cw // 2ha spoilers

i feel like not enough people acknowledge that the whole nuance behind shi mei’s character becoming “good” was bc hua binan was there to take the fall. mind you shi mei would have turned out to be the same had hua binan not come back to tell him their plan +

backfired. it was through seeing how extreme things got that shi mei started hesitating but hua binan hadnt expected things to go that bad in the first life either. yes you can blame the flower and yes txj was a victim but he wasnt completely free of faults either.

his emotions did propel him to do what he did albeit controlled to an extent. hua binan explicitly states he never expected or wanted txj to be an emperor and kill everyone, that was never his intention but it had been done and he couldnt do anything ab it now.

so he came to try and make things work this time. shi mei could back off bc someone was already doing the same work he wanted to do: to get his people home. he could afford the luxury of second guessing his thoughts but hbn had put too much on the line to back out.

two entire lifetimes. he had to get his people home no matter what. n yes ranwan were compromised in the process but it was bc we hear the story from ranwan’s pov that we tend to sympathize with them more than hbn. had the story been told from hbn’s pov things might be different.

bc at the end of the day it had been thousands of years since his race were being subjected to r*pe, to being killed and eaten and NO ONE not even once stepped up to try to stop it. these people had to fend for themselves in a world that was out to kill them.

i know many people dont agree with hbn’s actions and thats fine. but in my opinion he was the one of the characters who deserved better and smn with a very valid reason to do what he’s done. we can pull the moral values thing but the world is cruel at the end of the day.

he did what he needed to do to get his people home. his people, mind you, who were the descendants of GOUCHEN: the person who saved the mortal world and yet they were being treated like livestock. so i think its understandable if he wants to kill everyone and get revenge.

bc honestly fuck the cultivators and fuck everyone for watching for thousands of years and never doing anything about it. they don’t get to pull the “i’ve never done anything wrong” spiel when they were ALL complicit. even ranwan to an extent.

this is in general tho! i just feel like i dont see enough people talk about him in the 2ha fandom which is weird bc he’s the main villain but these were just thoughts i wanted to say since i finished the book feel free to disagree tho! just wanted to give my perspective !!

OH and one more thing. i just think its really sad how even in the end he only was seen as a hero through the eyes of his own people while the mortal realm, underworld and even the heavens scorned him bc he couldnt control who he was born to. he deserved much better