Focus on Ye Zun: The world is terrible, better destroy it

[extrapenguin]

Ye Zun! Shen Wei's identical twin brother, raised by the villainous bandits, screwed up in many ways by his upbringing and then tossed into a pillar to marinate in his hatred for 10 000 years. Then he decided that since the world had hurt him and sucked so bad, he had to destroy everything about it he didn't like, i.e. absolutely everything. He did backpedal fast when he realized he'd been wrong about his brother, though. Too bad that only happened posthumously.





More pics at linked picspam.

Discussion starters:
1. Do you think Ye Zun could've been turned around at any point before the end? He folded easily enough once Shen Wei told him the truth, but would getting through to him require dying?

2. What sort of upbringing do you think he had? We know the Rebel Leader mind controlled him as an adult, but did he get mind controlled as a child as well, and how would that affect neurological development? What use would the Rebel Leader have had for a powerless child, anyway? Why was Ye Zun always clad in white and significantly cleaner than the rest of the rebels?

3. Who do you think Ye Zun is, under all that vengeance and desire to inflict the pain he's suffered onto others? If he and Shen Wei reconciled, what would he be like?

4. Locking Ye Zun in a pillar for 10 000 years was far from the best way of dealing with the situation. Why do you think the Hallows did that?

5. Relatedly, what do you think would have been the best way of ensuring Ye Zun couldn't be an existential threat to the world or its people?



Fic recs

Voice of the Heart, by Wei This is an intriguing fic about Zhu Jiu getting to know Ye Zun, through games of weiqi, and Ye Zun gradually placing more and more trust in Zhu Jiu. It's an aspect of canon we don't often see in fic, and this one blew me away.

Brand New Start, by maggie33. I found this AU where Zhao Yunlan falls on top of baby Ye Zun instead of baby Shen Wei for the time travel interlude to have nice Ye Zun characterization, and I enjoyed Ye Zun and Zhao Yunlan getting a measure of each other.

Adaptation, by draconicsockpuppet This is a time loop fix-it, and I really enjoyed what it did with the time loop, as well as Ye Zun's reformation and the dynamics between the three of them.

Where I can bear to live, by china_shop. Time travel Peggy Sue with Ye Zun confronting his past self! It inspires some thought on whether Ye Zun could've let go of his hatred and at which point.


So - come and talk about Ye Zun! Share links to Ye Zun -centric meta, picspams, and fanworks, new or old! Self-recs whole-heartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about Ye Zun.

Important: If you're commenting with meta/discussion/thoughts, please say whether you're coming from a novel perspective, a drama perspective, or a blend of the two, so we don't end up talking past each other. Thanks!

Comments

[extrapenguin]

I wasn't trying to say that Ye Zun is literally wearing mourning robes. I got hung up on the color and didn't look past it. Thank you for showing me the distinction between mourning and "regular white" clothes!
Ah, nbd – I know that when I was new to cfandoms I had no idea what actual mourning robes looked like, and so just went "white = death?" until I learned better. And I figured examples might be cool!

(Of course, one could also worldbuild the funerary and mourning customs of Dixingians 10k years ago as something completely different to those of the Han people during the Warring States era.)

Oh, and WRT clingy Ye Zun, I had the very amusing thought of him not letting Shen Wei go to the bathroom in peace due to not wanting to let go of gege ever. :P