#healthyfandomculturetakeswork

[wittytrixter]

Oiya, I don't get this thing with the pro/anti Jiang Cheng camps right now. It's very annoying, and it takes away from real discourse about the manner in which his character chose to move through the world. Must we do it?

Well, I'm not gonna.

I'm halfway through my million and second reading, and I am again stuck on how his perspective/narrative stole everything he loved from himself. Jiang Cheng serves many purposes, but I feel his primary purpose is to establish what happens to people who never question repression.

Poor JC went through it at home, and that's where his story of repression began, as acknowledgment in his house was dangerous. No, Madam Yu wasn't going to beat him about it, but she definitely threw his feelings at him constantly. This dynamic prevented him from returning the Twin Prides promise and prevented him from seeing WWX as an equal-- forever he had that boy on a pedestal or on the floor.

Had Yunmeng not fallen, I can see JC returning the promise and the pair becoming sworn brothers.

Even so, the Lotus Pier house of cards was going to fall one way or another. Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian (anger and ignorance) fed him too much poison (jealousy). Let's imagine Wen Chao never came back for them, and that Lotus Pier's hostile takeover happened on the Wen timeliness (let's be real, that was their original timeline and that's why they took disciples as hostages to begin with, but who am I?). We're going to refer to these cards as "elephants" for now, because they're fucking enormous issues that just get ignored. Forever.

Madam Yu was wrong in her treatment of her kids. JYL and JC were often mistreated by her. Obviously, also WWX, but we're only a quarter counting him as her child. Elephant #1.

But she was right about JFMs refusal to deal with the Wen clan. 100% right, in fact. Not preparing to stand up against them ensured that Lotus Puer would fall. Elephant #2.

Equally, and this is kinda backward talk, but she was right about JFMs lack of decision about WWX's status in their family. Leaving him an unacknowledged, almost child in their family attracted classist ire from the outside world for both children and put her daughter in an awkward position, too (see phoenix mountain). JFM absolutely had the power to resolve this! He could, at any point, have acknowledged some clan or family status that was permanent and protective for all parties. WWX could have been made a guest cultivator or provided with the same status as a cousin (easier, guys) or emphatically erased Wei Changze's status as a servant, but he didn't. He just whined when it was mentioned. Elephant #3.

We can see the trouble wwx's unidentified status creates for Madam Yu in the Wen confrontation scene: servants should act like servants. Even Madam Yu is unable to identify his status. It has never been spoken. And then, asked to maim a child she's raised, she displaced all that vitriol on the kid (who never asked to be her child and never asked to be taken in by the Jiangs). This lack of clarity limits Madam Yus options to protect wwx, and then her parting words for him? Unforgiveable. Her rage, left unchecked beyond JFM saying "Wife" angrily every so often, is elephant #4.

These dynamics undermine the Jiangs standing in the larger cultivation world, and are left unchecked and undressed (Cloud Recesses arc), and yet JFM refuses to not send WWX on these events, and mounts no defense for him when he makes a splash and interacts naturally with his peers. Also, he can double go to hell for his parting words to WWX because at least Madam Yu didn't shower him with insincere affection and then abandon him at the last moment. Elephant 5.

Further, there is constant comparison between wwx and JC inside of and outside of Lotus Pier. Old news-- elephant 6. No one stands up for JC, aside from wwx, which is infuriating, if you're Jiang Cheng. Honestly.

This dynamic is evident from the beginning, but we see early on that Jiang Cheng's natural reaction is initially rejection and then, left to his own devices, rejoining. The Lotus Pier attack interrupted this process. OK, I know, this is long. If you're still here, I appreciate you. Only Jiang Yanli acknowledges WWX's relational status in the family, and only she mounts any defense of him or his actions. Ever. Jiang Cheng was never taught how to do it or why it's important to do so, aside from one reprimanding comment after WWX nearly died in a cave. Elephant 7.

But--and here comes the point--all these elephants are different forms of repression, squashing JCs ability to recognize the importance of this relationship in his life and pressing every bit of the healthy support contained there into the mud.

So... can we stop expecting Jiang Cheng to have relationship skills that have advanced in a manner that doesn't match his experience? Yes, he had opportunity to grow in the 13 intervening years, but who genuinely grows in isolation? Why would Jiang Cheng trust the world enough to make relationships with other people that pose any challenge to his self-image?

Jiang Cheng is a well written character. Let's fangirl/fanboy/fanthem the genius of the person who committed him to paper so effectively instead of engaging in the behavior he exists to caution us against.