Hi there :), I'm a big fan of your works. I'm wondering if I can translate one of your TKA fics? I promise to link it back to your original work. Thanks uwu
Omg I'm so sorry for the late reply. I haven't been checking my inbox, but yes, go ahead! :) If you could message me back the link to your translation, that'd be great as well!
Five years ago, Butterfly Blue completed The King's Avatar.
Four years ago, The King's Avatar began being translated.Â
This year, coincidentally on Su Muqiu's birthday, the novel finished being translated.
In these past few years, The King's Avatar was adapted into a stage play, a manhua, a donghua, a live action, and a movie.
As Butterfly Blue mentioned in his Weibo post, "Their future is in your hands alone," and their future has been continuously adapted and recreated long after their main story finished.
Beyond the pages, the story and characters continue to live on through the fans.
Whether you were there since the beginning, whether you joined at some point along the journey, whether you discovered The King's Avatar through the novel, the manhua, the donghua, the live action, the movie, or the stage play...
Their story is still our story.
However, this story would not have existed if it wasn't for Butterfly Blue, who portrayed Ye Xiu and everyone as such beloved, incredible characters that they became unforgettable existences, who designed a world so immersive that Glory became a part of our irreplaceable reality.
This story wouldn't have been widely accessible if it wasn't for the translators, who preserved the heart of the original content, who conveyed the subtleties, nuances, and colloquialisms of the Chinese language as they translated the novel into the English language.Â
Thank you to Butterfly Blue. Thank you to the translators.Â
The translations may have ended, but The Kingâs Avatar is still here.Â
Instead of a bittersweet goodbye, Iâd like to think of this as a happy hello because new fans are always being welcomed, because old fans can always return to The Kingâs Avatar, and announce, âIâm back!â Â
Hey Autumn_Rain! I love your fics on AO3 and Iâm so happy I found your tumblr! I was just wondering if youâre watching the live action Kongâs Avatar! Itâs on Netflix so Iâve been binging it and Iâd love to hear your thoughts on it :)
Iâm happy you enjoyed my fics, thank you for letting me know! :)Â
To my knowledge, Netflix is only up to episode 30 of the live action, so Iâll try to keep my response as spoiler-free as possible since Iâve finished it on WeTV, but be forewarned that some things I discuss could be seen as spoilers for future episodes. Iâll also be mentioning novel details since a lot of my thoughts about the live action are related to the source content.Â
Admittedly, I had lots of misgivings about the live action at first, but I decided to give it a try anyway. More TKA content is more TKA content, no matter what form itâs in, so I went in with the expectation that the live action would diverge from the novel and was pleasantly surprised! I was moved by the very first episode. To return back to the beginning of Ye Xiuâs journey, it was like seeing TKA for the first time again but with all the knowledge and love I have for it now, especially considering how far the translations have come. Â
Of course, there were things I liked and disliked, but I would watch it again, and overall, the live action captured the essence of what I love about TKA. I go more in-depth beyond beyond the cut, but Iâd like to say beforehand that regardless of my own opinions, donât let me detract from your own personal enjoyment of the drama :)Â
What I Liked
The slice of life
Gold. Every single slice of moment is so precious. Thereâs a good balance between light-hearted, silly scenes and emotional, hard-hitting scenes. The characters in TKA are so rich and memorable, but we donât get to see a lot of their past, their lives, or their relationships beyond Glory in the novel, so I really appreciated being able to see other sides of them in the live action. One of my favorite moments was when the members of Happy had to face what they were sacrificing before they could fully commit to joining a team with the uncertainty that they might not even make it into the Professional Alliance.Â
Su Muqiu
My heart will never not ache at any mention of Su Muqiu, but I really liked how they did his character. Su Muqiu plays a big role in the novel in very subtle ways and I really liked that they showed how pieces of his will and memories lived on in Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng. As Ye Xiuâs best friend and Su Muchengâs older brother (novel-wise, the only family she had), his importance to them is clear. His loss at such a stage in life was tragic and the live actionâs portrayal of this is well done (and by well done I mean tearfully, touchingly painful).Â
The lack of romantic subplot
TKA isnât a story about romance, so I was greatly relieved when there wasnât one. Instead, there were scenes that could be interpreted as a budding romance or a close male-female relationship. I think this balance is satisfying for watchers looking for romance and those not looking for romance.Â
Ye Xiuâs family background
His family background is one of TKAâs greatest mysteries. I liked how the live action developed one of the fan theories based on canon details and implications in the novel that he comes from a formidable, powerful family. My only question isâŠYe mom, what happened to you?
The friendships
One of the best things about TKA is the camaraderie. Opponents on-stage, friends off-stage. Strangers connecting through shared passion and interests. Relationships built through respect, trust, understanding, professional attitude, dreams, goals, and more. Team shenanigans, professional player shenanigans, fan shenanigans. The live action went a little cheese with it but it didnât stop me from appreciating all the various ways everyoneâs friendships were shown, such as Ye Xiuâs good relationship with the pro players.Â
The family relationships
Su Muqiu and Su Mucheng. Chen Guo and her father. Ye Xiu and his family. I like romance now and then, but as someone whoâs read and watched way too much works where romantic love is the mainstream focus, I canât express enough how much I appreciate the live actionâs focus on platonic, familial love as something just as important and special.Â
The humor
What would TKA be without all the witty, shameless comebacks and all the face slapping wtfs? Live action Ye Xiu could have been more like novel Ye Xiu, but this is a family-friendly drama, so a shameless, black-hearted smoking demon was probably too much for the screen. A subtly shameless, confident sweet tooth demon is just as good. Wei Chen and Ye Xiu trash talking each other to oblivion, Happy shenanigans, Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotianâs hilarious relationship, Sun Xiangâs one-sided rivalry with Qiu Fei, and pro players and guilds being thrown off-kilter by Ye Xiu is the quality (meme) content I needed.Â
The relatability
Factually, I knew how old everyone was and what they were doing, but seeing everyone go through daily life as a student or worker really made them a lot more real, relatable, and understandable. Live action Ye Xiu is a real life disaster though. For a while, he made me question if he should really be outside wandering the streets. I seriously feared for his well-being.Â
The reality
One of the things I really like about TKA is how they donât necessarily romanticize gaming but show the stigma of gaming as it is. Choosing to follow your dreams and passion isnât an easy choice, but even though itâs been more accepted, someone choosing to go through the competitive environment of the professional scene isnât viewed the same as someone who chooses to face the struggles of pursuing music, arts, or science. The live action portrayed this especially well for Ye Xiu and Wei Chen, who at their age, friends, family, and society would naturally be asking them what theyâre doing with their lives.Â
Zhou Zekai and Samsara
The live actionâs portrayal of them had me rolling. With Yang Yang playing Ye Xiu, I half-expected a CGI Zhou Zekai, but no, he was so good-looking that he couldnât be seen by mortal eyes, and Samsara was so powerful that they made them into this mysterious final boss entity. What a big boss.Â
Chosen Scenes
(POTENTIAL SPOILERS) They hit a lot of memorable moments in the novel that I was hoping to see, like the Little Ming lesson and Su Muchengâs conversation with Xiao Shiqin about the state of Excellent Era. I was also especially satisfied seeing Chen Yehui get decked.Â
The quotes
âGlory was never meant to be played aloneâ, âIâm saying this for you guysâ, âI wouldnât get tired even after another ten yearsâ, âMy time with Excellent Era ends hereâ,âItâs a new startâ, âIâm backâ. I think Iâm missing some, but they really got me with the quotes. Some quotes original to the drama that I also really liked were âIf Iâm lying to you, Iâm Sun Xiangâ, âIn this world, boss is the bestâ, âWeâre in a match, not the jungleâ, âIâm willing to be your choiceâ, âIf you end up crawling out of here, no one would know who did itâ, âWelcome backâ, and âGlory is a world for all of usâ.Â
What I Disliked
Personality changes
Most of them I was okay with, but some were a little harder to wave by. Iâm glad Chen Guo got out of her scary fangirl phase. Ye Xiu only needs his hands and not his legs? I knew she was joking but she really went off-kilter for a few episodes. And then thereâs âCall me Edgelordâ Sun Xiang, âIâm a street punkâ Qiu Fei, and âItâs my way or no wayâ An Wenyi, who all thankfully got the character development they needed, considering what was done to their charactersâŠbut Wu Chen. Wu Chen. At least he got redeemed. Li Xuan just got yeeted into the realm of âcold-hearted jerksâ.Â
Combined characters
Probably an issue of casting and time, but wow, Tao Xuan + Cui Li and Chen Yehui + Liu Hao made for such punchable characters. Not exactly a dislike but they were punchable to the extent that I was dissatisfied when I didnât see the face slapping they deserved. Chang Xian + Sleeping Moon was great, but it made me a little sad to see Sleeping Moon sort of overshadow Chang Xianâs earnest, honest character. Sun Zheping + Wei Chen hurt more. The last remnant of Sun Zheping became Wei Chenâs unexpected hand injury.Â
Changed roles
(POTENTIAL SPOILER) Xiao Shiqin is really over here stealing Ye Xiuâs thunder. Ye Xiuâs reaction to Su Mucheng being put last in the group arena was one of the greatest insights into Ye Xiuâs heart, considering his perpetual calm in the face of adversity. It showed how much he cared for her and how much he hates underhanded tactics like this in the face of pure, professional competition. It was the only time we saw him openly express anger and gloominess, but no, what we got was a pan to Yang Yangâs furrowed brows and frown.Â
Drama for the sake of drama
Some scenes made no sense to me and were so jarring that it threw me out of the moment. Some of the charactersâ actions went against what I consider to be the core of their character. (POTENTIAL SPOILER) Wei Chen, a former team captain, is also an experienced professional player in his own right. He knows how to lead a team, knows how to carry burdens, knows what he committed to, knows how to confront hard conversations, so I had a hard time seeing him bounce when the going got tough. Yeah, Ye Xiu did pull Happy together and hard-carry them through the Challenger League but the members worked hard and were responsible in their own ways, too. The live action went with the whole âeverything falls apart when Ye Xiu isnât hereâ twist in the most painful way possible.Â
Lost characters
I can see why they didnât include most of the teams and its players since they didnât play too big of a role until after the Challenger League, but I thought that Lou Guanning and his Heavenly Justice crew, Sun Zheping, and Zhang Jiale were some characters who got unfortunately excluded despite the roles they played in relation to Happy.
Plot armor
Happy is an underdog team, but some of the ways they made them lose was just ??? And some of the ways they had them win was just ??? How Happy won in the end was just ?????????? The Challenger League had me tripping through question marks.Â
The avatar designs
For an MMO, the avatar designs are plain and dull to the point of tears. At the very least, the pro players should have better, unique designs, but I could barely tell them apart from the normal players. Vacarria looks like he came straight out of Assassinâs Creed and âIâm a mountain manâ Desert Dust causes me physical pain. Glory is an innovative game that transcends current technology but not in this manner. I have a hard time fully appreciating these industrial, futuristic designs compared to the beautiful official character designs of the novel and donghua.Â
The ending of the Challenger League
(DEFINITELY SPOILERS FOR THE LAST EPISODES) I really tried hard to let it go, but Sun Xiang leaving the game without even a âGGâ in the Challenger League after Ye Xiuâs words was such an epic, powerful moment in the novel that the ending of the Challenger League in the live action felt really lackluster. Thankfully, I liked the actual ending. It was a nice, wholesome moment that wrapped everything up and made me laugh.
Missing scenes
Not a dislike but just scenes I wish was covered, like the Christmas (Hell) Event, Yu Wenzhou and Ye Xiu doing a standing ovation for Wang Jiexi, Ye Xiu revealing his past to Chen Guo and Tang Rou, Qingming Festival and Chen Guo learning about Su Muqiu, Ye Xiu being the most terrifying deal devil Samsara has ever seen, more things from the pro player side, Ye Xiu and Tang Rou wrecking that rich young master with his 900 APM Flight of the Bumblebee and her godly performance of Beethovenâs Sonata Pathetique (3rd movement), Excellent Era reopening their can of worms!!! Especially the can of worms and the following events where Excellent Eraâs treachery is revealed and how the public reacts to it.
Final Thoughts
Following this, I have to add that though I disliked certain aspects about the drama, it doesnât mean that Iâm upset about the drama. Like I said, I enjoyed it overall and would watch it again. The directors arenât Butterfly Blue, so they naturally have different considerations and understandings of TKA. If the directors somehow followed the novel exactly, I would have been shocked speechless, and not necessarily in a good way. For one, the live action covered up to Ch. 1064 with a sprinkle of future events thrown here and there. Thatâs the entirety of everything from Ye Xiuâs forced retirement to post-Challenger League events. Thatâs a huge amount of content to cover in 40 episodes that are 38 min long. The medium is also different. Whatâs better or more easily explained in a written format canât always be shown properly through a live action, which is limited by budget, time, cast members, scripts, pacing, location, directorâs choices, and various other cinematic nuances that I donât know about.Â
If I was looking for something more faithful, thereâs the donghua, the manhua, and the novel itself. Itâs an adaptation for a reason, and I donât think that adaptations are meant to be complete remakes of the source content. I think that theyâre meant to keep in mind the heart of the source content and expand and build upon it in innovative, thoughtful, and interesting ways, to create fresh, unforgettable moments that both current and new fans of TKA can enjoy. Something I consider successfully done.Â
In summary, the live action is different, but the differences lead to what I consider a well-done standalone. Itâs another form of TKA that can be appreciated on its own merits without taking away from the original. If I hadnât read the novel beforehand, I probably would have liked the live action even more because I wouldnât have all these comparisons, but because I read the novel beforehand, I had a much deeper insight into the live action :)
2019.05.29 HappyB-Day Ye Xiu! QuanZhi GaoShou ăć šèé«æă Congratz by McDonald's [ENG SUBS ESP] TODAY: May 29, 2019 is the B-Day of Ye Xiu! Story: QuanZhi GaoShou...
McDonaldâs wishes Ye Xiu & Ye Qiu a happy birthday! (fries and cake on them haha)Â
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