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tl;dr mixing and matching from CQL and novel canon is fun, but there really are significant differences in the emotional and moral lives of the characters so there is a limit to how much mixing can be done
I've been sitting on this post for a while, so I'm just going to kick it out the door. As always, anyone can do whatever they want and headcanon whatever they want.
To me, the biggest difference is the (potentially censorship driven) playing down of WWX's crimes. Actually, I am still thinking of the Qi Hun director discussing how they had to make changes to the Hikaru no Go characters so they'd seem more realistic in live action form. Even leaving aside any changes explicitly driven by censorship, I think the interiority of WWX's thoughts in the novel would be difficult to show in live action form.
In any case, in the novel, the story really goes, WWX loses control and kills tons of people through massive hubris; he then finally destroys half the Yin Tiger Tally and dies in the process. WWX really does perform true necromancy and defile dead bodies, which prevents them from moving on and is a huge cultural taboo.
WWX actually does the things he is accused of, even if at a smaller scale than the accusations. IMO, this makes the message against mob mentality stronger when everyone turns against JGY at the end, bc WWX is guilty and everyone forgets this, vs WWX is not actually guilty and is exonerated. (Though, CQL adds the human targets in Phoenix Mountain and WWX tossing the Yin Tiger Tally for people to fight over, both of which do not make anyone come out looking good.)
A major theme in CQL is how LWJ is right to love WWX bc WWX is morally correct, and LWJ recognizing this is how he knows they're soulmates. Contrast to novel canon, where LWJ is in an irrational, this-above-all love with WWX. This point is where I think mixing the canons becomes kind of strange in fic. You can't have the irrational love in a mostly CQL fic, bc that's /not/ the basis for their relationship. Conversely, WWX is /morally wrong/ in novel canon, so a mostly novel based fic has to acknowledge that.
Turning their relationship from text to subtext also means that picking up WWX's obliviousness to LWJ's feelings from the novel (where LWJ def acted like he hated him!!) and putting it into CQL makes no sense. In order to have it be subtext, their relationship is much more strongly developed from the beginning. In CQL, they call each other soulmates! They have a solid friendship at the least! They're pulled apart by outside circumstances, and putting the idea that WWX thinks LWJ hates him into CQL is a bit-- ill fitting.
I've been sitting on this post for a while, so I'm just going to kick it out the door. As always, anyone can do whatever they want and headcanon whatever they want.
To me, the biggest difference is the (potentially censorship driven) playing down of WWX's crimes. Actually, I am still thinking of the Qi Hun director discussing how they had to make changes to the Hikaru no Go characters so they'd seem more realistic in live action form. Even leaving aside any changes explicitly driven by censorship, I think the interiority of WWX's thoughts in the novel would be difficult to show in live action form.
In any case, in the novel, the story really goes, WWX loses control and kills tons of people through massive hubris; he then finally destroys half the Yin Tiger Tally and dies in the process. WWX really does perform true necromancy and defile dead bodies, which prevents them from moving on and is a huge cultural taboo.
WWX actually does the things he is accused of, even if at a smaller scale than the accusations. IMO, this makes the message against mob mentality stronger when everyone turns against JGY at the end, bc WWX is guilty and everyone forgets this, vs WWX is not actually guilty and is exonerated. (Though, CQL adds the human targets in Phoenix Mountain and WWX tossing the Yin Tiger Tally for people to fight over, both of which do not make anyone come out looking good.)
A major theme in CQL is how LWJ is right to love WWX bc WWX is morally correct, and LWJ recognizing this is how he knows they're soulmates. Contrast to novel canon, where LWJ is in an irrational, this-above-all love with WWX. This point is where I think mixing the canons becomes kind of strange in fic. You can't have the irrational love in a mostly CQL fic, bc that's /not/ the basis for their relationship. Conversely, WWX is /morally wrong/ in novel canon, so a mostly novel based fic has to acknowledge that.
Turning their relationship from text to subtext also means that picking up WWX's obliviousness to LWJ's feelings from the novel (where LWJ def acted like he hated him!!) and putting it into CQL makes no sense. In order to have it be subtext, their relationship is much more strongly developed from the beginning. In CQL, they call each other soulmates! They have a solid friendship at the least! They're pulled apart by outside circumstances, and putting the idea that WWX thinks LWJ hates him into CQL is a bit-- ill fitting.
