#jl was so close to going down exactly the same path as jc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crossdressingdeath · 3 years

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I can’t believe so many people missed the point of WWX and JC going their separate ways. It’s not just saying they don’t like it, they just think the author tricked them as if MXTX didn’t consistently show WWX getting more and more tired of JC’s attitude as the novel went on.

Guanyin Temple JC finally takes things too far with the things he said and WWX needs to tell him enough while hiding behind LWJ. Even JC himself realized how unfair he was being when he says even now he expected WWX to comfort him. JC himself realized how stupid he was being and it’s why he finally let WWX go and never told him about distracting the Wen’s. JC, even on a small level, realized he just guilts WWX and forces him to stay.

The kindest thing JC ever did for WWX at the end of the novel was letting WWX go without any comments and finally accepting they have their own lives to live. Which is huge considering the day before he literally kept preventing WWX from leaving the ancestor hall just to insult him and try forcing a fight out of him and even pushed WWX to minor Qi Deviation at the same time.

Can they reconcile one day? Maybe. But by the end of the novel and as we see post canon, it won’t happen for a long time and no one is forcing the issue of them not being in each others lives right now. Not even Jin Ling cares. Just because people don’t like it doesn’t mean it came out of no where and it’s ignoring the only step JC has taken to do something right by WWX.

Yeah. There’s an increasingly strong sense throughout the present day arc that WWX is just getting more and more done with JC’s shit every time they see each other; you can really feel how the time away from JC and with someone who treats him kindly and with genuine love and affection is showing him that JC doesn’t treat him well and that he does deserve better than JC gives him. And of course there’s other things, like the difference between LWJ’s treatment of the juniors under his authority and JC’s treatment of JL. It’s like... one of the most obvious markers of how much WWX has changed and come into his own since his childhood is that while he never approved of JC’s dickishness the things he found amusing and cute and maybe a little unpleasant at worst as a kid growing up in Lotus Pier he finds deeply annoying at best as a grown man facing his childhood playmate who hasn’t grown at all from those days. Which makes sense for multiple reasons; it’s WWX growing and realizing he doesn’t have to put up with JC’s shit, and it’s also a grown man seeing his childhood friend behaving exactly how he did when they were children and realizing in the way a child wouldn’t how pointless and cruel and childish that behaviour is and always was.

The lack of reconciliation is I think a mark of how different they’ve become. They were always different, but WWX has grown as a person. JC hasn’t. Take the scene where WWX says, almost fondly, “You haven’t changed a bit”; he’s not happy with JC’s behaviour, but this is the brother he remembers and he’s glad to see him. Then JC whirls around, says “I’ll show you who hasn’t changed”, and sics WWX’s worst fear on him for no reason. This isn’t all that far into the present day arc and WWX has yet to grow that much, but you can see even then how WWX is changing and growing and JC hasn’t and isn’t. And when WWX takes JC’s lack of change as a minor disappointment perhaps but also almost a relief the same way NHS’s apparent lack of change is JC flips out, turns around and accuses the man who was dead of not changing while he was dead and then attacks him. And of course that builds with every interaction they have, and every flashback shows us more evidence that these two are incompatible as people and that reconciliation would actually be a bad thing. Particularly for WWX, but they could never make each other happy. They’re just... too different and want mutually exclusive things from each other and from life. If you look at all the scenes with WWX and JC, really look at them without using the lens of “Aw Yunmeng bros so great”, you see two children raised together and told to be close from a young age who take opposite lessons from their experience and opposite paths in life and in the end can’t go back to that childhood. Even as early as the Xuanwu arc you can see it starting; WWX wants to step in and help, he sees it as their duty. JC actively stops him and would’ve forced WWX to be a bystander to MM’s brutal murder-by-monster if JZX and LWJ hadn’t stepped in. Nothing really comes of it at the time (except for JC’s temper tantrum later), but it’s a clear sign of the coming split in their beliefs with the Wen remnants; the split that turns out to be irreconcilable.

There’s also things like the comparison to the Twin Jades with the “Twin Heroes” (or “Twin Prides” if you prefer, I have no idea which is a more accurate translation if in fact either of them are more correct) thing. The “Twin Jades” moniker is something the people gave to LXC and LWJ, because their relationship was so clearly as close as twins. And they’re beautiful and charming (...well, LXC is) and their public image is one of them being incredibly close brothers. The Twin Heroes moniker is something WWX invokes, using the example of another set of brothers who are known for being close. It’s not something that’s actually used, it’s something WWX makes up to bring JC down from his temper tantrum and that never really comes up again until JC uses it to guilt him later. Really think about that scene. WWX creates parallels to other, more loving and more successful (for lack of a better term) brothers, rather than focus on how loving he and JC are. “If Gusu has its Twin Jades, Yunmeng will have its Twin Heroes”, “we’ll be just like our fathers”... I don’t know, maybe it’s just me? But it feels kind of like WWX is... grasping at straws a bit. He says he’ll be loyal, but it feels less like a “we’re brothers and we love each other” and more like “look, we’ll be like these people who love each other!”

So... yeah, MXTX actually spends a lot of time on foreshadowing that Yunmeng bros are not a relationship that will survive the test of time. The biggest surprise in the Guanyin temple where they finally officially go their separate ways (I say officially because let’s face it, the two of them pretty much went their separate ways the day JC declared WWX a traitor to all the sects for not being down with genocide) is that JC does realize that he’s being incredibly unfair to WWX and lets him go without trying to guilt him over JC’s sacrifice, and even that was a good and satisfying point for his story to end on. This was a natural and well set up place for that relationship to end up, and like... people can dislike it all they want, but saying MXTX somehow “tricked” them or fucked up the story just because she disliked JC (which I’ve always found to be a generally stupid argument to level at authors anyway because as an (aspiring) author let me tell you if I hate a character enough to sabotage my own story to fuck them over I rewrite or remove the character) is an embarrassingly lazy analysis of the novel (and even calling it an analysis is a stretch but I can’t think of a better word off the top of my head) at best and at worst is an insult to MXTX and the novel she worked so hard to create.

#mdzs #cql #grapehate #wei wuxian #anon #asks

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