#this is the bully jfm blog... forcing me to be niceys to him... aaa!!

[least-carpet]

What's your reverse unpopular opinion for jiang fengmian

Oh wow, you caught me in your trap, anon!! Okay, I can do this.

While Jiang Fengmian was, like, grown in a laboratory in a big vat marked "guys specifically designed to make least-carpet hate them," I do think he's 1) really interesting, 2) very realistic, and 3) perfectly designed to produce the trio of Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Wei Wuxian, who I adore.

I'm always referring back to this interview where MXTX talks about her process, but here's the relevant part:

I think the environment a person grows up in is a very important factor. The parent generation’s joy and sorrow will create an increasingly greater impact on their children... [The parents'] designs are based on the main cast, to contrast or to complete... For example, first, I think of what kind of person Wei Wuxian is. Then, I think of what kind of parents could have such a child. I base his parent’s characters on his character...Looking at it from within the story, it’s that parents will inevitably influence their children. But from a structural writing standpoint, it’s the children that influence the parents.

So Jiang Fengmian exists to produce and explain my faves. Thanks, Jiang Fengmian!

I think MXTX is really observant and specific about familial dynamics, and Jiang Fengmian is extremely recognizable as a specific type of conflict-avoidant dad whose combination of Unprocessed Life Stuff (re: growing up and being unhappy about adulthood—which for him is being a sect leader) and resentment of his wife make him distant with his more challenging child, who to him resembles his wife. I think in some ways that's why people respond strongly to him and to Madame Yu, because they're so recognizable.

Finally, I also think there are a lot of interesting gaps to think about if you want to flesh him out—what actually was going on with Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze? Was his and Madame Yu's marriage always that bad, or did it deteriorate over time, and how? Did he just never want to parent? (There's a brilliant genderswap fic called "you will never need another lover," where he's a woman and Yu Ziyuan is a man, and I find him so much more likeable as a woman who sincerely never wanted to be a parent but couldn't get out of it. Also, male Yu Ziyuan is a total asshole but also a way better husband than male Jiang Fengmian, and so their marriage changes in really interesting ways over the course of the story.) There's a lot of room to develop him in various ways.

Phew, I did it.