Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 Kokuto:

CX was TOTALLY jealous of Jing in the drama.  The cray cray scene in the courtyard watching the lights go out in Jing's room, while CX held the sharp end of the knife in his bare hands?  Oh yeah.  Beyond jealous.  Granted, he also thought Jing was scum for the way he treated XY, but he was also jealous.   And given that he killed him in the book, I'm betting CX was jealous and hated him in the book too.

I honestly can't remember exactly and I don't know the chapter either, but I remember him saying something along these lines? Maybe I am mistaken, so don't take my word for it, but that's the  impression I had. I belive it was a comparison to Feng Long or something, like it is not because he was jealous on Jing, but because he belived Feng Long to be better for her. 

Oh ok, this is the fragment. I guess it's up to everyone's interpretation. 

"Jing said “The Black Emperor is the person you trust the most, don’t let one mistake make you lose faith in him! Have you thought about why he was willing to let you marry Feng Long but tried to stop you from marrying me? He was just as pained in both instances.”

“Because….he thinks you’re not as good as Feng Long.”

Jing shook his head “That’s just the surface reason, the most important reason is that His Majesty believes I don’t have the ability to protect you!"

 Kokuto:

CX was TOTALLY jealous of Jing in the drama.  The cray cray scene in the courtyard watching the lights go out in Jing's room, while CX held the sharp end of the knife in his bare hands?  Oh yeah.  Beyond jealous.  Granted, he also thought Jing was scum for the way he treated XY, but he was also jealous.   And given that he killed him in the book, I'm betting CX was jealous and hated him in the book too.

Agreed, from CX's expressions (ZWY is really decent actor too!) and actions, I think its very obvious that he was jealous of Jing. I don't think CX could tell that XY's true love wasn't Jing since XY hid XL so well and tried to project all her love for XL on Jing, but on many occasions he was jealous of the amount of time XY spent with Jing, and the attention she showered on him. He even threw a mini fit when she returned after 37 years and went to look for Jing first (to save his life) instead of her gege first. CX softened only after XY explained she did ask Xin Yue about CX first before anything else, and because Jing's matter was time sensitive (on his deathbed)

 blabla100:

I belive it was a comparison to Feng Long or something, like it is not because he was jealous on Jing, but because he belived Feng Long to be better for her. 

He also did say that FL is better husband material for XY. I think his dislike for Jing is a combination of XY showering Jing with attention (the jealousy) and that Jing is not good enough for her (kept letting her down, not strong enough to protect her)

@HeadsInTheClouds

I know how you differentiate between “yeu” and “thuong” but in terms on romance I believe “thuong” exceeds “yeu”, “yeu” is more short lived and “thuong” is long lasting. But anyway my view was that her love for XL was greater than Jing even before the bug transplant, the evidence is endless. Some was explicit some implicit

- She admires XL’s look & store it inside her ape mirror.

- When she was WXL, she was worried for his safety and followed him to battle. 

- She accidentally dream of him (even if she didn’t want to and said she is scare he will enter her dreams). She also have very sweet dreams and good sleep when she is around him. 

- During 37 years under sea, she said hated Gonggong for no reason (hah could this be jealously?) when XL chose GG. She later wish she was the one that save XL (like she saved Jing so that he can be by her side?)

- She puts a lot of effort in making the poison look appealing and wondered if XL will praise her. 

- She said she will never take first step for anyone but XL was always an exception (though she probably not aware of her actions hihi) : 

- And most importantly XY knew when she was WXL that XL wanted to kill CX and vice versa but she did not have the heart to harm him instead chose to secretly protects him from everyone. 

I mean with all that evidence even both Grand and Yellow Emperor sees it, they just don’t say it out loud.  

And most importantly XL knows XYs feelings for him.

What makes me laugh is if 1/10  audience thinks XY love XL then we probably have a problem but it’s 5/10 audience says so and almost every character in the novel think so in some way (not to mention LYF is a sequel of OP so there is a message author want to convey) yet the other audience still have a way to deny all this straight forward evidence or relation. 

PS: Has anyone relate XY- Jing- XL  relationship to that of the snake and fox story in the begining? I honestly don’t want to say this but as WXL I think XY was stronger in character and able to cope with her fear but when she became XY she was weaker and came back to being locked in prison because she can’t face her fear. I remember seeing a post from someone about her making 15 year promise inside Dragon Bone Prison kinds of going back to this, in a way I feel very pity for XY. I don’t know why TH could write up her character like this.

 LilMoussySnow:

PS: Has anyone relate XY- Jing- XL relationship to that of the snake and fox story in the begining? I honestly don’t want to say this but as WXL I think XY was stronger in character and able to cope with her fear but when she became XY she was weaker and came back to being locked in prison because she can’t face her fear.

I did a post on how the actions of Jing and the 8 tailed fox, as well as XL and the snake demon,  paralleled. Between that, and how Jing's actions are similar to other negative relationships / events in her past, I don't understand how XY's relationship with Jing is supposed to be a good thing -- though I tried to put a spin on that and say Jing was basically stripped of all that by the end of the book.

Almost everyone likes WXL better and she was stronger back then.  I keep thinking there's gender commentary to be explored there, but have never put it all together.  I'm a slow thinker. ;p

 Kokuto:

I did a post on how the actions of Jing and the 8 tailed fox, as well as XL and the snake demon,  paralleled. Between that, and how Jing's actions are similar to other negative relationships / events in her past, I don't understand how XY's relationship with Jing is supposed to be a good thing -- though I tried to put a spin on that and say Jing was basically stripped of all that by the end of the book.

Almost everyone likes WXL better and she was stronger back then.  I keep thinking there's gender commentary to be explored there, but have never put it all together.  I'm a slow thinker. ;p

I saved your post. Here it is:

“It may have actually been covered earlier in the thread, but I can't keep up with this one.  I've been thinking about the the fox and snake parallels and their respective characters. but haven't pulled together everything. I'll just post it anyway.  Please forgive the rambling and unfinished state.


But the theme I was speaking of is transformation, and shedding of trauma, or karma, from my very surface understanding of it.

The choice of the 9 tailed fox as both enemy and lover for XY has always stuck with me.  I don't know anything about the mythology of the creature in Asia, but in the LYF, it has a depowering role.


Both Jing and the 8 tailed fox present a guise of companionship that lures XY into lowering her guard.  Jing, or more precisely Jing wearing the guise of 17 (9+8=17???), and the 8 tailed fox pretending to be a friendly shape changer playing games with XY.

 Both lock her away in a cage.  Jing, appropriately while in the actual Dragon Bone Prison, locks her into a figurative prison with his 15 year agreement and declaration of love.

 Both feed her poison to depower and alter her physically.  

In LYF, love is referred to as a poison. Jing feeds her his version of love and the hope of a future that he fails to deliver, which ends up doing a similar thing the 8 tailed fox's poisons did, messing up her meridians, and she ends up coughing up blood and being debilitated.  In the book, I believe, she even ends up with a heart condition from the heart ache and can't sleep.
 Now, the rest of the comparison is not as clear to me, since season 2 hasn't been released and I haven't read the book.   

However, the connection to the 8 tailed fox has to be broken, and Jing has to become less demon and the more 'human' 17, before XY can fully accept him and they go off to their HE.  And this is literally what happens.  His tails are stripped from him.  His responsibilities are stripped from him: his wife and grandmother and brother die, then he dumps the kid and his clan.  He dies and is resurrected as 17, but also depowered.  But for the most part these are not sacrifices for others he makes, but actions others take.

 XL has a similar transformation and duality, but an empowering role.

 

We don't know as much about the snake demon that XY encountered before, but obviously he mirrors XL.  He was her companion and alleviated her loneliness in the wilderness, as XL did for XY.  He even dies for XY while she's imprisoned by the 8 tailed fox, as XL will sacrifice a life for XY trying to free her and Jing of his Fox Demon.  And of course, both start out as a demon ignorant of many human feelings.

XL cultivates (gains spiritual power and "humanity") by eating poison.  For him, poison (love) is empowering, not depowering, so his love for XY is also empowering, not depowering.  For him, love allows him to experience human emotions, that as a demon he didn't have.  Of course the poision XY makes for XL throughout their relationship is the only expression of love that they can share openly.

Like Jing, he also gives her his poison (love), which alters her physically, but unlike Jing, his love empowers her with the ability to breath water, and gives her the oceans.



Like Jing, he has to lose his demon side and become fully 'human,'  which he does by killing off his heads, one by one, but for others, in actions and sacrifices that XL makes. So appropriately,  snake like, he sheds his bad karma and isn't resurrected to the same world, but reaches an empowered state.”

Wow, I love this. Definitely don’t be like Xiao Yao. I still maintain that she should have ended up alone. It would have been truly empowering.

 windiaaa041293:

Xiaoyao's real growth and breakthrough begins with the ending.

So true! Although it isn't in the novel, I hope that in S2 of the drama, TH wraps the story up by showing us XY's real transformation into someone who is emotionally and mentally healthy. At least, this will justify XL's efforts. Being with Jing as is, will probably create another generation and cycle of toxicity.