china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote in [personal profile] nnozomi 2023-04-11 11:38 pm (UTC)

I'm never sure where to put Zhu Jiu! (I only find him even slightly interesting when he starts being all frail and vulnerable, but I think you're right that his loyalty and especially his ending scene go a bit beyond the villain stereotype.)

Yes, I mostly find him very uninteresting, too. I'd like him so much more if he was ever nice to anyone or seemed to like anyone (or anything!). I did enjoy his bickering with Ya Qing in ep 13, though.

That's a very good point (and not an obvious one). I think my protagonists are to some extent forced by the narrative into recognizing their flaws--privilege, self-deprecation, passivity--and dealing with them to some extent, but I'm not sure yet where any of them are going to end up, oh dear :)

Good luck! Those kinds of habits can be very hard to break in RL, especially when they're motivated by a deeper, unacknowledged flaw -- I imagine it's not much different for fictional characters. *pompoms*

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting