#jinruo

the parallels between wang lin and tywin lannister genuinely need to be studied. they're such similar characters, on the surface, but if you delve deeper into their characters you'll find a huge dissimilarity between them.

wang lin, despite all his glaring faults, genuinely loves his family. when a'wu came to visit him and left upon realising su'er and jinruo weren't there, he was very clearly devestated. when he and wang su were in the prison, he swore that they would have vengeance (and even though the union between huan mi and wang su was a catastrophic mistake, wang lin wed them together because he wanted wang su to be with a woman of his choice; something WL had been deprived of.) and, when jinruo died, anyone with working eyes could see the man was devestated (and even before that, he does genuinely love her. romantically, i still don't know, but his care for her was undeniable. that night where she demands the truth from him before his ancestors and he, knowing he cannot lie to her, admits he poisoned the emperor and even waits for her to kill him...he deffo feels something towards her.)

the thing that i have taken away from wang lin's character is this; it is evident that he loves his family, but he simply loves power more. he, like tywin, puts so much value on legacy- but unlike tywin (or maybe still alike depending on how you view the latter), WL believes that he is protecting his family by making all of these chess moves (which, to an extent, i understand. the emperor means to supress the wangs and of course wang lin, despite being his brother in law, cannot possibly stand by and watch that happen.)

another difference between tywin and wang lin is that whereas i feel confident calling WL a morally grey antagonist, tywin is a cold, calculating, loveless hardass™️ antagonist and graduated from Big Bad Guy University. that man only truly cared for joanna and i doubt he cared for anyone else. one could argue for his affections towards his children, but tywin didn't love or care for them at all in my opinion.

in regards to jaime, i think tywin loves what jaime represents and what he represents his the heir to casterly rock. his golden child. his future; his legacy. he loves what jaime could accomplish, what jaime could achieve; he loves what jaime could be (the future lord of casterly rock and warden of the west) but not what he is (an infatuated, impulsive kingsguard who has no desire to play the game). i think tywin's "favourite" child is most definitely cersei as she's the most accomplished out of all his children; the most powerful woman (and at times, most powerful person) in the seven kingdoms, mother to the future king and a lioness through and through. she definitely inherited tywin's traits the most, but her downfall is her madness (probably due to inbreeding or maybe she was bonked as a child idk) and, again, her recklessness and impulsivity are what disappoint tywin; cersei believes she can play the game, but she cannot. also, misogyny.

then there's tyrion. good god, where to begin. even though tywin is an intelligent man, he blames the death of his wife on tyrion who was an infant when his mother passed. he blames tyrion not because it was his fault (after all, it is logistically impossible for a newborn infant to kill a grown woman), but because he needs something to blame. for the most part, tywin is a logical man and only behaves illogically when he's emotional. his hatred of tyrion is a purely emotional one (though the man doesn't make himself any better by drinking and whoring so i'll give tywin some leeway there) and i think, to tywin, that tyrion is the antithesis of everything a lannister should be.

tywin only cares for his children when it suits him. he tries to get tyrion back from catelyn because if he doesn't, he will appear incompetent. he does the same with jaime for the same reasons (and because he needs his heir). he cares for cersei because it is in his best interest to do so, as she is the queen. if tywin truly loved his children, he would have clocked onto jaime/cersei's ways sooner. he would have found a way to quell cersei's madness and cruelty (or at least help her mask it better). hell, he would have remarried! tywin was only in his thirties when joanna died and i am positive of the fact that hundreds of lords and noblemen would have jumped at the chance for their daughters, sisters, nieces etc. to wed the lord paramount of the westerlands. if he truly wished to further his legacy, he should have just had more kids!

sorry, this has kinda devolved into me criticising tywin as an antagonist rather than comparing him to wang lin so compare i shall! tywin, firstly, is a terrible judge of character; the best example of this is him misjudging tyrion and thinking that the man wouldn't kill him for whatever fucking reason. in contrast, wang lin makes the astute observation (though it is moreso a jab at wang su than a compliment to his daughter) that she has a curiousity that could rival any man, or something along those lines. for the most part, wang lin is on the money for many characters in the story. the only person he misjudges is xiao qi, which he later admits.

a similarity between WL and TL is the fact that they both believe themselves to be acting in the best interests of their families (though i feel WL is a little bit more sincere, at least initially.) the reality of this, however, is that their goals are selfish and the only thing they seek to further/elevate is themselves. this, coupled with their hubris and the under-estimating of their enemies (who, arguably, needn't have been enemies in the first place), is what leads to their downfalls.