oh man i saw ur xue yang post & was like O SHIT,..ANOTHER XY STAN?? u hit the nail right on the head for why i like him sm,, lack of empathy doesnt automatically = atrocious deeds tho in this case it does, but as a whole character hes.. hes got rly good cognitive empathy/recognizing others emotions and responding in a way that benefits himself, but very little to no capacity for emotional empathy (medically speaking im the same way, which is part o why he fascinates me sm) (1/?)
he read tme as a v instinctual character, rly good at adapting on the fly but follows impulses and imo he rly didnt understand his Own feelings. like you can tell he genuinely enjoys 'playing domestic' with xxc, like hes even humming on the way back from a grocery run. he rly doesnt get it to the point he just desperately wants this connection but doesnt kno how to process it??like he himself thinks hes only sticking around to torment xxc.. then mcfucking Loses it when he dies for real (2/?)
then you can see it all coming together in this rly pitiful spiral as he goes thru all that effort to trick wwx/the kids after obsessing past xxc's death for 8 years, bows to wwx even and demands him to restore xxc's soul and wei "notoriously oblivious bastard" wuxian is the one explaining his own feels to him during the vs lwj/a-qing fight and xy just?? loses all facade of composure there bc hes enraged & in denial & thinks wwx is clinging to Justice Ideals tm despite being (3/?)
possibly the most similar character to him,, hes.., been bottling a lot of despair for YEARS without knowing what he was feeling, just assumes its something or other in line with his prior thoughts & justifications. and then wwx tells him and he gets it somewhere deep down imo, but 1) enraged at being lectured esp bc wwx is RIGHT, and/but 2) so in denial he cant understand it himself at a conscious lv. ...hhhhuuu i jus hav so many xy feels ;; sry for ask spam LOL
No worries, and thank you for reading my essay! I love it haha. I find Xue Yang a really fascinating character as well, and not at all "evil for the lulz.” It’s really so sad for him that he couldn’t figure out his true feelings and be honest about them and actually get the closeness he wanted. :( He beraks my heart and I love his character.
