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.
So. In the novel, we don't have a lot of information about how the invitations to the Mount Baifeng Siege Hunt are delivered. Presumably by whatever manner letters are normally delivered. (Either servant-class cultivators acting as messengers, or maybe even normal people hired for that purpose. Who knows?) In the drama, Jin Zixuan comes in person to deliver the invitation to Jiang Cheng. As they're the same age and have spent a lot of time together--studying at Cloud Recesses, then hostages together at the indoctrination camp, and fighting together in the Sunshot Campaign--it probably doesn't seem totally weird to the Lotus Pier trio, but it also does feel like "c'mon, guys, can't you see he only came himself 'cause he's realized he's into her after all?"
As cute as his joy is when she agrees to come, I do think it might have been better if the show hadn't inserted this scene. 😅 Though it is really cute. 😊 I haven't decided yet if I want to rewrite the scene in my fic where the invitation comes; I originally had it just delivered by some unknown extra, but it might be fun to follow the drama's lead and have Jin Zixuan come in person. (Wei Wuxian isn't even at Lotus Pier at that time, being away on a special mission with Lan Wangji and several others, so he's not there to cloud the scene with his deep-seated grudge against Jin Zixuan. (A grudge born very reasonably, but which ought to have lessened after the indoctrination camp...and in my fic should be even lesser, what with the soup incident having been utterly different. I probably need to keep an eye on that in the next draft and make sure it's suitably lessened.)
Okay, actually, in reply to my question earlier, having seen the whole scene play out, I think Wei Wuxian did pick up on the fact that Jin Zixuan's feelings towards Jiang Yanli have changed, and he's just interfering because he really hates Jin Zixuan. (And honestly, it's understandable. When I first watched this, I hated Jin Zixuan at first, because he was such a pompous jerk. But then after he fell so cutely in love with Jiang Yanli, I stopped hating him. But that's the sort of thing that's easier to do with a fictional person than with a real person.)
Ah, Lan Wangji's jealousy is so cute!
This side-eyed look of "why does she receive such affectionate smiles from my Wei Ying?" He's so obvious, despite how minimal his expressions actually are. It's amazing no one other than his brother has figured him out by this point in the story. (Well, okay, the previous episode implied that Lan Qiren had also figured him out, but...I think we have to assume that Lan Xichen had told him, rather than that he had actually realized it himself. Especially since Lan Qiren hasn't even seen the two of them together very often.)
I think what minimal description I have for the location of this archery tournament is really...not good. Even for me. I need to redo it. Also to redo where I showed this on my map. (Though now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I put it on the map at all? Huh...why did I bother doing that? I'll have to check what was in the scenes surrounding the Mount Baifeng sequence and see if there was any reason for it.)
This whole thing of forcing Wen Clan prisoners to stand in front of the targets, though...it's kind of cartoonishly evil. I feel like if the Jin Clan did that, the other clans would have been a lot less willing to let them continue to be the ones in charge of the work camp where the Wen Clan survivors are being held, and they'd be a lot slower to accuse Wei Wuxian of doing something wrong in liberating the prisoners from that camp. Especially since all three of the other Great Clan leaders look distressed to see those prisoners being made to stand there. Jiang Cheng actually more so than the other two, surprisingly.
I mean, maybe broad strokes like that are more normal in cdramas? I have so little experience--just one other complete show and one partial show--and this is the only one where I also know the source material to compare it to and see what's invented for the drama. But maybe this is normal because in a drama you can never be sure how closely people are paying attention, how long it's been since they watched the previous episode, how well they remember who's on what side, etc? I don't know. I don't know how it works. And I know I shouldn't judge it by the standards of something it isn't.
But I'm just wasting time now and I have errands to run later, so I should just stop typing and get back to watching.
Okay, in order to do the archery contest (and blindfold himself), Wei Wuxian does put Chenqing in his belt on the side. On the left side, specifically. Hmm. Do people wear their swords on their dominant side or not? I know holsters for guns are on the dominant side, but hmm....I need to watch something where people do have their swords on their belts to check which side they typically go on. Though I suppose it might be different for different cultures with different sword styles.
Then again, I'm not sure I ever even specify which side the swords are on in the fic anyway...
So...in this version, Wei Wuxian's powers are not necromancy...but he can still force the prey to throw itself into the Jiang Clan's nets in this sequence.
*sigh*
I wonder if it's possibly that they actually are still necromancy, and it's the subtitles that are trying to pretend otherwise? I wouldn't have thought that possible, but after seeing the bullcrap that Crunchyroll/Funimation pulled with the translation of the first season of Heaven Official's Blessing (I still haven't had the nerve to try the second season to see if they're still at it or if they decided to try doing it right), I have to reluctantly concede that it is possible for people can do something that bone stupid. If one company is willing to pretend a cast that's 1/3 ghosts has no ghosts at all, maybe another is willing to pretend necromancy isn't necromancy?
Hmmm.....if that's the case, if the puppets being controlled by Wen Ruohan were also a variant of fierce corpse all along...that would drastically alter my fic.
Except that if it's a change being made in the subtitles, then the vast majority of the people who might read the fic (if there even are such people) wouldn't even realize the change had been made, so if I changed it back, it would look like I was just mucking with canon for no reason. Wouldn't it?
Hmmm.
I'm going to have to put some thought into this. And keep my eyes open for any other indications that it was a translation issue rather than a production decision.
[EDIT- The scene between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in the forest is just so...💕 I mean, yes, it's not a blind-folded first kiss. But really, that kiss was kind of...honestly, it shocked me the first time I read the novel. I wasn't expecting Lan Wangji to be that...that. As much as I'd love to see a kiss scene for these two as portrayed by these actors, seeing the kiss scene from the novel would be deeply unsettling. The lack of consent is bad enough as is, but coupling it with the near-violence of Lan Wangji shoving Wei Wuxian back against the tree trunk and holding him in place...that would be horrible to witness in motion, especially in live-action. The scene that takes its place, just the two of them talking heart-to-heart, with long spans of just looking intensely into each others' eyes...honestly, it's easy to believe either one of them might have spontaneously confessed their feelings then and there if Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli hadn't come along. It makes the relationship feel much more mutually romantic than it was at this point in the novel. Especially considering that one of Wei Wuxian's lines included saying that he had thought of Lan Wangji as his...I'm trying to remember what the word is. I saw a bit about this on a link from someone else's fic..."zhiji," I think it was? The Netflix subtitles translated it as "eternal confidante," which is pretty good just in terms of romantic without actually using the words. But the word is also often translated as "soulmate." Though its actual meaning was, according to that thing I read earlier, closer to "the one who truly understands me." So its actual definition is not romantic in nature, and yet also it's something you would expect to apply to romantic partners. So that combined with the start of the scene--Wei Wuxian about to gleefully call out to Lan Wangji but then flashing back to the invented scene with Lan Xichen in the previous episode, to a line that had the subtext of "stay away from my brother unless you're going to start cultivating properly, because what you're doing now will destroy everyone around you sooner or later," and thus not calling out, only to have Lan Wangji sense his presence and walk up anyway--makes it feel passionately romantic even though technically nothing happens. And so I keep on thinking about it.... 💕]
I feel like Jin Guangyao keeps addressing people too familiarly. He just called Jin Zixun simply "Zixun." Since this version seems to have decided Jin Zixun is older than Jin Zixuan (I noticed "tangdi" again repeatedly in this episode) then that makes him older than Jin Guangyao as well, making it highly improper for him to address him that familiarly. Especially since at this point in the story, Jin Zixun still utterly detests Jin Guangyao.
I think I've decided to just ignore the fact that the drama made Jin Zixun older than Jin Zixuan. Since the translation does not highlight it in any way and since he's not actually acting older--he's just as pointless and immature once we get into the story from the novel--I'm not going to alter my fic to make him older and less immature. (Though, tbh, I may have made him even worse than he is in canon, astonishingly enough. Fortunately, I don't think he has any fans. 😅) Since he doesn't even show up until after my AU point, it feels kinda sorta okay to do so?
Those men accompanying Yao-zongzhu as he spews out vile nastiness don't even seem to be his own men; they seem to be Jins. Good grief, is he acting all high and mighty when his clan is still down to only three people? Ugh, horrible man.
But their conversation about Wei Wuxian's importance to the Jiang Clan's performance in the Sunshot Campaign is just flat-out wrong in terms of what happened in the drama. We saw what he did in this version of the Sunshot Campaign: he slaughtered Wen Chao's men and assisted in torturing Wen Chao to death, and then he controlled the puppets in the battle in the streets of Nightless City. That's it. He made a pretty impressive show of the latter, yes, but that's hardly the whole clan leaning exclusively on his skills throughout the entire war. He literally missed the 3/4 of the war, in fact!
Ah, that one lyrical shot of Wei Wuxian looking at someone while the wind gently blows the bits of hair on either side of his face, that was from this episode. That's him looking at Wen Qing in the street. No wonder the expression on his face is so reserved and thoughtful and bittersweet.
But I'm amazed at the following scene! The scene where Lan Wangji admits to his brother that he wants to bring "a man" back to Cloud Recesses and hide him away! I can't believe they actually included that scene! 💕 I guess they felt it was safe because the dialog didn't admit that his feelings for said man were romantic in nature.
Ugh, but the next episode is going to be so very, excruciatingly not fun. 😭 I am going to shed so many tears that my eyes will hurt. 😭 How could anyone do such awful things to poor, sweet Wen Ning!? 😭
I may take a day or two off and then take far fewer notes so I can go two episodes a day to get me through the rest of the flashback. Once I'm safely in the present again, with the tragedies mostly behind me, it'll be better. 😭 (That's one of the other things to be said for the novel: the tragic material is much shorter. It's just as painful, of course, but you can get through it faster.)
On the other hand, though, there's a lot of notes I need to make on the next episode. I need to take note of what Qiongqi Path and the work camp look like, I need to take notes on how the Wen remnants address Wen Qing and Wen Ning, I need to take note on what some locations at Golden Carp Tower look like (and whether or not it's possible the carriage ride described in such detail in the novel is still a thing, because it better be on account of I used it several times in my fic 😅) and...
Ah. I am going to suffer, no matter how things turn out.
I wonder how many people would even start reading a fic this long in the first place? If it's a small number, maybe I can get away with just putting a note on it that I've somewhat blended novel and drama canon, and therefore I don't have to stress over places where I followed novel canon even though it's incompatible with drama canon.
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