《陈情令》aka《魔道祖师》aka MDZS aka The Untamed... kill me

[cashew]

OK, first, The Untamed is a horrible translation of the Chinese title. I'm seriously offended. It completely fails to capture the original title's meaning, which is something like (excuse the terrible translation) "by the order of suppressed/hidden/old emotions", with a metaphorical meaning of "enslavement to unspeakable desire". Personally, I would've gone with a title such as "Entangled".

Next, uh, I was dragged into watching both the cartoon/anime MDZS and the live action The Untamed by a friend who was curious why this thing has taken over the English speaking fandom. I was wrong. This series is not a Wuxia. It's straight up folkloric fantasy. (Edit to add: tanithryudo says it's Xianxia, which I'm going to note here because she's better at this stuff than I am.) Allow me to go on a tangent and quickly explain Chinese period drama tropes.

Modern Chinese period drama comes from a long history of historical storytelling and novel writing. Almost all of the Chinese historical dramas were adapted from written novels, both historical and modern. (I'm actually hard pressed to think of an exception at the moment.) So, to talk about the gradation of historical accuracy in Chinese period drama, one must understand the story categories.

In order of most historical to least historical, it goes something like this:
正史 ➡ 野史 ➡ 戏说 ➡ 武侠 ➡ 神魔
There are probably other genres, but the majority of the Chinese historical stories fit somewhere in there.

正史 (Zheng Shi): AKA Novelized History. These are stories where the author considers their writing to be truly historical, often well researched, but not without authorial bias. Sometimes things get a little...iffy, but the intent is to accurately retell the historical events with slight embellishments for dramatic purposes. Stuff like the movie Apollo 13 would be categorized under this genre. The classic Chinese example of this is《史记》(Records of the Grand Historian).

野史 (Ye Shi): AKA Romance of... These are stories where the author isn't trying to retell the historical events accurately. The audience is also not expecting historical accuracy. The story is set in an explicit historical period, the main characters are all real historical figures, and the actual historical events are the major plot points that got woven into a narrative for entertainment purposes. Sometimes, the story would incorporate supernatural elements depending on the time it was written. (Less so in modern novels.) Shakespeare's Henry V would fit here. The classic Chinese example of this is《三国演义》(Romance of the Three Kingdoms).

戏说 (Xi Shuo): AKA Legend of... These stories deviate from historical events greatly and inject a lot of fictional drama. However, the main characters are usually real historical people. Their feats, achievements, relationships, and sometimes even their titles might be completely made up. Think of this as the Historical RPF. Here, the most historically accurate aspect of the story is the cultural practices and values portrayed in the work. English Arthurian legends would fall into this category. The classic Chinese example of this is《包公案》(Judge Bao). (The famous《红楼梦》(Dream of the Red Chamber) would also be in this category, as the story is semi-autobiographical, with a lot of supernatural embellishments, name swaps, and set in an earlier "non-existent" dynasty to avoid getting into trouble with the emperor in the Qing dynasty.)

武侠 (Wu Xia): AKA Martial Arts Fiction. Historical accuracy is optional. Historical time frame is optional. Some of these stories don't even take place during a real dynasty. Anachronisms are the norm. However, real historical characters do show up, often as side characters or as a cameo, to help establish a general sense of when the story is supposed to take place. Sometimes characters from completely different time periods who did not coexist will interact. The main characters are always fictional and often part of 江湖 (aka the underground resistance). Supernatural martial arts is a must-have. Good versus Bad fighting to save the soul of the nation is the main theme. This is a purely Chinese story genre, but if push comes to shove, I'd say something like The Iliad would be a Western equivalent. The UR example is《水浒传》(Water Margin).

神魔 (Shen Mo): AKA Folkloric/Mythological Fiction. Magical fantasy story that uses traditional folkloric storytelling tropes. Talking animals/magical beasts often show up. Instruments are used as weapons. Ghosts, gods, monsters, the underworld, magical MacGuffins are also necessary. Reincarnation is happening left and right. Someone is trying to achieve/gains immortality. A pretty boy will cross-dress to seduce an enemy for strategic reasons. Flying. So much flying. Inter-species romance often happens. But most importantly, the story is set in a nebulous "past". We're talking Odyssey levels of historical inaccuracy. The classic Chinese example of this would be《西游记》(Journey to the West).

So, what am I trying to say with all this?

I guess I'm starting to understand why Saiyuki is a thing. But also, why can't the better written folkloric stories be the ones that get popular. Why did it have to be《陈情令》? (Also, I can't call this series by its English translation with a straight face. It's so bad it makes me want to die.)

Finally, the live action TV series is so, so much better paced and plotted than the anime adaptation. Even with the cheesy special effects, the live action still outstrips the anime by miles. (To say nothing of the MDZS web novel. Kill me. The unrestrained indulgence is soul-crushingly embarrassing. I couldn't read past the first chapter, it's so bad.) Ugh.

Friend aptly described this as "Chinese Twilight, but with more gay". Yeah. That about sums it up.

*crawls into a hole*