![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinI've done all of today's IRL todo list, time to talk about Ye Zun! Spoilers through the whole TV series. I shall not touch the novel, since Ye Zun doesn't exist there.
We see him in canon, and know how he is as a villain, but I'd actually argue that all of that is a mask. We see him put on what I see as a very intentional performance of bravado and confidence. However, that's not his "true" personality, that's the metaphorical mask he wears to go with his literal one.
Much has been made about Shen Wei's mask(s), and as Shen Wei's color palette swapped identical twin and narrative foil, Ye Zun also wears a mask. We don't hear him say why he wears the mask, but given that no-one else wears one fulltime, it's no widespread Dixingian custom. At one point he mentions hating his face, because it looks so much like his brother's, but when it comes to invading Haixing, he could just as well do it without a mask and ruin Shen Wei's reputation as an aside, and yet he doesn't. I suspect his reasons for keeping on the mask are similar to what drove Shen Wei to donning his: he wants to hide his youth, inexperience, fear, and appear to be the supervillain he wants to be.
But all of that is performance. We see the metaphorical mask crack when the literal one does: the final episodes have Ye Zun descend into ranting. No-one ever asked him why he was doing what he was doing. While Zhao Yunlan reached out to young Shen Wei as Kunlun, no-one did that to Ye Zun. Combined with Ye Zun's jealous outburst in the time travel episode ("I've always put you first in my heart, gege, but in your heart, others have always come before me.") and his final conversations with Zhao Yunlan when everything is disintegrating, I find it hard to believe he's anything but how we saw him in the Ye Zun shot that comes first in the timeline: someone who's been hurt and broken and trod over by circumstances, and who's learned that people are out to get him. The manipulation is a powerless child's attempt at exerting control over his environment. We see Ye Zun as a victim of the original rebel leader; from that moment, he had perhaps a month or so* of ruling the rebels before he was stuffed into his pillar.
When gaining control of the rebels, Ye Zun learned that might makes right. Another thing he must've learned, based on his interactions with his subordinates in the present, is that people are terrible, and one must hurt them–betray them–abandon them before they hurt–betray–abandon you, because they will do it. Compare this to Shen Wei, who is mistrustful of Haixingians, and thinks e.g. the SID will hurt him, based on his valid fears and Zhao Xinci's attitude, but gets proven wrong when he lets Zhao Yunlan and the SID closer to him despite this fear, and finds that they accept him just fine. Shen Wei could do this because he set himself up to nobly suffer and be the bigger person (and because he was very thirsty for Kunlun content). Ye Zun couldn't do this, because he did not have the security and "internal power base" that would give the necessary margin for error.
In conclusion, Ye Zun as we know him is paranoid, and cruel, and above all utterly terrified of letting people close enough they could hurt him, but he still craves attachment with people, because if human is a social animal, so is a Dixingian. All the bombast is a performance where he tries to convince himself that he deserves to take up this space around him when his confidence has been abused out of him. My problem is this: what do I do with him after that moment of crisis where he discovers that his assumptions about his brother were incorrect, and our heroes can begin to unravel the lies the original rebel leader told him? Who does Ye Zun become, if given a chance to heal? The same scared child, reminiscent of Guo Changcheng, but allowed to fear and cry and be comforted? A prickly brat who pushes at every boundary to try and invoke the punishment he's familar with, because this security and love is too much, too weird for him? A slightly more apologetic and remorseful Shen Wei? I suppose it'd depend on the nature of redemption, and where it diverged from canon, but I'm lost at sea, searching for land. Thoughts are welcome.
* We see Zhao Yunlan instruct Ma Gui on wine-making, and then be present to see the results of said wine-making. (Episodes relating to the Yashou tribe leadership twig.) Fermenting baijiu takes a month or two, depending on how one does it, so we can reasonably conclude that Zhao Yunlan was in the past for at least a month.
We see him in canon, and know how he is as a villain, but I'd actually argue that all of that is a mask. We see him put on what I see as a very intentional performance of bravado and confidence. However, that's not his "true" personality, that's the metaphorical mask he wears to go with his literal one.
Much has been made about Shen Wei's mask(s), and as Shen Wei's color palette swapped identical twin and narrative foil, Ye Zun also wears a mask. We don't hear him say why he wears the mask, but given that no-one else wears one fulltime, it's no widespread Dixingian custom. At one point he mentions hating his face, because it looks so much like his brother's, but when it comes to invading Haixing, he could just as well do it without a mask and ruin Shen Wei's reputation as an aside, and yet he doesn't. I suspect his reasons for keeping on the mask are similar to what drove Shen Wei to donning his: he wants to hide his youth, inexperience, fear, and appear to be the supervillain he wants to be.
But all of that is performance. We see the metaphorical mask crack when the literal one does: the final episodes have Ye Zun descend into ranting. No-one ever asked him why he was doing what he was doing. While Zhao Yunlan reached out to young Shen Wei as Kunlun, no-one did that to Ye Zun. Combined with Ye Zun's jealous outburst in the time travel episode ("I've always put you first in my heart, gege, but in your heart, others have always come before me.") and his final conversations with Zhao Yunlan when everything is disintegrating, I find it hard to believe he's anything but how we saw him in the Ye Zun shot that comes first in the timeline: someone who's been hurt and broken and trod over by circumstances, and who's learned that people are out to get him. The manipulation is a powerless child's attempt at exerting control over his environment. We see Ye Zun as a victim of the original rebel leader; from that moment, he had perhaps a month or so* of ruling the rebels before he was stuffed into his pillar.
When gaining control of the rebels, Ye Zun learned that might makes right. Another thing he must've learned, based on his interactions with his subordinates in the present, is that people are terrible, and one must hurt them–betray them–abandon them before they hurt–betray–abandon you, because they will do it. Compare this to Shen Wei, who is mistrustful of Haixingians, and thinks e.g. the SID will hurt him, based on his valid fears and Zhao Xinci's attitude, but gets proven wrong when he lets Zhao Yunlan and the SID closer to him despite this fear, and finds that they accept him just fine. Shen Wei could do this because he set himself up to nobly suffer and be the bigger person (and because he was very thirsty for Kunlun content). Ye Zun couldn't do this, because he did not have the security and "internal power base" that would give the necessary margin for error.
In conclusion, Ye Zun as we know him is paranoid, and cruel, and above all utterly terrified of letting people close enough they could hurt him, but he still craves attachment with people, because if human is a social animal, so is a Dixingian. All the bombast is a performance where he tries to convince himself that he deserves to take up this space around him when his confidence has been abused out of him. My problem is this: what do I do with him after that moment of crisis where he discovers that his assumptions about his brother were incorrect, and our heroes can begin to unravel the lies the original rebel leader told him? Who does Ye Zun become, if given a chance to heal? The same scared child, reminiscent of Guo Changcheng, but allowed to fear and cry and be comforted? A prickly brat who pushes at every boundary to try and invoke the punishment he's familar with, because this security and love is too much, too weird for him? A slightly more apologetic and remorseful Shen Wei? I suppose it'd depend on the nature of redemption, and where it diverged from canon, but I'm lost at sea, searching for land. Thoughts are welcome.
* We see Zhao Yunlan instruct Ma Gui on wine-making, and then be present to see the results of said wine-making. (Episodes relating to the Yashou tribe leadership twig.) Fermenting baijiu takes a month or two, depending on how one does it, so we can reasonably conclude that Zhao Yunlan was in the past for at least a month.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-26 01:15 (UTC)Yikes, that is a thing, isn't it. Makes a lot of sense that he'd never, never want to return to that state, driving him head-on into the supervillainy! Ahh, Ye Zun hurts my poor heart. Not to mention, the original rebel leader convinced him that his brother abandoned him for being pathetic, but kept him going by feeding him the idea of revenge against that brother who left him. It really is as he says to Shen Wei, "I've always put you first in my heart, gege." Whether that's love or hate, Shen Wei was likely his reason to keep living in his shitty circumstances.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-26 17:11 (UTC)Oh no, the angst keeps going deeper and deeper! Poor Ye Zun, I really just want to wrap him up in a blanket and tell him it'll be all right. Or make Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei team up to wrap him up in a blanket and tell him it'll be all right.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-26 18:58 (UTC)