lachrymation (n.): The flow of tears

Yin Yu was a character who only sort of registered to me on initial read while I was busy losing my mind about...a lot of things, in particular everything about Black Water Arc but also just TGCF as a whole. and then OH NO HERE COMES YIN YU WITH THE STEEL CHAIR out of nowhere, and now that whole side-plot is solidly my second favorite subplot in TGCF.

(nothing beats out Black Water Arc, that one is just a little too perfectly tailored to my interests.)

but like...Yin Yu and his position in the narrative is fascinating to me because he's like. he's a gifted kid with all the pitfalls that already has (that come with being told over and over that you're destined for great things and, for a while, living up to it) but he has the misfortune to end up with the extra-extra gifted kid at his heels, and it happens because of Yin Yu's own attempts toward decency and his desire to be a Good Person (because he takes Yizhen in and acts as his protector and defender when he's a kid).

I think what gets me most about Yin Yu, though, is the specific way in which he snaps. we're introduced to Yin Yu sideways, in the play that Xie Lian cuts off, as a scheming, two-faced trickster, but when the actual story comes out later it's very clear that Yin Yu's banishment isn't a result of him making any kind of considered decision. it's the result of someone who has been keeping a very tight lid on himself for a long time, who prides himself on his restraint and polite manner, abruptly hitting the end of his rope and just fucking losing it.

and losing everything because of it.

and then! the fact that his choice is to go and...literally disappear. he hides his face behind a mask, he makes himself unnoticeable, nameless, anonymous. after spending the front half of his life trying so, so hard to be exceptional (and ultimately falling short), he just swings right to the other end of the spectrum.

THE OTHER THING I LOVE ABOUT YIN YU THOUGH is the fact that he's angry at Quan Yizhen! and he knows it's "unfair" and that it makes him a ~bad person~ (tildes because I disagree with a lot of Yin Yu's self assessment), but he still resents him and doesn't want anything to do with him, even as he also still cares about him enough to not want him dead; that when it comes down to it he won't let Quan Yizhen die. I just appreciate it when characters get to be, like, angry and resentful and it not be an indictment of them as a person. as a petty bitch myself it's nice to see.

like sometimes i think about how polnareff prides himself on his martial abilities but literally allows himself to get eaten by an enemy using avdol and sherry's visage against him. he forgot to summon chariot against them- the thought of using his stand against them literally didn't even initially occur to him. and how he goes into the mansion first, likely believing that this was the front line