Novel Fans and Donghua Fans Sanctuary

And yeah about all the drama-only people being super sensitive in an open thread. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't think they realize they're being massive hypocrites. If you read the thread barely any of us are actually openly comparing anymore in a fashion meant to disuay people, nor are we replying to the praises to shoot them down like they do. Whenever we reply it's always about answering a question or pointing out their hypocrisy. I'm pretty sure even the drama-only people who don't like the drama are being labeled as source people as well in their heads because we "influenced" them into not being apart of their echo chamber. Which is even more hypocrisy because they wanna influence new viewers into only singing praises

I think they're just mad because I actually called them out on it and how the MDL community considers an 8 to be bad due to how much they try to keep things being an echo chamber of praises. A systemic problem it seems to be in the community here, at least under this particular drama.

@Enigma05

The Asura Sword:

The Asura Sword is bestowed upon Tang San by his great-grandfather, Tang Chen, a 99 level demi-god.  It's basically the most powerful weapon in all of DD.  It chooses XW as its scabbard because of conflicts with TS's Sea God spirit (he gets Poseidon's Trident too lol), but he uses it to kill Bibi Dong at the end when he fuses with XW to become the Asura God.

 Major:

@Enigma05

The Asura Sword:

The Asura Sword is bestowed upon Tang San by his great-grandfather, Tang Chen, a 99 level demi-god.  It's basically the most powerful weapon in all of DD.  It chooses XW as its scabbard because of conflicts with TS's Sea God spirit (he gets Poseidon's Trident too lol), but he uses it to kill Bibi Dong at the end when he fuses with XW to become the Asura God.

Oh wow! That sounds super neat! Cool, I like swords! Thanks for the bestowment. ;) I hope we get a part 2 though without the apparently confused screenwriter. I haven't seen any of his work prior to this but from what I hear he loves killing off favorite characters. Not sure why that makes him a big deal. They could have used a much more adapt screenwriter that didn't from what I understand butcher this thing. But Tencent did announce a season 2 during their annual conference in October so things are TBD. I saw someone in here say they thought CGI was not big on budget in the beginning but actually this whole thing especially the CGI had a massive budget plus the folks responsible are big hitters on the international stage of CGI; by names I guessed Serbian or Croatian but have worked on a few American blockbusters with CGI. So there's some random facts for y'all. Hope it helps. 

@Enigma

Yeah that doesn't surprise me at all.  I'm no expert in CGI but I've been legit shocked at how good it looks, considering what I was expecting lol.  I'd say those of us who are more intimately familiar with the novel probably have far more issues with the messy/edited story line than the visuals..

 Lily Lam:

I've been watching a lot of review videos of the drama on Bilibili. It seems like some of the channels who had reviewed the drama are being hit.

I don't know about this. I mainly reading the discussion in douban and the onslaught toward original fans is not pretty at all. In my opinion this kind of attitude actually will backfired to those who wish this drama well. Because at this point, the original fans already so angry because of the many change the drama did that in a way butchered the IP. So this kind of arrogant attitude will make lots of original fans tolerance even lower. 

I tried to watch this drama with open mind. And I did state in one of my post that I can understand that this drama might looks good for those who is not familiar with the original. However, for those who are expecting an ADAPTATION, the changes are too much and make this drama no longer recognizable as Douluo Dalu adaptation. The drama indeed preserved the friendship theme, but the flavor greatly changed from the original. It is like expecting a vanilla but got a strawberry instead. The core personality of the majority of the characters (main and supporting) are different and in my opinion this is a great taboo for any adaptation. The change is allowed, addition is allowed, but you shall never change the characterization because it is the soul of the IP.

 Enigma05:

I don't blame you. I'm a fan of the lead actor but that will never override my wanting to see cohesive character and plot development.

Great to see a sane actor fan. The situation with the Douluo Dalu adaptation is very sad and disappointing. Since this is Xiao Zhan, and I saw him did well in The Untamed, I have high hope to see Tang San adapted to living version. But this Tang San depicted in the drama is not Tang San we original fans familiar with. Making him grow is fine, but with different core personality, any grow in the drama will not give us our Tang San. 

Moreover, I suspect the scriptwriter either didn't read the whole novel or he just didn't like this genre. Because he was literally scrapped everything that make this IP so enjoyable to the original fans and replace them with something that he THOUGHT was better. First of all, xuanhuan genre usually caters to male readers so it has lots of cool moments with so little sob story. Here in this drama, this is subverted.

I'm following with the eng subs, so am only up to 25 so far.

In regards to OP's original comment:
2 -> Tang San, I thought his original voice work was dopey in the first few episodes, but it's improved. As to being whiny - his world has been upheaved and he's having to adapt. Also he's having to get his head around the weird supposed movements of his father. I can understand him being a little unbalanced about things, so I don't have an issue with his whinging as it is. In a funny way, his getting upset at the injustices of the world seems to have made his voice less dopey.
3 -> Fight choreography. It's not the best, sure. But I can adapt to less than the best special effects and fight choreography. Not every production has a good budget to cover the expense of the top tier in these matters. My imagination can cope with shortcomings in these regards, so long as the story is well told. As long as they make their best effort with the resources they have, it's all good.
4 -> Hu Lie Na's presence, completely agree. But I'm holding off 'til the series end to comment about it because maybe it will make sense in the full series arc...? Am adopting a 'wait and see' position on most story threads that are divergent from the original material.
5, 6 -> see 3.
7 -> There's been a variety of character changes. I'm flexible when it comes to adaptations, so long as the overall story remains well told and is logically consistent in it's story world. I'm thinking they had to make Ma Hong Jun young to make the father/son relationship more meaningful. Hopefully that whole villager mutation thing will be borne out from the series story arc as a whole, since I don't recall it being in the novel.

Maybe all the things that have changed will make a cohesive whole as a story by the end of this series. So maybe if we keep track of these changes we can see where they intend to take the story...?

So far:
* Hu Lie Na being present, and her particular focus on Dai Mu Bai.
-> Given how in the novel the Martial Hall's as a balancing power between the two nations (prior to starting the war) maybe Bi Bi Dong is keeping an eye on Mu Bai as part of the Martial Hall's political machinations leading up to the war? Or maybe Hu Lie Na was using her mind control skills specifically to leech information about Star Luo empire's internal situation for Martial Hall's
preparations for war?
* the whole villager mutation arc
-> didn't they specifically mention the mutations they sought were prominent in a huge war a number of years back? If so, maybe a political faction is seeking those mutations that have been known to be effective in war because that faction are themselves preparing for war? The most suspect faction being Martial Hall, of course.
* Tang Hao's supposed involvement in the plot of villager mutation.
-> I say 'supposed' because as of ep 26 all I know is that his name has been used, but we haven't seen a direct connection. It's possible they've stolen the authority of his name. Plus poisoning the innocent seems inconsistent with Tang Hao's character from the novel. That said, there is the issue of the Martial Hall being responsible for having hunted his wife. Could go either way. Again, am adopting a wait and see to the entire series' story arc.
* I can get confused in regards to names. Isn't the name being used as the school supposedly responsible for the villager mutations and the poisoning of Du Gu Yan the same school that attacked Shrek when they went to Star Dou forest, and the same school with that horrifying illusion master who attacked Tang San out of competition?
-> If this is the case, perhaps the person behind the villager mutation poisonings plot is that illusion master, not Tang Hao. In which case, what is their purpose? Are they plotting against Martial Hall, or are they actually a Martial Hall faction?

That whole second life/rebirth thing seemed excessive plot to me when reading the story. I'm not unhappy that in the series they dropped it in favour of explaining Tang San's hidden weapons expertise as training from his family line.

I'm really looking forward to the portrayal of Ning Fengzhi. In the anime he's a favourite of mine. I really really hope they haven't given him a mullet.

I quite like the representation of Ma Hong Jun, in that the actor is cute, and the character is cute too. I get that he's quite the departure from the novel, but I'm not particularly upset about it.

Oscar's changes just rub me completely the wrong way. He's so persistently annoying.

Agree they've unnecessarily nerfed the Master. Why did they need to make him a servant? Was there a point to it?

 10katie01:

No. If I was being passive-aggressive I would've been less straightforward.

Again, sorry for the error, lol. The whole main page discussion has gotten too wild and made me more sensitive to comments so my bad for the mistake!