Warning: This article contains spoilers from the first book in the Three-Body (Remembrance of Earth’s Past) series, and all TV/video adaptations of that book, from the specific plot point of Operation Guzheng, or the slicing up of the ship Judgement Day. Radio plays and audio books aren’t included, since there are more of them, and are usually faithful to the original text. If Operation Guzheng and Judgement Day don’t mean anything to you, it’s okay to skip this article. If you don’t want to be spoiled about specific adaptations, just skip the relevant sections.
Introduction: The Original Three-Body Problem
First, a short introduction of Operation Guzheng (古筝行动). It was the climax of the The Three-Body Problem (三体), first book in the Three-Body series. The operation’s primary goal was the secure capture of the Trisolaran messages the ETO (Earth-Trisolaris Organization) received and stored onboard their ship, the Judgement Day. Without spies onboard the ship, a plan was needed that can knock out everyone onboard before anyone notices and destroys the message storage devices.
During the planning session with the operation leaders, Da Shi (大史), a key character across the first two books, proposed letting the ship sail into and be sliced by a net of nanofilaments, developed by the first book’s protagonist Wang Miao (汪淼). Since Judgement Day is scheduled to sail through the Panama Canal, the nanofilament net would be set up across the canal. It would slice everyone and everything so stealthily no one would notice until it was too late, and so cleanly that the messages can be easily recovered even if their storage devices were sliced too. This proposal was accepted, and the similarity of the nanofilament net and the Chinese zither Guzheng led to the operation’s name.
Now that you know what Operation Guzheng is, it’s objectives and plan, below are all known TV/video adaptations (as of this writing in 2024) of Three-Body Problem’s Operation Guzheng, ranked from worst to best, in terms of how well the inspired planning and dreadful execution of the operation were portrayed.
4. Most Unnecessary: Three-Body Animation (三体 ANIMATION), animated series by Bilibili
In last place is this 3D-animated adaptation from 2023 by Bilibili. Also known as The Three-Body Problem, the show opened with the Operation Guzheng scene at the start of the first episode. Da Shi and Wang Miao sat along a river bank, chatting a little before witnessing a ship get sliced by nanofilaments, which traumatized Wang Miao. This scene was bewildering and disappointing.
Bewildering, since audiences were thrown into this scene without any prior context or explanation. In fact, I don’t think the show even mentioned Judgement Day or nanofilaments. The addition of this scene is even more bewildering when you consider the rest of the show focuses on the story and characters from the second book, the Dark Forest, and Wang Miao only appears in a cameo near the end of the show, and only in a filler plotline that only appears in this adaptation and not the books. This scene didn’t seem to add anything to the plot.
Disappointing, because the scene felt rushed, taking less than 2 minutes. There’s no planning phase and no buildup. No dread of waiting for, and no horror from seeing, people sliced by the nanofilaments. Instead, you are shown birds getting sliced up with ambient human screams. On the good side, the guzheng-sounding background music that plays as the ship “strums” the nanofilament strings, hinting at the name of the operation without explicitly saying it. In the end, the question of why such a slip-shod scene of Operation Guzheng was included makes it the most unnecessary adaptation.
3. Most Terrifying: 3 Body Problem, live-action series by Netflix
In this live-action adaptation by Netflix, released in 2024, the Operation Guzheng scene is not the season finale climax, although it does still serve as a pivotal mid-season plot point. With respect to just Operation Guzheng, this adaptation deviated the most from the original book. For example, there was no portrayal of military leaders from around the world working together, even though humanity setting aside differences to work together against a common enemy was a major theme in the books. Instead, it was just the character Clarence Shi (Da Shi) bouncing a ideas off Thomas Wade. And, the operation wasn’t even named Guzheng, if it even had a name at all.
The rationale of why they had to use a nanofiber (nanofilament) net for the operation was also quite weak, especially when contrasting their rationales with the results. Clarence Shi would rather not risk leading to a bloodbath by sending a covert ops team to retrieve the message storage device, even though the nanofibers would later slice everyone up and cause a literal bloodbath. And, Clarence Shi would rather not risk causing the storage device to go up in flames by shooting a missile at the ship, even though the nanofilaments would slice the ship up and cause it to go up in flames, so much that helicopters had to dump water on the wreckage to put out the fires.
The key redeeming feature of this adaptation is its portrayal of the horror, dread, and gore, of slicing everyone up with nanofibers. Netflix even added an entire non-canon childcare of children for good measure. Unfortunately, the “kill everyone before they can react” aspect of the operation’s objectives did not materialize, since Mike Evans, with all the time he had running around with the storage device, could have easily disposed of it if he wanted to. The operation succeeded by dumb luck and the blood of children, and these two factors combined makes it the most terrifying adaptation. Imagine if Thomas Wade wasn’t so lucky…
2. Most Love: My Three-Body (我的三体), animated series by fans
As the warning at the start of every episode of this adaptation stated, “This is an anime powered by Minecraft”. Also known as The Three-Body Problem in Minecraft, this first season, released in 2015, was a fan-made production, and the animation, voice-acting, editing and script, were all rough (actually sharp, since it’s blocky) around the edges. However, probably since it was a passion project by fans of the source material, it stayed pretty true to the source. The planning scenes of Operation Guzheng were pretty well fleshed out, especially compared to the Bilibili and Netflix adaptations, and helped the audience understand how and why the operation was as it was.
There was not much dread to be had from anticipating Minecraft mobs getting sliced, although seeing the ship breaking up into slices and blocks scattered everywhere did provide a spectacle, and perhaps horror, in the same way you might feel if you see a large Lego construction gets knocked down by accident and breaks into pieces. While the actual operation execution was short, keep watching for the intra-credits and post-credits scenes, that poked fun about the painstaking efforts it took the team to make the Operation Guzheng scenes, and for the Judgement Day ship bloopers. You can definitely feel the loving effort put into making this adaption. In fact, the show was so successful it got an official license to adapt the rest of the books with much higher production budget quality. Season 4 premiered on Bilibili in 2024.
1. Most Authentic: Three-Body (三体) live-action series by Tencent
Replace the Minecraft machinima and mob with real actors set in a real world, higher budget, and longer runtime, while keep a similar respect to the source material, is how I would compare this live-action adaption by Tencent with the fan-made Minecraft version. In this adaptation also released in 2023, Detective Da Shi also got to show off his smarts in the planning phase, and the presentation of his plan and the implementation planning after that was presented in a more understandable manner than the Minecraft version. Everything happened quickly during the actual operation, without the enemy having any time to react, and all slices of the ship and data crashed onto land relatively intact and unburnt. Those aspects were not just faithful to the source material; they are the entire point of Operation Guzheng.
Touches like first-responder vehicles using Spanish labels add to authenticity and realism. The presentation of the operation may appear more muted, with less gore and horror than either the Netflix version or the image I get from the book, but you could still feel suspense and dread as you watched the execution unfold together with Wang Miao. And, the effects of the ship getting sliced up and crashing into land as wreckage were as good as, if not the, best among all the adaptations. The whole package, from planning to execution, and even the aftermath of picking storage disks slice by slice, made this the most authentic adaptation of Operation Guzheng.
Conclusion: So Many Spins on the Same Three-Bodies
Other than the Season 1 of My Three-Body, which was released in 2015, all 3 other adaptations were released within a year of each other, with Tencent’s Three-Body and Bilibili’s Three-Body Animation in 2023, and Netflix’s 3 Body Problem in 2024. With Season 4 of My Three-Body having premiered in 2024, and the confirmation of season 2 and a Da Shi spinoff for Tencent’s Three-Body, and seasons 2 and 3 for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, the chaotic dance of all the various adaptations putting their own spin on the source material looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. At least this chaotic era is a good thing for fans who like to have options.
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