#WHY ARE YOU GAY JIEQUAN

[theeyeofeverything]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN AGAIN?! Did he really everytime he has just seen Yi asked him out for a fight? Gosh this piece of a dork

i just spent like 20 minutes painstakingly transferring screenshots from my console to my computer because you guys i forgot that jiequan is like GAY gay wtf

[aceass1n]

So I don't usually ship characters in videogames unless they're explicitly mentioned/canonical (mostly cuz my aroace ass never picks up on it lmao) BUT

I started thinking about Ji x Jietong and I have not. been able. to stop.

There's a few reasons for it, but I haven't really done any lore deepdives (aka looking into interviews, lore videos, etc) so this is all mostly from the top of my head and a quick scan of Ji's wiki page lmao (SPOILERS, tw: suicide):

Ji's dialogue with Yi re the Farewell Passage (or whatever it's called, I can't quite remember, sorry): iirc, Ji doesn't really talk about that many people by name in his various pieces of dialogue and they tend to talk about the past in pretty vague terms, so it really stuck out to me that he a) mentions Jietong by name and b) gave enough of a shit to discuss his legacy with Yi in relative detail. From a gameplay/plot standpoint, this was probably included to help Yi's character arc/introduce Ji's worldview, but I can't help but feel like Ji's uncharacteristic investment in Jietong's death and legacy points to a much more personal relatinoship with the guy than just "Oh he was my boss at one point" or "yeah he was an interesting historical figure."

Ji's Vital Sanctum memories: Jietong's death made such a significant impact on Ji's worldview and character that it was one of the four or five memories Yi sees in Ji's soulscape. This in and of itself is already pretty indicative of Ji caring about Jietong and what happens to him; coupled with (1) and the fact that the only other person who's "death" Ji remembers in detail is Lear (who we know he considered a dear friend), it seems pretty fair to say they were quite attached to Jietong.

In Mandarin, Jiequan calls Ji guoshi, which is a term referring to a state advisor/teacher (I think), even though no one else does. A lot of other people have already figured out that Ji was an advisor of sorts for the Jie kingdom at some point early on, and it stuck out to me that Ji is apparently still considered guoshi for the exiled Jie clan even though the kingdom doesn't exist anymore. Why stick around after all this time? Not to mention that, though Jiequan's dialogue with Ji is mostly Jiequan being like "hey you were fucking wrong dumbass", he does still seem to hold some measure of respect or trust for Ji and their divination. How closely did Jietong hold Ji's counsel back then for that respect and trust to remain in the clan even centuries later?

I'm also just a sucker for tragic doomed gays, and I can't stop thinking about Ji foreseeing how Jietong's life would end and trying everything they can to avert it, only to watch helplessly as the future remains unchanged no matter what he tries to do.