That second question is key. I can't help but think "be careful what you wish for."AH :
An AU adaptation has the potential to be amazing... or terrible.
The beauty of fic writing is that you get to make the story something that feels closer to "amazing" according to your own standards. When a film or TV adaptation is in some else's hands... suddenly the odds of being satisfied don't look as promising.
I think the key to AU adaptations is "inspired by". That way, fans have a far lower expectation of faithfulness to the original work.
I am reminded of Kenneth Branagh's "A Haunting in Venice", which is an extremely loose adaptation of Agatha Christie's Halloween Party. Everything from the title, to the location, the victim and other characters to the reason for the crime(s) were drastically changed, with only the names to tie them back to the original. No one unfamiliar with the original would have caught on that this had anything to do with Agatha Christie. Normally I balk at adaptations that take such liberties, but surprisingly in this case, I didn't particularly mind because I already knew it was merely inspired by the original work, and not intended to be an adaptation. I would be probably less forgiving if the adaptation was meant to represent the source material, but changes made butchers the characters, their motivations and make no sense in the overall narrative.
I think another issue would arise when the source material is well-loved by fans. In such instances, it is not easy to see changes in adaptations, all the more so when the author themselves are responsible for, or involved in the script. One that I am very aware of is Novoland:Eagle Flag - when author Jiang Nan created the love line between the main character 吕归尘 Lǚ Guichen and 小舟 Xiao Zhou in the drama, which never existed in the novel (Xiao Zhou was merely a child in the novel whom Lǚ Guichen saved and cared for like a younger sister, and her affections were towards Lǚ Guichen's best friend, Ji Ye, who already loved someone else). As someone who never read the book prior to watching, I thought it was a poignant narrative that worked well with the novel. However, there was great outrage among the book fans who felt that the characters they loved were butchered, and Jiang Nan was attacked mercilessly by them because of it.
Based on the leaked script, I am afraid that LYF would suffer the same fate. I can understand changes done because of limitations in structural frame of a visual adaptation - Tong Hua herself said that the possibilities are endless in a novel, limited only by one's imagination, but constrained when attempting to adapt it to film. Nonetheless, if the adaptation actually undermines the actual narrative, it is a massive issue for me. Especially if the changes are decisions that in no way are due to limitations in the actual production itself. I can understand wanting to present something different so that it is not so much a word-for-word recreation of the novel, but not to the extent of subverting the spirit and intent of the original work.
My impression of that comment from XY was not that she thought that XL and FBB were the same (if she thought there was no difference, then why would she hope for Left Ear to be more like FFB than XL?), but rather that, whether Left Ear became more like XL or more like FFB, she would accompany him all the same / either way.
You're right. 都一样 here means "It makes no difference", not that Xiang Liu and Fangfeng Bei are the same to her.
小夭昏昏沉沉中，眼前浮现过相柳，她道：“迟早有一日，你会变得很精明厉害，再不需要我，我只是不甘心你的变化中，没有我的参与，所以趁着还能教导你时，多啰嗦几句吧！”
左耳果然非常聪慧，立即说：“我会变得像相柳？”
小夭迷迷糊糊地说：“我希望是邶，不过……都一样了！反正不管你什么样，我都会陪你走完一程……”
In a daze, Xiao Yao saw Xiang Liu appear before her eyes, and she said, "Sooner or later, you will become very clever and capable, no longer needing me. I am just not willing to accept that your transformation does not include my involvement, so while I can still teach you, I will nag you a little more!"
Left Ear was indeed very intelligent, and immediately asked, "Will I become like Xiang Liu?"
Xiao Yao answered groggily, "I hope that [you will be more like] Bei, but... it makes no difference! No matter what you become, I will accompany you to the end of your journey..."
Xiao Yao passed out once again.
-- Vol 3 Ch11 (Chapter 44)
liddi:
I'm so sorry. Look at it from another angle. You will always remember August as the day the world first mourned, and continues to mourn the passing of the man who embodied integrity, honour, selflessness and self-sacrificing love. And although he was dead, he continues to live on in the lives of those who knew and loved him, be it within the universe of the novel, or its readers.
That's it! I'm sending you to the corner for a time-out, liddi. Was this supposed to help nathsketch's feels better? 'Cause I don't think it works too well. And it's not making me feel better. Do you have to used the word 'dead' like that :-(? I though Meng Jue's ending was bad, TH one-up herself with XL's ending. At least with Meng Jue, there's hope that he's out there somewhere.
Ah! The connumdrum for XL's fans. We loved him because he is honourable, selfless and all the the things you listed above. But, we also railed against him for the exact same things. Can't he just be a little less of those things - not abandoned them altegether, but just dial them back a smidge? Is that too much to ask?
Whenever I get too angry or sad at him (and TH), I just remind myself of William E. Henley's Invictus:
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul
He did it his way.
(Discalimer: This method doesn't always works)
This post attempts to compile a list of events in 长相思 (Lost You Forever) that occurred during a full moonsolarlunareclipse:
Wow. A major effort, and very nicely organized. Well done.
Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao from an assassination attempt in the East Sea the day after the full moon when Xiao Yao said her vows to the moon. If Xiao Yao’s story about the last time she saw Jing before he disappeared is true, then she saw Jing on a full moon night.
I think this description might benefit from a minor tweak for accuracy, as XL did not save XY the day after the full moon. He saved her the same night as the full moon (the night when XY said her wedding vows to the moon).
The scene where XY mentions TSJ planning their wedding and sings towards the ocean after the moon rises occurs the next evening.
On the night of the full moon:
XY says her vows to the full moonXY is lured to the ocean by the seagull demon, locked in a glass coffin, and nearly obliterated by the whirlpoolXL saves XY from the whirlpool and XY sees his true demon formXY stops XL from leaving, XL drinks blood from her neck, and XY falls alseep in XL's armsXL roasts a fish for XY to eatThe moonlight made XL look etheralXL and XY flew on Mao Qiu all night, looking for the seagull demon and Miao Piu
The day after the full moon:
XL, XY and Mao Qiu find the seagull demon's ship along with the seagull demon, Left Ear and Miao Piu (who is unconscious)XL faces Left Ear while the seagull demon runs awayMao Qiu catches, kills, and eats the seagull demonXY and Left Ear clean the seagull demon's blood off the deckXY finds a shaded spot on the ship to sit and eat with Left EarLeft Ear mentions FFB and later agrees to become XY's bodyguardUnder a blue sky, XY goes to sleepXL wakes XY up and asks her who she thinks tried to kill her, and tries to convince her to liveThe sun sets and the moon rises
The night after the full moon:
XY mentions TSJ planning their wedding for the night of the full moonXY sings towards the oceanXY says she still feels like TSJ might come back at the next full moonXY gives XL her wrist so he can heal and he drinks her blood again
So maybe change the description to something like this?
Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao from an assassination attempt in the East Sea on the night of the full moon. The next night, on the seagull demon's ship, Xiao Yao tells Xiang Liu about the last time she saw Jing before he disappeared. If that story is true, then she saw Jing on a full moon night.
Edit: Striking the inaccurate text. solarlunareclipse's clarification is below.
I think the key to AU adaptations is "inspired by". That way, fans have a far lower expectation of faithfulness to the original work.
Weirdly, in this very hypothetical, probably-will-never-have-any-real-world-applicability scenario, we were talking about alternate universe adaptations where we wanted to see some differences / unfaithfulness to the novel. So in that unusual context I feel like the issue isn't so much about how much faithfulness is expected and more an issue of... when the changes are made, will they be the kinds of changes we want to see / the kind of changes that would feel like a value-add? Or would they be changes we wouldn't want to see / the kind of changes that feel like they make the story worse and less satisfying?
That's it! I'm sending you to the corner for a time-out, liddi. Was this supposed to help nathsketch's feels better? 'Cause I don't think it works too well. And it's not making me feel better. Do you have to used the word 'dead' like that :-(? I though Meng Jue's ending was bad, TH one-up herself with XL's ending. At least with Meng Jue, there's hope that he's out there somewhere.HeadInTheClouds:
Oh no. Should I have changed the word to "no more" instead? Would it have helped ease the pain? But you're right. I didn't feel that much better when I penned those words (sorry @nathsketch!), but was trying desperately to cling on to some sliver of a silver lining.
Ah! The connumdrum for XL's fans. We loved him because he is honourable, selfless and all the the things you listed above. But, we also railed against him for the exact same things. Can't he just be a little less of those things - not abandoned them altegether, but just dial them back a smidge? Is that too much to ask?
YES. It would certainly be a salve to the gaping wound, but would we be hurting so much in the first place? Sometimes I wonder whether the reason I find it so hard to move on is because he gave all of himself to those he loved and cared for, and left nothing for himself, even though ironically, to him, giving of himself to fulfill the hopes and wishes of those he loved is equivalent to fulfilling himself.
Wow. A major effort, and very nicely organized. Well done.
Thank you for the compliment and thank you for reviewing!
I think this description might benefit from a minor tweak for accuracy, as XL did not save XY the day after the full moon. He saved her the same night as the full moon (the night when XY said her wedding vows to the moon).
I thought the same thing as you, but blabla100 and H19279 corrected me. You can see H19279's post here. Here are some excerpts from right before Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao.
Miao Pu grumbled “My Lady, why did you have to go to the East Sea in the middle of the night? Can’t Xiao Xiao have informed His Majesty, he dotes on you and lets you do whatever. If you wanted to go he would have allowed it. Why sneak around?”
...
The two strong winged horses flew nonstop and Xiao Yao fed them Jade Mountain stew to keep up their strength. They landed on an island in the East Sea around noon the next day. The two winged horses were spitting foam from exhaustion and could not be used to search over the sea lest they fall into the water from passing out.
-- Vol 3 Ch 10 (Chapter 43)
I had missed the part about them landing on an island in the in the East Sea around noon the next day.
Please let me know if you see anything else that would benefit from tweaking or correction.
Weirdly, in this very hypothetical, probably-will-never-have-any-real-world-applicability scenario, we were talking about alternate universe adaptations where we wanted to see some differences / unfaithfulness to the novel. So in that unusual context I feel like the issue isn't so much about how much faithfulness is expected and more an issue of... when the changes are made, will they be the kinds of changes we want to see / the kind of changes that would feel like a value-add? Or would they be changes we wouldn't want to see / the kind of changes that feel like they make the story worse and less satisfying?
For me, "A Haunting in Venice" fits the AU adaptation you mentioned, because there is no relation between the original work and the film, apart from names and the detective. Does it improve on the original work? No. Does it matter? Not to me, because I accept it as totally unrelated to the source material, hence there is no question of butchering. Was it a satisfying watch? Hm.. am ambivalent about that part, but the point is it did not grate on this Agatha Christie fan, because it does not pretend to be something it isn't.
Novoland:Eagle Flag and LYF2 were examples I named where it claims to be adapted from the source novel, but (potentially) strays away from it too much for the original fans' comfort.
Another AU adaptation example I can think of would be the LYF/Healer mashup AU you mentioned. In that situation, in my mind, it would be a universe totally removed from the original sources. And for me, it can work as long as the characters stay in-character. Fanfics are what-if scenarios after all, and excellent ones manage to sell that alternate scenario to the readers without them feeling that the characters are changed beyond recognition. Believability in the midst of unfamiliar or fantastical settings.
I thought the same thing as you, but blabla100 and H19279 corrected me. You can see H19279's post here. Here are some excerpts from right before Xiang Liu saved Xiao Yao.
Miao Pu grumbled “My Lady, why did you have to go to the East Sea in the middle of the night? Can’t Xiao Xiao have informed His Majesty, he dotes on you and lets you do whatever. If you wanted to go he would have allowed it. Why sneak around?”
...
The two strong winged horses flew nonstop and Xiao Yao fed them Jade Mountain stew to keep up their strength. They landed on an island in the East Sea around noon the next day. The two winged horses were spitting foam from exhaustion and could not be used to search over the sea lest they fall into the water from passing out.
-- Vol 3 Ch 10 (Chapter 43)
I had missed the part about them landing on an island in the in the East Sea around noon the next day.
You are 100% correct. I was mistaken. That detail (really well spotted, as it's in a connecting scene that I often skip) does indeed confirm that XL saved XY from the whirlpool the night after the full moon.
I should have remembered that, as there is also a related detail in a scene that I have re-read several times: while XY is sinking in the glass coffin, the sun gradually sets and the water turns dark.
Seems like it's time for me to do a re-read to get refreshed on the details.
-----
Chapter 43:
The crystal coffin slowly sank into the water.
Xiao Yao felt suffocated and couldn’t breathe, until the water seeped into the coffin and she could breathe like a fish returning to the water. Xiao Yao laughed wryly as she thought about this plan and how perfect it was, to kill her with no bloodshed and hidden in the depths of the ocean. Except the plan wasn’t perfect because no one knew that Xiao Yao couldn’t drown.
Because she drank the red jade plant wine, Xiao Yao was woozy and found it hard to think. As the coffin sank she thought she was going to die as well and was calmly facing death, except now she wasn’t going to die and felt like a free falling entity that couldn’t find an end to the fall.
Xiao Yao laid in the crystal coffin and looked at the fishes swimming around her. She tapped on the coffin and asked, “Have you guys seen Jing?”
The fishes were startled and swam off. Xiao Yao could only lay in the crystal coffin zoned out.
The sun set outside and gradually the water turned dark, as dark as ink. Many fishes glowed in the dark so the water was like a night sky filled with shooting stars. She wondered if Xiao Xiao arrived, whether Zhuan Xu was looking for her, if Miao Pu was crying. Xiao Yao suddenly remembered how angry Zhuan Xu would be, and what if he killed Miao Pu? Xiao Yao stopped laying there to enjoy the view and started to try and get out. But no matter how hard she pushed she couldn’t open the coffin.
Xiao Yao tried so hard to open the coffin but it wouldn’t budge, until she was all tired out and hungry. She suddenly realized that she might end up dying after all, not of drowning but of hunger. Xiao Yao rested for a bit before continuing to try and open the coffin.
Suddenly her instinct sensed danger. She looked around and there wasn’t a fish in sight, the colorful underwater was now pitch black. Xiao Yao felt the entire ocean shaking and she remembered the seagull demon saying how scary the ocean was under here. She suddenly remembered what Xiang Liu said before, that after he escaped from the slave death match ring, he almost died in an underwater tornado called a whirlpool. Xiang Liu may not have been that powerful then but something that almost killed him must really be super scary.
blabla100:
Re-reading chapter 51 and there is that scene where AhNian went with the grand emperor to have a few drinks at the thousand year old bar, which made XY think that his dad is planning to reminiscence his past to her. Right after, XY took Jing to a restaurant and ordered a few xuanyuan dishes, while quietly eating. Is xuanyuan the place where she used to play with FFB? Anyway, that also made me remember of that scene with XY and grand emperor where he was drinking some not that great wine and XY thought that he is not actually drinking because of its taste, but because he misses the times that that wine reminds him of. I got even sadder for XY, now she has jing to rely on, yet she still misses FFB / XL, the same way Grand emperor spends his days missing and thinking of the past.
As I recalled from this chapter or maybe another one, I think XY thought to herself about the times she used to play with FFB while she was out with CX and Jing, trying to impress them with a her knowledge of good places to eat.
Xiang Liu took Xiao Liu to see the moon rise from the surface of the ocean on a night that likely had a full moon.
@Solarlunareclipse,
It's hard work to search for all the events with the moon in the book. Thank you for your summary of those moments.
I want to correct this event
Xiang Liu took Xiao Liu to see the moon rise from the surface of the ocean on a night that likely had a full moon.
小六抬头看去，白雕驮着相柳从圆月中飞来，白衣白发，从九天飞下，若雪一般，轻轻地落在小六身旁。
Xiao Liu looked up and saw a white condor carrying Xiang Liu flying from the full moon. Wearing white clothes with white hair, descending from the heavens, like snow, they gently landed beside Xiao Liu.
— Vol 1 Ch 4 (Chapter 4)
This event was not the one that XL took XY to see the moon on the ocean. The excerpt corresponds to WXL's appointment with XL after the night when injured XL came to his room for healing and he drew charcoal on XL's face. During this appointment XL sucked WXL's blood while WXL gazed at the moon and later he shared his loneliness and the snake and 9-tailed fox demon story with XL.
And I just found out that the event that all of us (by default) thought that it was full moon when XL took WXL to the ocean to watch the moon doesn't specify the as FULL MOON in the Chinese text. This event happen in the last part of chapter 4, on Chuanzi's wedding day.
没有多久，一轮明月，缓缓从海面升起，清辉倾泻而下，小六被天地瑰丽震撼，心上的硬壳都柔软了。
Not long after, a bright moon slowly rose from the sea, and its light poured down. Xiaoliu was shocked by the beauty of the world, and the hard shell in his heart softened.
............
天上那轮月，小六看着它，它却静静地照拂着大地
That the round moon in the sky, Xiao Liu looked at it, but it was quietly shining over the earth
(Vol 1 Chapter 4)
In that event, the moon was describled as a bright round moon- 一轮明月 or round moon - 轮月
Surprised! Surprised!
This event can happen on a full moon day or maybe around the full moon day
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