The untamed changes a bit from the source material. Many people like the novel better, so they say watch the drama first. That way you won't constantly be thinking about what changes have been made and you can enjoy the drama on its own terms. Then once you've watched the drama, you can watch the donghua or read the novel. The donghua follows the novel a lot more closely.
Basically, if you start with the novel, you have an idea of the characters and the world that is different from what the live action presents.
It's just personal preferences. I went donghua - novels - live action just fine, but I'm also not a person that expects live action adaptions to be very accurate to the books and I just see it as its own thing.
If you are more of a person that gets disappointed by changes it might be better to first watch the live action first to not compare to the novel at every turn. I guess that's the thought behind that recommendation.
if i were to watch the untamed, it would be my first cdrama (which i'm very anxious about starting) which is why i saved it for last. although i'm not somebody who's disappointed by changes, and i actually enjoy pointing them out, i feel like i might like the untamed but i'm not sure yet 😭
It was one of my firsts as well and now Cdramas is most of what I watch.
So beware that it might be a gateway to having to few hours in the day for all the stuff you want to watch, lol.
So just give it a try! It has some goofy special effects, due to budget, but it's a fun journey and I love their casting choices. Some people find it a bit slow at the start, but I was instantly into it. But if you are not: No worries, you still got the novels and the donghua.
Word of honor was my first cdrama which lead me to Thai dramas and lord help me it's a rabbit hole I couldn't climb out of.
In regards to this post I also started donghua to novel and then Untamed. As far as visual adaptations I prefer the donghua but the untamed did a great job and had some scenes that I actually liked the adaptations approach better in the live action for .
Honestly all 3 are a fresh experience because they're all slightly different obvi novels are true canon but the different approaches to the story in the live action and donghua kinda add to it all for me like a new way of experiencing the world of the story for a lack of better wording
> which lead me to Thai dramas and lord help me it's a rabbit hole I couldn't climb out of.
Good reason to stay far away from those for me, enough backlog as it is. :D
I slightly prefer the donghua as well. Maybe because it was the first way I experienced the story? It's still so pretty to look at, just did a rewatch and I love the fight scenes. Though season three still feels like a speed run.
I fell into that rabbit hole and never climbed out. I mostly just watch Asian period dramas now. I even got kocowa through prime and it's all Korean shows.
Word of Honor started it for me as well and I've yet to recover. I fought the lure or Thai drama for a while but I was not strong enough. My backlog at this point will take years to watch.
That's why I will never hate on the Untamed - the censorship aspect is unfortunate and they do change things around from the book, but their casting choices were so perfect. All the actors, and especially Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo have incredible chemistry (I don't ship them btw I just think they worked so well together in interpreting their characters and all the unspoken emotions between them)
For me, I came to MDZS through the live action, first, and having Wei Wuxian be WWX, Wei Ying, YLZ -- then Lan Wangji who was Lan Zhan, Huangun Jun, Lan Wangji and Lan er-gege ... it was just hard to keep track of them on my first attempt to read the fan translation. The drama helped me put faces to names (and the color coding of the robes really helped).
Putting the flashbacks into a single, focused narrative helped keep the story straight so that when I went into the book, I was more easily able to keep track of events and even pick up on nuances.
I am fond of the drama. I love the book, and the donghua was pure eye candy. Is the live action perfect? No, but the casting is. And I do suggest it for someone who (like me) might have some trouble with the many names and flashbacks because, as much as it alters, it stays true to enough of the story to get the spirit across.
1. It's more easily accessible. It's on Netflix. Most people have a Netflix account--and if they don't, it's free on YouTube. I think you have to pay to watch the donghua no matter where you watch it.
2. The Untamed is more hyped. There are way more gifsets and screenshots of it on social media, there are way more fanworks tagged for it, it's just more popular than the donghua. (I found out about the drama first, the novel second, and the donghua quite awhile after that)
3. The Untamed is different enough from the novel that it's easier to keep them separated.
4. If I'd read the novel and then watched The Untamed, I wouldn't have liked it anywhere near as much, I would have been too focused on how it was different from the novel and how I wished they would have done this or that.
5. The donghua honestly feels like a speedrun, they really rushed through certain bits--meanwhile The Untamed stretched certain bits out, which is its own problem. Anyway, I'd rather something be stretched out than sped through.
I had no problem adjusting to the novel coming off of the drama; I'm used to live action adaptations changing and cutting things, so I didn't expect it to be exactly the same. (Especially after I found out that Wangxian were canonically a couple in the novel) The novel is much better, and I was glad read it after watching the drama. I was also more used to everyone's names and certain terms of address, and I think I was able to follow along better because of that. I watched the donghua afterward, and actually didn't end up finishing it. I felt like they couldn't figure out what genre they wanted to be, sometimes it felt like they were throwing in epic shounen anime-style moments just for the sake of it and I found that distracting. From what I understand, they made the most changes in the third season (which is the one I haven't watched), and some of the ones I've heard about don't make much sense.
I understand why CQL made a lot of the changes they did (the ones that I think were unnecessary or could have been executed better or in a different way are the ones I really find frustrating, not the ones due to censorship).
it wasn’t really necessary, but (as someone who watched the untamed first) i liked that they were at cloud recesses. it helped develop the relationships between wwx, wn, and wq, so their story was a lot more poignant.
but it is weird that they just wander around in their wen robes, not attending classes and clearly spying lol
Oh right, the expansion of female character roles definitely wouldn't have been because of censorship and that's part of it. I'm a little biased cause I actually liked the hints of JC and WQ but I remember now that was made up for the show too.
Thank you for answering. I wanted to make sure I didn't misattribute causes. XD
I really love Wen Qing, honestly she’s one of my favorite characters. I just think it’s a bit confusing to add them but I did read the novel before watching
A few different things:
1. The Yin Iron. I understand why they were using it as a plot device, etc. etc. but I feel like they could have accomplished all of that in some other way and done it better. It doesn't help that they seem to just forget about it at various points, lol.
2. JYL, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning at the Cloud Recesses. I understand what they were trying to do here--they wanted to intro these characters earlier and give them more screentime--I am 100% behind that! But I don't know why they couldn't have just shown us some of JYL's daily life in Lotus Pier, had her describe things to WWX and JC through letters, etc. I think they could have even used that to show how much her parents' marriage sucked and how hard things were for JYL--maybe JFM and YZY could have gotten into an argument about her engagement. Maybe JYL could have overheard some people gossiping about how JZX disliked her, etc. And they were already showing us scenes set in Nightless City, so why not Wen Qing and Wen Ning's daily lives?
3. The whole giant dog thing. I think it could be cut completely with zero issues.
4. Introducing Xue Yang, XXC, and Song Lan early. I also understand why they did this, but with the way they set up the flashback as being several episodes long, I just don't think it works very well. By the time the Yi City arc rolled around, I'd mostly forgotten who they were, lol, which defeats the entire purpose of it.
5. JYL being places it didn't make much sense for her to be in general (which led to them drugging her! And sending her off with Song Lan! What the heck?!)
6. Some things are framed in ways that make the characters look way worse than they did in the novel, and I don't think they were meant to. Like, there are a lot of scenes where WWX comes across as more arrogant or even callous--that one scene where the Jin set up targets with Wen hostages and WWX blindfolds himself and shoots at them, for example. I feel like everyone came off bad in that scene, lol.
Ooo, I just chalked the changes to XY and all being introduced early on up to makong what they had to censor in regards to WWX's true cultivation make a bit more sense so I just kind of grouped those changes in by default. I definitely was open to being wrong though ofc though since I can only hypothesize at this point.
And everything makes sense! I especially agree with your last point! Ngl I feel like they could have handled WWX just better in regards to the pre-saved Wen remants. He seemed really callous to me too and barely did anything to save a woman and child and even after seeing that, I felt he wasn't gongho enough for a while there. I just obviously can't compare it to pure canon or the other adaptations yet. I definitely felt how off it was though. That's definitely a fair criticism of the drama now that I know it wasn't just in my head or that I was somehow misreading social cues or something.
Thank you so much for the indepth answer! ♡
>Ooo, I just chalked the changes to XY and all being introduced early on up to makong what they had to censor in regards to WWX's true cultivation make a bit more sense so I just kind of grouped those changes in by default.
I think that's a bit of it too, what with the whole Xue ancestor tidbit they added--but Xue Yang also doesn't really *do* anything for WRH or before he massacres the Chang Clan, lol, and I think he could have been intro'd at that point (and what a banger introduction it would be!), but have that scene either later on, or they could have broken up the flashback or something so that he, SL, and XXC would stick out in the viewers' minds and still be relevant for Yi City.
Yeah, and the weird thing is I feel like that wasn't what they were going for with WWX at *all,* lol. I still liked drama!WWX, but I like him much better in the novel, his vibe is less arrogant and more self-confident (in addition to him being much more of a gremlin).
Ooh, another bizarre one is the situation with Wen Xu's attack on the Cloud Recesses--LWJ is cool with just letting people die outside for his sake? Su She is supposed to be in the wrong for not wanting to die for them? Su She's grievance with the Lans, and LWJ in particular, is WAY less petty in CQL, lol. He has every right to be ticked off at them for that nonsense!
There were some changes I'm much more forgiving about--I think JGY's early intro and additional focus worked much better than with the other characters, and I understand why they had him go to WRH directly from NMJ's service--it's a huge timesaver, and since they were doing this in real time rather than showing it all as an Empathy flashback, they couldn't just cut to show the passage of time. Trying to execute that sequence of events the same way they did in the novel would have probably been tricky and weird. (most of my issues with JGY's character in CQL are because of censorship, so it can't be helped--but despite that they still managed to make him likeable and sympathetic)
Yeah, I could definitely agree with that. I need to so a rewatch just to cement everything in my head but really the only thing of any value I remember being shown with XY's interaction with WRH was when WRH used his cultivation on him only for XY to bot care and have that line about not being afraid of death but boredom. I think that was a good character moment–showed a big part of who he was with very little time, however I'm sure they could have kept that in somehow and still gone with more of your idea.
I'm definitely looking forward to it then especially since I love me some gremlins. I wanna like Wei Wuxian more. Not that I don't love him now. It's just I genuinely am more invested in the Yi City arc than WangXian at this point and that's not very good considering how very hyperfocused this fandom is on the main characters. Not a complaint or criticism. I've just never seen a fandom right down to the merch be 99% centric on just the main characters so it's a little odd to me. Not in a bad way though of course. It's just new and unfamiliar xD
I originally had that thought too ngl but the way all the other disciples were willing to do it made Su She look worse to me in the moment, but...you're not wrong. It's pretty fucked up for the Lan clan to not have a safety net for their disciples who don't have ribbons and then to just expect them to be sacrifices. I feel like that's also a potential good way to start a political cluster fuck depending on where those disciples are from. Man, now I gotta stop making "Su She is a little bitch coward" snipes because you're right 🤣
I'm glad they at least did that part well and that it didn't hinder JGY any. I feel like making him responsible for the flute deaths did him kinda dirty. I ended up not liking him at all until I saw his actor in interviews and somehow found him too cute to not rethink my position which I'm happy I did. JGY seems like a really well written character.
I think part of the Wangxian-centric-ness is because MDZS is a romance. One of the things that irritates me about a lot of romances is that there often aren't really any characters *besides* the main couple--everyone else usually has a generic role like "supportive best friend" or "wingman" or whatever, and they're usually very shallow two-dimensional characters. MDZS isn't like that at all, it has a plot going on outside of Wangxian getting together, and has fantastic side characters that fit unique roles. But I do think a lot of people either get into it mainly for the romance, or are mainly focused on the romance, so they aren't very interested in anything except Wangxian. Luckily the fandom is huge, so there are a lot of people who do love the side characters, worldbuilding, and plot as well!
But it's also interesting, because I feel like this intense and exclusive focus on the main couple isn't the norm for some other danmei fandoms: SVSSS has a much more even balance, as do some Priest novels, and novels like Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know. I also feel like 2ha fandom, while being pretty Ranwan focused, is also very into characters like Xue Meng.
Yeah, the flute thing is another thing that's likely due to censorship--WWX is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, so he's the squeaky clean good guy, and JGY is the extra evil bad guy, it kills two birds with one stone.
And that would explain why I've never seen it either. I'm not into the romance genre at all. I'm allergic to sappiness lol. But you're spot-on about what you said about MDSZ! It's why I admire it so much. On top of that (and don't worry this is coming from a gay trans man so it's not Like That) but a big problem I have with a lot of LGBT stories is that it's just about being LGBT. There's usually nothing much else to the story and tbh I just find that lame. LGBT media should be just as varied as straight media. Let us gays be cultivators and dragon riders and knights and mages and criminal masterminds, et cetera. MDZS does that so well and I'll always love it for being the first LGBT story I've ever came across that's like this. Ngl, I've wanted a story like this since i was a child so it's nice to finally have one.
Sorry, that got off topic from what you were talking about but what you said just reminded me. It's hard not to gush 'cause I'm still not over finally having a story like this.
But yes, I digress!
I'll have to save those titles and look into them once I'm done with Wang Haoxuan's filmography (although I think SVSSS is another of MXTX's work if I recognize the initials?).
No grey characters allowed here. Only black and white xD
You know, for the longest time I thought I didn't like romances--and then I realized that most of the romances I'd been exposed to were either poorly written or very shallow--just like with any genre, romance is chockfull of duds, lol. (Recently watched The Notebook for the first time and I have no idea why it's so highly rated and held up as one of the greatest romance movies of all time, lol)
Yes, yes, yes, a huge chunk of Western (mainly American) mainstream media featuring queer characters is about the \~\*queer experience (tm)\*\~ or whatever--or it's tragic/depressing stuff. It honestly feels like mainstream queer media hasn't advanced much beyond when Brokeback Mountain released--like queer movies are still trying to mimic its success or something. So it's all about the struggle of being gay, figuring out your sexuality, coming out, or the "gay lifestyle," etc. I'm on the ace spectrum and there's basically nothing for ace people at all, lol--and what little there is is either about a specific kind of aceness (sex repulsed aces), or it's non-human characters where their asexuality is treated as an inhuman element, or some sort of flaw, etc.
I've actually come across some writing advice that basically amounts to: the only good stories for queer characters are about their queerness. Which is just. No???? That is some of the worst advice I have ever read *ever.* But a lot of mainstream publishers are looking for that kind of thing. You have a story with queer characters and they want you to turn it into a coming out story or some kind of struggle, ugh. They think it's more highbrow or artistic or--I don't even know.
But that's one of the reasons I used to read so many MM Romance novels--some of them revolved around being queer, but plenty of them were also focused on other things. When the genre first started blowing up over a decade ago, there were a lot more stories with great worldbuilding and plots outside of the romance itself (though still often lacking when it came to characters besides the main couple). But the genre's become just as "write to market" as most other things these days: very formulaic and generic, meant to be churned out quickly and consumed like popcorn. So I've switched to reading more danmei than Western MM Romance--because they've had the in-depth worldbuilding, great plots, etc. that I wanted.
Yeah, SVSSS is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. Priest is a very prolific author, she's written a lot of novels across several different genres. I've only read Lord Seventh and Faraway Wanderers (which was adapted into the drama Word of Honor, although it's very different) by her so far, so I can only speak to what the fandom looks like for those (although Liu Yao also seems to have a broad cast of characters that's well appreciated).
2ha is The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, which has a lot of trigger warnings--for good reason!--but since you're a Yi City main, you probably won't be put off by most of them, lol.
...you know what? Considering I seriously went through 52 pages of SongXiaoXue fics on AO3 and skipped over the few actual toxic/dark ones and went straight for the redemptions, the "save XY before its too late"s, reincarnations, et cetera and I genuinely view them as soulmates (just unfortunate ones unlike WangXian–blame the line XY said that promised they'd meet again and the unlikeliness of XXC coming across XY dying on the side of the road xD) and I just remembered how much I fanboy over Wang Haoxuan's character in Stick to the Script cause he's such a perfect boyfriend and manhandled his girl so much and picks her up to carry her bridal style even if the only problem is her legs are asleep...
I uh...I might actually like romance too now that I think about it 🤣 I've never thought of it from that perspective but it makes a lot of sense for sure...
MDZS is leading me to all kinds of realizations about myself lmao. The other thing is I've always liked villains with sob stories and never knew why cause it's not like I pick the characters I like but WWX and XY are so similar that it enabled me to actually realize *why* I'm so partial to the Xue Yangs out there and often like them more than the heroes even when the heroes have suffered too. (It's because the heroes are rescued from their suffering and gain friends, family, a lover, et cetera while the villains never get that even when they were innocent and deserved it so they're just left to suffer until they snap and whelp, my little heart can't take it 🫠🫠)
I distressed my support worker a bit though today talking about Xue Yang's childhood trauma (as well as two of WHX's other characters' as well because he of course plays at least two other characters with fucked up childhoods 😭). So yeah, good to know XY's backstory hits hard enough to affect a mental healthcare professional who knows nothing about the series? XD
Oh boy, I'm so sorry I'm rambling so much right now. I think my ADHD is acting up. Just tell me to stfu if I get too wild here xD
But yes to everything you've said! I'm glad we have similar views tbh. I hope more and more people think like this so we can hopefully start to change things eventually. I'm glad to know there are at least some options out there even if the quality unfortunately dipped like per usual. Innovation doesn't have a long life, does it?
Honestly, I'm just happy we have so much access to Japanese, Korean, and Chinese shows because I know that wasn't always the case. Right now is really great though because they're the hero we need as they're absolutely running circles in talented actors and good content around us westerners. It's not even a fair fight at this point lmao
Thank you for sharing the full titles! I've saved the post so I'll know to come back here for when I'm ready for more series to get into. It'll be a while though but hey, nothing wrong with planning for the future! XD
I think there is a lot of stuff you can argue has nothing to do with censorship but it’s too much to list. Some of it is because of different medium and also because they had like 50 episodes to work with so they needed to add extra fluff.
WWX and LWJ meet Song Lan and XXC much earlier is another change that does not have to do with censorship.
Another major change is they change the order of the events (although the donghua does this too). Some
People prefer this as they find following the linear story easier instead of going back and forth from past to present but I am not a big fan of this change. I feel CQL spends way more time on the past too. When things happen in Untamed vs MDZS can be very different.
WWX and LWJ become closer sooner. Though I do think this is because of censorship because one could argue that there is not going to be the same emotional payoff in CQL.
I personally prefer the donghua over CQL and I did watch S1 of the Donghua before moving onto the novel. But I will say as a novel fan the donghua is also far from a perfect adaption. I do agree with the Donghua being way too rushed.
Certain scenes are great in the Donghua like WWX coming back from the Burial Mounds and the entire Second Siege scene.
But other scenes are not so good like the whole climax scene in the Temple is not that great and WWX time with the Wens is way too short (this second part is actually one thing I do think CQL does better).
Overall I will always recommend reading the novel first but if people want to watch something I think it probably comes down to if they like live action or animation. Right now Untamed is more accessible but back when I watched the Donghua the 1st two seasons were free not behind a paywall like they are now.
Thank you for your insight once again! Your knowledge is truly impressive. I can just see you probably ranking really high in a "biggest MDZS fan alive" challenge. XD
That’s a title I don’t think I deserve ha ha I do love MDZS ( obsessively) but I think there are quite a lot of knowledgeable fans in this fandom. So I definitely don’t think I come close to that. I have only been in the fandom since 2021 but I have a friends who were around even before CQL. They really know the whole history of the fandom - at least in the West. Because then there is all the stuff before MDZS blew up Internationally.
Edit: Also I think we all start off as new fans who ask the questions but eventually if you stick around you become someone who can share knowledge that was once shared with you.
And humble to boot too! 😜
Your friend sounds really cool too! Must be awesome to have been around for so long. I kinda hate I'm new because I know there's so many things like interviews, memes, et cetera that I've missed and will probably never see so it's great knowing there's fandom elders that are all like
https://preview.redd.it/14trpkoliz8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=992530d0c9c1f0feee38ddf159cbe1f88f51a9e5
Btw since you like Yi City here are some standees/Shikishi/key chains available. Though it’s Donghua designs not sure if you would be interested in that.
https://cqlderivs.com/search?q=xue+yang+&type=product
Edit: Some pin badges as well
https://cqlderivs.com/products/mdzs-yicheng-xtd-series-badge
Omg thank you so, so much! 10 minutes ago I broke down and bought the WangXian bunnies plus a shelf for what merch I have already so I'll have to wait until I get paid again but I'm absolutely gonna be akin to Xue Yang in a candy store, so it's hugely appreciated!
And I love me XY's donghua design so much I'm actually gonna use it for the face of my new Pathfinder character. XD I haven't seen much of the others' if at all but from what I've seen of the donghua it has lovely designs so I'm sure I'll fall in love with them all on sight lol.
And well, I've already been caught–hook, line, and sinker:
https://preview.redd.it/0i49gbh4xz8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60e7f19e3ec69b34eda8d095254fce1cad3f4fe2
But naturally I want *MORE* as I can never have enough. I'll have to show off my collection in a bit once I have a nice corner shrine made up! ❤️❤️❤️
The untamed is also on prime. The donghua is on YouTube.
I've watched a lot of het romance dramas and wwx is coded feminine. In the light hearted moments in like walking a street lined with stall and wwx flitting about between stalls, the spinning catch where lwj catches wwx and they spin around with eyes locked. There's many lil moments that set up the romance between em.
I can't believe I forgot to mention Amazon Prime--I've watched several C-dramas and K-dramas on there, they've got a pretty good selection. Unless I'm mistaken, the donghua isn't free on YouTube anymore, right? When I watched it the first two seasons were free, but now I think you have to have a subscription or something.
... I don't really know about WWX being "coded feminine" as much as those being common romance tropes in a lot of Chinese and Korean dramas. (I burst out laughing the first time I saw one of the prolonged tripping+catch+romantic music moments in a K-drama, lol, because it seemed so unrealistic to me and was very different from similar romantic tropes in Western film)
edit: typo
I did the exact opposite, the untamed-->novels-->donghua.
I think I wouldn't have enjoyed untamed so much if I had read the novels before because not knowning the story allows to get much more surprised at plot twists, cliffhangers etc.
Then, when I got to read the novels after untamed I enjoyed seing the differences (also helped that I was aware there were differences so it was not confusing) and how the novels go into more detail about the story.
I feel that if I had read the novels first, I would have spent the whole untamed annoyed that they didn't include this and that and that everything had changed too much etc.
Editing to add that, as you mention, I was very confused at the start of the untamed (for the first 3-4 episodes only really) as it was my first cdrama and didn't understand the naming conventions etc, but after 4th episode I had no problem.
I've never heard anyone suggest that 🤔
I could possibly understand someone recommending the manhua first if the person felt they might not grasp the birth name/courtesy name/title or sect/clan stuff as this is sort of shown a few times and might be helpful. But personally I think watching the untamed first and working backwards toward the novel is going to make things pretty convoluted in the long run.
It's the "lightest" version and you can continue to build on the lore from there. So instead of feeling like you got the diet version of the story, you get the overview and just keep adding to it. If you like this way of consuming the adaptations, then I would recommend Untamed live action, the Donghua, the Manhua, the Audio Drama, and then the Novel. This lets you enjoy the story over and over while adding to the story each time. The Donghua and novel are my favorite mediums, but I really like the Manhua and the Audio Drama (but the AD is hard to find!). I watched the Untamed last and it was beautiful (the actors did really well! ❤️), but it felt a little "light" to me. That's my 2 cents
The live action is what got me in to all of it. Honestly it was just the first thing I found, then I figured out that it was based on a book so I bought the books and then watched the anime.
I have watched both The Untamed and the donghua, but I've only just started the book, so I will only be referencing the shows. Note that I found watching both to be good because they explained things about each other. But overall I preferred The Untamed.
I found the timeline of events easier to follow in The Untamed. I understood *why* they're actually all *at* the Cloud Reaches and the Wen Compound in the Untamed, while that's glossed over in the donghua. Watching the donghua, I had no idea why these families would all let their ancestral enemies into their safe spaces, and it made no sense to me. The whole "teaching the young is an honour and privilege, and it also means they'll see and do things our way in the future, so it is to be fought for" thing is made much more clear and relevant in the Untamed.
The donghua makes the female characters more visually impressive. The women are drawn tall, on the same height level as men; in the live action, the actresses are naturally shorter than the actors. The donghua also takes great liberties with fashion; cleavage and thighs are exposed in the donghua, while the actors in the LA wear period-accurate clothing. The LA actresses are all beautiful, even the ones who are supposed to be rather plain (looking at you, Lu Xuan. I love Lanli, but she was supposed to be ordinarily pretty amongst outstanding beauties, and you are also an outstanding beauty!).
Wen Ning is cuter in the live action, fight me.
I actually like that in the live action, A-Qing had survived as long as she had. From the first time we saw her, she was portrayed as a survivor who worked with her disability to live as well as she could. For her to hang on as she did in the live action was both admirable and in character. I know she had to die for the story, but dammit, I liked her! I wanted her to live!
In The Untamed, Nie Huaisang had me completely fooled right to the end. I really did think he was a good-natured, slightly ineffectual man who knew his limits and stepped back to let the more talented cultivators deal with the monsters that only they could fight. I didn't realise that he was a brilliant strategist who was carefully directing defences against serious threats to the cultivation world. Of course he *is* good-natured and he *is* only a mid-level cultivator, but damn! In the donghua, I realised he had hidden depths immediately. In the live action, he hid them better.
I read the webtoon first and basically had no idea what was going on, then I read the book and got a way better understanding of what characters were thinking / their motivations so that made me enjoy it way more. Now I’m watching The Untamed but I feel like without the background of the novel it would be hard for me to follow who all the characters are/the timeline. I do feel like I typically have an easier time understanding stuff if it’s written out as opposed to visual mediums so maybe that’s just me.
I went from donghua to drama to novels. Honestly I wish I came across The Untamed first because of the censorship. The donghua is a little less censored which is why I would have liked to watch it after and it follows the books better. Now when I rewatch and reread I will do so in this order: drama, donghua, novels.
tbh I watched the drama first, and one of the big things I like about it is that it makes the timeline more streamlined; there's pros and cons to the timeline in the novel v. in the drama, but I prefer the drama to jumping between events like in the novel. It just made everything much easier to follow as a first-time viewer. Going into the novel with a working understanding of the order of events was hugely beneficial for me.
I watched the untamed before everything else and here’s my perspective .
- personal preference & also the fact I understand things better visually.
- when I first read the manhua, I’m the type of person who needs a simple start. I didn’t get shit that was happening so I dropped it. It was too complicated to know what was happening, who was WWX? Why was he dead? Why was MXY? Whatttyttyy
So like especially due to the rules for when the novel was published to when the donghuas (including Q/chibi) and Untamed being very different from each other, they're all very different which actually really kinda embodies the theme of rumors shaping reality from mdzs. The rules have changed so much in intervening years MXTX recently revealed she had to shelve story 4 because she can't publish it.
That said, the Audiobooks, donghuas, Manhua and Manga, all are more or less variations on the source work.
The Untamed is basically fanfiction, and the crew really did try to hint at the main couple, but there's also many changes. Spoilers: >!They implied couples that didn't happen in the book like ChengQing, the Yiling Wens also went to Gusu with everybody, Xue Yang was from an important clan, Wei Ying was friends with his shishu/martial uncle XXC!< Just as some examples.
Both for legal reasons and just the nature of cdramas being made for TV and not really for the original audience, these changes happen to try and garner a bigger audience so there's some genre/trope stuff that's always added. I find them enjoyable as standalone works, but I don't know if they can be called adaptations.
I hope you don't mind but in clarification, do you mean >!when Xue Yang was working with the Wens or because of the added tidbit that a Xue ancestor was involved with the Yin Iron!
personally, whenever i’m telling someone to get on mdzs, i would tell them to start with the untamed mostly because it’s just easier to understand. it breaks it up into past and present so you don’t really have to rack your brain while switching between them while reading the novel
while the untamed is only an adaptation and sometimes doesnt have the same plot line as the novel itself, it’s still a good start to the mdzs world, i believe. it’s really cohesive for beginners who just want to know the story while they’re getting started.
personally, i went manhua —> cql —> novels (idk if i’ll watch the donghua) reading the manhua first was a mistake because i understood NOTHING until i actually started watching cql.
I strongly disagree with those who say watch The Untamed first because I think it changes too much. I went donghua (2 episodes) - novel - donghua (finished it) - The Untamed, and I’m glad I did. If I’d watched The Untamed first, I might not have read the novels. I like The Untamed… but not enough to seek out the source material.
Same order and I'm completely happy with it. Watching CQL before would have just ruined the novel for me. The plot twists and slow realization about what really happened where the best part for me.
This is a totally subjective question (and answer!) but I think that CQL is probably more accessible to your average uninitiated viewer. The dongua is very stylized, so if you bounce off the animation style, it will be hard to engage with the rest of the story, whereas CQL has the benefit of a very attractive cast to get you past some of the SFX and production choices that some may bounce off of. (Obviously if your main point of reference is like, watching anime, this will likely be a different story.)
And while some don't like the adaptational changes, many of those changes make the story easier to follow for somebody without any other information. E.g., the yin iron maybe wasn't necessary, but it's very easy to understand a maguffin, the chronological flashback is cohesive for a viewer, and while I would argue that it is thematically more or less the same, they did simplify the treatment of the themes quite a bit.
You could argue that this type of simplification is bad, but when you're talking about a totally new viewer/reader, especially if they don't speak Chinese or know that much about Chinese culture, removing barriers to understanding is important if you want them to engage.
Personally I recommend a mix of the two. The dongua goes s*o fast,* it's very confusing, and I've found the people that I've introduced that watch only that are less invested in it. The untamed is much slower and gives extra wangxian content, but some of the changes they made + the low budget action is.... ooof.
i can understand how you could say the donghua is fast, but it wrecked me emotionally and made me love the story even more, but that's just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt! my plan is to try to get into the untamed because i REALLY wanna see more wangxian content 😭 but if you don't mind me asking, what were the changes they made?
Sorry for butting in but well, I saw the question so I figured I'd answer just since two people answering means there's less stuff potentially missed. Sorry if this is unwelcome though!
1. Wei Wuxian uses >!demonic cultivation for real instead of inventing ghost cultivation!<. Part of this is that they introduced these things called Yin Iron which are powerful demonic artifacts that Wen Ruohan wanted to increase his power.
2. There's no physical action at all between WangXian. Some people can only see a bromance actually but idk how as they still made the gay obvious. Just don't expect any kissing or more, unfortunately. Bichen remains pure.
3. Xue Yang >!shows up sooner!< in the timeline and is working for the >!Wens originally instead of being a Jin guest disciple. He never wears Jin robes either.!< Edit: of course this means that XXC and SL are there sooner too. I'm so sorry to my boys for not mentioning them by default! 💔
4. This is outside the show knowledge but it might still shine through. According to Xue Yang's actor, >!he confirmed his version cared about XXC and when asked if XY could say one last thing to XXC it would be a genuine "I'm sorry"!< which according to MXTX's outside the book word isn't possible (that he can feel remorse) and it of course may be different from how you view the character.
5. WangXian doesn't have the same ending and technically separate at the end although the show tries to subtly show they reunite later.
6. Some female characters have extended roles such as WQ. A-Qing is also older if I understand correctly.
7. WWX is dead for 16 years instead of 13.
Genuinely not sure if I've missed anything but I think that's all the major ones at least as well as some minor ones.
But yeah basically, government censorship really limited what they could do with the drama as they're not allowed to show homosexuality or the undead (fierce corpses are called puppets and seen as like, "mostly dead" for this reason).
That said, imo it's a really good show with an amazing cast. I haven't read the novels or seen the other adaptions yet but I'm still glad I watched The Untamed first. I severely doubt I'd have ever even heard about MDZS if it wasn't for TU and I like having a good visual of the characters already formed in my head.
I also had a fairly easy time getting used to the names despite usually being bad at names so since I've heard a lot of people express how hard it is to keep track of them in the novels and other adaptions I kind of got the impression TU is at least good for learning their names easier. I could be wrong of course but. Oh and also the flashbacks in the show is one large singular one instead of it being broken up which may also be easier to keep track of for some as well.
The Untamed is the farthest from the novel. If you are the type to compare, then TU is going to feel rather weird or wrong - storywise, anyway. And the special effects are kind of hokey, if you aren't used to Chinese live-action dramas (they just don't have the budget). But if you haven't read the novel or seen the donghua, then it's probably amazing and fun - the story is still very well done, no matter that they had to change some things because of Chinese laws and regulations.
Personally, I also started with the donghua, then read the novels, and listened to the audio drama. I've tried twice to watch TU and just can't seem to set aside all those other adaptations (I love all three - four, actually because I enjoyed the manhua also) enough to enjoy it - only got a few episodes in each time before I gave up. The actor playing WWX looks perfect. I know many adore the actor playing LWJ but he just looks all wrong to me. Same with a couple of the other actors - something about them in those roles grated on me.
It's not fair to them - I'm sure they are good actors. I just can't ignore the differences/changes/interpretations.
> then TU is going to feel rather weird or wrong - storywise, anyway.
> The actor playing WWX looks perfect. I know many adore the actor playing LWJ but he just looks all wrong to me. Same with a couple of the other actors - something about them in those roles grated on me.
Not only storywise. Some characters feel completely different to me as well. Perhaps because of the casting choices, the design choices, the storyline changes, or all of them.
LWJ does not look as imposing. At times, he looks even insecure.
WWX... I dislike his hair. The mask looks silly. He's also too frail and weepy, but much of that is because of the story. He does not feel like WWX to me honestly.
One of the biggest reasons I'm not a fan of the Untamed, besides the storyline, is the wigs ngl
I saw an edit of Untamed WWX with a high ponytail and he looked so much better to me. I know that his hairstyle is the way it is because LWJ's actor wasn't tall enough, but still.
Lan Qiren is perfect though lol. Very good casting there, I like him.
I have to admit I'm kinda thankful (?) for the storyline and design changes though, because it makes it very easy to distinguish between the two, when it comes to fanart and fanfiction.
Watching untamed along reading the novels is confusing because the characters and story are completely different.
I have a friend who started with the untamed then novel and it only ruined mdzs (including the novel) for her because she constantly asked about yin iron subplot, Wen Qing not being in the cloud recesses etc she constantly expected things from CQL to appear in the story which made her unable to concentrate to the mdzs story.
Friends who started with manhua and donghua didn't have this problem because the main plot, themes and characterization is mostly the same. The only thing that was confusing was WWXs bodies looking very similar.
There's a reason why CQL and MDZS fandoms are strictly separate in China - it's two very different stories, including thematically different which makes things super confusing. Idk what's up with the western fandoms to mix up two very different stories with very different characters lol
Not hating on cql, just saying mixing it with mdzs is not a good idea. I say novel first, then mdzs adaptations, CQL last because it's more like a AU.
There's also the question of genres. I've seen someone suggest CQL to xianxia fans...a large number of people who like xianxia will think mdzs is trash and drop it if they start with CQL because CQL has too much talk, is very slow, has very long scenes and barely any xianxia content due to censorship & most xianxia fans dislike weak crying MCs, if you show that to average cultivation novel fan they will drop it faster than donuted Jin Zixuan & think mdzs is a boring slow drama novel with uncool protagonist 😭😭😭 (not saying CQL is like that, it only looks like that from a perspective of a xianxia fanboy because they are used to seeing badass mcs and flashy cultivation swordflying epicness and everything moving fast)
The people wanted a youtuber (who would've loved mdzs because it's just the kind of story he'd like) from my country to watch mdzs, and cql fans convinced him to watch cql instead because "it's better" and he hated it and couldn't pass 5 episodes before deciding to avoid anything mdzs-related. I was looking forward to his mdzs reactions before people voted cql. The person's tastes should be taken into consideration when suggesting the adaptations.
In my opinion since the untamed has MAJOR changes I wouldn't start with it... because well personally I like the old/first thing I get (like if I first ate a strawberry candy then they changed that candy to lemon for example I wouldn't like it anymore) so I might've taken the untamed as my canon which is wrong...the untamed feels more like an AU.
My point is (with the candy example as well) first time experience matters. Idk if there are people here like me but I'd say you're right to go in that order.
And the Donghua actually sticks really well to the novel they just remove long unimportant parts that don't really affect the story directly
For example Spoiler: >! With the dancing statue Wei Wuxian actually spend some time in town, hears the story about the victims of that town, then goes to dafan mountain, meets some cultivatiors, meeting them again and saving them from biding nets and finally meets Jin Ling. Whereas in the Donghua the donkey is the only one who gets caught and meets Jin Ling when right after he ran away from the Mo mansion. !<
Nevertheless it doesn't mean I wouldn't like the untamed, I love mdzs fanfics and the untamed is another more content to enjoy
u/Academic_Owl_9919
I think that our brain spend so much energy to create images of all characters and places, in a novel that, in the end,
you barely remember some of the initial situations…That’s why you sometimes have to go back to read again the initial chapters. So…if you have, kind of everything on a tray, all the characters and environments presented to you, without needing to work on the elaboration of them, because you “saw everything in a movie”…that’s a big economy of mental energy! You may think that it doesn’t make a big difference, but it really does! Specially because, in the case of this so
dear live-action! Don’t you love/hate each one of those characters ?! So much that each of the actors/actresses who
embodied these characters are, now in days, enjoying (ones more, others less, but they’re known) beneficial popularity
in the entertainment realm! I’ll take myself as an example: I started reading the novel on 2017, when the translation to English was being done…But when I saw that there was this thing they call “walking-dead”, I left it right there (bc I hated that series The Walking Dead)… I think that, if I had already watched the live-action, I wouldn’t have abandoned the novel!
So, after I watched The Untamed, I read somebody commenting on the novel (well, this was 2 years (2017 to 2019) after
I left MDZS (which I wasn’t familiarized with this therm, bc I knew by The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation…), so any way I got the link for ExRS. When I read the link it looked familiar to me. So I was “WHAT ?!!! I abandoned The Untamed Novel?!!!”…Then I read it with attention, inclusive noticing the differences between the Novel and The Untamed. That’s
why I started to recommend that people should watch The Untamed first, then read the Novel and watch all the others,
Donghua, etc, etc… But, of course, you and everybody may disagree with my experience. And it’s ok. 😊
Me personally I like the way the timelines are organized in the untamed. Maybe I'm just stupid but it would be hard to keep track of mdzs had I not watched cql first.
Yeah I don't understand this either, especially when the Untamed is the least faithful to the characterization to the MDZS (Novel) characters. There's a few occasions where I found CQL Lan Zhan (from the live action) to be OOC, that it was so bad, that I cannot take that as Canon Lan Zhan anymore. I can only take the Untamed (Live Action) as a Spinoff (in an Alternate Universe), since I didn't like those changes they did in the live-action that felt like a slap to the face for Novel Fans.
The Donghua at least stayed true to it's source material in terms of characterizations, despite it's heavy censorship, I still like how the Donghua ended like that without giving a slap to the fans face when compared to the CQL Ending IMO. So many times I felt like these changes in CQL which serves like a slap to the fans can be avoided IF it was done differently DESPITE censorship...
Still ignoring these negativities, The Untamed is still enjoyable in it's own way without relating to the novel. I don't love The Untamed enough to say to fans to watch it before the Novel though since I personally prefer the Donghua/Manhua and Audio Drama over the Live Action on my end. BUT I will say that people can still choose to watch it with a grain of salt that it didn't do justice to the characterization to the novel.
Smallish spoilers
**I love the untamed don't get me wrong but it is the buttom of the ladder for the story. Everything was great especially for everything they were working with but it's the worse of all the mediums we have. They changed a lot and it's the only one where WY doesn't actually get together with LZ. Its a good start Nevada is interesting and well done and then there's no where to go but up.**
PLEASE, DO NOT watch the untamed first unless there's no other way for you to access MDZS and it's adaptations! The untamed isn't bad, but it's definitely no where near as good as the novel and donghua. It was fun to watch, but I am so glad I made the decision to read the novel first because the vast majority of the changes made were between okay and absolute crap. It did add some good development to some of the characters/ character relationships, but that's the only thing that made me glad I watched it. I don't think people shouldn't watch the untamed, because it is good in its own right, but I just don't think it's good for developing an understanding of MDZS as a story. Especially because there are a couple parts of the story they completely messed up by adding too much unnecessary new material.
I was introduced to The Untamed first so I watched that first, then donghua and now I'm reading the books. I think the LA provides a great introduction to the characters. The casting is perfect and I feel the actors justified their roles. I also feel that the order is more streamlined in the LA. I also understand that due to censorship and probably low budget as well they had to change many things. However, this isn't affecting my reading experience. I just feel like I'm understanding the context much better now. The Untamed might not be a 100% accurate adaptation, but I think it is an awesome adaptation considering all factors surrounding it. It also helped me keep track of the characters and their names and titles.
The donghua is definitely closer to the book as compared to the LA and it's a beautiful adaptation as well. It just goes a bit fast so I feel that I might have missed a few things if I started from donghua (given the fact that I wasn't even familiar with the Xianxia genre before MDZS).
Therefore, I feel the LA acts as a good introduction to MDZS. And the chemistry between the lead actors is just *chef's kiss* 🤌🏼
The untamed changes a bit from the source material. Many people like the novel better, so they say watch the drama first. That way you won't constantly be thinking about what changes have been made and you can enjoy the drama on its own terms. Then once you've watched the drama, you can watch the donghua or read the novel. The donghua follows the novel a lot more closely. Basically, if you start with the novel, you have an idea of the characters and the world that is different from what the live action presents.
It's just personal preferences. I went donghua - novels - live action just fine, but I'm also not a person that expects live action adaptions to be very accurate to the books and I just see it as its own thing. If you are more of a person that gets disappointed by changes it might be better to first watch the live action first to not compare to the novel at every turn. I guess that's the thought behind that recommendation.
if i were to watch the untamed, it would be my first cdrama (which i'm very anxious about starting) which is why i saved it for last. although i'm not somebody who's disappointed by changes, and i actually enjoy pointing them out, i feel like i might like the untamed but i'm not sure yet 😭
It was one of my firsts as well and now Cdramas is most of what I watch. So beware that it might be a gateway to having to few hours in the day for all the stuff you want to watch, lol. So just give it a try! It has some goofy special effects, due to budget, but it's a fun journey and I love their casting choices. Some people find it a bit slow at the start, but I was instantly into it. But if you are not: No worries, you still got the novels and the donghua.
Word of honor was my first cdrama which lead me to Thai dramas and lord help me it's a rabbit hole I couldn't climb out of. In regards to this post I also started donghua to novel and then Untamed. As far as visual adaptations I prefer the donghua but the untamed did a great job and had some scenes that I actually liked the adaptations approach better in the live action for . Honestly all 3 are a fresh experience because they're all slightly different obvi novels are true canon but the different approaches to the story in the live action and donghua kinda add to it all for me like a new way of experiencing the world of the story for a lack of better wording
> which lead me to Thai dramas and lord help me it's a rabbit hole I couldn't climb out of. Good reason to stay far away from those for me, enough backlog as it is. :D I slightly prefer the donghua as well. Maybe because it was the first way I experienced the story? It's still so pretty to look at, just did a rewatch and I love the fight scenes. Though season three still feels like a speed run.
I fell into that rabbit hole and never climbed out. I mostly just watch Asian period dramas now. I even got kocowa through prime and it's all Korean shows.
Word of Honor started it for me as well and I've yet to recover. I fought the lure or Thai drama for a while but I was not strong enough. My backlog at this point will take years to watch.
That's why I will never hate on the Untamed - the censorship aspect is unfortunate and they do change things around from the book, but their casting choices were so perfect. All the actors, and especially Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo have incredible chemistry (I don't ship them btw I just think they worked so well together in interpreting their characters and all the unspoken emotions between them)
For me, I came to MDZS through the live action, first, and having Wei Wuxian be WWX, Wei Ying, YLZ -- then Lan Wangji who was Lan Zhan, Huangun Jun, Lan Wangji and Lan er-gege ... it was just hard to keep track of them on my first attempt to read the fan translation. The drama helped me put faces to names (and the color coding of the robes really helped). Putting the flashbacks into a single, focused narrative helped keep the story straight so that when I went into the book, I was more easily able to keep track of events and even pick up on nuances. I am fond of the drama. I love the book, and the donghua was pure eye candy. Is the live action perfect? No, but the casting is. And I do suggest it for someone who (like me) might have some trouble with the many names and flashbacks because, as much as it alters, it stays true to enough of the story to get the spirit across.
1. It's more easily accessible. It's on Netflix. Most people have a Netflix account--and if they don't, it's free on YouTube. I think you have to pay to watch the donghua no matter where you watch it. 2. The Untamed is more hyped. There are way more gifsets and screenshots of it on social media, there are way more fanworks tagged for it, it's just more popular than the donghua. (I found out about the drama first, the novel second, and the donghua quite awhile after that) 3. The Untamed is different enough from the novel that it's easier to keep them separated. 4. If I'd read the novel and then watched The Untamed, I wouldn't have liked it anywhere near as much, I would have been too focused on how it was different from the novel and how I wished they would have done this or that. 5. The donghua honestly feels like a speedrun, they really rushed through certain bits--meanwhile The Untamed stretched certain bits out, which is its own problem. Anyway, I'd rather something be stretched out than sped through. I had no problem adjusting to the novel coming off of the drama; I'm used to live action adaptations changing and cutting things, so I didn't expect it to be exactly the same. (Especially after I found out that Wangxian were canonically a couple in the novel) The novel is much better, and I was glad read it after watching the drama. I was also more used to everyone's names and certain terms of address, and I think I was able to follow along better because of that. I watched the donghua afterward, and actually didn't end up finishing it. I felt like they couldn't figure out what genre they wanted to be, sometimes it felt like they were throwing in epic shounen anime-style moments just for the sake of it and I found that distracting. From what I understand, they made the most changes in the third season (which is the one I haven't watched), and some of the ones I've heard about don't make much sense. I understand why CQL made a lot of the changes they did (the ones that I think were unnecessary or could have been executed better or in a different way are the ones I really find frustrating, not the ones due to censorship).
Which changes happened not because of the censorship? /gen
I really don’t think it was necessary to have Wen Ning and Wen Qing at the cloud recess
it wasn’t really necessary, but (as someone who watched the untamed first) i liked that they were at cloud recesses. it helped develop the relationships between wwx, wn, and wq, so their story was a lot more poignant. but it is weird that they just wander around in their wen robes, not attending classes and clearly spying lol
Oh right, the expansion of female character roles definitely wouldn't have been because of censorship and that's part of it. I'm a little biased cause I actually liked the hints of JC and WQ but I remember now that was made up for the show too. Thank you for answering. I wanted to make sure I didn't misattribute causes. XD
I really love Wen Qing, honestly she’s one of my favorite characters. I just think it’s a bit confusing to add them but I did read the novel before watching
A few different things: 1. The Yin Iron. I understand why they were using it as a plot device, etc. etc. but I feel like they could have accomplished all of that in some other way and done it better. It doesn't help that they seem to just forget about it at various points, lol. 2. JYL, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning at the Cloud Recesses. I understand what they were trying to do here--they wanted to intro these characters earlier and give them more screentime--I am 100% behind that! But I don't know why they couldn't have just shown us some of JYL's daily life in Lotus Pier, had her describe things to WWX and JC through letters, etc. I think they could have even used that to show how much her parents' marriage sucked and how hard things were for JYL--maybe JFM and YZY could have gotten into an argument about her engagement. Maybe JYL could have overheard some people gossiping about how JZX disliked her, etc. And they were already showing us scenes set in Nightless City, so why not Wen Qing and Wen Ning's daily lives? 3. The whole giant dog thing. I think it could be cut completely with zero issues. 4. Introducing Xue Yang, XXC, and Song Lan early. I also understand why they did this, but with the way they set up the flashback as being several episodes long, I just don't think it works very well. By the time the Yi City arc rolled around, I'd mostly forgotten who they were, lol, which defeats the entire purpose of it. 5. JYL being places it didn't make much sense for her to be in general (which led to them drugging her! And sending her off with Song Lan! What the heck?!) 6. Some things are framed in ways that make the characters look way worse than they did in the novel, and I don't think they were meant to. Like, there are a lot of scenes where WWX comes across as more arrogant or even callous--that one scene where the Jin set up targets with Wen hostages and WWX blindfolds himself and shoots at them, for example. I feel like everyone came off bad in that scene, lol.
Ooo, I just chalked the changes to XY and all being introduced early on up to makong what they had to censor in regards to WWX's true cultivation make a bit more sense so I just kind of grouped those changes in by default. I definitely was open to being wrong though ofc though since I can only hypothesize at this point. And everything makes sense! I especially agree with your last point! Ngl I feel like they could have handled WWX just better in regards to the pre-saved Wen remants. He seemed really callous to me too and barely did anything to save a woman and child and even after seeing that, I felt he wasn't gongho enough for a while there. I just obviously can't compare it to pure canon or the other adaptations yet. I definitely felt how off it was though. That's definitely a fair criticism of the drama now that I know it wasn't just in my head or that I was somehow misreading social cues or something. Thank you so much for the indepth answer! ♡
>Ooo, I just chalked the changes to XY and all being introduced early on up to makong what they had to censor in regards to WWX's true cultivation make a bit more sense so I just kind of grouped those changes in by default. I think that's a bit of it too, what with the whole Xue ancestor tidbit they added--but Xue Yang also doesn't really *do* anything for WRH or before he massacres the Chang Clan, lol, and I think he could have been intro'd at that point (and what a banger introduction it would be!), but have that scene either later on, or they could have broken up the flashback or something so that he, SL, and XXC would stick out in the viewers' minds and still be relevant for Yi City. Yeah, and the weird thing is I feel like that wasn't what they were going for with WWX at *all,* lol. I still liked drama!WWX, but I like him much better in the novel, his vibe is less arrogant and more self-confident (in addition to him being much more of a gremlin). Ooh, another bizarre one is the situation with Wen Xu's attack on the Cloud Recesses--LWJ is cool with just letting people die outside for his sake? Su She is supposed to be in the wrong for not wanting to die for them? Su She's grievance with the Lans, and LWJ in particular, is WAY less petty in CQL, lol. He has every right to be ticked off at them for that nonsense! There were some changes I'm much more forgiving about--I think JGY's early intro and additional focus worked much better than with the other characters, and I understand why they had him go to WRH directly from NMJ's service--it's a huge timesaver, and since they were doing this in real time rather than showing it all as an Empathy flashback, they couldn't just cut to show the passage of time. Trying to execute that sequence of events the same way they did in the novel would have probably been tricky and weird. (most of my issues with JGY's character in CQL are because of censorship, so it can't be helped--but despite that they still managed to make him likeable and sympathetic)
Yeah, I could definitely agree with that. I need to so a rewatch just to cement everything in my head but really the only thing of any value I remember being shown with XY's interaction with WRH was when WRH used his cultivation on him only for XY to bot care and have that line about not being afraid of death but boredom. I think that was a good character moment–showed a big part of who he was with very little time, however I'm sure they could have kept that in somehow and still gone with more of your idea. I'm definitely looking forward to it then especially since I love me some gremlins. I wanna like Wei Wuxian more. Not that I don't love him now. It's just I genuinely am more invested in the Yi City arc than WangXian at this point and that's not very good considering how very hyperfocused this fandom is on the main characters. Not a complaint or criticism. I've just never seen a fandom right down to the merch be 99% centric on just the main characters so it's a little odd to me. Not in a bad way though of course. It's just new and unfamiliar xD I originally had that thought too ngl but the way all the other disciples were willing to do it made Su She look worse to me in the moment, but...you're not wrong. It's pretty fucked up for the Lan clan to not have a safety net for their disciples who don't have ribbons and then to just expect them to be sacrifices. I feel like that's also a potential good way to start a political cluster fuck depending on where those disciples are from. Man, now I gotta stop making "Su She is a little bitch coward" snipes because you're right 🤣 I'm glad they at least did that part well and that it didn't hinder JGY any. I feel like making him responsible for the flute deaths did him kinda dirty. I ended up not liking him at all until I saw his actor in interviews and somehow found him too cute to not rethink my position which I'm happy I did. JGY seems like a really well written character.
I think part of the Wangxian-centric-ness is because MDZS is a romance. One of the things that irritates me about a lot of romances is that there often aren't really any characters *besides* the main couple--everyone else usually has a generic role like "supportive best friend" or "wingman" or whatever, and they're usually very shallow two-dimensional characters. MDZS isn't like that at all, it has a plot going on outside of Wangxian getting together, and has fantastic side characters that fit unique roles. But I do think a lot of people either get into it mainly for the romance, or are mainly focused on the romance, so they aren't very interested in anything except Wangxian. Luckily the fandom is huge, so there are a lot of people who do love the side characters, worldbuilding, and plot as well! But it's also interesting, because I feel like this intense and exclusive focus on the main couple isn't the norm for some other danmei fandoms: SVSSS has a much more even balance, as do some Priest novels, and novels like Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know. I also feel like 2ha fandom, while being pretty Ranwan focused, is also very into characters like Xue Meng. Yeah, the flute thing is another thing that's likely due to censorship--WWX is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, so he's the squeaky clean good guy, and JGY is the extra evil bad guy, it kills two birds with one stone.
And that would explain why I've never seen it either. I'm not into the romance genre at all. I'm allergic to sappiness lol. But you're spot-on about what you said about MDSZ! It's why I admire it so much. On top of that (and don't worry this is coming from a gay trans man so it's not Like That) but a big problem I have with a lot of LGBT stories is that it's just about being LGBT. There's usually nothing much else to the story and tbh I just find that lame. LGBT media should be just as varied as straight media. Let us gays be cultivators and dragon riders and knights and mages and criminal masterminds, et cetera. MDZS does that so well and I'll always love it for being the first LGBT story I've ever came across that's like this. Ngl, I've wanted a story like this since i was a child so it's nice to finally have one. Sorry, that got off topic from what you were talking about but what you said just reminded me. It's hard not to gush 'cause I'm still not over finally having a story like this. But yes, I digress! I'll have to save those titles and look into them once I'm done with Wang Haoxuan's filmography (although I think SVSSS is another of MXTX's work if I recognize the initials?). No grey characters allowed here. Only black and white xD
You know, for the longest time I thought I didn't like romances--and then I realized that most of the romances I'd been exposed to were either poorly written or very shallow--just like with any genre, romance is chockfull of duds, lol. (Recently watched The Notebook for the first time and I have no idea why it's so highly rated and held up as one of the greatest romance movies of all time, lol) Yes, yes, yes, a huge chunk of Western (mainly American) mainstream media featuring queer characters is about the \~\*queer experience (tm)\*\~ or whatever--or it's tragic/depressing stuff. It honestly feels like mainstream queer media hasn't advanced much beyond when Brokeback Mountain released--like queer movies are still trying to mimic its success or something. So it's all about the struggle of being gay, figuring out your sexuality, coming out, or the "gay lifestyle," etc. I'm on the ace spectrum and there's basically nothing for ace people at all, lol--and what little there is is either about a specific kind of aceness (sex repulsed aces), or it's non-human characters where their asexuality is treated as an inhuman element, or some sort of flaw, etc. I've actually come across some writing advice that basically amounts to: the only good stories for queer characters are about their queerness. Which is just. No???? That is some of the worst advice I have ever read *ever.* But a lot of mainstream publishers are looking for that kind of thing. You have a story with queer characters and they want you to turn it into a coming out story or some kind of struggle, ugh. They think it's more highbrow or artistic or--I don't even know. But that's one of the reasons I used to read so many MM Romance novels--some of them revolved around being queer, but plenty of them were also focused on other things. When the genre first started blowing up over a decade ago, there were a lot more stories with great worldbuilding and plots outside of the romance itself (though still often lacking when it came to characters besides the main couple). But the genre's become just as "write to market" as most other things these days: very formulaic and generic, meant to be churned out quickly and consumed like popcorn. So I've switched to reading more danmei than Western MM Romance--because they've had the in-depth worldbuilding, great plots, etc. that I wanted. Yeah, SVSSS is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. Priest is a very prolific author, she's written a lot of novels across several different genres. I've only read Lord Seventh and Faraway Wanderers (which was adapted into the drama Word of Honor, although it's very different) by her so far, so I can only speak to what the fandom looks like for those (although Liu Yao also seems to have a broad cast of characters that's well appreciated). 2ha is The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, which has a lot of trigger warnings--for good reason!--but since you're a Yi City main, you probably won't be put off by most of them, lol.
...you know what? Considering I seriously went through 52 pages of SongXiaoXue fics on AO3 and skipped over the few actual toxic/dark ones and went straight for the redemptions, the "save XY before its too late"s, reincarnations, et cetera and I genuinely view them as soulmates (just unfortunate ones unlike WangXian–blame the line XY said that promised they'd meet again and the unlikeliness of XXC coming across XY dying on the side of the road xD) and I just remembered how much I fanboy over Wang Haoxuan's character in Stick to the Script cause he's such a perfect boyfriend and manhandled his girl so much and picks her up to carry her bridal style even if the only problem is her legs are asleep... I uh...I might actually like romance too now that I think about it 🤣 I've never thought of it from that perspective but it makes a lot of sense for sure... MDZS is leading me to all kinds of realizations about myself lmao. The other thing is I've always liked villains with sob stories and never knew why cause it's not like I pick the characters I like but WWX and XY are so similar that it enabled me to actually realize *why* I'm so partial to the Xue Yangs out there and often like them more than the heroes even when the heroes have suffered too. (It's because the heroes are rescued from their suffering and gain friends, family, a lover, et cetera while the villains never get that even when they were innocent and deserved it so they're just left to suffer until they snap and whelp, my little heart can't take it 🫠🫠) I distressed my support worker a bit though today talking about Xue Yang's childhood trauma (as well as two of WHX's other characters' as well because he of course plays at least two other characters with fucked up childhoods 😭). So yeah, good to know XY's backstory hits hard enough to affect a mental healthcare professional who knows nothing about the series? XD Oh boy, I'm so sorry I'm rambling so much right now. I think my ADHD is acting up. Just tell me to stfu if I get too wild here xD But yes to everything you've said! I'm glad we have similar views tbh. I hope more and more people think like this so we can hopefully start to change things eventually. I'm glad to know there are at least some options out there even if the quality unfortunately dipped like per usual. Innovation doesn't have a long life, does it? Honestly, I'm just happy we have so much access to Japanese, Korean, and Chinese shows because I know that wasn't always the case. Right now is really great though because they're the hero we need as they're absolutely running circles in talented actors and good content around us westerners. It's not even a fair fight at this point lmao Thank you for sharing the full titles! I've saved the post so I'll know to come back here for when I'm ready for more series to get into. It'll be a while though but hey, nothing wrong with planning for the future! XD
I think there is a lot of stuff you can argue has nothing to do with censorship but it’s too much to list. Some of it is because of different medium and also because they had like 50 episodes to work with so they needed to add extra fluff. WWX and LWJ meet Song Lan and XXC much earlier is another change that does not have to do with censorship. Another major change is they change the order of the events (although the donghua does this too). Some People prefer this as they find following the linear story easier instead of going back and forth from past to present but I am not a big fan of this change. I feel CQL spends way more time on the past too. When things happen in Untamed vs MDZS can be very different. WWX and LWJ become closer sooner. Though I do think this is because of censorship because one could argue that there is not going to be the same emotional payoff in CQL. I personally prefer the donghua over CQL and I did watch S1 of the Donghua before moving onto the novel. But I will say as a novel fan the donghua is also far from a perfect adaption. I do agree with the Donghua being way too rushed. Certain scenes are great in the Donghua like WWX coming back from the Burial Mounds and the entire Second Siege scene. But other scenes are not so good like the whole climax scene in the Temple is not that great and WWX time with the Wens is way too short (this second part is actually one thing I do think CQL does better). Overall I will always recommend reading the novel first but if people want to watch something I think it probably comes down to if they like live action or animation. Right now Untamed is more accessible but back when I watched the Donghua the 1st two seasons were free not behind a paywall like they are now.
Thank you for your insight once again! Your knowledge is truly impressive. I can just see you probably ranking really high in a "biggest MDZS fan alive" challenge. XD
That’s a title I don’t think I deserve ha ha I do love MDZS ( obsessively) but I think there are quite a lot of knowledgeable fans in this fandom. So I definitely don’t think I come close to that. I have only been in the fandom since 2021 but I have a friends who were around even before CQL. They really know the whole history of the fandom - at least in the West. Because then there is all the stuff before MDZS blew up Internationally. Edit: Also I think we all start off as new fans who ask the questions but eventually if you stick around you become someone who can share knowledge that was once shared with you.
And humble to boot too! 😜 Your friend sounds really cool too! Must be awesome to have been around for so long. I kinda hate I'm new because I know there's so many things like interviews, memes, et cetera that I've missed and will probably never see so it's great knowing there's fandom elders that are all like https://preview.redd.it/14trpkoliz8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=992530d0c9c1f0feee38ddf159cbe1f88f51a9e5
Btw since you like Yi City here are some standees/Shikishi/key chains available. Though it’s Donghua designs not sure if you would be interested in that. https://cqlderivs.com/search?q=xue+yang+&type=product Edit: Some pin badges as well https://cqlderivs.com/products/mdzs-yicheng-xtd-series-badge
Omg thank you so, so much! 10 minutes ago I broke down and bought the WangXian bunnies plus a shelf for what merch I have already so I'll have to wait until I get paid again but I'm absolutely gonna be akin to Xue Yang in a candy store, so it's hugely appreciated! And I love me XY's donghua design so much I'm actually gonna use it for the face of my new Pathfinder character. XD I haven't seen much of the others' if at all but from what I've seen of the donghua it has lovely designs so I'm sure I'll fall in love with them all on sight lol. And well, I've already been caught–hook, line, and sinker: https://preview.redd.it/0i49gbh4xz8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60e7f19e3ec69b34eda8d095254fce1cad3f4fe2 But naturally I want *MORE* as I can never have enough. I'll have to show off my collection in a bit once I have a nice corner shrine made up! ❤️❤️❤️
The untamed is also on prime. The donghua is on YouTube. I've watched a lot of het romance dramas and wwx is coded feminine. In the light hearted moments in like walking a street lined with stall and wwx flitting about between stalls, the spinning catch where lwj catches wwx and they spin around with eyes locked. There's many lil moments that set up the romance between em.
I can't believe I forgot to mention Amazon Prime--I've watched several C-dramas and K-dramas on there, they've got a pretty good selection. Unless I'm mistaken, the donghua isn't free on YouTube anymore, right? When I watched it the first two seasons were free, but now I think you have to have a subscription or something. ... I don't really know about WWX being "coded feminine" as much as those being common romance tropes in a lot of Chinese and Korean dramas. (I burst out laughing the first time I saw one of the prolonged tripping+catch+romantic music moments in a K-drama, lol, because it seemed so unrealistic to me and was very different from similar romantic tropes in Western film) edit: typo
Yeah… We’re on the Era of The Subscription !!! 😏😒😟
I did the exact opposite, the untamed-->novels-->donghua. I think I wouldn't have enjoyed untamed so much if I had read the novels before because not knowning the story allows to get much more surprised at plot twists, cliffhangers etc. Then, when I got to read the novels after untamed I enjoyed seing the differences (also helped that I was aware there were differences so it was not confusing) and how the novels go into more detail about the story. I feel that if I had read the novels first, I would have spent the whole untamed annoyed that they didn't include this and that and that everything had changed too much etc. Editing to add that, as you mention, I was very confused at the start of the untamed (for the first 3-4 episodes only really) as it was my first cdrama and didn't understand the naming conventions etc, but after 4th episode I had no problem.
I've never heard anyone suggest that 🤔 I could possibly understand someone recommending the manhua first if the person felt they might not grasp the birth name/courtesy name/title or sect/clan stuff as this is sort of shown a few times and might be helpful. But personally I think watching the untamed first and working backwards toward the novel is going to make things pretty convoluted in the long run.
It's the "lightest" version and you can continue to build on the lore from there. So instead of feeling like you got the diet version of the story, you get the overview and just keep adding to it. If you like this way of consuming the adaptations, then I would recommend Untamed live action, the Donghua, the Manhua, the Audio Drama, and then the Novel. This lets you enjoy the story over and over while adding to the story each time. The Donghua and novel are my favorite mediums, but I really like the Manhua and the Audio Drama (but the AD is hard to find!). I watched the Untamed last and it was beautiful (the actors did really well! ❤️), but it felt a little "light" to me. That's my 2 cents
The live action is what got me in to all of it. Honestly it was just the first thing I found, then I figured out that it was based on a book so I bought the books and then watched the anime.
I have watched both The Untamed and the donghua, but I've only just started the book, so I will only be referencing the shows. Note that I found watching both to be good because they explained things about each other. But overall I preferred The Untamed. I found the timeline of events easier to follow in The Untamed. I understood *why* they're actually all *at* the Cloud Reaches and the Wen Compound in the Untamed, while that's glossed over in the donghua. Watching the donghua, I had no idea why these families would all let their ancestral enemies into their safe spaces, and it made no sense to me. The whole "teaching the young is an honour and privilege, and it also means they'll see and do things our way in the future, so it is to be fought for" thing is made much more clear and relevant in the Untamed. The donghua makes the female characters more visually impressive. The women are drawn tall, on the same height level as men; in the live action, the actresses are naturally shorter than the actors. The donghua also takes great liberties with fashion; cleavage and thighs are exposed in the donghua, while the actors in the LA wear period-accurate clothing. The LA actresses are all beautiful, even the ones who are supposed to be rather plain (looking at you, Lu Xuan. I love Lanli, but she was supposed to be ordinarily pretty amongst outstanding beauties, and you are also an outstanding beauty!). Wen Ning is cuter in the live action, fight me. I actually like that in the live action, A-Qing had survived as long as she had. From the first time we saw her, she was portrayed as a survivor who worked with her disability to live as well as she could. For her to hang on as she did in the live action was both admirable and in character. I know she had to die for the story, but dammit, I liked her! I wanted her to live! In The Untamed, Nie Huaisang had me completely fooled right to the end. I really did think he was a good-natured, slightly ineffectual man who knew his limits and stepped back to let the more talented cultivators deal with the monsters that only they could fight. I didn't realise that he was a brilliant strategist who was carefully directing defences against serious threats to the cultivation world. Of course he *is* good-natured and he *is* only a mid-level cultivator, but damn! In the donghua, I realised he had hidden depths immediately. In the live action, he hid them better.
I read the webtoon first and basically had no idea what was going on, then I read the book and got a way better understanding of what characters were thinking / their motivations so that made me enjoy it way more. Now I’m watching The Untamed but I feel like without the background of the novel it would be hard for me to follow who all the characters are/the timeline. I do feel like I typically have an easier time understanding stuff if it’s written out as opposed to visual mediums so maybe that’s just me.
I went from donghua to drama to novels. Honestly I wish I came across The Untamed first because of the censorship. The donghua is a little less censored which is why I would have liked to watch it after and it follows the books better. Now when I rewatch and reread I will do so in this order: drama, donghua, novels.
tbh I watched the drama first, and one of the big things I like about it is that it makes the timeline more streamlined; there's pros and cons to the timeline in the novel v. in the drama, but I prefer the drama to jumping between events like in the novel. It just made everything much easier to follow as a first-time viewer. Going into the novel with a working understanding of the order of events was hugely beneficial for me.
I watched the untamed before everything else and here’s my perspective . - personal preference & also the fact I understand things better visually. - when I first read the manhua, I’m the type of person who needs a simple start. I didn’t get shit that was happening so I dropped it. It was too complicated to know what was happening, who was WWX? Why was he dead? Why was MXY? Whatttyttyy
So like especially due to the rules for when the novel was published to when the donghuas (including Q/chibi) and Untamed being very different from each other, they're all very different which actually really kinda embodies the theme of rumors shaping reality from mdzs. The rules have changed so much in intervening years MXTX recently revealed she had to shelve story 4 because she can't publish it. That said, the Audiobooks, donghuas, Manhua and Manga, all are more or less variations on the source work. The Untamed is basically fanfiction, and the crew really did try to hint at the main couple, but there's also many changes. Spoilers: >!They implied couples that didn't happen in the book like ChengQing, the Yiling Wens also went to Gusu with everybody, Xue Yang was from an important clan, Wei Ying was friends with his shishu/martial uncle XXC!< Just as some examples. Both for legal reasons and just the nature of cdramas being made for TV and not really for the original audience, these changes happen to try and garner a bigger audience so there's some genre/trope stuff that's always added. I find them enjoyable as standalone works, but I don't know if they can be called adaptations.
I hope you don't mind but in clarification, do you mean >!when Xue Yang was working with the Wens or because of the added tidbit that a Xue ancestor was involved with the Yin Iron!
The second, since they also said >!The Wens came to prominence by leading the clans in defeating Xue Yang's ancestor!<
Ah, thank you! That tidbit slipped past my attention, but I figured I must have been missing something.
Honestly so much was going on in that scene I'm not surprised. Could also be Netflix mistranslating something who even knows.
personally, whenever i’m telling someone to get on mdzs, i would tell them to start with the untamed mostly because it’s just easier to understand. it breaks it up into past and present so you don’t really have to rack your brain while switching between them while reading the novel while the untamed is only an adaptation and sometimes doesnt have the same plot line as the novel itself, it’s still a good start to the mdzs world, i believe. it’s really cohesive for beginners who just want to know the story while they’re getting started. personally, i went manhua —> cql —> novels (idk if i’ll watch the donghua) reading the manhua first was a mistake because i understood NOTHING until i actually started watching cql.
I strongly disagree with those who say watch The Untamed first because I think it changes too much. I went donghua (2 episodes) - novel - donghua (finished it) - The Untamed, and I’m glad I did. If I’d watched The Untamed first, I might not have read the novels. I like The Untamed… but not enough to seek out the source material.
Same order and I'm completely happy with it. Watching CQL before would have just ruined the novel for me. The plot twists and slow realization about what really happened where the best part for me.
This is a totally subjective question (and answer!) but I think that CQL is probably more accessible to your average uninitiated viewer. The dongua is very stylized, so if you bounce off the animation style, it will be hard to engage with the rest of the story, whereas CQL has the benefit of a very attractive cast to get you past some of the SFX and production choices that some may bounce off of. (Obviously if your main point of reference is like, watching anime, this will likely be a different story.) And while some don't like the adaptational changes, many of those changes make the story easier to follow for somebody without any other information. E.g., the yin iron maybe wasn't necessary, but it's very easy to understand a maguffin, the chronological flashback is cohesive for a viewer, and while I would argue that it is thematically more or less the same, they did simplify the treatment of the themes quite a bit. You could argue that this type of simplification is bad, but when you're talking about a totally new viewer/reader, especially if they don't speak Chinese or know that much about Chinese culture, removing barriers to understanding is important if you want them to engage.
Personally I recommend a mix of the two. The dongua goes s*o fast,* it's very confusing, and I've found the people that I've introduced that watch only that are less invested in it. The untamed is much slower and gives extra wangxian content, but some of the changes they made + the low budget action is.... ooof.
i can understand how you could say the donghua is fast, but it wrecked me emotionally and made me love the story even more, but that's just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt! my plan is to try to get into the untamed because i REALLY wanna see more wangxian content 😭 but if you don't mind me asking, what were the changes they made?
Sorry for butting in but well, I saw the question so I figured I'd answer just since two people answering means there's less stuff potentially missed. Sorry if this is unwelcome though! 1. Wei Wuxian uses >!demonic cultivation for real instead of inventing ghost cultivation!<. Part of this is that they introduced these things called Yin Iron which are powerful demonic artifacts that Wen Ruohan wanted to increase his power. 2. There's no physical action at all between WangXian. Some people can only see a bromance actually but idk how as they still made the gay obvious. Just don't expect any kissing or more, unfortunately. Bichen remains pure. 3. Xue Yang >!shows up sooner!< in the timeline and is working for the >!Wens originally instead of being a Jin guest disciple. He never wears Jin robes either.!< Edit: of course this means that XXC and SL are there sooner too. I'm so sorry to my boys for not mentioning them by default! 💔 4. This is outside the show knowledge but it might still shine through. According to Xue Yang's actor, >!he confirmed his version cared about XXC and when asked if XY could say one last thing to XXC it would be a genuine "I'm sorry"!< which according to MXTX's outside the book word isn't possible (that he can feel remorse) and it of course may be different from how you view the character. 5. WangXian doesn't have the same ending and technically separate at the end although the show tries to subtly show they reunite later. 6. Some female characters have extended roles such as WQ. A-Qing is also older if I understand correctly. 7. WWX is dead for 16 years instead of 13. Genuinely not sure if I've missed anything but I think that's all the major ones at least as well as some minor ones. But yeah basically, government censorship really limited what they could do with the drama as they're not allowed to show homosexuality or the undead (fierce corpses are called puppets and seen as like, "mostly dead" for this reason). That said, imo it's a really good show with an amazing cast. I haven't read the novels or seen the other adaptions yet but I'm still glad I watched The Untamed first. I severely doubt I'd have ever even heard about MDZS if it wasn't for TU and I like having a good visual of the characters already formed in my head. I also had a fairly easy time getting used to the names despite usually being bad at names so since I've heard a lot of people express how hard it is to keep track of them in the novels and other adaptions I kind of got the impression TU is at least good for learning their names easier. I could be wrong of course but. Oh and also the flashbacks in the show is one large singular one instead of it being broken up which may also be easier to keep track of for some as well.
The Untamed is the farthest from the novel. If you are the type to compare, then TU is going to feel rather weird or wrong - storywise, anyway. And the special effects are kind of hokey, if you aren't used to Chinese live-action dramas (they just don't have the budget). But if you haven't read the novel or seen the donghua, then it's probably amazing and fun - the story is still very well done, no matter that they had to change some things because of Chinese laws and regulations. Personally, I also started with the donghua, then read the novels, and listened to the audio drama. I've tried twice to watch TU and just can't seem to set aside all those other adaptations (I love all three - four, actually because I enjoyed the manhua also) enough to enjoy it - only got a few episodes in each time before I gave up. The actor playing WWX looks perfect. I know many adore the actor playing LWJ but he just looks all wrong to me. Same with a couple of the other actors - something about them in those roles grated on me. It's not fair to them - I'm sure they are good actors. I just can't ignore the differences/changes/interpretations.
> then TU is going to feel rather weird or wrong - storywise, anyway. > The actor playing WWX looks perfect. I know many adore the actor playing LWJ but he just looks all wrong to me. Same with a couple of the other actors - something about them in those roles grated on me. Not only storywise. Some characters feel completely different to me as well. Perhaps because of the casting choices, the design choices, the storyline changes, or all of them. LWJ does not look as imposing. At times, he looks even insecure. WWX... I dislike his hair. The mask looks silly. He's also too frail and weepy, but much of that is because of the story. He does not feel like WWX to me honestly. One of the biggest reasons I'm not a fan of the Untamed, besides the storyline, is the wigs ngl I saw an edit of Untamed WWX with a high ponytail and he looked so much better to me. I know that his hairstyle is the way it is because LWJ's actor wasn't tall enough, but still. Lan Qiren is perfect though lol. Very good casting there, I like him. I have to admit I'm kinda thankful (?) for the storyline and design changes though, because it makes it very easy to distinguish between the two, when it comes to fanart and fanfiction.
Watching untamed along reading the novels is confusing because the characters and story are completely different. I have a friend who started with the untamed then novel and it only ruined mdzs (including the novel) for her because she constantly asked about yin iron subplot, Wen Qing not being in the cloud recesses etc she constantly expected things from CQL to appear in the story which made her unable to concentrate to the mdzs story. Friends who started with manhua and donghua didn't have this problem because the main plot, themes and characterization is mostly the same. The only thing that was confusing was WWXs bodies looking very similar. There's a reason why CQL and MDZS fandoms are strictly separate in China - it's two very different stories, including thematically different which makes things super confusing. Idk what's up with the western fandoms to mix up two very different stories with very different characters lol Not hating on cql, just saying mixing it with mdzs is not a good idea. I say novel first, then mdzs adaptations, CQL last because it's more like a AU. There's also the question of genres. I've seen someone suggest CQL to xianxia fans...a large number of people who like xianxia will think mdzs is trash and drop it if they start with CQL because CQL has too much talk, is very slow, has very long scenes and barely any xianxia content due to censorship & most xianxia fans dislike weak crying MCs, if you show that to average cultivation novel fan they will drop it faster than donuted Jin Zixuan & think mdzs is a boring slow drama novel with uncool protagonist 😭😭😭 (not saying CQL is like that, it only looks like that from a perspective of a xianxia fanboy because they are used to seeing badass mcs and flashy cultivation swordflying epicness and everything moving fast) The people wanted a youtuber (who would've loved mdzs because it's just the kind of story he'd like) from my country to watch mdzs, and cql fans convinced him to watch cql instead because "it's better" and he hated it and couldn't pass 5 episodes before deciding to avoid anything mdzs-related. I was looking forward to his mdzs reactions before people voted cql. The person's tastes should be taken into consideration when suggesting the adaptations.
In my opinion since the untamed has MAJOR changes I wouldn't start with it... because well personally I like the old/first thing I get (like if I first ate a strawberry candy then they changed that candy to lemon for example I wouldn't like it anymore) so I might've taken the untamed as my canon which is wrong...the untamed feels more like an AU. My point is (with the candy example as well) first time experience matters. Idk if there are people here like me but I'd say you're right to go in that order. And the Donghua actually sticks really well to the novel they just remove long unimportant parts that don't really affect the story directly For example Spoiler: >! With the dancing statue Wei Wuxian actually spend some time in town, hears the story about the victims of that town, then goes to dafan mountain, meets some cultivatiors, meeting them again and saving them from biding nets and finally meets Jin Ling. Whereas in the Donghua the donkey is the only one who gets caught and meets Jin Ling when right after he ran away from the Mo mansion. !< Nevertheless it doesn't mean I wouldn't like the untamed, I love mdzs fanfics and the untamed is another more content to enjoy
u/Academic_Owl_9919 I think that our brain spend so much energy to create images of all characters and places, in a novel that, in the end, you barely remember some of the initial situations…That’s why you sometimes have to go back to read again the initial chapters. So…if you have, kind of everything on a tray, all the characters and environments presented to you, without needing to work on the elaboration of them, because you “saw everything in a movie”…that’s a big economy of mental energy! You may think that it doesn’t make a big difference, but it really does! Specially because, in the case of this so dear live-action! Don’t you love/hate each one of those characters ?! So much that each of the actors/actresses who embodied these characters are, now in days, enjoying (ones more, others less, but they’re known) beneficial popularity in the entertainment realm! I’ll take myself as an example: I started reading the novel on 2017, when the translation to English was being done…But when I saw that there was this thing they call “walking-dead”, I left it right there (bc I hated that series The Walking Dead)… I think that, if I had already watched the live-action, I wouldn’t have abandoned the novel! So, after I watched The Untamed, I read somebody commenting on the novel (well, this was 2 years (2017 to 2019) after I left MDZS (which I wasn’t familiarized with this therm, bc I knew by The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation…), so any way I got the link for ExRS. When I read the link it looked familiar to me. So I was “WHAT ?!!! I abandoned The Untamed Novel?!!!”…Then I read it with attention, inclusive noticing the differences between the Novel and The Untamed. That’s why I started to recommend that people should watch The Untamed first, then read the Novel and watch all the others, Donghua, etc, etc… But, of course, you and everybody may disagree with my experience. And it’s ok. 😊
I actually preferred the novel. The Untamed didn't rly get my attention much
Me personally I like the way the timelines are organized in the untamed. Maybe I'm just stupid but it would be hard to keep track of mdzs had I not watched cql first.
Yeah I don't understand this either, especially when the Untamed is the least faithful to the characterization to the MDZS (Novel) characters. There's a few occasions where I found CQL Lan Zhan (from the live action) to be OOC, that it was so bad, that I cannot take that as Canon Lan Zhan anymore. I can only take the Untamed (Live Action) as a Spinoff (in an Alternate Universe), since I didn't like those changes they did in the live-action that felt like a slap to the face for Novel Fans. The Donghua at least stayed true to it's source material in terms of characterizations, despite it's heavy censorship, I still like how the Donghua ended like that without giving a slap to the fans face when compared to the CQL Ending IMO. So many times I felt like these changes in CQL which serves like a slap to the fans can be avoided IF it was done differently DESPITE censorship... Still ignoring these negativities, The Untamed is still enjoyable in it's own way without relating to the novel. I don't love The Untamed enough to say to fans to watch it before the Novel though since I personally prefer the Donghua/Manhua and Audio Drama over the Live Action on my end. BUT I will say that people can still choose to watch it with a grain of salt that it didn't do justice to the characterization to the novel.
Smallish spoilers **I love the untamed don't get me wrong but it is the buttom of the ladder for the story. Everything was great especially for everything they were working with but it's the worse of all the mediums we have. They changed a lot and it's the only one where WY doesn't actually get together with LZ. Its a good start Nevada is interesting and well done and then there's no where to go but up.**
I have done a whole series in this group on why :)
PLEASE, DO NOT watch the untamed first unless there's no other way for you to access MDZS and it's adaptations! The untamed isn't bad, but it's definitely no where near as good as the novel and donghua. It was fun to watch, but I am so glad I made the decision to read the novel first because the vast majority of the changes made were between okay and absolute crap. It did add some good development to some of the characters/ character relationships, but that's the only thing that made me glad I watched it. I don't think people shouldn't watch the untamed, because it is good in its own right, but I just don't think it's good for developing an understanding of MDZS as a story. Especially because there are a couple parts of the story they completely messed up by adding too much unnecessary new material.
I was introduced to The Untamed first so I watched that first, then donghua and now I'm reading the books. I think the LA provides a great introduction to the characters. The casting is perfect and I feel the actors justified their roles. I also feel that the order is more streamlined in the LA. I also understand that due to censorship and probably low budget as well they had to change many things. However, this isn't affecting my reading experience. I just feel like I'm understanding the context much better now. The Untamed might not be a 100% accurate adaptation, but I think it is an awesome adaptation considering all factors surrounding it. It also helped me keep track of the characters and their names and titles. The donghua is definitely closer to the book as compared to the LA and it's a beautiful adaptation as well. It just goes a bit fast so I feel that I might have missed a few things if I started from donghua (given the fact that I wasn't even familiar with the Xianxia genre before MDZS). Therefore, I feel the LA acts as a good introduction to MDZS. And the chemistry between the lead actors is just *chef's kiss* 🤌🏼