Hi! So first of all, I don’t mean to fight or say any of this in any disrespectful way, I just like discussing books and such but this is not meant to be a fight.
1. The stalking: while I understand why some people might perceive it that way Hua Cheng was NOT stalking Xie Lian. This is a common misconception. He was LOOKING for him but thorough-out the entire 800 years Hua Cheng had NO idea where Xie Lian was. How can you stalk someone without knowing where they are? He was looking for his god to protect him now that he had the power to, unlike in the past.
2. Hua Cheng never keeps Xie Lian from his friends. He never says “hey leave those guys, don’t hang out with them.” Is he mean and fiesta towards them? Yes. But keep in mind the reasons why
Mu Qing: left Xie Lian during the second flashback, and then didn’t defend him during the land argument. Hua Cheng was 15 at most at that time and watched as his God was betrayed (we know MQ had his reasons but for XL POV he was getting betrayed) PLUS being practically bullied by the other officials and HC couldn’t defend him. You know who could? MQ but he didn’t. If your partner was hurt by their friend wouldn’t you be a bit cold towards them? Also add the fact MQ kicked out HC out of the army solely because of jealousy.
Feng Xin: from HCs POV FX left XL during a terrible moment for him, yes XL asked him to but HC didn’t KNOW and it looks like after XL “fell from grace” his friends betrayed him.
Banyue and PX although I can’t speak much bc I read the books a while ago, I don’t recall HC ever being purposely antagonistic towards them. When XL goes to talk to Banyue and comfort them, HC doesn’t stop him, in fact he encourages him and the words he said. After all, it was those words that saved HIM. PX also did a lot of bad things, and Hua Cheng hates corrupt Gods. Of course he isn’t going to like him but he doesn’t stop XL from hanging out with any of them. If he didn’t want them there he would’ve made them leave from Mt. Tonglu.
While he teases and tries to irritate FX and MQ and YES he did try and separate them in Mt. Tonglu, it was bc they were arguing about MQs thing with the holy land. Bringing back those memories wouldn’t have made him feel empathy for them exactly. Besides he wasn’t even going to kill them, he was trying to get XL out of the cage as fast as possible to not see the statues (more on that later).
Shi Qingxuan and Black Water
The only reason HC was trying to get XL to not hang out with SQX was because he didn’t want him to get involved in BW revenge. He warned him bc him and HX have been working on this revenge for about two centuries, they made a deal long before XL even knew SQX.
And why didn’t he let XL help SQX at the end?
Literally just ghost politics. Remember, HX is a calamity, just like HC. They say in the books that if two calamities came face to face no one knows what would happen but it wouldn’t be pretty. Of course HC isn’t going to go back on his deal with HX who is his informant and spy on the heavens because of XL, as much as he loves him.
Also not to spoil much, but you’ll see later on that HC never separates SQX from XL. In fact there’s multiple chapters showing the contrary.
HC first of wall, was never asked by XL to look for SQX and find him and if he was he would have (although given he couldn’t find XL for 800 years im not confident on his finding skills lmao), and second of all, HX made sure he couldn’t be found. HX is also powerful, so easily he couldve stopped HC from looking.
Plus in the future if you see them interact and he’s literally super chill about it and in fact, we could argue is the person he treats the nicest apart from Xie Lian. (He’s shown to be nice to Guzi, Banyue, SQX, Yin Yu, we could even argue HX)
Hua Cheng never separates XL from his friends, he never kills them (which he could) or tells them to stay away. Apart from the cave of 10k statues where he was literally having a panic attack inside bc XL would realize that HE was his beloved, plus MQ and FX treating him like dirt (even since he was a child, FX treated HC like dirty trash they found on the street) and even in the extras, you will see they eventually have a good relationship, and to quote HC:
Even if HC doesn’t like his friends which again, we can see change in the extras, he lets Xie Lian make his own decisions and he follows him. The ONLY time he opposed him was during BW arc and we already explained why as a ghost king he couldn’t.
Final thing: about the cave of 10k gods.
I totally understand why it would seem creepy. However if we break things down and see the reasons you’ll see Hua Cheng never did it with a dirty intention (even the murals are explained bc it’s land of the tender, and it’s part of HCs moments with XL, it wasn’t like a random sex statue, it was part of the theme of being his memories and moments with his beloved, which the land of the tender was part of).
First hundreds and thousands of statues of one deity or person are completely normal in other religions and even for emperors. You can probably find tons of examples on google. So there’s an explanation that this is a religious practice HC was taking part of.
In Mt. Tonglu we can deduce HC was going through it, he was NOT having fun and it was a hard process for a whole decade. Remember HC was bullied practically to the point of wanting to die, and the only reason he was there and got saved from death twice was bc of XL. Of course hea going to think of him during this moment since it’s his comfort and reason to be there. And once again, he was doing a common religious practice for his God. The beauty of it too, is that along with it being religious it’s also shaped into love, which is for HC two separate matters, since he both sees XL as his god and as his beloved, but that’s why he always leaves a flower on XLs shrine, why he made the statues. Bc it was part of the religion. It wasn’t a creepy, oh let me make the person I’m obsessed with over and over (bc we can see HC is not obsessed. Head over heels in love? Yes. But obsessed? No. Look at Luo Binghe from SVSS if you want that, and compare the two. You’ll see the difference right away). HC has things outside of XL, he has his city, his gambling, he paints and sculpts bc he likes it, not bc XL is forcing him to.
While it’s understandable why some people would see it like MQ or FX, see it from HCs perspective. He has never, and will never try to make decisions for Xie Lian or make him do something he doesn’t want. He respects him as a person and lets him have his own autonomy- we can see it so much throughout the books. (Super small spoilers for the extra) If he wanted to he could’ve separated SQX and XL, not only in the past but later in the future when they find him. XL literally mentions he goes visit him daily! HC contacts MQ and FX when something is wrong with XL he literally contacts them straight away, and THEY contact HIM (which means they have an ARRAY) if there’s anything wrong. He COULD have separated them, he could have killed them, but he doesn’t because even if he doesn’t like them which is understandable, he knows XL likes and cares about them so he won’t separate them.
Sorry for the long rant lol. Anyway, while I do see why some people see it that way, I feel a deeper need of understanding of all of the characters situation plus the era. Now if you wanted to talk about toxic and even compare, like I said before, look at Luo Binghe from SVSS. As much as I love SVSS he IS toxic, he actively tries to separate his love from his friend MULTIPLE times and does more things that are kind of questionable.
Anyway long story short, HC does care a LOT about XL but it is not toxic or obsessive. In fact he does it in the healthy way. He is a rational human being that knows his partner is his own person, he lets XL make choices, even the wrong ones (black water plus calamity era!) and he keeps the people that hurt him away, unless XL cares about them (like MQ and FX). For example. Look at Qi Rong. Xie Li doesnt really care about his cousin or like him, and HC has ANGER towards Qi Rong when he disrespects XL (and it is only until then he hears him up, might I add) but when XL shows he doesn’t want to kill him (bc of the body he’s possessing) and keeps him in his shrine, HC doesn’t kill Qi Rong. He pisses him off, sure, but when XL and him are away for some time he even sends people to take care of them AND the shrine. If he wanted to keep and aisle XL from everyone he could have sent them away.
Phew thank you for coming to my ted talk. Also this wasn’t done in a mean way or anything I just like character analysis lol. Sorry if English was crap, not my first language and yeah.
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