#so while these variables all combine in a way to make jzxuan’s defense of mianmian completely in-character and plausible

[mxtxfanatic]

Random Thought #33: Idk how to say this without sounding like I’m tryna diminish Jin Zixuan’s one moment of unambiguous good, but I don’t think Jin Zixuan defending Mianmian would ever have happened if he had to do something more proactive than just…ignoring the words of a man he had been building a simmering hatred for over the course of a few weeks.

Jin Zixuan is shown (and explicitly said) to side with people he considers “his people.” While they are all hostages of the Wen during the indoctrination camp, outside of that shared victimhood, Mianmian is simply a stranger to Jin Zixuan, while his “defense” of her is simply refusing to move out of the way when Wen Chao—the man who had been targeting him for harassment every day for weeks on end—ordered him to. This is a very passive resistance. And not to say that this wasn’t a good deed or any less of a powerful moment, but if Wen Chao hadn’t singled out Jin Zixuan for bullying, would he have still ignored the former’s words to move out of the way? If Jin Zixuan hadn’t happened to be standing by Lan Wangji and Mianmian hid behind only the Lan, instead, would he have said anything in her defense? Would he have even physically moved to shield her? Is any of that in-character with the behavior we are shown of his throughout any of the rest of the novel?

#mdzs #random reading thoughts #thanks orion… #now you have me on my jzxuan hate train again #but yeah I don’t want to say that this scene is ‘out of character’ for jzxuan #because i think the brilliance of mxtx’s character building is that it *isn’t* #jzxuan is *fine* with defending the weak #*when it is convenient for him* #he is fine with protecting those with less power than him #*when it costs him nothing to do so* #but the only time he’ll go out of his way to do those things #is if he considers the ‘offender’ to be someone he hates #and the ‘victim’ to be one of ‘his people’ #see: the soup incident #so while these variables all combine in a way to make jzxuan’s defense of mianmian completely in-character and plausible #it’s the potential of this NOT being his default moral position that interests me #the idea that someone who would normally be trash #could still do something unambiguously good #simply because the cards fell in such a way #that favored that good