#deming chen

[toutirabienpeutetre]

Blue Bloods

[venator-martin]

Could you write and/or make something about Deming? :) I'm honestly shocked that there are barely any posts of her in the tag but I guess that's because she's a POC character and they get overlooked by fandoms a lot. I saw one of your posts you mentioning that you think she's overlooked so I wanted to know if you had more to say about her :)

HI YES PLEASE LET’S TALK ABOUT DEMING because I love her and she was one of the first Chinese girls with point-of-view chapters I’d ever read in YA (although to be fair I don’t read nearly as much of it anymore and I feel like there is a lot more conversation about representation in the genre than when Blue Bloods was still being written but still). I wish there was more of her than what we got in Misguided Angel (I guess we got some of her in Lost in Time too, but I felt like her story in LiT got overshadowed by Mimi, Allegra, and Schuyler there) because there was a lot of room for development. WHERE WERE THE SWEET MOMENTS BETWEEN HER AND TED. WHERE WERE THE SISTER MOMENTS BETWEEN HER AND DEHUA. WHY COULDN’T WE HAVE HAD MORE NEPHILIM HUNTING. I like to think that Mel had planned more of those moments when she envisioned the series as 9 books instead of 7 because Deming had so much potential.

In terms of her race specifically, I thought Mel did a fantastic job representing heritage without tokenizing her, because as much as being Chinese is a part of who Deming is, her character itself is not centered around it. She is a Venator above all else, and her ability to adapt to all of the challenges thrown at her makes her very good at her job. She worked her way through Duchesne’s social scene like she’d always belonged, and even though she faces a number of setbacks she is able to pull through and get the job done. We hear secondhand about how Kingsley infiltrated Duchesne in Masquerade, but Deming’s POV chapters in Misguided are the first insider look at how Venators operate and how ruthless they are. 

Her mini almost-tryst with Paul was so fascinating because for a while Deming really toys with the idea of falling for him but it doesn’t actually go anywhere, a huge contrast to the other romantic relationships which are about going all the way and giving everything for it even if there’s a chance it won’t work out (Schuyler/Jack, Mimi/Kingsley, Schuyler/Oliver, Bliss/Dylan, Mimi/Jack, Allegra/Charles, etc.) The thing about Deming’s “love” plot is that it isn’t the central force driving her narrative but rather it’s something that demonstrates her character: yes, she’s fallible to falling in love with the boy with sleepy eyes at the library at sunrise, but he doesn’t become her everything even when she tells him she loves him in spite of all the deceit and betrayal he commits. 

ANYWAY please keep talking to me about Deming/tell me specific things/really just any character because 8 years after I first started reading these books I love this series so much :’)

[venator-martin]

how did you feel about the ending of the series in Gates of Paradise? particularly the deaths of (correct me if I'm wrong) Dehua and Ted. I felt like the final battle could have been a lot better, even the deaths felt underwhelming.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the finale. On one hand, I really loved Schuyler’s sacrifice and how Michael had to make the same choice all those years ago but failed to do what she did—that was one of my favorite moments in the entire series. But on the other hand, the rest of the battle was pretty underwhelming for everyone else. Maybe it’s because there was so much emphasis on the revelation of Michael and Gabrielle’s past and what Schuyler’s role really was that nothing else really seemed to leave an impression, but when I go back and reread the ending I can’t help but to feel it could have been executed better.

And you’re right, Dehua and Ted are the ones who get killed. “Of the Venators, both Sam and Deming had lost their twin" is how it’s phrased in the book, and I even had to look it up to confirm because this was pretty much the only comment we got on their fates. I think one of the problems in literature in general is giving twins their own identities so it’s easy to confuse one twin for another. When I first read Gates, I had to take a moment to remember which Lennox twin Deming was bonded to because I had so little emotional attachment to them as individual characters. I think that’s what happened with the deaths in the finale in general: there hadn’t been enough development of the side/non-PoV characters for them to grow on us that when they died, their deaths don’t impact us emotionally the same way as Jack and Mimi’s (ultimately fake) deaths did. 

This isn’t to say there weren’t any tragic deaths in the series though—Cordelia, Lawrence and Dylan come to mind for characters who were well developed and loved. It’s just in comparison, no one *really* died in the finale that hurt. (Sometimes I like to pretend the epilogue didn’t happen though, kind of like how I do for the epilogue to Harry Potter, in which case I feel bittersweet about Jack’s passing.) But that’s the struggle, isn’t it? Audiences generally like happy endings, and it takes a lot of bravery on the author’s part to kill off a well loved character. 

[venator-martin]

I've always liked Schuyler, but her chapters became more dreary when she went to find the Gate of Promise with Jack. Now that she'll be venturing without Jack, I'm excited for her chapters in the next book.I support Jack/Schuyler but I just would like for their relationship to be more... alive. They don't fight at all and I find it odd. Also, Deming's become my favorite character in there and I'd just LOVE to see Sam and Deming's relationship. (I wish they'd shown more between the two of them.)

yeah, I'm really excited for Schuyler/Oliver/Kingsley! (Kingsley is a favorite. Obviously, haha). I honestly feel like Jack/Schuyler are overdone at times--they're so serious with each other! It was more fun when they flirted in Blue Bloods and Masquerade, but now it's all about the legacy.

And yes! I feel like Deming gets overlooked by the fan base all the time. I actually loved her story in Misguided Angel with Paul and how she's so fierce in Lost in Time. I actually really want to see some Deming/Kingsley interactions in Gates of Paradise just because Deming looks up to Kingsley for being one of the best Venators and it'd be a reunion for Sam/Ted and their boss :D

[authormelissadelacruz]

Answer to last night's Guess The Quote: Deming Chen, pg. 221, Misguided Angel. :)

[authormelissadelacruz]

Answer to today's trivia: We first meet Deming Chen in Masquerade at the Four Hundred Ball!

[authormelissadelacruz]

Reblog if you love Deming and Dehua Chen!