The buddhist elements in the novel are sincerely ... a mix of Daoist, Buddhism and chinese folklore. SW's arc is dependent on it, and it's woven into each section of the story. a basic understanding of buddhism is essential to the reading.
I feel like, in the drama, they swapped the focus of the story from Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan? The novel is very much Shen Wei's story, and that story is an enlightenment story. He goes from someone who came out of the ground with all three "poisons" of greed, hatred, and delusion, to abandoning all three by the end, which puts him well on the way to enlightenment. Drama!verse, that arc of taking the entire drama to reach self-sacrifice went to ZYL. Drama!SW has known since maybe episode 10 that he's going to sacrifice himself, and he's the one that doesn't really "grow." He started off the story treating himself like a weapon, and he literally used himself as THE weapon to destroy Ye Zun in the ending, despite ZYL's "Remember, you're a person, not a blade."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2019-03-01 04:27 am (UTC)I feel like, in the drama, they swapped the focus of the story from Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan? The novel is very much Shen Wei's story, and that story is an enlightenment story. He goes from someone who came out of the ground with all three "poisons" of greed, hatred, and delusion, to abandoning all three by the end, which puts him well on the way to enlightenment. Drama!verse, that arc of taking the entire drama to reach self-sacrifice went to ZYL. Drama!SW has known since maybe episode 10 that he's going to sacrifice himself, and he's the one that doesn't really "grow." He started off the story treating himself like a weapon, and he literally used himself as THE weapon to destroy Ye Zun in the ending, despite ZYL's "Remember, you're a person, not a blade."