#i mean i like s/pn lmfao.

[grewlikefancyflowers]

Hi, I hope you're having a lovely day/evening!

So, I know you're critical of MDZS adaptations, so this is why I'm coming to you as someone who just finished CQL.

 

I don't understand why people claim that CQL “missed the point” of MDZS or failed to adapt its central themes. I think CQL does a good job of getting addressing themes, such as status and social power infomring actions, public opinion and its changeability as well as how collectice narratives and opinions related to a person become more real and tangible than who the person actually is.

CQL is doing something different with its own story and as a result, it handles wangxian differently as well. It has a different dynamic, different circumstances, and a different narrative. If it doesn't make sense because the CQL adaptation removed an element from the story, maybe consider that (xyz) isn't actually meant to be their mindset at all? Just because they don’t have the same motivations towards each other as in the novel doesn’t mean those motivations don’t make sense within the world of CQL. The circumstances are so different from MDZS in places that if you’re only looking at CQL through that lens, then of course it’s going to look like a pale and nonsensical imitation! 

just a preface i don't care about cql enough to deliver any sort of meaningful analysis on it, if that's what you're interested in ouyangzizhensdad has made some good posts abt it.

preamble out the way, i watched cql first before i knew anything about mdzs, and i thought it was bad as i watched it back then too. so it's not as if i'm just biased against it as a novel main. anyway, i think its generally fine to analyse an adaption independently of it's source material, but the problem with cql is that it's nonsensical without mdzs, but it's also nonsensical with mdzs.

some examples, wx's relationship (even when looked at platonically) makes no sense at all in cql. one minute they don't even seem to like each other and the next they're calling each other soulmates, despite never seeming to actually trust or understand each other. when i watched cql's version of phoenix mountain i thought what?? they're supposed to be friends now ?? at the time i assumed it must have just been censorship issues but it turns out cql's writers were just incompetent. it was the same with that part in the cloud recesses arc when lwj and wwx end up tied together with the forehead ribbon—they could have used that to imply that wx's relationship is romantic while still getting around censorship, but their relationship didn't change after that. there's so many moments like that in cql that feel like should be meaningful to wx's relationship but end up having no impact on them or the story. it's all just meaningless queerbait.

also, the acting is terrible. i had to pause to laugh at moments that are supposed to be emotional because they were acted so bad (when wwx is thrown into the burial mound, jyl's death).

that aside, cql doesn't adapt the themes of mdzs well at all. which i spoke about here. one of the most important themes in mdzs is how authoritarianism and social hierarchy are inherently corrupt, honestly the final message cql delivers is the exact opposite of that. eg cqlji becomes chief cultivator and also what the fuck is up with that 'you're not qualified to speak to me' line.

so basically, cql did not successfully adapt mdzs—not the story, characters or themes. neither can it hold itself up as an individual work. it's just bad—the costume design is bad, the pacing is bad, the story doesn't make sense, the lore doesn't make sense, the characters have no consistent traits and are for the most part extremely unlikeable. it's just bad and that's all there really is to say on the matter.