Yayay, I finally have the time to catch up on the remaining comments on this post - the last post that I was still partially behind on after I had spent a week writing a fic a day, lol. :D
(Also it's fun to go four chapters back, and I'm curious to see if maybe something got canonically answered in the meantime, or maybe it's the opposite - things just got more confusing, lol. :D)
>> The Emissary’s hood fell back and revealed the elegant, refined features of Professor Shen—features that seemed wildly out of place in the current circumstances.
"This made me go, what should the Emissary's face look like? Why shouldn't he be elegant and refined? *puzzled*"
I always understood this quote as Professor Shen's features being out of place in these circumstances, because Professor Shen belongs in the mundane Mortal Realm. :)
"Love the description of the healing, and how it translates into dark energy in the drama. <3"
I found it really cool that the black threads during healing in the novel are only there in this scene, when the ghoul 'contamination' is being removed. Before, when the cut on Zhao Yunlan's palm gets healed after the Ghost Army summoning, the process of healing only looked like "bright white light".
"I know that slaying a whole bunch of ghosts was necessary and only in defence of ZYL and the others, but I'm still like, does that mean those souls are just gone now? Because they weren't choosing to attack, right? They were driven by an appetite they couldn't control. So this is just more of the cosmology being bullshit. ;-p"
Yeah, there was something earlier in the novel that if a ghost gets killed, the soul is gone and can't reincarnate anymore. (This was mostly self-defense though, and I feel like an attacker doesn't have to be malicious or even sentient for self-defense to be okay. But the cosmology is definitely bullshit regardless. :D)
"1. Awwww!! The coat! The care for the coat! I love this! 2. ZYL can fold. He just (usually) chooses not to."
1. The coat is my faaaaaaavorite thing about these chapters and I love revisiting it so much. :D ♡♡♡ 2. LOL! :D And here he chooses to do it for Shen Wei. ♡♡♡
"And did Fourth Uncle foresee this? Maybe he can see the future, and that's how he knew about the SID case when he was talking to Zhu Hong before."
Oooh, I like this! I still want to know how exactly he knew about it, and your theory would make sense! (Well, according to the next chapters, other yao also know that something very bad is about to happen. But still I think there's something up with Fourth Uncle specifically!)
"This made me go, "Oh, shit." Like, Shen Wei is so young and impressionable, with no context for anything, and Kunlun-jun has carelessly taught him shame (for no reason), and that lesson sticks. /o\"
Yeah. Kunlun only says these things because they were said to him, but he very clearly didn't internalize them. And then he passes them on without knowing any better, and suddenly Wei actually does internalize them. OUCH.
"The coat, the coat, the coat. :D :D :D It's such wonderful displacement -- caring for Shen Wei himself is complicated and involves tensions and disagreements and too many conflicting emotions, but ZYL can at least express his tenderest feelings by protecting and caring for this coat. <333"
I will never stop squeeing about the coat, lol, and wow, your interpretation is gorgeous and wonderful and not something I've ever put together before. ♡♡♡
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(Also it's fun to go four chapters back, and I'm curious to see if maybe something got canonically answered in the meantime, or maybe it's the opposite - things just got more confusing, lol. :D)
>> The Emissary’s hood fell back and revealed the elegant, refined features of Professor Shen—features that seemed wildly out of place in the current circumstances.
"This made me go, what should the Emissary's face look like? Why shouldn't he be elegant and refined? *puzzled*"
I always understood this quote as Professor Shen's features being out of place in these circumstances, because Professor Shen belongs in the mundane Mortal Realm. :)
"Love the description of the healing, and how it translates into dark energy in the drama. <3"
I found it really cool that the black threads during healing in the novel are only there in this scene, when the ghoul 'contamination' is being removed. Before, when the cut on Zhao Yunlan's palm gets healed after the Ghost Army summoning, the process of healing only looked like "bright white light".
"I know that slaying a whole bunch of ghosts was necessary and only in defence of ZYL and the others, but I'm still like, does that mean those souls are just gone now? Because they weren't choosing to attack, right? They were driven by an appetite they couldn't control. So this is just more of the cosmology being bullshit. ;-p"
Yeah, there was something earlier in the novel that if a ghost gets killed, the soul is gone and can't reincarnate anymore. (This was mostly self-defense though, and I feel like an attacker doesn't have to be malicious or even sentient for self-defense to be okay. But the cosmology is definitely bullshit regardless. :D)
"1. Awwww!! The coat! The care for the coat! I love this!
2. ZYL can fold. He just (usually) chooses not to."
1. The coat is my faaaaaaavorite thing about these chapters and I love revisiting it so much. :D ♡♡♡
2. LOL! :D And here he chooses to do it for Shen Wei. ♡♡♡
"And did Fourth Uncle foresee this? Maybe he can see the future, and that's how he knew about the SID case when he was talking to Zhu Hong before."
Oooh, I like this! I still want to know how exactly he knew about it, and your theory would make sense! (Well, according to the next chapters, other yao also know that something very bad is about to happen. But still I think there's something up with Fourth Uncle specifically!)
"This made me go, "Oh, shit." Like, Shen Wei is so young and impressionable, with no context for anything, and Kunlun-jun has carelessly taught him shame (for no reason), and that lesson sticks. /o\"
Yeah. Kunlun only says these things because they were said to him, but he very clearly didn't internalize them. And then he passes them on without knowing any better, and suddenly Wei actually does internalize them. OUCH.
"The coat, the coat, the coat. :D :D :D It's such wonderful displacement -- caring for Shen Wei himself is complicated and involves tensions and disagreements and too many conflicting emotions, but ZYL can at least express his tenderest feelings by protecting and caring for this coat. <333"
I will never stop squeeing about the coat, lol, and wow, your interpretation is gorgeous and wonderful and not something I've ever put together before. ♡♡♡