#dou ming

Things we got in the novel that I am glad didn't make it into the series:

Dou Zhao, an adult woman, scheming and navigating complex familial relationships while in a two year old, then a five year old body. I get how it might be interesting for some, but it was incredibly boring for me, and since she managed to neutralise her stepmother quite early on, I saw no need to spend so much time watching her building up and managing relationships with everyone in the Dou family. Moreover, I am glad that the size of the family was trimmed down (I still can't make sense of all the relationships presented in the novel) and some characters were changed compared to how they were in the novel; it was amazing to see Grandma, who had been only a concubine in the book (and therefore couldn't even be called Grandma by Dou Zhao according to customs, let alone have any kind of power), turning into a formidable matriarch, and it was also cool to see Zhao Zhangru as the constant sidekick;

no Song Mo until 114 chapters in. I must confess that my main fascination in both the series and the novel was the relationship between the mains, and the fact that he is only mentioned once or twice before his first dramatic appearance was definitely not enough for me;

way too much time spent on side characters; like I said in a previous post, did I really need to know in detail how Suxin and Sulan ended up serving Dou Zhao? And it felt even more useless since in the novel they end up getting married and leaving the Song Manor, and only getting mentioned in passing from that moment on;

Things I wish would have made it into the series, but did not (and some of them could have never made it, unless the entire censorship board would have been in a coma):

all the sexual encounters between Song Mo and Dou Zhao. Like in the series, the start of their physical intimacy is quite slow, they don't consummate during their wedding night (but unlike in the series, it's not because she prepares a period PowerPoint presentation, it's simply because he knows the next days as newlyweds will be tiring, and just wants to allow them to rest). Unlike in the series, no one is cockblocking Song Mo (in fact, their subordinates are even alarmed at the lack of consummation), and when he decides to make a move on Dou Zhao, he does it, and no one dares to interrupt. They make love quite regularly from that moment on, and I like how Dou Zhao's reluctance is gradually melting away, and how the novel is clearly stating that she enjoys the encounters just as much as he does, and even becomes bold enough to initiate later on;

them being parents. I know we get that one cute scene with their daughter at the end of the series, but Song Mo is such a good dad and husband in the novel, constantly prioritising Dou Zhao's comfort and being just as involved in the child's rearing as she is (to the point that their son learns to say Papa before Mama). I surely wish we would have seen more of that in the series.

Song Yichun does not die in the novel. He is, in a delightful twist of fate, forced to expel Song Han from the family, a treatment he had hoped to apply to Song Mo, and is left disabled after Song Han attacks him. Moreover, the daughter he had switched at birth with Song Han is discovered alive, Song Mo takes her under his protection, and she gets married and lives happily. I surely wish karma would have hit the old man in the face like this in the series as well.

Other things that got changed which I am fairly neutral about:

Song Mo and Dou Zhao's backgrounds in life 1. I have to say I loved how the series made it crystal clear that life 1 was an utterly doomed timeline, with both of them being betrayed and ultimately killed, while the entire country was burning. Life 1 in the novel was bleak in a different, more subtle, way. Dou Zhao dies after a long illness, almost completely devoid of any human warmth - the novel tells us that both her sons with Wei Tingyu are distant, as a result of her being too busy with household matters to be able to form a bond with them, and the only warmth she gets is from her daughter, a child she had after forcing herself to have sex with her husband once more (she had trauma from miscarriage), hoping she could get pregnant again and alleviate her loneliness somewhat. And Song Mo, unlike in the series, is a very powerful figure after the coup, but is perceived as merciless (having slaughtered both his father and brother), cynical (he never finds out the truth about his uncle's death, and never bothers to) and, in the end, utterly, utterly alone;

the dynamic between them after the rebirth. Unlike in the series, where they forged a bond in life 1 which was the basis for their relationship as adults in life 2, in the novel they meet as teenagers (when he is 13 and she is 14), and he is more or less smitten from the beginning, whereas she fears and despises him at first, gradually starting to understand him the more their paths cross. While in the series, they are already both in love by the time she accepts his proposal (having gone through a lot of adventures together that strengthened their bond), in the novel, he is the one with the huge crush, while she accepts his proposal for more pragmatic reasons, trusting that he is capable and will support her in the way Wei Tingyu was unable to. But the attraction between them is mutual, and I really liked watching her slowly but surely falling in love with him due to his constant care and attention towards her;

Song Mo is way more calculated in the novel than in the series, where he's simply feral and would wreak havoc at any given moment were it not for Dou Zhao and her more sensible approaches. It makes for an interesting dynamic in the series, where they pretty much complement each other, but I must confess I loved his scheming and 5D chess playing in the novel;

Dou Ming's entire character. Unlike in the series, which presented a nature versus nurture situation, with Dou Ming being shrewd in life 1 after being raised by her mother, and a sweet, innocent girl in life 2, as a result of not being raised by her mother, in the novel, Dou Ming exhibits jealousy from an early age, and constantly feels inferior, which ultimately results in her taking Dou Zhao's place as Wei Tingyu's wife. Their marriage is unhappy, as, just like in the series, he is not very smart and doesn't like facing difficulties. Unlike in the series, she doesn't die (she's too petty to die), but it's clear by the time she makes her last appearance in the novel that her life is miserable, and there is no chance of improvement;

Wang Yingxue is not even half as cunning and manipulative as her series counterpart; she fails to charm Dou Shiying in any meaningful way (he is never in love with her and only wants to take her as a concubine because they had a sexual encounter while he was drunk, and he wants to save face) and ultimately she pushes him away, becomes a pariah in the family and is sent to a country estate to die forgotten by everyone, including her daughter;

Miao Ansu has a completely different familial background and no connection to Dou Zhao prior to her marriage with Song Han. She's also far from being the timid forest creature the series portrays her as;

Song Han manages to be somehow even more awful than his series counterpart. Not only is he not in love with Miao Ansu, he also lacks any kind of respect for her, which ultimately pushes her to align with Dou Zhao and Song Mo, and initiate his downfall. His death is not described in the novel, but it is heavily implied.

Overall, while there were a lot of things I liked about the book, I think I prefer the pacing of the series way more. Also, the series got a "will they get their happily ever after, won't they?" feeling with the poison subplot that the novel lacked until very close to the end (when Dou Zhao is almost taken hostage during the palace coup). The royals are awful as hell in both iterations, the injustice never really gets solved (in my opinion, the Emperor was also very much to blame for Jiang Meisun's death, not only the scheming Empress), but at least the lovely main couple lives happily ever after.

Dou Ming’s death is a very obvious boundary marker within the show, launching us, I think I’d argue, into the show’s third act, after the second act moved lots of pieces around and swept a few off the board. I’m gonna use the death of Song Mo’s mother and the resultant fight between him and his dad as the turning point for Act 1, for reference.

First, there’s the karmic aspect of Dou Ming’s death, which I’d say is consistent with the show’s overall themes. I think there’s a very direct parallel to be made between Dou Ming’s death and Dou Zhao’s mother’s death. Both are sympathetic relatives of Dou Zhao who are killed due to the Dou family’s dysfunction. They both die because of Wang Yingxue’s actions. Within the larger narrative, their deaths are clearly meant to be lessons for their loved ones, punishments for those who most wronged them (although obviously neither character held that kind of malice). Dou Zhao’s mother’s death is a punishment for Dou Zhao’s dad, and Dou Ming’s death is a punishment for her mother (this is very obvious). Additionally, Dou Ming herself highlights the karmic nature of her death when she is dying, reminding Wei Tingyu of the oath he’d sworn to only paint her upon pain of sword to the heart, saying that her death is the answer and the resolution of that oath. He has been a terrible husband and the consequence is an unjust death for his wife that could have been prevented by him just not sucking so bad.

Dou Ming’s death also resolves the initial story conflict. In Dou Zhao’s first life, her enemies were her husband, her sister, and her stepmother. I could be wrong about what the story holds in the future, but I don’t expect to see much more out of either WTY or WYX, unless either one goes on a redemption arc (unlikely), or goes full supernova supervillain. This is still more unlikely for me. WTY and WYX are consistent parts of Dou Zhao’s rogue’s gallery, but they aren’t smart enough to really be threats, as Act Two has repeatedly proven. Dou Ming’s death is knelling out the end of their status as important antagonists, cutting them off at the knees in time to introduce the actual villains of the show.

In addition to moving minor villains out of the way so Dou Zhao &co can more directly fight the Evil Brigade, the bandit plot effectively introduces the Evil Brigade’s qualifications for being major antagonists. Dou Ming’s death is the final proof of this. Although the principal goals of the bandit plot (kill Dou Zhao, get Song Mo killed or in trouble) ultimately failed, Dou Ming died, which proves to a watching audience that a) these are the BAD bad guys, because anyone whose actions kill off one of the few likable characters not already in the Song Mo-Dou Zhao camp is clearly not great, and b) even if they were foiled this time, they might have better luck next time, and they’ve already killed off a major secondary character and nerfed two more through their actions. The stakes have been raised! Dou Ming’s death particularly highlights the villainy of Evil Uncle Dou (I cannot. For the life of me. Keeps his and the dad’s names straight. And for like the first half of the show they were both in the bad guys corner so it didn’t matter to me anyways). He’s been terrible the entire time, but Dou Ming has done nothing wrong to anyone ever in this life and he’s like 🤷‍♂️ about it. It is GALLING to see him react so calmly to his niece’s death, placing all the blame for everything squarely on his sister-in-law, when we the audience know that he orchestrated the bandits getting in, resulting in Dou Ming’s death!!! Well. He wanted his niece dead and he got a niece dead!!

And I want to elaborate a little further on the stakes-raising bit. Killing off a sympathetic character to raise the stakes prior to the third act is a classic writing choice. For instance, in Blood of Youth, Li Xinze’s character (he plays WTY in jcz) is killed off at the end of the second act which I fucking hated but like it was a thing that happened. But unfortunately no one would care if his character died atp in Blossom because WTY sucks! So it’s gotta be someone the audience cares about, a character set that’s fairly thin on the ground. Song Mo already lost Lu Zhen at the end of act 1/start of act 2, so you couuuuulllldddd theoretically kill off one of the advisor guys or one of the maids for like, symmetry, but this lacks any narrative thrust. Dou Ming’s death, on the other hand, is suitably tragic for an act turn, affects a maximum portion of the cast, and carries thematic weight, making her an ideal candidate from a story perspective.