kyu

It would've been fine if she had big ambitions of entering the military or something else entirely from the start like a shounen anime protagonist, but with her living in times of war, having a pig butcher shop to run, it feels natural and so much better that she is where she is at because bad things happened and she fought back every time so she and her family can keep living. In this way, her journey so far is completely in accordance to her belief that no matter what happens, you have to eat and sleep well.

One of things I appreciate and find interesting about Jin Xuan is that while almost everyone else who knew Xiao Se before his name change continues to call him Xiao Chuhe (even Ye Ruoyi takes a while to start calling him Xiao Se), Jin Xuan actually does refer to Xiao Se by his chosen name.

on swords we've got:

Li Hanyi: spends most of her time avoiding people but emerges once in a while to cause massive property damage. wears a fake mustache as a disguise even when talking to people she knows. destroys a local landmark while beating up two kids. seems to have a grudge war going with like half the jianghu. zero social skills and could not give a single shit about it

Zhao Yuzhen: actual princess in the tower waiting to be rescued by li hanyi. has one of the most powerful swords in the world but makes his own out of wood instead. has been the cause of an evacuation on his own mountain several times. peach fetish

Yan Zhantian: just wanders around the world vibrating with rage. that's pretty much it. he likes swords and is angry

Luo Qingyang: sits in his sad boy fort for like a decade or more building up his incel power levels. when they said prince chi had a godfather i was like what sort of cringefail asshat would have that kid as a godson and then he showed up and i was like. ah. i see. that tracks. extremely powerful but takes massive psychic damage from being called a loser

Xie Xuan: potentially more emotionally stable than the other four. hands out a book of pick up lines to a himbo. wrote said book. li hanyi wants to beat the shit out of him for being annoying (or just for existing? unclear with her). got his title by reading every book ever about swords and does not seem to actually carry a sword that i saw anyway? nerd

and in comparison there's the one and only spear deity Sikong Changfeng who is basically just a normal (but very funny) guy trying to run his jianghu city despite li hanyi knocking half of it down from time to time (i feel it's important to note she is one of his seniors and on his side. she still knocks down dengtian tower and ruins his flower festivals. for the bit). sure he is stupid powerful but somehow he remains pretty stable and is a rare good dad in a cdrama

and then there's "liquor deity" Baili Dongjun who spends half the show drunk in a cave

what a bunch