I always say that WN was perfectly justified in being angry with JC, but rmb: (1) JC didn't know what they did for him, (2) he was duty-bound to seek vengeance. Also?? (3) I disagree with fandom's view of WN as... someone who didn't blame JC OR anyone else for what happened??? https://twitter.com/honey_yolk/status/1301401349469372416

(1) In JC's perspective, he was captured by Wens, tortured, and maimed in a really fundamental way. He passes out in Lotus Pier. When he next wakes up, he confirms that his core is lost, and has his little breakdown. Then WN comes in, closely followed by WQ, who knocks him out.

This is ALL THE CONTEXT he gets at Yiling. He doesn't register them as saviors at all. Their appearance is just a triggering and retraumatizing experience. He passes out being tortured by Wens, and wakes up in a Wen supervisory office, in the presence of more Wens.

When he next wakes, they are already out of the office. JC never spends time and forms a relationship with WN and WQ the way WWX did in the three days he was asleep, AND THEN AFTER THAT, JC was up in the mountain for seven days, during which WWX was also with them.

WWX forms a deep bond of gratitude to the Wen siblings, but JC only knows them from a few incredibly traumatic seconds. His knowledge of their help is very conceptual, and it's "they let us stay with them for 3 days... after standing by and letting their clan massacre my sect."

(2) In Chinese this is 满门灭族 (o exterminate the family lineage and sect). 灭 doesn't just mean "to massacre" it means to wipe out completely. One of the deepest vengeance one can hold and is DUTY BOUND to repay is 杀父/母之仇 (the grudge towards one who killed your parents).

In the Chinese afterlife, it is believed that one has 三魂七魄 (3 immortal souls, and 7 mortal souls). The 7 mortal souls dissipate upon death, but of the 3 immortal souls, one does not reincarnate, and stays with in the ancestral hall (or burial ground) with all your ancestors.

If someone kills your parents, you are duty bound to dedicate your whole life to repaying the vengeance. Otherwise, your parents souls cannot find peace in the afterlife, and when YOU die, do you think YOU deserve to join your ancestors in death? To reincarnate peacefully?

That's for a single parent. 满门灭族 is on a whole other level. A family lineage/clan is not just the nuclear family. It's all your aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grand-uncles, grand-aunts, your cousins once-twice-three times removed. EVERYONE.

The sect is all your martial siblings, your teachers, your martial aunts and uncles, your teacher's teacher...

If you are duty bound to dedicate your life to avenging the murder of a single parent, teacher, or sibling, imagine if ALL, HUNDREDS, were killed by the same clan.

It is one of the deepest hatreds and vengeances one can hold and that one is DUTY BOUND to hold AND repay. SJY (XXC's actor) iirc said in an interview that his interpretation was that XXC killed himself was bc he could not bring himself to kill XY,

but to let XY live would be untenable bc of what he did to SL. That's bc the vengeance that SL holds towards XY is also that of wiping out the entire sect, which includes those who raised him. And the last time they saw each other, SL blamed it on XXC in a moment of anger.

In SJY's interpretation, XXC was duty bound to repay the vengeance on SL's behalf, but he couldn't. So he killed himself and shattered his soul in penance. This means that he will NEVER be able to reincarnate. It's... actually really horrific from a religious standpoint...

Anyways. The gratitude of "so you gave me shelter for three days" is really nothing compared to "you stood aside while your clan killed my entire family and sect."

(3) WN. IS. RESENTFUL. We have to rmb that aside from NMJ, WN is STRONGEST corpse that was ever resurrected in the generation's collective memory. Even before he regained sentience, he was that strong, which was bc he held an EXCESS of pent up resentment due to his timidity.

WN holds a lot of resentment and blame towards others. He is just really good at hiding it. I think that he FULLY resented JC for everything that befell them, and RIGHTFULLY so. But I feel that by nature, he feels that he cannot confront people for wrongs done to himself.

Furthermore, he KNOWS that his family wiped out a lot of clans (JC's included), so I think on some level he tries to be like "I can't blame them for wiping out mine. I owe JC." But also JC is terrible to him. And you know... resentment builds even when you don't want it to.

Seeing wrongs done to someone else (WWX), that (1) he cares about, (2) is not about the Wens and (3) hey! WWX actuallly doesn't deserve this! gave him the push to explode at JC, who he's probably been resenting for a good while underneath the suppressed "no... i can't blame him."

ThAt'S tHe SoUrCe oF wEn NiNg'S PoWeR.

SUPPRESSION.

The more suppressed resentment a person holds in life, the more resentment is released in death, and the stronger their corpse / ghost is.

But either way, yes, I feel that him blaming JC for something that JC had no control over and was actively lied to about was unreasonable, but how can you expect him to be reasonable, when he's been enduring wrong and unfair accusations from JC for so many years?

Also, you know, JC literally kicks him around like he's an animal. LET WN BE HUMAN. LET HIM RESENT JC. Like by conventions of duty and lineage, WN "deserves" the treatment... but by compassion and common sense... he and his loved ones were innocent...

(4) SURPRISE THIRD POINT. ANYWAY! Despite everything! You know? I actually think........ it's arguably unexpected and oddly forgiving that JC allowed the Wen remnants to survive as long as they did, and only RECOMMENDED that WWX turn them over, instead of killing them himself.

When he visits the Burial Mounds, he's pretty calm. It's notable that in this excerpt, it seems to be JC's POV due to the "they were probably all cultivators of the Wen Sect." It's defo not WWX's POV. WWX knows who they are. It seems to be JC's POV.

Yet he has the awareness to note that having taken off the Wen robes "they were not at all different from ordinary farmers and hunters." He asks about the housing, the FOOD, and even says "are you really stationing here? can people even live in this sort of place?"

He also notes that they are all "the old, the weak, the women, and the children.”

He doesn't just see "Wens".

He sees people.

This is only 3 years from when the Wens took everything from him. He should only be around 17 - 20 years old here.

So why is he so filled with hatred by the end? (1) He was retraumatized by JYL's death. (2) He had maybe three years to recover from the first war. THEN HE GETS SUCKED INTO ANOTHER ONE. More sect members dying! Killed by WWX! Protecting the Wens! Who annihilated his clan!

(3) WWX dies. He is now ACTUALLY. THE ONLY PERSON LEFT.

It's notable that he seems to have had. A mental breakdown after WWX dies. The true moment I actually.. felt for JC for the first time was not even at Guanyin Temple, but in the Villainous Friends extra.

"That Jiang Wanyin has already gone mad. He still thinks Wei Wuxian hasn't died. If Wei Wuxian returned, he might not search for his sword, but he'd definitely come for Chenqing."

And then XY says: "A mad dog."

When WWX returns, JC says constantly that he is intending to kill WWX. But he never truly makes tries to kill WWX in hissecond life. In fact, the first time alone, he says:

"Don't worry, you can go back to LP and say your excuses while kneeling in front of my parents' graves."

Is that what you say to the killer of your parents? Do you drag your parents' killer back to desecrate your ancestral hall so they can "give excuses" to your parents?

This is something you say to a family member who has done something MILDLY wrong, and then run away from home.

Anyway, the core of JC's character is 口是心非 (the mouth says a different thing from the heart) 豆腐心刀子嘴 (heart of tofu but mouth of knives). He says a lot of ugly stuff and seems very outwardly full of resentment, for which he's often judged and ostracized and blamed for.

But he's actually... unexpectedly forgiving.

So... I really wish... CQL onlies would read the novel. There's a lot of moral greyness, humanity, and complexity in the characters. They are all very human. They err, are petty, are hateful and vengeful, but?? They are often forgiving at really unexpected moments.

HI ARE ANY OF YOU STILL HAVING A GOOD DAY AFTER READING THIS THREAD?

YES? WATCH THIS. https://twitter.com/asideoftrashpl1/status/1228775418963972096?s=21