#but whether you find mingjue's willingness to hop on board with bad things

[winepresswrath]

(1) I have to admit, I don't understand what it is that a lot of people have against Xichen - I am honestly very confused about it. As someone who has a lot of responsibility at work and someone who is in a central role in a large and conflicted family, I kind of relate to him a lot. The most effective way of making peace is often talking people round by semi-agreeing with them while also not agreeing with them. It's pragmatism. I don't know, I don't mean to defend him but he also, you know,

(2) isn't cruel - is kind in fact! And I get the impression he tries to do the right thing, as he sees it. He does not kill lots of people. Is it that he /could/have achieved so much if he took a side at some point? 

Xichen emphatically is not cruel! He’s consistently kind, and he has very good opinions, relative to his peers, on things like second chances and beating teenagers until they can barely walk and whether you should murder your enemies en masse without trial. He’s also much less inclined than many people with substantially shittier ideas to defend and stand by his (correct!) moral assessments. Xichen is, to me, one of those narratively satisfying cases where his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. Giving people the benefit of the doubt, valuing different perspectives, and trying to find compromise and common ground are all genuinely good and admirable things right up until one of those perspectives is “I declare a blood feud” and you’re in a position of power accidentally lending your stellar reputation for righteousness to endorse atrocities because your boyfriend has a very convincing mustache and you didn’t want to fight with him about collective punishment in front of your other boyfriend’s shitty dad.  It’s not like there’s no upside to his approach! There’s a post that went around awhile ago about how his willingness to hear Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji out and try to investigate and gather evidence rather than just defaulting to assuming that his beloved boy/friend who helped him rebuild his home was innocent and the necromancer who killed a bunch of his friends is up to some shady shit is good, actually, and I agree! That’s Xichen at his best, and his best is very good! Had an alternate universe Jin Guangyao been coming back from the dead to expose Wei Wuxian’s crimes I think Lan Wangji would have handled that comparatively badly.

However, I also think taking the middle road is not a morally neutral choice and he compromises on a bunch of stuff I think a) you shouldn’t compromise on and b) he could have fought  harder about, and sometimes I am left being like “Xichen. Xichen come on you KNOW this is wrong. Xichen! If you’re going to endorse work camps run by JIN GUANGSHAN shortly after he declared a blood feud you’ve gotta station some of your own people in those camps  so they can see what’s going on! Xichen!  Mingjue listens to you! He loves and trusts you! Together you can make things unpleasant and annoying enough for Jin Guangshan that he’ll be less shit for pragmatic reasons! Xichen I know you love Jiggy and have mommy issues that are directly on point here, but once he’s Chief Cultivator and you’re one of the leaders of the three other remaining great sects ‘I assumed you had your reasons’ is not enough you’ve gotta look directly at the thing so you have the best idea possible about what you’re choosing to let happen.”

All my favourites do terrible things except Yanli, so it’s not like I think he’s in bad company. Most of the cast spends most of the story fucking up horribly in lots of fun and terrible ways! That’s a big part of what I personally find compelling about this story.