#runyu

Jin Guangyao: All his mother ever wanted was for him to be in his rightful place by his father's side. Everything he's ever done, it's just to keep himself and the memory of his mother alive. He's honouring her, honouring her memory. If his father orders him to do something awful, then how can he say no, and disrespect his mother's memory? And if his father continues to disrespect his mother's memory... how can he be allowed to live?

Xie Wang: He was rescued from the streets, raised up from nothing. How can he not give his yifu everything he asks for? Do everything his yifu asks him to do? Become everything his yifu wants him to become? Yifu is the only one who loves him. Yifu is the only one who cares for him. Yifu is the only one he loves. Yifu... yifu doesn't care about him at all.

Prince Yu: You could be the emperor, they told him. Of all your brothers, you're the most like your father, they told him. All you have to do is play the game and wait for it to be your turn, they told him. He played the game, and he played it well, and it was finally his turn. He was finally chosen. Except, he wasn't. He was a front, allowing his pathetic younger brother to steal what was rightfully his out from under his nose. You have one last chance, they tell him. And what other choice does he have?

Shulin: His mother (the one who raised him) told him that she found him, abandoned. Asked him if he wanted to know where he came from. He was just a child. Of course he wanted to know where he came from. And then his home, his people (the ones who raised him) were destroyed. Destroyed by his mother (the one who swapped him for another child, the one who left him to die). Of course he wants his birth mother, his birth people to suffer the same fate as the only people who ever really cared about him. It's a kinder death than they deserve.

Xiao Yu: He is not his father's favourite son. Everybody knows that. As a child, he had liked to think he could compete, but he should have known better. Even with Chuhe gone, even as the only possible candidate, the title of crown prince is still not his. What's worse, though, is that he is not his mother's favourite son, either. She sits and she sighs about some other child that he has never met, as if he isn't right here, not loved by either of them. No matter. He'll use whoever he has to to get the power he deserves.

Ye Zun: He is nothing, he knows. You have no power, they jeer as they spit at him and beat him. His master laughs at his downturned head, taunts him with the knowledge that his own brother sold him to his life of misery. He has never had power… until he does. And once he’s found his strength… why would he give it up? Why wouldn’t he make them pay?

Shen Jiu: He was plucked out of a ditch as a child, with nothing. No food, no home, no parents. Only an older brother, and for years it’s enough. Then, not even that. Later there's power and prestige, but alongside it hatred, mockery. And then he dies, unmourned, unnoticed, unloved. Even his so-called older brother doesn’t notice. This is a secret he has always known - the only way that the story can end happily is without him.

Runyu: He has been pushed to the side in favour of his brother, but he can’t hate him. He is the only one who has stood by him. If that means stepping into the shadows as he strides into the light… well, it is no hardship. Until he meets her. His future wife, their fates intertwined since birth. The one shining promise that has kept him warm through the tormented millennia. And so, for the first time in his existence, he chooses to be selfish. Is that so wrong?

Yin Pei: Dear tumblr user. If you’ve made it this far, I’ll be real with you. I don’t remember what happens in tv shows unless I become obsessed with them or have watched them recently, and neither of those apply here. I can’t remember anything about Yin Pei except he had daddy issues and we referred to him as Kylo Pei in the group chat. Make of that what you will