#i also havent gone back to read the source material in a hot minute

[bi-the-wei]

Seeing hot takes about Wei Wuxian's personality and confidence levels floating around again so thought I'd chime in with my own.

Wei Wuxian does not lack confidence. In fact he is often overly confident, as noted by himself post resurrection.

I think his biggest issues are

1. He views kindness towards himself as transactional. He must pay back any kindness as best he can. However, his own kindness is free of charge. Remember what others do for you, not what you do for others.

2. If someone has to get hurt, he'd rather it be him. This, i believe is the core (cough) of the hero complex Jiang Cheng scolds him for. Its okay if he gets hurt because its him. And he knows he can handle it. And if he can handle it, he has to.

3. He has a fundamental, deep set mistrust of authority figures. His own experiences teach him thst its better to ask forgiveness than permission because youll get punished either way. If you want something done itnis your responsibility. His support from those in power growing up was inconsistent which makes it hard to ask for help.

On paper, these line up with a lot of what the reader may experience as anxiety or lack of confidence/self-worth in their own life. Overcompensation, inability to ask for help, self-sacrifice and the like. The issue is that the motive isnt the same, even if the symptoms are similar. The reason people, including myself at times, depict wwx as being anxious or lacking self-worth i think is mostly projection turned fanon. Its cathartic and easier to relate to.

Wwx does not see himself as worth less of than others in his life. In fact thats part of what raises some other characters hackles. How dare this son of a servant act like he's one of us?!

I think a lot of his issue is really about debt (that he will repay if it kills him(spoiler: it does)), overconfidence in his own ability (though i think he is forcing that out of desperation at the end of his first life because he can't afford to be wrong (spoiler: he was wrong)), a lack in confidence in the skill or motives of others (not completely unjustified ngl), and a desire to keep those he love from harm as much as he can (success may vary).

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wei ying #konnei has thoughts #i also havent gone back to read the source material in a hot minute #so feel free to argue the point if i got somrthing erong. #just my own interpretation of his character #please ignore grammar and typos. typing sloely on my phone #omg #typos in the damn tags #too late now #we die