So finally, I finished 2ha, just a few minutes ago, and I don’t remember I cried over TGCF this much. I need to process this in my head a few times and slowly, because: 1) I finally finish this torture, and 2) What the fuck man???

Erha has 311 main chapter, and some extras (that I haven’t yet touched, because I need some time to calm my head, okay???), and maybe I actually forget half of the characters except the main ones, lmao.

Ok, so, let’s just dive into the review before I actually need to lie down because my head keep throbbing, harder each time I blink, what the fuck.

The first thing I want to ask to our lord the author Meatbun is, how do you plot the novel??? I mean, I have some suspicion, but I’ll just address that later— it’s just that there’s so much happening in the book, and I completely suck at plotting things even though it’s only essay paper, and I cannot possibly think how Meatbun plots this from the scratch.

Also, there are ton of characters, and aside from the stock ones like the ungrateful villager, each of them has different personality and even though their role in the book are only to fulfil certain things, they are still dynamic characters. I really admire the way Meatbun write these characters, crafting it so that we feel them, relate to bits of them, scattered around the whole journey, so we cannot help but sympathise with them. I am sure the original language can convey these characters’ individual remark better than the translated one does. All right I’m starting to talk nonsense here.

Anyway, along the reading, I cannot help but to think about the tools that make this novel is such a heart-wrenching fiction. It covers a lot of things, like, a lot. I thought SVSSS is already a thing, with (spoiler!) the whole reborn through a system thing, but then this one is a whole another thing.

It’s a xianxia novel, which automatically indulging in spiritual magic, power, myths, god and goddesses, folklore, and another bunch of things that comes in this genre. However, if you think about it, this novel is kinda like a sci-fi, isn’t it???? I mean, the whole business about opening portal to another world and jump into the past/future time, also the way people (or Shimei, really) use medicine to control people, which is, basically, a chemist thingy?? Also don’t forget how our lovely shizun Chu Wanning is an inventor; he creates things! And spells! I forgot what he invents but it’s famous and it’s very effective, and the only thing I remember is that it’s very light in weight and easy to use. It’s on the first hundred earliest chapter, I totally forgot what it was, lmao.

But aside from the big genre, it also covers things like human nature; corrupt human nature, good things, bad things, and how it shapes the world around it. Heck it’s the big theme, if we want to talk about technicalities. I feel like these danmei talk about human nature so much. Or is it just because I only have read four of them. I mean, when the first time I found MDZS, I read about it in wikia, and came up with the term ‘danmei’, something I had never heard before. When I consulted Wikipedia, the first sentence is something about how danmei is about beautiful men and story revolve around these beautiful men, and pursuit beauty things in general. (I don’t have internet while writing this, I will update if I can get access to Wikipedia, lmao)

(Update from the next day: Okay, I finally get internet connection from your reliable local McD and can look up the term danmei in wikipedia. And honestly it’s far from my rambling last night; danmei is basically boys love in Chinese, lmao. The word itself is borrowed from Japanese word which means ‘the pursuit of beauty’, and yep, nobody is ugly in the danmei I have read so far. Even the lunatic Mo Xuanyu. Here’s the wiki link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danmei)

With that kind of explanation, honestly, I didn’t think I would get a whole heavy narrative about grey morality in a book that claimed as a ‘danmei novel’. MDZS was the first danmei I read, and, boy, it wasn’t disappointing at all. I got two grown men lovingly adore each other, my main source why I read MDZS in the first place; but I also got a series of frustration, on how dumb Wei Wuxian on his take to save everyone (he can’t); on how Lan Wangji slowly came out of his shell and the whole restriction thing to pursued what he actually wanted to do in his life, not under a heavy burden of a great sect’s responsibility; on how people can easily turn their back to their friend just because of childhood trauma (I’m looking at you Meng Yao); and I could go on reciting each character’s trait on MDZS, but no, this is a 2ha review.

Then after that came TGCF! With even more terrifying and disturbingly realistic picture of human nature! I’m not saying MDZS is not, but somehow TGCF hits deeper in my opinion. I am still scarred by book four, thank you very much. Unlike MDZS, however, TGCF brought back my faith in society through Xie Lian’s character. Or rather, crushing it back again because there is no way, no way, people can be as sweet as dianxia!! His character is like the most unrealistic thing in the novel, I swear to god (cough, can I swear to god while talking about dianxia? Which god will hear me??? Dianxia??? Hua Cheng don’t kill me I’m not badmouthing him ok).

And then I read SVSSS very quickly, too quickly I kept losing how the story goes. I need to read it again, seriously. With a much calmer pace this time. But thing I remember about SV is that somehow sacrifices need to be done (thinking about confused Binghe being pushed down to the abyss) (crying)

Then 2ha. With its extremely misleading title. I hate so much!!!

I feel like erha is the combination of three MXTX’s works, yes? The rebirth thing, the whole business about saving people that we cannot save, character’s condemnation, childhood traumas… Oh my god, childhood trauma (crying)

If you look at it 2ha also talks about racism through Song Qiutong and (spoiler!) Shi Mei’s bloodline. But Meatbun doesn’t give them clear ending though; where do they go in the end? Dead? How are they in this more peaceful future? Does someone find the last descendant or something? Or it’s just me who missed those information?

Anyway, this novel also gives us arguably good female character. Madam Wang is great you cannot convince me otherwise. Ye Wangxi is your stereotypical female-as-male hero, but in the end, she doesn’t shy away in expressing her emotions, so I think that balanced out the stereotype. Song Qiutong is, hahahaha, arguably a good character as well. She is a flat character, but it’s a good thing that she realises her power in her beauty and actually uses it, both in the past and present life. Yet she also dies because of this; we can read it in two ways: whether Meatbun sees her embracing her beauty is a bad thing so it killed her in the end, or it’s just how power can be a two-edged knife. Is there any other female character…? Oh, Shi Mei’s (kinda) adoptive sister which I already forgot her name. She’s also good, even though she abuses her power and helps Hua Bainan’s plan. Well, it’s a family thing. Family comes first.

Ah, that reminds me about relationships in this story. Almost everyone is not related to whoever they think they are, yeah? Like, the easiest one is Mo Ran, in which he isn’t the actual nephew of Xue Zhengzhou. Chu Wanning who is actually a, pfft, piece of wood (/beaten to death by Taxian Jun). Ye Wangxi’s adoptive dad. Shi Mei’s related sister who adopted herself to Shi Mei’s family. Even Xue Meng! What the fuck man, this piece of information baffles me.

That bring us to the next thing I really want to address: the plot twist! This is related to the plotting rant above; how does Meatbun actually plot this? Because there’s so much things that happen inside, I couldn’t help but thinking “is this actually plotted from the start or is it just randomly thrown in at the last minute???”

Like, how Mo Ran is actually a descendant(?) of Ru Feng Sect?? Is that planned from the start or is it just added because Meatbun needed something to get those stupid cultivators out of the mountain? Or how Mo Ran (again) actually have some demon blood inside him?? Is that planned from the start or is it just for the sake of him coming back to Chu Wanning and for the happy ending?? Or how Xue Meng is actually Jiang Xi’s child????? That one is actually really out of the place; like, aside from him (Xue Meng) gaining the sword, is there anything significant in that piece of background? Or did I miss something at the beginning??

Anyway, now that it is over, I don’t really want to know.

Another thing I like about 2ha is how things are written very movie-like. That including the interchangeable past and present memory, lmao. Once I read the machine translation, I got confused easily how this suddenly change into that— It also grew more confusing once there were two people for each character. Which Mo Ran is speaking? Also, Mei Hanxue, I swear to god, both Mei Hanxue are named Mei Hanxue, and even though the characters are different in Chinese, it’s not in romanization!! (crying) But I am grateful of Mei Hanxue, thank you for saving and accompanying Xue Meng until the end (clasp hands).

Sometimes the scenes are described in a detailed manner, and I cannot help but imagine it like some anime scenes. No, really, like things that usually happen in anime (or donghua, I guess); like how the wind suddenly breezed, carried the scent from the Haitang tree into Chu Wanning’s study, gently moved his long, untied hair. And at that time Chu Wanning raised his head, looking outside the window. The moonlight fell unto his scrolls, scattered around his bed.

Bro, it’s totally like some anime shit, right. It’s beautiful, I love it.

Maybe it has something to do with its original language. There are some unexplainable and things that don’t have any equivalence in English, so the translator choose to explain it in long sentences instead of keeping the term and giving footnotes. Maybe it’s like that, or maybe it’s just Meatbun’s style.

After a while writing this review, I think about how these web novels are kinda like fanfiction. Not in the term of its closeness with the reader, but in how the story goes. Some time ago I talked with my friend about this danmei novel. Not really talked, it was just me responding to her tweet then it turned into an actual conversation, lmao. Somehow, she could feel closer with these danmei, because she could read the author’s note, and catching glimpses on the creative process behind the writing. She talked about the danmei felt more sincere, because she felt like interacting with the author through the author note, than, her words, those mass-produced novels. And how the danmei does not conform to the usual pattern of mass-produced novels. That’s the thing that reminds me of fanfiction.

I feel like everything can happen in fanfiction. Everything. Things that cannot be accepted and will never pass through editor and publishing company to be an actual novel. Fanfiction often serves to fix the ending of an angst novel (including this one), or to alter something and see how it goes out, or sometimes it’s only about two characters being all lovey-dovey and happen in an entirely different universe, like coffee shop au or modern au, things like that. Also, things very gruesome like that one BTS fanfic with heavy drug use and violence. From the fluffiest one like plotless cuddling, until the most pervy one like plotless porn. Hell, we can write a whole section about how far sex can be described lewdly, the usage of toys and things that we cannot imagine happening in real life.

Everyyyyythingggg can happen in fanfiction, yet everything happens in this novel too.

Maybe it was the fact that these books are a web-series? Fics can also be considered as web series too, I think? But maybe web-series author updates in a fixed deadline like normal publishing house and fanfiction author can update as freely as they can lmao. I don’t know, I don’t read wip fics, sorry. (I tend to forget wips and I don’t check my email regularly, lmao, why AO3 doesn’t have its own application istg)

Or maybe it’s a region thing? I mean, when my friend and I talked about danmei earlier, we compared TGCF and Divergent; one comes from Asia and another comes from western country. There are differences; cultural differences I believe, and maybe talking about TGCF and Divergent yesterday wasn’t really a good comparison, huh? I mentioned about pattern when talking with her while ago, but it wasn’t only pattern that different. Something else, including in the way a lot of things lost in translation, lmao.

It has always been in the back of my mind for a while, though I cannot actually comprehend what is the difference between western literature and eastern literature. I read a bunch of western books (come on, I’m an English Literature major here), and somehow it feels different when I read . . . (scanning my bookshelf for giving out example) Kafka on the Shore and the Catcher in the Rye. Please don’t call me out, I don’t really sure if them two are equal lmao. My highlight is that both of them can be counted as bildungsroman . . . Is Kafka on the Shore a bildungsroman . . .

What I’m trying to write is that both novels contain their main character in a journey of finding themselves, and it’s just . . . Different!! Ugh, I need to find more equal comparison, please forget about this section. The important thing is that there’s something different, culturally different, about different region of literature and I cannot pinpoint what make them different. So, yes.

Anyway (I write ‘anyway’ a lot, huh) this is supposed to be an 2ha review; it turns out to be a whole ranting about my danmei discovery! I never know I would drown this deep in this fandom (shed tears).

Next up in the reading list: more danmei, for sure.

See you in the next review . . . If I’m not that lazy, lmao.