Great post, reminding me why I love to hate the guy!
His power... good question. I used to say jokingly that it had to be world-class grovelling, but I guess you don't need to be from Dixing for that. Taking it seriously, I don't really know. He doesn't do anything reminiscent of a Dixing power, ever, that I can remember. (I take the costume/grooming change to be part of the deal that lets him access Haixing.)
There are apparently Dixingren whose power never awakens. Maybe he's one of them?
As for not coming under Ye Zun's power, I could imagine that he's simply too weaselly for it. Maybe that's his power! Too weaselly for mind control! But it could also be, like suggested upthread, that Ye Zun figured he wasn't worth expending that kind of energy on, since he could always be intimidated into doing things. Who needs mind control when saving his own skin is the guy's be all and end all in life?
He became Regent by managing to elimiate the competition using any means available. Furtively, of course.
Dixing post canon... that does not fill me with optimism. This is the guy who wouldn't even let Shen Wei build schools. He clearly wants to keep the general populace badly educated and ambitionless. I don't think a bit of sunshine is going to change that. Best case scenario, An Bai - no longer chained to the throne - makes him a generous severance deal and he retires into the countryside, letting someone better take over.
I don't think his character has changed by the end. This guy is oodles of years old and set in his weaselly ways.
Not so much a redeeming characteristic but in theory he appears to be more on the SID's side than on Ye Zun's. Not that the theory matters all that much when coupled with his drive for self-preservation. Still, he didn't have to let Shen Wei go.
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His power... good question. I used to say jokingly that it had to be world-class grovelling, but I guess you don't need to be from Dixing for that. Taking it seriously, I don't really know. He doesn't do anything reminiscent of a Dixing power, ever, that I can remember. (I take the costume/grooming change to be part of the deal that lets him access Haixing.)
There are apparently Dixingren whose power never awakens. Maybe he's one of them?
As for not coming under Ye Zun's power, I could imagine that he's simply too weaselly for it. Maybe that's his power! Too weaselly for mind control! But it could also be, like suggested upthread, that Ye Zun figured he wasn't worth expending that kind of energy on, since he could always be intimidated into doing things. Who needs mind control when saving his own skin is the guy's be all and end all in life?
He became Regent by managing to elimiate the competition using any means available. Furtively, of course.
Dixing post canon... that does not fill me with optimism. This is the guy who wouldn't even let Shen Wei build schools. He clearly wants to keep the general populace badly educated and ambitionless. I don't think a bit of sunshine is going to change that. Best case scenario, An Bai - no longer chained to the throne - makes him a generous severance deal and he retires into the countryside, letting someone better take over.
I don't think his character has changed by the end. This guy is oodles of years old and set in his weaselly ways.
Not so much a redeeming characteristic but in theory he appears to be more on the SID's side than on Ye Zun's. Not that the theory matters all that much when coupled with his drive for self-preservation. Still, he didn't have to let Shen Wei go.