Dang. Once again, yesterday I thought of stuff I wanted to say here that I forgot to say before. Stuff I should have taken notes on at the time and got too caught up in watching to note down. (Despite how much other stuff I stopped the video to note down...)
Oh well.
Hopefully next time I'll think of it when I can get at my phone to take notes. 😅
Anyway, randomness and incoherence, as well as spoilers, follow.
Frustratingly, I keep thinking of things I should have said in earlier posts, but I only think of them at times when I can't immediately write them down--in the bath, for example 😅--and then by the time I'm sitting down the next day to take notes on the next episode, I've forgotten them again. 😰 I think one of them was to make a few general observations:
One, that the show likes to imply magical abilities it doesn't show. Rather than showing a lot of scenes of people flying on their swords (which does look kinda silly, tbh), they show their feet landing on the ground after they've hopped off their flying sword, and so the flying is merely implied. Or like in the Mount Baifeng section, all we see is Lan Wangji's sword blocking a blow from Jin Zixuan's sword (which I feel like it wasn't Jin Zixuan who actually attacked him in the novel, but Jin Zixun? or am I crazy?) but later on we hear dialog about people seeing the sword glare flying off into the sky; there was no on-screen effect for the sword glare, but since it was mentioned in the novel we're just supposed to assume it was there. I think this is mostly a budgetary thing, since whatever their budget was, it would still have needed to be much higher if they had shown the effects in all those cases.
Two, that they like to draw so closely on the novel in important scenes that they don't mind contradicting what's been present in the show as a whole. Sometimes this could be due to the translation screwing up details, but sometimes not. Wen Ning's speech is a case in point here: he definitely doesn't stammer in this version, though his dialog is haltingly and hesitatingly delivered, and yet when Wei Wuxian is confronting Jin Zixun to find out where he took Wen Ning, he specifically mentions Wen Ning's stutter. So...yeah. Actually, maybe I basically mentioned these things already, just not in such a concrete fashion?
I don't know. The problem with forgetting things is that you forget them.
(OMG, what does that even mean? Am I even conscious enough to do this right now?)
Uh.
Anyway.
Rambling incoherence (and perhaps more incoherent than usual today?) and spoilers follow.
After I complained last time about the way Blogger assigns URLs to the posts...it assigned the URL "episode 51" to that very post. 😭 So now I'm using "part" instead of "episode" in the hopes that it will stop doing that.
Anyway.
Rambling, incoherence and spoilers follow
I would really like Blogger to explain to me how the [expletive deleted] it decides on URLs for our posts. It was weird enough when it spontaneously skipped a number on these, so that episode 14's URL ended in the number 15. But then I--silly goose that I am--tried to restore the balance between the episode numbers and the URL numbers by misspelling episode on the post title for episode 25's notes. Result?
Now the URL for episode 26 ends in "28."
How?
Why?
HOW how how HHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW??????
Okay, sorry about that.
I just had to get it out of my system somehow. (Also, it is currently 6 in the morning, when I would normally be asleep, and I just watched a very harrowing episode, and yet am going back for more because I'm a day behind if I want to finish on August 20th.)
Rambling, incoherence and spoilers follow the read more tag.
A day off was probably good for me (or maybe not, considering I spent the entire day playing Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and was starting to get pretty frustrated in several places (bad enough being jumpscared by four Kudlaks, but then sticking them into battles led by much lower level, easier-to-deal-with opponents?!)) but today I'm going to try and get through at least two episodes. (There's a total of seven episodes before returning to the present in episode 33, so...there's a lot of rough times ahead...)
I should be able to do so, on account of due to insomnia I'm starting this episode about two hours before I would normally even get up. 😰
Anyway, incoherent and spoiler-filled rambling follows the read more tag.
I had a thought yesterday that I somehow didn't write down. Among the randomly added words from entirely different cultures in the subtitles is the word "myrmidon." (Which should actually be capitalized, but...🤷🏻♀️) It's been used on two occasions: it's the word that Yu-furen used to describe Wei Changze, and and it was used in the episode I watched yesterday (or was it the previous episode?) to describe one of the other types of people who are in a clan. (Specifically, I think it was used to describe one of the types of people who could be among the Wen Clan survivors other than defenseless civilians.) I think they specifically used it to avoid the confusion that would arise if they simply used "servant," the way the official translation of the novel does. Because in the novel, during the indoctrination camp arc, it specifically has Wei Wuxian reflect that Mianmian is likely not a proper disciple of whatever clan sent her there, but a servant. And, during the soup incident, the girl who took credit for Jiang Yanli's soup was given a promotion from servant to guest cultivator because of the false esteem she had gained in Jin Zixuan's eyes when he thought she was the one bringing him that soup. Meaning that although she was a servant, she was also training in cultivation. Because of that, I had already come to the conclusion that there are two types of people referred to as "servants": household servants, who are "normal" people, and servant-class cultivators, who can never achieve parity with the other cultivators in a clan due to their lower social station. I think the translation for the subtitles of The Untamed decided to use "myrmidon" for those servant-class cultivators to make it clear that they're not the same as the household servants. (Most likely, this means there are actually two different words in the original language, and Seven Seas didn't draw any distinction between them, perhaps due to a lack of appropriate English equivalents.) Now, why they picked "myrmidon," the special Phthian soldiers who followed Achilles into battle in the Iliad (and in some versions of the myth started out as ants transformed into men by Zeus), that's another question entirely. But considering their use of inappropriate words like "Stygian" and "Resquiescat," I cannot be too surprised by the decision.
I don't have a lot of point in saying that, I just thought of it and therefore wanted to jot it down.
Because that's the kind of person I am, and that's the kind of posts these are.
Rambling, incoherent, spoiler-filled notes follow the read more tag.
Blah blah blah, incoherent notes and spoiler-filled rambling follows.
Incoherent ramblings and spoilers follow the read more tag. Posted publicly just because it's easier for me to find my notes again this way.
I would really like to know why Blogger skipped over a number when it was assigning URLs to these posts. The URL for the first like 13 episodes matched the episode number, and then suddenly it skipped over a number, so all of them now have the number for the next episode. (Meaning, if nothing changes, the last one's URL will end in "episode-51"? 😅) It's so weird.
Anyway, incoherent rambling filled with spoilers follows the read more tag. But hopefully it's more incoherent than it was for many of the preceding episodes, because I really shouldn't need to take so many notes now that I'm well past my fic's AU point and everything is going differently.
Hmm. Before starting today's episode, I went back to episode 17 to the Lotus Pier trio's arrival in Yiling, and double-checked the subtitles about the place where they were staying. Then I checked the subs on the Youtube version, and they were basically the same, so I'm still unclear as to what the connection is between that house where they were staying with Wen Qing and the obviously military compound that was specifically the Yiling Supervisory Office. I guess I'll just have to make up something. 😅 It's frustrating that I'll have to do so, though, because I feel sure the dialog should have (or rather probably did) actually specified what the deal is there.
Anyway.
Disjointed rambling notes to follow read more tag, complete with spoilers in among the incomprehensible thoughts and nonsense.
Before starting, I went back to the earlier episode, when Jiang Cheng is first captured, and I checked, and the person Wei Wuxian tells Jiang Yanli to shelter with is referred to as "Liu-popo" so...probably my earlier conclusions about her were right? I guess? I dunno.
Anyway, rambling and incoherent notes filled with spoilers follow the read more tag. Also, given the contents of this particular episode, there is some very triggering content being discussed, so proceed with extreme caution.
Today's episode is where the AU point in my fic is, so hopefully after I hit that point I'll stop taking quite so many notes, since for the last few episodes it's been more like an in depth and digression-filled summary of the episode rather than just notes. 😅
Anyway. Beyond the read more tag is rambling, incoherent nonsense filled with spoilers.
Running out of things to say before the read more tag. What follows is, as always, rambling and incoherent and spoiler-filled. Don't click to continue unless you already know the story of Mo Dao Zu Shi and probably don't click even then. These are just my personal notes so I can edit my stupidly long fanfic that's set in the drama's canon. (And they're posted publicly just because that makes it easier for me to find them again.)
I am apprehensive about today. Not because of this episode--compared to the previous episode, this should be less draining, though I'm going to have to take even more extensive notes--but because I spilled more than half my breakfast right onto the floor, which is generally not a good sign. (Also means I don't get much breakfast.) I've also been in a terrible mood lately because of...well, a lot of things.
Anyway, I don't want to turn this blog into a constant grouse-fest, so instead of complaining about any of those things, I'm going to get on with my notes on the episode. As always, beyond the read more tag will be my incomprehensible reactions that are filled with spoilers. I'm only posting these notes publicly because it makes it easier for me to find them again. (Yeah, I know that's dumb. But that's me in a nutshell.)
Another day, another episode, another rambling and incoherent post full of notes and spoilers.
And a very unpleasant episode at that. 😭
Tch. I am sitting here starting to watch this episode in all but pitch darkness, because it's storming outside and what little light there is is not getting into my house, but I refuse to turn the lights on at 8 o'clock in the morning. (We will leave aside the question of why tf I am starting to watch an episode of The Untamed at such an early hour....particularly since this is not a happy episode...)
Anyway, beyond the read more tag is rambling nonsense jotted down as I rewatch the episode. There will be spoilers, so don't go past the read more tag unless you already know the story of Mo Dao Zu Shi.
*sigh* At this point, I've missed enough days that I either can't miss any more days if I want to finish by August 20, or I'll have to have some days where I do two episodes. After I'm far enough past my AU point, I hopefully won't need to take many more notes, though, which would at least make everything go faster, I guess?
Anyway, everything past the read more tag is just rambling and incoherent, me jotting down notes about various things in the episode as I watch it, much of it geared towards eventually editing my stupidly long fanfic. There will be spoilers in among the nonsense. (Spoilers for MDZS, that is. There may also be spoilers for my fanfic, but who really cares?)
More rambling, incoherent, spoiler-laced notes follow the read more tag. Not really intended for others' eyes, but not actually unsuitable for them, I suppose?
Hmm. I wonder if these episodes have actual titles that Netflix didn't bother to translate? Something appears on the screen at the start of each, but they don't tell us what it says. For all I know, it really does just say "Episode" and the number of the episode. Or maybe it's an actual title. Huh. Maybe next time I should use the Google Translate app on my phone to find out. Yeah, maybe I'll do that.
Anyway, rambling and incoherent notes follow the read more tag. They'll contain some spoilers in and among the random thoughts to myself, so read with caution if you read at all. (You probably won't, ofc. Most of these posts have precisely one view, which is definitely some kind of bot that scans every single post once.)
Took a day off because yesterday I was just not feeling it. (Also, it's only been a few days since I finally got my PS5 home, so I wanted to spend more time gaming. 😅) And partially that was because a lot of unfun things happen in this episode (not as bad as some later ones, though!) and yet I also knew I was going to need to take a lot of notes, because this is stuff that has a heavy impact on my fic.
Anyway, as usual with these posts, everything past the read more tag is incoherent rambling reactions filled with spoilers, which I've put in a blog post mostly because that's going to make it easier for me to find it again. If you actually want to proceed in reading further, then do so with caution.
Running out of things to say before the read more tag. 😅 Spoilers below, in amongst random and incoherent rambling. Also a lot of detailed little nitpicks of things that aren't really...things that don't detract from just the watching experience but are frustrating me a lot as someone who's become more familiar with Mo Dao Zu Shi novel canon and is now trying to fix up a stupidly long fanfic that uses The Untamed's canon.
As always, what's beyond the read more tag is my rambling and incoherent thoughts as I'm taking notes on watching the show in order to be able to edit a massive fan fiction based on the drama's version of canon. Don't click through to the rest if you haven't seen the show and/or read the novel, because it won't make sense and might contain spoilers. (Technically it likely won't make sense even if you do know MDZS, just because I'm simply jotting things down as I go, and merely using my blog so that it's all in one place where I can find it more easily than like a Google doc or something.)
Hopefully today's episode won't take as long as the last two days' episodes have, now that the scenes describing what the Yin Iron is (as well as its history) are over, and instead most of the Yin Iron content will just be the voyage of the leads hunting for the pieces of it. Considering how much I dislike the basic concept of the Yin Iron plot all around, it frustrates me that I had to incorporate it this heavily into my fic. (Though at least by removing Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivation altogether, I got rid of the largest problem with the addition of the Yin Iron subplot, in that Wei Wuxian's new techniques are no longer copying things the villains have done.) There's a new wrinkle in my rewriting process, though, in that what the art book had to say about the Yin Iron is actually very different from what the subtitles have had to say about it, which I...I'm not sure if the art book is basing its text on design documents that got changed later on, or if the subtitles on Netflix are that bad in their attempts to avoid "confusing" the Western audience. Unfortunately, I feel like it could go either way. *sigh*
But that's a worry for later on! Right now, it's time to move on to the next episode, and continue my incomprehensible, random note-taking!
And yet again, more likely incoherent rambling notes on The Untamed, episode by episode, largely so I can access my specific thoughts later on as I'm working on the next draft of my fic that uses drama canon. All thoughts beyond the read more tag will make very little sense without having seen the show (or at least read the novel).
Before I get to yet another post of rambling, chaotic notes as I rewatch The Untamed in order to assist the rewrite of my massively long fanfic, I want to talk about what I found at the bookstore on Wednesday. I was dropping in on my way home in order to pick up the remaining four volumes of Thousand Autumns, since the final volume's release date was on Tuesday. (It turns out I was grossly misjudging the novel all those times I turned up my nose at how its first volume's plot was described. It's very different from what I mistook it for, and quite different from the other danmei I've read so far, being wuxia rather than xianxia, and set in a very specific historical period. But I should give it a full post of its own once I've read the other four volumes.) Anyway, I was frustrated in my purposes for the visit (they had volumes 3 and 4, but not volume 2 or 5. Not having 5 isn't a huge problem right away, but volumes 3 and 4 don't do me much good until I've gotten volume 2! 🤣) But what they did have, prominently displayed on a rack facing the entrance from the mall, was....
The official artbook for The Untamed! In official English translation, published by Seven Seas, so it's using all the same names as the translation of the novel. (As in, using the "Impure Realm" translation of the name of the Nie Clan's stronghold, rather than the "Unclean Realm" as seen in the Netflix subtitles. Etc.) I was super-excited to see anything official for The Untamed in stores in English, and obviously I bought a copy straight away, in the hopes of encouraging someone to do a Blu-Ray release with a set of properly translated subtitles. (I'd settle for internal consistency, grammatical accuracy and actually reflecting the nuances of how characters address each other. It wouldn't have to be perfect.) I haven't read too far into the book yet (and I'm trying not to just flip through to look at the pictures 😅) but in addition to pretty pictures, I think it's actually going to be useful to me for working on this massive fanfic that's set in the drama's canon, since it has a section on how they approached the various rules of etiquette for the setting. (Since the novel is in an ahistorical setting, drawing on customs from numerous different time periods separated by many centuries. For a visual medium, they obviously had to draw more concretely.)
Hopefully, enough other fans will pick up a copy that they'll be encouraged to bring out even more translated materials. Because I can never get enough MDZS in my life. 😊
Okay, all that aside, I can get on to my notes on the next episode on the rewatch docket. As always, they will be rambling and chaotic and doubtless incomprehensible to those not familiar with the show.
Well. Imaginative title, no?
*cough*
Anyway.
I don't really have much to say, since my writing life is still in a bit of a lull (all the more so now that I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder and can't really do anything without pain), so I'll just answer the monthly question:
July 3 question - What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And which one is your all time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?
I don't know if "favorite" applies as such, but I typically use Microsoft Word, just because it's what I'm used to. Once, years ago, I tried downloading the demo for Scrivener, since NaNoWriMo always gave out half-off coupon codes for it to winners, but at that time I was put off by the always online nature of it, and it was also too complicated at a first glance. I might not be as bothered by the latter now, and I'm definitely used to the former by now (though I still prefer the offline nature of Word over anything that's always connecting to the 'net) so who knows what I might think if I tried it again.
I also use Google Docs pretty heavily because that way I can write on my phone but still have access to it on my computer. (There are probably ways to do that with Word, but that would likely either not be possible with a phone as old as mine (I am now almost a full 10 versions of iPhone behind the current model) and/or would require the subscription-model Word, whereas I have the one-time-purchase-in-exchange-for-no-updates-model of Word.) Sometimes if I'm writing a short, simple VN I might write directly into Ren'py, and in the past I've written in TWINE to make use of its easy branching feature, but mostly it's either Word or Google Docs.
I've heard good things about Obsidian, though. Keep meaning to look into it, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
As to "why do you recommend them"...I'm not sure I'd say that I do recommend them, just that I use them. My use of Word is pretty no-frills; almost anything that can accept text could do the same things. I use it because I'm used to it. I don't know that any of its features are especially outstanding, unique or even necessarily worth the cost of the program. On the free end of the spectrum, Google Docs is convenient, but I've heard horror stories about people losing all their work because something happened to cause Google to delete their account, and I've also heard that they feed documents from Google Docs into AI training programs, so that's horrible. (The plus side to that is that if they feed my docs into an AI training program, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot: Half my files in Google Docs are just my nebulous, random, sprawling thoughts, complete with messy counter-thoughts inserted in brackets in the middle of a sentence, as well as words or entire passages that are in strikethrough in the middle of paragraphs or sentences, leaving things that an AI would treat as, for example, a sentence with two verbs back to back, because it wouldn't recognize that one of them was struck out because I picked a new word I liked better but didn't want to delete the old one yet. There are also quite a few that are half or more in Ren'py code, a lot of them that have Chinese words inserted into them willy-nilly because they're Mo Dao Zu Shi fan fiction, and so on. There's even one that has both Ren'py code and Chinese words all over the place, being the partial script of a fan game. 🤣)
I don't think I'd say any of them are my "all time favorite" or that I "cannot live without," but I do use Word pretty much every day that I'm planning to do any writing.
Back again for more. (There are fifty episodes, after all! And I plan to be done with watching the show by August 20 at the latest.) Episode five starts out at the base of one of the gorgeous waterfalls around Cloud Recesses. The locations they filmed at for The Untamed include some truly breathtaking scenery. If I was capable of traveling and felt like it was actually a good idea to travel right now, I would love to go on a tour of China to visit some of the places where they filmed it. (I bet some of those places get a lot of tourists specifically because of dramas that have been filmed there. And among Western women, The Untamed probably draws more tourists than most other cdramas.)
Yet another entry in my rambling notes on rewatching The Untamed, posted to my blog because I am lazy like that. Probably very weird, dull and incoherent for others to read. Hence why I'm putting the majority of the text behind a read more tag.