#girl help The Misinterpretation and now im not in control of how im perceived

[vee-lociraptor]

me vs the fear that people think im genuinely stupid

[memory-lane-and-back-again]

I personally feel this is a woeful misinterpretation of Jiang Cheng’s character. Only in the final scene when we as the audience learn of Jiang Cheng’s sacrifice does he truly let go of the debt between them. This one side debt of resentment Jiang cheng has been holding onto for really long

To explain this further, he doesn’t tell Wei Wuxian as a matter of pride; he can’t be better than Wei Wuxian in any other way but at least he can be the more morally upstanding and noble cultivator. Whenever we seen Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in their past, JC nearly always takes a chance to berate wwx for his ‘misbehaviour’ and act more mature. The most notable example off the top of my head is the lotus pier extra where wwx is flirting with the girls on the pier and jc decides not to join in because, among other reasons, it’s silly.

It makes wwx’s ‘fall’ to demonic cultivation even more notable bc jc suddenly becomes this hero whose whole family is taken away tragically by the scoundrel they treated like family. The fact that there are tales about how it is jc who finished of the yiling laozu emphasise the poetic justice and morally upstanding position jc takes within the in-world inaccurate narrative—the one we hear right at the beginning that we discover to be false the more we read.

In my opinion part of the reason jc react to poorly to the golden core reveal is because jc’s great sacrifice is suddenly overshadowed (again) by wwx’s even greater sacrfice. Wwx outlines his reason for not saying anything about what he did, bc jc is too competitive, which is reaffirmed to be correct when jc’s first gripe with wwx’s golden core reveal is ‘you must think you’re so righteous and noble…’ because it not only neutralises but decimates every ‘noble action’ jiang cheng took after that. He didn’t defeat a demonic cultivator who destroyed the sect that raise him, he destroyed the martial brother who sacrificed his golden core for him and turned to utilising resentment as a way to win the war.

Think about it: if you suddenly learnt that the person you grew up with as almost family that had betrayed you unforgivable actually hadn’t betrayed you but hid the truth of their sacrifice, why would your first reaction be to mock the righteousness of it? It speaks to the incredible insecurity jc has of not living up to the yunmeng jiang motto of achieving the impossible—which, again, wwx does by transplanting his golden core. At this stage, jc is not Over the debt he perceives wwx to owe his family because ultimately he is classist and percieves wwx as lesser.

Jc actively holding wwx accountable for his family’s destruction for Years (which wwx realistically could not have helped) as well as the sacrifice of his golden core over him for just as long reflects how wwx is percieved even then as ‘other’ he is not a part of the yunmeng jiang family that just had their sect destroyed, he is the reason why; he is not a brother worth sacrificing for, he is a servant who should now be honour bound to jc for this great and noble sacrifice.

Certainly, jiang cheng does get over this and come for (well jin ling really) them in the temple (im counting wwx because I regard him bringing chengching as an apology and olive branch), but his initial scorn at righteousness forground where his priorities lie: in still trying to be better than wwx.

Their relationship is complex, but due to the discordant way wwx is integrated into the yunmeng jiang household: recieving the affection from jfm of a son jc can naver hope to be; the responsibilities of a servant instead of an heir from jfm; the love of a sister from jyl; the scorn of a misbehaving out of line servant from yzy, jc’s own perception of wwx is very clouded (not to speak of wwx’s perception of himself). He is a brother when it is convenient to jc (twin prides of yunmeng) and a servant when he needs to feel like he is in control (you needs to be carrying your sword).

There is a reason why, despite jc’s fearsome rep for destroying demonic cultivators, he doesn’t destroy wwx the first chance he get when lwj isn’t there. He talks—brashly and threateningly but it is not the expected picture of sandue shenshong whose foul temper sparks zidian. There’s a reason he hold onto chengqing for so long… jc and the relationship he has with wwx is so, so complex.

On one hand, he does care about him; on the other, wwx is the easiest person to blame for his father disinterest, his mother’s disappointment, his sister’s split affection and death. Wwx is the walking mirror that shines all jc’s insecurities right back in his face and for the record that’s not wwx’s fault, he cannot help but be that impressive and he tries not to take away from jc’s own prowess by, in many ways, being jc’s number one suppprter but he doesn’t do that by making himself smaller. Significantly their dynamic is revealed under duress when jfm order wwx to protect his son and then jc winds up strangling wwx and yelling about how it is his fault. These interactions are key to unveiling the core of their relationship and where it lies in the social hierarchy because he is a protector and not a part of the family to bw protected, an outlet for frustration and not a family member to find solidarity with. (I also tenuously suspect jfm’s order is why jc chooses to get captured; to show he is just as capable of protecting wwx. Yes brotherly love in part, but not just brotherly love.)

Does jiang cheng move on? Yes, at the very end. Coming back to chenching, when jc hands it over, he relinquishes his hold of the idea that wwx is morally inferior to him and lets wwx neutralise the threat of nmj and jgy. This is further enforced by the fact that he doesnt his jin ling—-he raises his hand but the hit never lands.

I personally feel that calling jc a self sacrificing martyr from start to end oversimplifies his character majorly because it doesn’t account for his childhood pressure to be the best because he is the heir. Social heirarchy plays such a significant role in mdzs which is why there are signifant character with backgrounds like wwx who do different things and all die in the end (jgy and mzy and xy) as it reflects how those of lower status and regard, bastards, orphans, servants, will always be punished and suffer over the rich, irrespective of how heinous their crimes or intentions. Jiang cheng likewise reflects the opposite side of society where he feels the pressure to remain superior and how he suffers in his childhood reflects how this is harmful (I like to think of a gun: it shoots a bullet but it still recoils, one way does infinitely more damage but it still makes holding the gun a heavy burden to deal with).

His martyrdom isn’t for purely selfless reasons, it’s laced with his feelings of inferiority that he displaces onto wwx. He does love him, yes, but he cannot see that through the social prejudice and years of hatred until the very end of the book when he lets go of his anger and (in a very Freudian way if i do say so myself) some of the violence he shares with him mother. Jiang cheng is a beautiful character precisely because he has a character arc of change and what little we see of him shows us his growth.

Jiang Cheng never brought up his own sacrifice because he didn't want Wei Wuxian to feel indebted to him again, not because it would make his own sacrifice obsolete.

He wanted to let him go so he could be free to live with Lan Wangji and maybe to hopefully even start afresh again.

Jin Ling, who knows his uncle well, even acknowledges that he wanted to say something to Wei Wuxian when the pair left.

Jiang Cheng is a selfless person for this reason. He knew how much it would destroy Wei Wuxian if he told him what really happened.

He never held his sacrifice over him in that moment. He never held it over him in the core reveal scene. And he never held it over him even when their tensions first started when Wei Wuxian decided to protect the Wen and left him for a sect that tried to destroy his own.

Jiang Cheng kept that secret to himself because he understood Wei Wuxian and ultimately because he loves him. He doesn't want Wei Wuxian to owe him anything, and he doesn't want him to feel indebted to him. All he wanted was his bro back. And even then, he let Wei Wuxian go in the end because he saw that that was what he wanted.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both decided to move on in the end so they can grow into better people. The JC antis in this tag, who keep bringing up the same discourse, should do the same thing. They might feel relief if they do. 🥰