I feel like in many ways, Luo Binghe and Yue Qingyuan can be viewed as interesting foils to one another and that dynamic seems to be underexplored to a degree (in hindsight after writing this I think it’s just an interesting topic that is mostly considered by the fandom but I’ll just add a bit of spice).
Yue Qingyuan is physically stronger. In a fair fight, Luo Binghe couldn’t get the upper hand and in PIDW resorted to underhanded tactics to ambush and kill him, using Shen Jiu as bait.
As far as swords go, Xin Mo and Xuan Su are game breaking power ups with extremely detrimental side effects—one at the cost of Yue Qingyuan’s life force and the other at the cost of Luo Binghe’s mental and emotional stability. In the framework of parallels, what one has in spades the other lacks. Luo Binghe has extreme vitality because of his constitution as a half-Heavenly Demon, whereas Yue Qingyuan’s stable older brother persona and immutable guilt is unaffected by external factors. Regardless of how poorly Shen Qingqiu treats him, he will always feel indebted to him for events that transpired in their pasts.
Both have an inextricable relationship to Shen Qingqiu. One failed him, and one was a child who he failed as a master. Their fates were determined by their relation to him, one might say. And after QiJiu’d red string is severed, BingQiu’s is forged in its stead, and while Yue Qingyuan’s destiny is tragic in both PIDW and SVSSS, Luo Binghe gets his happy end because of Shen Yuan’s integration and interference.
I don’t actually know where I’m going with this. I just had the thoughts and wanted to share.
