#idk Shen yuan is my fav fucked up chew toy atm to sharpen my teeth on like a teething toy

[animefreaksince2001]

I have many thoughts about SVSSS. Are they coherent? No, but here’s another one. I’m been thinking a lot about Shen Yuan’s feelings toward Binghe lately. Specifically, his progression of feelings towards falling in love with him romantically. In the context of SVSSS series siblings, MZDS and TGCF, and also outside of it. And, I just have to ask, when tf did it happen?

I’m going to speak briefly on some spoilers here so beware if you haven’t completed the series.

Obviously I don’t think there was a definable moment in MZDS and TGCF where it showed who fell in love at what exact point except for Hua Cheng, maybe. Especially because Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian could be unreliable narrators. But Shen Yuan, imo, was the worst of them. Which caused me grief on several occasions, bless. But this also affected how the audience could see the progression of Shen Yuan’s romantic feelings bc he wanted to stick his head so deep in the sand about it. Clearly, the audience could tell that by the time Binghe was thrown in the abyss that Shen Yuan loved him, yes. Even though Shen Yuan was in denial about how hard he was grieving him, MXTX clearly let the audience have context on how the lie detector determined that was a lie. However, we never get much context on when that love for Binghe turned romantic.

Reminder, this is my opinion based off of reading SVSSS once and given myself a month or two to digest it. I personally believe from the time they reunited after the abyss and then onwards, Shen Yuan never had the chance to formulate a romantic connection with Binghe with all the misunderstandings, denial, near death, and actual deadly experiences in the way. Okay, yes, feelings never wait for the right context or situations BUT let’s ignore that for now.

I could argue right here and now it wasn’t until after the end of the “story” that Shen Yuan allowed his romantic feelings for Binghe to flourish. That he could sort through his feelings and actually engage with Binghe in a romantic context (which is an Herculean task in itself). He never had the time or space for it before with everything that was going tf on.