#so we're making these calls on vibes and character analysis and timeline estimates and themes and so forth

[whetstonefires]

Okay, so that Jin captain obviously wasn't Meng Yao's first human kill, because he'd served the Nie in war with reasonable distinction for multiple years before getting transferred to the Jin with Nie Mingjue's recommendation; of course he'd killed people before.

They were all killing people. War is hell.

But show of hands, do we think that was his first murder, with the careful setup of being alone near the front and killing the guy with a Wen sword, and it was just Jin Guangyao's typical luck, having his political patron who shouldn't even have been in the area just wander up looking for him at exactly the worst moment? Or had he gotten away with previous similar acts, and that's why he expected to get away with this one?

Feel free to reblog with your reasoning.