"Nirvana in Fire"/"Lang Ya Bang" Group Read: Discussion Post for Chapters 170 - 174

[x_los]

Week 42 of the "Lang Ya Bang" book club, chapters 170 - 174 (inclusive). This discussion will draw to a close on February 20th. THIS IS THE FINAL WEEK.

Chinese text: https://sj.uukanshu.com/book.aspx?id=17338
English translation: https://merelhyn.tumblr.com/post/641747965727358976/the-langya-list-epubpdf

SPOILER POLICY: I personally don't give a fuck or even like to give unearned credence to the concept, so since I'm writing the post, anything's fair game.

After Monday, we'll talk about next steps.

Comments

Chapter 170

[x_los]

Damn, Consort Yue came out of nowhere. I forgot all about her. How did she know something was up?

Chapter 171

[x_los]

- This head-knocking stuff sounds like someone's going to get a concussion.

- Ayyy, Prince Ji too! He's a relaxed guy who didn't obviously put himself forward during the last conflict, but he does value family. This makes sense for his character, and feels rewarding.

- This is a pretty powerful scene, well-realised.

Chapter 172

[x_los]

- This conclusion is so strong that the preceding material is retrospectively invigorated to a degree. Honestly, I feel this project would have greatly benefitted from having been written and revised as a whole rather than meted out in instalments. It suffers from a composition process that undercuts it: this emotionally resonant conclusion coheres in a way that should have been the impetus for a large-scale revision to bring the rest of the MS up to this level. In a way, the show manages this.

- It's interesting and sad that the emperor who Changsu despises is, effectively, already dead. Only this shell remains.

Re: Chapter 172

[superborb]

Although the drama of course has many other creative inputs than just the screenwriter, I do wonder how much the drama represents what would have been a more polished final product would have been.

Chapter 173

[x_los]

- Man, it’s REALLY bad that Xie Yu’s uninvolved relatives get killed for this. It does feel historically accurate for medieval China, but also: what the fuck?

- It's kind of unsatisfying that in this version, the emperor and Changsu don’t speak and the emperor doesn’t know who he is at the end.

Re: Chapter 173

[superborb]

It feels worse because Liyang and her children survive... Like, those are the more directly related relatives, why do less directly related ones get punished... And the implication that if Xie Yu was still alive, his death would have sufficed??

Chapter 174

[x_los]

- Oh, I guess the emperor does know!

- ‘Wuwu’ Translator, nooo, that’s so not the mood of this scene?? Aha.

- Jingrui’s stepdad being evil aside, he’s still a member of the royal family, twice over. Why not grant him rewards?

- This is a really oblique treatment of Changsu’s death.