Let's talk more about Lan Zhan's reaction when he found out the truth about WY's golden core because that scene will haunt me forever
Anon, you can’t do this to me… episode 46 is my kryptonite, the episode that fucked me up unlike any other. We might as well retitle it to “WangXian” or something.
But on to your ask… will I ever shut up about LZ’s reaction to the truth about WY’s core? Absolutely not, because 1) if that scene didn’t show you just how much LZ cares about WY, I don’t know what will and 2) Wang Yibo nailed LZ’s expressions, like I actually have nothing more to ask for.
First things first, we all know that LZ’s not one to be super expressive. Throughout the series, he’s shown the most reaction to WY and even then, a lot of time, he’s still the unflappable ice prince we’ve all come to love.
However, when JC pulled out Suibian, we can see by his slightly widened eyes and furrowed brows that he’s starting to piece together a few pieces of the puzzle (and he’s not liking the picture it shows one bit). It’s important to note that LZ knew pretty instantly the implications of pulling out Suibian because 1) JGY pretty much confirmed Suibian sealed itself and only WY can unsealed it and 2) he’s personally tried to pull out Suibian multiple times and failed.
Then, when WN finally drops the bomb that the golden core swirling inside of JC is actually WY’s, LZ’s face pretty much sums up all of our feelings. The horror at his suspicions being confirmed, the implications of what they meant slowly settling in… we’ve only seen LZ display his emotions so obviously on a few very rare occasions, so this makes this entire scene even more impactful.
Another detail I noted was the duality in LZ’s emotions. When he’s looking at the scene happening between JC and WN, he is both shocked and horrified. However, when he turns to look at the person in his arms, his face is a lot softer which mirrors the emotions he’s feeling for WY.
Although never explicitly stated, one can make a bunch of assumptions about what exactly his expression meant: you can say that it shows barely suppressed sadness at the thought that WY suffered alone, that it shows regret for not being there when WY was alone, that he’s reevaluating what he knows about WY, and all of these would be accurate. But one thing remains certain: the tears he shed were not for himself but for WY. He’s crying for all the pain WY endured in silence, the unfair hand Fate dealt him that he didn’t deserve.
Another thing to talk about is the boat scene afterwards. When LZ thinks about core transfer, he doesn’t care about how it was done, the skills required. No, what he cares about is whether or not WY was in pain during the operation. When WN said that WY had to remain conscious during the entire process, LZ can do nothing but clench his teeth silently as he watched the unconscious WY.
When he asks about the chances of success, he does so in a resigned manner, like he knows that given WY’s character, he would have accept the operation even if the probabilities were not the best. WN’s answer of 50% nonetheless surprised and horrified LZ because even if he knew the odds were likely not the greatest, he also didn’t expect it to be only half. It’s even more meaningful once you realize that LZ understood that he had been that close to losing WY all those years ago and he wasn’t even aware of it.
Finally, I can’t exactly talk about this scene without adding a comment about how careful LZ was with WY. While WY was unconscious, you can pretty much use the word “cradle” to describe the way LZ was holding WY.
Even after WY woke up, LZ made sure to support him gently as he got up and if you watch the scene, you can see LZ’s hand never leaving WY’s arm even after WY was stable. It’s as if LZ couldn’t bare the thought of not touching WY.
All in all, episode 46 was everything I could have asked for. LZ in the live action is a lot more expressive than LZ in the novel in the way that his emotions are less subtle. Rather than say that Yibo has a poor understanding of LZ, I would say that Yibo took LZ’s character and made it his own because everything he did in this scene made sense.
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