MDZS-track Mind

Would you consider Nie Huisang, Wei Wuxian's friend??

No. Not in the slightest.

They occasionally hung out for less than three months at a summer school camp and that's the last we ever hear of them having any kind of significant connection and it doesn't cross Wei Wuxian's mind to think of him any deeper outside of the context of Nie Huaisang being a lot more calculated and driven than any one, including himself, could have expected after the death Nie Huaisang orchestrated against Jin Guangyao.

He works in pragmatism to Wei Wuxian's idealism. I think for him to be a friend he has to have significant and vested interest in Wei Wuxian, which he does not, that was for Jin Guangyao, who betrayed his trust, personally, and morally. Wei Wuxian was a means to an end to help him orchestrate his revenge due to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji quite literally being the only ones competent and concerned about pursuing the strings he left, nothing more.

I must add that I think NHS and WWX's relationship shows how the latter is perceived and treated by the highborn cultivators: NHS liked WWX's charms and friendliness in Cloud Recesses and thus he didn't mind to hang out with him but he was still using him as scapegoat to cheat at texts and to get things that are forbidden by the rules of the Lan sect without getting punished and he didn't care about him and his problems and he remembered WWX only when he needed him for his schemes.

To those who are unaware, Jinu's name roughly translates to "true/genuine friend/companion".

진 Jin - truth, genuine, real

우 Woo - friend, companion

Jinu spent centuries putting on a masked persona on the outside; but the reality was, he was no more then a puppet dancing on a charismatic fire while self hatred was eating him alive.

Rumi saw the man underneath. She saw the truth. The man hidden behind the carefully crafted mask.

He was her Jinu - her truth. He was an amazing, genuine man - even if Jinu couldn't even see it in himself.

He was her forever companion.

Just as his name brought to light.

This is further spotlighted when Wen Ning himself tries to bow to Wei Wuxian (out of perceived failures) and Wei Wuxian literally puts himself of the same level of Wen Ning in the share of the consequences of their choices, putting no more blame on Wen Ning then he does himself. Loyalty for Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning is rooted in understanding and empathy. Jiang Cheng does not know how to extend empathy towards others and belittles that in others with the expectations of being entitled to empathy given to his misfortunes.

Jiang Cheng very much is a classist man as he views a clanless Wen Ning like an animal, Wei Wuxian as a disloyal man who doesn't respect social station, and Jin Guangyao as someone yearning for a position he can not be good enough for due to his birth mother's status as a prostitute.

if our protagonist and deuteragonist were not spared consequences—truly “no good deed goes unpunished”—what makes people think that the characters who were the antagonists and on the fringes and allowed atrocities to occur should get a scot-free end? mind you, i still think alot of people get a mere slap on the wrist for the magnitude of harm they have caused but that is consistent with the themes of the gentry class receiving leniency in every aspect possible.

look, i get wanting your favourite characters to have “good” endings but just think for a second about what these characters have done and why their finish line in the story looks the way it does. what would the weight of mdzs’ narrative remain if after all the rotten actions of people in power were exposed, all the wilful negligence was brought to light, these characters were allowed to go back to normalcy and immediately find a way to enjoy life as if nothing was amiss? as if their actions were meant only to affect other people and never their ownselves? and even then, the thing to remember is that mdzs’ ending is just one point in time. much like the “ending” of the first timeline, things go on, life goes on and characters like jiang cheng and lan xichen won’t stagnate till eternity—they will move past their circumstances shown in the end of the novels, for better or for worse.

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