Nirvana in Fire thoughts
I have just started watching Nirvana in Fire. The problem is now that I need to do things like sleep, not to mention all those pesky RL responsibilities that won't go away just because I want to know what happens next. It took me to about episode 6 before I finally started to reliably be able to recognise most of the characters and know which side they were on without having to pause and go and look at the cribsheets, but it's so good that I didn't care. Also I now want to see Mei Changsu go mind-to-mind with Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, as two devious-minded physically frail military/political schemers with multiple identities. Though Mei Changsu is more of a long setup sort of guy, the sort who sends a ringer into a contest just in case he might be useful months later on, and Miles is more 'oh, look, there's a plot, what fun, okay, now I will defeat it with a random guy I met in a garbage dump and a bottle of space meths' sort of schemer. Miles is better at improvisation and using his charisma to make everyone believe whatever he wants them to believe, Mei Changsu is better at very careful preparation and not missing anything. They would really struggle in a fight against each other: Miles would discover that MCS had hired half the Dendarii six years ago; Mei Changsu would never be able to predict what Miles would do next, and Nihuang is like the platonic form of Miles's type, which would be sure to cause problems.
I don't suppose there's any way to make the crossover work, is there? Maybe Da Liang is actually another planet somewhere in the wormhole nexus, and Miles meets them? I have no idea what they would do, other than plot against each other, or worse, try to plot FOR each other, that would be the ultimate clash of working styles. 'But I set the whole thing up five years ago so you could just walk in there and do the job/yes, but then I had to rescue his maid and then she helped me dynamite his house and now all his people work for me, so we got what we wanted, what are you complaining about'.
Anyway, I love Nirvana in Fire and I adore the twisty twisty plots and I adore all the loyalty and the ridiculous ninja fighting and how everyone's mother is so important to the plot and how everyone lovingly wraps Mei Changsu in fur cloaks while he mocks them mercilessly and I adore everything, really. I highly recommend hanging on to a cribsheet if you follow up on this rec, there are a lot of characters with similar-sounding names and a lot of them have several sets of names and titles to make it even more complicated, and as I said, it took me half a dozen episodes to have just the main characters clear in my head, but there are lots of secondary characters too. Also the subtitles could be better: they're very translationese in places, and sometimes I am not convinced they've picked the right register, as when on screen someone is bowing solemnly and intoning something serious-sounding, and the subtitle is 'alright'. Maybe that is the best English representation of what they're saying, but I have my doubts.
It can be watched here and this is a good cribsheet for all the characters and this is a very enthusiastic person talking about some of the main characters, which is what initially sold me on watching it, along with a rec from
spatz. As well as the twisty plots and the wonderful characters, it's also visually stunning, the costumes are incredibly gorgeous, the sets are beautiful, it's a delight to look at.
Though, as of now 10 episodes in, I think Mei Changsu should be hammering Prince Yu into a slightly more moral person and making him the next Emperor instead of Prince Jing, who may be righteous and brave but sucks at politics. Perhaps we will see more of how Prince Yu is actually evil and/or incompetent, but he's seeming like a fairly good fit for the job at present, and surprisingly willing to learn. Prince Jing is a delight, but I'm not yet convinced he will make a good Emperor.
And also, Fei Liu is adorable and reminds me of Philomythulus if Philomythulus were a fictional martial arts prodigy. He would love to fly up onto roofs and sit there munching snacks and occasionally jump down to kick people who are annoying him.
Crossposted at https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/155549.html. There are
comments there.
I don't suppose there's any way to make the crossover work, is there? Maybe Da Liang is actually another planet somewhere in the wormhole nexus, and Miles meets them? I have no idea what they would do, other than plot against each other, or worse, try to plot FOR each other, that would be the ultimate clash of working styles. 'But I set the whole thing up five years ago so you could just walk in there and do the job/yes, but then I had to rescue his maid and then she helped me dynamite his house and now all his people work for me, so we got what we wanted, what are you complaining about'.
Anyway, I love Nirvana in Fire and I adore the twisty twisty plots and I adore all the loyalty and the ridiculous ninja fighting and how everyone's mother is so important to the plot and how everyone lovingly wraps Mei Changsu in fur cloaks while he mocks them mercilessly and I adore everything, really. I highly recommend hanging on to a cribsheet if you follow up on this rec, there are a lot of characters with similar-sounding names and a lot of them have several sets of names and titles to make it even more complicated, and as I said, it took me half a dozen episodes to have just the main characters clear in my head, but there are lots of secondary characters too. Also the subtitles could be better: they're very translationese in places, and sometimes I am not convinced they've picked the right register, as when on screen someone is bowing solemnly and intoning something serious-sounding, and the subtitle is 'alright'. Maybe that is the best English representation of what they're saying, but I have my doubts.
It can be watched here and this is a good cribsheet for all the characters and this is a very enthusiastic person talking about some of the main characters, which is what initially sold me on watching it, along with a rec from
spatz. As well as the twisty plots and the wonderful characters, it's also visually stunning, the costumes are incredibly gorgeous, the sets are beautiful, it's a delight to look at.
Though, as of now 10 episodes in, I think Mei Changsu should be hammering Prince Yu into a slightly more moral person and making him the next Emperor instead of Prince Jing, who may be righteous and brave but sucks at politics. Perhaps we will see more of how Prince Yu is actually evil and/or incompetent, but he's seeming like a fairly good fit for the job at present, and surprisingly willing to learn. Prince Jing is a delight, but I'm not yet convinced he will make a good Emperor.
And also, Fei Liu is adorable and reminds me of Philomythulus if Philomythulus were a fictional martial arts prodigy. He would love to fly up onto roofs and sit there munching snacks and occasionally jump down to kick people who are annoying him.
Crossposted at https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/155549.html. There are
comments there.