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

[trobadora]

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.

That rings very true to me!

Shen Wei does recognise there's something wrong with Zhang Ruonan, though. He doesn't realise that it's connected to the crime, or what's actually going on, but he does try to talk to her, doesn't he?

(And I don't think the Zhu Hong situation quite counts because half the reason he's not good at comforting her over being in love with Zhao Yunlan is that he is in love with Zhao Yunlan, and he has what she can't have. That would be awkward for anyone.)

[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.

[china_shop]

*nodnod* I thought his defence of the rapist student was also partly a(n unfortunately misjudged) dig at ZYL for being so suspicious of everyone, including Shen Wei.

But yes, he's not always the best judge of character -- see also his on-going communication with the Zheng Yi's abusive stepfather. It's understandable (they probably only ever talked about their research, and Shen Wei would have no reason to suspect), but especially in TV land, it speaks to Shen Wei's being not the most discerning.

[winter_blossom]

Hmm...yeah, Shen Wei's people skills are certainly lacking, or more like, he just doesn't seem to understand Haixingren motivations, emotions, or even human society in general. Which is kind of obvious, imo, since he isn't Haixingren, he didn't grow up around ordinary people and was an orphan from a young age (probably a child soldier), and ever since he came up top has likely been keeping himself aloof from Haixingren unless he was required to interact with them for the sake of either his BCE or professorial duties.

But funnily enough, even though Yun Lan excels above him vastly when it come to casual societal interactions and figuring out suspects, when it comes to long-term relationships I get the feeling that he'd be no better than Shen Wei, or maybe even worse. His problems connecting with Zhu Hong, Chu Shuzi and his dad until he was practically forced into it by supernatural circumstances kind of proves that, imo. But then again, he's a guy, and you can't really expect heartfelt conversations or proper expressions of affection out of a guy anyway XD

[qikiqtarjuaq]

To me a big part of Shen Wei's inability to connect with people, even people like his old friend Dr. Cheng and Li Qian, despite caring for them - is that to connect and comfort people requires a level of open-ness and vulnerability that Shen Wei is not willing to show anyone except Zhao Yunlan. And even with Zhao Yunlan, he doesn't always get it right.

[lynndyre]

I love ZYL's people skills! He's so good at being whatever he needs to be to draw people into whatever reaction he needs to see. (I also love Shen Wei's well-intentioned but very hit-and-miss abilities. He can't be good at everything!)

[unrelaxing]

I agree with this! Also the depth of emotion Yunlan has about people's lives differ from Shen Wei, too. He obviously cares about people, too, but he's also distant from those feelings; both approaches are correct in different times - can't imagine Yunlan's approach would work in old Haixing, for example.