#also me shaming myself publicly for just fully spoiling a whole whack of people probably for one of the big plot twists in word of honour

[thatswhatsushesaid]

@citrus-circuss OH NO 😭😭😭 i'm so sorry, for some absurd reason it never occurred to me that people who have seen cql haven't also seen word of honour, which is SUCH a wild thought for me to have because it has 0% grounding in reality. ahhhh i feel terrible, his villain reveal is such a satisfying shock to the system when you experience it for the first time, and now i have DEPRIVED you of it.

i just think jin guangyao's expression while looking at nie mingjue's severed head in the jinlintai treasure room speaks volumes about the depth of his unhappiness regarding, well. everything about this situation. about the circumstances that brought them both to the point where it was nmj's life or jgy's; about the decade of deception required to hide the evidence of this crime; about what he knows this revelation would do to lan xichen, if he found out.

some points for context:

1) he believes he's unobserved, save for nmj's resentful spirit. qin su is incapacitated (which, yikes, but this post isn't about that), paper man wei wuxian is still hidden from view; he has no one to perform or pretend for;

2) this is not an expression of triumph or satisfaction. this is the expression of a man who is both sad and frightened;

in other words, this isn't cruel, heartless, self-satisfied villain behaviour. this isn't zhao jing from 'word of honor' pissing on the memorial plaques of all his murdered sworn brothers while laughing maniacally about outwitting them. this scene has the weight of a graveside visit, if that grave was maybe also a nuclear warhead.