I am not going to try to catch every difference between Till the End of the Moon Drama and the novel it is based on, but will be listing those that caught my attention as I am reading the novel and watching the show. I will update this post as I progress between the novel and the show.
- In the novel, our heroine was betrayed by someone in her sect and handed over to the Demon God (our hero) when she was only a couple years old. Our young heroine thought for sure she would be killed, but strangely, the Demon God just examined her for a long time before tossing her back to her sect. It remained a mystery to everyone why the Demon God didn’t kill her.
- The author doesn’t go into great details but it seems that our heroine is actually some sort of a bird that was born with an immortal ability for cultivation. She was eventually able to take a human form.
- When our heroine (Li Su Su) was sent back 500 years into Xe Xiwu’s body, she actually had an exchange with Xe Xiwu herself. Well, not exactly. Our heroine was able to take a jade bracelet (that can do a lot for her but was depleted of energy from the journey back in time) with her. Not sure what the bracelet is yet but it does speak like a person and calls our heroine “master.” Before going into a deep slumber, the jade bracelet was able to tell our heroine that Xe Xiwu’s only request is that she save her father and grandmother from the hands of the Demon God. Our heroine agreed.
- That funny scene of our heroine and her maid being chased by bandits was a lot more serious in the novel. The bandits were real and had actually killed Xe Xiwu’s maid (don’t worry, not Chun Tao) already when our heroine took over her body. The one who came just in time to save her wasn’t the second male lead either but our hero himself.
- In the novel, both Xe Xiwu and her older sister were already married by the time our heroine got there. This meant the whole storyline of Sixth Prince going through all the drama to marry the older sister either didn’t happen or had already happened by the time our heroine arrived.
- In the novel, our hero could tell instinctively that his wife had changed. Our hero could feel the viciousness and the nastiness of his wife but that changed once our heroine arrived. While he couldn’t figure out why but our hero could feel his wife had changed. “She had changed a lot from the time he had carried this Xe Xiwu out of the bandits’ den and she had hit her head. The Xe Xiwu before was arrogant and cruel, causing one to feel disgust when one looks at her. The one now, is completely different. She is like the mountain spring water flowing down. Clear and vibrant, yet unable to be cut or shattered. Just looking at her, the darkness in his bones would begin to gnaw at him bit by bit, causing him to tremble.”
- Our hero didn’t use birds to attack his enemies but bees. In the novel, our hero could control the animal because they all feared him so there was certainly no friendship. I much prefer the way the drama is portraying the hero’s interaction with the crows.
- One thing the novel highlighted is that our heroine grew up in a world that was already facing total destruction by the time she was born. The immortals had already tried the best they could to destroy the Demon God and failed. Our heroine grew up in a time when the few remaining immortals could only hide, knowing full well that their hope of survival is next to none. However, precisely because she grew up listening to the stories of how her forebears had either sacrificed or will be sacrificing themselves to battle evil, our heroine actually grew up in a very sheltered world where people are almost all super good. Watching our hero suffering under the hands of many is a constant shock to our heroine as she slowly comes to the realization that the human world is not as innocent nor righteous as her father had led her to believe.
- The novel described what the show didn’t reveal what was so shocking about our hero’s birth…just be warned, it’s pretty graphic. As the show portrayed, the birth of our hero was difficult and the emperor gave the order to save the mom instead. Somehow realizing he was in danger, the infant sliced open his mom’s stomach with the nail of his finger. The emperor rushed in to see the baby in a pool of blood, eyes open, gnawing curiously on his dead mother’s intestine. The emperor didn’t banish the baby to the corner of the palace but had him tossed out to the garage dump, left to die.
- There was only one maid who came and rescued our baby hero. The maid had always feared our hero but felt a duty to take care of him because of her loyalty to his mom. Unlike the show, the maid didn’t betray our hero. She eventually left because she was finally convinced that our hero was truly beyond help when she discovered he was going to poison the third prince and stop him from doing it.
- Like the drama, our heroine was able to see important scenes of our hero’s childhood via the dream demon. Unlike the show though, our heroine wasn’t a bystander in the dream but would become either a person or an object that is part of the memory. In one of the memory, our heroine became the unfortunate cat that the hero had caught to try out the poison he was going to use on the third prince. “Su Su could never have imagined that she would be captured by Tantai. The boy’s bone-thin hand grabbed her by the neck. As a kitten, Su Su’s fur was all standing up. “I found you.” He said. The next moment, Tantai let go and pressed her to the front of a small dried fish.” “Eat.” He ordered. Su Su thought, I am not stupid, I am not eating that. Unfortunately, the kitten whose body she is in, has already followed its instinct and started licking the small dried fish. Su Su could only shed tears of hopelessness inwardly. In a short while, her cat body started to convulse and soon died. Tantai Jin calmly buried the kitten.
- I have a feeling this particular scene is very important and might be a reflection of what our heroine will become to our hero. This scene follows immediately after the confrontation between Lanan (the maid) and Tantai where she finally leaves him.
Seeing the indifference in him, Su Su suddenly realized he didn’t care at all. He might even be thinking that Lanan betrayed him, and deserved to die as well. Is this what innate bone of evil really is? Born with a thirst for blood and violence, willing to do whatever it takes to survive. He lacks compassion, empathy, and is without any understanding of what shame is. Perhaps…Su Su thought, he doesn’t understand what love and emotions are, he was naturally cold blooded. This is why Daddy said one who is born with an innate bone of evil will never change. Lanan was so good to him, and raised him but there were only indifference and coldness when he looked at her.
Lightning illuminated the room, and Tantai Jin suddenly sees a statue of a glass goddess status. The glass was clear and transparent, the goddess’s long hair reaches her waist, her skirts are layered, and there is a dot of scarlet red in between her brows. She was holding a sword, looking brave and holy. He stared without blinking at the glass goddess for a long long time. Su Su could feel her inside trembling with fear.
He suddenly started to climb up the high platform. Halfway through the climb, he fell and was scratched with a three-inch long bloody mark by the wood shreds. He got up as if nothing had happened and continued to approach her. Su Su almost started to scream: Don’t come closer!
After a few repeated attempts, finally, she was held in Tantai Jin’s hand. He gently stroked her face with his blood-covered hands. The child’s voice whispered softly, “So beautiful.”
Long hair with a scarlet red dot between her brows. The brave and holy goddess with a sword, after the darkness was pierced, she is stunningly beautiful.
He stared down at the glass goddess in his palm, and with his blood-stained hands, he smeared reverently her whole body with his blood.
Feeling his cold fingers, Su Su was speechless “….. what a psycho!” So her body right now, what exactly is it? (She can’t see herself, so she has no idea what object she is inhibiting.)
13. In the novel, our heroine’s Second brother (younger) is not a general nor is he the rule enforcer of the family. “Of the four men (in our heroine’s age group) of Xe family, the oldest is good at martial arts and prudent. The second is shy and good at studying. The third is the only one who is incompetent, dabbling in every vice. As for the fourth one, he is still young and a bit spoiled but it is hard to say what he will be like when he grows up just yet.” Like the show though, the second brother is still the one who got caught up with the fox demon.
14. The part about how the previous Xe Xiwu had planned on drugging her older sister but ended up being caught in a compromising position with the hero had one big difference in the novel. The drug/poison Xe Xiwu had wanted to use on her older sister was actually a whole lot nastier than the show portrayed. The drug was not a simple aphrodisiac but the kind that would reoccur on the 15th of every month, and the only temporary cure is the man who took the counterpart of that drug. The drug didn’t have the same recurring effect on the man. What the previous Xe Xiwu wanted, was that her older sister would have to beg the nasty fifth prince (I can’t remember for sure which prince it was) every month for the rest of her life. When she ended up being the one who took the drug meant for her sister, Xe Xiwu and her family then had no choice but to have her marry our hero since he is now her only “cure” every month. One memory the previous Xe Xiwu had was that even while she was overcome with the drug, our hero had just stared at her coldly. The novel made it clear that nothing happened on the night the two were caught the first time, but the author didn’t elaborate on what happened subsequently on the 15th of every month when Xe Xiwu needed our hero as her cure. Judging by how much the two detested each other, I am assuming nothing else happened subsequently as well.
15. The first time our heroine “experienced” the 15th of the month was quite a surprise to her. Her maid kindly delivered her to Tantai Jin but of course nothing happened again. The whole our hero being the “only cure” does come up quite regularly in the novel since it is the excuse our heroine will usually use when she saves him. Edit: The author does explain a bit further into the story that just by being physically close to our hero on the 15th helps to alleviate our heroine’s pain and intense desire for him.
16. The follow up story to #12. The Glass Goddess was taken by one of the princes. When Tantai Jin went to confront the prince and get it back, the prince threw the Glass Goddess on the ground, shattering it into small pieces. Yong Tantai Jin picked up the pieces and swallowed them all. I don’t think this Glass Goddess will show up in the drama but she is pretty important in the novel.
17. In the novel, our heroine’s escape from the boat is quite different. Tantai Jin gave our heroine two choices: 1. Write a letter to her oldest brother (who is the general in charge of the waterway area they are in) and ask him to let Tantai Jin’s boat through the blockade. 2. Be shot to death by Tantai Jin. The first choice would mean death for our heroine’s brother since he would become a traitor but of course the second choice would be death for our heroine herself. Xe Xiwu threw her shoe at Tantai Jin, jeered at him, incapacitated the guards with the some powder substance she had stolen right from the boat, and escaped by jumping into the bone-chilling water even as Tantai Jin was shooting arrows at her. Our heroine was eventually saved by the Sixth Prince and his friend after floating on the water for a while.
18. In the novel, Lanan tries to kill Tantai Jin in a few different subtle ways but our hero figures out pretty quickly that she had turned against him. Tantai Jin’s brother shows up and had his man slash the tendons in Tantai Jin’s hands before blinding his one eye by shooting an ice needle into it.
19. In the novel, Lanan had a son, not a daughter. Lanan’s son was born sickly and would’ve died by the age of 10 but Lanan used a special casket to put him into a frozen slumber when he was 8 years old. Tantai Jin’s crazy brother promised Lanan some sort of magical medicine that would make her son healthy again. Unlike the show, Lanan regretted betraying Tantai Jin in the end and was actually the one who killed the crazy brother. Before she died (by boat explosion), Lanan gave Tantai Jin the token to gain control of the warriors of her tribe and beg him to spare her son. (Compares to Till the End of the Moon Episode 8)
20. The World-Alluring Jade was actually not found by our heroine. In the novel, the World-Alluring Jade was not a jade but a flower. Buried under a peach tree, it had allowed the peach tree to turn into an evil demon, devouring innocent girls to harvest power. Our two leads battled the peach tree demon (our heroine is there to save the town, our hero is there because he wants the demon’s power). Tantai Jin got to the World-Alluring Flower first and absorbed it into his body without knowing what it was and the consequence of it. Like the show explained, the flower’s owner lives on borrowed time and is destined to die a horrible death. The novel adds another condition that if the flower stayed in Tantai Jin then it would’ve driven him into a senseless killing machine. Our heroine takes the flower into herself and gives one of her eyes to Tantai Jin. The flower turns into our heroine’s missing. The eye, while pretty and normal looking, is actually useless for sight which meant our heroine is now blind in one eye.
21. Adding to #13. The fox demon had a much smaller part in the novel. The fox demon refused to accept the death of her lover and turned her dead lover into a zombie. Sucking life forces from unsuspecting men, the fox demon had hoped to use those life forces to help her zombie lover to turn into a powerful demon. It was really a hopeless endeavor since even if she succeeded her lover would just go from a mindless zombie to a mindless demon. Our heroine’s second brother shows up just when Tantai Jin is about to kill the fox demon and begs our hero to not kill her. Tantai Jin agrees to not kill the fox demon but only on the condition that second brother swears loyalty to him from that point on. Unlike in the show, our heroine was not supportive at all of her second brother’s decision. As the second brother’s new master, Tantai Jin’s first order was to tell him to kill the fox demon’s zombie lover. Second brother obeyed …which caused the fox (the fox demon was wounded by our hero and turned back into her fox form) to bite a chunk out of his arm. Sigh, our hero is a lot meaner in the novel…but no less pitiful.
22. Our heroine ended up becoming our hero’s prisoner and was forced to dance for him. (This is probably where they got the boat dancing scene) Our plucky heroine ended her dance by wrapping her sash around Tantai Jin’s throat. With Tantai Jin as her hostage now, our heroine ordered Taintai Jin’s man to bring her the fox. Our heroine had only wanted to ask the fox demon where the abyss is but the fox instead offered to show her the location personally if our heroine would take her away. The demon fox took our heroine to the abyss and asked her to light an eternal flame for her. No longer wanting to live now that her lover is gone, the demon fox walks into the eternal flame, telling our heroine that she will now be clean and can go to her lover. Before the fox died, she did tell our heroine to tell her second brother that she had never loved him, and his feelings for her were all an illusion from the spell she had cast on him. Our heroine knew that the last part can’t be true since the effect of the fox demon’s spell would only confuse a person’s mind but not create the feeling of love. There was no doubt that her brother was truly in love with the fox demon. Our heroine doesn’t say any of that but simply patted the fox’s head and agreed to her request.
23. In Episode 10, our hero’s ascension to the throne was met with protest by a good number of senior court officials who insisted they would rather die than accept him as their new ruler. In the novel, the hero listened patiently before sending guards in with bowls of soup and forcing every single one of the officials to eat it. Tantai Jin then nonchalantly informed the shocked officials that they have just eaten the soup made with their last emperor. Knowing whether forced or not, they can no longer proudly proclaim to be loyal to the last emperor now that they have committed the biggest disrespect, the officials soon all bowed down to our hero. Tantai Jin does jokingly assure one of his officials that the soup was just made with soured meat and not his father’s dead body…but one could never be sure with our hero…
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Oh, Ninja, thank you so much for sharing these comparisons!! I like the idea that Su Su had some interaction with the Demon God – why did he throw her back? Ooh! Also, it makes sense the original Xiwu said something as it kept niggling at me as to where the (albeit nasty) woman had gone!
But my goodness, I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!! Isn’t it amazing?! Luo Yunxi is epic 😍 I think he’s done such a fantastic job of portraying the many layers of Tantai Jin. His voice is both gentle and sinister, his smiles both charming and terrifying. Love him! He’s taken Night from Ashes of Love and ramped him up twenty-fold! My very favourite kind of hero is an antihero. Luo Yunxi is pitch perfect in these roles.
I saw (and liked) Bai Lu in One and Only but I have to say, in this she is excellent. The character is good (though again, sounds like the book made her even more interesting) and she too uses her voice to great effect when changing between characters and mood.
Their chemistry together is perfection!! I love everything about it – bar the make-up which looks too cakey to me? Also, think the music lets it down a tad. But the visuals are amazing. The circles of fire around the Demon God look fierce.
Oh, I better stop as the baby is needing attention! I could literally hark on about this show for ages. Please do share any other comparisons. They’re really interesting. xx
Thank you so much for these comparisons (and your blog in general !). I love this show and I am so eager for anything that could help me understand better the story !
My daughter and I just started this show yesterday- only up to episode 5 so far. Had no idea it was based on a book! Thanks so much for the comparison- it’s fills in some of the holes that the drama just kind of glosses over.
I admit I never actually finished ashes of love but I always liked Luo Yunxi. He was in Silver Princess too and does a really great job was a conflicted antihero. I was so glad he actually got his own lead role show. Haven’t seen the main FL before but she’s doing a pretty good job too.
Are you going to keep doing novel comparisons for this show???!!! That would be so cool!
Thanks so much!
I will sure try to stay with it. I am pretty far ahead in the book and I am liking it quite a bit so I don’t think it will be a hardship to stay with it.
I love the book and like the changes the drama made. The drama writers wrote a much nicer version of the hero. That crow scene, in the drama, no one really died (I think), in the book those weird bees that became human sized killed a LOT of people.
And yes that desire drug is much worse in the novel…and the time from when she entered the body to when it ended, it was 3 years. The hero used used to love watching her suffer and beg. But as soon as the heroine entered the body, no matter how bad it got, she never did what he wanted.
In the novel, some of the best scenes and sometimes funny and heartbreaking are how mean they were to each other.
I have one person say that the drama is full of misunderstandings…the novel is misunderstandings to the next level.
It still kills me that in so many of these shows there would literally be no plot if the leads would just have a 5 minute conversation where they actually TALKED to each other.
That is true, but i would like to offer another perspective: if people actually spoke to each other such, thus minimizing misunderstandings, wouldn’t most word conflicts be eliminated? As outsiders, our perspectives are wideranging, unlike the characters we watch. Those misundertandings often highlight their individual personalities and may serve to help us understand how they interpret the world around them. Some media definitely have seemingly exagerrated misunderstandings of course haha.
It’s so true that they are super mean to each other in the novel…and it somehow makes it funnier for some reason. You can probably tell one of the scenes I translated was pretty funny in Chinese, but I am not sure it came through in English.