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#pls fandom stop blaming traumatized children for making fucked up dexisions and being bad at communicating!!!
amedetoiles · 3 years
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lwj is almost as guilty for all the things jc is criticised for
Everyone is guilty for all the things Jiang Cheng is constantly criticized for. Torturing cultivators? Check. Not helping the Wen remnants? Check. Not standing by Wei Wuxian? Check. Shouting? Check. Lying? Check. Being an asshole at some point in their life? Absolutely check.
Everyone jokes around about the Lan’s Silencing Spell, including myself, but um, using your sect’s magical coercion spell to silence someone else’s voice multiple times is actually kind of fucked up? Nobody says anything about the Lans and Nies being equally, if not more so, complicit in what ends up happening with the Wens and Wei Wuxian, but it’s still Jiang Cheng who gets the most criticism, and I will never be okay with this.
Hell, Wei Wuxian himself committed pretty much all of these! As much as we love Wei Wuxian for his endlessly giving heart, we should keep in mind that he also didn’t do anything about the Wens until Wen Qing and Wen Ning were involved. That isn’t a criticism. That is just the nature of the society and culture that they live in, where blood feuds are a thing and wiping out a clan who killed your family is simply an equal and just exchange regardless of individual involvement. Wei Wuxian committed a massive cultural taboo for helping the Wen remnants. That isn’t to say he shouldn’t have helped, or that everyone isn’t complicit in the death of a bunch of villagers who were trying to move on, but that responsibility and criticism certainly shouldn’t only land squarely on Jiang Cheng’s shoulders.
Especially when Jiang Cheng was still little more than a child himself. The Jiang sect was completely wiped out. Jiang Cheng was barely holding onto any political power as it is. They were being intentionally left out of political meetings by the other three sects. They were extremely vulnerable to being swallowed up and becoming subsidiary to the Jin sect. Jiang Cheng had an immense responsibility to his people who walked with him through war when he had nothing to offer them at time other than his word, and part of that responsibility was to not go around pissing off your next door neighbors who had a hell of a lot more power than you do at the moment.
And amidst of all this, Jiang Cheng was being actively lied to the entire time! He couldn’t possibly have known that Wei Wuxian, his genius cultivator shixiong, no longer had a golden core, whose only option was now demonic cultivation and who was neck deep in a veritable thunderstorm of trauma and self-hatred. Especially when Wei Wuxian was constantly telling him he was fine. Especially when Wei Wuxian was doing everything he could to make sure Jiang Cheng could never know the truth. While I do think Jiang Cheng was wrong about what options were available to him, I personally think he was the least obligated out of everyone to help.
You know whose sects didn’t get wiped out? Who still had political power and was actually at the table when the remaining Wens and labor camps were being discussed? Who still had experienced disciples and opinionated elders? Who had at least much more experience navigating the complicated web of political manipulations than Jiang Cheng? The Lans. The Nies. Both equally capable of putting a stop to Jin Guangshan. Both equally responsible for the murders of a bunch of villagers. Both absolutely one hundred percent more obligated to do so and in a position where it was possible than Jiang Cheng was.
But sure, let’s freaking blame the traumatized teenager whose family and sect were slaughtered for not being able to help.
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