cannot stop thinking about how JGY, Su She, and Xue Yang

line up as a mirror version of 3zun

like, the comparison of su she and lxc is explicit in cql — the line in the temple from jgy about how su she gave love in return for being called by his courtesy name, whereas xichen does not love jgy despite everything

su she as a version of lxc who is utterly devoted to jgy

who has no brother must be protected, who is utterly willing to sacrifice disciples of his own sect to further jgy’s agenda, whose moral principles begin and end with loyalty to jgy

who is raised up by jgy’s regard, rather than the one raising him up

xue yang with his unique blade and dabbling in arts that Are Not Proper Cultivator Gentleman Arts like Mingjue

but utterly

without

a single fuck about what is right and wrong

whereas the defining trait of Mingjue’s moral view is absolute confidence that he is the arbiter of

wrong and right, that he can judge what is black and what is white, that people are either fire or ice, and that it is not a matter of perspective

JGY is on that reflection axis, too — junior member, san-ge in 3zun, but he definitely thinks of himself as the one in charge.