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20. Favourite headcanons
Can't believe I missed three days in a row! But then again, I'm pretty sure my sister's the only one still reading these, so: Sorry, sweetie! Here you go. Better late than never, right?
This should probably have been worded in the singular, but I have several pet theories (which are vaguely interconnected). I know most of this isn't what the show writers intended, since "they tried to turn a supernatural fantasy universe into a sci-fi one and only partially succeeded" is the actual explanation for almost every illogical aspect of the drama, but, well, I do love coming up with elaborate explanations, so...
The Hallows
I believe they're, well, not sentient, per se, but strongly imbued with the will of their creators, which is basically to keep the planet in general, and Haixing in particular, safe... By hook or by crook. I don't know whether the creators themselves were aware of what they were doing, or whether the alien nature of the matter they used to fashion the Hallows made things go beyond even their control. I suspect the latter.
Anyway, this means that a lot of what happened in the show can be attributed to the Hallows' influence. When two forces as powerful and diametrically opposite as Shen Wei and Ye Zun were born into the world, the Hallows "sensed" that Ye Zun, whose core attribute seems to be chaos (more on this later), would try to take over/destroy the world at some point. And that the only person who could prevent that, Shen Wei, would need to be "preserved" until such time came for him to fulfil his duty. So when the Hallows were first activated in both their presence, they imprisoned Ye Zun in the pillar and sent Shen Wei into hibernation mode. (A pillar for Ye Zun because he needed a more sure-fire safeguard against his powers, should he ever awaken sufficiently) Why didn't the Hallows just finish them both off, if they were such a threat to The Balance? I figure it's because the Hallows, in the manner of incredibly dangerous magical objects everywhere, can't actually directly interfere with people's lives, thoughts or actions: they can only coax and manipulate and engineer events just so. As for why the showdown between Shen Wei and Ye Zun didn't just happen then and there: it's because Shen Wei as he was back then could never have brought himself to kill his own brother, and a fight between them would almost certainly have ended in Shen Wei's defeat.
(I also like to think that neither brother was fully unaware during those 10 000 years of stasis; that they both drifted in and out of consciousness, though perhaps with decades or even centuries in-between. This would also neatly explain Shen Wei's "I waited for you for 10 000 years" and Ye Zun's rants about his imprisonment, not to mention the progressive worsening of his madness and hatred.)
Having achieved their target for now, the Hallows scattered. They can probably only be brought together at times of great conflict, when the appropriate parties (Haixing's Guardian, Dixing's Envoy and the one who can - and will - challenge the stability of both dimensions) converge on one goal.
I don't have a clear idea of why both brothers awakened fully around 30 years prior to show time, but my theory is that Dixingren's growing discontent with - and desire to rebel against - the treaty (fuelled by the prolonged absence of the Envoy) and Haixingren having all but forgotten that Dixing and Yashou ever existed created the perfect environment for Ye Zun to set about achieving his desire to make war and get revenge on Shen Wei. I take it that Zhao Yunlan being born a couple of years after Shen Wei and Ye Zun became active again was because all the major players had to be in place for the final showdown to take place. It would also explain why Yunlan is so irrationally insistent on interacting with the Hallows despite everything that happens to him (and, by extension, Shen Wei) when he does. They definitely have a stronger hold over him than he or Shen Wei realises, the point of which was probably to ensure that Yunlan became sufficiently capable of "temporal dissociation" that he could travel back to the past (and return to the present) when he did.
And while we're on the matter of time travel: I don't think Shen Wei when he first met Zhao Yunlan truly understood how they could have met 10 000 years ago. This would explain why he makes so many "Don't you remember me?" overtures to Yunlan at the beginning of their acquaintance which vanish completely once he gets to know him better. I think he slowly started to put two-and-two together after realising that Yunlan was gradually changing from an almost-stranger into the Kunlun he knew over the course of their relationship, and that the Hallows were beginning to gather around Yunlan and exert their influence on him. After his research into the Hallows' effects brought up the fact that they could "imbue Haixingren with the capacity to experience temporal dissociation," Shen Wei's understanding of the situation would finally have become complete.
Shen Wei vs Ye Zun
One of my favourite tropes is identical twins who're the exact opposites of each other in every way, and by virtue of how similar-and-yet-completely-different they are, become destined to exist in antithesis to each other. I think this can be applied beautifully to Shen Wei and Ye Zun, as well. Shen Wei is Order; Ye Zun is Chaos. Shen Wei protects; Ye Zun destroys. Shen Wei is forthright and straightforward - almost to a fault - while Ye Zun is deceptive and manipulative. They were both imprisoned, but Shen Wei kept his sanity while Ye Zun lost it. Shen Wei "absorbs" ability, Ye Zun "absorbs" energy. Shen Wei can never copy Ye Zun's power, while Ye Zun can never gain Shen Wei's, even after devouring him.
I don't mean to say "neither can live while the other survives," but I also get the feeling that the Hallows, at least, saw them as two opposing forces that were always meant to cancel each other out for the sake of preserving The Balance. (And they successfully brought that about, somehow! When you think about it that way, it feels like the real Boss of this show is the Hallows. Weirdly fitting, I'd say!)
The Longevity Dial and the Eye-Healing
I think I share this particular headcanon with a lot of others, but I refuse to believe that merely healing Zhao Yunlan's eyes could have had such a drastic effect on Shen Wei. Since it's heavily implied that the blindness is only a physical manifestation of Dark Energy Corruption, I think what Shen Wei did there was use the Dial's ability to transfer energy and draw out all the dark energy Yunlan had accumulated up to that point, into himself. And maybe if it hadn't been an utterly unprecedented situation where a Dixingren tried to use one of the Hallows to undo damage the Hallows themselves inflicted upon a Haixingren, he could have pulled it off with no/minimal damage. (Chu Shuzhi didn't seem to suffer any ill effects after using the Dial to save Guo Changcheng, after all) But I think it's pretty clear that Shen Wei can't truly understand or control the Hallows (possibly no one can - even Yunlan is likely only successful because he does exactly what they want him to do), and so he ended up trading Yunlan's Dark Energy Corruption with a hefty dose of Light Energy Corruption for himself.
Shen Wei's powers
I generally take it that learning an ability is not automatic for Shen Wei. Maybe he only has to see/experience someone's power once, but he likely has to put some amount of effort afterwards into understanding and mastering it. This also means he wouldn't just randomly pick up silly abilities that are a bother to keep in check and a waste of energy, which strikes me as being a lot more practical. Also, I like to think that his learning ability only works insofar as techniques or powers go. If he wanted to learn something mundane like cooking, reading/writing or even bioengineering, he'd have to work at it just like anyone else would.
A bit about Ye Zun's powers: after he consumes someone's life force, I don't think he can control whether he gains their ability or not; it's likely more of a side effect, with his core power being to endlessly amplify his own strength by absorbing others' and making himself practically invincible in the process. If he could just take up any power he wanted to by devouring its owner, he wouldn't have needed to spend so much time coaxing allies to work for him; he could have just eaten them and used their powers as he pleases. Whereas we see him taking as much advantage of someone's ability as possible and only devouring them once they've completed (or failed at) their task.
I've got a couple more minor headcanons, but I think I'll stop here, because, phew! I've never made a post this long in my life!
Can't believe I missed three days in a row! But then again, I'm pretty sure my sister's the only one still reading these, so: Sorry, sweetie! Here you go. Better late than never, right?
This should probably have been worded in the singular, but I have several pet theories (which are vaguely interconnected). I know most of this isn't what the show writers intended, since "they tried to turn a supernatural fantasy universe into a sci-fi one and only partially succeeded" is the actual explanation for almost every illogical aspect of the drama, but, well, I do love coming up with elaborate explanations, so...
The Hallows
I believe they're, well, not sentient, per se, but strongly imbued with the will of their creators, which is basically to keep the planet in general, and Haixing in particular, safe... By hook or by crook. I don't know whether the creators themselves were aware of what they were doing, or whether the alien nature of the matter they used to fashion the Hallows made things go beyond even their control. I suspect the latter.
Anyway, this means that a lot of what happened in the show can be attributed to the Hallows' influence. When two forces as powerful and diametrically opposite as Shen Wei and Ye Zun were born into the world, the Hallows "sensed" that Ye Zun, whose core attribute seems to be chaos (more on this later), would try to take over/destroy the world at some point. And that the only person who could prevent that, Shen Wei, would need to be "preserved" until such time came for him to fulfil his duty. So when the Hallows were first activated in both their presence, they imprisoned Ye Zun in the pillar and sent Shen Wei into hibernation mode. (A pillar for Ye Zun because he needed a more sure-fire safeguard against his powers, should he ever awaken sufficiently) Why didn't the Hallows just finish them both off, if they were such a threat to The Balance? I figure it's because the Hallows, in the manner of incredibly dangerous magical objects everywhere, can't actually directly interfere with people's lives, thoughts or actions: they can only coax and manipulate and engineer events just so. As for why the showdown between Shen Wei and Ye Zun didn't just happen then and there: it's because Shen Wei as he was back then could never have brought himself to kill his own brother, and a fight between them would almost certainly have ended in Shen Wei's defeat.
(I also like to think that neither brother was fully unaware during those 10 000 years of stasis; that they both drifted in and out of consciousness, though perhaps with decades or even centuries in-between. This would also neatly explain Shen Wei's "I waited for you for 10 000 years" and Ye Zun's rants about his imprisonment, not to mention the progressive worsening of his madness and hatred.)
Having achieved their target for now, the Hallows scattered. They can probably only be brought together at times of great conflict, when the appropriate parties (Haixing's Guardian, Dixing's Envoy and the one who can - and will - challenge the stability of both dimensions) converge on one goal.
I don't have a clear idea of why both brothers awakened fully around 30 years prior to show time, but my theory is that Dixingren's growing discontent with - and desire to rebel against - the treaty (fuelled by the prolonged absence of the Envoy) and Haixingren having all but forgotten that Dixing and Yashou ever existed created the perfect environment for Ye Zun to set about achieving his desire to make war and get revenge on Shen Wei. I take it that Zhao Yunlan being born a couple of years after Shen Wei and Ye Zun became active again was because all the major players had to be in place for the final showdown to take place. It would also explain why Yunlan is so irrationally insistent on interacting with the Hallows despite everything that happens to him (and, by extension, Shen Wei) when he does. They definitely have a stronger hold over him than he or Shen Wei realises, the point of which was probably to ensure that Yunlan became sufficiently capable of "temporal dissociation" that he could travel back to the past (and return to the present) when he did.
And while we're on the matter of time travel: I don't think Shen Wei when he first met Zhao Yunlan truly understood how they could have met 10 000 years ago. This would explain why he makes so many "Don't you remember me?" overtures to Yunlan at the beginning of their acquaintance which vanish completely once he gets to know him better. I think he slowly started to put two-and-two together after realising that Yunlan was gradually changing from an almost-stranger into the Kunlun he knew over the course of their relationship, and that the Hallows were beginning to gather around Yunlan and exert their influence on him. After his research into the Hallows' effects brought up the fact that they could "imbue Haixingren with the capacity to experience temporal dissociation," Shen Wei's understanding of the situation would finally have become complete.
Shen Wei vs Ye Zun
One of my favourite tropes is identical twins who're the exact opposites of each other in every way, and by virtue of how similar-and-yet-completely-different they are, become destined to exist in antithesis to each other. I think this can be applied beautifully to Shen Wei and Ye Zun, as well. Shen Wei is Order; Ye Zun is Chaos. Shen Wei protects; Ye Zun destroys. Shen Wei is forthright and straightforward - almost to a fault - while Ye Zun is deceptive and manipulative. They were both imprisoned, but Shen Wei kept his sanity while Ye Zun lost it. Shen Wei "absorbs" ability, Ye Zun "absorbs" energy. Shen Wei can never copy Ye Zun's power, while Ye Zun can never gain Shen Wei's, even after devouring him.
I don't mean to say "neither can live while the other survives," but I also get the feeling that the Hallows, at least, saw them as two opposing forces that were always meant to cancel each other out for the sake of preserving The Balance. (And they successfully brought that about, somehow! When you think about it that way, it feels like the real Boss of this show is the Hallows. Weirdly fitting, I'd say!)
The Longevity Dial and the Eye-Healing
I think I share this particular headcanon with a lot of others, but I refuse to believe that merely healing Zhao Yunlan's eyes could have had such a drastic effect on Shen Wei. Since it's heavily implied that the blindness is only a physical manifestation of Dark Energy Corruption, I think what Shen Wei did there was use the Dial's ability to transfer energy and draw out all the dark energy Yunlan had accumulated up to that point, into himself. And maybe if it hadn't been an utterly unprecedented situation where a Dixingren tried to use one of the Hallows to undo damage the Hallows themselves inflicted upon a Haixingren, he could have pulled it off with no/minimal damage. (Chu Shuzhi didn't seem to suffer any ill effects after using the Dial to save Guo Changcheng, after all) But I think it's pretty clear that Shen Wei can't truly understand or control the Hallows (possibly no one can - even Yunlan is likely only successful because he does exactly what they want him to do), and so he ended up trading Yunlan's Dark Energy Corruption with a hefty dose of Light Energy Corruption for himself.
Shen Wei's powers
I generally take it that learning an ability is not automatic for Shen Wei. Maybe he only has to see/experience someone's power once, but he likely has to put some amount of effort afterwards into understanding and mastering it. This also means he wouldn't just randomly pick up silly abilities that are a bother to keep in check and a waste of energy, which strikes me as being a lot more practical. Also, I like to think that his learning ability only works insofar as techniques or powers go. If he wanted to learn something mundane like cooking, reading/writing or even bioengineering, he'd have to work at it just like anyone else would.
A bit about Ye Zun's powers: after he consumes someone's life force, I don't think he can control whether he gains their ability or not; it's likely more of a side effect, with his core power being to endlessly amplify his own strength by absorbing others' and making himself practically invincible in the process. If he could just take up any power he wanted to by devouring its owner, he wouldn't have needed to spend so much time coaxing allies to work for him; he could have just eaten them and used their powers as he pleases. Whereas we see him taking as much advantage of someone's ability as possible and only devouring them once they've completed (or failed at) their task.
I've got a couple more minor headcanons, but I think I'll stop here, because, phew! I've never made a post this long in my life!
no subject
Date: 2019-09-29 10:25 pm (UTC)From:After his research into the Hallows' effects brought up the fact that they could "imbue Haixingren with the capacity to experience temporal dissociation," Shen Wei's understanding of the situation would finally have become complete.
Ohhhhhh! I hadn't thought of that in re:the time travel and Kunlun before but OMG this makes so much sense! And then maybe the "Xiao Wei" moment a little later on convinces him or tells him that the time travel is going to happen soon. Or is the final puzzle piece to absolutely proving to him Zhao Yunlan was/is going to be Kunlun.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 10:04 am (UTC)From:I'm glad you like my theory about Shen Wei figuring out the time travel! I think it's one of the bigger mysteries in the series that fans really can't come to a consensus on.
But, you know, I never could figure out the significance of that nickname. I think they just included it as homage to the novel, but to come up with a Watsonian explanation: I think Zhao Yunlan really only called Shen Wei that on a whim the first time around, but then Shen Wei's reaction was so intense that later, when ZYL was in YOHE, he remembered that and naturally used it as a term of endearment for teen!Shen Wei, who was likely very (adorably) pleased and flattered by that. Coming full circle, it's a phrase that present day Shen Wei must associate with his fondest memories of Kunlun, and so hearing it from ZYL's own mouth utterly floored him the way it did during the fight against Ya Qing. How does that sound?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 02:46 am (UTC)From:It sounds very realistic and plausible with the canon! It may be what the canon was aiming for, now that I think about it. The twisty-ness of the time travel is an attraction of the show and their relationship, but at the same time it creates a bunch of which-came-first moments/questions. Which I love! Yet also send my mind spinning. :D