Poll: Flavours of Ye Zun (drama)

[china_shop]

Poll #33174 Ye Zun

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

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Which flavour of Ye Zun is most frightening?

View Answers

Childhood, white robe and black hair
0 (0.0%)

With the Rebels, pre-powers: white robe, black mask, black hair
0 (0.0%)

Leading the Rebels, with powers: white robe, gold mask, white hair
3 (21.4%)

Glowy pillar
2 (14.3%)

Monologuing hologram in the park
3 (21.4%)

Seething black form with glowy eyes
2 (14.3%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (casual)
3 (21.4%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (Envoy)
2 (14.3%)

White suit, cane, mask and pony-tail
3 (21.4%)

Long white robe in the palace with energy whip
1 (7.1%)

Long white robe in the palace with bleeding forehead
4 (28.6%)

other
1 (7.1%)

Which is your favourite Ye Zun flavour?

View Answers

Childhood, white robe and black hair
0 (0.0%)

With the Rebels, pre-powers: white robe, black mask, black hair
2 (14.3%)

Leading the Rebels, with powers: white robe, gold mask, white hair
2 (14.3%)

Glowy pillar
0 (0.0%)

Monologuing hologram in the park
1 (7.1%)

Seething black form with glowy eyes
0 (0.0%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (casual)
5 (35.7%)

Disguised as Shen Wei (Envoy)
0 (0.0%)

White suit, cane, mask and pony-tail
10 (71.4%)

Long white robe in the palace with energy whip
1 (7.1%)

Long white robe in the palace with bleeding forehead
1 (7.1%)

other
0 (0.0%)

Why does modern-day Ye Zun have a shift/train rather than a billowy cloak like the Envoy’s?

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His cloak is in the wash
0 (0.0%)

It kept catching on things
1 (6.7%)

Fashions have changed in the last 10k years, and he keeps up with the trends unlike *some* people
10 (66.7%)

He doesn't like how it feels over his hair, especially with the hood up
3 (20.0%)

Ye Zun's charisma *is* his billowy cloak
5 (33.3%)

He used it as a draught-stopper in the pillar and it got crumpled
4 (26.7%)

other
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[facethestrange]

"Do you think this is how he thinks it's appropriate to dress for meetings with Haixing bureaucracy (maybe informed by Zhu Jiu and rumours about Shen Wei's suits?), or he's being as suavely intimidating as possible, or this is just, secretly, how he chooses to look because it feels right to him?"

I've only ever thought of the second and third reason, and now I'm fascinated by the first one! Because this look is SO GOOD, while actually trying to dress like Shen Wei is such a fail. xD I mean, it's still perfectly appropriate, but he just has no idea what he's doing. So basically if he tries to imitate Shen Wei, he should never go too literal, it's not gonna work. :P

"Like, in all the post-canon stories, should he actually dress more like this, do you think?"

He totally should imo. :D I think in every single post-canon fic I've read he had long white hair? I'm not complaining, I always love it when people just write exactly what they like. :D But I've yet to see this look in a fic. (One fic with the long hair had a REALLY nice pirate-inspired outfit at least. :D)

[trobadora]

Oof, that's a great point about the hair - people really do mostly give him long grey/white hair in futurefic! (I mean, the little ponytail would look great in grey, too! So I don't mind the colour so much, but it's fascinating that everyone seems to have decided to write off his hair colour in the ponytail scene ...)

[china_shop]

Oh, this makes me really interested in his choice of dark hair for the ponytail scene. Because he can't think it's more scary, can he (given the association between white hair and evil)? Is it more him, or does he just enjoy the dramatic contrast with his clothes?

[trobadora]

Yeah, that's a very good question! He's in the same style and outfit when he eats Lin Jing, so I assume he's actually physically there at that point and it's not just an illusion.

I don't have a good theory what's up with his entire Dixing look, the minimalist white robe and the open grey hair, but the two of them do seem to go together ...

[china_shop]

He's in the same style and outfit when he eats Lin Jing, so I assume he's actually physically there at that point and it's not just an illusion.

Oh, good point!

I don't have a good theory what's up with his entire Dixing look, the minimalist white robe and the open grey hair, but the two of them do seem to go together ...

At first I thought you meant the look and Dixing go together, not the hair and the robe, and my brain started trying to tie that look vs Ye Zun's Haixing appearance to the way Shen Wei collapses down to his Haixing clothes in ep 13 (when he's outside the sonic lab, after over-extending himself). But if there is a parallel/shared logic, I can't untangle it.

[trobadora]

Huh. Zhu Jiu says the Envoy can't maintain his full form for long on the surface, and earlier Shen Wei explained that he couldn't use his full powers because of a) the Guardian Treaty, and b) gravity (or something to that effect). The Treaty is toast at that point, but the other restriction still applies, and presumably to Ye Zun, too ... but why that should mean a different look, I haven't the foggiest. *g*

[china_shop]

Especially since Chu Shuzhi and Sha Ya, among others, don't change between realms! The Regent is another data point, but everything he does it calculated, so I don't know how helpful that is either.

[trobadora]

Possibly Chu Shuzhi and Sha Ya (pre-Merit Brush enhancements) and everyone else don't have the power levels where that restriction would become relevant? Shen Wei's (and Ye Zun's) are definitely off the scale.

(I agree the Regent isn't a reliable data point, though his change in appearance is tantalising.)

[china_shop]

All this is making me wonder how differently the final showdown would have come across if Ye Zun had been in his white suit and ponytail outfit the whole time, lol.

[facethestrange]

"All this is making me wonder how differently the final showdown would have come across if Ye Zun had been in his white suit and ponytail outfit the whole time, lol."

Asdsdfdgshjkdfhgfjdjkl *jots THIS down as a drawing idea* ♡___♡ :D :D (Second one I got from this post in the last few minutes. :D But like REALLY HIGH on the list. xD xD Which doesn't necessarily mean anything - the list is long and ever-changing. xD)

[trobadora]

Yay for more bunnies!

[china_shop]

The whole dark-energy flogging would have such a different vibe if he were in his suit. Like, more circus ringmaster, less old-school punishment, you know? (And having said that, I think I prefer the canon choice. But still...)

<3 <3 <3

[facethestrange]

Hah, I'm a simple person - there's nothing that can't be improved with Ye Zun's suit + ponytail outfit in my book. ;D (And I am aware that if I draw something in this vein, you're not exactly the target audience for it, heeee, but I am super grateful for the idea. :D ♡♡♡)

[facethestrange]

"He's in the same style and outfit when he eats Lin Jing, so I assume he's actually physically there at that point and it's not just an illusion."

Oh wow, I didn't realize that! So he CAN change his hair color in reality! ♡ (I thought maybe he really wants to have dark hair but can't, so he does it at least as an illusion. Now I'm even more confused why he chose this look, lol, but I'm also very excited because he can have this look for real whenever he wants to, YAY. :D)

[trobadora]

It's a common trope! There's even another drama in which Zhu Yilong plays a character who ends up with white/grey hair. It's usually immense power, immense trauma, or immense evil (sometimes all of the above) that turns someone's hair white, as far as I can tell.

And you know, since he can clearly change his hair colour and his entire look, there should be more fic - or art, even better if it's art - where post-canon Ye Zun tries out various looks to decide what style he's going to go for now. :D

[facethestrange]

Today I learned, thanks! :D (Or yesterday, to be precise. :D :D) I thought it was just Ye Zun, to tell him apart from Shen Wei, lol.

Since his hair turned white ~magically~, I thought he couldn't get his dark hair back in reality at all (unless dye, lol, but idk if that would even hold if he's ~not allowed~ to have dark hair anymore ;D) So it's very fun to know that the illusion is not his only way to have it, and YESSSS, I would love to see that, in both fic and art form! :D :D (And yet I'm probably not gonna be the person to do that because to me there's only one correct choice, lol. :D)

[trobadora]

And yet I'm probably not gonna be the person to do that because to me there's only one correct choice, lol. :D

Haha, fair!

Here's hoping someone will do something with it anyway. *g*

[facethestrange]

"Oh, this makes me really interested in his choice of dark hair for the ponytail scene. Because he can't think it's more scary, can he (given the association between white hair and evil)? Is it more him, or does he just enjoy the dramatic contrast with his clothes?"

Maybe he thinks it's less scary, for the contrast - if he doesn't look scary, his incongruous behavior is more scary? (But honestly, 'he's just this dramatic' is my favorite reason. :D :D)

[facethestrange]

(Yay I finally have the time to catch up on my fav Ye Zun post. :D :D So much good stuff here!! :D ♡)

In the meantime I found exactly one piece of fanart with post-canon ponytail Ye Zun. (I thought it was meant to be his grey hair, but Shen Wei has the same hair color, so it is his dark hair. :D)

For me ponytail in grey would be perfectly nice and all, but it would never be half as good as the dark hair version, ngl. ♡__♡ :D

[trobadora]

Wow, that's a huge shame about the lack of ponytail art! And agreed, I'd have thought that was meant to be his grey hair, too.

[china_shop]

He totally should imo. :D I think in every single post-canon fic I've read he had long white hair? I'm not complaining, I always love it when people just write exactly what they like. :D But I've yet to see this look in a fic.

Ohhh, fascinating. I was only thinking in terms of clothes, but it would be fascinating if healthier, post-canon Ye Zun reclaimed his dark hair. Which apparently he easily could? (Or maybe that's only in hologram form.)

[facethestrange]

"it would be fascinating if healthier, post-canon Ye Zun reclaimed his dark hair. Which apparently he easily could? (Or maybe that's only in hologram form.)"

Yesss, and I love how you phrased it! ♡ When the flawless aesthetic goes together with character development - best of both worlds. :D (And I do love that he does look like that in reality at least once - I got it from some other thread in this post :D - but even if he couldn't change it, he could dye it. :D)