Probably important to mention: even if I quote the english translations when discussing the text, that's not the language i've originally read it on. My takes are and will be influenced by that.
So actually, re-reading the first section of the novel... what's up with this fandom and outright contradicting the story's most basic exposition?
Things that are set up during the Mo arc in the novel that the fandom feigns don't exist:
Wei Wuxian meditates twice before things go to shit, partly to acquaintance himself with this new body he's inhabiting. During this time, it's explicitly mentioned he's building up Qi, aka Orthodox Cultivation.
The entire exposition on how Guidao works goes ignored. Starting with the fact that Wei Wuxian only requires his voice to do Guidao with "no fancy rituals or seals involved", he's such a powerful ghost cultivator however that his voice carries so much power it will freak out most weak ghosts into terrified immobility at his power. This makes them useless.
While he can tone down his voice and be as gentle as possible, it's still too much for a weak ghost that's unused to him. There are two ways around that problem: he either "breaks in" the ghost (like one would a horse they want to teach to be ridden) which takes time and works better on ghosts he woke himself, or he uses a tool (like... a flute *wink*) to further soften his commands to something bearable to them. The flute probably also has the advantage of furthering his range, but its main purpose is pointed to be a dampener of sorts that allows him to get weaker unfamiliar ghosts to collaborate without freaking out at the onslaught of power.
All these problems become a non-issue for stronger ghosts, which is likely why he says in the narration that the fiercer the fierce corpse, the less trouble they give him.
This isnt the first chapter, but his ghost cultivation talismans are not mentioned to be powered by his own (resentment) energy, but by smaller spirits too weak to be otherwise useful that he keeps catching around. In the Dafan Mountain arc, he's outright frustrated at his lack of success finding useful spirits despite creating a bag to hold them and carry them around.
He can further boost a ghost under his power using sound. In general, the initial chapter ties WWX's power to breath (a classic symbol of life) and sound, not having resentment in his body. While building up normal Qi is brought up multiple times, resentment goes virtually unmentioned regarding WWX himself.
Nowhere it's implied that sharing Qi with a non-cultivator is ineffective. Lan Sizhui heals with Qi two perfectly average people during this scene, and the most the narration points out is that trying to do two people at the same time is clearly too much of a reach and he's struggling to get the job done.
Hm, I think you may have gotten the purpose of the flute vs. voice mixed up. Wei Wuxian’s flute doesn’t “soften” his commands so that low-level dead can obey him; it makes the dead he can already control easier to control. Perfect example is how Nie Mingjue’s corpse could struggle out of and ignore his voice prompts in Guanyin Temple, but the moment Wei Wuxian uses Chenqing, he’s easily able to lure Nie Mingjue into the coffin. Low-level dead, on the other hand, are afraid of Wei Wuxian because they do not have the resentment to blindly follow him like fierce-levels do. That’s why the farmers’ corpses in Mo manor cower away from him, but he could just waltz up to the Mo family corpses, tell them to get to work, and they start fighting with a passion. Wei Wuxian cannot boost the dead’a resentment on his own at all, which is why he used the blood pool in the Burial Mounds. Without that, he can only work with the level of resentment the dead already has, which is why low-level dead are useless to him.
That's what I meant by soften the commands, so it seems less "got it wrong" and more "expressed it in a way that may cause confusion to someone who hasn't read the book" so I appreciate the clarification!
Soften as in "make easier to actually get Undead he already controls but would cower at him to not panic and obey". Wwx himself tries to talk more gently during the scene when he's still trying to make the random fierce corpse work, so that's the imagery that came to mind.
In general, it all seems a wording issue so I'll just thank you and move on.
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So actually, re-reading the first section of the novel... what's up with this fandom and outright contradicting the story's most basic exposition?
Things that are set up during the Mo arc in the novel that the fandom feigns don't exist:
Wei Wuxian meditates twice before things go to shit, partly to acquaintance himself with this new body he's inhabiting. During this time, it's explicitly mentioned he's building up Qi, aka Orthodox Cultivation.
The entire exposition on how Guidao works goes ignored. Starting with the fact that Wei Wuxian only requires his voice to do Guidao with "no fancy rituals or seals involved", he's such a powerful ghost cultivator however that his voice carries so much power it will freak out most weak ghosts into terrified immobility at his power. This makes them useless.
While he can tone down his voice and be as gentle as possible, it's still too much for a weak ghost that's unused to him. There are two ways around that problem: he either "breaks in" the ghost (like one would a horse they want to teach to be ridden) which takes time and works better on ghosts he woke himself, or he uses a tool (like... a flute *wink*) to further soften his commands to something bearable to them. The flute probably also has the advantage of furthering his range, but its main purpose is pointed to be a dampener of sorts that allows him to get weaker unfamiliar ghosts to collaborate without freaking out at the onslaught of power.
All these problems become a non-issue for stronger ghosts, which is likely why he says in the narration that the fiercer the fierce corpse, the less trouble they give him.
This isnt the first chapter, but his ghost cultivation talismans are not mentioned to be powered by his own (resentment) energy, but by smaller spirits too weak to be otherwise useful that he keeps catching around. In the Dafan Mountain arc, he's outright frustrated at his lack of success finding useful spirits despite creating a bag to hold them and carry them around.
He can further boost a ghost under his power using sound. In general, the initial chapter ties WWX's power to breath (a classic symbol of life) and sound, not having resentment in his body. While building up normal Qi is brought up multiple times, resentment goes virtually unmentioned regarding WWX himself.
Nowhere it's implied that sharing Qi with a non-cultivator is ineffective. Lan Sizhui heals with Qi two perfectly average people during this scene, and the most the narration points out is that trying to do two people at the same time is clearly too much of a reach and he's struggling to get the job done.
For several days, Jiang Cheng questioned Wei Wuxian about Baoshan Sanren in detail, suspecting that Wei Wuxian was deceiving him, doubting Wei Wuxian's mishearing and misremembering, and even if it were true, he doubted whether the mountain could be found, and even after seeing the mountain, he still had doubts. He repeated such conversations countless times. JC did not believe WWX at all.(Chapt. 60: Poisons)
Even so, JC was so desperate for the golden core that he clung to such a lie, and he did not hesitate to impersonate Wei Wuxian for that purpose (despite the fact that his mother had hated WZL, who had changed his surname for the sake of loyalty, so much). As a result of that fraud, WWX lost the opportunity to prove his identity to BSSR forever, but JC didn't care at all and didn't even reward WWX with status or compensation. What kind of “brothers” are these?
The Venerated Triad - or the three poisons of MDZS
I’ve been sitting on this for literal years, it was something I was chewing on back when I was more involved in MDZS fandom and despite the passing time, nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind on this reading of the book, that the three poisons of Buddhist belief are all well represented in each member of the Venerated Triad/3Zun, and that it’s not an accident.
Let’s start off with the three poisons, or the Sandu (and yes, this is incredibly relevant to Jiang Cheng as well, even if he’s not mentioned in this essay, given that his sword is named after them) are a Buddhist concept, and refer to greed, wrath and ignorance as the greatest flaws a person can hold and must strive to overcome. Yes, ignorance is held to that same standard, and I can see where MXTX is laying that out in her story very clearly. Most of the cast struggles with at least one of these, and how much it impacts them is balanced by what their particular blinding trait leads them to do, especially among the antagonists both of past and present.
(Also to clarify on wording, while ignorance is the direct translation, I am more inclined to think that ignorance is closer to willful ignorance than just being too young to have learned everything yet, though it’s not wholly divorced. If you are unwilling to learn when young, it is still a bad thing and brings harm all the same. Just look at Jin Ling’s journey to see how this might be applied to young people who have yet to learn better and need to do so)
Now that you know what it is in theory, let me move on to the Venerated Triad in specific.
We’ll start with Jin Guangyao and Greed, since this tends to be the one missed most when talking about 3Zun as his reactions are more pointed at than his initial actions.
Meng Yao has been characterized as a man who’s always wanted and hungered since he was young. As a part of the Nie, he strives to make himself respectable enough in order to achieve his goal of being recognized as Jin Guangshan’s son and to be welcomed into the clan as an heir, and every action and reaction he takes is in response to that direct goal. When taking the honest path of a recommendation from a clan leader does not get him everything he wants, as he’s permitted to join the clan but is not immediately adopted and lifted up, he first resorts to backstabbing his allies for slights against him, then runs off to join the Wen instead, only switching sides again when he sees an opportunity to make himself too valuable in the optics of the war to be ignored.
Yet when he gets that goal of being adopted and made a part of the Jin family, it proves to not be enough as he still doesn’t have the respect and adoration he feels he deserves. He follows up by ingratiating himself with new allies who will either do his dirty work (Xue Yang, Su She) or turn a blind eye to his actions out of sympathy for his stated plights (Lan Xichen) and first helps his father divide all threats to their growth by sowing dissent between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng, spinning their actions against the Wen as righteous and continuing the war against them despite a nominal peace having been struck, and swearing brotherhood with the other two clan leaders so that he personally is too valuable to get rid of despite his father’s distrust of his ambitions. In addition he also gets Qin Su pregnant in the days leading up to their wedding so that no one can dissolve it, only for that to backfire on him when it turns out that they’re secretly half siblings.
This culminates in him machinating the death of his half-brother and the other heir who would have been placed ahead of him when Su She curses Jin Zixun with the hundred holes curse and then blames it on Wei Wuxian before sending Jin Zixuan to fan the flames as it is very well known that he and Wei Wuxian have past enmity for his mistreatment of Jiang Yanli, which cements his goal of becoming the heir of Lanling Jin.
A great amount of the tragedies in MDZS can be traced back to his greed and ambition, as he used and discarded everyone in his desperate attempts to climb to the very top. Despite having gained far more than most in his place ever could have, it transparently is never enough, and his habits of discarding people who know too much once he’s done with them or if they’re aware of the things he’s done to climb so far only further to destabilize his very shaky position as his staircase to chief cultivator is drenched in blood. His greed and belief that he deserves the things he wants and should not be denied them no matter what is his chief flaw and marks him as one point in the triangle of Sandu, the three poisons. While he carries a good amount of wrath as well, it usually tends to be provoked by people reacting to the things he does to get ahead, thus locking in greed as the main element of the three.
Next we have Wrath and Nie Mingjue. From his very first mention in the cloud recesses lesson arc in the backstory, we know that he is a man characterized by anger. His own brother is frightened of his anger should he not be doing what Nie Mingjue thinks is best for him, and while this does come from a more genuine place, it is still telling that his reaction to anything not going his way is anger.
It is followed up in the war where he is one of the most vicious fighters, and while again that is needed at the time, the fact that he turns his anger at Wen Ruohan’s actions against anyone with the name Wen is still notable. The Wen clan is thousands strong, there’s no way that they all agree with his actions or would do the same, and they are too being ruled by a tyrant, yet that means nothing to him. His wrath is already driving his actions in the war to what we will see after the war, where he is perfectly happy to not only look the other way but champion the continued abuse and murder of the Wen as they are a part of the now former Wen clan and he never lets go of that anger even once the clan is completely dead and gone.
It’s also apparent in how he treats the other members of 3Zun, especially Jin Guangyao. Once he sees Jin Guangyao kill the Jin captain in a Wen style, his every thought of him afterwards is colored by that anger, and in death he turns that anger onto anyone who shares that blood with him, including Wei Wuxian in Mo Xuanyu’s body and Jin Ling, who was still a baby when he died. When he qi deviates at the end of his life, he goes on a killing spree and takes down anyone in his way, and in undeath he is fueled entirely by his wrath. It consumes him as fully as it did everyone who he saw as a perpetrator of his anger, no matter how tangentially connected they were to those who actually caused him and his harm.
He shares a touch of ignorance as well, in that he refuses to look at perspectives that aren’t his own or acknowledge that people might not be able to fight back in the ways he approves of. In addition, he’s perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to Jin Guangyao’s actions as long as they’re turned on someone he approves of hurting. He throws aside any question of the potential of the Wen Remnants being wrongfully persecuted, but turns on Jin Guangyao only after he saves Xue Yang, despite backing him up before then. In this we can see how his ignorance is fueled by his anger. As long as the people he doesn’t like are the ones being targeted, it does not matter what happens to them and he will do nothing to help or stop those injustices.
So that covers greed and wrath, and now we move forward to the third member of this triad and the only survivor, Lan Xichen.
Lan Xichen can stand out a lot to first time readers, and even more on a reread as many of his actions take on new tones, both good and bad, once you know the whole story. He’s a much more passive character than most of the others, including his sworn brothers, he has a kind bearing and stops to listen to people who others may not, but is very rarely driven to act of his own accord, and tends to take his own feelings about someone as the right interpretation, especially when it comes to someone he likes. He’s also strongly unwilling to look closer at the conflicts between those he cares about and will do his best to pretend that he can’t see it so that he doesn’t have to pick a side. This is notable not only in how he handles pretty much every conflict that comes his way up to Guanyin Temple, but especially in how he talks about his parents backstory. He does not want to believe that either his clan or his mother was in the wrong, and he knows that he is missing huge gaps of the story, but he refuses to look closer out of fear that he may have to reconcile that the people he cares about and trusts are capable of committing evil acts and instead chooses to remain in ignorance and do nothing to change things.
Thus he aids and abets Jin Guangyao’s greed as he chooses to trust that the things he’s doing he’s doing for the right reasons, and tries to assuage the enmity between Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue while listening to neither of them about how the other behaves. To face the fact that one or both of his friends are not who he would like them to be and that his words are fixing nothing is something that he cannot handle and so he doesn’t, and instead he turns his face away.
That being said, I think that the fact that ignorance can be broken down when irrefutable facts are laid out is part of what spares him in the story and also what makes him more sympathetic. We see it as a weakness that hurts him and others around him, yet over the course of the present day he does make an effort to stop turning away. He trusts Wei Wuxian’s information enough to actually verify it rather than refuting it outright, when he is given proof he revokes Jin Guangyao’s pass to the Cloud Recesses, and even later in the Guanyin Temple, when he realizes that Jin Guangyao truly has done everything he’s done either out of ambition or to cover up the costs of his ambition, he ends up stabbing him after rejecting his excuses where he would have accepted them before and rejecting his uncle’s words when they would have allowed him to continue along as willfully ignorant as before. It takes a lot of work and a long time, but his eyes are opened and he will not close them again, and thus he survives.
It’s very interesting how MXTX plays with these three concepts especially in MDZS, though knowing what they are adds depths to other relationships in her other novels, such as the balance between Shi Qingxuan, He Xuan and Shi Wudu, where we have another who chooses to trust what they have learned and to live a new life past that, someone who was so greedy and unwilling to sacrifice what they wanted that they destroyed someone else innocent for the sake of that greed, and then the shift to a wrath that does know when to stop, that was created by the actions of the greedy one and the ignorant one, which is a different dynamic than 3Zun ever had as Nie Mingjue is far less targeted in his wrath and never does let go of it as opposed to He Xuan who does move on once his grudge is settled.
Also while I called him Sir Not Appearing in this Essay, I will note that Jiang Cheng’s chief poison is actually a mix of wrath and ignorance. He has all the information he needs to make better choices and see past the illusions people lay before him, but his anger frequently leads him to ignore all of that despite knowing better and it is only when he is stripped of the ability to hold onto those illusions that he is given the chance to prove that he could be better, and that includes letting Wei Wuxian go at the end of the novel. While he definitely has greed too in that he wants the accolades and praise that Wei Wuxian has, as well as the connections that the other clans have made, he lacks the ambition to chase after them that Jin Guangyao has, so it turns to envy rather than avarice, and instead fuels his anger even higher.
It is up to him whether or not he’ll do better, but with the veil stripped from his view, he will no longer be able to pretend that his anger leads him to make the right decisions, and thus he also survives the end of the novel, but unlike Lan Xichen who was able to reach out to his brother and to Wei Wuxian when they gave him a chance, Jiang Cheng has poisoned those relationships too thoroughly for them to ever be close again.
I feel like people still often think that Lan Wangji goes around helping people either because he was trying to find Wei Wuxian or "in honor" of him. But in canon, it was always his own thing. Even Wei Wuxian never adhered to it until he married Lan Wangji which he narrates in this excerpt from the Gate Crasher Extra:
One could say they had somewhat pulled away from the cultivation world. If they had nothing of importance to attend to, they would roam aimlessly for a few days, half a month, a whole month. Wei Wuxian had long known Lan Wangji’s reputation for 'appearing where there is chaos' and hadn’t thought it would be a tough job. But now that he was tagging along, he realized it was a test of patience—not because it was tough, but rather, it was too easy.
When he had gone on Night Hunts in the past, he’d favored strange and dangerous locations where he could experience a variety of adventures that were naturally full of turns and twists. However, Lan Wangji was not picky—he did what he ought to do, and it inevitably ended with some commonplace Night Hunt target that was unremarkable by Wei Wuxian’s standards. Case in point, this fierce corpse that had come knocking. Compared to the creatures Wei Wuxian used to hunt, it was boring indeed. Even other cultivators might consider dealing with it to be a waste of time and talent.
But even if the case itself wasn’t enticing, Wei Wuxian was with Lan Wangji. It was relaxing and idyllic to enjoy each other’s company.
This characteristic of his is also shown in the Lotus Seedpod Extra where he helps out an old woman to knock down a withered branch stuck on the eaves of her roof, helps farmers hold up a roof as temporary shelter from the rain, and takes note to report a harmless spirit for it to be exorcised later.
I think Lan Wangji's inherent kindness and heroism is still often overlooked in favor of the interpretation that he "learned how to be truly kind/genuinely righteous" from Wei Wuxian. But what people often fail to realize is that as Wei Wuxian was helping and protecting the Wens, Lan Wangji was fulfilling his own duty of helping and protecting his own people and the common people while also trying to speak up for Wei Wuxian and later on the Wen siblings.
I feel like people want Lan Wangji to have a character development where he does a complete 180, but what really happens is just that he becomes more comfortable in his own skin. He understands himself, his feelings, and his desires more. His morals, values, and principles are strengthened but they are the same as ever.
He had always had a mind of his own and had always been stubborn. This is the same person whom, as a child, against everyone's reprimands and scolding, kept visiting his mother's house and sitting outside of it for months. The same one who persuaded his sect leader brother and strict uncle to allow him to keep his rabbits despite pets not being allowed in the premises. The boy who walked a long way away from home and insisted on being allowed to pick lotus seedpods despite it being past the curfew for doing so. He protects an innocent girl and rebukes his own sect's disciple for trying to put her in harm's way even as his leg was broken, his home burned down, his father gone, and his brother missing. He bestows punishment upon himself alongside Wei Wuxian when the latter challenges if Lan Wangji would apply the same rules he enforces onto himself. Later on, after the massacre at Nightless City (in which he also tried to help as many people as he could), he implored to be punished for his actions as he knew, in the same way, Wei Wuxian was about to receive the consequences for his own. He's always understood that rules exist for a reason but are also made to be broken. And Lan Wangji's goodness, his righteousness, and his justness are the things Wei Wuxian admires and respects the most about him. It's what makes Wei Wuxian fall deeper in love with him over and over.
Lan Wangji in the present timeline is more decisive and a little less strict, a little more playful, but his pure goodness is all the same.
This meta on Lan Wangji & Lan An somewhat touches on what his character needed to go through. It's less of a moral change and more of him having to choose between staying on this path of asceticism that is believed to lead to spiritual immortality or to join the secular world and involve himself in worldly affairs, a choice between being godly or being human.
Side note: I like how in the donghua, many minor cultivation sects joined the Sunshot Campaign in gratitude and loyalty towards Lan Wangji who had helped them immensely in the past. In one or a few audio drama extras also, common people would thank Lan Wangji here and there for having helped them in the past. It's a nice illustration of how good and helpful Lan Wangji is, how he readily helps anyone no matter their status and no matter how big or small the problem.
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Not a serious meta post but there's something special about Jin Guanshan metaphorically shitting his pants because WWX saw through him and pointed out his intention to become the new Wens, outright in a mental panic trying to calculate how to get out of having the truth out...
And everyone is so Willing, so Enthused to have a chance to attack WWX due to the power of the Ghost Path and so happy to punish even the Wen Remnants for what their Sect did that they just... attack WWX in JGS's stead and drag the conversation away from the problem for him.
He doesn't have to move a finger! He's actively being Horrified WWX saw through him!!
The Cultivation World doing all the work for their aspiring oppressor.
Wei WuXian suddenly murmured, “… Lan Zhan.”
He reached out and grabbed one of Lan WangJi’s sleeves. Lan WangJi had always been beside him. He immediately bent down and whispered, “I am here.”
Wei WuXian hadn’t woken up yet. His eyes were still tightly shut, yet his hand didn’t let go either. He seemed to be dreaming, muttering, “… Don’t… Don’t be angry…”
Lan WangJi seemed somewhat surprised. His voice was gentle, “I am not angry.”
Wei WuXian, “… Oh.”
Hearing this, as though he finally felt assured, his fingers loosened.
Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian for a while. Seeing that he was motionless again, he was about to stand up when Wei WuXian grabbed him with his other hand, hugging his arm and refusing to let go. He shouted, “I’ll go with you, quick, take me back to your sect!”
I've always thought that the choice to have this be the scene we get right after the flashback of WWX's first show of Ghost Cultivation. More so because, during that scene, we stay out of WWX's head for its entirety. To the point we get some extremely rare LWJ's PoV moment.
With how frequent WWX's PoV is during MDZS, the juxtaposition comes across as extremely purposeful.
It's implied that WWX was dreaming about that exact flashback, after all. And hence, that some part of him had, at the time, wanted to say that. Either at the moment or later on, in hindsight. He hated angering LWJ and wanted to trust him and take on his well-intentioned yet misguided attempt to help.
A peek at part of WWX's actual feelings at the moment, at a moment where reading his unfiltered thoughts would have given us too much information.
The thing is that, at that moment, he had just returned from the hell that is the Burial Mounds. He has just given his Golden Core away and took up Ghost Cultivation in a desperate attempt to survive. He's still grieving the life he had given up.
Getting help — getting support had to be oh-so-tempting. Although LWJ did a terrible job conveying his concern, it's there.
Lan WangJi, “It is not that I want to denounce him.”
Jiang Cheng, “Then why do you want him to go back to Gusu with you? Second Young Master Lan, at such a point in time, the GusuLan Sect doesn’t work with the others to kill the Wen-dogs and is instead still hanging onto its inflexible ways?”
One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off.
That said, I don't think WWX could afford to see it that way. He couldn't afford to believe that, if he explained things properly, how the Ghost Path actually worked, LWJ would understand (Even if it's something we know he ends up doing!).
It's just way too risky. Disregard even the Lans' rigidity: even if WWX were to believe that LWJ has his genuine best interest in mind, to get support regarding his missing core and ghost cultivation—to even discuss the pros and cons of his choice—meant potentially confessing a secret WWX fully planned to bring with him to his grave.
For WWX, to assume the worst possible interpretation of LWJ's actions probably has more to do with how much easier it makes things. Not an inability to believe that LWJ may want to help.
That way, WWX doesn't have to acknowledge the part of him that wants to take LWJ's offer up. He can push away LWJ without risk of having his secret uncovered. It's a boundary forcefully set both for LWJ (to keep out of WWX's business) and for WWX himself (to not feel tempted to ask for help he knows he shouldn't get).
To me, this aspect of their relationship at the time becomes even more interesting when one takes into account their meeting in Yunmeng, where LWJ once again brings up his concerns about Ghost Cultivation and asks WWX to come with him to Gusu for the second in-story.
After a while of silence, Lan WangJi replied, “I am the one who was out of line.”
Wei WuXian, “Not really. But, indeed, looks like I shouldn’t have invited you up here. Today was because of my presumption.”
Lan WangJi, “It was not.”
Wei WuXian smiled, his words polite, “Really? That’s good, then.”
He finished in one gulp the half cup of liquor that was left, “But, no matter what, I should still thank you. I’ll take it as you’re concerned for me.”
Wei WuXian waved his hand, “Then, I won’t bother HanGuang-Jun any longer. Let’s meet again if the chance comes up.”
WWX is obviously hurt tremendously by it (even as he reticently leaves the door open for genuine concern!), and even complains to Jiang Cheng about it.
When Wei WuXian returned to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng was wiping his sword. He lifted his eyes, “You’re back?”
Wei WuXian, “I’m back.”
Jiang Cheng, “Your face looks terrible. Don’t tell me you ran into Jin ZiXuan?”
Wei WuXian, “Worse than Jin ZiXuan. Guess who.”
Jiang Cheng, “Give me a hint.”
Wei WuXian, “Wants to lock me up.”
Jiang Cheng frowned, “Lan Zhan? Why is he at Yunmeng?”
Wei WuXian, “No idea. He’s in the streets, probably searching for someone. After the Sunshot Campaign, he hasn’t brought this up in such a long time. Now he’s at it again.”
To me his wording is a bit of a deflection, a way to explain away his turmoil without actually putting a finger on why the situation was so upsetting to him. But once he's alone and a bit calmer, having spoken with JYL (funnily enough about romantic love) and eaten some comfort food, he admits the truth to himself:
Squatting in the yard, Wei WuXian put the empty bowl onto the ground. He gazed at the stars sprinkled across the sky, and then smiled.
When he ran into Lan WangJi in the streets, he recalled many things from when he was studying at the Cloud Recesses.
On a whim, he stopped Lan WangJi, wanting to direct their conversation toward those days as well. But, Lan WangJi reminded him that everything was different from how they were back then.
Yet, when he returned to Lotus Pier, to the Jiang siblings, he’d be under the illusion that nothing had changed at all.
His actions has been motivation by a desire for normalcy, for the budding relationship they had back in Cloud Recesses. He had wanted to run away from his present reality for a second, to pretend it was all fine. That he hadn't lost his core, that he wasn't gradually becoming a pariah in the Cultivation World — his life unraveling in front of his eyes.
LWJ's decision to bring up his concerns, as misguided as they may be, hurt first and foremost because they dragged WWX out of this little moment of escapism he had been trying to build for himself.
When you consider both scenes (and the implications of both) together, it paints such a sad picture to me. WWX wants to bond with LWJ, wants to pretend his life isn't going to hell slowly but inexorably; but the only thing he gets from LWJ are reminders of the situation and forbidden temptation — offers of help he cannot afford to trust, much less take.
WWX is highly resilient, someone who focuses on the positives of life and pays as little mind as possible to the bad, but things are just getting worse and worse for him. He isn't getting a chance to grieve what he lost properly, and he's on the path to lose even more things. For someone like him to seek out escapism like that talks of how bleak everything must have looked to him at that point.
I don't think WWX was actually convinced LWJ's actions were meant to imprison him, even if he had concerns about how LWJ saw him at the time. Taking the offer in bad faith, however, kept anyone from probing too much on why he was rejecting the offer, hid the actual source of his own pain and kept at bay the temptation to accept help he couldn't trust or take without ruining everything.
This was initially going to go into tags, but I forgot and then I decided it wasn't worth it. I've regretted that.
Important disclaimer: LWJ had no way to know any of this. So, how was he going to figure out the best method to approach WWX in these circumstances?
WWX was lying to everyone. The only people with the ability to make genuinely informed inferences on his behaviour at the time were the Wen siblings.
It also doesn't mean WWX rejects help universally, he just can't afford it in this specific scenario. It also doesn't mean Ghost Cultivation hurts him, everything about the book events shows it doesn't (and any potential harm as far as we know isn't, like, any different from how overdoing exercise irl can hurt you) but genuinely dispelling the accusations and tackling LWJ's concerns over it still passes by being honest about his situation. It won't happen.
The entire thing makes me think that part of why WWX is so much happier in the Burial Mounds despite Everything was partly because having Wen Qing (and then Wen Ning) around meant not having to hide constantly.
After all, so much about WWX in this era reads as WWX using his own self-confidence for posturing, to keep people from noticing what's actually wrong with him. The best lie is one that has a bit of truth to it.
WN and WQ are in that sense much healthier company to keep because he doesn't have to feign being in a state he isn't around them.
In fact, being on MXY's body must have also been a pleasant change of pace because he got a legitimate reason to not have full access to his cultivation.
His limitations at the time of the novel remain somewhat similar (although in a physically weaker body, esp given it was mistreated for years, but with the ability to overcome it all by cultivating in the future) but he has a reason that needs no special explanation! Yay! He can be honest now, and he is. He asks LWJ to bodyguard him for physical combat as soon as it comes up, in fact.
The secret of his identity isn't as taxing a secret given that LWJ figures it out very quickly and he finds faking to be MXY liberating in a sense while it still lasts.
Wei WuXian suddenly murmured, “… Lan Zhan.”
He reached out and grabbed one of Lan WangJi’s sleeves. Lan WangJi had always been beside him. He immediately bent down and whispered, “I am here.”
Wei WuXian hadn’t woken up yet. His eyes were still tightly shut, yet his hand didn’t let go either. He seemed to be dreaming, muttering, “… Don’t… Don’t be angry…”
Lan WangJi seemed somewhat surprised. His voice was gentle, “I am not angry.”
Wei WuXian, “… Oh.”
Hearing this, as though he finally felt assured, his fingers loosened.
Lan WangJi sat beside Wei WuXian for a while. Seeing that he was motionless again, he was about to stand up when Wei WuXian grabbed him with his other hand, hugging his arm and refusing to let go. He shouted, “I’ll go with you, quick, take me back to your sect!”
I've always thought that the choice to have this be the scene we get right after the flashback of WWX's first show of Ghost Cultivation. More so because, during that scene, we stay out of WWX's head for its entirety. To the point we get some extremely rare LWJ's PoV moment.
With how frequent WWX's PoV is during MDZS, the juxtaposition comes across as extremely purposeful.
It's implied that WWX was dreaming about that exact flashback, after all. And hence, that some part of him had, at the time, wanted to say that. Either at the moment or later on, in hindsight. He hated angering LWJ and wanted to trust him and take on his well-intentioned yet misguided attempt to help.
A peek at part of WWX's actual feelings at the moment, at a moment where reading his unfiltered thoughts would have given us too much information.
The thing is that, at that moment, he had just returned from the hell that is the Burial Mounds. He has just given his Golden Core away and took up Ghost Cultivation in a desperate attempt to survive. He's still grieving the life he had given up.
Getting help — getting support had to be oh-so-tempting. Although LWJ did a terrible job conveying his concern, it's there.
Lan WangJi, “It is not that I want to denounce him.”
Jiang Cheng, “Then why do you want him to go back to Gusu with you? Second Young Master Lan, at such a point in time, the GusuLan Sect doesn’t work with the others to kill the Wen-dogs and is instead still hanging onto its inflexible ways?”
One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off.
That said, I don't think WWX could afford to see it that way. He couldn't afford to believe that, if he explained things properly, how the Ghost Path actually worked, LWJ would understand (Even if it's something we know he ends up doing!).
It's just way too risky. Disregard even the Lans' rigidity: even if WWX were to believe that LWJ has his genuine best interest in mind, to get support regarding his missing core and ghost cultivation—to even discuss the pros and cons of his choice—meant potentially confessing a secret WWX fully planned to bring with him to his grave.
For WWX, to assume the worst possible interpretation of LWJ's actions probably has more to do with how much easier it makes things. Not an inability to believe that LWJ may want to help.
That way, WWX doesn't have to acknowledge the part of him that wants to take LWJ's offer up. He can push away LWJ without risk of having his secret uncovered. It's a boundary forcefully set both for LWJ (to keep out of WWX's business) and for WWX himself (to not feel tempted to ask for help he knows he shouldn't get).
To me, this aspect of their relationship at the time becomes even more interesting when one takes into account their meeting in Yunmeng, where LWJ once again brings up his concerns about Ghost Cultivation and asks WWX to come with him to Gusu for the second in-story.
After a while of silence, Lan WangJi replied, “I am the one who was out of line.”
Wei WuXian, “Not really. But, indeed, looks like I shouldn’t have invited you up here. Today was because of my presumption.”
Lan WangJi, “It was not.”
Wei WuXian smiled, his words polite, “Really? That’s good, then.”
He finished in one gulp the half cup of liquor that was left, “But, no matter what, I should still thank you. I’ll take it as you’re concerned for me.”
Wei WuXian waved his hand, “Then, I won’t bother HanGuang-Jun any longer. Let’s meet again if the chance comes up.”
WWX is obviously hurt tremendously by it (even as he reticently leaves the door open for genuine concern!), and even complains to Jiang Cheng about it.
When Wei WuXian returned to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng was wiping his sword. He lifted his eyes, “You’re back?”
Wei WuXian, “I’m back.”
Jiang Cheng, “Your face looks terrible. Don’t tell me you ran into Jin ZiXuan?”
Wei WuXian, “Worse than Jin ZiXuan. Guess who.”
Jiang Cheng, “Give me a hint.”
Wei WuXian, “Wants to lock me up.”
Jiang Cheng frowned, “Lan Zhan? Why is he at Yunmeng?”
Wei WuXian, “No idea. He’s in the streets, probably searching for someone. After the Sunshot Campaign, he hasn’t brought this up in such a long time. Now he’s at it again.”
To me his wording is a bit of a deflection, a way to explain away his turmoil without actually putting a finger on why the situation was so upsetting to him. But once he's alone and a bit calmer, having spoken with JYL (funnily enough about romantic love) and eaten some comfort food, he admits the truth to himself:
Squatting in the yard, Wei WuXian put the empty bowl onto the ground. He gazed at the stars sprinkled across the sky, and then smiled.
When he ran into Lan WangJi in the streets, he recalled many things from when he was studying at the Cloud Recesses.
On a whim, he stopped Lan WangJi, wanting to direct their conversation toward those days as well. But, Lan WangJi reminded him that everything was different from how they were back then.
Yet, when he returned to Lotus Pier, to the Jiang siblings, he’d be under the illusion that nothing had changed at all.
His actions has been motivation by a desire for normalcy, for the budding relationship they had back in Cloud Recesses. He had wanted to run away from his present reality for a second, to pretend it was all fine. That he hadn't lost his core, that he wasn't gradually becoming a pariah in the Cultivation World — his life unraveling in front of his eyes.
LWJ's decision to bring up his concerns, as misguided as they may be, hurt first and foremost because they dragged WWX out of this little moment of escapism he had been trying to build for himself.
When you consider both scenes (and the implications of both) together, it paints such a sad picture to me. WWX wants to bond with LWJ, wants to pretend his life isn't going to hell slowly but inexorably; but the only thing he gets from LWJ are reminders of the situation and forbidden temptation — offers of help he cannot afford to trust, much less take.
WWX is highly resilient, someone who focuses on the positives of life and pays as little mind as possible to the bad, but things are just getting worse and worse for him. He isn't getting a chance to grieve what he lost properly, and he's on the path to lose even more things. For someone like him to seek out escapism like that talks of how bleak everything must have looked to him at that point.
I don't think WWX was actually convinced LWJ's actions were meant to imprison him, even if he had concerns about how LWJ saw him at the time. Taking the offer in bad faith, however, kept anyone from probing too much on why he was rejecting the offer, hid the actual source of his own pain and kept at bay the temptation to accept help he couldn't trust or take without ruining everything.
So I've been giving people the benefit of the doubt about it because memory can fail you hard, but I've checked the entire novels and I legitimately cannot find JYL arguing that JC and Madam You care about WWX so don't be hard on them.
What she does indeed do is use her presence to divert attention and give WWX and other disciples an opening to run away from Madam Yu's abuse.
... Is it yet another show canon thing that everyone has assumed to remain true in the novels?
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There's a part of me that finds it very funny when people argue that "WWX also committed mistakes!!" as a take back when, in-story, WWX not only takes accountability for his actions constantly (like admitting he absolutely overdid it during the Sunshot Campaign and his actions back then were very much Not OK. He does this in two different occasions at the least), but he also points out during the Second Siege that there's no point to argue with the Cultivation World... you know why?
Because it didn't matter whether he recognized the crimes/mistakes he did commit, he would be given the same treatment as a heartless monster despite his own regrets about it; and it didn't matter if he rejected the crimes unfairly assigned to him, because he would be made to bear them all the same. No chances for either explanations or penance were ever given to him.
They're repeating the same mistakes as the characters in the story, who refuse to listen to the one guy willing to recognize when he did something wrong. Unlike most everyone else in the story.
It legit bothers me that in both the donghua and live action drama adaptations of MDZS they go out of the way to make Wei WuXian innocent of Jin ZiXuan's death.
They make it a murder. A plot of someone elses where they just make it look like Wei WuXian did it.
In the drama there's a second demonic flute player nearby controlling Wen Ning.
In the donghua they set up special arrays to make resentful energy pool and focus on Wei WuXian - essentially causing a resentful qi diviation.
The donghua doesn't do it quite to the degree the drama does, but it still shifts blame and fault for Jin ZiXuan's death off him.
And that's wrong for the story.
Wei WuXian thought he had complete control over the resentful energy. That no matter what he'd never have an accident or slip up and that hubris let him walk straight into doing just that.
He got over emotional, over enraged in a fraught, heated moment (as he has the wool ripped off his eyes and realizes the invitation he'd been looking forward to, the reunions and meetings and a good time of food and drink he'd not been able to enjoy for years now was a lie - even if Jiang Yanli and Jin ZiXuan meant it sincerely, no one else in the Jin clan did), and for a moment his control slipped and Wen Ning, who he'd been controlling strikes out blindly at someone who happened to be standing near Wei WuXian.
The influence of the resentful energy gets the better of him and he makes a reflexive kill-strike when he's upset and already in the middle of a fight and realizes too late it's the last and only person on the battlefield he DIDN'T want to hurt and who wasn't even trying to hurt him.
That is so, so, vitally important to his character growth and also his relationship to Lan Wangji.
When he's summoned by Mo Xuanyu, he's a Wei WuXian who now has unfortunately lived-experience to fully understand and comprehend how Lan Wangji supported and tried to help him all along because his warnings came true - over indulging and over relying on resentful energy and over trusting the stability his own, all-too-human emotions and control under it's influence did finally lead to disaster.
There is always a price to pay for reaching too far with resentful energy and Wei WuXian was not an exception like he'd thought he was.
He's fully absorbed that lesson in his 13 years dead and it's part of how he's come to be so at peace and ready for Lan Wangji's love and all the things that are revealed.
Being a blunt instrument that was effected by someone else is Wen Ning's story and arc.
One of Wei WuXian's arcs pre-death is realizing too late and in the worst way possible that his limitations are lower than he thought and taking that away makes him not really Wei WuXian.
Got a couple of replies of people arguing against my point. I don't even know what one to reply to so:
Wei WuXian said he had absolute control of his new cultivation (which he was inventing and therefore was untested) and that nothing would ever happen no matter what and believed that. Acted on that.
He was then thrown into a fraught situation and something happened.
The worst thing happened.
He killed the one person he specifically didn't want to kill because his overwhelming emotion made it impossible to maintain control of his cultivation and he struck out when he didn't mean to. He warned Jin ZiXuan off, yes, but he never actually meant to kill him. He did anyway. It was a terrible, terrible accident based in his loss of control.
Jin ZiXuan's stupid action to lunge at him was not what I was talking about. That absolutely was stupid of him, but is beside the point.
Lan Wangji's journey of breaking with tradition when it counts is beside the point.
Wei WuXian's ability to control it after the timeskip is very beside the point because he's got a golden core to stabilize him again and doesn't need to rely exclusively on his new cultivation and he isn't in any deeply emotionally fraught battles.
The point is Wei WuXian thought he had absolute control of a cultivation based in deep emotion, and specifically negative emotion, (even in extreme situations) and he very much didn't.
His cultivation in and of itself isn't bad - that's not part of my argument.
My argument is it was hubris to think he could control it absolutely while wielding it in any situation, even when enraged and the donghua and drama take that away by making it someone else's fault he lost control on Qiongqi Path.
He was wielding a flamethrower and insisting he and no one else would ever get burned. He was wielding a shotgun with his finger on the trigger and insisting it would never go off and hurt himself or anyone else.
Wei WuXian was extraordinary in a lot of ways, but he was just a man.
He was always susceptible to emotion and an eventual loss of control. His insistence he wasn't is what made that loss of control inevitable.
He wasn't to blame for the Path being a setup or Jin ZiXuan getting impatient and trying to disarm him and his anger and betrayal is understandable and logical, but his lost control of his cultivation is what ultimately killed Jin ZiXuan despite his own wishes and good intentions.
It wasn't an outside force making his cultivation go haywire.
It wasn't someone else taking control of Wen Ning.
It was Wei WuXian's loss of control because he was too angry to keep himself in check despite his extraordinary skills and experience in battle and cultivation. It was a mistake, but he was not blameless and innocent, a fact he readily accepts and adapts to post-resurrection.
That's the tragedy of it. It never would have happened if Jin ZiXun hadn't ambushed him and the Jin's hadn't tricked him. He didn't mean it and never would have killed Jin ZiXuan, but he lost control because he thought too highly of his control and never properly accounted for it.
Instead of listening to Lan Wangji in the past, who was able to see that this danger was inherent in such an emotionally based cultivation, he insisted on believing this larger-than-life concept of himself that he could always be in control, and paid the price for it.
Yes, Lan Wangji didn't have all the information (that Wei WuXian had no other choice in his cultivation) and was over-worried in some ways (because Wei WuXian's style of cultivation did not affect him as deeply as prior alternate cultivation paths did others), but his core argument was absolutely correct. There was no way Wei WuXian could have absolute control over something so dangerous and volatile all the time.
After dying he absorbed that lesson and came to a more holistic, fully rounded understanding of his cultivation and himself and the limits of both. He became able to see how Lan Wangji alone saw him as just a man and was trying to help him all along, forming a good basis for their relationship.
Wei WuXian can't have that arc or that fully-rounded understanding of himself and his cultivation in truth if the blame is shifted to someone elses deliberately evil mechanizations and he never did anything wrong.
Yeah but 1) Lan Wangji’s core argument wasn’t correct, because it was about how “resentful energy harms the body and mind” and therefore the ghost path was wrong. His premise about the dangers of resentful energy on the body was correct, his flat application of it to any use of resentful energy was wrong, especially since the cultivation world then moves on to using tools that utilize resentful energy. He doesn’t know how the ghost path works, it’s just a more blatant usage of resentful energy than he is used it. 2) Where in the novel does it say that a golden core “stabilizes” someone who uses resentful energy, cause I think the Nie and their infamous qi deviations would like to know that. 3) Incorrect that he wasn’t in any emotionally fraught battles: he fights Jiang Cheng in the Jiang ancestral hall and is so distraught he qi deviates. If any loss of control causes him to lose grasp of the ghost path, specifically, then why doesn’t this? Why didn’t the three-year war in his first life?
3) On further explanation, I think I actually do mostly agree with your point, I just don’t like the “lost control” argument when it applies to the cultivation, itself. Your analogies with other weapons works against your point, here, as a flamethrower isn’t starting on its own, just like a gun isn’t shooting without someone pulling the trigger. Anyone wielding a weapon is in control of it, whether skilled or not. To insist that using the ghost path in his first life is the equivalent of his finger always being on the trigger ignores that he has been in other high stress situations where—because he had other options of defense open to him or someone with actual sense deescalated the situation—he didn’t have to resort to calling forth the death to protect him. Wei Wuxian was not always wielding the ghost path, just like carrying a sword on him is not the same as having it out and ready to fight. I can, however, come around to it being hubris for him to think that he could always control his emotions and never be affected by anything (and he says as much post-resurrection). He lost control of the situation and of his emotions, but he’s still in control of the ghost path even if he loses control of himself.
This is what I meant by my initial response, too, that I agree what we lose something with the adaptations because they show him as losing control of the ghost path, not the novel. Wen Ning does exactly what Wei Wuxian wanted him to do in that moment: defend him. Wen Ning didn’t go off script, and that’s why Wei Wuxian wages against “the knife” (Wen Ning) taking the punishment for something he the wielder made him do. At the same time, though, had Wei Wuxian had a sword and not Wen Ning (in an imaginary world where he could still use a spiritual sword at that moment), do you really think Jin Zixuan would’ve lived? If Wei Wuxian had stabbed him to death with another weapon, would we be speaking on the “inherent dangers” of that weapon type? Is Qiongqi Path about the ghost path and its “inherent dangers” that Wei Wuxian was “too arrogant” to take seriously, or is it that he felt he could keep himself and others safe by safeguarding against all things, only to discover that he is wrong because he cannot predict the actions and stances of other people?
You're making some of the same arguments with different language here.
First: Lan Wangji never said a flat "any application of demonic cultivation is wrong", he said continued, repeated, exclusive use is - which is what Wei WuXian was doing. He wasn't always aware Wei WuXian was cultivating not demonic but a ghost path - something separate - so his argument was a bit off-base, but he wasn't wrong about being steeped in resentful energy having a negative effect on the users mind and body with prolonged use.
The moments he steps in, the moments he infamously argued publicly with him and earned them a reputation as enemies, are when Wei WuXian was either about to go too far in some way or fresh from the battle when he should have cleansed the resentful energy rolling off him away to avoid negative consequences.
Just because he's using resentful energy in a different way doesn't mean resentful energy's drawbacks and dangers completely disappear.
Second: Wei WuXian plus a golden core wouldn't need to use resentful energy exclusively, so that would give him a stabilizing separation from it that would mean it no longer affected him as much.
The Nie path is an entirely different topic.
Third: The Ghost path isn't inherently evil, but it is inherently using resentful energy, which is full of negative emotion, and Wei WuXian is a man who can be swayed by that. He had control in a lot of situations, but in an emotionally charged battle where he did have his finger on the trigger so to speak, he over-trusted his control and accidentally killed Jin ZiXuan when he only meant to defend/block instead of make a full attack.
I never said he wasn't in other emotionally fraught battles.
My argument is that the very fact he had been in many other high-stress situations and come out the other side in-control speaks to how much control he lost on Qiongqii Path.
Wei WuXian lost control of himself and what he was doing with his cultivation because he was so overwhelmed with anger that was amplified by the resentful energy he was using. His cultivation didn't CAUSE it, but it contributed in escalating his rage to the point he killed when he didn't mean to - something he never did before or after that.
Shifting the analogy to swords, he carried the sword of resentful energy all along and had skill and deftness with it most of the time, but his emotions got the better of him and instead of swinging with precision he made a wild cut and hit someone he didn't mean to with force and lethality he never intended, but his "sword" isn't an inanimate object.
His cultivation path is steeped in resentful energy - a deeply emotional, semi-willful outside force that has an inherent risk and danger of losing control he refused to acknowledge applied to him. To think he's beyond being influenced by intimately wielding emotion-dense qi was hubris on his part. His control was great, but not infinite and he wasn't able to stay entirely separate from that negative energy's influence when it counted.
That is entirely his fault.
What happened was Wei WuXian's very human and very predictable loss of control under resentful energy's influence. He'd thought himself beyond that because he'd always excelled in everything he did and he was being careful in his creation of his new path, but he did have limits.
That was his arrogance. Thinking he could every have complete control in all situations.
He was under suspicion from a lot of sides: eventually someone was going to make an attack on him and it wasn't always going to be a neat situation he would be emotionally stable for. Thinking that in every situation he would have perfect control over resentful energy and nothing bad would happen was arrogant.
Being proven wrong about that and growing from it to be a more complete master of his cultivation is a big part of his growth.
Post-resurrection Wei WuXian will NEVER have another Jin ZiXuan type death on his hands because he learned the hard lessons in his limits and control the first time.
Shoving it all onto other people's actions takes something vital from his inner journey.
Wei Wuxian wasn't "swinging wildly," he swung with precision at a man lunging at him. If he was "swinging wildly," then Jin Zixun should've died as they were all standing in a group together. His priority was his own life, not Jin Zixuan's, therefore he wasn't thinking "disarm Jin Zixuan," he was thinking "defend me," which is why Jin Zixuan died. In his second life, he still relies exclusively on the ghost path to cultivate. Not once does that man willingly use the orthodox path to do anything. He's not even comfortable taking Siubian back and throws it to Wen Ning, instead. And this is where I say that you have been influenced by the adaptations more than the novel in this analysis: Wei Wuxian isn't influenced by the resentful energy of the ghost path. That's literally the whole point of his character. The ghost path works for him because he doesn't hold onto resentment, the thing that means that he can use it without backlash whereas the Nie get wicked qi deviations from using their saber because they store up the resentment in their bodies.
We're not saying the same thing, because you are giving sentience to the weapon, making it so that the wielder is not the one in control of it. Resentful energy is not "semi-willful" anymore than spiritual energy is. It is not "making" anyone do anything anymore than Wei Wuxian getting mad at Jin Zixuan in the Cloud Recesses "made" him punch him in the face. It is an energy that many different types of cultivators have found various ways to cultivate with, and the only ones in the novel who face backlash for wielding it are the Nie because they store the resentment in their sabers and call it into their bodies to go berserker mode during battle. Xue Yang (an actual demonic cultivator) never faces this backlash and neither does Wei Wuxian, because they've both found ways to outsource the resentful energy to other things (for the ghost path, it's wielding it from the dead as hosts, and for demonic cultivation, it is using other people as the storage and weapon). The backlash from resentful energy is qi deviating and/or death. Not just "I thought someone was attacking me and defended myself without considering their life," not just "I don't like this person so I'm gonna fight them." Resentful energy didn't make Wei Wuxian not trust Jin Zixuan; their history and Jin Zixuan's present actions did. Resentful energy didn't make Wei Wuxian call Wen Ning forth to protect him; Jin Zixuan lunging at him with a drawn sword did.
Post-resurrection Wei Wuxian will never have another Jin Zixuan moment because 1) he has someone who finally has his back, 2) he has the backing of a clan to protect him, and 3) no one with enough power is brave or willing enough to scheme against him like the Jin Clan did. The circumstances that led to Jin Zixuan's death are simply not replicatable, and it has nothing to do with how Wei Wuxian feels about or uses his cultivation. He will just never be backed into a corner with no support or way out, again.
He can't use the orthodox path to do anything in his second life because MXY doesn't have a golden core, so this argument doesn't make any sense. And mostly, when he's walking back from meeting LWJ in Yiling, he tells Yuan he would rather practice orthodox cultivation, but he doesn't have a choice (the single plank metaphor)!
He throws Siubian to WN because he can't wield it because he doesn't have a golden core (which is why he stops wearing it in his first life). In the Dream Come True extra chapter, it implies that WWX has Suibian back and that he has cultivated a new golden core.
Mo Xuanyu had a golden core, it was just weak. Wei Wuxian literally tells Lan Wangji that he’s not comfortable using Suibian because he's low on spiritual energy, not because he has no golden core to wield it with:
Wei WuXian took it over. It was Suibian. After the day when it had been used to cut the melon, Wei WuXian tossed it to the side. Lan WangJi put it away again. He unsheathed the sword and stared for a while at the snowy blade before sheathing it back inside right away, smiling, “Thank you."
He wore it by his waist and didn’t seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan WangJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, “I haven’t used a sword in so many years. I’m not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, “Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there’s a high level sword, it won’t be able to make the best use of it. And so, it’ll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”
—Chapt. 68: Tenderness, exr
And idk why the Yiling convo is relevant given the fact that this happens in Wei Wuxian's first life when he actually doesn't have a golden core, but the "wide plank road" is not a metaphor for the orthodox path. It's a metaphor for the easier path in life, one where he can just cultivate and go on nighthunts and hang out with Lan Wangji without having to worry about being attacked, disrespected, or shunned, let alone carrying the weight of 50 other lives on his back:
Wen Yuan hurried to put the grass butterfly back into his pocket, scared that Wei WuXian’d snatch it again. He asked once more, “Will Brother Rich come back again or not?”
Wei WuXian kept on smiling.
He only answered a while later, “He probably won’t come back again.”
Wen Yuan asked in disappointment, “Why?”
Wei WuXian, “There’s no why. In this world, everyone has their own things to do, their own paths to walk. He’s busy enough in his own sect, so how could he have the spare time to flutter around others?”
They weren’t of the same path, after all.
Wen Yuan replied with an ‘oh,’ whether he understood or not. He seemed to be quite discouraged.
Wei WuXian fished him up and tucked him under his arm, humming, “... Who cares about the crowded, broad road? I’ll walk the single-plank bridge all the night... All! The! ... All the night?”
—Chapt. 75: Distance, exr
On top of that, I don't remember a single place in the Dreams Come True extra that implies Wei Wuxian now uses Suibian. Feel free to point me to the passage, since I may have just missed it.
Whether he has no core or a core too weak to wield the sword is immaterial and a pointless argument. I was clearly saying he can't wield the sword so he gave it to WN, which is what the quote proves, not that he can wield it, but chooses not to, which is what you said.
Just fun fact, not once, in the Dream Come True extra, is Suibian mentioned..... and why responder to MXTXfanatic didn't actually answer the clear request of:
He's using talismans (which by all means seem to be orthodox cultivation) during the Second Siege. He's obviously limiting what orthodox cultivation he uses during the book itself because he has very weak cultivation in MXY's body, but to say he doesn't use it is inaccurate.
I can't fetch the specific quote, but it's mentioned when the invading cultivators lose their abilities temporarily, with a passing mention to WWX starting to run out of Talismans to use to keep the undead at bay if I'm remembering the details correctly.
I definitely lean towards thinking resentful energy had nothing to do with Jin Zixuan's death. It was an inexact order made in the heat of the moment ("defend me" instead of, say, "keep them away but do not kill Zixuan/unless you really have to"), and not resentment, what caused Wen Ning to act as he did.
We could argue that, resentment being resentment, WWX not giving precise orders was asking for someone getting killed he didn't want to. That it was still hubris on WWX's part to think he could compensate for that in every situation, every time. That he wouldn't slip and overlook something when giving an order.
Resentment taking control isn't the underlying reason, as I see it, however.
Hell, I remember reading a post talking about how, at least in the Chinese text (particularly the first draft), there's an implication that what WWX uses to control the Ghosts isn't resentment, but an energy produced by the soul. He sends this energy and it affects the resentment in the area.
I can't find the post, but that being the case... It confirms that WWX isn't even coming into direct contact with the resentment he manipulates, so his behaviour can't be influenced by it.
Now, consider just how much was needed to save WWX from meeting the same exact fate all over again in his second life:
A new scapegoat in JGY, which was required to redirect the Mob of their Cultivation World against a new target. They were very determined to blame WWX until then, and would have once again thrown at him the guilt of some other sin he didn't commit at the slightest provocation without it. Now they have a new person to blame. Which WWX is not happy about for obvious moral reasons, but it objectively protects him.
By the end, most of the Great Sect Leaders became neutral. Nie Huaisang isn't going to throw WWX under the metaphorical bus even if it's out of sheer pragmatism; unlike his brother who was so consumed by his hate towards the Wen he was instantly onboard with the ethnic cleansing and getting rid of the necromancer while he was at it. Lan Xichen has no way to justify keeping his head in the sand anymore, now that JGY's crimes are out and in the open, and he loves his brother so he'll at least tolerate WWX now they're together. Jin Ling actually cares and sees WWX as a mentor figure after getting to know him, so he's probably the most staunchly supportive; unlike both his grandfather and both his uncles who fanned the flames of everyone's hate for WWX. And finally Jiang Cheng is put in a position where lashing out against WWX in public as before would be madness, and has now faced enough proof that there are no debts left between them. Even if he wanted to lash out again, he's in the minority now.
There's an actual collective of supporters forming a united front in the juniors and LWJ. This is not one person against the world, but a group of 20+ people that all know and get along with each other. Their collective weight allows them to exert pressure in a way isolated supporters wouldn't have been able to.
Nie Huaisang spent literal years finding the evidence of JGY's sins and the resources required to get the specific chain of events that led to all the above happening.
All of that, and WWX goes on to be merely tolerated. He steps away from politics and keeps to himself from there on, going where the chaos is and educating the new generation to be better than their elders.
It's true that those who supported WWX could have tried to do more than what they did. That they reacted too late to a situation that was only getting worse and worse.
That said, I very much doubt it would have solved anything even if they did.
That's why I find it hard in me to blame them for not trying Enough, for not knowing how to best handle the situation or putting their feet down, when I don't believe there was an Enough available to them. Especially when they made significant sacrifices trying to keep WWX alive when it all came crashing down at Nightless City.
Too little, too late? Maybe.
But again: was there even an Enough?
The ones who were influential enough by themselves to turn the tide (or keep it at bay for a long enough time to craft a more solid plan) were the Cultivation World as a collective mob and the Great Sect Leaders. That's literally it. Without the support of the gentry as a whole or any of the Heads, no attempt was going to get anywhere.
Back then, neither their society as a whole nor the Sect Leaders were willing to tolerate WWX's existence: he was too powerful, from too low a birth. Someone who stood by what was right in opposition to society's expectations. Who didn't play by their rules.
WWX's very few supporters were all in poor positions to help (none of them were either Sect Leaders or supported by their Sect Leaders, which made their voice null in politics) and lacked connections to one another to band together in a meaningful way.
And so, those who held WWX dear back then had no real political sway as they tried to navigate a hopeless situation. To hold them responsible for not being strong enough by themselves to fight their entire society feels overly cruel to me.
Even if their choices were far from perfect, they were made out of love for WWX. Not like, say, Jiang Cheng, who went out of his way to declare WWX the 'enemy of the Cultivation World' as soon as he stopped bowing to his desires. Or Lan Xichen, who ignored his own brother's perfectly reasonable arguments because he didn't want to examine his dear friend's motivations to be complicit. Both men with an actual voice in the world of politics.
Now, would have one Sect Leader been enough? Well, NHS alone set up and engineered the events of WWX's second life. His way to do things may not have been possible the first time around, but it shows what one single person with power on his hands can achieve. The snowball effect must not be underestimated.
I wish I could ask a Chinese native with knowledge on these matters on the significance behind the Nies being descended from a butcher. Even with my fairly limited understanding of Chinese culture, I know butchers were seen essentially as necessary evils and lower class citizens to put it softly. It was an Impure job.
I can feel so clearly that there's some significance to the choice. MXTX definitely didn't choose the original occupations of founders of each set by chance, but I lack enough background to be able to interpret it. It drives me mad.
On a lighter aside, it's so painfully obvious during the Cloud Recesses section after Carp Tower that Xichen thinks Wangxian are already together.
It's all subtle details like LXC clearly thinking WWX has a chance to already know about Madam Lan's story (his initial question isn't framed by the story as rhetorical to bring the topic up, but as a genuine one. We know this because of WWX's reaction to the question. And that entire situation is a tightly kept secret!). Or the whole "Wangji won't share certain things unless asked. Nice of you to respect my brother's right to privacy but do ask" which makes so much more sense if he thinks they're already involved. Asking that sort of stuff is very different as a friend than a partner.
Also, there's no way LWJ is sharing certain details to WWX before they're married, even if the latter asked. Mostly because he keeps anything that shows his real feelings about WWX under tight wraps.
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This was originally a longer post but that won't happen anymore. Still, this specific section is murdering me.
For context, this happens when LWj, WWX and LXC are researching the song that JGY used to poison and murder NMJ. Once they find it and WWX exposes his theory, this is what LXC has to say:
Lan XiChen, “When Brother passed away, the siege at Burial Mound had already passed and Young Master Wei was no longer in this world. If after trials, this part of the score really is able to disturb the mind and not merely made up, I will…”
Let's, for a moment, dissect what LXC probably actually means here. What he's actually saying is: "Given that WWX was long dead by the time this all happened, he cannot have been involved. If this song truly turns out to be poisonous, it cannot be argued that WWX had something to do with it (despite putting the theory forward) because he wasn't around at the time it all happened."
That's why LXC is bringing up WWX's death here. After all, blaming WWX all over again would be so easy! Distrusting him and believing in JGY would be so much easier for him. But if WWX is uninvolved beyond a doubt, then he must suspect JGY.
Don't forget LXC took part in the First Siege. That he considers WWX to be LWJ's one and only mistake. That when LWJ tried to argue in favor of WWX's character and morals, when WWX pointed that the Jins were becoming the new Wens, LXC rejected the notions outright and argued that WWX must 'have changed'.
He was part of the community that slandered WWX, even if it was as a mostly passive force that simply allowed it to happen. I must repeat: he took part in the First Siege. He always planned to, that's why he was in Nightless City.
He does not trust WWX at this point in the story, and he's probably listening to what he has to say mostly in deference to LWJ. Who has made it clear that he trusts WWX and he's sticking by WWX's side this time around, no matter what.
As things stand, he can't reject WWX's arguments and argue good faith either without destroying his relationship with his brother.
At least in the translation I'm reading, this is how he words the bit about WWX's theory (retranslated from the original language I read it in): "If your talk right now proves to be not some groundless made-up fiction, then I..." That's brutal. It got implications.
Ultimately, it all boils down to his choice of arguments to me. The fact he essentially argued that "I'm only believing your complete innocence in bringing this up because you were dead at the time." Instead of, I don't know, the fact WWX wasn't even close to NMJ or JGY. Or that WWX didn't have any real reason to go against them specifically to start with.
He's investigating the murder by chance. LXC knows that.
Does LXC himself realize what he's implying by using a man's literal death as his main argument on said man's trustworthiness? I don't really know. Most likely he doesn't.
To me, that says that if there was such an option, if there were any room to suspect WWX, he would have probably clung to it. No matter how tiny the chance, it would be better for him than to admit the truth of JGY's nature. WWX makes for such a great scapegoat, after all.
But it's something the narrative points out happened all the time, after all: anything bad was blamed on the Yiling Patriach. Even after his death! At least LXC is impartial enough to realize that's unreasonable. That maybe his brother was right about the man, after all.
LXC and being blind to the atrocities around him isn't really anything new. I would say that a tendency to willful ignorance is key to his character. Still, it's truly devious how it manifests here, when he's trying so hard to act as unbiased against WWX.
Disclaimer that I don't hate LXC. That doesn't change the fact that what he said has terrible implications about his views.
This is a part of why I think people go to easy on LXC. He's far to comfortable accusing or believing someone (WWX) is guilty.
This starts at the emergency conference after WWX rescued the wens. LXC most likely doesn't know anything about the situation and what he does know has to have come from someone else on the other hand LWJ when he speaks up is taking about something he does know about.
- chaper 73, exr
JGY of course gives an excuse but NMJ knows it's false (and for reasons that LXC should know to).
After that Main Main also points out that the Jins are obviously exaggerating and misrepresenting WWXs actions. At this point the Jins words about the situation would be (for anyone who wants to know the truth) untrustworthy and yet LXC doesn't disagree with them. A lot of people point out that he was probably lied to and manipulated, but how much does that matter when it was pointed out this clearly that you were being lied to.
Then comes the part you're talking about and while some of what LXC is doing could probably be attributed to LXC not wanting to face that he was part of the murder of NMJ. If that was all that was happening I would expect a reaction more like the one he has when he recognizes NMJs body and LWJ and WWX tell him they think JGY did it (saying that there's no way JGY is responsible). Instead the moment he knows MXY is WWX he tries to blame him, the one person even LXC knows couldn't have done it.
He isn't like LWJ who wants to find the truth. In my opinion, LXC seems to not care what the truth is as long as he can go on living in the same way he has always been.
Yeah, very much so! Willful ignorance is LXC's most important flaw. He doesn't want to see the truth, he doesn't want to know. While he may take the right choice once he's forced to face reality, he'll resist that process and hide his head in the sand for as long as he can afford it.
Especially within the context of a narrative (where every line is purposefully chosen), I believe that a person's arguments in the heat of the moment, when they don't have the time to measure their words, says a lot about them. Those first thoughts that come to their minds. That's why I find little moments like this so interesting.
That said, it's not LXC's willingness to close his eyes as the metaphorical wolves of the Jingshu devour WWX what makes me want to strangle him sometimes. It's actually his behaviour with NMJ that I find most disturbing.
Ultimately, WWX is a stranger to him. It doesn't make any of the shit he pulls off by inaction any better, but I can understand why he would prioritize JGY or NMJ over WWX.
However, the way he pushes NMJ and JGY together, arguing that he's mediating? Forcing peace between two people who are obviously wholly incompatible, and dismissing entirely any argument NMJ throws at him about JGY's lack of morals? That's very messed up, if you ask me.
JGY and NMJ weren't in a situation where anything beyond tolerating each other's overall existence in the distance was required of them. There was no real need for any of what happened to happen.
I don't even think NMJ is a decent person by any measure! Although, given he had what's effectively a degenerative mental illness, it can feel unfair to judge his character entirely over what he became by the tail end of his life.
My point here is: regardless of how terrible a person NMJ was/became, he deserved better than to have his now sworn brother ignore his arguments while pushing him to interact with someone he had grown to despise.
LXC should have had NMJ's back during the Xue Yang incident, not JGY's. Even if JGY's hand in the matter had truly been forced, what the Jins were doing was beyond deplorable.
Mind you, I get why LXC is so partial to JGY. After all, the man helped him in his moment of greatest need! It's human to be at least a bit blind to the flaws of someone you're so deeply indebted towards, especially if they're like JGY: experts at hiding his true face.
Hell, even someone as people's savvy as WWX had a good image of JGY before he uncovered the truth of NMJ's murder! Not even WWX is wholly immune to JGY's façade. Guy is that good of a liar, which is also why I think WWX gives LXC so much slack despite it all, beyond WWX's own tendency to not hold grudges long-term.
(I can't fetch the quote in English atm, but we get a couple sections of narration that seem intended mostly as WWX's understanding of the 3zuns during the first section of the story and the tone is distinctly positive regarding JGY)
But LXC has historically played favourites with JGY in almost every scene where it has been relevant, and it makes me wonder if that's why he took WWX's defamation at face's value without a single doubt during the first life. He was challenging the Jins, after all. His criticism was, indirectly, aimed at JGY and everything JGY was working so hard to achieve.
Absolutely, that always bothered me too. Especially because there was no reason (a least as far as I can tell) for LXC to push NMJ and JGY together.
I'm not sure how much it matters that WWX didn't see through JGY disguise until later. I'm not denying that the man has a good façade, but WWX wasn't there when JGY was obviously lying or not being a good person.
For example, the emergency conference I talked about, not only is it very obvious that JGY is lying, but we also know of two people who saw through JGYs lies. If WWX had been at that conference and someone else was being accused, would it not be more likely that he would react like LWJ or Mian Main then LXC?
JGY only becomes someone of importance after the sunshot campaign and (except for maybe the whole rescuing LXC and spying on the wens, which is very suspicious, but WWX has no way of knowing details about) only starts deceiving people after WWX rescued the Wen remnants and has isolated himself and the Wens from the cultivation word. WWX, therefore, doesn't have a way of knowing what JGY is up to until he is resurrected and he starts investigating NMJ dead almost directly. And while he does have help in discovering the fact that JGY killed NMJ, he also starts noticing other odd things that are related to JGY, like the fact that JL doesn't have any friends.
I'm not saying that WWX would have absolutely seen through JGY façade, but I also don't think you can really use him as an example of someone who was tricked when he wasn't even there to be tricked and was even dead for some time.
Once more I can't fetch quotes in English right now, but WWX mentions in narration multiple times how skilled JGY is at lying and keeping a façade even once they're onto him. So really, who knows if he would have caught on it in other circumstances.
But that wasn't ever quite my point. It was just a tangential example of someone who is overall shown to be good at reading people eating the bait and being fooled. If anything, I find this more interesting as a reason as to why WWX is so willing to give slack to LXC and doesn't hold what happened or his behaviour against him.
This was originally a longer post but that won't happen anymore. Still, this specific section is murdering me.
For context, this happens when LWj, WWX and LXC are researching the song that JGY used to poison and murder NMJ. Once they find it and WWX exposes his theory, this is what LXC has to say:
Lan XiChen, “When Brother passed away, the siege at Burial Mound had already passed and Young Master Wei was no longer in this world. If after trials, this part of the score really is able to disturb the mind and not merely made up, I will…”
Let's, for a moment, dissect what LXC probably actually means here. What he's actually saying is: "Given that WWX was long dead by the time this all happened, he cannot have been involved. If this song truly turns out to be poisonous, it cannot be argued that WWX had something to do with it (despite putting the theory forward) because he wasn't around at the time it all happened."
That's why LXC is bringing up WWX's death here. After all, blaming WWX all over again would be so easy! Distrusting him and believing in JGY would be so much easier for him. But if WWX is uninvolved beyond a doubt, then he must suspect JGY.
Don't forget LXC took part in the First Siege. That he considers WWX to be LWJ's one and only mistake. That when LWJ tried to argue in favor of WWX's character and morals, when WWX pointed that the Jins were becoming the new Wens, LXC rejected the notions outright and argued that WWX must 'have changed'.
He was part of the community that slandered WWX, even if it was as a mostly passive force that simply allowed it to happen. I must repeat: he took part in the First Siege. He always planned to, that's why he was in Nightless City.
He does not trust WWX at this point in the story, and he's probably listening to what he has to say mostly in deference to LWJ. Who has made it clear that he trusts WWX and he's sticking by WWX's side this time around, no matter what.
As things stand, he can't reject WWX's arguments and argue good faith either without destroying his relationship with his brother.
At least in the translation I'm reading, this is how he words the bit about WWX's theory (retranslated from the original language I read it in): "If your talk right now proves to be not some groundless made-up fiction, then I..." That's brutal. It got implications.
Ultimately, it all boils down to his choice of arguments to me. The fact he essentially argued that "I'm only believing your complete innocence in bringing this up because you were dead at the time." Instead of, I don't know, the fact WWX wasn't even close to NMJ or JGY. Or that WWX didn't have any real reason to go against them specifically to start with.
He's investigating the murder by chance. LXC knows that.
Does LXC himself realize what he's implying by using a man's literal death as his main argument on said man's trustworthiness? I don't really know. Most likely he doesn't.
To me, that says that if there was such an option, if there were any room to suspect WWX, he would have probably clung to it. No matter how tiny the chance, it would be better for him than to admit the truth of JGY's nature. WWX makes for such a great scapegoat, after all.
But it's something the narrative points out happened all the time, after all: anything bad was blamed on the Yiling Patriach. Even after his death! At least LXC is impartial enough to realize that's unreasonable. That maybe his brother was right about the man, after all.
LXC and being blind to the atrocities around him isn't really anything new. I would say that a tendency to willful ignorance is key to his character. Still, it's truly devious how it manifests here, when he's trying so hard to act as unbiased against WWX.
Disclaimer that I don't hate LXC. That doesn't change the fact that what he said has terrible implications about his views.
This is a part of why I think people go to easy on LXC. He's far to comfortable accusing or believing someone (WWX) is guilty.
This starts at the emergency conference after WWX rescued the wens. LXC most likely doesn't know anything about the situation and what he does know has to have come from someone else on the other hand LWJ when he speaks up is taking about something he does know about.
- chaper 73, exr
JGY of course gives an excuse but NMJ knows it's false (and for reasons that LXC should know to).
After that Main Main also points out that the Jins are obviously exaggerating and misrepresenting WWXs actions. At this point the Jins words about the situation would be (for anyone who wants to know the truth) untrustworthy and yet LXC doesn't disagree with them. A lot of people point out that he was probably lied to and manipulated, but how much does that matter when it was pointed out this clearly that you were being lied to.
Then comes the part you're talking about and while some of what LXC is doing could probably be attributed to LXC not wanting to face that he was part of the murder of NMJ. If that was all that was happening I would expect a reaction more like the one he has when he recognizes NMJs body and LWJ and WWX tell him they think JGY did it (saying that there's no way JGY is responsible). Instead the moment he knows MXY is WWX he tries to blame him, the one person even LXC knows couldn't have done it.
He isn't like LWJ who wants to find the truth. In my opinion, LXC seems to not care what the truth is as long as he can go on living in the same way he has always been.
Yeah, very much so! Willful ignorance is LXC's most important flaw. He doesn't want to see the truth, he doesn't want to know. While he may take the right choice once he's forced to face reality, he'll resist that process and hide his head in the sand for as long as he can afford it.
Especially within the context of a narrative (where every line is purposefully chosen), I believe that a person's arguments in the heat of the moment, when they don't have the time to measure their words, says a lot about them. Those first thoughts that come to their minds. That's why I find little moments like this so interesting.
That said, it's not LXC's willingness to close his eyes as the metaphorical wolves of the Jingshu devour WWX what makes me want to strangle him sometimes. It's actually his behaviour with NMJ that I find most disturbing.
Ultimately, WWX is a stranger to him. It doesn't make any of the shit he pulls off by inaction any better, but I can understand why he would prioritize JGY or NMJ over WWX.
However, the way he pushes NMJ and JGY together, arguing that he's mediating? Forcing peace between two people who are obviously wholly incompatible, and dismissing entirely any argument NMJ throws at him about JGY's lack of morals? That's very messed up, if you ask me.
JGY and NMJ weren't in a situation where anything beyond tolerating each other's overall existence in the distance was required of them. There was no real need for any of what happened to happen.
I don't even think NMJ is a decent person by any measure! Although, given he had what's effectively a degenerative mental illness, it can feel unfair to judge his character entirely over what he became by the tail end of his life.
My point here is: regardless of how terrible a person NMJ was/became, he deserved better than to have his now sworn brother ignore his arguments while pushing him to interact with someone he had grown to despise.
LXC should have had NMJ's back during the Xue Yang incident, not JGY's. Even if JGY's hand in the matter had truly been forced, what the Jins were doing was beyond deplorable.
Mind you, I get why LXC is so partial to JGY. After all, the man helped him in his moment of greatest need! It's human to be at least a bit blind to the flaws of someone you're so deeply indebted towards, especially if they're like JGY: experts at hiding his true face.
Hell, even someone as people's savvy as WWX had a good image of JGY before he uncovered the truth of NMJ's murder! Not even WWX is wholly immune to JGY's façade. Guy is that good of a liar, which is also why I think WWX gives LXC so much slack despite it all, beyond WWX's own tendency to not hold grudges long-term.
(I can't fetch the quote in English atm, but we get a couple sections of narration that seem intended mostly as WWX's understanding of the 3zuns during the first section of the story and the tone is distinctly positive regarding JGY)
But LXC has historically played favourites with JGY in almost every scene where it has been relevant, and it makes me wonder if that's why he took WWX's defamation at face's value without a single doubt during the first life. He was challenging the Jins, after all. His criticism was, indirectly, aimed at JGY and everything JGY was working so hard to achieve.
