#*nif

[aheartfullofjolllly]

POV: Being judged by both Xiao Jingyan and Mei Changsu

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 kind people are kind because they know firsthand that life isn't   (insp.)    [ ♕ ]

[sorcerersoldier]

and I’ll write you a tragedy   [ ♕ ]

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Nirvana in Fire (for the hopelessly confused)™.

Or, “How to survive the first few episodes.”

Nirvana in Fire takes in medias res to a new level, then throws in an ensemble cast in the middle of political machinations to top it all off. It may be one of the best shows you’ll ever watch, but only if you can survive the beginning.

Unless you've read the novel it’s based on, the Confusion is Real. Some viewers may be reliant on subtitles in their native language and have less time to commit faces to memory. The first episodes are central, but very hard to digest. Here’s something for folks who want to give the show a shot but also want to live. 

(Nothing on these graphics or in the accompanying text includes info beyond the first two episodes and the beginning of the third.)

Lin Shu (A.K.A Mei Changsu, Su Zhe): Man on a mission. One-stop-shop for all your hurt/comfort needs. Prodigy, was once a skilled fighter. “Died” in Meiling at 19 years old. Has been plotting and dealing with an as-yet unspecified illness in the 12 years since the massacre of the Chiyan army. Goal: get justice, root out corruption in the court, put his friend ▼ on the throne. Method: get invited to capital by his pal Jingrui and get cracking.

Xiao Jingyan: Very hotheaded if you know which buttons to push. (Everyone knows which buttons to push.) Traits of note: Loyalty, rock-solid moral backbone, occasional leaps before looking, eviscerating snark and a give-no-f***s attitude. Still mourning Lin Shu (and many others). Won't show up until episode 2. (Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it...) Hates strategists, which is too bad for our main character ▲, but also good for him, because while Prince Jing is busy hating him—and MCS purposely makes it easy for Prince Jing to do just that—he won’t find it easy to question his strategist’s motives and uncover his true identity.

And now for a rousing round of...

On first watch, it’s really hard to parse allegiances. Too many shifty folks Doing Secret Stuff. Below are some simple charts to demystify the first two episodes. 

The charts have simple information. Consult them if you just want a quick primer. If you need more in-depth information, see the bullet-pointed lists below.

Xie Yu, father of Jingrui and husband of the Emperor’s sister Liyang, plays at being neutral but is actually supporting the crown prince, all while knowing that his younger son by blood, Xie Bi, is supporting Prince Yu. Because of the custody arrangement due to Jingrui’s uncertain birth status, he is close friends with the Zhuo family, who are masters of a sect of martial arts outside the capital. He uses them regularly to do his dirty work.

The Zhuo family (above: father Dingfeng and son Qingyao) is a martial arts family.  In this episode, they attempt to assassinate prince Yu while he is outside the capital. (Jingrui has no freaking idea any of this is going on. Completely clueless.)

When that doesn’t work, Qingyao moves to help an elderly couple (pictured above), get to safety from some of Prince Yu’s supporters (ish) in big boats, who would really like to kill them. Mei Changsu slides in like a true drama queen, playing the flute, and the couple does, indeed, get to safety. This couple, as revealed at the end of the episode, has dirt on Duke Qing, an influential minister under Prince Yu’s control. Duke Qing and his people have been appropriating property and killing folks, among other things. It is to the Crown Prince’s advantage that Duke Qing is put on trial, so Xie Yu asks the Zhuos to ensure the couple’s safe passage. 

Basically, this whole episode is about the two highest ranked princes (jerks, the both of them), trying to one-up, smear, and/or kill one another.

Turns out that, while Prince Yu went in person to Langya Hall to ask how to become Emperor, the Crown Prince sent some of his supporters to ask for the very same information. They both receive it in episode 1.

At the end of the first episode, you see Nihuang and the Emperor speak with Xia Dong, an investigative officer. The Emperor has successfully received the elderly couple’s report. He sends Xia Dong to investigate its veracity.

Xiao Jinghuan, Prince Yu: Xiao is his surname, and the name his father emperor and all his brothers share. The “Jing” in his given name is, you might notice, a bit of a theme. All the children of the emperor have this character in their names. (Xiao Jinghuan, Xiao Jingxuan, Xiao Jingyan.) Though Xiao Jingrui, son of the Xie and Zhuo families, has that whole imperial name thing going, he is not related to the emperor. The reason will be explained mid episode 3, actually!

Qin Banruo is very smart and has a network of spies she puts to use for Prince Yu’s benefit. 

Duke Qing  has been stealing land and murdering people. Things like this are not too terribly out of the usual for the supporters of the Crown Prince and Prince Yu, or the princes themselves.

Xie Bi wholeheartedly supports Prince Yu because he’s swallowed Prince Yu’s facade of wisdom and kindness hook, line, and sinker. Has absolutely no idea that his father, Xie Yu, is supporting the Crown Prince in order to play both sides. Xie Yu, however, is aware of his son’s allegiances.

We are now done with the primary princes and their supporters. Here are a lot of cool folks who show up in the first episodes and very short descriptions of their roles/relationships. None are affiliated with/supporting the Crown Prince/Prince Yu.

Commander General Meng Zhi: The only person Lin Shu/Mei Changsu informed of his plans before arriving in the capital. He was worried for Lin Shu and strongly advised him never to return. Knew Lin Shu when he was a boy, and once fought with the Chiyan Army. Now is in charge of the Imperial Guard. Will not act to harm the Emperor directly, but supports Mei Changsu’s bid for justice.

Li Gang shows up in the first episode giving a report to Mei Changsu/Lin Shu. Nice guy, member of Jiangzuo Alliance. Mother hen of MCS.

Xia Dong and Nihuang would have been close friends, but their respective positions in the massacre put them at odds. Xia Dong lost her husband, and believes the Lin family murdered him to keep him from reporting the “rebellion.” Mu Nihuang lost Lin Shu, to whom she was once engaged, and believes in the Lin family’s innocence. Xia Dong is about ready for Nihuang to marry so Nihuang’s connection to the Lins is no longer hanging between them. She hates Prince Jing because he has actively defended the Lin family in the past. The emperor mostly wants to tie Nihuang to a husband in order to control her.

Yan Yujin and Xiao Jingrui: Very close friends. Jingrui spent some time with his Other Dad outside the capital, exploring. He goes to pick up his friend Mei Changsu, since he has received news that Mei Changsu is suffering from a serious illness. He and Yujin go to invite MCS to the capital to recover at Jingrui’s family’s manor. (All according to Mei Changsu’s plan.)

Grand Princess Liyang: Soft-spoken. Unbreakable. Core of steel. Does not deserve to be married to Xie Yu, honestly. :(

Grand Empress: AKA that nice old lady who will make you cry in ep 2.

Mu Qing: Nihuang’s brother. Very, very invested in her suitor tournament and is angry that any of those fools would dare to seek his sister’s hand. Nosy, sweet, best intentions. Will fight everyone.

Tingsheng: I can’t spoil you, but keep an eye on him. Good fella, wants to learn how to read.

Lin Chen, friend of Mei Changsu and inveterate troll. Young master of Langya Hall. Exhausted doctor to Mei Changsu. 1000% done with everything. Also a troll. He gave both princes the exact same information when they came to ask after the throne: If they wanted to become Emperor, they’d need none other than Mei Changsu himself.

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hi you saiD TO COME SCREAM WITH YOU IF WE WATCH NIF AND GUESS WHAT I'VE JUST WATCHED IT AND I'M!!!!! DEAD!!!!! I LOVE LITERALLY EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW AND I WOULD DIE FOR MCS OHMYGOSH SEND HELP

WHyyyyyyyyyyy didn’t Tumblr tell me I had any asks? Literally it hasn’t told me for months? What is going on? (Admittedly, I am not on nearly as much lately.)

I am so happy you watched Nirvana in Fire oh my gosh. Thank you I love you.

IT’S TIME TO SCREAM. 

RIGHT THOUGH?? LITERALLY EVERYONE IS THE BEST I WOULD DIE FOR ALL OF THEM AND I JUST WANT TO PUT MCS IN MY POCKET AND CRY FOR A THOUSAND YEARS I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO LOVE HIM AND LET HIM BE SOFT AND HE NEEDS A LIFETIME OF THERAPY HE’S SUCH A MESS HE HATES HIMSELF SO MUCH MY SONNNNN.

Tumblr isn’t even telling me when I got this message. I’m crying. I’m so sorry I only just realized I had this message. Please scream with me if you are still in a screaming mood and I’m super sorry ahhhhhh

here have a soft baby MCS getting hugs from Jingyan.

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Can we talk about how the emblem of Jingrui’s father’s violence and cruelty against the Chiyan Army mural celebrating Xie Yu’s military prowess is literally standing between them as they have this friendly conversation?

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(original post.)

— a Novel by Mei Changsu

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Call me a pedantic weirdo, but every once in a while I read a summary of Nirvana in Fire, and it feels wrong when MCS/Lin Shu’s plan to put a good man on the throne and redress the Chiyan case is referred to as “vengeance” or a “revenge spree.” I mean, admittedly, it’s a catchy term. In a show that is particularly hard to summarize, it also makes for a heck of a compelling hook, an easy way to describe the plot to potential viewers. But it’s not accurate?

I have too many feelings about this send help. I mean, as a teenager, he watched his father and 70,000 loyal men (many under his command) die in a brutal massacre at the hands of people he should have been able to trust. He somehow survived his wounds and a considerable fall only to wake and presumably discover in short order that, back in the capital, his entire family and many relatives were dead, either by execution or by their own hands. His closest friends and living (shell-shocked, grieving) loved ones were on very, very thin ice. He underwent unimaginably agonizing (and permanently disfiguring) treatment and then hatched complex plans for over a decade.

He threw away his appearance, his health and strength, and whatever tenuous ties he still had to the comparatively innocent, happy boy he was before the massacre. He assumed the mantle of a calculating strategist and approached his closest friends as a stranger. Disgusted by the person he perceived himself to have become, he forged onward.

The instigators of the Chiyan massacre killed tens of thousands. The paranoid emperor himself gained his throne through bloodshed.

Revenge, by its very definition, is to “inflict punishment in return for injury or insult.” Not only MCS but our whole primary cast had mountains of reasons to lash out. Honestly I could hardly blame them if they did. MCS/Lin Shu’s goal, though, from the beginning, was to reveal the truth, exonerate the restless souls of the unjustly murdered, and put the country he once loved on the path to a brighter future. As much as was possible in a place where corruption was rampant and the slightest whiff of dissent meant execution, he planned and carried out a bloodless revolution. And... that’s pretty darn cool?

That’s it. Tens of thousands dead, his entire family and his good name and his health and his very identity stripped from him, and he did everything he could to do the opposite of what was done to him: reveal the truth instead of hiding or twisting it, and let the country’s justice system render judgment on the crimes he brought to light.

It doesn’t have the same ring as “revenge spree,” but I prefer it that way.