Hi, I saw your post about the tgcf revised edition and I was curious what your thoughts are on the changes to the bloody banquet arc? From what I’ve seen this seems to be the arc which is most significantly changed, but I’m not sure how to feel about it given I haven’t actually read it. I would love to hear your thoughts!
Hello there! Terribly sorry for the late reply, but I'm happy to give my thoughts!
In my opinion, yes, it's the most significantly changed arc. Overall, I do prefer most of the changes, apart from a few things which I'll expand on.
First, for what I love: we get a ton more backstory on Lang Qianqiu and his relationship with Fangxin Guoshi!Xie Lian. It's neat seeing how much Lang Qianqiu adored him, and how Xie Lian tried to be strict with the young prince but ultimately was rather indulgent and doting haha! Getting to see how Xie Lian really tried to impress good ideals upon Lang Qianqiu was amazing, because it was also a new prespective on how Xie Lian viewed himself+his own past actions and ideals. (We also get a bit of Wu Ming foreshadowing!!! I cried!!!) All of that was such delicious lore, and really drives home the tragedy of how it turned out between them.
PLUS, I absolutely adore the changes to the "present-day" portion of the arc. With Xie Lian running off without Hua Cheng to chase after Lang Qianqiu + Qi Rong (because he is afraid Hua Cheng will be blamed for the whole thing and wants to avoid that; plus he also wants to prevent too much of the truth from being divulged and "hurting" Lang Qianqiu), before Hua Cheng finds them anyway. It led to Qi Rong being poised as this truly menacing figure for those scenes, which was very refreshing. His dynamic with Xie Lian was fascinating and you can draw so many conclusions from it. (The audio drama does this whole section great justice, btw!)
The lead-up to this arc was also changed, with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian traveling together for a while after the "kidnapping from heaven," and those are some of my fave new scenes. Very romantic, and also quite funny with Mu Qing and Feng Xin's parts lol.
For the things I'm more mixed on: it's mainly the Bloody Banquet itself. Most of the things surrounding it are either the same or very similar (e.g. Qi Rong's involvement -- though he's more involved in the revised), however there were some key changes. First was the removal of An Le. In the original, it felt poignant for Xie Lian to cut down essentially the last of his own bloodline for the sake of the greater good. So I'm a little saddened by this loss.
However, I kind of get why this change happened, along with the others. In total, the revised version brings the arc more in line with the overall messaging of the novel. It's neater and flows better, but it's simply going to be a change that not everyone prefers. Personally, I just smash the original and revised together in my head anyway, so it's not a big deal I suppose!
