The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Vol. 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

[sophia_sol]

The third volume! It is here! And my main reaction is: aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I actually had to take a break partway through reading because it was so much and I needed to calm down. But now I am finished and I am a mass of emotions.

Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe spend this whole volume trying genuinely to reach out to each other, to understand each other, and doing a lot of failing but eventually they get there and I AM OVERCOME. God. I can't believe that the first time I read svsss (in the online fan translation) I genuinely believed that there was no evidence that sqq was genuinely happy with how things ended up between him and lbh and that he was basically just like "this might as well happen." Sure he's not very outwardly expressive but it is So Obvious how much sqq loves lbh and ahhhhhh. And lbh! Trying so so so hard to be a good boy for his shizun!! Until xin mo warps his obsession and trauma and leads him to follow his worst impulses, and it's SO UPSETTING but sqq is THERE for him no matter what, now that he finally understands what's driving lbh!

Anyway, this volume also contained a whole bunch of absolutely wild plot stuff that I had 100% forgotten had happened from last time I read it and it was a time and a half to re-experience it. Also I now understand Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang far better too. (and airplane's explanation for why he cut tlj is SO FUNNY. Tlj is like binghe but MORE SO and the readers wouldn't stand for someone stealing lbh's spotlight!!)

I also love this bit about sj!sqq:

"When written within the bounds of the original genre, this kind of character was extremely difficult to handle. You could say he was scum, but he was also pitiful. But if you tried to acknowledge his pathos, his ruthlessness was real too. Characters that were both scummy and tragic always drew aggro, and they were a hotbed for wank, leading comment sections to devolve into massive flame wars."

Hot damn. This is so accurate, to how parts of fandom treat characters who are both scummy and tragic at the same time; it seems like many people struggle to acknowledge that both aspects exist simultaneously, or are only interested in exploring one side. And there are characters like this in so many fandoms! I mean, I spent my youth in the depths of HGSS fandom, and like. Severus Snape. Oh boy.

And the statement at the end that the way svsss goes is what airplane's original outline had INTENDED for pidw, like, ALL of it?? Including the lbh/sqq ship?!?? INCREDIBLE. Real curious how that would have gone with sj!sqq instead of sy!sqq! How would a happy ending have still been reached? AIRPLANE TELL ME MORE about the lost non-harem version of pidw!!!!

Also every single illustration in this volume is an artistic masterpiece, I don't even know which one is my favourite because there are SO MANY perfect illustrations of important scenes.

This volume takes us to the end of the main story of svsss, which means that volume 4 will be entirely the extras, and I am PUMPED. I don't think I successfully managed to find translations of all the extras when I read svsss the first time, given how I've definitely heard references to things that happen that I haven't read, so I cannot wait for NEW BINGQIU CONTENT for me, and also to get to wallow in the airplane extras some more because MOSHANG.

As far as I've seen the publishing date for volume 4 hasn't been announced yet, and I want them to take the time they need to finish making it, and also I am on tenterhooks for more. I am made of nothing but svsss feels!!

Comments

[verity]

WAIT WHAT WE WERE BOTH IN HGSS???

[sophia_sol]

it was the main flavour of fic I read back in like, 2004-2008 or so, but I was a major lurker at that time in my life! but I was SO INTO hgss!!

EDIT: hang on, were you posting fic in those days?? might I have read any hgss by you????

[verity]

Maybe??? All my old stuff is on AO3! I was most active 2002-2003 but I posted a few things later on.

[sophia_sol]

the only things I have saved from that era are the fics I favourited on ffnet, and my memory isn't strong enough to remember things I read elsewhere, so I cannot tell whether I read any of those back in the day or not! we were as ships passing in the night!

[aurumcalendula]

I can't wait to read it!! I'm a bit jealous tbh - my kindle preorder apparently won't be delivered until August 2nd and my physical copy hasn't shipped yet :(

The art is so awesome! (I think Velinxi's is my favorite of the three series)

[sophia_sol]

oh noooo, I'm sorry you're still going to be deprived for days yet!!!!

and I AGREE about the art!

[aurumcalendula]

It arrived!! I love it and I'm so looking forward to the extras!

[sophia_sol]

hooray!! me too!

[lizardjay]

I'd never actually seen a quote from SVSSS, so I hadn't realized the actual text was so casual and fun! Looking back, I should have gathered that from the fic, but I thought it was more like MDZS, which I bounced off hard when I tried to read it ages ago. This looks like something I would enjoy!

[sophia_sol]

Yes, it's very fun! It's from the perspective of a modern extremely-online nerd, and it's so funny! I haven't actually read MDZS yet (on my list) but I do gather it's pretty different.

[aurumcalendula]

It's a really fun read, imho! (it's my favorite of MXTX's three series at the moment)

[ermingarden]

I bounced off SVSSS when I tried the online translation - I’m not usually a fan of transmigration as a trope - but your reviews are convincing me that I ought to give it another shot!

[sophia_sol]

it's definitely worth a shot, imo!!! I love it SO MUCH. Though it is definitely very much a transmigration story, so it still might not be for you.

[lirazel]

But. Like. Is the translation readable????????? (I got burnt so hard with the MDZS translation that I am very reluctant to give these people any more money.)

[sophia_sol]

Oooh I haven't actually tried reading the MDZS translation yet, is it NOT good?? at any rate the SVSSS translation is GREAT and very readable actually, it helps me to love the book even more!

[lirazel]

It is very not good. Like, on a "is this prose at least tolerable to read?" level but also, I have it on good authority from Chinese speakers, on an "is this an actually good translation?" level. So it fails on BOTH counts! I was going to try to keep going with it when I thought it was only bad in the first sense, but once I found out that Chinese speakers Did Not Like It, I immediately decided I would not read any more of it.

But if this other one is actually good....

[sophia_sol]

Oof, oh dear, that's really not promising! I had heard that the svsss translation is the best of the three but I didn't realize that the mdzs was that dire D: do you know how the tgcf translation is?

at any rate yes I definitely recommend you picking up the svsss one!!

[lirazel]

I am very curious about the TGCF one because I do want to read that one if it's any good, but I haven't found any information about it yet.

I will trust you, because you have definitely earned my trust books-wise. I'll pick up a copy sometime!

[sophia_sol]

aww <3 thanks! I hope you enjoy svsss too!!!! (I would say I hope you enjoy it as much as I did but I think that would be a challenging standard to reach lol!)

[lirazel]

(I would say I hope you enjoy it as much as I did but I think that would be a challenging standard to reach lol!)

That's adorable!