The Untamed: Musing about hero
(Potential spoiler ahead for people who haven’t read the novel. Please proceed with caution)

Given how faithfully the second half of the drama followed the novel, I was surprised to hear the truth about “the second flute” messing with WuXian’s flute 16 years ago. Because with that one explanation, the writer easily turned WuXian from a hated murderer into another unfortunate victim. Because that means he has nothing to do with the whole tragedy except for being a source of envy and a convenient scapegoat.

I wonder if that explanation was given in the drama because it will be harder for viewers to accept a hero like novel-WuXian. The thing is, in the novel, he was directly responsible for those thousands death. He was the one who created the Tiger Seal and eventually failed to control it. While Jin GuangYao did manipulate both ZiXun and ZiXuan to get into confrontation with WuXian, he never directly tampered with WuXian’s control over his puppets. It was solely WuXian who succumbed to madness and did the massacre at Nevernight. And so, it’s to be expected that many characters still felt conflicted about what he did even after the ending of the series.

One other thing I noticed is the fact that novel-WuXian embraced the darker part of his chosen path more readily. In the drama, the only puppet he associated with was Wen Ning, who was adorable and very kind. But in the novel he did much more “darker” things that’s not always easy to swallow: WuXian created endless supply of puppets during his stay at Burial Ground, he brought his pet puppet along during his revenge toward Wen Chao (if you think what he did in the drama was unsavory enough, the novel version was so much worse), and there was also a scene where WangJi met him in town while WuXian busy drinking and playing with a host of puppet girls. In the past timeline, it’s easier to find WuXian surrounded by and mingled with his puppets rather than another living person, that WangJi kept scolding him about it whenever they met.

I wonder if the script writer changed things to give WuXian a more classic-misunderstood-hero qualities. Or maybe to give a more neat closure to his arc. Or probably they are simply worried people couldn’t accept someone who did such a thing as a hero of this story.

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    Oh, definitely the drama writers had to make him a pure hero, never an anti-hero who did anything unsavory. I can understand that and it worked really well for the drama. Though I do think there were undertonings of subtle hints at him losing control, just as LZ had told him.
    What happened in the novel worked really well for the novel. He didn’t have to be perfect, otherwise we the reader may never have gotten the other side of realism as well – you know, all the physical intimacy, (ahem, quite detailed). It wasn’t that pure.
    I love both the novel and the drama.

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      Yep, I also love both the novel and the drama. And kind of amazed that we got two version of WuXian (since novel and drama Lan WangJi is practically the same) and still able to like both of them. WuXian in the novel was much more boisterous, which worked really well to balance the more unsavory things he did in the past. While the drama version is more mellow (and the actor sell it really well) that I constantly wanted to smother him with hugs.

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        The author wrote a gobsmackingly good novel, the translator into English did an outstanding job. As far as the drama, I’ve never seen such a remarkable version of a novel translated to a drama, so well done. Keeping the memorable scenes, changing the storytelling to fit a visual medium, and still keeping the heart and soul of the story intact.

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          If only other BL novels could be translated this good into a drama, oh, wow. Satisfying the censors yet also satisfying the viewers and especially the viewers who’ve loved the novel. That takes genius on all fronts.

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        I love that we have different interpretations of our hero, and Xiao Zhan definitely made WWX his own!

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    I read about this and the reason this was changed in the drama is due to these Chinese censors:

    – Sets a negative character as a main character, or exaggerates the positive sides of a reactionary, backwards, evil, or illegal [acting] person, society, or organization.

    – Blurs the value judgement between truth and falsehood, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, or confuses the basic boundaries between justice and injustice

    So they had to make WWX pure good because of this. He can’t walk that gray boundary like in the novel due to their censors.

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      In this particular case, I didn’t mind at all. However it happened, it worked to the benefit of all of us.
      Otherwise, c-drama protagonists would have to die. The protagonist has to be pure and want an ordinary life to have a happy ending.

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        I haven’t read the novel but have heard the differences of the novel vs drama and seems the drama did a great job of converting from the novel while getting around the censors but keeping the true essence of the novel.

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      I think this one example where C ent did a good job at circumventing the censors and yet keeping true to the essence. If they were to go head on, viewers will get zilch.

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    I haven’t read the novel but am thankful for seeing the differences of his character listed out. I know that as human beings we all make mistakes but I am not sure I will be able to readily forgive WWX like Big sister did if he was really the one that purposely did these evil deeds. I might have to really read the novel from start to finish to understand how I would feel about him….

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      Please read it if you have time.
      Though rather than purposefully doing evil deeds, it’s more like WuXian overestimated his capability to handle such things (especially since in the novel, he was truly the founder of those dark and unusual techniques).

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        I want to read it but it just sounds so…. dark. I dot. Know if I can handle it

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      Killing ZiXuan and massacring those thousands of disciples during the Nightless City masscre was not really done on purpose. He just lost control of WenNing and those corpses, because the ability to control his spiritual flute and the undead depends on the stability of his mind. And even though he did evil things, most of the times he was just retaliating. People did evil things to him first. Like he said, did people expect him not to rataliate when they attacked him?

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        What LanZhan told him was right – never in history had anyone been able to not lose control.
        In the novel, he was born on Oct 31 – a Scorpio. As a fellow Scorpio, I can tell you we are prone to want revenge/retaliation, even if it harms us in return.

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          Exactly! Because he’s using resentment (which can harm his body and his heart) to cultivate the demon path, and the demons will gradually try to take over and will result to him losing control which is what exactly happened.

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            In the drama, it seemed like he didn’t really lose control but rather there were some outward manipulation but people who intended to kill. Does this mean that in the novel he actually did lose control to his anger and resentment?

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            @gmelenco
            In the drama, the tragedy happened because of outward manipulation. But we’ve seen many instances where WuXian almost lost control of his emotions (and consequently his flute). Like the scene at the hunting tournament, and the confrontation on Jin Sect banquet. And in those instances, his sister or WangJi had to interfere before it got worse. That’s why Jin GuangYao told him in their last confrontation that there was no guarantee that WuXian could always control his flute.

            In the novel, his loss of control got worsened to the point of half-madness. The massacre happened because he was so mad that he did things without thinking clearly. He wasn’t conscious of his choice, and later after his rebirth, he realized that he couldn’t even remember what actually happened at the Nevernight.

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            @gadis
            In the drama, when WX almost lost control, that was when I lose control first and yelled for him to take revenge (not in a kill them way but more like “give them pain!” way). I really can’t blame him for what happened bc if I were there, I’d be there adding fuel to the flumes i guess.

            You’re doing a really good job promoting the novel! I’ll keep it on my mind 🙂

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            @gadis: good point. I had forgotten about the instances he really lost it (like the tournament) and only his sister and LZ could bring him back. Those are strong hints of the screenwriters paying homage to the novel.

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    This shot! Badass WWX is back shot! 😍

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    They can’t show that because of Chinese censorship. The law doesn’t allow them to portray dark characters as heroes.
    But even in the novel WWX kept undead company because the living reviled him & wouldn’t keep him company. LWJ could chastise him all he wanted, but he wasn’t ready to accompany him despite invitations in the past.

    But yes, drama WWX is nowhere near the novel WWX with shades of grey. They turned him onto a saintly misunderstood hero. They changed some actions & their consequences, as a result of which it was easier for the viewers & the the other characters in the drama to forgive him.

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      Well, he wasn’t exactly saintly…but he was misunderstood and blamed as they needed/wanted a scapegoat for their actions.
      I’d say LZ was the saintly one. It Was WWX that taught LZ to question what is right/what is wrong and to not go along with mob mentality.

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