So something I've been wondering about lately re: Yi City is how. Okay there's a post about how every time WWX uses Empathy he ends up totally on the side of the person he Empathized with and unreliable narrators and etc. And it made me wonder like. Did A-Qing's most recent experiences with Xue Yang colour her recollections of him after the fact? Was she always as hateful towards him as she is now, knowing that he goes on to kill her? Because her feelings of animosity in the flashback are super intense considering she knows nothing about this person, but it makes sense if she's projecting her current feelings backwards. But hey, sometimes you meet someone and instantly dislike them.
oh!!! this is a thing I have feelings about and I feel like I wrote a thing about it but now I have to go dig it up...the short version is basically "yes! I do think a-Qing's memories are colored by how things go later on! I think that while she probably was initially hostile because of a combination of jealousy, the potential threat to her safety and security in having a rival for Xiao Xingchen's attention and care, and wariness of a mysterious stranger, but that didn't last for three whole years of unremitting hostility, particularly in light of novel details like the way Xue Yang reacts to her story about crying because people were mean to her (advice that to me reads as about half being helpful in a Xue Yang way and half trying to freak her out, but also bunny apples) and the way she does acknowledge in story to Song Lan that Xue Yang makes Xiao Xingchen happy before she sees the fight go down between them."
...that's not that short, is it.
my fic version of my perspective on what the a-Qing and Xue Yang relationship might've looked like, albeit from a different biased perspective, is two faces, three knives which is a fic that I really like that I kind of wish got more love.
ah here is the post! it is about CQL specifically (in the textual examples I'm using) but I think a lot of it applies for novel canon as well.
