Writing Notes: The Research Process

And the award for the best villain goes to ... Ye Bingchang. Let me explain!

You might say "Random person on Tumblr, the Devil God is so hot and Ye Bingchang is so annoying, how can she be the best villain on Till the End of the Moon?" Well I'm glad you asked ...

TTEOTM has many great villains. There are the ones we love, like the Devil God and his henchmen (and woman) Siying and Jingmie. Then there are the ones that were easy to hate, like Dimian, Tantai Minglang, and the King and 5th Prince of Sheng. And then there is Ye Bingchang (and Tian Huan), who I hated so much that I wanted to see her suffer in every incarnation - but who is also one of the most complex villains I have seen in cdramas.

A Heroine in a different story

Our heroine is born the daughter of a concubine. She is kind and sweet. Her low status leads her to be bullied and neglected by her family, who openly favour her abusive younger sister. An accident gives her special powers ("love threads") that allow her to escape her unfortunate situation. She falls in love with a prince who returns her feelings and stands up for her. Meanwhile, she is harassed by a social outcast (Tantai Jin) who repeatedly makes her uncomfortable, but she is too kind (and limited in her status as a woman) to set clear boundaries. She is finally able to marry her prince, only to be degraded to his consort. Her psychotic sister finds her perfect match in the equally psychotic hostage prince, who ruins her wedding by maiming her guests. She finally escapes her family situation, only for her younger brother to betray their country, making her the scapegoat for the people's anger. Her beloved husband has to go to war, leaving her behind.

Ye Bingchang's story revolves around escaping her unfortunate situation - it's in many ways the beginning of the classic hero's journey. However, at the critical point of understanding that she is her own woman and more than an instrument of powerful men, she learns the wrong lesson. Her need to survive is overtaken by her resentment, which now drives her actions.

TTEOTM challenges the viewer to keep up with many perspectives. From Ye Bingchang's point of view, her actions make sense, while Ye Xiwu and Tantai Jin are the villains of her story.

What makes a good villain?

For me, a great villain fits the story. In many ways they resemble the hero, while in others they are the opposite - the antithesis. Even though she's Ye Xiwu's sister, it's Tantai Jin she mirrors.

Tantai Jin and Ye Bingchang start out as polar opposites in some ways, but are quite similar in many others. Both struggle with their low status and being ostracised. Both don't openly fight their situation, but rather surrender to it. However, while Tantai Jin's story teaches him to love and care for the people around him, as well as an entire nation (or two), Ye Bingchang grows bitter and resentful.

Many of her actions are - to a certain extent - understandable from her point of view. The line is crossed when she murders her grandmother. Although the old woman did not treat her as well as her siblings, she always cared for her eldest granddaughter. Moreover, it's the mention and praise of Ye Xiwu that seems to flick a switch in Ye Bingchang during her grandmother's visit. (Link: The symbolism of food in TTEOTM)

Ye Bingchang is not evil suis generis. She is not misguided or misjudged. She is not driven to the brink of sanity by fate. She is not controlled by an evil force. She is a product of her social circumstances and her personal decisions.

Gender inequality

Tantai Jin has privileges that she is deprived of: His royal birthright and his gender - and then there is the whole devil fetus thing. Ye Bingchang's options in life are limited by her gender. As a woman, her destiny is to be married, thus shifting her dependency from her family to her husband. Li Susu is in some ways an exception to this rule, because even in the body of Ye Xiwu, she is socialised as a high-ranking immortal who follows different rules when it comes to gender roles.

Ye Bingchang's encounter with Tian Huan (and the Devil God's subsequent intervention) seems to be the turning point. While she has been shown to sacrifice others for her own survival, in the later arc she does so out of hatred, jealousy and vengeance.

After the dream, she sees her own role in the world differently. She has seen how Tian Huan - despite having all the power of a Goodess - fell because of her feelings and her dependence on a man. This is the moment when she decides never to make the same mistake again and to look out for herself. I find it interesting that this doesn't stop her from using the men around her in her pursuit of safety - following Tantai Jin to Jing, or later pitting him and Xiao Lin against each other. The difference now is that she doesn't really depend on these men emotionally. She is ready to discard them as soon as they are no longer useful.

And the winner is love

What makes her a good villain is not her egomaniacal approach to survival, it's the tragedy that it's born out of the belief that she's never experienced real love from the people around her. Not from her family, not from her husband, who she believes is influenced by the love threads. She is similar to Tantai Jin, who never experienced love and kindness in his previous life. However, they diverge in this regard, as Tantai Jin later realises that there were indeed people around him who loved him in their own way, while Ye Bingchang, even when confronted with acts of kindness and care, is unable to believe them.

It's only in her final moments that she realises that Xiao Lin's love for her was real. This realisation drives her to take her own life - and end her suffering as Mo Nv.

An incompletely redemption

There is nothing more satisfying for an audience than seeing the villain get the punishment he deserves. We got several such resolutions - even though Ye Bingchang proved resilient and kept coming back.

The late editing of the final arc of TTEOTM has led to numerous problems. Among them is the jumbled redemption arc of Mo Nv. Reborn and reunited with her beloved younger sister, she still lingers in her mortal life. She sets up a silk shop (because threads and stuff) and is fatefully reunited with her husband in his next life. In the end, it's hinted that she'll save him and possibly stay by his side.

As a demon, Mo Nv isn't evil. She still interferes in Tantai Jin's affairs because she doesn't trust him. Her repeated warnings about his scheming nature illustrate once again how much he was the villain of her story.

Some remaining thoughts

Mo Nv was the least annoying incarnation, and I would have liked to see her last arc to be more nuanced. Chen Duling did a good job portraying her - she made it so easy for the audience to hate Ye Bingchang. This makes me appreciate the eldest daughter of the Ye family as one of the best villains in TTEOTM. Since we already had the unimaginably evil Devil God, the show needed a human evil to mirror Tantai Jin's hero's journey. In a way, they also share the prophecy of a dream, a tear (which brought back Xiao Lin) and a thread (the love thread) that would change their fates. Tantai Jin's and Ye Bingchang's stories share the same motive: The desire to determine one's own fate.

And isn't it ironic, that even the Devil God was trying to free himself from his own fate, by ending the fate of all?

“Pack your precious belongings,” the villain whispered into the hero’s ear. “This place is going to burn tonight.” 

It is absolutely useless to point out to me that my favorite characters went insane and perhaps slightly evil, especially when they were the ones wronged first. I support them and think they could have been more insane, actually. I think they should have just started attacking people on sight. They should have gone off the walls completely. They should have made all their decisions based off of grief and fear for far longer! I support rights and wrongs indiscriminately. I think forgive and forget should only come after they've worked through their hurt in the most destructive way possible and traumatized everyone back. Pls never assume otherwise

This.

Do you have any good words for pain? (Hurt for example) Like being in pain or exclamations of pain (ouch for example)

Pain—unpleasant bodily sensation; mental/emotional distress or suffering

Ache - a usually dull persistent pain

Affliction - a cause of persistent pain or distress

Agony - intense pain of mind or body; anguish, torture

Anguish - extreme pain, distress, or anxiety

Bruise - an injury involving rupture of small blood vessels and discoloration without a break in the overlying skin; an injury especially to the feelings

Burn - to produce or undergo an uncomfortable or painful sensation like that of being injured by fire

Chafe - to make sore by or as if by rubbing

Clonus - a rapid succession of alternating contractions and partial relaxations of a muscle occurring in some nervous diseases

Colic - an attack of acute abdominal pain localized in a hollow organ and often caused by spasm, obstruction, or twisting

Cramp - a painful involuntary spasmodic contraction of a muscle

Deleterious - harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way

Discomfort - mental or physical uneasiness; annoyance

Distress - pain or suffering affecting the body, a bodily part, or the mind; trouble

Fester - to generate pus; putrefy, rot;; to cause increasing poisoning, irritation, or bitterness

Gripe - a pinching spasmodic intestinal pain—usually used in plural

Inflamed - to cause inflammation (i.e., injury that is marked by capillary dilatation, leukocytic infiltration, redness, heat, and pain) in (bodily tissue)

Lancinate - pierce, stab, lacerate

Malaise - a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being

Misery - a circumstance, thing, or place that causes suffering or discomfort

Noxious - physically harmful or destructive to living beings

Pernicious - highly injurious or destructive; deadly; (archaic): wicked

Prickle - a prickling or tingling sensation

Sore - a source of pain, distress or vexation; affliction

Spasm - an involuntary and abnormal muscular contraction; a sudden violent and temporary effort, emotion, or sensation

Sting - a wound or pain caused by or as if by stinging (sharp or piercing)

Suffer - to endure death, pain, or distress

Throb - to pulsate or pound with abnormal force or rapidity

Travail - a physical or mental exertion or piece of work; task, effort; agony, torment

Twinge - a sudden sharp stab of pain

Woe - a condition of deep suffering from misfortune, affliction, or grief

Exclamations of Pain

ouch, boo, ow, aw, woe, shucks, ay, rats, yuk, sheesh, alack, tush, pooh, yuck, wirra (Irish), phooey, alas, tsk, pshaw, bah, humph, tut, pish, ho hum, faugh, fie

Hope this helps with your writing. Do tag me, or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

Did you know that many gastropods can create a pearl, including terrestrial snails? The difference is nacre which is only found in some species of mollusks and which which gives pearls their beautiful shine. Terrestrial snails occasionally produce very small translucent white pearls which are usually lost. One non-nacre secreting sea snail, the melo melo, produces gorgeous pearls that are extremely prized and rare.

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

Sirius: Why must you assume the worst of me?

Sirius: Aside from my history and general personality?

James: Sometimes your evil leaks out

Sirius: No argument.

Sirius: Can't fight the beast within forever.

James: Did that sound creepier now than in your head?

Sirius: No.

James: Ah.

James: Just checking.