The extras about Shen Jiu in SVSSS are extremely good. They’re really tragic and made me feel sympathy for him even though his fate was mostly brought upon him by himself and his persistent refusal to let go of his bitterness and resentment. I don’t think he deserved such a horrible end, though. His fate and character arc are important for the themes of the novel as they are, but I enjoy reading fics that give him a redemption arc.
I didn’t think much of Shen Jiu as a character before reading the extras, but now I find him a compelling antagonist. His backstory gives him depth and does a good job at explaining his behavior and motivations. His terrible past doesn’t justify the way he mistreated Luo Binghe and tried to kill him, since Luo Binghe hadn’t done anything to him, but it definitely makes Shen Jiu a much more interesting character than the one-dimensional villain he seemed to be initially.
From his point of view, we get to see that the person he arguably hates most of all is himself. What I find most interesting about his character is that he kept being resentful towards everyone he deemed more fortunate than him despite being completely aware of his own issues, which led to him hating himself even more. This was a loop he was unable to escape from, in part due to his circumstances and in part because his personality was already prone to jealousy and resentment to begin with.
Shen Jiu knew he was a bitter, jealous and bad-tempered person, but he didn’t really try to improve himself. He thought others should show kindness to him first, since he had never received it in his life (except from Yue Qingyuan) and didn’t understand why he should be the one to make the first move to get close to his peers. His feud with Liu Qingge was mostly due to an incompatibility of character, but Liu Qingge didn’t show more willingness to understand Shen Jiu’s perspective than Shen Jiu did with him. Both just kept throwing insults and cutting remarks at each other, not doing anything to mend their very strained relationship.
Shen Jiu didn’t even actually hate Liu Qingge as much as he said, because (as we learn in the extras focused on Shang Qinghua) he tried to help him twice. The first time was when he gave him support while they were fighting together against a dangerous creature; the second was when Liu Qingge had a qi deviation in the cave and Shen Jiu tried to save him, but in his panicked state only made the situation worse. Both times Shen Jiu’s intentions were misunderstood, but instead of trying to clear up the misunderstandings he burrowed deeper into his own resentment and victim mentality, which contributed to his own reputation being completely ruined later on. Even then, we never see him trying to defend himself or get other people’s compassion. His biggest flaw was arguably his immense pride and inability to show his own vulnerability to others. A lot of things would have happened differently if only he had been willing to lay down his pride and show himself to others for who he was, including his suffering and loneliness.
I love redemption arcs and I see Shen Jiu as a character who had the potential to redeem himself, which is why I find him such a compelling character. However, he took a different path in the novel and ended up dying in a horrible way, sad and alone, which I find quite tragic. His extras might be my favorite chapters in SVSSS for how much they impacted my perception of a character I wasn’t interested in at all in the beginning.
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