some ramblings on love interests and divided affections:
i’ve always found the plot detail with the land deal hidden in jin guangyao’s secret chamber (that wei wuxian just happened to see next to his own research notes) clumsily shoehorned in to direct the protagonists to yunping; and i was proven right when i skimmed through the early draft version of mdzs - the land deal wasn’t there at all (and apparently, neither was the guanyin temple).
which meant that wei wuxian and lan wangji did not go to yunping to investigate jin guangyao. they just stumbled there looking for a place to stay and rest.
and they went looking for a place to rest when their immediate objective was rescuing lan xichen in lanling.
which wei wuxian tried to get back to several times, but was stopped by lan wangji, who insisted that wei wuxian should get some rest - which made him a very considerate love interest and the worst brother ever. the land deal, it seems, was added later to give wangxian an actual reason to go to yunping instead of lanling and not look like assholes.
another interesting conversation in yunping is this one:
At the sight of Lan Wangji’s serious face and furrowed brow, he asked, “Hanguang-jun, are you worried about Zewu-jun? Jin Guangyao still has some level of respect for Zewu-jun, I think. Besides, Zewu-jun’s cultivation is higher than his, and he was already on his guard—he might not fall for his tricks. Let’s crack the array in Guanyin Temple as fast as we can and aim to get back on our way tomorrow.” … “Xiongzhang and Jin Guangyao have shared a close friendship for many years. Jin Guangyao is not one to kill rashly. He never makes an impulsive move.” “Yeah, that’s my impression of him too,” Wei Wuxian agreed. “It’s not that Jin Guangyao isn’t ruthless, but he doesn’t offend anyone if he can help it.” “The incident at the Burial Mounds was both overdone and impetuous. It is unlike his usual style,” Lan Wangji said.
i see what mxtx is trying to do here. she has her vision of the cute romantic scenes she wants to write - wangxian staying at an inn, getting drunk, stealing chickens, having horribly miscommunicated sex, which would later lead to the hilariously TMI love confession - but there’s the issue of The Plot. The Plot seems pretty urgent. The Plot has affected someone lan wangji supposedly cares about.
so there needs to be some excuse why they’re getting frisky in the bathtub instead of continuing with The Plot, and “wei wuxian is tired” feels a bit unconvincing.
so let’s have the protagonists turn to the screen and engage in some unprompted jiggy apologism, clearly stating that jin guangyao would not harm lan xichen and would not kill anyone unless it’s a last resort - that way they don’t have to worry about hurrying up, and a concerned reader doesn’t need to worry, either.
the last and the most infamous example is lan wangji leaving lan xichen alone after the guanyin temple showdown, which mxtx also provides an excuse for:
Everyone had their own problems that no one but they could solve. Even when it came to blood-related brothers, there was nothing Lan Wangji could do right now to help Lan Xichen. Any consolation would be powerless to help, and anything he did would be in vain.
which, again, sounds unconvincing. don’t worry, reader 👍 lan wangji has used his twin jade mind communication powers to determine that his brother would not benefit even from token emotional support, and that’s why it’s okay for lan wangji to prioritize his honeymoon and disappear for three months without a goodbye.
a lot of this has produced many unflattering takes on the characters, like “lan wangji is a shitty brother for abandoning lan xichen” or “lan xichen is a shitty person and that’s why lan wangji abandoned him” etc etc, and looking at the text alone, i’m not surprised. but taking the authorial intention into account… i just think mxtx tried to write lan wangji outside of her comfort zone.
lan wangji really stands out among her love interests as someone with the most attachments other than the protagonist. he respects his uncle, he cares for his brother, he raises lan sizhui and mentors the younger generation, he follows the teachings of his sect, he spends time helping the common folk guided by his own moral compass.
but the problem with having a love interest who cares deeply about someone greatly involved in the plot is that the plot will eventually come into conflict with the romance; and when it happens, mxtx doesn’t want lan wangji to straight up burn all the bridges for wei wuxian - this is not really her vision of lan wangji’s character - but she doesn’t want to write a compromise, either. she wants lan wangji to care for his brother, but doesn’t actually want to write any scenes about lan wangji caring for his brother in her “lan wangji caring about wei wuxian” book. so she slaps a band-aid on the issue and writes her wangxian scenes she clearly had fun writing, and makes lan wangji support lan xichen off-screen in an extra.
and it’s all so blatant that i honestly can’t even treat it as lan wangji’s personality flaw and not a writing flaw.
full disclaimer: i really prefer down-to-earth stories over those larger-than-life fairytale romances where the characters are exclusively obsessed with each other. this is why mdzs is my favorite book and wangxian are my favorite couple out of the three! i greatly enjoy the non-romantic relationships wei wuxian has with the jiangs and the wens, and i would’ve loved to see lan wangji prioritize other people in his life even more.
but i wouldn’t be surprised if mxtx found it exhausting to juggle lan wangji’s other affections with his love for wei wuxian, and that’s why she went back to writing an unconditionally obsessed love interest in her next book. pity for me, but good for her, i suppose.
you know what. I think I should be allowed to temporarily turn into a seal and go swimming around in the ocean for a while. just submit a little note to work that says “sorry, I need to take some sick time, I am becoming a seal” and leave for a week
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