drive-by Guardian thoughts

[riventhorn]

 I was watching ep 3 today, and was struck once again by ZYL's people skills. The first time he meets Professor Zhang, he notes how she is overly apologetic and connects that to either low self esteem or past trauma. In contrast, Shen Wei keeps insisting that she has nothing to do with the crime, and that one of the three students who we find out later was involved in raping Professor Zhang is a "sincere and warm" person. ZYL comments that although Shen Wei has studied many living things, he is lacking in the area of studying human beings. 

Other moments also support the idea that Shen Wei does not always have great interpersonal skills. For example, the way he "comforts" Zhu Hong about her unrequited feelings for ZYL. I think he is really trying to comfort her, but is obviously doing a terrible job. 

However, I think his relationship with Li Qian is quite different in this respect. He notices that she is stressed and unhappy; he finds ways to comfort her about her grandmother, etc.  And of course, his relationship with ZYL, where he is quite observant of ZYL's emotions. 

So, I'm interpreting Shen Wei as the sort of person who does better in long-lasting, deep relationships where he spends a lot of time with an individual and comes to know them and feel comfortable with them, as opposed to ZYL who can connect with people much faster. For this interpretation, I am assuming that Shen Wei has known Li Qian for a while and she has been his grad assistant for a while too. 

In a related note, I love how swiftly Shen Wei becomes super concerned over Zhao Yunlan's health. We're only on ep 3, but Shen Wei is already chastising ZYL for eating sweets when he has a cold. <3<3<3

Comments

[extrapenguin]

Shen Wei is indeed not the best at reading people! (Though wrt the rapist dude, I'd defend him just a bit; it's not like he's had much opportunity to interact with him after Teacher Zhang asked to switch classes...) He also straight-up pushes Zhao Yunlan to comfort Dr. Cheng after Zu Ma's death, despite Dr. Cheng being his longterm friend whom Zhao Yunlan has spent less than 6 hours in the presence of. Oh, and he thinks "Don't worry, I'm used to getting hurt!" is supposed to be reassuring. His suboptimal childhood and the whole "time travel 10k years into the future" shows up in how he has trouble interacting with the hoomans on occasion.

As for Li Qian, well, he must be a newly-minted Professor, so she's likely his very first postgrad. It's apparently a bit like parenthood; mild overprotectiveness and excess concern is to be expected. I don't recall whether we get any other examples of him really interacting with a junior – though he's certainly responsible enough with the students on the field trip.

[rheasilvia]

+1

I don't think there's any special explanation needed for the fact that Shen Wei isn't as good at reading people as Zhao Yunlan, though. He's well within the "normal" range; he isn't particularly terrible, just not always the most observant, sometimes uncomfortable, and sometimes a little block-headed and lost for the perfect thing to say (particularly when his own emotions are involved). All of that is very human, IMO. It's a little unfair to judge him by Zhao Yunlan's standards! ;-)

In most situations, Shen Wei is actually very charming and competent at interacting with people - more so than could be expected from your standard edition biology professor, even. ;-)

[riventhorn]

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Shen Wei isn't within the normal range of human interactions or that there was something wrong with him. I was thinking of it more as "Shen Wei strikes me as very introverted and would feel more comfortable with fewer but very strong relationships" as opposed to a more extroverted personality.

[rheasilvia]

I agree! That's how I read your entry, too; that part of my reply was in response to extrapenguin ("His suboptimal childhood and the whole "time travel 10k years into the future" shows up in how he has trouble interacting with the hoomans on occasion"). Sorry, I should have quoted!

Interestingly, I also see Zhao Yunlan as being introverted at heart, despite his high comfort and skill levels with other people, and all of his networking, general bonhomie and sociability. He has extremely few close relationships - only Da Qing, before Shen Wei comes along. He doesn't show his true self more easily than Shen Wei; in fact, his extroverted, casual, flippant and thoughtless ways are a protective facade, in many ways.

But that is a different topic! :-)

[riventhorn]

You're right--his public persona is very much about protecting himself and making it seem like everything is all right. We also never really get to see ZYL interacting with potential friends he might have outside of SID. Because the SID employees are also his subordinates and people he feels he needs to protect--kind of like Shen Wei and Li Qian.

[winter_blossom]

Interestingly, I also see Zhao Yunlan as being introverted at heart, despite his high comfort and skill levels with other people, and all of his networking, general bonhomie and sociability. He has extremely few close relationships - only Da Qing, before Shen Wei comes along. He doesn't show his true self more easily than Shen Wei; in fact, his extroverted, casual, flippant and thoughtless ways are a protective facade, in many ways.

This is exactly how I see it, too! In the novel they even go out of their way to mention it, and while I don't see very many similarities between either of the two protagonists' drama and novel selves, this is one aspect of ZYL's personality that I think they lifted wholesale from the source material, but which you wouldn't really notice without the benefit of actually being inside his headspace.

[extrapenguin]

Oh, yes, Shen Wei is very much better at human-ing than certain biology professors - he's not a wanky fuck who has feuds over mitochondria, he is capable of basic human interaction, he cares about things beyond his research - but when we get out of his comfort zone of how to be a human in academia, if he can't do a quick swap into the Envoy mask, he cracks in, ah, interesting ways. Like "I'm used to being hurt." He's learned to fake it and he now makes it, but he is still a space alien from 10k years ago, and that shows. (If he hadn't been handicapped like that, either he'd be a bit better due to being able to relate more instinctually to people's backgrounds, or he'd be worse due to not having to study human interaction.)

[rheasilvia]

he's not a wanky fuck who has feuds over mitochondria

LOL!! I love that - and now I really want to see the other professor in the department who IS the mitochondria-feuding wanky fuck. ;-)

Also, I have Shen Wei writing a paper about mitochondria in story #1 - I hope his colleague doesn't disagree with his conclusions!! ;-)

[riventhorn]

I thought with the Dr. Cheng moment that he was pushing ZYL to do it because he felt uncomfortable with doing it himself?

The junior/senior, mentor/mentee relationship does play into it I'm sure. I imagine he would have been really great with Xiao Guo if they'd had longer to interact at SID.

[firestar]

I generally see this moment as he doesn't know how to deal with someone who's crying, which is not an uncommon reaction. I mean, I guess he's used to a certain amount of teary, stressed students - especially come dissertation/exam time* - but faced with someone - even someone who's a friend - having an outwardly emotional reaction to grief, he's pretty much 'oh no, tears, panic stations, what do???' I mean, he dealt with his own grief in a 'conceal, don't feel' way, which is the exact opposite.

Also, I think it's less 'doesn't know how to human', because he's always worked with humans to a greater or lesser extent even 10k years ago and more that he has to hide so much of himself now, as well as being hella introverted, and it all kinda... clashes sometimes.

*Besides, I think academic breakdowns he can handle and can help students through, it's more personal pain that is difficult.

[rheasilvia]

I think it's less 'doesn't know how to human', because he's always worked with humans to a greater or lesser extent even 10k years ago and more that he has to hide so much of himself now, as well as being hella introverted, and it all kinda... clashes sometimes.

This! Yes, that's exactly how I read it, as well.