#火凤燎原

[1time2study4ravages]

in Ravages the second and third geniuses of the school of water mirror have yet to be assigned beastly motifs, so this fan-made illustration comes up with suitable stand-ins (the dove for Wenruo since he’s a diplomat, the snake for Wenhe since he’s poison-tongued)

[1time2study4ravages]

it’s really nice to see some notable people from the broader 3K fandom still bring up Ravages once in a while

that said, as a longtime re-reader and promoter of the series, it’s an oversimplification to claim that Ravages subverts for the sake of it or for mere shock value (without considering the thematic and textual considerations that shape how it reconfigures and comments on its sources), and while Ravages is not exactly known for its fidelity to either the historical account or the Romance (though I note in turn that it still manages to mix and match elements from both streams skillfully along with a bunch of other stuff), the other metrics tend to be invoked more in reference to reader responses and preferences rather than a careful assessment of the characteristics and quirks of the series (which would demand something akin to how the roots of 3K lore are being more closely revisited by some enthusiasts in recent years to correct certain simplistic trends and talking-points from years ago)

in any case, the main stumbling-block for Ravages is that since not enough people have been hooked into trying it (let alone survive all the way and continue re-reading until the bitter end, considering the low engagement and high dropout rate), there aren’t enough attempts to clarify and interrogate the series (this is why I’ve long held that principled critical commentary of the series is preferable to the deafening silence or the garbled rumors), and at the end of the day no matter how nice or masterful a given text is, it wouldn’t matter much so long as people don’t bother to pick it up and propagate it...

just to wrap up this rambling, it’s worth noting that while among sinophone and vietnamese readers the Ravages scene is pretty much acknowledged as a distinctive and robust (even if also small) sub-niche within the broader 3K umbrella, among international anglophone readers I’ve noticed that Ravages is still somewhat alienated from what should have been its ‘mother community’, and this is a big can of worms in its own right

I'm disappointed with how little attention Ravages of Time has received from 3K commentators. Granted, it's a work of fantasy, but a deep and richly written fantasy. It's not a comic book version of Dynasty Warriors. I was skeptical when I started, knowing ahead of time about some of the more outlandish liberties its author took, but I ended up quite engrossed with it. If nothing else, it's worth a look just for some of its strikingly different character depictions (Dong Zhuo, Xu Chu, Sun Ce).

People have mentioned it to me a few times. I know some people really enjoy it.

[theotherjax]

Ravages of Time drabble, “Chosen”

Bless the discord it has given me a request and I deliver. Lü Bu/Zhang Liao, 332 words, ANGST:

Zhang Wenyuan thinks about most favoured man a lot.

Maybe once he used to know it was a bad idea, to pour so much of one’s self into a single vessel. He understands sieges and chokepoints after all, places from which there is no going back or forward. When he was younger, he would have known. Men of Zhang, they know, even when they’re really men of Nie. That is the crux of the matter, after all. The man he is. Most favoured man.

He thinks about it, but more correctly, he thinks it. Says it. Shouts it, tastes it. When men die under his hands. When oaths are bent and broken. When Dong Huang falls under his sword. When he sees Lü Bu play chess with Liu Xian and thinks Son of Heaven at the wrong man. Sometimes when he’s tangled in his beddings at night, and replays Lü Bu’s eyes on him, and replays, and replays.

They do ugly work. He is committed to it. He does not think most favoured man means clean glory or honour. For a while he thinks it makes him strongest after his master, but then he meets Guan Yunchang and understands strength in a whole new way. He thinks it makes him destined, but Lü Bu does not believe in Heaven’s destiny. He thinks it makes him chosen.

And Lü Bu does not believe in Heaven’s choice either, but for Zhang Liao this sticks. Chosen. Trusted, wanted – a cherished subordinate, right hand man, a brother. Everything, everything, he thinks when Lü Bu, drunk with victory and plum wine, tilts his face up and kisses him with smothering intensity. Claims him, as though he this man of Zhang is a precious thing, worth wanting and claiming and holding. In the ice of Xiapi, the memory warms his heart. Chosen, he thinks as he dives from the parapets, and hits the water believing in everything – glory, honour, strength, destiny. Brotherhood.

Until, of course, everything falls apart.

[willlianrainman]

恭喜燎原火找到自我。公子不哭。#火凤燎原 #theravagesoftime #thethreekingdoms #threekingdoms #赵云 #水镜八奇

[1time2study4ravages]

coming soon in 2023

[1time2study4ravages]

missing from the lineup: Cao Yuan, Wang Yun, Zang Ba, Cao Bao, and so on...

[1time2study4ravages]

CHECK OUT THE (LONG-AWAITED MUCH-DELAYED) 20TH ANNIVERSARY RAVAGES MUSIC VIDEO

[1time2study4ravages]

many may be yearning for the eponymous duo to meet again, meanwhile I’m more curious as to whether Sima Min will get in contact with the missing next-gen handicapped warriors, or when Zhao Tong will meet Liaoyuan Guang...

[1time2study4ravages]

just a short notice (and an excuse to repost some nifty links)

Through the years I have noticed that both those overstating (out of zeal or as a provocation) and understating (out of frustration or as casual dismissal) the merits of Ravages hardly get into and grapple with the finer aspects of what this masterpiece has to offer and moreover feed off into one another to further propagate superficial impressions and simplistic appraisals

Hopefully this selection of submitted writeups (hint: they are hyperlinked in the sidebar images of the Ravages subreddit) can help clarify matters and guide readers on how to approach the series more fruitfully

[1time2study4ravages]

the long march and the slow burn of the ravages of time

attentive readers are aware at this point that The Ravages of Time has persisted (and is still ongoing) for over 2 decades as the longest-running 3K comic adaptation (as of today, managing to cover some developments in the halfway point of the standardized edition of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and it only took 73 volumes to match the novel’s 60 out of 120 chapters), though due to its slower publication schedule it trails behind Kingdom (which started 5 years later) when it comes to the number of chapters

this raises some questions as to how long the series can go (or rather, how far its composer can go in the years ahead even taking into account that Ravages would likely not reach the end of the three kingdoms), so this post will try to come up with a few projections based on recent trends

now assuming that Ravages would mostly stick to the current 7 chapters per volume format (the arrangement early on used to be 9 chapters per volume, then 8 in the middle, before settling to 7 sometime after the Chibi arc), by the time Ravages reaches the 1000th chapter (currently it has 571 chapters not counting the 3 side stories in 73 volumes) the series could have something like 998 chapters in 134 volumes (571+427, 73+61)

as for how long it takes to reach this far (assuming Chen Mou can stay healthy past 60 in 2030 or assuming regional or global crises won’t compromise the publication of Ravages), this is trickier to evaluate, so more stipulations would have to be presented to come up with some scenarios

so far one can safely estimate that in recent years 2-3 Ravages volumes have been published per year (thus we can extrapolate further that the annual output is somewhere between 14 and 21 chapters irregularly serialized in 2-3 week intervals with occasional delays), and if one further posits for the sake for simplification that Ravages would reach 578 chapters by the end of this year, the road to 998 (578+420) can take as short as until 2042 (21 chapters in 3 volumes per year for 20 years with Chen Mou at age 72) or as long as until 2052 (14 chapters in 2 volumes per year for 30 years with Chen Mou at age 82)

note that even if Ravages does reach 1000 (and this already a bit of a reach to put it mildly), it’s hard to tell how much stuff the series would be able to cover by then, and I am not at all confident that the story would be able to reach the end of Han at the 30th anniversary on 2031 (note too that it’s not even the duels or battles or the various subplots from the novel that slow things down too much, rather it’s how Ravages insists on making every step of the way part of a very convoluted scheming game, with a bunch of dramatic moments sprinkled in for good measure)

[1time2study4ravages]

I won’t mind Ravages in stick figures so long as the schemes plus philosophizing plus commentary plus citations (and a faster publishing schedule with more pages) compensate for the graphic minimalism, haha

[1time2study4ravages]

this is one of those things where if one digs enough there’d be something about some 3K figure (no matter who it is) in a ‘shipping’ scene...

but who’d expect the Ravages iteration of the tiger marquis to get this treatment relatively recently

[1time2study4ravages]

if the Sima clan has a one-eyed monster, the Cao camp had someone with a monster eye before losing it

[1time2study4ravages]

I wonder, when it’s Wenruo’s turn sooner or later, will he have flashbacks of Fengxiao and the bygone days

[1time2study4ravages]

the filial crow scheming to have everyone meet their maker and reunite with mother earth, haha

[1time2study4ravages]

when it comes to fan art of the Sun clan in Ravages, 'little conqueror’ Bofu and ‘beautiful gentleman’ Gongjin tend to dominate, so it’s nice to see the likes of Zhongmou get showcased every now and then...