mdzs leading up to the yllz's implosion at the siege of burial mounds is a stunning tragedy of war, self-sacrifice, moral quandaries, hubris, and impossible circumstances created by greedy, heartless and self-serving tyrants. the ending of mdzs however is a cop-out.

wwx gets a get out of jail free card with a romance sideplot character who assures him that he was always right, that he never did anything wrong and gets to avoid consequences for everything he did, ignoring all the obvious consequences in the broken people around him.

wwx and lwj peaked in highschool and you know it because wwx became a war criminal and lwj a simp and they never shut the fuck up about highschool

more wwx and lwj parallels: individuals who always had people to bail them out and protect them from the consequences of their mistakes. wwx who had jfm, jyl and then jc taking the brunt of his actions and lwj who had lxc and lqr since he's sect leader lan's son.

alright so if we examine the ending choices of mdzs the lessons we get are:

- lwj and wwx riding off into the sunset to fuck in a forest: fuck everyone, don't get attached except to your sugar daddy, because fuck jc and his unresolved trauma, fuck lxc who is mentally breaking

down in seclusion, fuck jl who realized what a monster his xiao shushu was and now has to be sect leader of the incredibly corrupt jin, fuck lqr who has to step up again after his nephews can no longer take up the sect leader mantle, and again fuck jc (a second time) because

eww bro why can't you just get over wwx, why do you care about him so much and the people he's killed and the promises he's broken, cringe

mdzs really be like elitism and corruption from power are bad but no actually elitism and lwj being wwx's rich sugar daddy saves the day and lets them skip out on all consequences

lwj who gets to teach the juniors and shape a generation despite attacking his clan elders

because he got bailed out by his connections to lxc and lqr being their relative and also the sect leader's son

lwj who holds grudges against jc and apparently has no idea how sect politics or sect leader duties fucking work despite being the heir to gusu lan and supposedly

being the perfect and accomplished hanguang jun, paragon of virtue, who is still petty to a fucking 14 year old jin ling for being short tempered to the man who fucking killed his parents

mdzs starts off attacking the rich and privileged and talks about how you should help the downtrodden but uhh post timeskip the complacent centrist and self righteous lans are the unquestionable good guys and lwj who also epitomises status, wealth and privilege is who wwx marries