GPGPDonghua
September 2, 2022
Recommended
This will be a 2 part review, reviewing this season as a standalone work of the series and as an adaptation. This season picks up right where Season 3 left off. Xiao Yan is heavily injured, his teacher is asleep, and he is brought back to his brothers' mercenary company. Xiao Yan then sets off to the capital to find something to help wake his teacher and ends up taking part in the Empire's Alchemy competition mentioned in Season 2. This ends right before the much hyped 3 year agreement set up in Season 1 (the first climax of the series). This season is 24 episodeslong, quite a bit longer than the previous seasons, all of which were only 12 episodes. This actually caused some frustration, especially when paired with the ending, as you might see in other reviews. However, this season does something different than the previous seasons: Xiao Yan is no longer the only focus. There is a return of Ya Fei (with some of her internal struggles), there are scenes of Yun Yun (and her worries about Xiao Yan), and Nalan Yanran (her training, and some of the experiences she had that led to the engagement annulment that happened in Season 1). I do agree that the runtime of 24 episodes was a tad long, but I think it is still worth the watch (especially now that the special 3 Year Agreement is out, there is no longer a need to wait). There are even extensive flashbacks to Season 1 (because this studio didn't do season 1), in case viewers did not watch the original and to unify models. This season is action packed, features a return of a host of old faces (with new models), character development and a wonderous showing of alchemy. I definitely recommend this season. 8/10
Now on to this season as an adaptation: I'll preface this by saying that this season is more of an "extended" adaptation, rather than just an adaptation. So my "adaptation score" may be a bit lower because there are quite a number of changes from the source, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE BAD. Towards most of the changes so far, I have had a neutral to poor perception of them, but for most of the changes this season that is not the case.
To start off, I think that if you cut out the changes and go strictly by the novel, you would reduce the episode count by between 6-10 episodes, this is much was added in. To start, in episode 2 or so, we see Yun Yun is distracted when the report regarding Mo Cheng (the monster that Xiao Yan blew up), this is implied to have happened but no explicitly stated; we also see Nalan Yanran training which we can assume happens, but is not talked about. You see, the novel is basically Xiao Yan's journey/adventure, most of the text about others' perspectives are just for our MC to arrive in the nick of time to save the day (very typical of these types of stories). This show also cleverly makes use of the poison to spark Xiao Yan's character and emotional development. Yao Lao, Xiao Yan's teacher repeatedly thorough the previous seasons tells him that he needs to put down the grudge as it will be a future hinderance, but this is never shown (he does eventually put it down by the 3 year agreement, but this is never talked about in the novel). In this "extended" adaptation, we clearly see the struggles he has and how he overcomes it with the help of those around him (and his father's visit and talk, though his father didn't visit in the novel). At the very end of the season, we even get a short 3 episode development and experience of Nalan Yanran, and what led up to her deciding to annul the marriage. This was not part of the novel, and it puts her in the barely redeemable category; my interpretation of these scenes was that she was initially in agreement with it, until societal pressure, influence, and poisoning finally caused her to change her mind. All of these changes, in my view definitely definitely boost the work up, it showcases development of the world and a variety of characters, making it more than just Xiao Yan's story.
However, there are some questionable changes, like the alchemy competition change. While I didn't particularly care that it was changed from 3 rounds to 2 rounds, the ChuYun Empire's (rival empire) alchemist was not a loli (WHY?). But that is also fairly trivial. My biggest gripe about the alchemy competition change was the deliberate interference in the second round, with all the explosions and stuff. I can't see how that kind of behavior would be allowed under any normal circumstances, it's just too unbelievable. The only reason I can come up with is it was cool and artificially raised the stakes of the competition. Would have preferred a somewhat more believable change.
Like I said before, the adaptation score is based solely on how close to the source the adaptation is, not by how good the changes were. Thus in light of the extensive changes (most good), my score would be:
Adaptation Score (how faithful to source): 5/10
