Unfortunate Transmigrator

Hey! Rustpen here. The first arc of the rewrite, Fate Unraveled, ended yesterday, at chapter 29, meaning it’s now caught up with the original. (You can check it out by clicking here, but I recommend reading through the announcement below first.)

Now, for those of you who’ve already checked out the rewrite but didn’t enjoy it, and for those who have been waiting until it’s caught up, I’ve decided to clarify some things, to give you guys a better idea of what to expect, based on the feedback I’ve gotten so far from UT readers who’ve read the FU.

First of all, the prologue. It really doesn’t seem to have much of a connection to Unfortunate Transmigrator, so if you were to judge by it alone, you’d think that it’s a completely different story. Everything after it, though, is very much so in line with UT. Chapter 1 of the rewrite pretty much perfectly parallels chapter 1 of UT, and so does the plot as a whole. For a more thorough overview of the plot—and assuming you don’t mind being some light spoilers—check out the spoiler tag below.

To start with, you get a mission gone wrong, with the inner disciple leading their mission trying to assassinate the protagonist’s teammate. That leads to the protagonist mysteriously regaining his memories of his previous life, realizing that his teammate is special, and deciding that he wants to follow him around to get to the bottom of things. Following that, a bunch of disciples get sent to a forest to hunt monsters.

There, during the hunt, the protagonist’s team is ambushed. They end up escaping, with the protagonist’s teammate mysteriously leading them to a cave, where they find a special weapon that only answers to the protagonist’s teammate. Then we have a final show-down with the overarching villain of the arc who wants the protagonist’s teammate dead.

Ultimately, despite the differences, Fate Unraveled is very much so a rewrite of Unfortunate Transmigrator. I rewrote Unfortunate Transmigrator because I felt like the vision I had for the story when I was writing the later chapters was very different from the one I had in the beginning, when I was starting out (back then, I wanted a simple story I could write to unwind, without really caring about quality). You see, two years ago, I decided that I didn’t want UT to just be a derivative, uninspired story that was carried mostly by its characters anymore. I wanted it to be a complete work; I wanted it to have it all: plot, setting, and character. That’s how Fate Unraveled came about.

Now, if you liked UT’s main cast (Hao Zhen, Tian Jin and Lan Yue), I’m afraid that Hao Zhen (now Jieyuan) and Tian Jin (now Daojue) have changed considerably. Some readers liked those changes; others… haven’t (to summarize, Jieyuan is far more competent and ambitious, whereas Tian Jin is more of a traditional xianxia protagonist: ruthless, cold, aloof—or at least that’s how he appears to be so far hint, hint). And that’s perfectly fair. On the other hand, Lan Yue’s counterpart in Fate Unraveled, Meiyao, is much closer to her original version than the other two, so if you liked Lan Yue in particular, you should also like Meiyao in Fate Unraveled.

The rewrite is also still as character-driven as Unfortunate Transmigrator, even if you wouldn’t think so based on the first arc. That’s because I wanted to be more realistic about things, so the protagonist doesn’t immediately connect to his teammates like he does in Unfortunate Transmigrator. But further down the line? My character work is what I’m most proud of in this story, even more so than the plotting and the world-building. Arc 3 (which I’m currently publishing on Patreon) should show that off the most, because at that point the scope of the story opens up to include a lot of other characters and explores their connections to each other.

Something else I found important to point out is that Fate Unraveled is very much not a common attempt at a Western xianxia, either, even if it might seem like so at first blush, especially going by the prologue. We still have a protagonist that’s technically outshone by the other “protagonists,” like we have in Unfortunate Transmigrator. It’s just that the difference between the protagonist and his teammates in FU isn’t as significant as it is in UT (like I said, Jieyuan is far more competent than Hao Zhen was). I’m also more subtle about it to keep FU from straying into satire territory like it does in UT, as well as to keep the tone of the rewrite more serious.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I’d say Fate Unraveled is pretty much the middle ground between the original UT and a more traditional Western xianxia like Cradle. I don’t think there’s anything quite like it, if you take the time to actually consider the story in terms of structure and theme, because my goal in writing it wasn’t to copy what everyone else is doing and re-hash the tried and true formula, but come up with something different. (Now, that might not be the impression you get from the story—in fact, more than one reviewer has stated Fate Unraveled is a pretty generic Western xianxia—but that’s at least what I set out to do and my vision for the story.) Again, that’s where Arc 3 comes in: that’s where the narrative gets more character-driven and intrigue really comes into play. (Arc 2 is by far the most traditional-ish arc, more so than Arc 1, as it’s pretty much Jieyuan’s one-man show, but it’s less than 10 chapters long—it’s something of an interlude arc—and it’s very important as it sets up a lot of things that will only become clear much further down the line.)

Now, and this is important, I said earlier I wanted Fate Unraveled to be different from others stories. However, even if you do find that I succeeded at writing something different, different doesn’t mean good, and you might still find that the rewrite isn’t for you, as many others have. But if you liked Unfortunate Transmigrator, I think you’d be best served by at least giving Fate Unraveled a try. The prologue aside, chapters 1 and 2 parallel greatly UT’s beginning chapters, and they should give you a proper idea of what has changed in the rewrite and what has remained the same.

Just a heads-up, though: I’ve had lots of people tell me that chapter 3 is a slog to read through because of the world-building and the terminology, but that the chapters after it are much better; I’m working on fixing chapter 3, but I haven’t been able to get it quite right yet, so I’d just like to say that chapter 3 is not at all indicative at all of what the rest of the story is like, and further chapters are more in line with chapters 1 and 4. (I’ve also revised some of the terminology used a little over a week ago, simplifying and streamlining it, so if you checked out the story at the beginning and found the terminology overwhelming, you might want to give it another look; that’s not to say the issue has been fixed—the terminology is still far from perfect—but it’s not as bad as it was before.)

Another common concern is the fact that the protagonist, Jieyuan, doesn’t feel like a reincarnated person, that getting his memories from his previous life had no effect on his personality and worldview. That’s partially addressed at the end of chapter 6 and at the beginning of chapter 7, in which you’ll be getting a better idea of how I’m working the reincarnation angle in the story, but I’ll admit Jieyuan still remains largely uninfluenced by the memories of his previous life, and that’s also a issue I’ll be looking to address further down the line through some edits (though not a rewrite; no more rewrites for me, no sir).

Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to say. The above should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the rewrite, Fate Unraveled. I hope you’ll all give the rewrite the chance, and more importantly, that you’ll enjoy it. But even if you don’t, if the story just doesn’t click with you? That’s completely fine. I just felt I owed it to the fans of the original to give you a better idea of things so you could make a more informed decision. (You can check out the rewrite by clicking here.)

Also, as I hope you guys can tell, I’m always taking feedback into account and improving the story however I can as long as it doesn’t compromise my vision for it (or require a full-blown rewrite, which as I previously said, is not happening), so don’t be afraid to share your opinions with me. Even if I don’t answer every comment, know that I read them all and that I’m keeping track of every suggestion and criticism given.