Let’s look at two contrasting scenarios.
When WWX first woke up after barely surviving without food, water, a fever, injuries and being stuck in a cave with an ancient monster; Madam Ew Yu barges in, rages against a dead woman, spews toxic bs and demands JC to come over to stand by her.
What does JC do? He complies without question.
When WWX is standing before the cultivation world a second time; when thousands of people are demanding for his head a second time over crimes that were never his fault to begin with, LQR calls LWJ to stand by him.
What does LWJ do? He stands by WWX unflinchingly.
Ppl say WWX is ‘oblivious’, as if he’s solely to blame. But I disagree! You know why? Well, let’s look at one of the things that makes us love LWJ.
His character development.
One of the biggest most heart-touching parts of his character development is him learning. He learns from his mistakes and even when life is cruel to him, he learns from it too.
Since young, the novel has alrdy explicitly stated that he’s stoic, taciturn, unreadable. Whenever I think about how the novel compares his looks to ‘jade’, I don’t see that as a description for perfection, I see it as the opposite. Comparing LWJ to ‘jade’ is imperfect in the most humane way possible: he struggles to express himself, particularly to WWX, someone who gradually became one of the most treasured person in his life.
WWX is shown numerous times approaching LWJ with friendship & affection, and LWJ, who again is already notorious for being unreadable, keeps denying them. So, can you rlly blame WWX for misunderstanding his intentions afterwards?
There’s a distinct line between reader knowledge & character knowledge. Put yourself in WWX’s shoes with only the latter. Wouldn’t you have reacted the same way, if not possibly worse?
And this continues throughout WWX’s first life. LWJ continues to struggle with expressing himself to WWX. And expressing oneself involves taking action. LWJ hesitated in doing as such and it costed him a back full of scars + 13 years of mourning.
BUT! Come post-13 years and what’s the first thing he does when WWX returns?
