I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about Xie Lians specific brand of pacifism. It’s outlined so well in that Banyue cave scene, where they’re like “him trying to save lives on both sides is literally pointless. He’s just prolonging the conflict and making everyone hate him!” And yes! It’s true!! Xie lian is far from an idiot. He knows this, and does it BECAUSE of that. It’s the whole two cups analogy. He WANTS people to fight him instead of each other, because he can take it and then there’s less fighting (between others). The tragedy of Xie Lians character isn’t his trauma, not really. It’s that all of it is self inflicted.
He could let go! He could give up on his ideals at any time! Just say, not my circus, not my monkeys. Drought in Yong’an? Not my problem. Civil war? I’m a god, it’s not my place to judge mortal conflicts. Human face disease? I’m a martial god, do I look like a fucking doctor? You’re about to use your last words to order to wipe out the remaining xianle citizens? Not my CIRCUS-
…but he doesn’t. He can’t. He got close with the genocide, but Wu Ming just cemented those ideals in him, and now he can’t stop. And that’s the real tragedy. Usually, those painfully naive characters are forced to face reality. The realisation that they can’t save anyone, that by prolonging it their indecision is only hurting MORE people, that sometimes ruthlessness saves more lives than mercy. That in the end, you can sacrifice everything for people and they will still blame you for what they lost. And Xie Lian looked at that. And said okay. Let’s do that then. I’ll fight the world if it means I can save one more person, even if that person hates me for it. And he DID. And ruined himself in the process.
