my controversial jiang cheng take that nobody asked for and i may have voiced before is that i don’t care for the reveal of how he lost his core. to me, that reveal, especially the way it’s framed and the point in the narrative where we learn it, suggests that it’s a necessary “twist” to redeem his character, and i simply don’t think he needs to be redeemed. i think his motivations throughout the narrative are perfectly clear and reasonable, and his actions are morally neutral at worst (and morally correct most of the time), considering the resources he had and the information he had been given. in short, jiang cheng did nothing wrong, and this redemption point is pointless.
still, i don’t mind it, because it is juicy in two aspects:
- it shows us his mental state even before he lost his core. for the first and only time in his entire life, he doesn’t put his sect above his own desires (because there is no sect! but it still counts, because afterward he makes his whole life’s mission to rebirth the Jiang sect for his parents.) by basically giving up, by saying, hey you know what, maybe i should just die. which shows us that he’s fucking suicidal already. and also because it clearly demonstrates that he knows (knows…) that wwx is better than him in every way and better capable of protecting jiang yanli. which i think gives him an acceptable excuse to basically allow himself to be killed. (he has miscalculated.)
- just thinking about how he must spend 13 years regretting that decision. both jiang yanli and wei wuxian died anyway! what if he just hadn’t stepped in? what if he had let wei wuxian die? would jiang yanli still be here? would jin ling still have his parents? would his life be colored by a massive loss, sure, but not entirely cast in shadow and guilt and shame? what if? you know, girly things.