TL;CR MEME

[retellers]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Suffer as we have suffered over your CR.

Comments

[dianxias]

i just read your spoiler recap so i actually want to do yours first because i was suddenly struck with emotions.

TEAM "WE CAN'T LET THE MAGICAL GIRLS DO A MURDER" HERE TO REPRESENT

it's crazy how soowon and xl actually ended up having a lot of similarities. oh my god there are two of them. I KNOW WE JOKE ABOUT IT, BUT JESUS, it's what made them so interesting, i think!!! because at their cores they are wildly similar and wildly different at the same time. the biggest thing is that love of people! xie lian was just immediately endeared to soo-won when they had their deep philosophical talk in week 0 (i hate you) and especially when they talked about being a merchant vs being a king.

i think that their mindsets are really similar in a lot of ways, though xl is less pragmatic than soo-won is. at their cores though they're both two smarter-than-they-seem royal boys (crown prince matchies) who just fucking LOVE the people and want to do the best they can for them, whatever that might mean. he really was absolutely ready to go accomplice with him on a stab. like really. Really ready. because ultimately, xl is a person who understands what needs to be done when things are bad for the good of the whole, even if he doesn't always seem that way. u___u

i keep coming back to this thread we did at the very beginning. learning that spoiler about the other king - wow that knocked me on my ass today!!! i was so delighted!!! because like, comparing the lore you gave in that plurk to this story xl told about the gods in heaven... THEY REALLY ARE THE SAME, LIKE, WOW. its so frustrating to him that the gods just sit back on their laurels and wait around or leave up decisions to chance and consider themselves so lofty - people who just sit around while others are suffering are the worst!!!!

and it also made me double glad that i shared the mem i did with soowon?! i picked that one specifically because i wanted to like, highlight his ability to make the right decision when push came to shove when it comes to violence but it tickles me now knowing some deep lore... wow.... bad kings are bad, huh

ANYWAY!!! AHH okay in terms of actual like, cr stuff, xl was really glad to learn soowoo was on his team from the beginning... he really vibed with him a lot, because of (gestures at aforementioned reasoning) and liked picking his brain. he also just really felt that sense of camaraderie with soowon over the love of people, too, because that's exactly how xl feels :sob: it was nice to be understood that way. funny when you consider the whole, god thing,

anyway.

he came to trust soo-won's decision making the most and saw him as a worthy leader - but, also as a teammate, too. it's funny because xie lian realized really fast when he was young that he was not cut out for politics... politics actually really irritated him because it felt like it was a limit on helping people? he really came to dislike his father (who was the king of xian le) because of his decision making, and it took his mom pointing out that his dad's hands were tied for him to cool off on that a little bit. even now, he'd rather help people on the ground than be up in the heavens delegating shit so!!! working with soo-won and being the one to sort of support him/help him as he gathered info/provide things (like his protect power) while soowoo had more information/did more of the heavy decision making, both for himself and for lessa, was the ideal position. it was nice how it worked out - how xl ended up kind of taking care of the internal/team gathering while soo-woo was more external? like. it just really suits them. we did so good.

also their mutual fondness for goat really helped too LOL. being able to sit there and just be like "wow goat is so nice and cute and great" together was very funny.

he does see soo-won as a very worthy leader (and by that regard, a good king), because he does certainly put his own country (or in this case, the good of the whole) first... though it comes at a detriment!

xl also thinks he's waaay too stubborn sometimes. xl is also stubborn about not sharing his own burdens with anyone but soo-won somehow manages to be even worse??? HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO BE WORSE THAN HIM, SOO-WON? IT'S A MIRACLE. when they had their "i'm really sad and i'm allowed to feel sad but i'm not going to let anyone comfort me" moments i think it showed a difference in their character, because xl definitely did let soowoo in a bit, comparatively. HE LIKE. really gets the way soo-won's head works - it makes sense to him - but i think his heart will always be too big for him to be the same. THOSE LITTLE DIFFERENCES. chef's fucking kiss.

part of that was why he wanted to talk to him just as friends the day before he died. because ultimately, he did know everything (and there's a Layer TM here about a god being omnipotent) but he chose not to tell soo-won, because he didn't want to be the one to keep him on the line of business when he was like hours from his own death. he watched the way he like compartmentalized yona's kill live and in person, and that stuck with him!! really bad! like damn he also compartmentalizes but also jesus christ soowon

i think that showed a pretty major difference in their hearts/minds also. not telling him he was splintering was definitely a bleeding heart decision on xl's end... but one he only regrets because soowon asked him not to after. HAHA.

HIS DEATH SUCKED, 0/10, ALSO. xl knew it was coming! he had literally told lessa like TWO DAYS EARLIER how it seemed like all of the goats left would make it. i apologize. xie lian really hated it... he'd come to rely on soo-won so much, and he really hated it that soowon splintered. tripping at the finish line!! but, he also knew he was going to come back really soon, so that helped. he took soo-won's note to heart about protecting goat, too. 8(

in terms of like godhood and being a god, too, i think he really appreciated that soo-won knew from the beginning that xl was a god and also just totally ignored it. he really does not want to be seen as a god as all, and so it never really bothered him that soo-won figured it out so quickly? because it was like "if he sees people as people no matter what, then i hope he will be able to apply that same logic to me" because ultimately, his godhood doesn't really matter that much. T__T

anyway i'm really happy and i understand why you came running at me with this cr. it ended up being really deep and complex and fascinating and i REALLY loved playing it out with you.

the answer to that first question "what's a god to a non-believer" turned out to be "a friend" and if that just ain't the sweetest thing. i LOVE IT. thank you for being team goat with me dana!!!!