#his actions will continue to be defined by a chosen lack of jiang cheng

[qiu-yan]

thank you everyone who voted, and thank you everyone who included your reasoning in the tags!!

what's interesting about the responses on this post is that literally every response equates wei wuxian visiting and/or returning to lotus pier with wei wuxian trying to reconcile with jiang cheng. but the poll didn't ask if wei wuxian would every try to reconcile with jiang cheng. the poll asked if wei wuxian would ever try to visit and/or return to lotus pier. those are two different questions.

it is in fact entirely possible to construct a scenario in which wei wuxian visits and/or returns to lotus pier without also seeking to reconcile with jiang cheng, or even interacting with jiang cheng at all. maybe jiang cheng has the cultivator version of an extended business trip somewhere, and wei wuxian breaks in to steal back all of his stuff. maybe something happens to jiang cheng that forces him to leave lotus pier. maybe jiang cheng dies and a different person more sympathetic to wei wuxian becomes the next sect leader jiang.

however, i still think that all the responses on this post touch upon a fundamental truth that the above hypothetical situations miss. in umineko terms, the above hypotheticals are blue truths, while the tags on this post by contrast are based around a golden truth instead: that, in the context of MDZS, jiang cheng is lotus pier.

the simple fact is that, if wei wuxian wants to return to lotus pier, he must contend with the jiang cheng of the present. the lotus pier of the past no longer exists; instead, the lotus pier of the present is jiang cheng's legacy. jiang cheng revived yunmeng jiang. jiang cheng rebuilt lotus pier. even if jiang cheng himself disappears, the lotus pier of the present is still irreversibly marked with his fingerprints. lotus pier is not just jiang cheng's legacy, it is the very proof of his existence.

if wei wuxian wants to return to lotus pier, he must contend with the specter of jiang cheng. in lotus pier - the piers jiang cheng rebuilt, the lotuses jiang cheng replanted, the disciples jiang cheng recruited. the nephew jiang cheng raised. and even if jiang cheng himself is not present, the memory of jiang cheng remains: here is where you shot your first kite with jiang cheng. here is where you went swimming with jiang cheng. here is where you killed your first yao with jiang cheng. here is where you learned the sword with jiang cheng, here is where you roasted jin zixuan with jiang cheng, here is where you ate your shijie's pork rib and lotus soup with her brother.

here is where you promised jiang cheng that the two of you would be the twin prides of yunmeng. here is where jiang cheng was tortured and his golden core melted, all because he, unbeknownst to you, saved you from the same fate by drawing that wen patrol away from you.

perhaps that is why wei wuxian avoids lotus pier.

if yes, whether he succeeds or not is a different question