You know, I've been thinking about it, and it is absolutely essential to the narrative that Jiang Cheng is a dick and a trash fire. (Affectionate.)
Like, first of all, if he was a sainted little angel of a shidi the way Jiang Yanli is a shijie, Wei Wuxian's choices would become obvious, sort of impersonal, and boring.
Sure, lots of people wouldn't tear themselves apart for such a person in such a scenario, but they're not the protagonists of novels, are they; in a book you have to justify not doing that. So white lotus Jiang Cheng is off the table.
Jiang Cheng who isn't fragile-and-insecure but also stubborn-as-hell and violently reactive also won't wash.
If he wasn't the kind of person who sincerely tries to die under these circumstances, Wei Wuxian would have had the option of loyally supporting him in a less self-destructive way; if he was someone who could be trusted to handle the revelation without suffering a ruinous fracture of identity, Wei Wuxian wouldn't have been forced to distance himself after the war, because he could have come clean.
If Jiang Cheng wasn't the kind of person who centers on his own pride and hurt feelings and lashes out about it, it would be very hard to set up the lategame scenario where they're 'enemies' in a real, meaningful way, despite still loving each other and Wei Wuxian never wishing Jiang Cheng any ill. Even with Jiang Yanli's death.
And I mean, you could get most of the plot without doing this interesting thematic examination of the classic 'bond between martial brothers severed by one going to the dark side' trope, but I'd argue you'd lose an enormous chunk of the story.
And without Jiang Cheng's weaknesses, Wei Wuxian's motives don't cohere. His weaknesses form the foundation of at least two of the backstory's major turning points.
There's the tantalizing possibility that Wei Wuxian wouldn't have done it, if Jiang Cheng hadn't strangled him while blaming him for everything.
Probably he would have, all else being equal! But neither we nor Jiang Cheng can be sure.
Jiang Cheng sucking a lot, and knowing his own flaws perfectly well without that granting him the ability to do much about them, is heavily load-bearing. Which gives him such a fantastic implied point of view!
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Sometimes I wish that Christians who aren't extremists could just fucking shut up about it. Like we GET IT. You're sorry us traumatized folks went through shit. You think the extremists that hurt us are doing Christianity wrong. That's GREAT. You think everyone deserves god's love. That's GREAT. Please stop apologizing for people who don't love us. Please stop trying to justify why you still follow Christianity knowing its flaws. And for the LOVE OF GOD please stop saying "God loves everyone" or shit like that because WE FUCKING KNOW. We know and that's NOT reassuring, if it was we would have stayed.
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Colleen: Sorry Allura, Katie can't go shopping with you. She's grounded because someone thinks demon summoning is an acceptable hobby for a fifteen year old girl.
(Keith chooses now to walk in.)
Keith: Uh. Am I in trouble too?
Colleen: No, you're just fine, Keith.
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when the cain instinct activates but ur both immortal motherfuckers 😔😔😔😔😔
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me: Alright, I've got one more question. What happened to this [NPC who was just invented]?
@dieselpunkd: Do not try to talk to this NPC a player just made up. Don't do this to me.
me: I'M GOING TO THE LIBRARY TO LEARN SENDING TO CALL HER RIGHT NOW, DON'T THINK I'M NOT.
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why is uefa even allowing this ref for the euros? wasn't he literally banned years ago because of some betting scandal? one of germanys most controversial refs for sure
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I just want to say that this whole situation feels…off. There’s something WRONG but I can’t quite place it. I don’t know why. I want to trust my gut - something feels fishy - but I can’t figure out what that could entail. Am I alone in this?
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