#something something martial arts are zzs's way of communication and he uses that rather than his words to give chengling what he needs

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

hiiii really enjoyed your chenglingposting i was thinking about how sometimes the kids in adult stories function as a sort of barometer for optimism about the future in their views and options in life... obviously the alliance wants to continue the cycle of antagonizing and vengeance and conflict with the veneer of "honor" but. zcl gets to choose not to. its been a while since I either read or watched, do you know if zcl was ever onboard with actually wanting vengeance or if that was just being pushed on him? Obv its not super in line w his personality but grief could be a factor. i just thought it'd make a lot of sense if he changed his mind on that due to the influence of wenzhou and how they prioritize enjoying life w your people and following your own path over expectations. priest really took one more chance to emphasize breaking cycles/"if it sucks hit the bricks"

hi!! omg!!! thank you and im glad you enjoyed it! honestly this is a question i have been thinking about since at least two rereads ago. the show and the novel are handling this issue of zcl picking up his legacy / giving in to external expectations / finding out what he really wants in life a little differently, i think, as befitting of what they both focus on. ive said in my chenglingpost that the show is about legacy and inheritance in my eyes, while the novel is about martial arts and freedom of choice. obvs freedom of choice is a high priority in word of honor as well, but word of honor seems to have an overarching look, kind of focusing on the big picture and what a generation / a community needs rather than a few individuals, while the novel focuses exclusively on wenzhou and their little group and seems to handle the rest of the themes in priest's usual style. the show is about something "grand", the novel is about the mundane, almost boring human experience. martial arts play a bigger role in the latter too because they are a stand-in for many things that are hard to grasp, like autonomy. in chengling's context, martial arts are irrevocably linked with seeking revenge. i think that is specifically in the novel the case, not so much in the show. in the show seeking revenge is pushed onto him by others as well as inheriting his sect's legacy and becoming worthy of being his father's son. in the novel, the idea of seeking revenge is first presented to him by gu xiang, and it is actually this huge contrast to how others treat him because others "generously" offer to take revenge for him, while gu xiang tells him he can do that himself. we see with wen kexing that getting revenge does not make u happy. it gives u closure but it does not make u happy. i think that is something chengling learns during the novel. he gets closure in the end but it does not look the way he had imagined it would. i think he imagined himself to get super strong and then single-handedly slay his foes. yknow, as u often see in wuxia and as wen kexing literally does. then he starts learning martial arts and realizes getting super strong is actually not that easy, and this chasm between what he expects of himself and what he is able to achieve gets wider and wider and he falls into depression spirals, because to chengling, seeking revenge was taking ownership of his life and his trauma, and what use does he have when he cant even do that? that is the path wen kexing walks and it hollowed him out and it would have him kill himself if he hadnt met zhou zishu; wen kexing viewed himself as an instrument for a very long time rather than as someone deserving of having his own life. so obvs, that path is rubbish by itself (wkx gets his revenge and his closure and his life, good for him!) and its far too much for a kid. and i think, that is what chengling learns here: he only needs to do as much as he can, only bite off what he can chew, and the rest should not be his concern. and there really turns out to be a way to get everything he needs without walking the same path as wen kexing, as the novel proves, because wen kexing had nobody when he was in the same situation while trying to survive the valley, while chengling has wenzhou who guide him and shield him and love him. (crying myself into a huddle over wen kexing and chengling and them being foils of each other.) so in that sense youre already putting it into words. chengling seems to have changed his mind over the course of the novel, he doesnt have that same outlook on vengeance as he as in the start. i think thats different for the show. in the show, there is this weighing of the concept of revenge against the concept of getting justice, and what both these things do and require of a person and what they can offer u as an individual, but also u as a collective, in the long run. they are seen as two different things and are explored and qestioned individually. i think that can be seen in the conflict with chengling and all these expectations everyone has of him and how he handles that.

#i cant say much more regarding the show rn. but i think it does something very similar to the novel #re: wen kexing and chengling getting their closure parallel to each other and being foils of each other #one walking a path the other doesnt have to or doesnt get to #chengling is kinda symbolically getting the kind of justice wkx would have deserved to and gets now through chengling #but for the show #their closure is not just holding the big bad accountable. its also the community effort of forging a better future together #aa this went off track. but i cant get into more detail re: chengling and vengeance for the show. still in my rewatch! #i hope this answers your question anyway!!!! #thank you for sending it to me i had a lot of fun! #i have a lot more to say but tumblr seems to impose a word limit on answering asks! >:( #something something martial arts are zzs's way of communication and he uses that rather than his words to give chengling what he needs #something something practising martial arts helps chengling discover the boundaries of his own body and reverts him back into a child #rather than the orphaned failure of a son who needs revenge to give himself meaning. like a tool. #something something martial arts is both chengling's cause of suffering and his tool of freeing himself #something something zzs knows for pretty much most of the novel that zcl has this grand potential inside him and simply ignores it #something something chengling's shifu (he has a shifu in the novel before zzs!) is an idiot who doesnt even see his disciple's potential #who blames chengling instead of reflecting upon himself (and how thats kinda like schools blaming neurodivergent and other kids for failing #and how zzs notices chengling's inert dormant potential / difficulty practically immediately and is probs uniquely qualified to teach him #drawing from his own experience with harsh teaching methods and surviving impossible tasks and breaking through body limits and difficultie #paired with being bamf at martial arts and probs having this vast pool of knowledge #something something zzs acting nasty but doing good (and nobody knows) and chengling turning out happier and more stable in the end #inbox #geneticcatalyst #tian ya ke #faraway wanderers #word of honor #meta #zhang chengling #zhou zishu #wen kexing