This Answer is based on a review on Tumblr, i wanted to initially link her article, but then I was afraid that it might get her some hate. So I will try my best to summarize it,and answer her arguments one by one.
The beginning of her article starts with this : "I honestly found XL and HC to be the worst parts of TGCF, while I think most other parts of the story are actually pretty good, so I don’t hate TGCF like most of you believe I do, I just dislike Hualian", and explains why she thinks
XL is a poorly written character in 6 long points;
1.He is by far the worst MXTX MC in my opinion, and pales in comparison to SQQ and WWX.
2.He is bland and barely has a discernible personality.
4.His character arc is flat and he doesn’t develop as a character and doesn’t learn from his mistakes.
5.Is wildly unlikable in the flashbacks and a lot of bad things that happen are actually his fault
6.Is overpowered and again, a Mary Sue.
- Lack of personality ( Vanilla personality ) --> in this particular part, she refers to Xie Lian's personality as a non-existent one, and she goes on, explaining thet XL has no motifs, no goals. He is just there really....
Then she writes this : " SQQ is unique because he isn’t there to be heroic, but rather a panicked person forced to commit heroic acts to survive in the twisted world of a bad web novel , WWX is unique because he is mischievous and laid back to the point of being annoying at first glance, but will actually throw his own life on the line to protect others ". My first reaction was " Girl... really !". XL is literally both of those characters combined together, plus other traits that makes him an even more better written character than those two, but you chose to just call him bland ? let me start by SQQ : yes the man is funny, he isn't trying to be some kind of hero, or gather merits, he's just a man who's trying to survive a situation that was forced upon him, and he's just going with the flow. With all due respect to any SVSSS fans ( and I am one btw ) : is this the ultimate character Arc to you ? come on now... the writing style is funny, the characters have depth, but also they have their silly moments. I love the parts where we get to see their brain farts, but also their heroic moments, but let's be honest : what character development SQQ had throughout the entire novel other than "falling in love" and staying alive ? I would agree if she talked about LBG's arc since his development is what's keeping SQQ alive really so it needs to happen, but SQQ ?! The novel started by him being in a panic, and trying to survive. He wasn't a bad person, nor a good one. just someone on survival mode. and nothing really changed in his arc, other than having romantic feelings for LBG, and his happy ending . ( and again I am SVSSS fan but we need to be a little unbiased here ).
WWX is a very complex character, more complex than SQQ and we can clearly see in its character MXTX's amazing talent and progress in writing in comparison to SVSSS. And I can write pages about his character analysis or arc. Heck, I can spend hours writing pages just about a single action of his. But the thing with WWX, his downfall was never a result of HIS human actions\feelings, It was due to exterior factors : the demonic cultivation ( he had to stick to it after losing his golden core, and because of other things that i won't get into, otherwise i would be writing until tomorrow ). WWX was never a bad person, and until the end he made sacrifices even if it meant dying, and being the bad person in the story, as long as it served the greater good. Even i nthe moments where he turned "bad", it was because the demonic cultivation was poisoning his heart, hence it wasn't his fault, and it wasn't who he is. It's like taking some medication and having some side effects afterwards. Even his death was caused by demonic cultivation ( matter of fact, he sacrificed himself so others could live ). WWX went through a LOT of character development that's true, but it wasn't some "atonement" type of development. It was him discovering that he is worthy of happiness too, and that the person he avoided the most ,was the person who cared for him the most.
If you compare WWX's downfall with Xie Lian's : his Downfall was due to his own arrogance, own hatred and own anger . He tried his best but failing, and he failed because he thought he was the best. "Body in the abyss, heart in paradise" was his logo, but it's easy to say such HUGE words when you are in a position of comfort and privilege: aka a crown prince loved by heavens and the earth. But when that privilege was taken away, the human emotions took over, and when his body was in the abyss, his heart was definitely not in paradise. And that's why I like his character even more: even if we took the fiction and fantasy Aspect away from his character, we can still all relate to him.
- his character is so inconsistent, and in this part she brings up three inconsistencies :
1. Xie Lian is nice but also Savage, so she felt that MXTX couldn't make up her mind on XL, and she gave an example of when XL told LQQ he would die, if the two of them dueled. she also made the arguemnt that he can be very intelligent but also very dumb ( and
she used the argument of him not recognizing HC's feelings and just being oblivious to them).
2. his insecurity is inconsistent. and again she gave the same LQQ example and claimed if someone is insecure he wouldn't have spoken those words, as well as having no reaction to the 33 heavenly officials' temples getting burned, which was weird for someone who claims to be good.
3. If he is nice, then how come he has zero friends in 800 years ?
Alright *pull up sleeves*, let me start by number 1 : this argument is really ridiculous, and I say this with the utmost respect to the person who wrote this. there is no human in the history of humanity, who didn't get a little Snarky from time to time especially when someone pushed it too far with them, i would honestly be very disappointed if XL was this cute, nice polite Bun all the time, because THEN he will be someone with a mary sue-ish characteristics and i hate that. Xie Lian is NOT a good person ( and he isn't a bad person either), and i wrote about this before, he is a human with a royal upbringing, reason why despite him being a sassy queen, he is polite most of the time, and keeps most of his mental eye rolling to himself. So his comment isn't anything out of character to me. And no, him telling LQQ that he would die if they battled is not "savage", that's just a fact. XL was always confident in his strength, and even LQQ acknowledged that statement. XL was his mentor, so everything he knew was taught to him by XL Himself. Nevermind the fact that XL has accumulated 800 years of cultivation ( while he was a strong person to begin with ), just imagine you going against your math teacher in a Math exam ? who would you think would win ? and even if you're this little Darwin genius, you would still be scared to go against your teacher, and even more so if they told you " you know i will win you little s*it, i was the one teaching you all of this !" and you would believe them !
As for the ignorance part, Xie Lian was never oblivious to HC's advances. He is not dumb. but the thing is ( and this is something i like about his arc ) is that now, he feels that he's only a shadow of his previous self. he lost any self confidence, any pride he had through the passed 800 years, so the idea that someone ( anyone really ) can fall in love with him is just .. ridiculous, impossible and even embarrassing that he would even dare to think that way . So even when deep inside, he really knows that HC is making advances towards him, he immediately rejects that idea inside of him, and convinces himself again : how can anyone love me ? let alone someone like Hua Cheng ! . This is plainly shown through the entire novel, which is also mirrored by HC's same way of insecure thinking : he can't believe or even accept that his Dianxia actually likes him ! their self esteem is so low that they literally had to spell it for each other to finally believe it .
2.his insecurity is inconsistent --> you know, i hate instances where things are either black and white: you're either one confident Mother f*cker or an insecure bunny. That's not how human nature works. Xie Lian is insecure, There is no doubt about that. He fell from grace so low, that even when he thinks about his old self, he wishes to die from embarrassment. That's how insecure he is. But despite his insecurities, he knows his limits and knows what he can, or can't do, unlike his previous self who thought he could defy the heavens and still get away with it. so him telling LQQ he will lose against him has nothing to do with being confident or insecure, that's just a fact, point blank.
As for his reaction to the 33 burned temples, his reaction is normal. what will be abnormal is him being dramatic about it and i'll explain why : this is an 800 years fallen God, who saw it all, and went through hell back and forth. he watched his own temples be burned, he saw his own believers making statues of him kowtowing, he watched his own people claiming his head off after he poured his heart and soul to save them. Do you really think that the knowledge of someone burning another ( unknown Gods may i add ) temples will have any effect on him?
It's like being mad at a war survivor for not having the same reactions as you when they see beggars on the streets. they went through that state, and maybe even worse, so their reaction will be "oh..ok" and move on with their lives.
3.if he is nice, then how come he has zero friends in 800 years --> this is something that was explained in book 4. Xie Lian's insecurities regarding connection with people started when MQ left him, and he realised it's just a matter of time before FX would follow, reason why he "bribed" him with that golden belt. When he started to hit rock bottom, he was the one asking FX to leave, despite FX refusing to leave his sides. Why ? Well to make it simple, Xie Lian pulled the " it won't hurt as bad if i pushed him away first!" card. and After the death of his parents, and especially Wuming, he decided to live alone forever. Not because he can't make any friends, but it was a self punishment out of guilt: all the people he loved or loved him died because of him, so as a punishment, he will live alone until he ceases to exist. Now someone may argue that even if XL decided to be alone, people would still be able to approach him, right ? False y'all.. this is someone who is labeled as the God of misfortune, the laughing stock of three realms. Who would want to be friends with him ? and fun fact : XL did meet people during his 800 years journey, only he would leave whenever things start going south, and when he feels that he can't fix things ( as he doesn't want to repeat the same Xian Le mistake ) , example : Banyue.
Next she goes on explaining that XL hasn't changed one bit, he is the same in all the books : I am just going to skip this one out because Girl... really ? Even if you don't like TGCF, even if you don't like the character, there is no way you can deny that XL out of all the characters hasn't changed. That's just as impossible as SWD being besties with He Xuan, and making each other's hair.
Next, She starts talking about how most of the things that happened in book 2 & 4 were his fault; and how he talks about saving the common people but all he did was creating more problems --> YES, because that's part of his humbling arc !! Xie Lian thought that he was this invincible deity that can overcome anything, and was beyond stubborn about it despite all the signs of his failure waving under his nose. Yet, he turned his denial mode on, and continued on being stubborn. That doesn't make his intentions any less valid, he did try his best, only he was too arrogant, too confident about it, and refused to accept that there are things that are out of our control, and sometimes bad means good. I won't go into details in all the points she referenced here because in my opinion they are easily refutable, but I would end this part by saying : yes, a lot of the sh!t that happened was his fault, that's the point of the beginning of his arc. And yes, because he wanted to save everyone, he ends up killing everyone, which again it's the point of Book 2. and yes he was nasty in some parts in book 2 , which brings me to what i have mentioned above : XL was a snarky sassy little cat ! he is just lowkey about it now because ... well age. just think of you grandma or grandpa or anyone old : do they comment on everything they see ? if you asked their opinion about trivial things, they would tell you " i am too old for this bs !". and this is coming from a 70-ish Year old person, now imagine if you're 800 ?!
Point five, she referred to Xie Lian as a mary sue since he is overpowered --> no he is not. he got his ass whooped twice by Bai Wuxian and almost got it whooped for the third time if it wasn't for HC breaking his cursed shackles. Granted , he is stronger than the rest of the characters, but his strength was explained throughout the book. when his mana got sealed, he had to rely on his physical strength, nevermind the 800 years of sleeping on rocks, running from beasts ( thanks to his bad luck ), being a mentor, being a soldier .. etc. with that said, it is insinuated through the novel that the heavens favourite him not because he was anything special, but because he keeps on trying ( and this is something based on taoism, from which the book takes a lot of inspirations ), that's why he ascended three times ( and we have to make the difference here between the"heaven" where the gods live and the other "heaven" that you may call karma, fate, higher power .. etc but that's for another post).
Finally she mentions that the hatred towards him after the fall of Xian Le didn't make any sense,and it was exaggerated --> i respectfully disagree. We know as readers that he did try his best to solve the issue, but the common people don't. This is someone who promised them he would heal them, he will bring back their glory, he will get rid of the Yong'An rebels, and they believed him. people were burning their faces, and cutting off their own arms and legs, there was even r*pe and assault involved but they still believed him, and believed in him. What was the result of their belief ? death and destruction. and people needed something or someone to blame, and Xie Lian was the target. When wars erupt, people would look up to their leaders : if they win they will cheer them up, if they lose they will ask for their heads . That's how it always has been, and Xie Lian was no exception.
sorry for the long post i really tried to make it short, and this is the shortest i can make it hehe. If you know who the person is, Please don't send any hate to her or anyone sharing her opinion.
please tell me what y'all think ? and thank you for reading my rant 💮🌸
