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My problem with people trying to distill Hua Cheng and make him a less morally threatening character is that it goes against the fundamental nature of Hualian as a narrative and as a romance.
“What matters is you, not the state of you.” This applies as much to XL’s love for HC’s as it does HC’s love for XL. Just as HC unequivocally accepts XL whether as Taizi Dianxia or as a humble scrap collector, so too does XL unequivocally accept everything about HC.
HC is an amoral person. He’s not a good person but he’s not a bar person either. Essentially he’s an excellent example of a morally gray & amoral character who functions as a villain in many people’s stories but as the love interest in our protagonist’s story.
All of the characters in TGCF are morally gray to varying degrees, with some being more clearly villainous or more clearly heroic than others, and that includes HC and XL.
HC is not benevolent, kind, friendly, or extroverted. The only person who gets his kindness, love, and affection is XL. This is a canon fact that XL himself accepts (and loves about him too, which I’ll get to).
However, HC is loyal, devoted, and stays unabashedly true to himself and to his principles. He cannot he swayed by greed, ambition, or corruption because he always keeps his own goals and desires in kind, and will never let anyone else sway him from his path.
Keeping in mind, of course, that his “path” is centered around XL. Everything he does is for XL, which includes the power and wealth and ferocity he’s built up.
When HC digs out his eye in Mt. Tonglu instead of hurting innocent people, he does it because of the principles XL has taught him. Betraying those principles would mean betraying XL’s memory, which he strived to honor during those 800 years of separation.
We also know that HC isn’t the type of person to harm innocents but he’s also not the type of person to go out of his way to protect innocents. He blatantly tells XL that while XL’s dream is to save the common people, HIS dream is XL. So this is why HC is morally neutral —
He doesn’t hurt or go out of his way to help the weak and the innocent. His allyship with HX also exemplifies this. HX is indebted to him and they’ve been able to help each other’s goals out. HC is not at all swayed by the emotional or moral quandary of the HX/SQX/SWD situation.
He genuinely does not care what happens to SWD/SQX and only involves himself primarily because XL involves himself. He tells XL not to care about SQX because he knows the truth of the matter, but if it were up to him, SQX’s fate wouldn’t matter one bit.
For that matter, it’s inaccurate to say that canon HC cares about HX’s trauma. They’re allies because it’s mutually beneficial to them, and otherwise they don’t step on each other’s toes; HX has to help HC out as well because of his debt.
Similarly, with YY, HC accepts him because he hates heaven (for obvious reasons) and sees no reason to turn YY away, and clearly appreciates YY’s services. But again he doesn’t go out of his way to care for YY or ask after him. YY is his loyal subordinate and he maintains
that boundary pretty firmly. Canon HC is not interested in being anyone’s matchmaker or therapist or best friend. The only person he’s interested in genuinely helping is XL. If XL asked him to be someone’s therapist or matchmaker he’d do it in a heartbeat, but otherwise
HC does not have the type of morals that entail him unselfishly helping most people. We also know that HC is an extremely effective leader and has built Ghost City up magnificently. He manages his people and gives them a place to be rowdy and themselves, but he’s also
not some benevolent or affectionate ruler whatsoever; in fact he’s as feared as he is respected.
HC also has an eye for an eye idea of justice. It’s not justice based on empathy or open-mindedness, it’s justice based on his personal principles (aka who has harmed dianxia vs who hasn’t). Again, this is an amoral sense of justice.
HC is also not interested in being a conventionally moral person. Clearly he doesn’t bat an eye when heavenly officials malign him or call him a bad person because he literally does not care what anyone besides XL thinks of him.
Now, XL knows /all of this/ and accepts him as he is BECAUSE HC prioritizes him, cares for him, is tender with him, is sincere with him, respects him, supports him, accepts and understands him, and never judges him. He doesn’t care that HC is a villain according to heaven.
He doesn’t care that HC is unfriendly with most people. He loves HC point blank and accepts every part of him, the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. To make HC a more morally conventional person goes against the whole fact that XL accepts him /as he is/.
What prevents HC from becoming a villain like other characters is that he has XL as his North Star. XL saved him twice, protected and cared for him, and gave him a reason to live. He saw firsthand how XL sacrificed himself for his people over and over again, and how he
nearly lost his humanity in that process but managed to stay true to himself. Again both HC and XL stay very true to themselves and stick to their principles, as different as those principles are. But it is XL that serves as HC’s North Star and helped keep him grounded
and strong and firm and unflinching and unyielding. This is why XL loves him and why he will never want or ask HC to change, because he fell in love with HC as he was, not for some ideal HC who lives up to moral norms.
I love HC for who he is canon, but I know that his amorality — canon amorality — can make some people uncomfortable. If HC’s ideas of justice, his method of doing things, his personality, and his demeanor make you uncomfortable, that’s fine, but please don’t claim
to love him if you have to remove those canon traits or reverse them to make him more “woke” or “palatable” or easy to digest as a character. He’s a gorgeously morally gray person and we have to give kudos to MXTX for coming up with an ML like that, and a love story wherein
two people with such different moral compasses fall in love and accept each other anyway.
