The dilemma of Ji Ling's existence, his death and what it means for narrative
If you want arguments about whether Ji Ling is a real, independent being, then @missisjoker post explains it the best way possible. To summarize here, he had feelings just like any other living being despite Long Shen's denial. He could taste, he himself said (jokingly) he would die if his sense of taste was gone. He could feel pain. He was able to feel love. He went through an entire existential crisis checking if all his senses worked or not.
Narrative, plot and people offer different explainations as to why Ji Ling is not real or half of long shen and not deserving of his own being. Well let's go through with them.
1. To refuse to accept Ji Ling as part of fake Chi Wen is to deny the personhood of later.
...anyone who says that cannot be serious
Because the very reason some of us are so angry is the fact that one of these 2 parties is being denied his uique existence! What leads you to think that accepting Ji Ling means denying prime Ji Ling's existence ? Is the man not existing in his man cave, looking all very broody despite being younger than most😐
2. He is his past, young version.
In the words of someone who put it very simply "can you say the 18 your old you and the current you are not the same person?"
That is valid. So let's go through an experiment. Consider 2 same 18 year old you, with same everything upto that moment. Both of them go through different experience. Let's make it even more extreme and say one of them goes through traumatic incident. Years later you meet both of them. One is traumatised by bad experience, other is cheerful. Sure they are versions of you, but can you say they are same???
18 year old you progresses to become today's you. We are not just age and bodies, we are also memories experience and environment. To deny that would be denying individuality, otherwise all of us have 2 eyes 1 mouth 1 nose, pair of arms and legs. Can we all say to each other we are not unique?
Imagine sending in your 18 year old self to work and telling your employer that they are just you and will work the same?
But even if you simplify this argument and say you two are same people, even then this argument doesn't fits Ji Ling Long Shen's situation. Ji Ling is not a fragment of past Long Shen plucked from time stream. He is either part of his soul or any part of dragon or whatever theory show is coming up. He is something Long Shen in all his conciousness decided to make.
Ji Ling is, more accurately, a wishful visualisation of Long Shen who wanted his younger self to be happy and innocent come to life. Quite literally. And unknown to him, a tool Long Shen uses to sus out the happenings beyond his emo cave.
Edit: after the drama has ended, we know what spell Long Shen used to create Ji Ling. But I will say one thing: in real life, scientific facts constantly change and evolve with new discoveries. Something that was known to a be an absolute fact yesterday becomes a falsity in present if new information emerges. Who is to say magic is no different?
3. He is a clone.
The best of working clones that we have to this day that does not gets us into a philosophical debate of are they seperate being or not is from naruto. Naruto's clones were better than normal clones made by other shinobi, as they took more energy to sustain. Keyword SUSTAIN. They couldn't exist if host all of a sudden stopped the energy supply. They couldn't make independent decisions, and even if they could, it would never go against the original host, and their aim. They knew they were clones, and they felt it too. When they would ultimately dispel or chose to be dispelled, the wisp of enrgy would return back to the host automatically. No adventuring through wilderness to find the dead body of clone to take away it's memories.
That is not the case with Ji Ling. Beyond the intial input, he needed no further sustenance of energy. He beeded no directive, he needed no order already written into his being. He liked Long Shen because he thought the man saved him and so protecting him became his purpose. It was not written into his dna. At the end, even if by deception, it was his own choice to do work for Long Shen.
Clone is an exact copy. And what is Ji Ling in his own words?
4. He is a puppet.
Again, missisjoker explained it best in the above linked post. But let's put it here again: puppets are made to do what the puppet master directs them to do. They don't think for themselves. They don't have individuality. They don't search for a purpose to exist.
They don't have likes and dislikes. They don't have emotions. They don't have loved ones, and most of all, they don't feel betrayed.
Because to feel all of that, one has to have sentience and emotions. How can puppets have that?
It's in the name. Dolls are for playing. Puppets are for doing everything their puppet master directs them to. How does that fits Ji Ling?
5. Ji Ling is part of Long Shen's soul.
That could be true. And yet, have they not existed apart from each other? Does that deny Long Shen his existence? Nope. Does Ji Ling needs to get back into Long Shen to complete his soul?
That is another topic for which I ranted this long. And the topic is: what does the manner of Ji Ling's death means for narrative?
