Today on contesting common JGY apologist lines. I agree with the general refrain that he understands most if not all his crimes as Wrong and thus doesn't need a lesson in that department, and I absolutely agree with "JGY doesn't Want to do atrocities and wouldn't do atrocities in better circumstances," but I think that it's kind of reductive to ~leave it at that when discussing the notion of JGY ~~redemption
Because there are internal reasons he does atrocities? Just because he doesn't want to doesn't mean that there isn't a chain of reasoning and set of priorities that leads him to decide to respond to his circumstances that way, y'know? His choices are limited externally, and his alternative choices are often grueling and only debatably better and require sacrificing his priorities as they exist, but there's a reason he understands his options the way he does, chooses the things he does, and goes about them in the ways he does, and those reasons are character-central flaws! They're understandable, also because of circumstance in large part, but they are character flaws
I think it's important to JGY as a character that he is genuinely believes in the kind of violence that is normalized in his society, that the narrative condemns, and that ultimately kills him! The fact that he accepts and internalizes that logic, and that he accepts and internalizes the priorities of normalcy and values things like his filial obligation to a man he can recognize as evil, is important! The fact that he throws Mo Xuanyu under the bus – I would argue literally killing her! – via the apparatus of the rumor mill is important! This is the real way he makes direct contrast to Wei Wuxian, and it's why his arc ends in tragedy – unlike Wei Wuxian, Jin Guangyao is never able to shed the expectations of normalcy and standards of goodness of his society, even when he knows they'll never truly accept him. This is not to say he's even unreasonable to do so – his acceptance of this is formed of a genuine understanding of the social mechanics he lives in, and he's prioritizing surviving in those mechanics as he sees it possible! – but he very much does strive for that acceptance, does attempt to walk the bright paved road, and it's important that's what drives him to ruin, even and especially as it's what was *promised him.* Jin Guangyao believes and obeys where Wei Wuxian is able to question and rebel, and this is their primary difference and why Wei Wuxian can choose to leave and he can'ttttt
And in fixit logic these are the traits that one must work through for it to be truly satisfying and truly redemptive, y'know? Just saying that he's already actually not malicious isn't helpful because that's not actually addressing or unpacking the calculus under which he does harm, the modus operandi that destroys him!! I just want to see him unlearning that?? I want to see him being able to choose goodness outside the parameters of normalcy and not see it as a death sentence! I want to see him deal with the learned helplessness he has about #society!! I want him to unlearn the ~paternalistic logic that destroys his relationships and isolates him!!! Only this way can he stop killing himself!!!!
