#like reading the first few chapters of the novel I was like OHHHHHHHHHH so THAT'S why that is

[llycaons]

there's a lot of text in the novel explicitly talking about what a good and selfless person lwj is for always being where the chaos is post-nightless and helping people for free but that's undercut in retrospect by the knowledge that he's just looking for wwx and has ulterior motives, and he's rich so it's not like it's any great loss not to take payment. like his love of rabbits, most things that make him a Good Person exist only because of wwx, so I always got the sense he didn't really care about any of that unless it was for wwx's sake, which extended to treating a-yuan only as a memento of wwx rather than caring about him in his own right. which is fine for a character honestly, he's a flawed person, but it does make the insistence that he's such a good person all the time really annoying. the few times I really liked novel lwj for his integrity and kindness (things that we didn't see cql lwj do) was when he nodded respectfully at 'mxy' (lying on the ground looking like a maniac) and when he stopped to help that old man in the lotus seed extra. otherwise he rly does come off as fixated on wwx and basing all his decisions on him, which makes him such a weak moral presence

in cql it's also kinda there but definitely not as bad since he independently swore an oath to help those in need, since he played for the dead wens immediately after the war and clearly would have done so anyway, and imo since he accepted the cc position at great personal cost to himself (and to wwx). there's a much stronger emphasis on them being equals and both committed to justice and doing good works as cultivators together, also highlighted by their parallels to sl and xxc, and it makes his actions later seem more aligned with how he already is rather than just a desperate man looking for someone he lost and helping people only incidentally. minor, but he also liked rabbits before wwx gave them to him; he felt like he had more of a personality and life outside of wwx (which is NOT saying a lot lmao he's still very much tied to wwx in most ways). I still think the issue is there since it's kind of integral to lwj's arc, but it's softened by making lwj stronger in his beliefs and principles and interests outside of and prior to wwx