headcanon.
These are just random pieces of headcanon that I figured it would be nice to have down somewhere. Some have been mentioned ICly! Some have not!
- Not so much headcanon as clarification of actual canon: story mode is really unclear about whether Jiang Wei lives or dies after Jin's story. I assume he lived and took part in Zhong Hui's rebellion, since it is shown in conquest mode and all. I also assume that it ended more like in the novel. BAD END.
- He's got a collection of scars from all those times he gets the shit beat out of him in Jin's story. In Amat, he has one particularly prominent one on his right side, from where Zhao nearly killed him at Chengdu. He doesn't have this one yet in camp, though, due to his earlier canon point.
- We know that his father died when he was young, but canon never suggests how young; I headcanon it as having happened early enough that his memories of his father are mostly very fuzzy ones. He and his mother have never really talked about his father much, either, because she finds the topic painful and he didn't want to cause her pain. As such, a lot of what he knows about the kind of man his father was comes from sources outside the family -- other military officers from Tianshui, that kind of thing.
- His mother is a pretty stern type who laid down the law hard. Their relationship isn't exactly warm and fuzzy, but it's still an extremely important one to him.
- And speaking of warm and fuzzy -- Boyue's bad at that in general. Friendly invasions of personal space and physical gestures of affection tend to make him a little uncomfortable.
- He loves spicy food. He readily admits this. He also has a massive sweet tooth. He does not readily admit this. He occasionally loses track of things and skips meals when he's got a lot of work in front of him.
- He doesn't eat any better than the average foot soldier in his army, even if they're at the garrison for the season and he could get away with it. He sees it as a waste. He only really enjoys all that extravagant shit that comes with being one of the highest ranked officials in Shu when he's back in Chengdu to see the emperor; in the field, he only indulges in the perks that have immediate practical application (i.e. better quarters...to provide room for all those scrolls and maps he uses).
- And speaking of Chengdu, he spends as little time there as he can get away with. He goes back to petition for permission before every northern campaign, and he returns when he's summoned, of course, but in general, he spends as much of his time out in the field as possible, with the army. He doesn't like to leave the border in case shit goes down while he's gone. Although he technically holds lordship over Dangyang, he pretty much leaves it in the hands of lesser officials and hardly ever spends time there. His avoidance of Chengdu is partly because he feels like his place is with the army, fulfilling the duty Kongming left him with. It's also because he hates politics, he has absolutely no talent for them, and being in the capital means being around them and probably getting dragged into them. No thank you. :|
- His sleeping habits are atrocious. He's an insomniac and a restless sleeper who's prone to stay up late trying to get as much work done as possible, he tosses and turns all night long unless he's extremely tired when he turns in, and he has a lot of bad dreams, either about past battles or about Kongming being severely disappointed in him.
- He generally makes an effort to avoid drinking to excess. He especially makes an effort to avoid drinking to excess in the presence of Ma Dai, because he doesn't want to repeat the experience of having a subordinate write on his face with a giant paintbrush.
- He has a pretty low sex drive in general. It's not non-existant, and he is completely capable of really enjoying if it happens, but his motivation to actually pursue it is low. The control issues involved make him distinctly uncomfortable, because...
- Self-control is a thing for him. He hates letting anybody see him lose his composure. I think the fact that he's so willing to go >:O at Hawke when she teases him is a big sign that he trusts her more than he himself consciously realizes; she's of course not the only person he sometimes loses his patience with, but it doesn't really mean as much when he does it with other people -- the thing with Hawke is that it happens a lot and he doesn't really think about it later and feel stupid like he does when he gets short with other people. This is also why he has a special hate-on for Zhao over the other Wei folks: Zhao is better at provoking him. Yuanji is polite and he can thus get along with her fine despite their differing allegiances; Zhong Hui is a more generalized kind of infuriating where it never feels like something personal, just...Zhong Hui being Zhong Hui.
- I could say more hilarious things about self-control and bedroom behavior but I'm trying to keep this post PG. SORRY AMAT 8D
- Although DW7 has him favoring power weapons over speed weapons, I do tend to assume that his fighting style is actually based on speed over power. This is because he shares his moveset with Zhao Yun and Ma Chao, but I like to think that their fighting styles are more individualized than that. They each have a different style in Warriors Orochi, though -- Ma Chao is a power type, Zhao Yun is a technique type, and Jiang Wei is a speed type. So I mentally apply that to him in RP. (His speed stat in DW7 is garbage, but the power and speed stats don't actually affect damage or movement in-game, they only affect weapon proficiencies...so I headcanon him as a speed-oriented fighter who nevertheless has trained mostly with power-type weapons.)
- His favorite color is actually not green, but purple. This is just how I mentally explain his costume in every game having purple in it somewhere okay yes.
- He's not a mechanical genius like Yue Ying, but he has a definite interest and has probably helped her mess with the juggernauts and arbalests enough that he understands how they work, even if he couldn't build one from scratch without the blueprints.
- On that note, he likes learning in general, but he tends to prioritize the things that he sees as having more immediate use in the war effort. Thus, mechanics are up there, as is strategy and tactics. He likes reading more abstract crap like philosophy and poetry and what have you, and he's got enough of a scholarly background to be well versed in the literature of his time, but if you set him loose in a library he'll gravitate towards the things he can use in the battlefield first.
- Inferiority complex? Inferiority complex. I don't think this is actually something he suffers from in his early appearances; during Shu's story he doesn't think he's ready to lead the army yet, but he also doesn't appear to be having serious issues with it. But by Jin's story he seems like he's just...flat out obsessive to the point of delusion, and while part of that is (IMO) just narrative bias, I would also say that his many defeats have so thoroughly rubbed it in his face that he'll never be as good as Kongming that he's putting on his blinders and basically ignoring reality in favor of the war just because it's the only way he can deal with how massively inadequate he feels in everything he does.
- Not so much headcanon as clarification of actual canon: story mode is really unclear about whether Jiang Wei lives or dies after Jin's story. I assume he lived and took part in Zhong Hui's rebellion, since it is shown in conquest mode and all. I also assume that it ended more like in the novel. BAD END.
- He's got a collection of scars from all those times he gets the shit beat out of him in Jin's story. In Amat, he has one particularly prominent one on his right side, from where Zhao nearly killed him at Chengdu. He doesn't have this one yet in camp, though, due to his earlier canon point.
- We know that his father died when he was young, but canon never suggests how young; I headcanon it as having happened early enough that his memories of his father are mostly very fuzzy ones. He and his mother have never really talked about his father much, either, because she finds the topic painful and he didn't want to cause her pain. As such, a lot of what he knows about the kind of man his father was comes from sources outside the family -- other military officers from Tianshui, that kind of thing.
- His mother is a pretty stern type who laid down the law hard. Their relationship isn't exactly warm and fuzzy, but it's still an extremely important one to him.
- And speaking of warm and fuzzy -- Boyue's bad at that in general. Friendly invasions of personal space and physical gestures of affection tend to make him a little uncomfortable.
- He loves spicy food. He readily admits this. He also has a massive sweet tooth. He does not readily admit this. He occasionally loses track of things and skips meals when he's got a lot of work in front of him.
- He doesn't eat any better than the average foot soldier in his army, even if they're at the garrison for the season and he could get away with it. He sees it as a waste. He only really enjoys all that extravagant shit that comes with being one of the highest ranked officials in Shu when he's back in Chengdu to see the emperor; in the field, he only indulges in the perks that have immediate practical application (i.e. better quarters...to provide room for all those scrolls and maps he uses).
- And speaking of Chengdu, he spends as little time there as he can get away with. He goes back to petition for permission before every northern campaign, and he returns when he's summoned, of course, but in general, he spends as much of his time out in the field as possible, with the army. He doesn't like to leave the border in case shit goes down while he's gone. Although he technically holds lordship over Dangyang, he pretty much leaves it in the hands of lesser officials and hardly ever spends time there. His avoidance of Chengdu is partly because he feels like his place is with the army, fulfilling the duty Kongming left him with. It's also because he hates politics, he has absolutely no talent for them, and being in the capital means being around them and probably getting dragged into them. No thank you. :|
- His sleeping habits are atrocious. He's an insomniac and a restless sleeper who's prone to stay up late trying to get as much work done as possible, he tosses and turns all night long unless he's extremely tired when he turns in, and he has a lot of bad dreams, either about past battles or about Kongming being severely disappointed in him.
- He generally makes an effort to avoid drinking to excess. He especially makes an effort to avoid drinking to excess in the presence of Ma Dai, because he doesn't want to repeat the experience of having a subordinate write on his face with a giant paintbrush.
- He has a pretty low sex drive in general. It's not non-existant, and he is completely capable of really enjoying if it happens, but his motivation to actually pursue it is low. The control issues involved make him distinctly uncomfortable, because...
- Self-control is a thing for him. He hates letting anybody see him lose his composure. I think the fact that he's so willing to go >:O at Hawke when she teases him is a big sign that he trusts her more than he himself consciously realizes; she's of course not the only person he sometimes loses his patience with, but it doesn't really mean as much when he does it with other people -- the thing with Hawke is that it happens a lot and he doesn't really think about it later and feel stupid like he does when he gets short with other people. This is also why he has a special hate-on for Zhao over the other Wei folks: Zhao is better at provoking him. Yuanji is polite and he can thus get along with her fine despite their differing allegiances; Zhong Hui is a more generalized kind of infuriating where it never feels like something personal, just...Zhong Hui being Zhong Hui.
- I could say more hilarious things about self-control and bedroom behavior but I'm trying to keep this post PG. SORRY AMAT 8D
- Although DW7 has him favoring power weapons over speed weapons, I do tend to assume that his fighting style is actually based on speed over power. This is because he shares his moveset with Zhao Yun and Ma Chao, but I like to think that their fighting styles are more individualized than that. They each have a different style in Warriors Orochi, though -- Ma Chao is a power type, Zhao Yun is a technique type, and Jiang Wei is a speed type. So I mentally apply that to him in RP. (His speed stat in DW7 is garbage, but the power and speed stats don't actually affect damage or movement in-game, they only affect weapon proficiencies...so I headcanon him as a speed-oriented fighter who nevertheless has trained mostly with power-type weapons.)
- His favorite color is actually not green, but purple. This is just how I mentally explain his costume in every game having purple in it somewhere okay yes.
- He's not a mechanical genius like Yue Ying, but he has a definite interest and has probably helped her mess with the juggernauts and arbalests enough that he understands how they work, even if he couldn't build one from scratch without the blueprints.
- On that note, he likes learning in general, but he tends to prioritize the things that he sees as having more immediate use in the war effort. Thus, mechanics are up there, as is strategy and tactics. He likes reading more abstract crap like philosophy and poetry and what have you, and he's got enough of a scholarly background to be well versed in the literature of his time, but if you set him loose in a library he'll gravitate towards the things he can use in the battlefield first.
- Inferiority complex? Inferiority complex. I don't think this is actually something he suffers from in his early appearances; during Shu's story he doesn't think he's ready to lead the army yet, but he also doesn't appear to be having serious issues with it. But by Jin's story he seems like he's just...flat out obsessive to the point of delusion, and while part of that is (IMO) just narrative bias, I would also say that his many defeats have so thoroughly rubbed it in his face that he'll never be as good as Kongming that he's putting on his blinders and basically ignoring reality in favor of the war just because it's the only way he can deal with how massively inadequate he feels in everything he does.