[DWGL] 09 - Thoughts + Commentary
Jun. 24th, 2018 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoAaaand episode 09 subs for Di Wang Gong Lüe have been posted by Subtitle Nonny over here. :D
These ep commentaries are getting a bit tl;dr. But, I suppose, if I ever write fic for this canon, they might come to some use.
Oh boy. So, right off the bat, we have Duan Baiyue pulling out some magic. NICE. Man, this dude is basically a one-man army.
"You were the one who harmed his majesty?"
Would-be rebels take note: Don't come anywhere near Chu Yuan if you value your life. 8)
This scene would look a whole lot cooler in something with better production values/a higher budget/whatever you call it. Or, come to think of it, serial illustration - a manhua adaptation would be pretty neat; I think comic format would eliminate some of the issues. The visuals are one of the largest shortcomings of this series, and this is something that frankly makes it difficult for me to rec it to people. Not that DWGL is awful, visually, it's just... kind of jerky, not very slick, and so on - and considering some of my favourite anime, that's not so big a deal for me personally, but. Y'know.
Now that Duan Baiyue has pulled some badass stunts and valiantly savedhis sweetheart the emperor, we receive a bit of explanation about just what is going on with him. Excellent! (Also, he's clearly in agony. This is wonderful. :D ) The tl;dr of it is: in order to put down the rebellion that we saw in the first episode, Duan Baiyue had to make use of powers beyond his ordinary abilities, and this proved to be unstable. The "gold silkworm thread" mentioned in the previous episode was planted in him by Nan Moye (the old geezer, who Ye Jin referred to as Old Bai in the previous episode? How many names does this guy have?). It served as a stabilizer - unfortunately, it periodically flares up in excessively painful episodes, leading us to the situation where we have here, where Duan Baiyue has a large amount of power but making use of it can cause great harm to himself. And leave him kind of a mess afterward, as we see here.
[/rubs hands together] Okay, then.
Ahh man, I just love how caring Chu Yuan is in this moment. He's so obviously distressed to be hearing this, and he WANTS to stay and tend to him, even though he can't.
The information that we get about Ye Jin in Chu Yuan's conversation with Si Xi interests me. So, he's been out of the palace for quite a while; in that light, it makes sense that Chu Yuan was so surprised to see him. But "We only have one younger brother left" - what happened to all of the other princes? Well, obviously nothing good, but... no elaboration here; perhaps that will be revealed in a later episode. In any case, Chu Yuan speaks of him rather fondly, and that delights me - Ye Jin might be hostile and grouchy toward him, but the feeling is not mutual. It's sweet. :D (Perhaps Ye Jin will come around some day...)
...Okay, re: Duan Baiyue showing up: AAAAH!
Seriously, he looked as if he could hardly even move when we last saw him, how did he pull himself together enough to catch up with Chu Yuan and Si Xi on the road? Mysteries.
"What is this?"
"A reunion gift. Regrettably, it is slightly overdue."
I'm sorry, I'm just going to roll around on the floor and scream a little.
And just the way that Duan Baiyue says - "The journey is long. Be especially vigilant on the way." There's something about the tone that is just so... so... caring and tender. <3 <3
Skipping ahead a bit, after the problem with the Liu rebels is dealt with, Chu Yuan addresses some things, and... the subject of his marriage (or current lack thereof) comes up. Currently, there is no empress, because Chu Yuanis as gay as a summer day is long er... is madly in love with Duan Baiyue um... Well, he has other priorities. And now, we're finding out a bit about what those priorities are. (Aside from his infatuation with the king of Xinan, that is.)
The biggest issue right now is ending unrest in Xibei. As we find out, this is a very unstable region, and the previous emperor had a lot of trouble with it; now, the Mobei nomads are Chu Yuan's problem to deal with. He says that he won't think about marriage until he gets this problem out of the way.
And scholar Wen Liunian makes an appearance again! With a well-reasoned argument that indicates that he, at least, thinks that pacification of this region is well within current ability, due to the frequent Mobei losses in the past two years. I hope we will see more of him in upcoming episodes, because I really like the dynamic that he and Chu Yuan have. They don't know each other well, but from the moment they met things were good between them (and I love that he made Chu Yuan crack up that one time <3 ). And... well, obviously I'm biased in his favour, because he's on the emperor's side, heh. Chu Yuan needs all of the cards in his hand that he can possibly get.
Anyway - my dear emperor, you are determined to stall this whole marriage business for as long as you possibly can, aren't you? With scholar Wen framing the pacification of the hostile region as something within the realm of possibility, Chu Yuan can buy himself a bit more time. Buuuut... sorry dude, you're going to have to get married eventually, and unfortunately it's not going to be to your actual sweetheart. (Probably. I mean. I'm assuming.)
Aaaahhh and now we see that the tree has been replanted where it belongs, and Chu Yuan has received a special gift from Duan Baiyue, and I just feel kind of gooey. And the new version of the ending is so lovely! (I'll have to see if I can rip it somehow - it's pretty.)
To wrap up - main thoughts on this episode are: I didn't like it quite as much as the previous one, but we did learn a lot of useful things about the plot, with additional setup for future stuff, so that's neat. (And useful for fic, potentially). Plus the few brief bits we got with actual face-to-face interaction between our dear king and emperor were A++. (WHEN HE RUSHED TO CATCH UP oh my heart ;;; )
You know what, I'm not into mpreg, but if I was, I would probably have slapped down 2,000 words of fic already. Need to marry somebody in order to produce an heir? NO PROBLEM. Just marry the king of Xinan, he's completely in love with you anyway. Simple solution! xD
...I am not going to write Chu Yuan/Duan Baiyue mpreg fanfic. Just to be clear on this. Ahem.
[Edit] Now, Nonny has kindly spoiled me for some novel details, and - putting it in the vaguest terms I can - in the novel, the above issue is handled in a way that's satisfactory to the parties involved, and Chu Yuan and Duan Baiyue get a happy ending. I was aware that the pairing is canon in the novel, but I didn't know the details of it; I had assumed it was a "I love you, even though we can't actually be together as a couple because of our status" kind of thing.
The jury is still out on how close an adaptation the animated series will be, though. There have apparently been a few plot-related departures already (unsure of the details there). I wonder how the series will handle the relationship. WELL, ONLY TIME WILL TELL. :D
These ep commentaries are getting a bit tl;dr. But, I suppose, if I ever write fic for this canon, they might come to some use.
Oh boy. So, right off the bat, we have Duan Baiyue pulling out some magic. NICE. Man, this dude is basically a one-man army.
"You were the one who harmed his majesty?"
Would-be rebels take note: Don't come anywhere near Chu Yuan if you value your life. 8)
This scene would look a whole lot cooler in something with better production values/a higher budget/whatever you call it. Or, come to think of it, serial illustration - a manhua adaptation would be pretty neat; I think comic format would eliminate some of the issues. The visuals are one of the largest shortcomings of this series, and this is something that frankly makes it difficult for me to rec it to people. Not that DWGL is awful, visually, it's just... kind of jerky, not very slick, and so on - and considering some of my favourite anime, that's not so big a deal for me personally, but. Y'know.
Now that Duan Baiyue has pulled some badass stunts and valiantly saved
[/rubs hands together] Okay, then.
Ahh man, I just love how caring Chu Yuan is in this moment. He's so obviously distressed to be hearing this, and he WANTS to stay and tend to him, even though he can't.
The information that we get about Ye Jin in Chu Yuan's conversation with Si Xi interests me. So, he's been out of the palace for quite a while; in that light, it makes sense that Chu Yuan was so surprised to see him. But "We only have one younger brother left" - what happened to all of the other princes? Well, obviously nothing good, but... no elaboration here; perhaps that will be revealed in a later episode. In any case, Chu Yuan speaks of him rather fondly, and that delights me - Ye Jin might be hostile and grouchy toward him, but the feeling is not mutual. It's sweet. :D (Perhaps Ye Jin will come around some day...)
...Okay, re: Duan Baiyue showing up: AAAAH!
Seriously, he looked as if he could hardly even move when we last saw him, how did he pull himself together enough to catch up with Chu Yuan and Si Xi on the road? Mysteries.
"What is this?"
"A reunion gift. Regrettably, it is slightly overdue."
I'm sorry, I'm just going to roll around on the floor and scream a little.
And just the way that Duan Baiyue says - "The journey is long. Be especially vigilant on the way." There's something about the tone that is just so... so... caring and tender. <3 <3
Skipping ahead a bit, after the problem with the Liu rebels is dealt with, Chu Yuan addresses some things, and... the subject of his marriage (or current lack thereof) comes up. Currently, there is no empress, because Chu Yuan
The biggest issue right now is ending unrest in Xibei. As we find out, this is a very unstable region, and the previous emperor had a lot of trouble with it; now, the Mobei nomads are Chu Yuan's problem to deal with. He says that he won't think about marriage until he gets this problem out of the way.
And scholar Wen Liunian makes an appearance again! With a well-reasoned argument that indicates that he, at least, thinks that pacification of this region is well within current ability, due to the frequent Mobei losses in the past two years. I hope we will see more of him in upcoming episodes, because I really like the dynamic that he and Chu Yuan have. They don't know each other well, but from the moment they met things were good between them (and I love that he made Chu Yuan crack up that one time <3 ). And... well, obviously I'm biased in his favour, because he's on the emperor's side, heh. Chu Yuan needs all of the cards in his hand that he can possibly get.
Anyway - my dear emperor, you are determined to stall this whole marriage business for as long as you possibly can, aren't you? With scholar Wen framing the pacification of the hostile region as something within the realm of possibility, Chu Yuan can buy himself a bit more time. Buuuut... sorry dude, you're going to have to get married eventually, and unfortunately it's not going to be to your actual sweetheart. (Probably. I mean. I'm assuming.)
Aaaahhh and now we see that the tree has been replanted where it belongs, and Chu Yuan has received a special gift from Duan Baiyue, and I just feel kind of gooey. And the new version of the ending is so lovely! (I'll have to see if I can rip it somehow - it's pretty.)
To wrap up - main thoughts on this episode are: I didn't like it quite as much as the previous one, but we did learn a lot of useful things about the plot, with additional setup for future stuff, so that's neat. (And useful for fic, potentially). Plus the few brief bits we got with actual face-to-face interaction between our dear king and emperor were A++. (WHEN HE RUSHED TO CATCH UP oh my heart ;;; )
You know what, I'm not into mpreg, but if I was, I would probably have slapped down 2,000 words of fic already. Need to marry somebody in order to produce an heir? NO PROBLEM. Just marry the king of Xinan, he's completely in love with you anyway. Simple solution! xD
...I am not going to write Chu Yuan/Duan Baiyue mpreg fanfic. Just to be clear on this. Ahem.
[Edit] Now, Nonny has kindly spoiled me for some novel details, and - putting it in the vaguest terms I can - in the novel, the above issue is handled in a way that's satisfactory to the parties involved, and Chu Yuan and Duan Baiyue get a happy ending. I was aware that the pairing is canon in the novel, but I didn't know the details of it; I had assumed it was a "I love you, even though we can't actually be together as a couple because of our status" kind of thing.
The jury is still out on how close an adaptation the animated series will be, though. There have apparently been a few plot-related departures already (unsure of the details there). I wonder how the series will handle the relationship. WELL, ONLY TIME WILL TELL. :D
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.