John Tsai, formerly known as Caichan Zhanyou, is a de-Glittered Gary Stu being rehabilitated by former agents Eledhwen Elerossiel and Christianne Shieh. He originally hailed from a Mo Dao Zu Shi badfic assigned to Agent Liu Siyuan, on which Eledhwen and Christianne acted as consultants.
Character History
In John's origin fic, he mostly plagiarised the text of the unofficial English translation of Mo Dao Zu Shi, with deviations solely intended to make himself Speshul. He purportedly hailed from an uncanonical cultivation sect, had numerous uncanonical powers, and stole the backstory of one of the canon characters. He also carried an arsenal of weaponry and clothes that not only were uncanonical, but were more closely-aligned with Japanese anime than Chinese cultivation novels.
Within the fic, John not only upstaged and stole lines from canon characters, but he also tried to make the protagonist of Mo Dao Zu Shi, Wei Wuxian, look incredibly creepy by making him fascinated by and attracted to a 14-year-old. One of his numerous typo-ridden descriptions caused him to unwittingly kidnap Captain Dandy and use him as a hair ornament. Captain Dandy Was Not Amused.
In addition, John's original name translated to "I Have Real Estate" in Chinese, which suggests he may not exactly have the best grasp of the language or the culture.
Punishment
Agent Liu Siyuan, as well as consultants Christianne and Eledhwen, followed John up until the first major canon breach where he messed with a canon character's ancestry. They then sent him to a Reality Room that took away his extracanonical powers before bringing him to the DAS-SWEAR labs to be de-Glittered.
Christianne and Eledhwen elected to de-Glitter John rather than kill him on account of his age, as well as their disinclination to continue having Glitter blood on their hands. Their charges for him are as follows:
“Caichan Zhanyou,” said Christianne solemnly, “the Protectors of the Plot Continuum hereby charge you with the following: creating uncanonical cultivation sects, Cute Animal Friends, spiritual weaponry, and spiritual abilities; possessing Wei Wuxian and causing him to act and think about you in inappropriate ways; upstaging Wei Wuxian, Lan Sizhui, and Wen Ning; messing with the aforementioned characters’ personalities and abilities to make yourself look better in comparison; and messing with the characterisations of Lan Jingyi and Jiang Cheng, as well.”
“We also charge you with: messing with Lan Sizhui’s parentage, breaking the rules of the Gusu Lan sect without consequence, and distorting the customs of Gusu Lan sect in order to make yourself look special—especially implying that Gusu has a monarchy in order to give yourself the unearned title of prince,” added Eledhwen.
“And finally, we charge you with: blatant plagiarism of the unofficial English fan translation and not even doing a decent job of spell-checking it, cruelty to dialogue and punctuation spacing, random tense shifts, creating mini-Xuanwu, and—most egregiously—demonstrating an appalling lack of research or understanding about Chinese customs and names. For all of these violations, we deem you a Gary Stu. Your punishment is de-Glitterification and permanent restriction from all Word Worlds. Any questions?”
Rehabilitation
The de-Glitterification process caused significant damage to the de-Glitterifier and the DAS-SWEAR labs, costing the MRD thousands of World One dollars. That being said, if John can truly be rehabilitated into a proper, non-Suvian Original Character, it could mean that de-Glitterification can be a legitimate alternative method of purging Suvians without needing to kill them. DAS-SWEAR and MRD are continuing to monitor John's progress with the hopes of seeing him develop into a better character.
John's new name is Cai Zhanquan, 蔡湛悛, meaning deep repentance. Cai is rendered as 'Tsai' in Wade-Giles, the romanisation system used for Christianne's surname, so it can also be read as Tsai Chan-Chüan.
Links
- Mission: "Rose Of The Dark Abyss"