#and understan/sympathize with his pov more

[mostlikelytofangirl]

Why do many people in this fandom think that jc and wwx do not care about each other since the beginning when it has been constantly been made clear again and again about how those two care about each other ?

Some of them even have the galls to say that jc was evil and malicious since he was a kid.

I am new to this fandom and I am really confused by their approach of hating on jc and hating on people who like him . Btw , you have a great blog .

Hi there! Thanks, I'm glad you like whatever this is :'D

Oh man, yeah, I know that feeling. It was very weird to me too when I was new to discover how much of a controversial topic this was, especially since I considered their relationship one of the most fascinating, complex and engaging dynamics of the story. Yunmeng bros storyline is tbh one of the greatest tragedies of mdzs.

Well, as I replied to a previous ask, I think the main problem with this fandom is that it is too Western YA mentalized. They see this story in terms of black & white where the protagonist/hero and all those aligned with them are incapable of doing wrong and, therefore, anyone who disagrees with them is a Bad Guy and their arguments are automatically invalid, the protag's way is the only way.

I think this current trend of hypersanitizing media and "antis" also play their role: if someone is "toxic" they are a Bad Human Person, always were and always will be. These ppl can't imagine a reality in which someone you loved and who loved you back could ever turn against you without having them be monsters all along. They need to justify their high horse, make themselves feel morally superior by making clear distinctions of who is Good and who is Bad, and those who fit each category cannot, ever, change.

In WWX and JC's case specifically, I'd say it's just a matter of numbers tbh. I know for a fact that there are ppl who hate WWX and claim JC did nothing wrong too. It just so happened that, well, WWX is the protagonist and we see the story through his pov, so his fanbase is naturally bigger. Not to mention his story arc is perharps the only one with a happy ending, while JC's is left open, to say the least. So narratively speaking, and considering the standards we are used to in the West, the ones to get closure are Good Guys, those who didn't cannot be Good Guys.

With all this in mind, I suppose it's easy for JC haters to see canon and all the explicitly stated dynamics of love and companionship WWX and JC shared, and just... act like those weren't there. Like they meant something else. Like WWX (the hero) was right and good all along, but JC (the bad guy) couldn't have been a loving brother once, no, that's not how it works: if you are bad, you are bad, whatever goodness you could have had was retroactively nullified by This Bad Thing you did. You are a bad guy, bad guys don't do good things ever, not even as kids.

And all of this without taking into account the societal convetions of the time period and how WWX was not an official part of the Jiang family, he was never adopted, he was the first disciple and, if anything, he got preferencial treatment that blurred and complicated the family dynamics (by no fault of his own, mind you, none of the three kids are to blame here). He is not exactly a servant, but he is not a relative either; the fact that JC treats him as a brother is already outside the norm... but bc it becomes the norm for them, ppl may look at JC (the Jiang family and society in general) pulling the rank card and get outraged: See? That's proof that JC never saw WWX as an equal and never cared for him! Yes, bc they are not equals. Yet they treated each other like they were. In fact, it's canonically stated that WWX think of himself as a servant and it's JC the one who says that he is not to be compared to a servant.

It's all a big mess that definitely doesn't help the case of seeing WWX and JC's dynamics in a fully objective way, and tbh I don't think it's meant to. It's supposed to stir emotions and HURT. But with so much nuance and so many conflictive feelings and circumstances between them, sometimes the mental and emotional labor to fully appreciate it is too much for ppl used to media giving them the product already disected and ready for consumption. Thus we have a big portion of the fandom that simply reduces these two to The Hero and The Evil Brother.

And that imo is even a greater tragedy.

EDIT: I just remembered of this twitter thread that explains much better how Westerns would see these two and the archetypes they represent, and why it impacts fans��� perception of them.