so this was months ago, but seeing your post re; system being 'bingzun' while looking through other posts about that particular plot point and
it's interesting to look through everyone's reactions to the change, because a few people claim outright that the new extra was written either so svsss is in compliance with recent chinese censorship laws, as subtle commentary to the recently edited + censored version of svsss, or some mixture of both.
... now, i WAS out of the loop about what 'recent' laws could be, but my curiosity has led me to learn that
china's government.......
kind of,,,,, banned the transmigration trope,,,,,,,,,,,
i don't know the specifics of this law, but apparently this is because a few stories that involved transmigration after death got popular and the government wanted to dissuade people from thinking death can do that. it apparently falls under anti-superstition laws as well, i still don't know the specifics (though i plan to after this). some people have gone as far as angrily commenting that it's just another way in which the chinese government is taking away fiction as an escape from reality. it's. not great
so the part of dodging censorship was literal. as in, the extra was literally written as hastily revised worldbuilding in the name of making sure it doesn't get banned off its hosting site
if i were to make guesses from the little i have been able to gather, the new extra helped dodge censorship by
1) making it so the characters 'wake up from a dream' (so no death and reincarnation)
2) turning the og fiction into a pre-existing element (so no 'fiction = reality')
saying this to you because you laid out the reasons why the system could be lying to save itself from luo binghe and was intrigued - and wanted to mention that someone else had drawn parallels between the system essentially claiming that shang qinghua did not create the og pidw to the transmigration trope ban situation
so with your suggestion that the system is straight up lying, we could theoretically surmise that:
1) the system's claims = the extra itself: it exists to keep the system/scum villain's self-saving system alive as a whole, even if the narrative has to get a little fudged to do it
2) i've seen people often associate the system with an oppressive force, or a dominant narrative in general ('the world must be this way, not that way). theoretically, the system's current claims that it did what it did for good reasons could be associated with the claim that creative censorship is 'good for the people', actually, even when it's over something arbitrary. even when the system's actions do the exact opposite of what it says it wants, or put characters in the exact wrong place to do it
3) sqh being somewhat diminished in his role as the writer (according to the system) = the fact that mxtx has to bow down to the censorship laws in the first place. i am given to understand she has had to do this multiple times and even got jail time for self-publishing her works (as 'financial fraud' .-.)
ultimately - this is an extra, and it does have interesting ideas nevertheless, but looking at it from this angle interests me because from what i hear, mxtx has been very purposeful with her messaging in her other works. especially in regards to public perceptions and word of mouth vs people's personal experiences vs the full reality. i can't help but muse on all this less because i think 'what the extra says is bad' and more because it's fun to look at things unded the lens that she could be trying to imply more than what was shown on the surface
the one bit of narration about adding an extra years after the story was finished is already a funny jab, but it's fun to wonder if anything else was intended as a funny jab, just more subtle. if you get what i mean
anyways, thank you for putting your own thoughts about bingzu out there :'>
When I wrote the initial post I had some context but not all of it and it is very interesting how she chose to do so.
And I think considering the constraints and what she's been through what she wrote is very interesting and compelling for many reasons. Especially for Scum Villian which has always been about the tensions between author, readers, the story, and the demands of outside forces (like needing to be able to eat or comply with laws so you dont end up in jail again)
And even with Bingzu the concept of that means that while Shang Qinghua's role in the story is lessened, the outside force is ultimately unable to force him to change what it wants him to.
It wants Xiang Fei to make a better story for Binghe. Xiang Fei is only able to make actual positive change for one character. The one he wrote for himself. The one he likes best. Even with all the pressure to bend to the will of others he carves out his own joy. Even if that own joy scares him and hurts him.
Could mean nothing though. Just putting that out there
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