#and meaner about him than cql!WWX ever is

[winepresswrath]

I have a question about novel!JC, if that's ok. I'm aware CQL changed things, but is JC in the novel trully such a selfish, abusive, irredeemable asshole some people paint him as? I will read the novel anyways now with the official EN translation, but I admit I'm afraid JC being anywehre near a one dimensional monster some insist he is may sour my experience a little.

I'd say no, but your mileage may vary! He's definitely softened for CQL. The drama writers included a bunch of scenes that make his feelings about Wei Wuxian very clear and also made him look directly into the camera and promise never to let any harm come to his clan just in case anyone was confused about his motivations, but I honestly think most of that stuff is also present in the novel, albeit less obviously. I would say the biggest difference is that because of the timeline hopping the question of whether Jiang Cheng really hates Wei Wuxian and wants him dead is strung out for longer, and there are a few deliberately misleading moments, like Wei Wuxian thinking about how Jiang Cheng was beaten by a discipline whip and then tried to erase the scars without clarifying that he was being tortured by Wen Chao at the time. I'd say there's also a broader range of plausible reads on his character in the novel- he's a less prominent character than he is in CQL, and the book leaves a lot more space than the drama for ambiguity. He is a dude who plausibly beat some demonic cultivators to death. The cultivation world is generally homophobic and he participates in that, (Wei Wuxian is also working through some stuff on that front, which is something I really wish I'd been warned about before starting the novel- we're mostly inside his head, so there are front row tickets to his internalized homophobia that I personally really did not enjoy, though I know a lot of people found it relatable or funny). For what it's worth, I know some people think CQL villainized him or made him less sympathetic! Personally I went in thinking that he'd be a terrible monster and then spent the whole time going "wait what? That is the opposite of what you said was going to happen, internet."

#jiang cheng #mdzs #I'm not the biggest fan of how MXTX handles internalized homophobia in general but I fully admit to sometimes finding Shen Yuan funny even #when he's objectively being pretty awful #Wei Wuxian just makes me wince #but that is the one thing I really would have preferred to go in braced for #oh and jiang cheng in the novel is famously bad tempered but also much more controlled and would for example #never cry in public under normal circumstances #he's just specifically deranged about Wei Wuxian #i think that's a difference? cql jiang cheng is tired and furious and doing his job #mdzs is borderline triggered in the clinical sense #like I'm a cql girl and when I say jiang cheng that's who I mean #i probably would not have gotten into fandom over the novel #but it's fun and jiang cheng is fun in it #less Yanli tho which is an actual crime #oh! Wei Wuxian's also a lot more angry with him #and meaner about him than cql!WWX ever is #oh oh and the siege of the burial mounds I cannot believe I forgot #jiang cheng leads a siege against Wei Wuxian #and the Wen remnants minus Wen Qing and Wen Ning #so he is directly implicated in their deaths #you definitely could like cql jc and not novel jc! #but the people who insist he's a one dimensional villain are I think mostly just bitter because they hate him and he's popular #and his cql version supports an interpretation of his character they dislike