#in the face of nihilism I'm out here using Xie Lian as a shield-

[fierrochase-falafel]

Reasons I love Xie Lian's character

Maybe this is more of a personal post, but I really appreciate Xie Lian's characterisation and his character arc because of his humanity. He's grown up being seen as special and different, and he really was special and different, and yet is shown at his lowest, falling all the way down from his position to rockbottom and he STILL makes it out alive. Not even alive by choice, but he makes it out nonetheless. And everyday he has to make the choice to see the good in humanity, after having been exposed to the worst human responses and knowing the extent of the damage he and others can do under certain circumstances. Even when he seemed perfect, he never was, and when he seemed despicable, he wasn't that either. He's jaded but not inconsiderate, angry but not vengeful or brash, guilty but slowly learning to love himself. He has the potential to be the most fearsome calamity or the most powerful god, but he decides to spend his time in a little shrine he built himself with his ghost king boyfriend. He can be cold, he can be cunning, he can be naive, he can be reckless, he can be clumsy and he can be stubborn. He can have so many flaws that may go under the radar, so many virtues that go unappreciated by the people around him. He can be the kindest or most scary person you would ever meet, and the only thing stopping him from being the latter is his will to choose to be kind. He is complicated, like a walking oxymoron. And he is traumatised, and he is repressed, and he is trying- he is still trying after everything. He is one of the most human characters I have read despite being an immortal, and gives you the hope that in the face of everything in all its complexity, our choices matter and we as people matter too, no matter how awful our position may be. Maybe the compassion of even 1 other person we meet could be the thing that saves us after all, and maybe no matter what, we're never too far gone.

#xie lian #tgcf #tgcf meta #if you can even call it that #just-- the crux of what I love about what Xie Lian represents as a man who's essentially a paradox yet completely makes sense #and don't even get me started on his internal sarcasm I've already got like 10 posts on that #Xie Lian's complexity feels like a genuine insight into a human being...something often hard to get from talking to people in real life #because he's fictional and all #there's something beautiful about getting to see the best and the worst of him because we accept him as having the capacity for both #hope #nighttime thoughts perhaps #in the face of nihilism I'm out here using Xie Lian as a shield- #if he can find something worth trying for at the literal end of book 4 then yk what so can I...I can try #also see: me when I rewatch the eighth sense and then reflect on what I get out tgcf and t8s #shoutout to the eighth sense and jihyun and jaewon and who they are to each other and also ofc shoutout to kiki #posts originating from my brain