#lee wang

screenshot redraw! just for fun and for practice

original screenshot:

Fc numero dos¿¿

Nombre: Lee Wang.

Ocupación: Cocinero en el castillo de la Reina Raven.

Edad: ???

Especie: Jiang Shi o vampiro-zombie Chino.

Datos irrelevantes:

-Vivió en las épocas de la dinastía Zhou.

-Tiende a perder su cabeza (se le cae) y su cuerpo debe buscarla por su cuenta (muy torpe por cierto)

-Murió congelado en una montaña. Capricho del emperador que lo mando allá por especias y pues, murió.

- Es amable con todos y de actitud algo bajoneada.

We're talking about Lee and Sally -- the former asks the latter to the dance in Season 2, which might seem kind of random but there is actually some build up to it

The first time I can clock it is the "delayed action chili pepper" episode. Lee is too embarrassed to participate in the swimming competition because he got bullied at his old school for having twelve toes. He’s actually a really good swimmer too 

In order to get out of it he spikes the cafeteria food with delayed action chili pepper and fakes being sick along with everyone else

Sally figures it out by the power of intuition (that is real)

And then we have the heart to heart through the bathroom door when Lee is confronted -- Lee who is embarrassed and stuck has the girl who caught him in the act still coming to save him, who just wants to understand and help him

She's the one who encourages Lee to come clean to the principal

And at the end guess who he goes running up to to tell he won the prize?

And then in the Egg War episode, Lee tries to get in with the popular crowd by giving into peer pressure. But when Sally shows up at the end and says “you think it’s funny to make the younger kids do stupid things?” Lee eventually wises up and says he’s going to turn himself in to the principal. He specifically says "I'm going to turn myself in all alone if I have to." He's willing to stand apart from the crowd he was so desperate to be apart of if it means doing the right thing

So, in both these instances, Sally has helped him become better and made him feel like he belongs without having to pretend to be something he’s not or get up to shady shenanigans in order to fit in/hide his differences

Like that’s actually kind of beautiful?

And then we have "Catch Me if you Can." In which Lee Wang orchestrates a bunch of crimes in the hopes that Sally will catch him so he can ask her to the dance. He doesn’t think he can just ask her out, he feels he has to prove himself to her in order to get her to go with him. His exact words are "I wanted to ask you to the dance but I didn't think I was interesting enough for you to say yes so..."

So yeah it’s a crush got out of control + a little im not good enough syndrome that causes Lee to pull this act

Lee asking Sally out seemed kind of random but given their interactions it makes sense why he developed a crush on her

While we're here, I want to theorize why Lee got rejected. They still go to the dance, but Sally says she would've gone with Lee if he'd have asked -- "as a FRIEND"

Meaning yeah he pretty much got friendzoned.

The reasons for this are pretty simple. I think part of it is that Sally's crushes in the show are all these movie stars or ultra popular guys who all the girls are swooning over. It's never just some guy she's friends with who she has an actual shot with. She likes to get caught up in the idea of romance, but these romances she wants are never really plausible. And it says something that for all her confidence, she never once asks one of them out. She can confront criminals all day long, but when it comes to romance, it's just not happening. She turns into a hot mess. She's content to admire her crushes from afar and she probably on some level recognizes that it's a pipe dream. Obviously this is the spin of the "relatable teenage girl" phase, and also obviously Lee doesn't fall into this category

Also maybe this makes Sally a little uncomfortable? Like Lee admires her and put her on a pedestal this episode (ironically similar to what she does to her own crushes). He basically tells her he felt he wasn't good enough for her. And maybe she has a hard time understanding why she would cause that much insecurity in her friend, why he would do all this to win her over when she doesn't see herself as all that impressive. After all, in the grand scheme of the show, she may be the school detective and a great one at that, but she's also just a normal girl too. Like she knows to the guys she likes she's just another girl in a crowd of admirers. Meanwhile Lee sees HER

What he doesn't see is her flaws and all of her doubts, and therein lies the problem. He has this unwavering confidence that she'll be able to solve the case simply because he's seen her do it countless times before. But Sally herself was going through the ringer this episode, getting made fun of by her classmates and struggling in front of everyone. Solving the case came down to the very last minute

Second reason is instead of being simple and straightforward, open and honest, Lee did this complicated plan that almost jeopardized Sally's reputation as a result. Sally whose detective agency means everything to her and which she put on the line in solving this case. She could have lost it all if she hadn't managed to solve it, and it was Lee who put her in that predicament in the first place.

At the end of the day, Lee just needs some more confidence. He's a good person who owns up to his mistakes. He's a good swimmer, he can be strategic like when he came up with that vampire plot to get Bob for pranking him and his friends, and he cares about sick kids (is this man even real??)