#this is just me screaming into the void about my deepseated dislike of all this stuff acting like he's a flawless character
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crossdressingdeath Ā· 5 years ago
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Okay Iā€™ve had a very long day and people are being superĀ defensive of JC on my dash so uh. Iā€™m gonna talk shit about him for a bit. Because itā€™ll make me feel better. And I donā€™tĀ want anyone arguing with me about this so Iā€™ll put it behind a cut and if you donā€™t want to read someone talking shit about JC in a super unstructured manner then... donā€™t click read more, I guess?Ā 
So hereā€™s one thing, to start. In The Untamed specifically, I can argue with near-absolute certaintyĀ that JC killed WWX. LWJ had him, and that guy is insanelyĀ strong; I donā€™t doubt for a second he couldā€™ve pulled WWX up if heā€™d been given the chance. Maybe JC didnā€™t put a blade through WWXā€™s heart himself, but if he had stayed out of it WWX probably wouldā€™ve lived. I donā€™t know how longĀ he wouldā€™ve lived, and I doubt he wouldā€™ve thanked LWJ for saving him, but he probably wouldnā€™t have died on that cliff. Hell, killing him quickly might have been a kindness; Iā€™m not an expert on how far you have to fall to die instantly on impact and I donā€™t know how high that cliff was, but depending on how he landed and if he bounced off anything on the way down itā€™s possibleĀ (though maybe not likely) that WWX wouldnā€™t have died right away. If I had to choose between a quick death via a blade through a vital part or a more lasting death via serious internal damage from a very long fall... Yeah, Iā€™d take the stabbing. Obviously Iā€™m not saying that not being able to go through with killing his brotherĀ makes JC a bad person; Iā€™m just saying that when his choices were doing nothing (which, reminder, here means letting LWJ pull WWX up (or at least try to)), helping LWJ save his brother, finishing WWX off quickly (JC is trained in combat, Iā€™m sure he knows where to stab for the most merciful death possible under those circumstances), or letting WWX fall to his death... I just find it interesting that JC chose the latter.
Hell, even before that, if JC had done somethingĀ sooner a whole lot of pain couldā€™ve been avoided. (Weā€™re out of the Untamed-exclusive stuff, by the way.) Now, I get that as a very new sect leader of a sect that was almost obliterated JCā€™s position is... precarious, to say the least. However! An awkward position doesnā€™t automatically mean he can pretty much abandon his brother! That is not how familial ties work! Especially when he never takes WWXā€™s position (which was equally precarious if not more so) into account while talking about how WWX abandoned him.
Put yourself in JCā€™s shoes for a moment, here. Most of your family is dead. Your brother, you know, was thrown into a hell pit and hasnā€™t been seen for three months. Then, joy of joys, you find him again! Except now your ever-cheerful, ever-kindhearted brother can raise the dead and, oh yeah, has spent all his time since escaping the hell pit that no one survives torturing people to death with demonic cultivation. What do you do in this situation? Iā€™m fairly sure your answer was notĀ ā€œThrow him on the front lines as your most valuable weapon without giving him so much as a chance to come to terms with all the horrible things that have clearlyĀ happened to himā€. Yes, yes, they were in the middle of war, but you donā€™t get to throw your very obviously messed upĀ brother onto the front lines and then be shocked when there are serious consequences for doing that.
Also, going back to positions: People talk a lot about how JCā€™s position was so difficult, and Iā€™m not saying it wasnā€™t, but... hereā€™s the thing. WWXā€™s position was so much worse. JC is theĀ sect leaderĀ of an old and powerful sect. The Jiangs might have lost a great deal, but there are still alliances he could call on, favours he could probably cash in, treasures reclaimed from the Wens he could use... Heā€™s not exactly helpless. He has to be careful, but heā€™s not entirely defenseless. Meanwhile, WWX is the incredibly powerful demonic cultivator with a dangerous weapon everyone wants to get their hands on and a brother heā€™s known to have a somewhat strained relationship with. We see in canon that the sects are actively hunting for a chance to get their teeth into him after the Sunshot Campaign wraps up. All WWX has is his own power and JCā€™s support. I keep coming back to what JGY says at the temple, about how JC made WWX an easy target by making it obvious their relationship was rocky, and... heā€™s right. I doubt JC intendedĀ to do it, but he made it very easy for the sects to split WWX off from him. And while JC was still a sect leader and largely untouchable, WWX was infinitely more vulnerable. Again, I doubt he meant to paint a target on his brotherā€™s back, but the fact that he missed itĀ in favour of getting pissy about WWX being better than him yet again says something about him.
The fact that he says thereā€™s nothing he can do after WWX absconds with the Wen remnants says... something else. Now, Iā€™m terrible with politics; while he definitely should haveĀ supported his brother in a perfect world, with a sect to look after and JGS hunting for weak points I genuinely donā€™t know if he could have at that point. (Again, I really do think he shouldā€™ve triedĀ to step in before things got to this point, but... well, he didnā€™t. No use crying over spilled milk and all that.) So okay, he couldnā€™t do anything. Iā€™ll take him at his word; if nothing else, I can believe he was too bad with both politics and people and too inexperienced to find a way to step in. But he then takes his brotherā€™s request to remove him from the Jiang sect to avoid any trouble coming to their doorstep andĀ goes off and tells the sects that his brother is a traitor. Let me put that another way. He tells the people who are looking for an excuse to murder his brother and take his writings and inventions for themselvesĀ that his brother has betrayed them. I think we have reached the point where malice and stupidity become impossible to tell apart. Honestly, I can only see two possible thought processes for this: Either he actually wantsĀ to bring the sects down on WWXā€™s heads (unlikely) or heā€™s so terribleĀ at politics that he genuinely didnā€™t realizeĀ what the logical result of his words would be (more likely, but means his parents did a terribleĀ job of teaching him how to be a sect leader). Although, given he apparently spent enough of the 13 years between WWXā€™s death and resurrection spending so much time torturing demonic cultivators to death because either he thought they might beĀ WWX or they just reminded him of him that most of the citizens in his territory are too scared to go to Lotus Pier for help unless theyā€™re in imminent life-threatening dangerĀ I donā€™t think you can argue he was a goodĀ sect leader by any stretch...
Oh! Speaking of parents and teaching: Jin Ling. Now, part of this might be a cultural thing that Iā€™m not familiar with, but JC is an absolutely god-awful guardian. Pretty much all he doesĀ is insult JL, belittle him, or threaten him. Yeah, he cares in his own way, but take it from me: When your parents (or uncle, in this case) spend most of their time insulting you but also keep you safe from any external danger and do their best to help you grow, you donā€™t end up a happy, well-adjusted adult; you end up miserable and confused because you canā€™t hate orĀ like the person raising you and get stuck between love and resentment. JL is clearly desperateĀ for affection, but he canā€™t admit that to anyone. Itā€™s no surprise he mourns for JGY so deeply even after everything; the guy was pretty much the only one in the poor kidā€™s life to treat him with open, honest affection before he met WWX! The comparison between him and Sizhui (as the only other child raised by the main cast) is striking; even though LWJ seems like he should be just as bad a parent, he raises Sizhui with love and kindness, and so did WWX before him. And the result is... so very different. Sizhui is the very goodest of boys and I love him with all my heart. Anyway, itā€™s no wonder JL gravitates towards WWX and defends him once heā€™s gotten past his initial reaction of stabbing the guy; WWX is so open and explicit with his affection! Is he a perfect parent? No, probably not. But he focuses more on making it clear to his army of juniors that he loves them and respects them as people and wants them to be happy with where they end up in life than he does on making them fit hisĀ image of what they should be. Of courseĀ someone whoā€™d be raised with JC copying his mother and constantly getting on their case about not being good enoughĀ would gravitate towards someone like that.
Okay, this is getting long. Last point: WWX has to put in so muchĀ emotional labour in their relationship even beforeĀ everything goes tits up? The best example for me is the scene where WWX promises theyā€™ll be together forever, Twin Heroes of Yunmeng, the huge promise that both JC and an annoyingly large portion of the audience think he shouldā€™ve kept no matter what. Yeah, out of context itā€™s very sweet, but in context? WWX has just barelyĀ recovered from the fight with the Xuanwu. Heā€™s been conscious for... maybe an hour, at most? He nearly died. And yet he has to drag himself out of bed to chase JC through Lotus Pier to comfort himĀ because JFM was paying more attention to WWX. Who, again, almost died. JC is so busy being pissy about this that he forces his brother, still recovering, to chase him through Lotus PierĀ to comfort him for something their parentsĀ did. Most of the time, JC has a right to be upset that JFM so obviously prefers WWX. Looking in from the outside the situation is clearly more complicated than he paints it, but I donā€™t blame him for not seeing how bad things are for the rest of the family. ...I know that sounds sarcastic, but I do mean it. His siblings are very good at hiding how badly their family situation has hurt them. Anyway, though, on this one occasionĀ I am entirelyĀ on JFMā€™s side here. WWX threw himself into danger so JC wouldnā€™t have to go to the indoctrination camp alone even though he didnā€™t have to, then some time later JC returns alone and informs him that WWX is trapped in a cave with the Xuanwu of Slaughter, then when JFM finally manages to reach him the Xuanwu is dead and WWX is all butĀ dead. I 100% do not blame him for focusing on WWX in this situation! He did something fully-grown cultivators with far more experience failed at and almost died in the process! Given JC must be... what, 16 at the youngest, probably older by this point? I would expect him to grasp that. Heā€™s old enough to have developed empathy. Hell, he should be right there with his father and sister, proud of WWXā€™s accomplishments and relieved to see him awake and recovering. Instead, WWX has to drag himself through Lotus PierĀ and swear to stay by JCā€™s side for the rest of their livesĀ just to get him to stop sulking because WWX was better than him yet again.
...Yeah, as you might have grasped, I donā€™t think WWX had any obligation to uphold that promise. He shouldnā€™t have been expected to be tied to Lotus Pier by a vow he made as a teenagerĀ to get his brother to cheer up. In fact, a very large part of me wishes heā€™d broken it sooner. Comparing the way JC treats him to the way the Wens and LWJ treat him (setting aside that those are of course very different kinds of love) I canā€™t help but think things might have gone infinitely better for him if heā€™d found a different family a lot earlier.
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