straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2024-06-20 06:50 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2024-06-20 06:50 pm
Entry tags:
279 | meta musings on the main SV timeline
I’ve been reading quite a bit of Scum Villain fic recently, which has once again led to me contemplating the timeline of Luo Binghe building his powerbase in the Demon Realm. Most fic seems to have set that as happening during those three years he spent in the Endless Abyss / before his reunion with Shen Qingqiu, but… I feel like that doesn’t actually make sense?
Like. Luo Binghe exits the Endless Abyss with a single goal: to establish himself as a righteous cultivator worthy of his Shizun’s regard.
Furthermore… Binghe doesn’t see his demonic bloodline as a good thing? From his perspective, it’s the reason why he was thrown into the Endless Abyss! He had a kind and loving Shizun who doted on him endlessly… only for all that kindness to turn to (apparent) hatred the moment the truth of Binghe’s bloodline became known. That’s why he’s so desperate to establish himself as a righteous cultivator—so that he can prove himself as more than his “tainted” demon bloodand get Shizun to love him again—and it gives him even less of a reason to want anything to do with that side of his heritage.
(This is also a constant theme to their miscommunication with one another during this part of the novel. SQQ assumes, without evidence, that Binghe is the mastermind behind Jinlan City and his own trial because it’s exactly the kind of thing the original Bing-ge from PIDW would have done—but Binghe, to his own despair, thinks that the reason why his Shizun is pinning the blame on him is due to his demonic heritage.)
I do frequently see fics that seem to see/treat the Endless Abyss as part of the Demon Realm, which could play a role in this near-universal assumption—if he spent those three years trying to make it out of the Demon Realm, then it would make sense that he’d build up some connections, etc. in the process—but as far as I can tell (though people are free to correct me on this), that’s not actually the case. All the descriptions I’ve found of it from canon describe it as a place between the Human Realm and the Demon Realm.
tl;dr Binghe hates his demon side (and also just himself in general, but that’s less important for this argument), his establishing a powerbase in the Demon Realm would run counter to his actual goals and motivations at this part of the timeline, and it’s possible he hadn’t even been to the Demon Realm yet
To me, it makes the most sense if Luo Binghe only began to expand his power base in the Demon Realm after SQQ’s self-destruction. At that point, his plan to win over SQQ by showing what a good and righteous cultivator is a wash—SQQ’s dead and he can’t prove anything to him. So he has a new goal—to bring SQQ back from the dead. And while a sterling reputation won’t do much to help him achieve that new goal, power and connections can.
He tries with righteous methods first—kidnapping Mu Qingfang, the foremost medical expert among human cultivators, to see if he can do anything for SQQ—but when that fails, it only makes sense for Binghe to chose that moment to finally explore the Demon Realm and what possibilities lay there. And in the Demon Realm, might makes right. So, ultimately, it’s for the sake of resurrecting SQQ that Binghe finally acknowledges that side of his heritage and begins to build a power base.
At least, that’s how I’ve been interpreting things. During my current reread, I’ve been keeping an eye out for anything that confirms or contradicts my interpretation of events. I’m a bit over halfway through Volume 2 right now, and so far, I feel like my argument is solid—though of course, both the Holy Mausoleum arc and the extras have the potential to turn up new evidence for/against.
Most of the quotes I pulled for this entry are just the textual evidence for details I already knew/had in my head, but I did turn up this new-to-me piece of information:
I found this passage really interesting! Namely because, while I maintain that it doesn’t make sense for Binghe to be building a power base at this point in the timeline, I’d actually been assuming that Bing-ge had been doing just that! But this passage seems to be suggesting otherwise. At least, if you assume “Demon Realm arc” translates to “Bing-ge starting on the journey to becoming the Demon Emperor”, with the order of events being “recoil from Xin Mo → Bing-ge going to the Demon Realm”. I’m going to have to take another look at the beginning of the novel (and possibly also some of the extras?) and what exactly it says about the PIDW timeline.
Like. Luo Binghe exits the Endless Abyss with a single goal: to establish himself as a righteous cultivator worthy of his Shizun’s regard.
”You disdained me for being a demon, so I was afraid that if I returned directly to Cang Qiong Mountain, you’d throw me out. I thought that if I took over Huan Hua Palace and became like you, a leader of righteous cultivators, I could maybe make you happy…”So… in that case, why would he bother establishing a power base in the Demon Realm? If his goal is to prove that he can still be a noble and righteous cultivator despite his demon blood, wouldn’t the existence of ties to the Demon Realm only weaken his position if the truth ever came out? I can’t imagine Binghe risking that, particularly since there also doesn’t seem to be any gain for him at that point in the timeline.— Volume 2 of the official English translation, Chapter 8: “Death”
Furthermore… Binghe doesn’t see his demonic bloodline as a good thing? From his perspective, it’s the reason why he was thrown into the Endless Abyss! He had a kind and loving Shizun who doted on him endlessly… only for all that kindness to turn to (apparent) hatred the moment the truth of Binghe’s bloodline became known. That’s why he’s so desperate to establish himself as a righteous cultivator—so that he can prove himself as more than his “tainted” demon blood
(This is also a constant theme to their miscommunication with one another during this part of the novel. SQQ assumes, without evidence, that Binghe is the mastermind behind Jinlan City and his own trial because it’s exactly the kind of thing the original Bing-ge from PIDW would have done—but Binghe, to his own despair, thinks that the reason why his Shizun is pinning the blame on him is due to his demonic heritage.)
I do frequently see fics that seem to see/treat the Endless Abyss as part of the Demon Realm, which could play a role in this near-universal assumption—if he spent those three years trying to make it out of the Demon Realm, then it would make sense that he’d build up some connections, etc. in the process—but as far as I can tell (though people are free to correct me on this), that’s not actually the case. All the descriptions I’ve found of it from canon describe it as a place between the Human Realm and the Demon Realm.
The two races belonged to different worlds; for the most part, the Endless Abyss ruptured the space between them.Honestly, as far as I can tell, there’s not actually anything in the text of the novel to suggest that Binghe even ever stepped foot in the Demon Realm prior to the Jinlan City arc. (Again, I welcome corrections on this front.)— Volume 2 of the official English translation, Chapter 9: “Borderlands”
tl;dr Binghe hates his demon side (and also just himself in general, but that’s less important for this argument), his establishing a powerbase in the Demon Realm would run counter to his actual goals and motivations at this part of the timeline, and it’s possible he hadn’t even been to the Demon Realm yet
To me, it makes the most sense if Luo Binghe only began to expand his power base in the Demon Realm after SQQ’s self-destruction. At that point, his plan to win over SQQ by showing what a good and righteous cultivator is a wash—SQQ’s dead and he can’t prove anything to him. So he has a new goal—to bring SQQ back from the dead. And while a sterling reputation won’t do much to help him achieve that new goal, power and connections can.
He tries with righteous methods first—kidnapping Mu Qingfang, the foremost medical expert among human cultivators, to see if he can do anything for SQQ—but when that fails, it only makes sense for Binghe to chose that moment to finally explore the Demon Realm and what possibilities lay there. And in the Demon Realm, might makes right. So, ultimately, it’s for the sake of resurrecting SQQ that Binghe finally acknowledges that side of his heritage and begins to build a power base.
At least, that’s how I’ve been interpreting things. During my current reread, I’ve been keeping an eye out for anything that confirms or contradicts my interpretation of events. I’m a bit over halfway through Volume 2 right now, and so far, I feel like my argument is solid—though of course, both the Holy Mausoleum arc and the extras have the potential to turn up new evidence for/against.
Most of the quotes I pulled for this entry are just the textual evidence for details I already knew/had in my head, but I did turn up this new-to-me piece of information:
Only after starting the Demon Realm arc had the original Luo Binghe gone through his first bout of internal struggles wherein he narrowly escaped Xin Mo’s recoil. After that, for the sake of solving this problem, he’d begun a “side plot” that lasted five hundred chapters and involved collecting eight or nine more girls.(Bolded emphasis mine.)
But right now, with the plot in disarray, it seemed the recoil incident had also moved earlier.— Volume 2 of the official English translation, Chapter 7: “Water Prison”
I found this passage really interesting! Namely because, while I maintain that it doesn’t make sense for Binghe to be building a power base at this point in the timeline, I’d actually been assuming that Bing-ge had been doing just that! But this passage seems to be suggesting otherwise. At least, if you assume “Demon Realm arc” translates to “Bing-ge starting on the journey to becoming the Demon Emperor”, with the order of events being “recoil from Xin Mo → Bing-ge going to the Demon Realm”. I’m going to have to take another look at the beginning of the novel (and possibly also some of the extras?) and what exactly it says about the PIDW timeline.