I'm so glad you chose this scene! It has delicious angst and comfort, and also, as you point out, great characterization of Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei, and their acknowledged relationship as a pair.
His emotions are raw and completely on display, which is startling from him, especially in front of his team and Guo Ying.
Agreed! He loses his grip entirely--and even more, when he does (thanks to Shen Wei) manage to pull himself together, he doesn't instantly try to slip back into his Shiny Shell, with the grinning and the shrugging, as if everything rolls off his back. I mean, I could imagine him trying it, IF Shen Wei were not there--grinning, saying something wry about what his dad thinks of him, ha ha--but it would be an enormous expenditure of energy, which he doesn't have to spare right at this moment. So thanks to Shen Wei's presence, to help carry the emotional weight and to let Zhao Yunlan lean on him (literally and figuratively), Zhao Yunlan can have his emotions without pretense.
I absolutely adore how Shen Wei doesn't just rely on words to snap Zhao Yunlan out of it. He uses touch, he uses very close proximity, he uses their mutual ownership of each other--the way that they are seen as a pair, that it's Shen Wei's place to step aside with him. Everyone else knows it, and also Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan know that they know--it's not something they have to go off (like into Zhao Yunlan's office) and handle in private. The family is behind them.
I also am struck by the words Shen Wei does use... First, it's personal, reminding Zhao Yunlan of his father's belief in him. Then, it's about his position, his leadership, his duty, his responsibility toward all the people. That second bit in particular always makes me think that they are words Shen Wei, as the young war-leader in Ancient Haixing, could have heard--from someone else, or used by him on himself, when he felt like he was about to break. ;___; It reminds me of why he told 'Kunlun' he wears the mask. He needs to hold it together, for everyone else. (Lucky for Zhao Yunlan, of course, he has Shen Wei there to help him. ♥)
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His emotions are raw and completely on display, which is startling from him, especially in front of his team and Guo Ying.
Agreed! He loses his grip entirely--and even more, when he does (thanks to Shen Wei) manage to pull himself together, he doesn't instantly try to slip back into his Shiny Shell, with the grinning and the shrugging, as if everything rolls off his back. I mean, I could imagine him trying it, IF Shen Wei were not there--grinning, saying something wry about what his dad thinks of him, ha ha--but it would be an enormous expenditure of energy, which he doesn't have to spare right at this moment. So thanks to Shen Wei's presence, to help carry the emotional weight and to let Zhao Yunlan lean on him (literally and figuratively), Zhao Yunlan can have his emotions without pretense.
I absolutely adore how Shen Wei doesn't just rely on words to snap Zhao Yunlan out of it. He uses touch, he uses very close proximity, he uses their mutual ownership of each other--the way that they are seen as a pair, that it's Shen Wei's place to step aside with him. Everyone else knows it, and also Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan know that they know--it's not something they have to go off (like into Zhao Yunlan's office) and handle in private. The family is behind them.
I also am struck by the words Shen Wei does use... First, it's personal, reminding Zhao Yunlan of his father's belief in him. Then, it's about his position, his leadership, his duty, his responsibility toward all the people. That second bit in particular always makes me think that they are words Shen Wei, as the young war-leader in Ancient Haixing, could have heard--from someone else, or used by him on himself, when he felt like he was about to break. ;___; It reminds me of why he told 'Kunlun' he wears the mask. He needs to hold it together, for everyone else. (Lucky for Zhao Yunlan, of course, he has Shen Wei there to help him. ♥)