Xiao Lanhua is my favorite kind of character because she seems timid (or at least normal) on the surface, but she's actually so balls to the wall insanely brave that it's probably detrimental to her own health.
Our first episode meeting her, she's too scared to stand up to her bullies, but she decides to go directly against fate (despite being the apprentice of the literal arbiter of fate) and basically take on a suicide mission to save the guy she has a crush on.
What's fun is that she never becomes less this person as the series goes on, but her perspective grows and matures, so instead of risking it all for a crush on a man she doesn't even know (that she knows of at least), she uses her courage to protect those she loves and to stand up for herself and for the beliefs she's acquired. She uses them to prove her mettle in situations where, in a fair world, she wouldn't have to.
And she also becomes more rational. She might be doing these crazy things, but she's doing them with a levelheaded, thought-out approach. She's not being impulsive in the way we may have seen more of early on. Sure she might (or will) still die, but sheβs going into it so certain of her decision.
Her emotional strength is absolutely next level. I waver on how hard it was for her to maintain her Xiyun persona and hide her true self from Dongfang Qingcang. A part of me thinks it must have been agony at all times, because he was right there, and because yes, she is naturally a very outwardly emotional person. But the other part wonders if the desire to protect and save him (and the world) was so, so powerful in her heart that she really was able to almost shut it down. Did she cry in her room every night? Or did she really manage to hold it together until that scene on the bridge?
ANYWAY, Dongfang Qingcang calls her 'timid', and he ALSO calls her 'the bravest woman in the three realms' (in a speech in front of his entire kingdom, mind), and like... he's right!! She's both. I LOVE that juxtaposition in a character. It's one of my favorite tropes. I love her.
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