Reaction Shot: Nirvana In Fire Episode 1 (or, LET THE SCHEMING COMMENCE)

[spindizzy]

Do I just want to tag every single Nirvana In Fire post as "BE PREPARED FOR THE COUP OF THE CENTURY" as the single most appropriate tag. Do I.

So yes, I am watching Nirvana In Fire again, because sometimes what you really need in your life is an intense historical political drama whose explicit purpose is to make you cry your heart out over things that have been set up from episode one. It was my first cdrama, and apparently I've now set my expectations unreasonably high for every other drama out there? Whoops. The things you need to know is that it's a story about the manipulations and strategies it takes to be heir to the throne, revenge for events that took place over a decade ago in universe, and more secret identities than you can shake a stick at. It's ridiculous, I love it.

If anyone wants to watch along with me, Nirvana In Fire is available legally on Viki!

coffeeandink has written a proper recap over here with talk about symbolism! disgracetoscholars has written a recap/group discussion combo!

• I have such a visceral "!!!!!!!" reaction to the opening credit music, this is WILD. Especially considering that I didn't actually watch the opening and closing credits for most of the show, because omg spoilers (and also I was crocheting my mum a hat, so the credits were the PERFECT time to re-read the pattern and ask important questions like "How has this gone so wrong.") I WONDER IF THE BUTTERFLY IS A METAPHOR. HMMM.


• I forgot about the bad CGI in this show, and I have no idea HOW. Especially when these flashbacks come up A LOT.


• RIP poor army, you did your best.


• This makes SO MUCH SENSE the second time around, because I actually understand the significance of this battle and who the characters are.


• I love the point that coffeeandink makes about how hyper-saturated the colours are as a representation of how vivid the memories are.


• HE SLEEPS HOLDING HIS CHIYAN ARMY BRACELET, I CAN'T, OKAY. I AM VERKLEMPT.


• ... He must have had to leave his bracelet behind to avoid rousing suspicion (can you imagine Jingyan's reaction if he found that?!) and oh no, I did not authorise these feelings, help.


• Also, I don't often talk about cinematography in reaction shots because I know NOTHING, but I can definitely tell you that Nirvana in Fire has some beautiful shots here. Scenic backgrounds! The way that Mei Changsu is silhouetted when he does his catapult nightmare! Just assume that any scene that doesn't involve the Chiyan Army flashback is beautiful to behold and we will probably be fine.


• Oh, did they save their CGI budget for the doves and THIS scene? Because that would make sense.


• I would DEARLY love to know more about the mechanics of Langya Hall and their army of messenger pigeons and messenger kids, especially as they appear to have to go halfway across a valley to drop off their messages. But they also have the secret boxes and elevators and slides, which is really cool and extremely extra so I don't know what to expect AT ALL.


• The first time I watched this I was like "... Is that Mei Changsu?" at Lin Chen and I feel like he'd be mortally offended at the suggestion.


• Man, Lin Chen does such a good performance of not caring.


• (I WAS SO CONFUSED the first time, because who are these people! What is the significance of Northern Yan and their succession issues! But it's fine if you can either a) find a character guide on the internet, or b) let the show wash over you until you can find a point to latch onto and figure things out from there. I did the second one! It is a valid strategy!)


• CAN YOU IMAGINE picking a country and upending their line of succession to prove a point?! Literally just so that everyone knows that you can?!


• And Lin Chen isn't surprised that this person's been named the Crown Prince, he's surprised that it's already. That is true faith right there.


• ... I just noticed Lin Chen's earring and I kinda love it.


• Wow, he knows so much off the top of his head. Like, keeping track of ambassadors in your head is ridiculous, okay.


• "Such a co-incidence!" he says in the SINGLE LEAST CONVINCING WAY POSSIBLE.


• The first time I saw this guy, I hadn't actually seen any screengrabs of the princes, so I was squinting at him like "Is THIS the prince? THIS is who everyone ships Mei Changsu with?" (Spoilers: NOPE.)


• That ambassador's face is the purest expression of "OH FUCK, I DID NOT PREP FOR THIS," that I have seen in a LONG time.


• Ah, Dad Emperor and his chief antagonist wives. Like, seriously, they are bickering over their son's power and standing right there in front of the emperor. In a very polite "Hasn't your son been so clever and helpful?" sort of way, but bold move. (Plus, I like how clearly you can see their different attitudes and relationships to the emperor in the five seconds before anyone starts speaking. ACTING.)


• I wish I could remember whose post it was about how Nirvana In Fire has so many women who are taking and weilding the power that they have available to them.


• Ah, the Crown Prince. I don't know how he actually managed to survive to adulthood when all of his plans are this terrible and obvious. ... Okay, no, I do, it's that Consort Yen is the brains of this operation, but WOW.


• So the Sixth Prince wasn't just the dark horse, but also the weakest? With the least background? I SEE.


• HOW MUCH PREP WENT INTO THIS PLAN, OKAY? Because I find it hard to believe that they just WAITED for someone to go "Man, I need help to become the ruler of this region, time to go to Langya Hall," like, they must have had SOMEONE planting that idea. Also, Prince Yu does NOT look pleased with this information.


• THE SETS AND COSTUMES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL, HELP, I AM OVERCOME.


• I was not expecting the stabbing, okay! I thought it was going to be poltical drama and minimal murders, but no!


• "To a scholar, to have knowledge is to have the world." NOTE THIS THEME DOWN IN YOUR COPYBOOKS, IT MAY COME UP AGAIN LATER.


• Honestly, would you admit to who your secret weapon was? What if everyone ELSE hired him?!


• That ambassador has the face of someone going "Wait, something isn't right here..."


• And this is the point where I realised that this was also kind of a wuxia show. Only when the guy started flying.


• Prince Yu gives NOT A SINGLE FUCK about assassins, though! RESPECT. Like he's straight up just like *casually dodges assassins until his guard can literally kick the assassin in the face and/or throw swords* And he isn't even SURPRISED about the assassins! He's just like "Ah yes, of course this is my brother's work, here is the reasoning behind it." It's nice to know that ONE of the princes is smart, I guess? Or at least that he can see through the Crown Prince like he's made of glass.


• I DEFINITELY did not get the importance of these two characters and the Tianquan Manor the first time around, but now I'm watching their appearance like "Oh nooooooooo, don't do it!"


• Lin Chen is very pretty, although he does not show up very much.


• Langya Hall gives people responses in three days time?! Wow, that's confidence in their ability to find/keep customers AND deliver answers that fast.


• (I feel very bad for that poor Langya Hall worker, who is doing a perfect "Let me get the manager for you" face.)


• Lin Chen knows EXACTLY what's going on, because OF COURSE he does. OF COURSE he is prepared for both princes to rock up demanding answers.


• Lin Chen is VERY CONFIDENT that the solution is in the Pugilist world, but dude HAS A POINT about the Hall's neutrality, okay.


• His armour is so fancy, wtf.


• OH GOD IT'S THAT GUY. XIE YU CAN DIE IN A HOLE LIKE THE FUCKING RAPEY BASTARD THAT HE IS. Literally the only good thing about him is that cloak. Thassit.


• These synchronised opening of the letters and working through what it says are delightful. I also like that the answer is literally just ONE NAME. (Apparently the lists they're talking about are the like a who's who, and there are in fact lists like "most elligible bachelor" which. Wut.)


• BANRUO! I love Banruo, she is so smart and pretty and deserves better than her future storyline. ... Seriously though I didn't realise that she wasn't Prince Yu's wife until his actual wife showed up. And it feels a little rude to get your strategist to help you hire a new strategist.


• I love how the descriptions of and approaches to Mei Changsu vary so much. Prince Yu's faction values his skills as a scholar, whereas the Crown Prince's only wants him for the martial artists that will come with him; Prince Yu wants to approach Mei Changsu himself, whereas the Crown Prince never even considers it. Also that everyone's honestly more intimated that he can control a pugilist sect without actually being able to do martial arts than they would be if he was actually a god-tier fighter.


• HELLO ZHOU FAMILY DUDE! SERIOUSLY THOUGH FRIEND WHAT IS YOUR SWORD GOING TO DO AGAINST A BOAT.


• I like how they KNOW even in a complete fogbank exactly where Mei Changsu's territory starts.


• Knowing that the Zhou family did good things like rescuing these informants (even if they weren't for the right reasons) makes me sad.


• Pursuer: *hears flute music*
  Pursuer:
  Pursuer:
  Pursuer:
  Pursuer: ... Oh we are all going to die.


• Mei Changsu, that is the most EXTRA entrance you could have possibly had. Why are you playing the flute in the middle of a lake. How are you steering that boat. What is even your life.


• Me, watching this for the first time: Wow, this is so cool and dramatic and having that kid show up after the speech like he's just bringing his cloak is showmanship.
  Me, watching this now: Mei Changsu definitely snuck out without telling anyone so that he could deal with this personally, so Li Gang and Physician Yan sent Fei Liu to fuss over him because he's an idiot.


• "Everyone is now my friend," THIS IS THE MOST OMINOUS DECLARATION OF FRIENDSHIP AND "WELL OF COURSE I HAD TO COME MEET YOU" I LOVE HIM.


• (Seriously, fandom, I love you, but I do not understand anyone who writes Mei Changsu being a nice person who takes over the Jiangsuo Alliance peacefully when the first thing we see him do is have Fei Liu drown a guy to make a point.


• (I mean yes, he still resolved a mass pursuit peacefully, but that guy's friends were too intimidated to rescue him. Is it the offer of mediation because murder isn't how they do things?)


• He didn't even TELL Fei Liu to drown that guy, he just LOOKED at him, this is so dramatic and I love it.


• What I'm learning is that Wuxia means that everyone can double-jump because physics is for other people.


• Mei Changsu is the non-combat character who strikes fear into the hearts of pretty much every martial character in the show and I am so here for it.


• The immediate disavowal of that guy is IMPRESSIVE. Especially because "It's been a long while since I heard words as stupid as those" when he's just come from a royal court.


• "Go back."/"All right, I'll listen to you." This sounds like a much more dramatic exchange when you don't know that Mei Changsu is a dumbass who can't be trusted to look after himself!


• They made it to the capital! Yay! Good work you guys!


• I think that guy might be the one person that the emperor trusts. The only, single one.


• The emperor seems to think that his kids fighting like angry toddlers is funny, which says A LOT about his personality.


• "My empire is not something he can so easily get his hands on." *SIPS TEA INTENTLY*


• Fei Liu: *hears Lin Chen coming*Fei Liu: *SPRINTS FOR COVER*


• Seriously Lin Chen sounds like someone's old uncle complaining that he knew everything before the people around him were even BORN.


• LIN CHEN IS SO HAPPY BEING THE BRATTY UNCLE.


• You know how you can TELL from a character's introduction that you are going to hate them for at least a quarter of the series and then they're magically going to undergo character development and you're suddenly going to be ready to fight anyone who trash-talks them? Yeah. YEAH.


• Jingrei has the patience of a saint, is what I'm saying here.


• (Also Jingrei hustling Yujin along to go and see Mei Changsu has an entirely different context when you know that in the first version of the webnovel, he was the intended love interest. BLESS THAT SAINTED CHILD WHO DESERVES BETTER THAN WHAT HE GETS.)


• ... Oh no, are we at war? Already?


• OH, he's going on the trip with them just to foil the princes and keep them guessing as to his loyalty! Okay, that makes sense, I can follow that logic.


• Jingrei first met Mei Changsu two days okay?! And he's already invited him to stay in his family's house to help him recover? Oh my poor sweetie, you are too good and too pure for this show.


• "Can you not always have that expression after taking my pulse?" NO MEI CHANGSU, YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PATIENT AND DESERVE THAT FACE ALL THE TIME.


• "Can I stop you?" Man, Lin Chen understands him completely, and I am so sad for him because he is Mei Changsu's only friend! As far as I can tell, Mei Changsu is his only friend! THEY ARE ABSOLUTE BRATS TO EACH OTHER AND THEY ARE HAVING THE "PLEASE HELP ME GO OFF ON A SUICIDE MISSION" CONVERSATION AND I AM VERKLEMPT.


• TWO YEARS. TWO YEARS IS NOT LONG ENOUGH, STOP THAT.


• Also Lin Chen already had the medicine prepared, I love him.


• Mei Changsu: Having you is better than ten doctors.
  Lin Chen: *KNOWS HIM TOO WELL*


• Aaaaand immediately back to baiting Fei Liu because he knows what's going to happen.


• Man, it must be so frustrating for Mei Changsu that he used to be able to ride horses and cause havok all over this city, and now he's coming back and completely unrecognisable even to himself.


• NIHUANG! MY QUEEN! I LOVE HER! Mei Changsu's face when he hears her name! Her hello being to draw a sword and backflip into people! SHE IS SO GOOD, OKAY.


• Mei Changsu watching Nihuang fight is just killing me, help.


• Apparently in the book, Nihuang is happily married to SOME OTHER DUDE (Possibly the brother of her best friend's husband?) but I guess in the TV show they needed her to be a love interest as well as the muscle?


• The fact that Mei Changsu doesn't just spit on that sign as a hello is proof that he is a much better person than I am.


• And here we get the third of Mei Changsu's MANY SECRET IDENTITIES, why are you like this, why must everything have twelve different layers you magnificent bastard. (His name is Su Zhe, which I keep finding myself using contextually for like, who he is when he's at home with Fei Liu and his people, whereas Mei Changsu is explicitly for when he's scheming. Lin Shu is totally dead.)


• And bless Jingrui, because Mei Changsu springs that on him, and he just ROLLS with it and I don't think he messes up once. HE IS THE MOST PURE AND WHOLESOME CHARACTER HERE.


• Hi Xi Bi, your life is going to get infinitely worse from here on out.


• He is so proud of himself for getting the family in safely! And doesn't even stay long enough to see his little brother, who is the entire reason he's there! Waaaah.


• God, hello to you too dickhead.


• Xie Yu's face when he sees Mei Changsu brings me SUCH JOY. He is so stunned and I appreciate every moment of discomfort he has. It is ALMOST as good as the look on Mei Changsu's face as he watches this.


• (Why is the minister for transportation in charge of building a martial arts arena?)


• NIHUANG IS SO STRONG AND PRETTY, HELP.


• So to pass the written exam, you need to pass the martial arts exam. ... I guess it saves on paper that way round! Sure!


• He looks so pleased with his own cleverness, and Nihuang looks so resigned, bless her. And he is ~so generously~ giving her a choice of three when they've screened all of her suitors!


• ... Is his argument literally "Look, your little brother is doing your job right now, why don't you find someone to keep you company?"


• Nihuang changing the rules of the emperor's own plan to her advantage brings me joy, because SERIOUSLY this is a show where every character needs to find the lever they can use to change the world, and Nihuang's ability to understand and manage the emperor is what keeps her alive.


• NIHUANG WANTS TO FIGHT ALL OF THE SUITORS, I LOVE HER. And her argument of "I will lose to the one I'm fated to marry" comes right out of a fairy tale and I love her. (Nihuang will lose to no one.)


• Like, he specifically says that he cares about her, and even that feels like a threat.


• XIA DONG, HELLO, YOU ARE ALSO AMAZING.


• I am even more suspicious of him when he's okay with people staying around. Seriously, the kinder and more benevolent he appears in any scene the more tense I feel.


• Okay, so where do the Xuanjing Bureau rank in terms of formality? Because she is the only person we see around the emperor who has to take a knee, so I am wondering.


• (PS I love all the little flicks and folds people do to keep their robes and cloaks out of the way, they look so natural and I am here for it.)


• I didn't remember that  Xia Dong was in charge of the investigation against Duke Qing! Okay, this explains a lot!


• Xia Dong and Nihuang are friends! Yay, I'm glad that they both have friends because SERIOUSLY they need someone to have their back.


• Xia Dong wanted to stick around for the husband tournament! Ugh, the emperor has the worst timing. ... Wait, no, these are both part of the Crown Prince side's scheming, does this mean the timing was a deliberate attempt to get her out of the way? Oh no.


• I'm relieved that Xia Dong understands that no man can defeat Nihuang, and that's why it's a screening mechanism.


• They met in the army? Oh that's interesting, I didn't know that Xia Dong was in the army too.


• Man, they're the closest thing they have to friends and the massacre of the Chiyan army is still a massive wedge between them both, noooo.


• I think this show was my first real exposure to Cdramas not ending exactly where I expect them to. It works if you're marathoning them (which I 100% was the first time that I watched it), and it's still better than Guardian, but I still go "Oh right, this is the cliffhanger ending – nope, still going."


• So yes, that's episode one of Nirvana in Fire, and I love it! It makes so much more sense the second time around, when you're not trying to puzzle out who is who and what their relationships are to each other, and there is SO MUCH GOING ON considering that this is episode one! SO MUCH. ... Also we've not even been introduced to half of the main characters yet, which still surprises me but is way more relaxed than I'm used to. I still gasped and covered my face as things were revealed, but now I have even more context for what's going on so it's even better.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

This looks interesting.

Thanks for recommending it!

[spindizzy]

It's really interesting! It's about sixty episodes, and it mostly manages to have a sustained, intense political plot for that entire time, it's impressive! :D