#xiangning

Another staple SHL leaned into and TYK subverted: remember the scene in episode 32, where Zhou Zishu stands with Wen Kexing against all of jianghu? It is a classic scene of the ‘righteous’ half of the couple defending their unorthodox partner, and it does not exist in the novel… well, for WenZhou. In the novel, the couple that follows this trope is actually XiangNing: Gu Xiang is outed as a Ghost in front of all, and Cao Weining takes her side… except this romantic scene turns into a scene of murder, as Cao Weining immediately gets brutally killed for doing so. In the world that doesn’t follow genre conventions, their love is not rewarded by getting to be together against all odds in the end.

I went over the entire family sans Zhou Zishu, an actual protagonist of the novel: that is because choosing him as a main character is a subversion in itself. He is a side character – literally so in Qi Ye, but you’ll notice that in every relationship of his, the other party would make a more likely protagonist. With Helian Yi, a crown prince trying to save the country, Zhou Zishu is his subordinate who does all of the immoral acts so that the prince’s character remains clean; with Liang Jiuxiao, a passionate and righteous young hero, Zhou Zishu is his idealized shixiong who turns out to be not who Jiuxiao thought he was. He is Zhang Chengling’s mysterious shifu whose backstory is only hinted at; Wen Kexing’s love interest who is barely involved with the ‘main plot’; an older friend in Cao Weining’s and Gu Xiang’s story who by accident helps them meet, and sometimes gives advice… but TYK is about him. You know those background characters who sometimes seem almost more interesting than the protagonist(s)? TYK takes exactly such background character and makes him a center of the story, and many narrative choices naturally follow from that: of course Zhou Zishu is utterly uninterested in jianghu affairs and has no personal stake in them, aside from people he meets and becomes begrudgingly endeared to – in a classic story, he would be a member of the protagonist’s party who joined on the basis of personal feelings (which feelings depends on who you choose as a protagonist here, obviously) and not for some goal of his own.

SHL had to compensate for that setup to fit Zhou Zishu into their version of the tale; for example, the addition of Four Seasons Manor and Prince Jin subplots helps tie him into the plot of the show, making him care for jianghu affairs beyond mild curiosity (and sometimes irritation) he considers them with in the novel.

You will notice I say ‘plot of the show’: that is because jianghu politics and the hunt for Lapis Armor are merely a background subplot in the novel, happening half-outside of the story. The fight over the position of a leader of the martial arts world and the chase after a secret manual of peerless techniques are also both wuxia staples: SHL pays them attention accordingly, giving them spotlight – complete with the protagonist being the one to get said secret manual even. TYK, on the other hand, posits that both of those pursuits are utterly pointless – hammering the point home by revealing, in the end, that the Lapis Armor key was destroyed by Wen Kexing prior to the events of the story.

Even the way SHL focuses on the past, on repaying generational debts and righting past wrongs, follows from it moving closer to wuxia roots; TYK, for its part, is all for letting go of the old.

As you can see, a number of changes to the plot and characterization is tied to this shift in approach to genre. And those changes, in turn, lead to others: for one, half of the novel’s thematic framework ended up incompatible with the show. Changing up Rong Changqing's and Rong Xuan’s stories, as well as opening the Armory, takes away from the theme of worthlessness of power. Luo Fumeng’s and (eventually) Wen Kexing’s willingness to stay in the Ghost Valley muddles the theme of seeking freedom; so does the narrative punishing Liu Qianqiao for choosing to let go of the past. The focus on legacies – rebuilding Four Seasons Manor for Zhou Zishu, becoming an heir to multiple schools for Chengling – goes against both. To say nothing of the immortal mountain ending…

The show, of course, builds its own set of themes to replace those, exploring debts both of gratitude and of revenge varieties, for example, and bringing up atonement and righteous conduct, topics the novel deliberately does not engage with – and this is just surface-level stuff, I’m sure there’s a more in-depth analysis of SHL’s themes somewhere in the fandom.

But the point is: starting with the approach to genre and continuing with the themes explored, the plot’s focus, and characterization details, numerous changes were made between the source material and the adaptation. Despite following the same outline (at least until the last quarter of the show), the structure of the story was rebuilt near-completely – considering the volume of changes, perhaps it is more apt to call them two stories, even.

–––––––––– Previous meta this section is built on:

Zhang Chengling’s New Year reflections, and thoughts on Zhang Chengling’s arc in general

addition to “Morality shift in SHL, and how it affected WenZhou dynamic”

TYK’s and SHL’s main plots are not the same

Leaving or returning: TYK, SHL, and their differing approaches to the past

worthlessness of power as one of TYK’s central themes

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Changes to WenZhou dynamic

But then again, the story isn’t everything; we are talking about danmei after all, and the genre centers romance. Speaking for myself, even though I do like the novel’s setup better in comparison, all I wanted from the show was, well, more WenZhou, now in color – as much as it was possible accounting for limitations, obviously.

And in the beginning, the dynamic is indeed very close – surprisingly close even, considering how blatantly the show portrays Wen Kexing’s early flirting. Yet, over the course of the story, the changes add up – and looking at the whole picture, the show’s couple ended up having barely anything in common with their novel counterparts. Not for the scenes that couldn’t pass the c/nsorship, to be clear; I’m talking about the way the dynamic was overhauled on a fundamental level.

The key aspect of WenZhou relationship in the novel is their mutual understanding; it is established during their first meeting, the sunbathing scene, and remains a constant throughout the novel. It is not that their relationship is without challenges: between their strong personalities, respective trust issues, and Zhou Zishu’s rapidly approaching death, there’s enough to maintain tension throughout the whole text, – it is just that miscommunication isn’t among those challenges. There are even a few scenes where opportunity for conflict arises, only for the characters to guess each other’s motives and keep on as usual. That mutual understanding becomes the very core of the relationship, the reason neither can let go of the other. Before they meet, both are deeply lonely – and suddenly there’s someone who understands them with barely a few words, someone who can keep up with them both intellectually and in a fight, someone with the same moral compass (lack thereof, mostly), a kindred soul, an equal… If they were any less compatible, would anything stop Zhou Zishu from disappearing into the sunset and continuing his journey towards death, putting Wen Kexing’s mystifying flirting out of his mind forever? And would Wen Kexing be willing to suffer the pain of losing someone he loves, again?

Like I said, initially the show’s dynamic appears to be set up the same way. However, as early as episode 9, divergences begin to crop up, starting with a dramatic 'break-up' over a question of morality. Understandably, the show did not have the freedom to portray the characters as amoral and unrepentant (the way they are in the novel); however, when plot points highlighting Wen Kexing’s ‘villainy’ – that Zhou Zishu can then emotionally renounce – are show-only additions, it begins to feel like a deliberate decision to change up the dynamic. Same with ‘break-ups’ and miscommunications: some of them even overwrite the novel scenes to feature confrontations that weren’t there originally.

As a result, by the final episodes, it is near-impossible to see the show’s and the novel’s main couples as iterations of the same ship. Novel’s couple are two people with similar morals; neither would hold the other’s crimes against them, as their own hands are just as bloody. Show’s couple instead sticks to the ‘righteous x unorthodox’ relationship archetype, complete with Zhou Zishu standing by Wen Kexing against all jianghu, and Wen Kexing changing his ways with Zishu’s influence. Novel’s couple are well in sync, understanding each other’s thoughts and motives; despite their love for bickering and roughhousing, they never had a serious falling out. Show’s couple are softer in words and actions when things are good between them, but often misinterpret each other, resulting in ‘break-ups’ and hiding things from each other. Novel’s couple see each other as equals; the show leans into the idea of Zhou Zishu as the senior and Wen Kexing as the junior, to the point that the show’s dynamic at times falls closer to the way novel Zishu treated his shidi Jiuxiao rather than how he is with Wen Kexing.

Which dynamic is ‘better’ really comes down to personal preference: some people dislike novel Zishu’s lack of outward affection, while others delight in seeking out moments of unreliable narration on his part where it becomes clear just how smitten he actually is; some see show WenZhou coming back to each other despite misunderstandings as an inspiring tale of love overcoming difficulties, while others feel the couple needed a lot of growth to truly be good for each other and never got it in the show; and I can keep going like this for every aspect of dynamic and characterization in both stories: whichever you prefer, there’s definitely someone out there who has the opposite opinion.

But I think it’s obvious that the differences between the two are near-impossible to reconcile, as certain elements directly clash against each other.

–––––––––– Previous meta this section is built on:

on miscommunications in SHL, from perspective of the novel’s fan

Morality shift in SHL, and how it affected WenZhou dynamic + addition

on the addition of shixiongdi relation in SHL

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Conclusion

As an adaptation, SHL, of course, draws from TYK. Looking at them in most general terms, they clearly share an outline; looking closely at the details, there are of course many scenes that were (more or less) adapted from the novel. However, from any other point of view, they feel different: the thematic bones on which the novel’s story was built, its approach to genre and plot, were swapped out; the main couple’s dynamic, while initially similar, gradually became almost an inversion of the original; between those two major overhauls, the characterization shifted as well…

Plainly speaking, they are not the same story but two very different stories, which sometimes have diametrically opposite things to say. For some people, both are appealing, each in its own way; others strongly prefer one of them. But treating TYK and SHL as interchangeable, as the same canon, really does disservice to both.

This is not to say that the fusion is impossible – but the two are not so similar that they can naturally be taken as the same whole, and to fuse them, one would have to pick either novel’s or show’s take on each relevant element, big or small.

And, as an aside, treating two canons as the same can also be a bit inconsiderate towards other fans. I’m going to use novel’s fandom as an example, since that’s the one I’m in: at the time of writing, ~84% of fics in ‘Faraway Wanderers’ fandom tag on AO3 are double-tagged with ‘Word of Honor’*, and, as you may guess, not all of them are fusion fics. The situation on other platforms is comparable: despite the two having different titles, which should make them easy to separate, novel tags are flooded by show content – often enough, exactly the show-only content that directly contradicts or rewrites something from the novel. I do not think people do this on purpose or out of malice, and I understand the desire to reach wider audience, but if I may use whatever reach this meta may have: please keep in mind that the two stories are fairly different, and be thoughtful in your tagging – not just for others’ sake, but for yourself too. Tagging too broadly is just as likely to get you filtered out of searches (or muted, or blocked, depending on the platform and individual’s patience) as it is to give you extra views; consider whom you are reaching out to.

–––––––––– * fics tagged ‘Faraway Wanderers’ = 645, of them also tagged ‘Word of Honor’ = 544. ––––––––––

I said before that this will be the final post in my TYK/SHL comparisons (sans a couple extras I’m considering, but neither of them will be actual analyses). It had taken me… over two months, apparently, to sort out my thoughts. From start to finish, I’ve been circling this conclusion: that the two are, indeed, two very different stories.

Each of those stories, of course, brought a lot of joy to a lot of people; I do not want to diminish that. I have been critical of the show in several of these comparison posts – I can only hope my warnings worked, and I hadn’t upset anyone by it – and I want to briefly explain why, before I close the topic for good.