30 Days of Guardian Day 6

[frith_in_thorns]

30 Days of Guardian Day 6: Favorite character

*drumroll*

Yeah, it's Shen Wei.

I just utterly adore Shen Wei. His clothes! His face! He is a stunningly beautiful, competent, overpowered, intelligent, complete fucking disaster. I am endlessly fascinated by his complete lack of objective reality in assessing "risks I am taking" vs "risks Zhao Yunlan is taking". He is such a self-sacrificing idiot who is completely taken aback when Zhao Yunlan finally goes DO YOU THINK I COULD BE OKAY IF YOU DIED??? because this did not occur to him.

...I love him such a lot.

Also I love how fandom is united in agreement about how pretty he is when coughing blood. He does it so very well. Along with being covered in blood generally. Or literally falling apart slowly and not telling anyone. Shen Wei, I mean, what the actual fuck. "Fortunately, I'm used to getting injured." Why are you like this.

This is my favourite Shen Wei gifset





1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Favorite Hallows arc
4. How you started watching the show
5. Favorite set
6. Favorite character
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite ship
10. Favorite worldbuilding detail
11. Missed opportunity
12. Favorite rarepair
13. Favorite Yashou tribe
14. Favorite villain
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite Dixing power and/or power you want to have
18. Moment you'd like to take AU
19. Favourite headcanon
20. If /when do you think Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei get together?
21. Favorite character moment
22. Favorite badass moment
23. Favorite soft moment
24. Favorite team moment
25. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
26. Rec a fanfic
27. Rec a vid
28. Rec a fanart
29. Rec a meta post
30. Prompt for a fanwork

Comments

[naye]

Ahhhh I'm so pleased you liked that gifset. ♥♥♥

And Shen Wei. Also pleased you like Shen Wei!

[frith_in_thorns]

DID YOU KNOW I LOVE SHEN WEI A REALLY QUITE INORDINATE AMOUNT, NAYE???

And I love that gifset. He suffers so beautifully.

[xparrot]

Oh Shen Wei whyyyyy
(The answer is of course because we love him like this, sorry Shen Wei...)

[frith_in_thorns]

I would absolutely not have him any different. Although that would make Zhao Yunlan's life less exasperating.

P.S. Is it the poison fic you were talking about on twitter? I am EXCITE.

[xparrot]

But Zhao Yunlan deservers a little exasperation, let's face it! Shen Wei cleans out his fridge, they're even! (Or not, but...!)

And haaah no, I was actually talking about the climax of the amnesia fic on Twitter (though the poison fic is probably going to have it too because yes you are a seriously bad influence! For Shen Wei especially... 😝)

[frith_in_thorns]

I am now DOUBLE EXCITE because I didn't realise that the amnesia fic would also have hurt for Shen Wei :D (The poison fic also does need to have it. You can't poison him without him being floppy and coughing blood, it's against the law.)

I can sadly see Shen Wei thinking that's an equivalent trade. Ok, I didn't tell you that I was dying slowly and painfully over months, but also I cleaned your fridge! :D :D

[xparrot]

The problem with Shen Wei is that he is so OP that to tell an action story you kind of have to beat him down a bit... Otherwise the solution to any challenge is "Shen Wei blows it away"!

[frith_in_thorns]

I think this is also the reason why it's basically impossible to write short fic in this fandom, because you need to first properly JUSTIFY the hurt/comfort! And then once you've got something that actually seriously affects Shen Wei, it also needs much more time to fix...

[xparrot]

Yes -- and also the fact that Shen Wei can heal* causes trouble with the h/c! ...and yet neither the show nor us have any problems managing it for some reason XD

* Okay technically there's argument over whether he can heal Haixingren in canon, but it's more fun this way so :P

[frith_in_thorns]

I quite like making the healing be an extra source of hurt, especially for Shen Wei *gg* I'm deeply enjoying my power-stripped fics where I can just keep piling stuff on him without having to do all the justifications any more, it's very relaxing.

Ooh, I just had an idea (for a different fic), imagine if by healing Zhao Yunlan, he has also been DAMAGING HIM in tiny cumulative unnoticeable-at-the-time amounts all along! :D

[xparrot]

--Your power-reducing is the best of both worlds, really -- if Shen Wei were completely stripped of powers then we couldn't have magical exhaustion anymore! But this way he can still do stuff, it just hurts him that much more...

he has also been DAMAGING HIM in tiny cumulative unnoticeable-at-the-time amounts all along! :D

Oh nooooooes don't do that to Shen Wei!!! He's got enough issues re: his powers, does he really need even more complexes?? ;_;

...okay I've had the headcanon for a while that the reason Shen Wei is so upset about Zhao Yunlan going blind is that wasn't actually Ye Zun's doing but Shen Wei himself, in healing him from other dark energy damage, ended up taking his vision...

(...and then in the novel...ahh, it's spoilery, I don't know if you care or not? but it's gloriously angsty... ^^;;;)

[frith_in_thorns]

I am holding out hope that at one point in the world there will exist a complete and actually readable novel translation so have been avoiding major details of stuff in it :)

I need to start wrapping up the current fic but it keeps growing instead! It has loads of magical exhaustion, don't worry. Well, it's more like a slow slide downwards for both of them with bonus emotional devastation.

Look look Shen Wei CAUSING the hurt for Zhao Yunlan is super great. Just ask Naye *gg*

[schneefink]

He has such a great face! Some of my favorite expressions are confused but in a friendly way, angry/protective/determined, and besotted staring/smiling at Zhao Yunlan.

[frith_in_thorns]

He really is extremely good at faces. Also when he is bb!Shen Wei and looks so sweet and young!

[clevermanka]

SHEN WEI
*flails*

stunningly beautiful, competent, overpowered, intelligent, complete fucking disaster
SHENNNNNN WEIIIIIII

(in other words, yes, me, too)

[frith_in_thorns]

Yessssss I'm so glad we all love him so much.

[xparrot]

I've been on Twitter too much, I was looking for the "like" button for this comment.

But yes this, I love that we all love him (it makes up for how he feels about himself? ^^;;;;;)

[tassosss]

I absolutely love your description of Shen Wei!

[frith_in_thorns]

Thank you! He is my absolute favourite complete fucking disaster :D

[extrapenguin]

He is such a self-sacrificing idiot who is completely taken aback when Zhao Yunlan finally goes DO YOU THINK I COULD BE OKAY IF YOU DIED??? because this did not occur to him.
YES! I love his self-sacrificing ass and all the rest of the stuff you brought up in the paragraph above. Poor Shen Wei, treating himself as expendable, and poor Zhao Yunlan, having to convince his boyfriend that yes, he *would* be upset if he died. Someone give them a holiday so they can just cuddle with no crises to attend to! (Not that he doesn't look wonderful while coughing up blood. He, uh, should definitely keep doing that.)

[frith_in_thorns]

Shen Wei is such an incredibly frustrating boyfriend, even if he does do all the cooking and cleaning! XD He desperately needs to learn some communication skills, and also an understanding of WHY communicating is important in relationships. They absolutely need a long holiday. (Then they can come back and get broken again *gg*)

[extrapenguin]

(Then they can come back and get broken again *gg*)
Yes, but this time when Shen Wei comes home sexily coughing up blood, he can ask Zhao Yunlan to make him some tea and snuggle while he heals up! Instead of "It's okay, I'm used to getting hurt!" plus utter bafflement that Zhao Yunlan is ... concerned for him.

[umadoshi]

*burrows happily in all the Shen Wei love*