak much on the "sj chose to start fresh in a new world" part of the extra spoilers - i don't personally feel like i have as strong an opinion on his character as i do lbh's. i'm not sure i personally think sj was the sort of person to choose a new life for himself, but it is interesting for mxtx to step in and give a very strong canon confirmation that he hated himself.
anyway, that's all quite rambly, but i guess the TLDR is that i have a lot of mixed feelings about what i've heard about the extra content and how it fits with my understanding of and interest in bingqiu's characters. i don't know if i'll ever read the new extra content, but i think that if i ever do, it's unlikely that i'll internalize it as canon... or else i think that i'll end up less interested bingqiu's overall dynamic 😅
ALL THAT SAID i hope that you 🫵 enjoy the extras - or, if you have mixed feelings like i do, at least enjoy all the energy and excitement within fandom about them. i'm enjoying all the art of lbh with cute little pigtails for sure <33
