Text | Xiaoyu
At the beginning of April, Youku finally served the elaborate dish "Long Moon Ember Ming". With this, the discussion about fairy tale dramas centered on the play once again spread to a number of projects of considerable magnitude.
In a market that is difficult to reconcile, controversy is inevitable. In recent years, fairy tale dramas have often been criticized for serious homogenization. Where a new drama is launched, it is indispensable to compare and observe in this regard.
In "Long Moon Ember Ming", the male protagonist Tangtai Ember is a cold-blooded demon king, and the female protagonist Li Susu is a goddess who carries the sky. Audiences who are keen on fairy tale dramas should be no strangers to this kind of drama that is destined to opposite, love and kill each other, and last year's popular "Canglan Recipe" also took this path. And "Heavy Purple" and "Starfall into Sugar", which ended not long ago, also chose to put the male and female protagonists on the opposite side.
So, can it be asserted that fairy tale dramas have always been in a state of full routine in terms of personality? Xingfan doesn't think that's the case.
In the nearly two decades since its birth, although there have been few cases of comprehensive renovation of fairy tale dramas, each stage and even each project is really different. As the basic elements of the play, the male and female protagonists generally present the characteristics of phased updates, and they are not too similar in specific to individual projects.
01
Big male protagonist fairy: small people upgrade flow story
The recognized origin time of fairy tale dramas is 2005, and "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" starring Hu Ge and Liu Yifei opened the era of fairy tales from the perspective of the male protagonist.
In the play, the male protagonist Li Xiaoyao is a shop junior who is bent on learning martial arts and dreams of being famous, and by mistake he has become a key figure in preventing the Moon Worship Sect Lord from forcibly unifying the world. Represented by Li Xiaoyao, the common character of the male protagonist of the fairy tale drama at this stage is a low-level teenager who hangs his child and is clever and slippery, but he is also clear about right and wrong, full of courage and boldness, and will eventually complete the transformation of focusing on his own little people to save the big heroes of the sky.
The subsequent "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" and "Xuanyuan Sword Traces of the Sky" are biased towards the dual male protagonist mode, and the character and growth line of one of the male protagonists are similar to Li Xiaoyao. In a pawnshop, Sedum's wish is to be a treasurer and make a lot of money. Although Chen Jingqiu was the last prince of the Chen Kingdom, he was originally idle and did not do his job.
At the same time, just as Li Xiaoyao is destined to get acquainted with Zhao Linger and get involved in the Moon Worship Sect conspiracy, Sedum and Chen Jingqiu's characters also have a strong sense of fatalism. Sedum is the reincarnation of the god general Feipeng and the crown prince of Jiang Kingdom, Long Yang, and the demon building who regards him as an opponent wants to fight after finding a weapon for him, but destroys the seal of the Lock Demon Tower because of this. The way to resolve the crisis is to obtain the water of the Heavenly Pool of the God Realm, and Sedum is one of the Celestial People who can go to the God Realm. Chen Jingqiu was responsible for restoring the country, and after the remnants of Chen Guo were frozen in ice, he had to embark on the road of finding an artifact to save people.
Xu Changqing, a disciple of Shushan, is another male protagonist of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III". He is self-sufficient and strong, and is Sedum's best partner. Yuwen Tuo, another male protagonist of "Xuanyuan Sword Traces of Heaven", is also an enemy and friend of Chen Jingqiu, he is an accomplice who caused the downfall of Chen Guo, but when he became a sword idiot, he was a good brother that Chen Jingqiu supported all the way.
Then, this double male protagonist combination who is both an old enemy and a close friend is continued in "Ancient Sword and Qitan". Baili Tusu bears the calamity of extermination and is the lord of the ancient fierce sword "Burning Silence". Ouyang Shaogong is gentle and elegant on the surface, but in fact, he is crazy and paranoid because he jumps out of reincarnation and cannot be loved. However, Baili Tusu's indifferent, quiet and restrained personality is obviously different from Li Xiaoyao's male protagonist.
In the hostess setting, we can also find similar phased characteristics.
The function of the female protagonist is often a combination of dual missions and has a close relationship with the male protagonist. Tang Xuejian is the life created by the goddess Xi Yao with the fruit of the divine tree, carrying the mission of following and accompanying Feipeng's reincarnation. However, she was adopted by the master of the Tang Gate, and she was determined to protect the Tang family and the five poisonous beasts. The same is true of Tuoba Yu'er and Feng Qingxue, the former has a dual mission to find the Tuoba tribe artifact and assist Chen Jingqiu in his treasure hunt, while the latter is to go to the human world on Nuwa's order to find the traces of his brother and help Baili Tusu get rid of his anger. In terms of personality, they are often shown as lively and generous, straightforward and free, which also causes their chemical reactions with the male protagonist to be mostly happy and unhappy CP.
Of course, there are also special existences, such as Zhao Linger in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy". She is a descendant of the naïve and pure Nuwa and princess of Nanzhao, and Li Xiaoyao's ability to take on the responsibility of fighting the Moon Worship Sect is more influenced by her. But another important female character in the play, Lin Yue, is very similar to Tang Xuejian and others.
It cannot be ignored that because the male and female protagonists have the same goals, the conflict between them is not strong, and there are very few scenes of love and killing.
The early masterpieces of Xian Xia were mostly born out of single-player role-playing games, so they mainly focused on the plot line of adventure fighting monsters and treasure hunting, supplemented by the warming of love and friendship. Later, the male frequency web novel IP took over the burden of adapting such dramas, and dramas such as "Will Night", "The Road to Awakening" and "Douluo Continent" are all stories of upgrade streams. However, affected by various factors such as the turn of the TV era, the great increase in online drama competition, and the change in audience tastes, it is difficult to produce a phenomenal explosion comparable to "fairy sword".
02
Big heroine fairy: destined to love and kill each other
At the same time that the big male protagonist's formula failed, "Flower Thousand Bones" and "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" officially transferred to the era of the big heroine with fairy tales. The iconic feature is that the heroine becomes a story drama, with the most complex and complete character arc.
Hua Qianbone's life is strange, and he has the power to destroy the sky and the earth. She is naïve and persistent, dares to love and hate, and is exiled and tortured for falling in love with her master Bai Zihua and committing a taboo. After the tragic deaths of Sugar Bao, Dongfang Yuqing and other people who loved her one after another, Hua Qianbone broke through the seal and became a demon god under the collapse of Hua Qianbone. But for the peace of the world, she finally decided to sacrifice herself and die alone.
The heroines of dramas such as "Chen Xiyuan", "Heavy Purple", "Starfall Condensed into Sugar" and other dramas are also forced to be enemies of the representatives of the right path because of the power to destroy the world, although they are kind in nature, they have no choice but to fall into the devil, and eventually they will be willing to give their lives for the sake of life.
However, each drama has its own characteristics. The male protagonist of "Chen Xiyuan" Jiu Chen is unwilling to kill innocent lives in vain, resisting the pressure to save the female protagonist Lingxi; The heroine of "Heavy Purple" Chongzi has experienced two lifetimes of demonization, and the third Fang and the male protagonist Luo Yinfan have completed their cultivation; The antagonism between the male protagonist of "Starfall into Sugar" Youqin and the female protagonist Ye Tan, is because the memory has been changed, and Ye Shu is not an innocent little white flower, but a black lotus that will be rewarded.
Another representative route of the big heroine fairy is the reincarnation sadomasochism and face-punching feeling led by "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms". The Qingqiu Emperor Ji Baishao, who was sealed with memory and mana, turned into a mortal Susu and fell in love with Yehua, the prince of the Celestial Realm. After being bullied in the Tiangong, he was tricked into jumping off the Sendai and was able to return to Qingqiu. When the two met again, Bai Shao was unwilling to forgive Yehua. It wasn't until Yehua paid for his life to kill the demon king Qingcang that Bai Shao realized that he couldn't let him go. Finally, under the protection of Bai Shao, Yehua woke up, and the two cultivated positively.
Dramas such as "Fragrant Honey Sinks Like Frost" and "Three Lives and Three Lives on the Pillow" pay the same attention to the shaping of fairy landscapes as "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", at the same time, the female protagonist has a hidden identity, and the male protagonist is the god of war in the celestial realm. The specific plots also have their own characteristics, such as the heroine of "Fragrant Honey Sinks Like Frost", Jin Mi was born without understanding love, and there is a plot of chasing her husband after hurting the male protagonist; The heroine of "Three Lives and Three Lives on the Pillow" Feng Jiu is lively and cute, and the emotional line changes into a two-way rush for a secret love.
The male protagonists of the above two types of fairy tale dramas are noble and occupy the upper position, often carrying titles such as God of War, His Highness, and Shangxian. They are cold-hearted and cold-hearted, and they only first opened their love when they met the heroine. However, due to nature or duty, it is not smooth to love the female protagonist, and some male protagonists, as representatives of the right path, must also make a choice between the female protagonist's life and life.
In last year's "Canglan Tips" and the "Long Moon Ember Ming" on the air, the heroine finally jumped out of the curse of the disaster star and unlocked the god woman who loves the world and loves one. And the male protagonist is no longer the god of the bright wind and moon, but has transformed into a demon lord who breaks off love.
In the previous play, the naïve heroine Xiao Lanhua was a low-level fairy of Shui Yuntian when she first appeared, but her real body is actually a silan saint who can revive all things. The male protagonist Dongfang Qingcang is the arrogant and domineering Cangyan Hai Yue Zun, who vows to smooth the water and clouds for the future of the Moon Clan. This natural antagonistic relationship is in line with dramas such as "Flower Thousand Bones", but the male and female protagonists have produced opposition.
In "Long Moon Ember Ming", this relationship is more obvious. The heroine Li Susu appears as the daughter of the Cactus Sect, who returned to five hundred years ago in order to save the world tormented by the rule of the demon god Tangtai Ember. Her mission is to uproot the evil bones of the Tangtai Ember and kill him, but she does not want to but has feelings for him. The male protagonist Tangtai Ember is a natural bad species, and after being bullied, he awakens into a demon god and is the enemy of the right way.
03
The villain of the light of the right path, the male and female masters set the opposite
To sum up, the male protagonist of the fairy tale drama is based on the early representatives of the right path, both right and evil, and adds a category of demon lords who were once exclusive to villains; The hostess is set up from the representative of the right path who follows the male protagonist, who is kind before and then devilishes after carrying the power of destroying the world, to the representative of the right path who is not a vassal of the male protagonist. At the same time as the reincarnation of the person, the two obviously form a "transfer" relationship.
As far as market feedback is concerned, the latest Demon Lord X Goddess CP performs well. Last year, "Canglan Tips" made the male protagonist Wang Hedi gain millions of fans and leapt to the top of the new generation. At the end, the drama became the fourth popular drama on iQiyi Station after "Yanxi Raiders", "Son-in-law" and "The World". and "Long Moon Ember Ming" set a new Youku record with 5 million reservations before it was broadcast; After the start of the broadcast, as expected, it quickly refreshed the speed of the popularity of dramas on Youku station.
More precisely, this kind of personality flow has already had clues. The male protagonist of "Fragrant Honey Sinks Like Frost" Xu Feng has a devilish plot, and the male protagonist of "Liuli" Si Feng appears as a golden-winged bird demon clan. In earlier plays, there were also supporting roles with the identity of the Demon Lord who attracted many fans, such as the heavy building of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy III" and the killing of "Flower Thousand Bones".
Whether it is a complete subversion or a minor adjustment, it represents the innovative side of the fairy tale drama. Even if the "Immortal Sword" series is classic, as long as it is a replica, it will not surpass the previous work. Therefore, regardless of the good or bad results of the experiment, the initiative to seek change is worthy of recognition.
In addition, the delay in the appearance has brought certain changes to the pattern of fairy tale dramas, but the character also follows the routine of BG dramas. The two male protagonists of "Chen Qingling" are Wei Wuxian, who was framed as an evil demon, and Lan Yuji, the prince of the Immortal Gate, who is elegant and dignified. Wei Wuxian has a loose personality and does everything casually, and he takes pleasure in teasing Lan when he first meets him. Later, the two accompanied each other in overthrowing Wen's tyranny and exposing Jin Guangyao's true face. Just looking at the rough story, it does have the flavor of an early upgrade of the Liuxian Xia drama.
The two male protagonists to be broadcast are also "Hao Yi Xing" and "Heavenly Official Blessing", one is the big devil of the cold immortal Venerable X Immortal Gate who is the head of all living beings, and the other is the ghost king who has been repeatedly degraded but saved the life and helped the wounded, and the ghost king who fought from ten thousand ghosts. There are old and new characters, and whether the glory of "Chen Qingling" can be continued depends on the specific content and production effect.
Back to BG dramas, there are still many key fairy tale projects to be broadcast, and there are rich types of characters. Zhao Liying and Lin Xinxin's "With Phoenix Xing" is a double-strong combination of force, the queen of the demon world X gentle belly black, and the last god king in the world; Xiao Zhan and Ren Min's "Jade Bone Yao" is a taboo master-apprentice love of the cold and proud master X's enthusiastic fight against the righteous county lord; Zhao Lusi and Wang Anyu's "Shenyin" is the sadomasochistic love affair of the new generation of Phoenix Emperor who is inspired by the son of the true god X; Yang Chao and Ding Yuxi's "Seven Times of Good Luck" is a joyful and unhappy combination of eccentric fairy X-eye higher than the top Sun Xingjun disciples... Just look at the character is quite eye-catching, I don't know if it can be new in the specific plot.
Although today's fairy tales have been repeatedly complained that they are fairy puppets, and their chivalrous temperament has disappeared, it cannot be denied that this type of drama has unlimited potential in attracting fans and gold. If there is a market, there will always be people who will follow in the creation of fairy tale dramas. Where will the fairy tale drama that grows tenaciously in the singing voice go next? We'll see.