[SPOILERS] THIS POST will Make You Appreciate Shi Ying's Character Even More

I don't think I will ever be able to shut up about the nuance of Shi Ying as a character and the one reason why I think I was able to pick up on a lot of subtleties after my first watch is because he is actually very similar to my all-time favorite anime character Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. I'm a super huge Bleach fan so I LOVE listening to character analysis videos on Youtube and I just remember being so surprised how Shi Ying's character development closely mirrored Ichigo's. Both of these male protagonists have had their character development scrutinized and misconstrued for their simple premise therefore only fans willing to look deeper are able to appreciate what their character is truly meant to represent. These two characters' motivation is not goal-oriented and their growth is layered underneath the events of the story which makes it pretty easy for people to write off their characters as boring or uninteresting. However the true appeal of characters like Ichigo and Shi Ying is breaking down their journey of self-acceptance of their dual lives. His character journey is not defined by him successfully reaching a single goal. His endgame goal is not to become the strongest priest cultivator OR settle down with the one he falls for. So if we judge Shi Ying's value based on how well he achieves ONE of these outcomes then we are missing the purpose of his character. These two paths are merely the driving forces that help him to find balance between the identity he was born with and the identity he was given out of unfortunate circumstances. To properly appreciate Shi Ying's character we need to see his journey in a different light. Shi Ying's character development is not just about how he leaves priesthood to be with Zhu Yan. His development is centered around how he comes to terms with who he is and how he balances his dual life as a priest cultivator and a crown prince.

Where I think it's easy for viewers to miss the point of his character is that they judge his decisions or growth based on the one path they WANT him to take. What I mean is that people tend to assign his actions  to whichever role he is assuming at the time and this fixation on one side of him makes people undermine the value of the other. BUT BOTH OF THESE SIDES ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Or if you're like I was initially you just want to see how all his actions lead to him eventually getting with the girl then alot of stuff gets overlooked and that open ending may or may not leave you disappointed. But that is all because most first time watchers were judging Shi Ying's ending based on how far he got with his love life that was more pain than peaceful times. So yeah if someone's  evaluation of Shi Ying's journey was solely based on how fulfilling his romance with Zhu Yan is then their overall opinion of how they handled Shi Ying's story will not be favorable. With the way things are set up for his character his arcs appear to be split up in stages of priest(no love) and not priest(love). HOWEVER we all know how unbalanced these two stages are within the story and I boil it down to episode # constraints and the writing choices that could not be abandoned in accordance to the novel.  I won't be denying the disproportionate  development of the plot and actual romance but I'm just working with what we got and I think that the 35/40 episodes it takes for him to learn his lesson was necessary to show the full scope of his growth.  For this reason they had to stay committed to the long buildup that leads to the Sea Emperor showdown. They could not have the main couple get together until they resolved their own problems that were entwined with the main conflict. Yes some fluff padding in between his confession and Zhi Yuan's return would have been nice for pacing but I just see any cuts to the Sea Emperor arc being non-negotiable without damaging the overall plot and most importantly Shi Ying's characterization. But that could be a discussion for another day. 

I just suggest that after completing the drama we should not be looking at his character development as distinct stages of before and after embracing love because his story is actually a lot more complex than that. Throughout the whole show his actions are actually influenced by the two identities he's been given, it is just that in some moments one takes priority over the other and the dude likes to say the opposite of what he feels. Think of it as a balance scale and the two sides are priest vs prince. Shi Ying's desire to protect the world is associated with him being a priest cultivator and the desire to be with his loved one is associated with him being a mortal/crown prince. Both interests are seen as two conflicting paths that he thinks ONLY ONE identity can fulfill at the expense of the other. What TLP wants us to take away from Shi Ying is that he will ultimately learn that his two identities were never meant to overpower the other to fulfill one of his desires. They were always meant to co-exist and complement each other just like Yin and Yang and only when they properly co-exist can Shi Ying fulfill all of his goals without any restrictions.

The main point of Shi Ying's internal conflict is that he thinks he cannot perform his duty to protect the people AND pursue his own desires to love AT THE SAME TIME. How he overcomes this struggle is what we should really be analyzing from Shi Ying's character. His before/after growth is not meant to be solely distinguished by the phases he denies and embraces love otherwise it's gonna really be a skewed ratio of development as I just pointed out. The clashing of priest/crown prince identities is not just the obstacle that prevents Shi Ying to act on his feelings of love because he should be seen as more than the male lead who falls in love. The reason I think it takes a long time for the romance to come to fruition is because the drama really wanted to hammer it in that Shi Ying's dedication to protecting others is his own personal obligation and not just a priestly duty like he wants us to think. To me the short amount of time we actually see the main couple peacefully love each other was meant to be one of his personal rewards for learning his huge life lesson but not necessarily the endgame the plot or viewers had in mind for him. TLP really emphasizes that his two roles were  meant to exist in harmony because we get a taste of how embracing ONLY ONE identity always conflicts with his current priorities and interests. This show LOVES to use the concept of opposing forces/duality as a storytelling device and Shi Ying's journey to find the balance between his two identities is just one of the many examples. 

For most of the show Shi Ying uses his priest duty as the reason why he CANNOT embrace love which is his whole inner conflict of 19-28. I'm not kidding when I say I've seen people take his stubbornness and resistance to Zhu Yan's interactions in this investigation arc as confirmation that being a priest is his true calling...Yeah just no. He is still harboring feelings for Zhu Yan he is just trying his best to bury them until he cannot anymore. I have seen people get so attached to his powerful righteous priest setup they think is the best fit for him. By the time the storm clears up they feel bothered with how he appears to throw everything away for love when it is way deeper than that. And that is why I said viewers shouldn’t get so caught up in labeling his decisions to be motivated by priest duty or love. When he steps away from priesthood after the whole Sea Emperor debacle and defaults to his original Crown Prince role he has to lose his cultivation but he thinks it is all good for the sake of love. However not so soon after he's powerless against Xu Yao/Zhi Yuan without the cultivation that was linked with his priest cultivator life. So he originally thought that quitting priesthood to be with his loved one fulfilled his self-interests the best but now he can't protect Zhu Yan or the world like he once could. Zhu Yan's magical paper bird that helps him regain his powers could be seen as the power of love being the catalyst for Shi Ying to embrace his true self because his loved one is in danger. Having the power to protect people is what Shi Ying was always destined for since he was born. His short-lived peaceful time as a mortal was just another lesson for him that trading off his cultivation for love was not his true purpose like he assumed as he was reminded of the great danger that still remains. There's still unfinished business threatening the fate of the world and now he has the full power to settle it once and for all. And that is why the final fight is really the culmination for Shi Ying's development because it is the only time where his two identities do not conflict with his own interests--he gets to protect the people and the world as a priest cultivator/crown prince but is also fighting hand in hand with the love of his life Zhu Yan. EVERYTHING FINALLY BALANCES OUT. NO MORE SACRIFICES OR TRADE-OFFS. He and Zhu Yan share a common goal as cultivators and lovers and there is no more interference or restrictions now that his two identities are working in harmony to fulfill his goals. He and Zhu Yan are successful in the end because he gets to finally experience the best of both worlds after all the struggles he went through. The cultivation powers he developed during his time as a priest give him the means to act on his innate desire to protect people and that duty to protect has been amplified even more by the love and other emotions he has experienced with Zhu Yan throughout the story. Everything that makes Shi Ying who he really is is represented by the greatest qualities he gained as a priest cultivator and the crown prince that finally mesh together. Shi Ying becomes his fully realized self by the end of the drama because he is no longer incentivized by the given labels of priest cultivator or Crown Prince. He is there to protect the world with Zhu Yan and chooses to do what he believes is right as HIMSELF, just Shi Ying who can finally follow his own heart. 

It is very important for the drama to show that he does not sacrifice any core characteristics or values just because he fell in love. A well-written character is one who maintains their core values but becomes wiser from their experiences and love should be an empowering force but not overwrite everything that was established. Others might not like this slow and drawn-out direction it took to get the true romance but I think his self-acceptance arc is absolutely necessary to make the romance pay off. He embraced all good/bad aspects of himself the more he became involved with Zhu Yan which shows that without her he would have never reached his true potential if she never stumbled back into his life. His motivations are never exactly one-dimensional like he wants them to appear because the whole point is that he's hiding his true desires behind his priestly duty and was dishonest to himself, the characters and the viewers. He wants everyone to think he's fine with being a priest and needs nothing else but the point is that HE ISN'T. He's just living with a false sense of optimism and therefore needs the call to action to wake him up. I also like how he doesn't completely do everything out of love--almost every decision he makes throughout the story is driven by a combination of his duty and growing care for Zhu Yan. As a Crown Prince who was raised to one day rule Kong Sang he was expected to protect his people as it was also a duty instilled to him by his mother. It is just that throughout the story his reasons for upholding his duty get a bit muddled when he takes on a priest persona and it is not until he actually has more people to care about in his life does he really gain a more personal incentive to protect his world. Protecting others becomes more than just a duty he was assigned since birth and is even more reinforced as Shi Ying's core values. The two personal motivations of duty and love were meant to always co-exist and not be some kind of trade-off/sacrifice and not seeing Shi Ying as a character with a dual life is how most viewers miss out on his development. They always make him out to be driven by one thing or the other and this can leave viewers dissatisfied if they only look at his endgame from one angle. The long slowburn romance was written to be deeply entwined with the main plot events to teach Shi Ying that he actually CAN have duty and love existing at the same time contrary to his original belief and he only learns this once he becomes completely honest with himself.

Like I said in my first paragraph Shi Ying's journey to self-acceptance is very similar to Ichigo's where they learn how to balance the different identities they gain in their lives. It's just that Bleach has the luxury of having 698 chapters to thoroughly explore Ichigo's journey in designated arcs while TLP only had 40 episodes and was restricted by the story writing decision to have Shi Ying's big lesson to closely tie in with 35 episodes of plot buildup. Just as an example both Shi Ying and Ichigo have an arc where they lose their powers and for Shi Ying it lasts for a couple episodes while Ichigo is powerless for 24 episodes. Both arcs have the same message for their respective protagonists but it's just not so easy to figure out Shi Ying's lesson because of his short time as a mortal. It is what it is but if I'm here typing a whole essay then that means the execution wasn't entirely lost if you know where to look. And being a big Bleach fan already provided a blueprint for me to follow when dissecting Shi Ying's character so I'd like to thank the anime analysis videos for existing. Thank you for reading even though most people have moved on to get ready for Sunshine By My Side coming out on September 1st  but there is still always going to be many things I can talk about when it comes to The Longest Promise. I just can't move on especially when there is still much confusion to be cleared on sites like reddit or mdl because there will always be first time watchers who will need help in figuring out this drama.