#lbh is very much driven by a desire to be needed and loved by someone | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

withthewindinherfootsteps · 2 years

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I feel like there’s a point to be made about how SVSSS, MXTX’s first novel, deliberately comments on and explores the prevalence of tragically orphaned, traumatised protagonists through Luo Binghe (both versions), and explores how that trope would actually affect the characters as people. Meanwhile, her second novel tells the story of someone who at face value has a very similarly generic backstory, but she deliberately breaks past those narrative confines with Wei Wuxian, whose identity doesn’t depend on that at all.

Both characters have a very similar, deliberately ‘generic’ backstory – orphaned very young, grew up on the streets in poverty, were taken in by a cultivation sect but were abused by someone in power, and so on – but what separates them is their actions and levels of agency (both narrative and personal). If the value of it for Luo Binghe is to comment on and exploring its use as a button for sympathy points, the value of it for Wei Wuxian is to actively reject that use, and rather than using it as a way to make him tragic and sympathetic because of his helplessness, it’s used to enhance his narrative agency. He isn’t defined by it, he’s defined by what he does despite that.

#lbh is pretty much what fanon wwx is by the way #you want someone with self-esteem issues born out of a traumatic backstory?#someone with low self-worth despite being very powerful?#someone who WILL chase after someone they loved even after that person has hurt them a lot?#(not to compare sqq to jc their situations were EXTREMELY different #and sqq was generally much nicer to lbh than jc to wwx #and there's absolutely no romantic interest in canon between wwx and jc at all)#lbh is very much driven by a desire to be needed and loved by someone #and his self worth kind of depends on that #(unlike wwx)#both characters are so much more interesting when read as what they ARE #if you want fanon wwx's personality don't push that onto canon him just go read scum villain ok #it's good #OH also yeah morally grey? LBH #even excluding bingge (though i'm not sure you could even argue him being morally GREY he's a black lotus for a reason)#internal morality doesn't really play a part in what he decides to do #anyway #mdzs #mdzs meta #svsss #svsss meta #scum villian self saving system #wei wuxian #luo binghe #this is a prequel to a longer post exploring how wwx's narrative agency is treated #because there's a LOT to say about that #my meta

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