"I think yes, since they haven't witnessed all his growth since he joined the SID - he hasn't shared anything with them and so they haven't seen how he changed."
That's a really good point! If they have no idea what he's successfully dealing with, they can't even expect him to change.
"I'm not feeling most of it very much, but the hair scene is lovely!"
Yeah, same! I didn't remember what to expect from Weilan in these chapters, but now that I know which scenes they are, it's not really my fav ones at all. Other than the hair. ♡♡♡
"With this, it makes sense that the uncle hadn't realised he was working at the SID - whereas in the drama, where I always thought GCC lived with his uncle and aunt, I really wonder about that! Guo Ying says in episode 14 that he only found out that morning ... But maybe he doesn't live with them in the drama either?"
I love how this came up in a whole other thread, and now it came up here again. :D I thought he lived with them only because of the one scene where he talks about his family when Zhou Weiwei is missing, but now I looked at the scene again and it actually doesn't say that at all. xD I don't know if it says it somewhere else though.
"Huh. I'm not quite sure what exactly the novel is envisioning here, given that in chapter 2 we are told that When dealing with anyone but Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei was entirely comfortable, navigating social interactions with ease. I can't quite see how that fits together together ..."
Oh wow, I didn't catch that, it does sound like a huge contradiction! But I went back and it may not be one? The quote follows Zhao Yunlan saying, “His nephew’s worked under me for over half a year, but the guy’s never gotten in touch with me once. Now he calls out of the blue and invites me out for a meal. Do you think that’s normal?” So maybe it's not about interacting with people, maybe it's just about Shen Wei not being able to judge if other people follow the right conventions. Which would make some amount of sense - he's great at handling people in general because of his Emissary experience, which will work with humans as well as it does with everyone else, but he is still new to human-specific cultural conventions/assumptions, especially if they're unspoken? Oh, and probably also when they're family-related - it's not like he has any experience with that.
"*grumbles* I want him to be into it because it's Shen Wei's hair, because of what it means to him to see Shen Wei like that, not because he's into this sort of thing in general!"
Oh, I saw this the opposite way - I took the "whether or not that was true of Zhao Yunlan" as 'he has no idea if he would like anyone else's long hair, but he sure loves Shen Wei's long hair'. (And even if he's always loved long hair in general, it would still be because it subconsciously reminded him of Shen Wei's original appearance, imo. :D)
"LOL, I love that ZYL is basically going, this story is too OOC, I'm not buying it! :D"
Yepppp. :D This is why when you said something to the effect of 'I don't understand why he did what he did', I was like 'he doesn't either'. ;D
"Does the novel ever properly deal with SW's self-worth issues about his nature? I don’t remember that. :("
Unfortunately I don't remember either. I hope so? And I found that line quite over-the-top - it doesn't usually sound to me like the situation is THIS bad (when it comes to Zhao Yunlan, not to Shen Wei's thoughts about himself), at least not anymore.
"SW calls him 伯父, bófù, which is a term of respect for an older man. And he's actually a 石钵 shíbō, stone bowl. Does the Chinese fandom ever call him 钵父? :p
/terrible pun"
xD :D :D That's a fantastic terrible pun. :D
"I don't remember, how did he arrive at that conclusion?"
It's because of the life/death, right/wrong etc. speech that both his father and Shennong made. :)
"I wanted to go and check what "edgelord" was in Chinese, but the JJWXC version instead says, 我又不是我手底下的那个中二小僵尸, which the fan translation renders as, I'm not that childish zombie who works for me" . I definitely prefer edgelord!"
Oh, cool, thanks for checking, and yeah, I like edgelord a lot better too!
"As for Zhao Yunlan, Guo Changcheng basically treats him like half a dad... although this "half-dad" suddenly found him a stepfather unannounced.
And yet, this stepfather is the kindest, and easiest to talk to"
Ahhhh, this is so sweet?? ♡♡♡! (And also really fun - Weilan from SID outsider POV is my catnip. xD)
"Guo Changcheng has always been indecisive, and would jump at any chance to agree with everyone else. Uncle and aunt are both taken aback by his new-found decisiveness."
"In order to stay, Guo Changcheng very decisively lies, "Not dangerous at all.""
AW YAY, GOOD FOR HIM. ♡
I love this scene so much, thank you for sharing! But I'd definitely keep the part where he lists all of his favorite people by name in the official translation. :D ♡ (But now I want Shen Wei to also be listed there!)
"The first part of this line is iconic ... and it's not in the official translation at all. There, instead we get: At first, he just gazed, struck speechless. Then he carefully reached out one greedy hand to caress a silken lock of hair. This life was truly worth living."
They could keep both parts imo, because I really love the caressing. :D
"Shen Wei blinks in confusion, not quite sure why the topic has now turned to eloping cats."
:D I love this line. :D :D
"I would have rather stabbed myself in the hand."
Oh wow, I like this, that's a really powerful statement, and 100% true imo. And not only he says all of it to Shen Wei, he's also a lot more certain about it! I can see how it's too early for that.
"When SW teases ZYL back about who's marrying into whose family, the fan translation has this (which honestly I'm glad got removed)"
Yeah, I like it better without it too!
"Official translation, much more oblique"
Oh, cool! Definitely too early for this too, I'd say. (But I always like "he treats people and gods the same anyway". :D)
no subject
That's a really good point! If they have no idea what he's successfully dealing with, they can't even expect him to change.
"I'm not feeling most of it very much, but the hair scene is lovely!"
Yeah, same! I didn't remember what to expect from Weilan in these chapters, but now that I know which scenes they are, it's not really my fav ones at all. Other than the hair. ♡♡♡
"With this, it makes sense that the uncle hadn't realised he was working at the SID - whereas in the drama, where I always thought GCC lived with his uncle and aunt, I really wonder about that! Guo Ying says in episode 14 that he only found out that morning ... But maybe he doesn't live with them in the drama either?"
I love how this came up in a whole other thread, and now it came up here again. :D I thought he lived with them only because of the one scene where he talks about his family when Zhou Weiwei is missing, but now I looked at the scene again and it actually doesn't say that at all. xD I don't know if it says it somewhere else though.
"Huh. I'm not quite sure what exactly the novel is envisioning here, given that in chapter 2 we are told that When dealing with anyone but Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei was entirely comfortable, navigating social interactions with ease. I can't quite see how that fits together together ..."
Oh wow, I didn't catch that, it does sound like a huge contradiction! But I went back and it may not be one? The quote follows Zhao Yunlan saying, “His nephew’s worked under me for over half a year, but the guy’s never gotten in touch with me once. Now he calls out of the blue and invites me out for a meal. Do you think that’s normal?” So maybe it's not about interacting with people, maybe it's just about Shen Wei not being able to judge if other people follow the right conventions. Which would make some amount of sense - he's great at handling people in general because of his Emissary experience, which will work with humans as well as it does with everyone else, but he is still new to human-specific cultural conventions/assumptions, especially if they're unspoken? Oh, and probably also when they're family-related - it's not like he has any experience with that.
"*grumbles* I want him to be into it because it's Shen Wei's hair, because of what it means to him to see Shen Wei like that, not because he's into this sort of thing in general!"
Oh, I saw this the opposite way - I took the "whether or not that was true of Zhao Yunlan" as 'he has no idea if he would like anyone else's long hair, but he sure loves Shen Wei's long hair'. (And even if he's always loved long hair in general, it would still be because it subconsciously reminded him of Shen Wei's original appearance, imo. :D)
"LOL, I love that ZYL is basically going, this story is too OOC, I'm not buying it! :D"
Yepppp. :D This is why when you said something to the effect of 'I don't understand why he did what he did', I was like 'he doesn't either'. ;D
"Does the novel ever properly deal with SW's self-worth issues about his nature? I don’t remember that. :("
Unfortunately I don't remember either. I hope so? And I found that line quite over-the-top - it doesn't usually sound to me like the situation is THIS bad (when it comes to Zhao Yunlan, not to Shen Wei's thoughts about himself), at least not anymore.
"SW calls him 伯父, bófù, which is a term of respect for an older man. And he's actually a 石钵 shíbō, stone bowl. Does the Chinese fandom ever call him 钵父? :p
/terrible pun"
xD :D :D That's a fantastic terrible pun. :D
"I don't remember, how did he arrive at that conclusion?"
It's because of the life/death, right/wrong etc. speech that both his father and Shennong made. :)
"I wanted to go and check what "edgelord" was in Chinese, but the JJWXC version instead says, 我又不是我手底下的那个中二小僵尸, which the fan translation renders as, I'm not that childish zombie who works for me" . I definitely prefer edgelord!"
Oh, cool, thanks for checking, and yeah, I like edgelord a lot better too!
"As for Zhao Yunlan, Guo Changcheng basically treats him like half a dad... although this "half-dad" suddenly found him a stepfather unannounced.
And yet, this stepfather is the kindest, and easiest to talk to"
Ahhhh, this is so sweet?? ♡♡♡! (And also really fun - Weilan from SID outsider POV is my catnip. xD)
"Guo Changcheng has always been indecisive, and would jump at any chance to agree with everyone else. Uncle and aunt are both taken aback by his new-found decisiveness."
"In order to stay, Guo Changcheng very decisively lies, "Not dangerous at all.""
AW YAY, GOOD FOR HIM. ♡
I love this scene so much, thank you for sharing! But I'd definitely keep the part where he lists all of his favorite people by name in the official translation. :D ♡ (But now I want Shen Wei to also be listed there!)
"The first part of this line is iconic ... and it's not in the official translation at all. There, instead we get: At first, he just gazed, struck speechless. Then he carefully reached out one greedy hand to caress a silken lock of hair. This life was truly worth living."
They could keep both parts imo, because I really love the caressing. :D
"Shen Wei blinks in confusion, not quite sure why the topic has now turned to eloping cats."
:D I love this line. :D :D
"I would have rather stabbed myself in the hand."
Oh wow, I like this, that's a really powerful statement, and 100% true imo. And not only he says all of it to Shen Wei, he's also a lot more certain about it! I can see how it's too early for that.
"When SW teases ZYL back about who's marrying into whose family, the fan translation has this (which honestly I'm glad got removed)"
Yeah, I like it better without it too!
"Official translation, much more oblique"
Oh, cool! Definitely too early for this too, I'd say. (But I always like "he treats people and gods the same anyway". :D)