From further upthread: And it's upsetting to Zhao Yunlan in particular because he (of course!) wants them to be good to and for each other, and here he is just another item in the long list of things that have hurt Shen Wei. Which is the absolute last thing he wants to be!
I'm not sure about the "wants them to be good to and for each other" at this stage? I think it's more that ZYL wants to be free to sacrifice himself, but it pushes all his childhood-trauma buttons if anyone else does the same, and especially someone as important to him as Shen Wei.
Possibly we mean different things by "reassuring"? LOL.
Ha, it seems like we are! I didn't mean comforting; I was talking about reassurance in the "will be fine" sense (which is actually false reassurance, but neither ZYL nor the first-time viewer knows that yet). I think SW's saying, "Fortunately, I'm used to being injured," strongly implies that this is like those other injuries, ie, not permanent or debilitating in anything more than the short-term. And that's reassuring to me, because it makes me feel like SW is a) strong enough, and b) later, when we find he hasn't healed himself, that was a choice.
But you're right, that's not the same as comforting. Nothing is going to comfort ZYL in this moment; he's inadvertently caused Shen Wei suffering, and there's nothing he can do except offer sympathy, which is not enough. And Shen Wei's ghastly smile is even rejecting that much -- he doesn't want sympathy or comfort. His first instinct was to leave. He won't let ZYL share this, which makes it worse. (Versus the bench scene, where Shen Wei asks for what he wants (to rest in the sun) and lets ZYL stay with him, and they share the comfort together.)
I mean, I just don't think the existence of such a thing as "necessary suffering" is reassuring in general.
True! I should have put a paragraph break before that sentence, or parentheses or something. My bad!
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And it's upsetting to Zhao Yunlan in particular because he (of course!) wants them to be good to and for each other, and here he is just another item in the long list of things that have hurt Shen Wei. Which is the absolute last thing he wants to be!
I'm not sure about the "wants them to be good to and for each other" at this stage? I think it's more that ZYL wants to be free to sacrifice himself, but it pushes all his childhood-trauma buttons if anyone else does the same, and especially someone as important to him as Shen Wei.
Possibly we mean different things by "reassuring"? LOL.
Ha, it seems like we are! I didn't mean comforting; I was talking about reassurance in the "will be fine" sense (which is actually false reassurance, but neither ZYL nor the first-time viewer knows that yet). I think SW's saying, "Fortunately, I'm used to being injured," strongly implies that this is like those other injuries, ie, not permanent or debilitating in anything more than the short-term. And that's reassuring to me, because it makes me feel like SW is a) strong enough, and b) later, when we find he hasn't healed himself, that was a choice.
But you're right, that's not the same as comforting. Nothing is going to comfort ZYL in this moment; he's inadvertently caused Shen Wei suffering, and there's nothing he can do except offer sympathy, which is not enough. And Shen Wei's ghastly smile is even rejecting that much -- he doesn't want sympathy or comfort. His first instinct was to leave. He won't let ZYL share this, which makes it worse. (Versus the bench scene, where Shen Wei asks for what he wants (to rest in the sun) and lets ZYL stay with him, and they share the comfort together.)
I mean, I just don't think the existence of such a thing as "necessary suffering" is reassuring in general.
True! I should have put a paragraph break before that sentence, or parentheses or something. My bad!