#even tho he supposedly defected from ymj. like. wwx was raised in the sect *was raised alongside jc*

[tonyglowheart]

so many hate posts for jc in the mdzs tag lmao... so many ppl doing text analysis that imo is missing a lot of... like complicated cultural connotations & implications that factor into what makes jiang cheng & his situation complicated but not, like, almost cartoonishly villainous that some people seem to lean into trying to make him be.

And also, yes, Jiang Cheng DOES serve a narrative function vs being a "real person on trial," but I think adjacently to the post (which is talking abt redemption arcs), that "villainousness" should be considered that way too. Jiang Cheng is a narrative foil and at some points a narrative antagonist, but he's not a *villain* in mdzs. He doesn't have to be a villain or be villainous for him not to be "likeable"/ for you not to like him.

And again, mdzs deals so much with the themes of rumor & reputation vs “reality”/“truth” as a central thesis (and how sometimes perspective matters too for who is the “hero” and who is the “villain”). It's just interesting to me to see people swing hard one way or another on Jiang Cheng when most of what we know about him isn't told from his perspective or even centered around him. A major point of mdzs is highlighting and underscoring how you do Not often have the full picture just because you think you have enough information to extrapolate & receate the scene like some kind of BBC Sherlock, and that often there *are* more questions you should be asking, & interrogating your own assumptions & beliefs.

I'm just tired of the constant Jiang Cheng discoursing I see around that seems to fail to consider what the original cultural contexts would be which inform how Jiang Cheng acts & operates (or fails to realize that at some point unless you immerse yourself into a cultural understanding you can't in fact fully argue a pure "textural" argument in good faith bc you are bringing your own perspectives and biases into it, you are Not a blank slate nor are your experiences & context the default) and how it informs his narrative functions.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #one major thing I feel like people fail to realize or consider is like... the amount of responsibility that JC would in fact have #over what wwx did/what the cultivation world thinks he did #even tho he supposedly defected from ymj. like. wwx was raised in the sect *was raised alongside jc* #historically/culturally (like youd see in historical dramas esp) there IS this concept of like.. you are responsible for what your kin/clan #does it's like a collective sense of responsibility thing. where like you keep your family on a moral path and they keep you #and any transgressions are then the responsibility esp of the head of the fam to like take care of or discipline or like.. #eradicate if needs be if the transgression is big enough and like they don't show remorse etc #it's also an honor thing in a way it's like a way of providing 'justice' as well as like taking back your honor #and like. ymj would be incredibly vulnerable after the war they were literally razed #culturally jc would still have some measure of moral & societal obligation to handle wwx but also #political pressure as well from lanling jin and such #plus the pressure to live up to his ancestors' legacies and more immediately his parents' #like I do think jc goes overboard but. the narrative calls him out on that? it's not something that's excused or ignored?