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Sundial Exchange 2021
Dec. 3rd, 2020 01:03 pmHello dearest creator!
A thousand thanks in advance for getting me!
Prompt #1: novel-verse
So I am a super big fan of the novel. Below are some prompts to give an idea what I like about the novel/what I would love to see more of, but feel free to come up with your own idea.
I love the brief glimpses we get of Gui Mian's characterization and would love to see that fleshed out further, both in terms of his relationship with Shen Wei and how he considers them equals and brothers, in terms of how he severely injures Nuwa (how powerful is he!!!), in terms of how he alone out of all the characters has a giant axe like Pangu, and in terms of how if Shen Wei can have thoughts on his Ghost Tribe nature Gui Mian can too and given that he doesn't reject it what does he think about it and about it being the reason he and the rest of the Ghost Tribe are sealed off from the world because of it.
I love Shen Wei's character arc in the book. Just about anything to do with his journey from the three corpses of greed/possessiveness, hatred (and self-hatred) and ignorance to telling Zhao Yunlan the truth of what he promised to do with the Giant Seal and asking him to die with him and then to deciding he cannot ask that. (And how he thinks that any display at all of selfishness is bad and denies himself the one thing he longs for over and over again).
Zhao Yunlan's mom seems a lot more wise than Zhao Yunlan gives her credit for. Does she know more about what Zhao Yunlan does at work and possibly what's going on either with her husband or with Zhao Yunlan than she lets on? Where does she fall on the sliding scale of knowledge? Is she totally aware of what he does for a living, that he can see and talk to ghosts, that Da Qing can talk and has opinions? Given that what do she think when she meets Shen Wei? Does she wonder if he knows and has the ability to protect himself? Is she aware that he might not be human?
Always love some Shen San and his yao-xiong, or anything with a previous incarnation Zhao Yunlan (if you want to write a Lost Tomb crossover where Zhao Yunlan's past incarnation was a tomb raider and potentially a past generation of that whole thing, that would be awesome, particularly if past incarnation Zhao Yunlan tried to potentially tomb raid on Mt. Kunlun, a mountain no one alive can get up but an incarnation of Zhao Yunlan)
The judge and the Ten Yan Kings and Diyu - just more interactions of Shen Wei with them and of what the judge thinks of the overall plan and what he thinks at the end scene when the Yan Kings still think they have the upper hand with Zhao Yunlan.
Prompt #3: drama-verse
Please read list. You don't have to include all of these, but I'd love it if you did, particularly the first two:
One aspects that makes me nope out hard is the choice on the showrunner's part to replace the literal canned three evils from the novel with immigration/refugees issues. Because that just doesn't make me feel very good. The thing is, if it wasn't a Guardian adaptation or if they replaced other characters than the ghosts and ghost tribe, i would be all over it. Like have it be the Yashou who are the immigrant/refugee issues characters. - So I guess this DNW is please no connecting the Dixingren with immigrant/refugee issues, even as much as the drama does.
Another aspect is please find a political reason for Ye Zun to do what he does. Maybe he and a few others had been put into the pillar in utter darkness to starve by deliberate agreement of everyone, and they kept it from Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. Maybe he was put in there previously with rebel leader dude and the others and holy heck does he not want to go back and thinks really no one should be locked up in there.
Give Zhao Yunlan some aspect of inhumanity back and have him discover it partway through. Maybe he's part Dixingren and wouldn't have had a power-awakening except then Ye Zun aims all that Dixingren energy at him and suddenly power-awakening.
Give Shen Wei and Ye Zun something that Shen Wei is keeping from all the Haixingren and most Dixingren too. Possibly he and Ye Zun were something else entirely that has a similar enough power set to Dixingren that they were able to fake being Dixingren.
