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three--rings · 5 years ago

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I Pimp The Untamed/MDZS

Can’t shut up, won’t shut up.

Ok, now that the drama is done, I’m going to make an actual post to encourage people to watch it.

Rule Number One: Don’t Be Intimidated.

This fandom sounds really confusing and complicated from the outside. And like a big commitment. I get that. But it’s not that bad. It’s not like it’s Kingdom Hearts or anything.

What is Mo Dao Zu Shi? (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Modao Zushi, MDZS)

Simple. It’s a web novel, written by a Chinese BL author called Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX) (You’ll get the idea that this fandom abbreviates a lot. There are a lot of letter combos around. But it’s way easier than typing the names out all the time and having to spell them correctly.) The novel has a full and complete fan translation you can read here.

This novel has been adapted into a BUNCH of different mediums. There’s a donghua (anime, currently airing series 2), manhua (manga, in progress), audio drama (in progress) and finally a live action drama which has just finished airing. Everything but the drama are called Mo Dao Zu Shi. The drama is titled The Untamed (official English title) or Chen Qing Ling (CQL).

Okay, but what is it about?

It’s Wuxia/Xianxia, aka Chinese fantasy about martial artists with magical abilities, cultivators trying to become immortal. You know A:TLA? That would be pretty close. Set in Ancient China, there are many different families of cultivator sects. On a broad scale, it’s about the vying for power between these different clans, a few wars, schemes, backstabbing, etc. Your typical epic political fantasy stuff. However the story is really focused on the characters, because this is also a romance. Practically it means a lot of very pretty people in flowing robes spinning through the air with swords (and flutes and zithers).

Characters?

There are a LOT of them! And they are all great! (And they all have multiple names! More on that later.) But I’m gonna focus on the two you’re really interested in.

Wei Wuxian (aka Wei Ying, Yiling Patriarch) - The main character. POV character. Fearsome, infamous necromancer known as the Yiling Patriarch. He died 13 years ago. Except now he’s back, in a new body (err, depending on version). In actuality is an adorable trickster with a heart of gold. Chaotic Good with some extra chaos thrown in. Disaster bi, but too much of a dumbass to realize it for like DECADES.

Lan Wangji (aka Lan Zhan, HanGuang-jun) - Perfect disciple of the Lan clan, famed for his purity, his beauty, and his crazy-good fighting and power. Annoyed nearly to death by Wei Wuxian when they are teens. At some point annoyance becomes Secret Pining. Man of very few words and very little expression. Secretly deeply passionate romantic. Pines for DECADES, refuses to ever tell Wei Wuxian how he feels.

So this romance?

You like slow burn? We’ve got the SLOWEST. You like Mutual Pining? Yup. You like one person so incredibly oblivious to the other’s increasingly obvious feelings that you yell at your screen? Oh boy, Wei Wuxian is the KING of that. You like characters on opposite sides of a moral divide who fall in love anyway? How about one character who pretends to be gay and hits on the other in order to turn them off but uh oh it doesn’t work and now we have to share a bed?!? Cause that’s the beginning of the book. This is everything you love about fic, all the tropes, but with great original characters and epic plot.

What about the drama? Didn’t they get rid of the gay?

(Points up at that gif: That’s the “Straight Version.”) The drama is subject to very strict Chinese government censorship that forbids the depiction of homosexual relationships at all. However, the show manages to be SO INCREDIBLY GAY and SO ROMANTIC without ever putting anything on screen in words. It’s very gay, IMO, but all in the LONG LONGING LOOKS. I mean, it’s almost breathtakingly blatant at times. They did a very deliberate and well thought out job toeing the line. You can’t point to any physical contact or dialogue that is definitely gay, except to just gesture at THE ENTIRE THING. (I mean, okay, they call each other soulmates and are constantly catching each other in their arms but that’s just Bro Stuff, right?)

Is it a happy ending?

YUP. I feel a little weird saying this because there’s a LOT of angst in this story. But it’s all plot-related angst, not romance related angst. I mean, see back up there, I mentioned that WWX dies, right? He’s hated by his entire community and literally the first thing every version shows is his death. A lot of characters die. Everyone suffers.

However, both the book and drama end happily. The novel gives you everything you could desire from a gay romance, including explicit sex scenes and...yeah, just good, good shit, okay. (I will say the sex scenes aren’t the author’s strong suit, IMHO as a smut writer. That’s one of my main complaints.)

So where in the world do I start?

So my personal recommendation is to watch The Untamed first. That’s going to get a good amount of disagreement from other fans, probably. I have my reasons. First, I think the novel is pretty confusing and intimidating for English speakers because there’s a lot of context missing. And a lot of names. So many names. A huge amount of cultural naming conventions and xianxia standard worldbuilding, etc. Plus the novel is told non-linearly. It jumps around in time a lot, moving forward in the present but having lots of lengthy flashbacks from multiple POVs. I completely get WHY it’s written that way, and it’s pretty brilliant, but that combined with a non-professional translation means it may not grab everyone at first. Personally, while I enjoyed the book (and read it in a week or so) and the first season of the donghua, I didn’t fully become OBSESSED until The Untamed.

The drama, OTOH, has one MASSIVE 30ish episode flashback from ep 4 on, in which everything is told in chronological order. I also think it’s much easier to follow who is who with visuals, whether you watch the drama or the donghua. And finally, I think the experience of watching the drama, and then getting to go to the novel, with all the gay stuff left intact, would be pretty amazing. If you really don’t want to be spoiled for the novel, you could always stop watching the show and go read the book after like 15 episodes or so. But good luck restraining yourself. I will say you probably have to be patient with the drama for a few episodes. The special effects and fight scenes are its weakest points and there’s a lot of that in the first three eps.

You can watch The Untamed with English subs Here or Here, though I prefer the translation on Viki over the official channel, usually.

What about the other versions, like the anime?

None of the other versions is complete. I started with the anime (donghua), for a few episodes, then read the book, then went back and watched the rest. I really enjoyed the anime, until I watched The Untamed and now I find the anime...stilted? It’s pretty and the fight scenes are way better than the drama, but the drama brings it SO HARD on the emotional front. Then you can also read the manhua and listen to the audio if you want. Both are much more strict to the book than either the drama or the anime. (The anime is also edited of most gay content.) The anime can be found here. The manhua is here.

Anything else?

I mean, I can’t begin to talk about the other characters and their relationships because I would be here all day. Wei Wuxian’s adopted siblings and their relationship give me such feels. Each side character feels like they have their own story written somewhere, just as complicated as Wei Wuxian’s.

In conclusion, please, please watch The Untamed. And then yell at me about it. Also a Disclaimer, everything above is only my own opinion.

ETA: Tumblr repeatedly stripped my links out of this post. Let me know if any are missing.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #chen qing ling #cql #wangxian #long post

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