Whenever I browse the forum, I see people recommending these two novels (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official’s Blessings). I want to try them but I don’t know which one to start. Could someone tell me which of the is better in different aspects such as romance, length, story, which has less angst, less likely to drop.etc.?
Heaven's official blessings and founder of diabolism is different, so I guess comapring the two is really hard. But in terms of romance, Mo Dao Zu shi slowly went to their in the end, cause throughout the whole story they focused on the past and present mysteries. Lam Zhan is super cautious towards Wei Ying cause you know he already lost him once. And Wei Ying was slowly coming out of his past and slowly learn how to see the present. And the extra steamy at the end of the main story...if you wanted smut mo Dao Zu shi is super recommended. On the other hand Heaven official is Shonen ai. It doesn't have smut but it was super cute and sweet. After all from.the very beginning Hua Chen ready expressed his love towards Prince Xie, it's digging the past and solving the present as well. But if you compare the two, Heavens official is much deeper. Mo Dao zushi only timeline only extended to what 16 years? After. The anime/manga/and drama isn't the same, so I'm confused. Anyway, Heavens official blessing have hundreds of years worth of story. It's full of tragedy. The characters side story is both facinating and heart breaking. In terms of plot, heaven official is more wholesome, esp its wide range of settings. Mo daos Zu shi only focused on the leading characters, and the characters connected to them. Maybe that's why, the romance there could blind you dog eyes. But Hua Chen and Xie Lang's love story is really sweet. Anyway both of them is worth reading. Dropping it? Imposible, ah!
Oi, I've found a fairly new thread! Alright, I'll do my best to answer your question to the best of my abilities! Before I start: I do not have a definite answer, since both novels score "firsts" in different aspects to my liking. Also, this will be spoilerfree, obviously. Aight, you've mentioned the following aspects: romance; length; story, which has less angst; less likely to drop. Romance This category is fairly easy for me: Tian Guan Ci Fu takes the cake. As Aachin0914 mentioned prior, Mo Dao Zu Shi can almost be considered Slow Burn - especially when compared to Tian Guan Ci Fu, where Hua Cheng's painstakingly obviously smitten from the very beginning. His every action screams of devotion and love, and if I had to completely honestly describe book 1,3 and 5 of tgcf to someone (I'm leaving book 2 and 4 out for a reason - you'll find out why while reading), it would probably be: Roadtrip and falling in love (at least on Xie Lian's side). It's a very pure and innocent kind of love, that gently develops - sometimes in the background, sometimes in very plain and obvious scenes. The fandom had a reason for creating the insider: "Hualian invented love." It's all so very soft in the present, and comes in small revelations, their love having the main theme of: devotion, loyalty, care. It's such a "feel good"-kind of love. Opposed to that, we have Wangxian. Their romance story is somewhat more dramatic (so if that's what you're looking for, that might be it for you). You get the whole "drinking vinegar" (jealousy) thing, the completely, utterly hopelessly obliviousness from Wei Ying (honestly, you'll facepalm so, so much while reading ("Do you like Mian Mian???")) and Lan Zhan's whole lack of communication skills. You get the drunkard scenes, the accidentally making out, and these tropes that just heavily confuse the characters in the novel. It's messy, it's not always SFW, and it gets frustrating (in the good way!) for a good portion of the book. It's kind of like you're patiently waiting for Hualian to do the next step while smiling at your screen, and like screaming at Wangxian to get their... pardon, defecation together, and stop being such dimwits. It's adorable. For both novels overall, you should know: Romance is a big theme, but the plot isn't "about" getting together, about "romance" per se. It's the solving of adventures in both cases. Which brings us to a small additional point I'd like to address: Adventure Both pairs of men are trying to solve a mystery. Mo Dao Zu Shi is being more straight-forward with that plot in comparison to Tian Guan Ci Fu. In MDZS you have Wei Ying reincarnating, and you have these main themes like: What happened in the past? Why did he reincarnate? What's the mystery with the arm full of resentful energy? In Tian Guan Ci Fu, you get thrown into a situation, and you start with small, seemingly unrelated problems that the pain pairing has to solve before we get closer and closer introduced to the actual problem at hand. Length Tian Guan Ci Fu is longer than Mo Dao Zu Shi. I'm honestly not completely sure about the word counts, although I've heard rough guesses. Mo Dao Zu Shi has 113 chapters (reddit: approx. 407K words) and 7 extras (reddit: total approx. 171K words). Tian Guan Ci Fu has 241 chapters and 8 extras. I'm never too sure on who to trust when it comes to the word count on tgcf - I've seen people claim it to have around ~750K words, acupofcyanide (site) counted 1.2M words, with 2050 pages. Angst Ah. Hahaha. Hah. Hooray. This one is... difficult? I think both novels contain heavy angst at parts, although in varying ways. Remember how I mentioned books 2 and 4 earlier? Yeah, if you've seen any info on tgcf at all prior to this, you will most likely have heard people be traumatized by those books. They are literally full-on angst, give or take (to be fair, they're also the shortest books by far). As an example: I've recently re-read tgcf, while completely leaving out those two books cause I couldn't take it. Thinking back on them hurts. Though due to their circumstances, it is... easier (?) to ignore the angst, also due to the nature of how they affect the story. There is some additional angst in the other books as well, obviously, but it's definitely bearable. Mo Dao Zu Shi has angst as well, it's just - personally, for me - a more general way. It's not one or two specific incidents or spans of time that hurt (well yes, but no), and it's not one or two characters that bring angst. It's the general unfairness of it all; the politics; it's fate, it's how things turned out. It feels like more real and more relatable pain. It's things that influenced the ending in a way that cannot be returned or changed, whereas in tgcf they can be. It's about what's written in-between the lines, which makes mdzs so painful, at least to me. So while I do think the specific scenes in tgcf are more angsty, the finality and the after-read-mood of mdzs are stronger. Or in easier words: I'd always be more inclined to re-read tgcf (as long as I skip book 2 and 4 but that poses no problem) than to re-read mdzs because sometimes I just don't want to see some things play out the way they did (and I cannot just leave them out while reading due to the writing style). Less Likely To Drop Ayo, that one's relatively relative. Just depends on your personal preferences. If you're more into stringent adventure and character studies, you'll drop mdzs less likely, if a well-written romance and sometimes slow-built plot twists are your cup of tea, it would be tgcf. Though I think both aren't really likely to be dropped if you give them at least some chapters to warm up to you. In that regard I'd highly recommend against watching any of the adaptations before reading. It's just that - personally - I feel like the reading process gets slowed down if you only re-read what you've seen with some additional and uncensored info. It's not as bad with tgcf since so far only the donghua aired with barely a third of book 1 being animated (so if you struggle with reading tgcf, you could watch the donghua first and then retry), though if you've watched The Untamed with all its 50 episodes, and the donghua with both seasons, reading about it will still be interesting, although with less surprising turning points or excitement (but with way more g-a-y). Oh, actually: You might be likelier to drop MDZS if you are thrown off by the slightest suspicion of Spoiler: lowkey spoiler for some scenes? making out while one is drunk and will not remember it, or not aware of who is kissing them, or generally more sexual scenes. Hashtag Everyday is Everday. Extra Category: Adaptations Dunno if you're the type of person to watch adaptations to the work you've read, but lemme tell you: If you are, then you'll be thrilled with MXTX's works. Mo Dao Zu Shi is by far the most advanced in terms of adaptations; it is the proud owner of: A donghua Mo Dao Zu Shi (currently on-going, last season will air this year, fully & officially on Youtube) (+: probably the most BAMF version of the characters, maybe even more so than the novel xD; very enjoyable production) | (-: possibly the most censorship so far, although it's still fair game so far, we'll be able to fully judge once season 3 airs) A C-Drama The Untamed (finished with 50 episodes, each ~44 minutes each, fully & officially on Youtube) (+: beautiful portrayal of emotions, interesting take on the sorting of the timeline, lovable actors) | (-: if you've never watched a C-Drama before, you will possibly find yourself... in a weird spot (it's no MARVEL CGI quality, honey); the plot got most changed in this version) An Audio-Book not sure 'bout the name (dunno if it's finished) (+: least censorship, you'll find animations on Youtube) | (may be harder to find) A manhua Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation (on-going, tho, as far as I know, it's pretty far) (+: almost no censorship, I think) A chibi series Mo Dao Zu Shi Q (finished with 30 episodes, ~3-5 minutes each, fully on Youtube) (+: to quote the Youtube summary: (well no, it's not actually the quote, although close) "to make up for the hurt that the donghua has caused"; it's adorable!, it's just random cute scenes throughout the show) Tian Guan Ci Fu: A donghua Heaven Official's Blessing (one season with 11 episodes + special episode) (+: it has the most beautiful art style I've ever seen; everyone is so pretty; I really cannot deal; San Lang is beautiful; just look at my pfp; help; the censorship so far really lacks in terms of, well. Censorship. xD It all looks so very gay.; in-depth animation of side character's backstories; for real, San Lang is so beautiful (and Xie Lian and Wind Master and Pei Xiu and--) | (-: new season will probably air in 2022 only; censorship will most likely still strike; San Lang's beauty might damage your soul irreversibly; depending on whether the donghua will get a season-limit, the ending might be super rushed A manhua (around ~50 parts published so far (that's not reeaallly a lot, the donghua actually covered more story so far; it was on break for some time now, but it will resume in 3 days!) (+: STARember.) (-: none. the artist is STARember.) A drama will air in the upcoming... years? Idk, it's been announced. (On that note, both novels are by the author MXTX, and their third work is 'The Scumvillain's Selfsaving System' aka 'SVSSS' aka 'Scumbag System' which was actually their first work, and while it might not reach MDZS and tgcf (my opinion!), it might be worth a read, too! It also has an ongoing donghua right now, though it's 3D-animated and therefore not to everyone's liking maybe.) Hope this helped!
No problem! If you don't mind, it would be cool to know which one you'll end up choosing/which one you chose! (Also, if you want to fangirl/fanboy/fanother over the novel of your choice with someone, you can always message me, lmao.) I'm invested! I didn't finish! I'll make it quick, though-- If I could delete all my memory of MXTX to re-read all of their novels again, I'd most definitely re-read SVSSS first (because while I love it, I love both their other works more, and would want to leave the "best for last"), and then. Uhh. Honestly, I think I might go with Mo Dao Zu Shi/GDC first, for the most simplistic reasons: because it comes next in terms of chronological order (like, time-of-publishing-wise) because the story would lowkey depress me and Tian Guan Ci Fu would heal those wounds a bit afterward (and tear them open anew, but whatever) because reading mdzs before tgcf would give me a small break to properly process the story so that I can then fully relish in the beauty that is its adaptions because then, I could take my sweet time getting obsessed with San Lang. Again. Also, yes - I am still stalling on voting because it's just so goshdarn difficult! If I'd have to explain why, I'd use my favorite characters of both novels to showcase why exactly: Wei Wuxian and Hua Cheng. My phone is full of pictures, screenshots, fanart, edits, tributes, etc. of both fandoms, but Hua Cheng is on top in every single category. I just love him so, so much! I can also admit without any last ounce of dignity that I am a simp, very much so. Honestly, lowkey obsessed. Not exaggerated. And yet. And yet, my favorite character of all time remains Wei Ying. To put it simply: Wei Ying is my favorite character, while Hua Cheng is my comfort character. I cannot focus on Wei Ying without feeling a great many emotions that are sometimes, plainly, too much. Whereas Hua Cheng gives me happiness and positive feelings. That's more or less how I view the novels, accordingly. Tian Guan Ci Fu is the story that energizes me, the story and the characters that I'm more obsessed with. But I can't disregard the fact that Mo Dao Zu Shi's story affects me more, emotionally. (Alright, since the Original Question isn't about what novel to start reading first but instead about which novel is better, I shall refuse to answer. They're both indescribable in their own ways.)
Late to the party, but if you're reading something first and worried about dropping, I'd probably recommend TGCF. You get the romance bit a little earlier, plus the main male lead is adorable. Xie Lian's the type a lot of us can probably vibe with because he's gentle and doting. In terms of which is better -- I'd say they're both very different premises. One is about doing something others wouldn't do and standing up for it while the other one is about prevailing love that transcends lifetimes. MDZS is more about mystery-solving and making decisions while TGCF is an epic romance. Unlike TGCF though, there are sex scenes in MDZS. The poor donkey had to watch it all, if I'm not mistaken. Lil Apple, you're the new Little Blind....
Thank you so much. But I really didn’t get the donkey joke or was it that a donkey actually saw them have sex? I started TGCF. I really did start liking Xie Lian. Not just his gentleness but also the way he thinks. Epic romance here I come.
I won't spoil the donkey thing for you, but yessss! Xie Lian is so lovable! He's gentle and level-headed for the most part. A very lovely person!
Listening to the MDZS also known as GDC audio drama, I get to hear a lot of really adult sentences and sounds... Blessed with more than I've ever needed... LISTEN AT YOUR OWN RISK
GDC. I am not into BL but the story on the first half of the series was soooo exciting. I honestly wish the author ended it sooner coz the later parts weren't as interesting. The characters were all well written. TGCF is good too but it didn't gave me that same rush that GDC gave. The story started really slow and it took like 100 chapters for the main plot to unfold. There were too many characters involved to the point that it can be confusing (especially if you haven't remember who's who) what I liked about it though is that the romance between the MLs weren't too smutty or whatever you call it. It was simple and cute.
To someone who felt the pain of both novels, nope, we can't compare them. TGCF just went straight to my kokoro because HuaHua is the best ML, in a way. With Lan Zhan, I guess I don't like how he neglected Wei Ying before he died. But I still love him enough. And both the shou were so cute! ♡