Singularity

After EN2, I must say that I would prefer this to take longer if it means keeping the cast together and a high quality production.

As we say with games, a delayed one is good eventually but a bad one is bad forever.

Yeah, Yu'er is much less annoying now that he got slapped around by Wu Que. I like the more serious version of him a lot better.

That's interesting; I actually found it to be the opposite. Maybe I just haven't gotten to the good part of the novel, I'm around chapter 110 where FX just left for North Qi, but I found the drama version of most of the characters much more interesting then the book version. CPP, Ruo Ruo, FX's adoptive dad, and Fei Jei seem like the same between the drama and the book but the emperor, the two princes, Wang Qi Nian, SLL, and Uncle Five all seem much more distinctive characters with interesting personalities in the drama. FX also seems like he has more depth and more of a drive. Especially the death of TZJ (another character who basically isn't a character in the novel) had a big impact on him in the drama and does a lot of work in propelling him forward. Novel FX has unclear motivations and seems to do things for no apparent reason other then self interest. Like why did he even want to got to North Qi? It's clearly a difficult mission and the emperor didn't really pressure him in the novel. It makes a lot more sense in the drama where his marriage hangs in the balance.

The drama also fills in things that could be considered plot holes; for instance, in the novel the prime minister just trusts FX instantly. In the drama he decides to test FX again; even though this goes hilariously wrong it was a good idea. If anything, it seems fishy to me that he trusted FX even after the test and I was expecting him to quietly test FX again. It feels wrong that the prime minister, who is allegedly a savvy political animal, would just trust somebody who had motivation to murder his recently murdered son.

The novel also takes random detours that go nowhere (like FX proctoring their national exams and taking a vacation to a mountain) which I assume is par for course for web novels.

There's like, 600 chapters left tho so things could definitely change but I'm finding the novel fairly average.

Team DuoDuo for life! They're the most similar personality-wise imo and their scenes together are the most fun.

https://youtu.be/14NkZswCXiA

Also on Ximalaya

She does seem much too young for NQ but while not especially pretty she is very kawaii and expressive. Maybe if NQ looked younger it’d give off less weird vibes hah.

I can't recall if the drama ever explicitly addressed it but in the novel, the elder princess is explicitly stated to be the emperor's younger sister (unclear if same father and mother) so FX and Wan'er would be first cousins, possibly a little further if the emperor and the elder princess have different mothers.

There's even a line in the book where CPP essentially asks FX's adoptive dad you're having a prince marry a princess, what nonsense is this? It was part of the scene in the drama where their carriages pass in the street but that line was cut, presumably to not have this question come up.

Oddly FX is less biologically related to his "sister" Ruo Ruo (with whom he shares exactly 0 parents) then he is to Wan'er unless there's some more twists in the later seasons.

TZJ is not really a significant character in the book, he's just a bodyguard for FX and they don't have a real bromance. He also doesn't die in the assassination attempt, some nameless bodyguards die instead. Elaborating on the character of TZJ (and specifically his death) gives FX a lot more emotional depth and gives him a major impetus for him to want to be in charge and change society. Because TZJ didn't die, FX also didn't take it upon himself to personally hunt down SLL, instead the overwatch council just kind of does it for him. FX also doesn't hesitate to physically torture SLL vs the drama where he doesn't, which gives him more of a man with a code feel.

They also stretched out FX and Wan'er's multiple mistaken identity meetings in the drama and make her 2nd brother more of an important character to foreshadow his involvement in the assassination. In the book the brother just kind of pops up as the culprit without warning.

Also, Wu Zhu is more of an interesting character in the drama where he has his own goals (opening the chest, finding FX's mother's home, avenging the assassination) whereas in the book he doesn't really do much of his on volition.

They do cut out a lot of chapters about FX's childhood and his training. Also, the book tends to wax poetic about FX's Qi abilities which I'm rather glad they skipped over since I don't think it can be represented visually.

I'm only on about chapter 60 (out of 700+) so it's still a long journey ahead but it seems that the scriptwriter really took care to more completely define the characters in the drama and provide more emotional stakes, which I really approve of.

So I'm listening to the audiobook of the webnovel and I think the comparison is very interesting. To be fair I don't do this very often (listening/reading webnovels) but it seems that the scriptwriter/adapter really did a lot of good work preserving the overarching plot of the novel but improving the feel of the characters.

9 episodes in, I think this is one of those shows that is best described as fun. Saying it's good would be a bit of a reach, but it's entertaining and knows not to take itself too seriously. It's also been a while since I've seen a wuxia drama (as opposed to xianxia) that wasn't based on Jin Yong's works (don't have much outside perspective on those since the stories are so well known) and it's really funny how tropey everything is. It's like there was a checklist of wuxia tropes and they just kind of went down the list, which makes sense since Gu Long's stories are presumably where a lot of the tropes came from to begin with.

I've watched both and I'm listening to the Joy of Life audiobook.... it does seem that a lot of the more interesting scenes from Joy of Life were actually inserted by the screenplay writers, so it seems possible that Ever Night doesn't feel as tight because the adaption from novel to screenplay wasn't done as well.

Especially the king, season 1 he was kind of impetuous but seemed smart and capable. Now he's a dumbass, almost a comic relief character. Really odd.

Was anybody else bothered by YNT going on a revenge quest and fighting with A BABY TIED TO HIS BACK?!?

Clearly he's never heard of shaken baby syndrome? Why didn't he just drop the baby off with the first baby? I don't think anybody is actively hunting for them so it's not really a Luke/Leia situation.

Mostly in jest of course, but this did bother me, ha.

The recent heavenly sword/dragon saber adaption was decent. As far as wuxia goes its hard to find stories comparable to Jing Yong’s IMO, which is probably why all the big ones keep getting re adapted every 5-10 years

I wouldn’t get too hung up on the framing device, the writer doesn’t come up again until the last 5 min of the last episode....

Agree, the king and the princess both seem a lot less... regal?

You should if you're into your stories making sense... there's a recap at the beginning but it's very brief.

It's interesting in hindsight how much difference Arthur Chen's performance made to the feel of season 1. Season 2 seems much more cheerful and light, I think not because of any significant difference to direction or writing (although there may be some) but just because the new NQ is cheerful and light and Arthur's NQ had a deep anger/resentment to him. The missing "I'll fight the world if I have to" energy makes a huge difference.

I'm not saying I dislike the season, but the dark intensity from season 1 seems to be gone.

The emperor seemed conflicted? He specifically told FX to just survive even if he fails the mission. He runs the country so of course he has to do what he feels benefits the country but he does seem to have some paternal love for FX.

CPP is a snake and IDK how to feel about him.

Anybody else not liking where this drama is headed? I really really enjoyed the first half, up until episode 25 or so, when SRW and ZZJ get married, then it seems to be all downhill from there. SRW is almost a different character from before and she and ZZJ just don't have the excellent tension they had before. Things seem to decline even more after Yong Le dies. I think the heart of the show was the squabbling among Yong Le and his sons and the dynamic between SRW and ZZJ. Now both are gone and everything is just much less fun. I almost feel like they should have zoomed in and made the whole show about the reign of Yong Le and just ended things with the coronation of ZZJ.

Also, its disorienting how the timeline will just randomly jump ahead a year or so at a time.