#not to say that Jiang Fengmian needs to have a metaphorical stick up his ass

[featherfur]

i think about lotus pier a lot. the sect closest to the common folk. where children come and play. where there are no stairs. where vendors set up a market outside the gates that were never really shut, not with the river right there. i think about how different lotus pier is when wei wuxian comes back, and how he wishes he could show lan wangji what it was like, before. IT FELL IN A GODDAMN DAY JIANG FENGMIAN IS A TERRIBLE SECT LEADER WHO HAD WEEKS OF WARNING.

Lmao yes roast him

Okay actually from a business leader standpoint, Jiang Fengmian is okay. He keeps merchants happy without giving into them, he keeps the Lotus farmers happy without rolling over, the general nature of Yunmeng is a pretty steady place where they’re not all dying in slums while merchants hold every penny. And Jiang Fengmian as both a sect leader and in control of a lot of the rivers helps keep it that way.

As a sect leader, Jiang Fengmian wasn’t very good. Well, he was and wasn’t. Again, Yunmeng was pretty steady monetarily and people are fed and happy, but he also dismissed his own kids actions that were reflecting poorly on his people, multiple times (WWX stealing Lotus seeds/pods, WWX being a menace to LQR), didn’t quite keep up with appearances with the Entourage that is both common in media like this and we see in universe, is expected of sect leaders. Ignored threats, ignored evil vibes radiated from the Wen’s every actions. He is very much a ‘let it happen quietly’ type of person, as long as his people are alive he doesn’t particularly care to hold them to a strict standard or to go out of his way to uphold certain ideals.

Which I mean in a time of piece is okay… if you’re not in charge of people who’s job it is to ensure that demons and spirits aren’t massacring people and you’re aware that the current chief cultivator has been waging Lowkey war with the Nie’s for years and has been slowly getting bolder and bolder to the point of essentially kidnapping your kids and then allowing them to face the goddamn tortoise of slaughter.

He doesn’t seem like he wanted to be a sect leader, like where Jiang Cheng had been raised since birth with the rules and expectations and has not only accepted his job but seems like he doesn’t mind the ‘mindless’ bits and is very much okay with devoting everything to doing his job… his father seems like someone forgot to tell him that he had to do it until his dad kicked it and now Jiang Fengmian’s doing it becuase otherwise his wife will yell at him.

Like Jiang Cheng was told “this is your job” and he went “Okay, I will do it to the best of my ability and make my parents proud!” Jiang Fengmian went “god do I have to? Fine.��

Jiang Cheng being a ‘hardass’ really is just… him doing his job? His people are healthy, they have funds, they’re good at their jobs, they feel okay talking to him in public even when he’s pissed, they’re trusted with Zidian, and if you’re a CQL main like me they jab him in the tit and he sighs and takes it. He just makes sure that they’re the best they can be.

Jiang Cheng’s Yunmeng Jiang and Jiang Fengmian’s Yunmeng Jiang are two sides of the same coin.

Jiang Fengmian’s Yunmeng Jiang is ‘true freedom needs less security, the risk is in the nature of it’

Jiang Cheng’s Yunmeng Jiang is ‘through security there is freedom, the risk should be minimized”

But to end this weird ass rant, Jiang Fengmian is a chill leader for perfect peace times in like a romcom but really shouldn’t be in charge of more than like, merchants, he’s too chill and that makes him really really bad at his full job