the reason that kuai liang cannot work as scorpion is because kuai liang and scorpion are foils to each other in terms of how they handle their emotions.
scorpion is all-consuming rage, rage that blinds him and harms others for the sake of revenge- not justice. kuai liang, though well capable of feeling anger, has a hold of his anger. he can contain himself from exacting revenge because it is not what drives his character.
kuai liang’s role of scorpion makes him a very strange mash of two very opposite characters. we see scorpion’s rage unsheathe itself as he begins beating his enemies with his own chains, and even attempt to kill bi-han because he is so fueled by his own anger which blinds him to the consequences of killing his brother. kuai liang shows his character when after beating bi-han, he does not harm him further, but carries his body back to the temple. he spares his own brother as kuai liang would do, but scorpion’s character is gone as scorpion is hellbent on vengeance- meanwhile kuai liang isn’t.
we could see kuai liang work through his anger, bring himself to slowly forgive bi-han, but with that happening, where would scorpion go? we can see scorpion never forgive bi-han, instead constantly fueled by the pain that is his father’s death and brother’s betrayal, but then where would kuai liang go?
these characters cannot exist as each other, these characters are meant to exist by each other.
