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The Untamed: The Netflix series versus the original web novel
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amalthia suggested I post some of my observations about the differences between Netflix's "The Untamed" and the original web novel, as translated on Exiled Rebel's, and what I noticed about the first two chapters of the professional translation by Seven Seas. I've finished the Rebel's translation except for a few PWP post-story fics.
Netflix's "The Untamed" is very faithful to the scenes, right down to keeping (most) of the dialogue.
I'm now as convinced as I can be (without being able to read Chinese) that, despite the complaints about capslock sections and some use of creaky old American slang ("to the max"?), that the professional Seven Seas translation is accurate and captures the tone and style of the original Chinese. I suspect it's not the translator; it's the source, though some people who've read the official Japanese and Korean translations say those translations are better. The fan translation on Exiled Rebel's (with footnotes!) gives the original story a higher, more elevated tone and preserves more Chinese idioms and allusions to Chinese poetry.* But the author's dialogue towards the end, and her choices on how-to-build-a-romance-plot, reveals someone who has some childish ideas about romance (of the trip-and-he-catches-you variety).
No complaints! I'm loving it, and I certainly haven't written such fantastic original characters, such compelling world-building and sweeping epic backstory.
With the series "The Untamed" on Netflix really did the source material credit, taking what was best, boosting what was neglected or shoved into exposition, giving women more presence in a way that suited the story, and deleting what really didn't work. Anyone who loves cheesy old kungfu movies will recognize the flying-through-the-air swordplay and low budget special effects -- though "The Untamed" has gorgeous costume designs and settings. (I want to go to Cloud Recesses, sighhhh.) The series puts its money into the truly first-rate acting, while the swordplay is more Hollywood than Jackie Chan. (Some of those extras didn't get any practice, lol!)
The Netflix series rearranged scenes to much greater, epic effect: by putting the story in chronological order, Netflix's "The Untamed" shifts the focus to the characters and character development, and 50-60% of the story is about a dynastic struggle and what rises from ashes.
In the original story, the focus is on the slash and a creepy murder mystery. The dynastic struggle is just background added here and there, mostly by way of exposition, giving us the why of the mystery and the slash.
Netflix's "The Untamed" added several MAJOR scenes that are not in the books to fill in blanks that turned up due to the reorganization. It also drastically changed the ending because ... let's just say they weren't telling a story that included smoking hot dubcon which could feasibly end with a bunch of PWP post-story scenes. There are also two characters who suddenly have major roles in "The Untamed" because of the shift to chronological order. Those two played an important role in the past but had little to do with the murder mystery, so scenes are added for them as well. The change to a largely chronological order in the 30-or-so episode flashback results in increasing the role of women in the story, which is all to the good. By the time we finished the 30+ episode flashback, I felt like I had to re-watch the first two episodes to get caught up, but that's mostly because the flashback story is WOW.
I found the underlying themes of the original to be very different from "The Untamed" series.
The original is an angry story, where revenge (and the futility of revenge) is the primary theme, and rapists in particular meet ugly ends. We get the facts in "The Untamed," but not the fury. The original tells us the motives of the walking corpses Wei Wuxian raises. They're dangerous because they were wronged and helpless in life.
Netflix's "The Untamed" on the other hand is a sweeping noble epic about love, loyalty, and sacrifice. Characters one by one make huge sacrifices for each other, and it makes for many characters you can't help but like. Most of these sacrifices do exist in the books, the facts are there, but the series highlights them as major driving character motivations and plot points. In the Netflix series the walking corpses merely act as a demonstration of power and we (usually) don't know their motivations.
In the original book, the plot largely turns on the development of the slash, because the story takes place in the present, with flashbacks and exposition. The big sacrifices largely happened in the past and are simply used to flesh out the characters and develop the complicated slash relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.
In removing the foregrounded slash, Netflix series "The Untamed" removed some major events involving Lan Wangji. They could get away with that easily because Lan Wangji in the original is almost exclusively shown through others' point of view. Netflix added some more subtle scenes that tell us about his feelings for Wei Wuxiang but not much about how Lan Wangji himself changes over time.
In the original book, Lan Wangji gets character development and Truths Are Revealed. The book is worth reading for learning more about Lan Wangji alone. Sometimes sex is just porn and can be easily deleted. Sometimes it's characterization. In this case, the sex that happens in the story (not the PWP postscript stories) is characterization, and has to be, because Lan Wangji doesn't say much, we rarely get his point of view, and he expresses himself through action anyways. The actor who plays Lan Wangji in the Netflix series "The Untamed" does a fantastic job with very little: he's a master of microexpressions. When asked if he likes cute little bunnies, the look on his face is one of the best moments of the series. Another plus: he actually knows how to play the instrument his character carries, the seven-stringed guqin, so his concentration and calm accurately conveys the instrument. Having finished the original story, it's clear the actor who played Lan Wanji did not read it, because he takes his character in a different direction. There are therefore two Lan Wangjis: the one in the Netflix series, and the one in the original. I prefer the one in the Netflix series because he's more complicated, but YMMV.
I find that a lot of what made the Netflix series excellent was the actor who played Wei WuXian. He's outstanding (though I wish he'd attempted to learn some real flute fingerings). First he portrayed Wei WuXian as mischievous and charming. Then when the going got rough, he became optimistic, determined and clever. Then after the trauma around his adoptive family, he became believably paranoid and dangerous, surviving on his wits, luck, and the kindness of others. Then he returns to his normal persona, but more mature and self-sacrificing. Then he later becomes evasive, arrogant, deadly, and unstable ... with his old personality peeking through only when he's been helped by Lan Wangji. Then he becomes practical, self-sacrificing (again), and determined, despite being totally miserable. After that he's fey, wildly unstable, vengeful, and suicidal. And it keeps going.
As a character Wei Wuxian goes through a rollercoaster of changes. That comes across because the actor is excellent (some of his slapstick comic moments reveal he has Classical Chinese theatre training). But it also helps that the flashbacks are put together in the Netflix version so you can really see the progression.
In the original story, with his life interspersed as flashbacks and exposition, it's harder to see his character development. The jumps in time in the original story makes the characterization inconsistent and confusing. The characterization of Wei WuXian also becomes inconsistent when we get to the slashy parts, too, in a different way. Maybe the author's just too steeped in seme/uke roles and slips into some masculine top/effeminate bottom clichés? It could be that. Pretty sure fandom can produce better slash than this, of any rating, though I withhold final judgement given the author rewrote some non-explicit sections so she wouldn't be refused hosting (at least according to notes in the Rebel's translation), so the character shifts could come from rewrites. Or perhaps the inconsistency is a translation issue and it's ironed out in the official Seven Seas translation, I don't know, I've only read the first two chapters of the official translation and found I liked the Chinese idioms and footnotes we got in the Rebel's version better, despite some grammatical problems.
When it comes to the explicit slash, however, wow, the author delivers. For my friends who love dubcon: read the Seven Seas books (which handle action more smoothly). You're going to be very, very happy.
If I had my druthers, I'd keep The Untamed largely as it is, but add some missing Lan Wangji scenes (and the porn if I could, ha, or at least a fade to black on the crucial and most explicit scene) ... but I'd still delete the dialogue the Netflix series wisely got rid of. They did us a solid there, ha, especially in the great reveal towards the end of the original story, when the murder mystery and other mysteries are resolved. I don't want to be unappreciative. This is a great story. I'm used to the original novel being better than the TV series, so I guess I had some expectations about the slashy parts and I find myself -- still reading and delighting in it -- but shaking my head and going "that's how you're going to handle it?" Those who've seen the Netflix series know about a scene where two characters needed to have an important conversation without the main character present. Yet it wasn't likely for character A to leave the main character's side. This is handled by having the main character conveniently and inexplicably faint. That's in the original, too, and there are more such slapped together "you're kidding me" solutions.
The Netflix series is often more subtle than the original. In one case it's completely faithful in how it handles the creepiest part of the story, "Coffin Town" and a bad guy par excellence, Xue Yang. Yet with one slight deletion about Xue Yang's motives, Netflix's "The Untamed" adds miles of depth to his characterization. That tiny change turns the story from straight up revenge-horror in the original, to horror with a rewarding bittersweet ending in the Netflix version, where the villain can never get back what he himself destroyed. The kindness of Xiao Xingchen sends a powerful and affecting message. Netflix also, by adding more about the Jiang siblings (Wei Wuxian's family) to the beginning, paints a kinder image of his adoptive brother Jiang Cheng than what's in the books, where he's portrayed as more violent and competitive. The character of Nie Huiasang is also more developed as a childhood friend of Wei Wuxian's in the Netflix series, and Netflix gives him an extra final scene that tells us his motives, which are left open-ended in the books.
In short, I recommend watching the Netflix series first. It's faithful and easier to follow. Then, if you liked it, read the books for the canon slash. But if you're like me, you'll want to read fanfic for the slash because the better fanfic writers will be better at writing adult characters. It's a write-what-you-know situation. As someone who works with teenagers, I can tell you the author is dead-on accurate when writing the characters as teens, but as an adult I can tell you she has more trouble writing them in their thirties. She says in her A/N that she originally wrote this in her sophomore year of college. You may draw your own conclusions.
Now, if you're looking for slashiness for the sake of writing in the fandom, surprisingly, you're better off with the live action series. The lack of explicit slash scenes and yet pervasive slashiness means that there are many options in the story where the sexual and romantic relationship -- and this is a tumultuous romance -- begins. Since the original story is explicit slash, all questions are answered, and also, to stay in canon compliance, a lot of options are off the table. On the other hand, the original novel features one of my favorite tropes: the "clueless that I'm gay/clueless I have feelings for him" trope. So maybe pick and choose your canon as convenient for your stories. And have fun! It's rare to get a canon slash relationship that's so emotional and passionate. For some reason, canon slash in popular media (especially in the US) is quite chaste.
* More about the fan translation on Exiled Rebel's and the official one by Seven Seas:
The fan translation is more faithful to the books and Chinese idioms. It takes great care to find the right nomenclature for weapons and spells (for example, the Nie clan in the book uses sabers instead of swords) and identifying lines of famous poems used as musical spell names.
The published translation is better written (especially verb tenses), moves faster, and gets the characterization more clearly across. It's definitely less awkward, though it's chosen a less-is-more approach so you don't get the full Chinese cultural effect. (I'm told you can do that with Chinese, since the characters convey concepts, not sounds.) But it made the mistake of calling the Stygian Tiger Amulet a "Tally" so the translator isn't steeped in fandom and hasn't taken care to get those fandom-specific terms right. I'm going to bet the books won't get the sword/saber terms right either. But no doubt the sexual aspects and action scenes will be better written.
In other RL news: toothaches suck.
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I admit, I haven't been interested in the animated series for some reason I can't put my finger on.
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