#look i normally treat canon role assignments with 'i cant see suddenly i dont know' attitude. and my personal hc is that they switch.

[verycharismaticdragon]

Ok, not trying to disc any horses or anything, and regardless of my personal headcanons, but: I think the ~Official~ bedroom roles assignment for WenZhou makes a lot of sense in the context of their character arcs.

For Zhou Zishu, the relation to his character development is encapsulated in this sentence: “For the first time in his entire life, he was handing himself over to someone else without any defenses.” (extra 1, tl chichi)

Due to his background, Zhou Zishu is used to keeping himself under tight control. His feelings, desires, impulses, actions he wanted to take – all had to be weighted against his goals and responsibilities. Even – especially – the goals and responsibilities he set for himself, such as seeing Helian Yi to the seat of the Emperor. This has served him well in accomplishing that, but… not in his personal life.

In Tian Ya Ke, when Zhou Zishu decides he has contributed enough to the country, when he leaves to be as free as possible during the years he has left – finally something he does not for any grand goal but entirely for himself – that habit of control becomes a limitation instead. Over the course of the novel, much of Zishu’s journey is about slowly working those shackles off – realizing that he doesn’t have to fake politeness, he doesn’t have to care about politics, he doesn’t have to play a long game, he doesn’t need to be an observer in his own life… and realizing that if he chooses to trust someone, it will not necessarily hurt him or otherwise end badly.

So when he ‘hands himself over to someone else without any defenses’, it is yet another step of relinquishing control he is used to having, but no longer needs or even particularly wants.

Wen Kexing’s situation is different in that in all of his life, he’d never been in control. I know, I know, he’s been the Valley Master and everything, but that’s not what I mean. Starting from his parents’ death, all of his choices had to prioritise survival, then vengeance. Even after becoming the Valley Master, his much-talked-about insanity is actually just a mix of trying, on purpose, to seem scarier than he is (feels), and the out-of-control, amped up trauma response (not letting anyone but Gu Xiang closer than one meter to his person…c’mon). And that’s not starting on what’s implied to have happened to him prior to taking the position. Zhou Zishu is helping Helian Yi because he wants to and thinks it’s a right thing to do; Wen Kexing becomes the Valley Master to claw out just a little bit of safety for himself, just to be able to set his own boundaries; they’re not the same. We joke about Wen Kexing’s brothel world tour after leaving the Ghost Valley, but that is the first time in his life he gets to explore sex in a safe environment he feels in control of, the first time he gets to have preferences.

Now, in context of his relationship with Zhou Zishu: many have noticed that Wen Kexing seemed not to show any preference in earlier flirting, but later shifted to insisting on topping. I genuinely think that he’d be fine with either role – because it’s Zishu, and Wen Kexing trusts that he’s safe with Zishu. It’s just that, with time, he realizes that in these relationship, he can have a preference and even insist on it, and it won’t affect the way Zishu feels about him, even if Zishu doesn’t agree. Once again, Zhou Zishu is not afraid of even the most undiluted version of him.

Lastly… I know this isn’t the way most people interpret it, but I believe Wen Kexing did not in fact expect that ‘having a little breakdown’ will turn out to be the button that makes free sex fall out (obviously once he finds out he’s not above using that knowledge; I just think it wasn’t premediated). But whichever it was, I think that for Wen Kexing, with his implied backstory, having a partner who upon seeing his distress will concede full control of the interaction to him… would mean a lot.

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- tyk meta masterpost -