I just got terminally distracted by that cap of the side profile of Shen Wei screaming as he's trying to keep Ye Zun from falling because that scene always gets me.
It's an amazing scene! I didn't even remember that particular moment with Shen Wei shouting with effort, but I'm so glad I was able to cap it!
Another point here is that going by pure show canon, there's nothing tying him to his people beyond duty.
Oh, OUCH! Yeah, agreed, I like to believe we just don't get to see more of how he interacts with others, but either way it's canon that he doesn't have any close connections. He's lonely when he meets Kunlun, and feels like no one really sees him as a person. Which I think isn't because Shen Wei never sought anyone out, but mainly because of the distance his position as a leader brings with it ...
there isn't much holding him there. Except duty, which tbf, Shen Wei does hold pretty sacrosanct, but he's had the absolute worst day after all.
Yeah, and with the war essentially over, Shen Wei probably feels that he's done his duty and isn't needed any more, regardless of how everyone else feels about it. (He wouldn't still be a much-loved hero 10,000 years later if people hadn't cared!)
We don't really have enough context to judge this, but going out on a limb, I'd say that unless Shen Wei is literally immortal, I can't see his presence then making that much difference to 10k years later.
Yeah, that's a very good point! We don't have any indication of what Dixing was like back then after they rebuilt, with the Hallows to fuel it - they may well have had a great society down there with nothing that needed Hei Pao Shi at all. Like you say, we don't know what they did or didn't have. And even if they didn't, 10,000 years is so much history, things can change so fundamentally so many times, it's hard to believe it would make much of a difference in the long term.
The first question that came to mind was what Shen Wei thinks of monarchy - the Dijun always felt a little incongruous to me in the show...
Hm, good question! For long stretches of history in many places monarchy was the default system, but it doesn't feel like Dixingren started out with that kind of system. (Not that there's anything in canon I can point to, to clearly support that feeling ...) In the present day, it does feel like Dixing's system of rulership is stuck in the past.
Also, places of learning, I bet he'd have tried to establish some/more than there were and maybe that would've made a difference.
Oh, yes! Even back then, Shen Wei would have been all over that. It's just in his nature.
I think you'd probably get two camps here - the realist 'look, he was literally buried under the earth, he's dead' camp and the 'but it's Heipaoshi! He's beaten terrible odds before' camp. Time then eventually seemed to prove the former right.
And the idealists' hopes became myths. I'll eat my hat if Dixing doesn't have some King Arthur-style myths about Hei Pao Shi returning in time of need ...
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It's an amazing scene! I didn't even remember that particular moment with Shen Wei shouting with effort, but I'm so glad I was able to cap it!
Another point here is that going by pure show canon, there's nothing tying him to his people beyond duty.
Oh, OUCH! Yeah, agreed, I like to believe we just don't get to see more of how he interacts with others, but either way it's canon that he doesn't have any close connections. He's lonely when he meets Kunlun, and feels like no one really sees him as a person. Which I think isn't because Shen Wei never sought anyone out, but mainly because of the distance his position as a leader brings with it ...
there isn't much holding him there. Except duty, which tbf, Shen Wei does hold pretty sacrosanct, but he's had the absolute worst day after all.
Yeah, and with the war essentially over, Shen Wei probably feels that he's done his duty and isn't needed any more, regardless of how everyone else feels about it. (He wouldn't still be a much-loved hero 10,000 years later if people hadn't cared!)
We don't really have enough context to judge this, but going out on a limb, I'd say that unless Shen Wei is literally immortal, I can't see his presence then making that much difference to 10k years later.
Yeah, that's a very good point! We don't have any indication of what Dixing was like back then after they rebuilt, with the Hallows to fuel it - they may well have had a great society down there with nothing that needed Hei Pao Shi at all. Like you say, we don't know what they did or didn't have. And even if they didn't, 10,000 years is so much history, things can change so fundamentally so many times, it's hard to believe it would make much of a difference in the long term.
The first question that came to mind was what Shen Wei thinks of monarchy - the Dijun always felt a little incongruous to me in the show...
Hm, good question! For long stretches of history in many places monarchy was the default system, but it doesn't feel like Dixingren started out with that kind of system. (Not that there's anything in canon I can point to, to clearly support that feeling ...) In the present day, it does feel like Dixing's system of rulership is stuck in the past.
Also, places of learning, I bet he'd have tried to establish some/more than there were and maybe that would've made a difference.
Oh, yes! Even back then, Shen Wei would have been all over that. It's just in his nature.
I think you'd probably get two camps here - the realist 'look, he was literally buried under the earth, he's dead' camp and the 'but it's Heipaoshi! He's beaten terrible odds before' camp. Time then eventually seemed to prove the former right.
And the idealists' hopes became myths. I'll eat my hat if Dixing doesn't have some King Arthur-style myths about Hei Pao Shi returning in time of need ...