i feel like understanding tragedy & morally gray storytelling is helpful when engaging with media like cql/mdzs. like, at its core cql is a romance that overcomes tragedy—but that means the tragedy has to occur.

tragedies are a really complex genre, because they dig deep into what it means to be human; they don’t shy away from messy, scary feelings. instead, they take a bad situation to its most logical extremes—and sometimes, that means that there are no good solutions.

let’s use the golden core transfer that’s become discourse du jour for an example

at its surface, the transfer is messy. as many ppl have pointed out, it’s an issue of autonomy, and—when viewed through an ethical lens of MODERN medicine—of what could be interpreted as medical malpractice. this is a very surface level analysis, however.

remember, (good) tragedies don’t make superficial decisions. they take contrasting character motivations and tell a story that is true to those characters, even if it’s messy and upsetting to explore. so, let’s break this down into character motivations.

1) jiang cheng

at the time of the transfer, jc has gone through some real shit. his home and family is dead, his future is uncertain. he put himself on the line to protect wwx from wc & lost his golden core.

canon makes clear that golden cores aren’t trivial—

—but i feel like it’s easier for western audiences to forget how important it is. to make loose, clumsy cultural analogies, it’s as if he’s lost his heart, or a sixth sense; it’s losing his connection to both his soul and the world around him.

in other words, it’s a big deal.

so, in order to protect wwx, jc gave a sacrifice that is—to him—worse than death. yes, he is in a bad place due to unresolved grief and trauma, but it’s more than just that, because being a cultivator was all that jc had left. without his core, there was little to no chance that—

—he could rebuild lotus pier. he wouldn’t be able to avenge his parents or his sect. he wouldn’t be able to protect his family.

to jc, who’s always fought to prove his worth, this sudden “uselessness” is an incredible wound. it’s more than just ego. he’s lost his reason to live.

so, what’s jc’s motive here?

before seeing a way to get his golden core back, he wants to die—not only so he won’t have to live with a wounded ego, but because there is no reason for him to stay alive (that he can see).

keep that in mind.

when presented with a way to get his golden core back, jc latches onto it—this is a chance to live, to survive, to continue having worth.

on some level, he understands wwx’s sacrifice; he thinks that wwx is giving up his only chance to meet his grandmaster for jc.

this is also worth noting. he’s not wholly unselfish here; he doesn’t see a perfect solution and latch onto it. earlier in the narrative, jc would have turned down such a sacrifice. with where he’s at now, jc’s “selfishness” is the only thing keeping him alive.

bear in mind, i’m still making a rather superficial analysis here; there’s a lot to be said about the nuances of each character’s actions and motivations here, and i can’t go into all of them right now.

with that said, let’s move on to wwx.

2) wei wuxian

the amount of guilt and shame wwx feels going into this arc is imperative to understanding his decisions. yes, he lost his sect and family as well, but only after he was publicly & brutally disciplined for “bringing this upon LP”

we know that he internalizes this

not only does he tell jyl that it’s his fault (another interaction that i could devote a whole thread to unraveling) we see through his actions that he feels that the situation is his responsibility; when jc accuses and chokes him, wwx lets him. when jyl is sick, he risks himself

wwx has a need to martyr himself. someone once said that jc giving up his dogs taught wwx that love is abt sacrifice, & i think they’re spot on with that. time and time again, we see wwx putting himself on the line to protect others. (it’s one of the things that scared/angers jc)

further, just before this arc, yzy & jfm tasked wwx with protecting jc and jyl, & wwx—who’s always been comfortable as role jc’s second—internalizes this. in his grief, wwx latches onto this task, tells himself that he can repay the jiangs’ sacrifice by protecting jc & jyl

so, when jc sacrifices himself to prevent wwx from being captured by wc, this comes across as a personal failing—he’s not just upset that jc’s in harm’s way, he’s upset bc it should have been HIM.

thus, when jc loses his core, wwx has some very specific feelings of guilt.

the golden core transfer isn’t just wwx feeling responsible for jc’s well-being; it is wwx suffering beneath the weight of “it should have been me.”

add jc’s clear distress and suffering, and wwx’s need to protect jc—to fulfill his duty—comes to the surface.

without his golden core, jc believes he may as well be dead. without his core, jc is miserable.

as his second, wwx believes it is his duty to find a way to bring back jc’s golden core. not just a personal sacrifice, nor a personal calling—this is what he’s been raised to do.

guilt, shame, & duty collide & make wwx almost obsessive in his quest to find a way to bring back jc’s golden core. this is why he researches tirelessly. this is why, when he reads abt the transfer, he doesn’t hesitate or waver.

if this is what he must do to protect jc, so be it

so, what are wwx’s motives preceding the transfer?

he feels duty-bound to protect jc. he also believes that it should have been him; giving his core to jc is just making things right.

as for the secrecy, wwx knows that jc (for whom the golden core was integral to his self-concept) could not comprehend the decision wwx made. he doesn’t want to hurt jc with his sacrifice; he wants this to be as easy and painless as possible for him. so he doesn’t tell him.

again, there’s more nuance here, yada yada, there’s only so much i can delve into in a thread, please do not come screaming if i was unable to include smth in my analysis.

3) wen qing

yes, we’re taking a look at her, too. see, it’s absolutely valid to criticize wq’s involvement here; in modern ethics, performing a procedure of this magnitude without the patient’s informed consent would be a major issue. however, this is a recent development.

consent and autonomy have been issues in medicine for ages, and continue to be today. so, giving this xianxia world the same ethical code as modern medicine is going to lead you down some perilous paths.

instead, we need to consider wq’s motivations as a person first, doctor second. bc this isn’t your run-of-the-mill medical scenario—this is an extremely emotional, personal case!

seeing the grief tearing apart these illegal refugees she’s sheltering is a lot to deal with allnd

*alone, jfc

& there’s a personal element to her actions; she owes wwx for various things preceding this. for helping her brother, to helping her people, to offering help after she put herself on the line. it’s a confusing situation with many personal stakes; in a perfect scenario, wq—

—wouldn’t be forced to care for jc, wwx, & jyl as patients. she would be allowed distance, as she’s not in a place to be objective.

but this is a tragedy; there are no perfect situations.

so, when wwx comes to her with a plan and begs her to secrecy, there’s a lot to unpack. she doesn’t want to do it at first—in part out of concern for wwx, but i have no doubt her doctor brain was worried for jc, also.

but she’s human, and being surrounded by jc’s pain and wwx’s

dedication means that when wwx insists, she’s primed to cave. she understands that this will help jc, that it will return his will to live. she knows wwx understands what this means, believes that he can deal with the consequences. she makes a decision, out of empathy and desire

to help.

was it the correct choice? fandom’s musings show that there is no easy answer to that, as is the case with most ethical dilemmas raised by tragedies.

so, what were her motivations?

to help. that’s why she became a doctor. she’s been confronted with a man she cannot heal, and another man willing to sacrifice everything to make him better. her compassion and doctoring clash; her compassion comes out on top.

now. there’s more to this conversation than the transfer alone. i’ll leave y’all to think about the motivations and imperfect solutions therein while i move on to our final character who needs to be analyzed.

4) wen ning

he assisted wen qing in surgery. he loves his sister, watched as she did the impossible.

he’s well aware of the core transfer. when he was alive, this was not an issue, really.

when he died, however, several things changed.

the first is that the quiet, reserved boy is gone, replaced by an incredibly fierce corpse—the strongest wwx has ever created. the reasons for this are as follows:

- wn was never an uwu sweet boy. he grew up scared and reserved, but full of resentment.

that was a shorter list than expected, but i’m trying to bring this thread to a close, so bear with me. it’s all relevant.

wn’s resentment didn’t disappear when he died; now that he’s literally fueled by resentful energy, i imagine that it’s a LOT harder to foster compassionate thoughts, especially toward people who are (no matter how tangentially) responsible for his sister’s death.

this in and of itself is complicated, but wn’s feelings can’t be disregarded. he knows what wq did for jc—he knows what WWX did for jc. now that wq is dead (a wound that will never heal), wn’s loyalty is wholly directed at wwx. no more pulling back.

i think that, on some level, wn understands that this situation is complicated for jc. i think he understands that this is all fucked up and messy, that jc has been through hell. but he also knows that wwx has been to hell and back, and that he did it for jc.

so, what happens when you have a fierce corpse with SO MUCH resentful energy and loyalty that belongs primarily to one person? what happens when that corpse’s grief for someone he will never get back collides with a furious, protective rage over someone who gave it all for her?

it all builds up, with nowhere to go, until at last wn can’t take it anymore.

that’s why he lashes out at jc. it’s not that jc is ungrateful (if anything, he’s been struck with new grief of his own with no time to process), it’s that wn is FURIOUS and protective and vindictive

and jc just happened to hold all the pieces to make him snap. was wn correct to tell jc? was it within his right to inflict something so fragile & world shaking as this upon him? to spill wwx’s secret?

maybe jc deserved to know; maybe it would have been better that he never did.

but this is a tragedy, and wn’s final act arrived late to the stage. there are no good solutions, no easy ways to make this work. wn did what he did, for his own reasons.

wn was angry, tired, and frustrated. he’s kept so much inside of him for so long, bottling it up, focusing his love and grief and adoration upon wwx now that his beloved jiejie is dead. jc, in his own complicated grief, just happened to bring all of that to a focus.

the moral of this is that mdzs/cql are built around tragedies. each character suffers. they’re all the heroes of the wrong story. maybe in another life, another story they could have gotten a better lot. but this is a tragedy, so they didn’t.

thus, it’s not so simple as “who is right? who is wrong?” it’s endless shades of nuance and confusion and frustration that there are no easy solutions. that’s the point of the story. that’s the point of so many tragedies.

so, let’s not forget that mdzs/cql is a tragedy. it has a happy ending, yes, but only after the curtains have shut on too many different plays to count.

anyway not to be completely shameless but i do have a ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/alcego  if you'd like to support me & a curiouscat https://curiouscat.me/alcego_writes  if you have any questions!