This is such a great post, and I love the screencaps you've chosen as well! (And thanks for the rec! ♥!)
She doesn't seem to hate humans the way Zhu Jiu does
She doesn't openly despite them, but I don't think she has warm feelings towards them either. In that same conversation, she says to Guo Changcheng, "Humans after all aren’t all selfish, coldblooded animals" (ep 25, 40:47), as if he exceeded her expectations just by being kind. It would be fascinating to know which other humans she's had dealings with -- particularly given the Yashou seem very aware of their history, so she must know they were once allies.
Wrt what she says about Dong Nan, maybe she distinguishes between hanging out with humans (bad) versus being interested in how humans live (eccentric, but okay)?
I mentioned my own interpretation above, but how do you see Ya Qing's urgent desire to revitalise the Yashou - what's the cause of her dissatisfaction, and what other options could have been open to her?
I agree with you on the cause of her dissatisfaction. And there don't seem to be any particular ties between the Envoy and the Yashou leaders, pre-canon. She could have tried approaching the SID, possibly via Zhu Hong, but I doubt the SID has the clout to a difference to things that would affect the Crows.
But does she feel any guilt over it, or only over buying into what Ye Zun was selling?
I don't see any guilt in her -- which I think is one of the reasons I don't really connect with her. She behaves more like a military leader than a ZYL-style team leader. Which might be a Yashou thing. Neither of the other tribe leaders seem very interested in whether their tribes people agree with their political stances either.
I'd like to have seen her make recompense or at least apologise to Jia-ge's family, in fic if not in the show.
Given that her tribe willingly followed her, and clearly bought into her "revitalising the Yashou by any means" strategy - how do you think they're reacting to her turnaround, and the realisation she's nearly led them right into causing the end of the world? Will she have to work hard to convince them to continue following her, or will they continue to trust her regardless?
I think most of them will continue to trust and follow her. There might be one or two who get uppity and want to challenge her leadership because of her change of heart, but I imagine the others would put them in their place. (It's coming up on election season here, so... I might be projecting. *g*)
Who do you ship Ya Qing with, if anyone?
I enjoyed your Ya Qing/Ying Chun fic very much, and it sold me on that ship. And I've actually been thinking, as I've been putting my Fourth Uncle post together, that Ya Qing, Ying Chun and Zhu Hong's father might have been in a similar kind of closeknit, complicated triangle to Sha Ya, Hua Yuzhu and Gu Ban. And that when Zhu Hong's father left to live with the humans, maybe Ya Qing went with him for a while and that's when she picked up some of her computer skills. Maybe his premature death (or his forming a relationship with a human woman?) was what soured her on humans in general? Entirely my fancy, but I like the idea of it.
She must be well versed in human technology, given that she knows how to use Cong Bo's computer to make all the SID info public, which also speaks to her not being closed off from the modern human world.
My other thought about that was that it could be a skill bestowed by the Merit Brush before Wang Xiangyang died, in anticipation of this next move. It could have been part of what sapped his life force? Idk.
Randomly, I like how in ep 19, when Fourth Uncle and Ying Chun are trying to detain Ya Qing, they try political persuasion and it doesn't work, and then Fourth Uncle convinces her to hang out with them because it's the Reunion Festival, and that's when she stops trying to leave. She clearly still has warm feelings for them, even if she's put herself at odds with them.
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She doesn't openly despite them, but I don't think she has warm feelings towards them either. In that same conversation, she says to Guo Changcheng, "Humans after all aren’t all selfish, coldblooded animals" (ep 25, 40:47), as if he exceeded her expectations just by being kind. It would be fascinating to know which other humans she's had dealings with -- particularly given the Yashou seem very aware of their history, so she must know they were once allies.
Wrt what she says about Dong Nan, maybe she distinguishes between hanging out with humans (bad) versus being interested in how humans live (eccentric, but okay)?
I agree with you on the cause of her dissatisfaction. And there don't seem to be any particular ties between the Envoy and the Yashou leaders, pre-canon. She could have tried approaching the SID, possibly via Zhu Hong, but I doubt the SID has the clout to a difference to things that would affect the Crows.
I don't see any guilt in her -- which I think is one of the reasons I don't really connect with her. She behaves more like a military leader than a ZYL-style team leader. Which might be a Yashou thing. Neither of the other tribe leaders seem very interested in whether their tribes people agree with their political stances either.
I'd like to have seen her make recompense or at least apologise to Jia-ge's family, in fic if not in the show.
I think most of them will continue to trust and follow her. There might be one or two who get uppity and want to challenge her leadership because of her change of heart, but I imagine the others would put them in their place. (It's coming up on election season here, so... I might be projecting. *g*)
I enjoyed your Ya Qing/Ying Chun fic very much, and it sold me on that ship. And I've actually been thinking, as I've been putting my Fourth Uncle post together, that Ya Qing, Ying Chun and Zhu Hong's father might have been in a similar kind of closeknit, complicated triangle to Sha Ya, Hua Yuzhu and Gu Ban. And that when Zhu Hong's father left to live with the humans, maybe Ya Qing went with him for a while and that's when she picked up some of her computer skills. Maybe his premature death (or his forming a relationship with a human woman?) was what soured her on humans in general? Entirely my fancy, but I like the idea of it.
My other thought about that was that it could be a skill bestowed by the Merit Brush before Wang Xiangyang died, in anticipation of this next move. It could have been part of what sapped his life force? Idk.
Randomly, I like how in ep 19, when Fourth Uncle and Ying Chun are trying to detain Ya Qing, they try political persuasion and it doesn't work, and then Fourth Uncle convinces her to hang out with them because it's the Reunion Festival, and that's when she stops trying to leave. She clearly still has warm feelings for them, even if she's put herself at odds with them.