ok i give up im not finishing this. enjoy
Reblogged
this will probably come up eventually at some point once people look at my fanart so i'll just put it here. also probably going to pull up ship discourse/proship/anti shit but i'm not about to engage in anything that doesn't focus on the topic at hand. anyway, actual good faith explanation of why i don't think bingqiu works aside from obvious reasons
yes i read the extras and my stance is still the same:
1. a single rousing speech about how lbh's birth parents did love and want him after all does not undo the fact that they were/are ultimately still missing from his life and did not give him the care or support he needed
2. lbh remains the single most OP character in this world & we have yet to see anyone who can completely shut him down/neutralize him through force as a threat. sqq is able to placate him with his own presence but this is still a temporary solution because at the end of the day, the truth is that he cant be around forever. we've already seen lbh's reaction to losing sqq once and while grief is a natural part of life, he cannot cope with it in a healthy way because he's so dependent on sqq and was never given the tools to cope with his own negative emotions as a child. this might not have been as big of a problem for quite literally everyone else in the world before he became as powerful as he is as an adult
3. we see time and time again sqq complies with lbh's wants because atp its probable that seeing lbh upset in any way is triggering for sqq. even when he initiates sex, its out of pity for lbh after seeing him upset in those memories. this is well into their new "relationship" to the point where the way sqq sees it, sex is something that will make lbh happy and keep him from becoming upset, so he feels the need to make up for upsetting lbh for a time where he wasnt there (when he was dead). with the dynamic they have and the dubious circumstances under which this relationship formed, it's difficult to say that sqq has any other option than to continue to feed into lbh's coping mechanisms and try to keep him happy that way. im really reminded of how a lot of times women in loveless marriages see sex as something to keep their husbands happy and keep themselves safe from harm (because at the end of the day even if lbh claims he would never purposefully hurt sqq he continues to prove how those are just empty promises on his part)
4. lbh is missing an important part of emotional regulation which is learning how to deal with not getting what you want reasonably and managing your own negative emotions. tall order considering he has no emotional support network or people he can see as equals (its debatable whether he sees sqq as an ""equal"" considering he has no qualms about lying to/tricking the other to get what he wants while simultaneously placing him on a pedestal as this infallible figure who will fix everything for him no matter what
more lbh thoughts.
he appears very diligent and rule-abiding pre-abyss but ultimately i do feel that his latent capacity for manipulation comes from being a bright young kid, kids who are smart figure out how to lie and put on an act first since to a certain extent (especially in high context cultures) knowing how to "play the game" wrt navigating social etiquette is considered a desirable trait. but all of his bowing and scraping when taken in context is really just playing along with the social system set in that time & place so he can make himself less of a target.
there's no defending his actions but lbh is not purposefully cruel or malicious you can trace the true purpose of his words/actions to how they would benefit him in any situation. for example, the jade pendant scene: when he tells nyy not to bother with tattling it's because he knows it won't do anything for his situation except make it worse, but he's also not the kind to turn the other cheek. he starts fighting back once he's angry enough. he IS the vengeful type, he DOES hold grudges and a lot of his polite posturing is a formality. his cruelty stems from willful ignorance and disregard for the wellbeing of others bc everything is black and white to lbh, he's paranoid and sensitive to rejection and will take extreme action to maintain a sense of security (which he attaches to a single person)
again, we miss a lot of this stuff because sqq is a biased narrator and we miss it because *he* misses it.
Reblogged
cltuching my head. ok i cant do this anymore i have too many character analysis thoughts bouncing around my skull you're going to have to deal with my essays at some point
the thing about sqq is that it's not that he isn't clever when it comes to figuring out loopholes in the system and exploiting PIDW story elements but those are precisely also his biggest blind spots—besides sqh, he only ever engages with other people as characters from a book and that's why he takes everything they do and say at face value or according to "script" including lbh.
which is why lbh is able to manipulate him so well even as a kid because sqq is ultimately predictable and lacks the innate cunning sj has. and yes, i do believe that lbh was manipulative even as a kid because he had to live off the streets after his mom died and no broke homeless kid can survive otherwise. you can see hints of it while training with sqq & falling into his arms ""accidentally"" or sqq commenting on his awful form/footwork while fighting which he was most likely faking so he could get more attention from sqq (PIDW already states that hes a prodigy and it's also why nyy admires him/all the other disciples are envious of him) that manipulation isn't necessarily out of malice but the thing is if you learn that trying to do things the "right" way won't obtain the results you want, you have to do them the evil fucked up way because you need to do whatever it takes to survive even if it means hurting others to get what you want.
edit: first and last time im going to address this.
this will probably come up eventually at some point once people look at my fanart so i'll just put it here. also probably going to pull up ship discourse/proship/anti shit but i'm not about to engage in anything that doesn't focus on the topic at hand. anyway, actual good faith explanation of why i don't think bingqiu works aside from obvious reasons
Reblogged
my thoughts on LBH i think it's sad that he was given zero time to develop a personality outside of another person/people in general in both the novel he's from and in canon. would be nice if he got to be a normal kid and have a support system & even made a couple of friends idk maybe even if he had an extended conversation with another character that didn't revolve around SQQ. he's kind of like the haruno sakura of svsss it's not his fault
i actually have a lot of thoughts on him.
my thoughts on LBH i think it's sad that he was given zero time to develop a personality outside of another person/people in general in both the novel he's from and in canon. would be nice if he got to be a normal kid and have a support system & even made a couple of friends idk maybe even if he had an extended conversation with another character that didn't revolve around SQQ. he's kind of like the haruno sakura of svsss it's not his fault