#i suppose that's wuthering heights again--cathy defends heathcliff (until she learns how to be a proper lady)

[spriteofmushrooms]

The interesting thing about Jiang Cheng is that he refuses to be his mother's golden child to Wei Wuxian's scapegoat; he actively chooses Wei Wuxian again and again. He defends Wei Wuxian from her until she dies. It's unusual.

This doesn't mean that Wei Wuxian's experience was any less fraught--being hated by a caretaker is awful even if everyone else loves you. But it was an interesting choice by MXTX.

#pallas.rtf #mdzs #this is perhaps because i spent a lot of time on various subreddits #but either golden children don't protect their siblings or the golden children who protect their siblings don't end up posting on reddit #because i've never encountered a clear golden child and scapegoat dynamic like jc & wwx's in real life or in fiction #i suppose that's wuthering heights again--cathy defends heathcliff (until she learns how to be a proper lady) #but i don't know. it's interesting to see jc step in for wwx directly in the novel and then contrast that to wwx comforting jc after jfm #doesn't praise jc for helping to save wwx #i often wonder if wwx was as resentful in the moment or if--like all memories--wwx reframed that interaction after the golden core transfer #the way he talks about jc like he's sooo delicate and breakable that obviously wwx has to comfort him is v. reminiscent of how he acts like #jc almost directly forced wwx to do this mad impossible thing because jc was sad and breaking #if jc read mdzs he'd probably curl up in a miserable little ball #but yeah like... memories are shaped so much by what we think and feel now #all memory is imagination... and wwx was a tormented ghost for 13 years because no one offered him anything #so what would that do to you? #i'm off topic