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Last time on Ginny's Dreamwidth: our hero had just finished 山河令/Word of Honor and was beginning to suspect that this was the beginning of a serious fixation. Since then, I have read all of Tian Ya Ke and Qi Ye and I've just started on Sha Po Lang and I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend the rest of spring blasting through the entire translated Priest canon.
(For those who don't know: Tian Ya Ke is the book 山河令/Word of Honor is based on, and Qi Ye is the prequel/companion story that focuses on Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi, who show up near the end of Word of Honor. Priest, the author, also wrote the stories that Guardian and Legend of Fei are based on, and adaptations of at least two more of her works are underway.)
I loved Tian Ya Ke and I loved Qi Ye even more. Qi Ye is more politics and scheming, which is my JAM, and also a story about someone moving on from his first, complicatedly-requited love, which is EXTREMELY my jam. There's a whole wonky reincarnation situation that means the main character is reliving his first life with all his memories intact, and the combination of "I get to have a second chance and fix old mistakes" with "I'm fucking exhausted" speaks to me deeply.
I really like the way Priest writes relationships and emotions. I need to read more before I can be articulate about why, but it hits for me. I'm only six chapters into Sha Po Lang but I'm already so hooked by the people and the layers of their relationships.
I have a lot of fic ideas in the Word of Honor/Tian Ya Ke/Qi Ye verse,but navigating different canons is going to be a challenge. I'm so impressed by the screenwriter of 山河令/Word of Honor -- I think she did a fantastic job shaping the original material into something that would play well dramatically, within the time, budget, and censorship constraints. There's one character she invented whole-cloth and a couple more that she basically redesigned entirely, and I love those versions. There are a couple of major dramatic beats that, having read the book, I'm less a fan of, but I do think they work in the context of the screenplay she was creating.
Where the canons diverge, there are elements from both that I like, but the differences are big and pervasive enough that it's a lot harder to frankencanon than MDZS. Especially when it comes to Zhou Zishu's background -- in the books, he and Tianchuang were serving Helian Yi, Crown Prince and now Emperor. I'm glad the drama changes the name because it's really an entirely different character. Helian Yi is a good emperor and as good a man as he can afford to be. In book-canon, Zhou Zishu and his Tianchuang do terrible things because they need to put a decent man on the throne; Zhou Zishu knows exactly what he's doing. In drama-canon, Prince Jin is much more manipulative and disingenuous, using moral arguments as a cover for his ambition. Zhou Zishu still bears the burden of the choices he made, but there's also an undercurrent of him having been used and lied to.
Both versions make a great story, and a character background I really want to dig my teeth into, but they're different enough that I feel like I have to commit to one or the other if I'm writing Zhou Zishu. I have not yet solved this problem for myself.
(For those who don't know: Tian Ya Ke is the book 山河令/Word of Honor is based on, and Qi Ye is the prequel/companion story that focuses on Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi, who show up near the end of Word of Honor. Priest, the author, also wrote the stories that Guardian and Legend of Fei are based on, and adaptations of at least two more of her works are underway.)
I loved Tian Ya Ke and I loved Qi Ye even more. Qi Ye is more politics and scheming, which is my JAM, and also a story about someone moving on from his first, complicatedly-requited love, which is EXTREMELY my jam. There's a whole wonky reincarnation situation that means the main character is reliving his first life with all his memories intact, and the combination of "I get to have a second chance and fix old mistakes" with "I'm fucking exhausted" speaks to me deeply.
I really like the way Priest writes relationships and emotions. I need to read more before I can be articulate about why, but it hits for me. I'm only six chapters into Sha Po Lang but I'm already so hooked by the people and the layers of their relationships.
I have a lot of fic ideas in the Word of Honor/Tian Ya Ke/Qi Ye verse,but navigating different canons is going to be a challenge. I'm so impressed by the screenwriter of 山河令/Word of Honor -- I think she did a fantastic job shaping the original material into something that would play well dramatically, within the time, budget, and censorship constraints. There's one character she invented whole-cloth and a couple more that she basically redesigned entirely, and I love those versions. There are a couple of major dramatic beats that, having read the book, I'm less a fan of, but I do think they work in the context of the screenplay she was creating.
Where the canons diverge, there are elements from both that I like, but the differences are big and pervasive enough that it's a lot harder to frankencanon than MDZS. Especially when it comes to Zhou Zishu's background -- in the books, he and Tianchuang were serving Helian Yi, Crown Prince and now Emperor. I'm glad the drama changes the name because it's really an entirely different character. Helian Yi is a good emperor and as good a man as he can afford to be. In book-canon, Zhou Zishu and his Tianchuang do terrible things because they need to put a decent man on the throne; Zhou Zishu knows exactly what he's doing. In drama-canon, Prince Jin is much more manipulative and disingenuous, using moral arguments as a cover for his ambition. Zhou Zishu still bears the burden of the choices he made, but there's also an undercurrent of him having been used and lied to.
Both versions make a great story, and a character background I really want to dig my teeth into, but they're different enough that I feel like I have to commit to one or the other if I'm writing Zhou Zishu. I have not yet solved this problem for myself.
