#ninjakk

[mdzsao3]

Rip bathtub

[ao3 link]

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Jiang Yanli for the character bingo game? 🤔

I feel bad for Jiang Yanli, because she’s done so dirty in fanon. She’s a bit like Lan Xichen* – naive and maybe wilfully so, but ultimately wanting the best for the people she considers family. She’s definitely not malicious or secretly evil like the fandom make her (and Lan Xichen) out to be, and she isn’t just the “soup girl”. She does try to distract people from conflict rather than resolving it, which can do more harm than help, but it makes sense with her character – she grew up in the incredibly volatile Lotus Pier, with her parents arguing all the time, and of course that affects her! Of course she wants to avoid that! And she takes after the only example she has of someone trying to de-escalate conflict, Jiang Fengmian, who does the same thing. 

And I think her wilful ignorance makes sense with her past, too. She was sheltered pretty much all the time in her early life – she doesn’t go to Gusu to study, she doesn’t go to the Wen indoctrination camp, she doesn’t really experience anything that broadens her horizons and perspective and forces her to face and confront the harshness of the world. Even when Lotus Pier falls, she doesn’t experience it first-hand, which I’m not sure is better or worse, but yet again she doesn’t confront that directly. And by that time that happens, and everything else after that, she’s grown up and her mind isn’t as susceptible to being shaped by new experiences – her view of what the world is and how she thinks it is is already instilled into her, and much, much harder to change. 

She’s very, very human, in the way that she means well but doesn’t want to venture out of her comfort zone or confront truths that may be painful. We see that all the time in her actions – she always tries to hold onto what she’s experienced and what she knows. During the Sunshot Campaign, during a war, she clings to her childhood crush on Jin Zixuan, clings to her ability to make soup because it’s something she’s comfortable with. During the time Wei Wuxian was protecting the Wen remnants, she clings to the idea that nothing’s wrong, that he and her and Jiang Cheng can still be a happy family because that’s how it’s always been to her, even if that was never really the case and even if it’s impossible. During the gathering at Nightless City, she goes because she just wants to see her brother one last time, even after what happened with Jin Zixuan.

I think that that aspect of her also stems from the volatility of Lotus Pier – she wants things to be predictable, to be safe, she wants to be in control of her grasp over the situation. That’s why she de-escalates conflict the way she does, that’s why she stays ignorant to the more sinister parts of the world. She wants things to stay how she knows them to be.

And it’s important to know that after she experiences more things, as she grows, she does develop, even if that development is off-screen, and even if she ultimately still decides to cling to what she thinks she knows. When Wei Wuxian confronts Jin Zixun at Phoenix Mountain, she doesn’t just try to pretend nothing’s wrong and distract everyone from the situation, she confronts the problem and stands up for him! We see her standing up to Jin Zixuan when he invites her to go with him sometime because she thinks it’s not his choice! She does grow, but all that’s off-screen, and she has so much more potential.

But some people just can’t cope with change and trauma like others can, and that’s Jiang Yanli’s coping mechanism – to pretend everything’s ok, to pretend it’s still like how it used to be.

And it’s really sad how her very final act, sacrificing herself to save the brother she grew up with, to perhaps preserve that aspect of her old life too, was ultimately the thing that tore that fantasy she hoped for apart more than anything else.

Thank you for the ask! I’d have never thought about her character so deeply otherwise.

––

*I do wonder if there’s a deliberate parallel between her and Lan Xichen actually, since they’re both older siblings to Wangxian (and Jiang Yanli does actually consider Wei WuXian her brother), and at first sight both seem more responsible and level-headed. But as we go through the story, we see that they’re just as fallible as everyone else, and in the same – both clinging to something they think they know, both ultimately uselessly diffusing conflict instead of confronting it, and both ignoring the little signs that their reality isn’t what they cling to.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Somebody I really admire because of their amazing insights and/or posts: *follows me*

Me: Oh my goodness somebody I really admire is following me! That’s such a huge honour, I’m really happy they think my posts are-

*dawning realisation of horror*

Me: Oh my goodness somebody I ready admire is *following me*-

[mdzsao3]

Special mention of the poor plumber who is always called out

[ao3 link]

[mdzsao3]

Wen Qing has so many radishes she doesn't know what to do with them

[ao3 link]

[mdzsao3]

Inappropriate Use Of Art Supplies

[ao3 link]

[roguefandoms]

Hi ☺️

Just a quick message to say thank you for the reblog and the lovely hashtag 💕 I love your meta, so it's quite a compliment 🙏🏻

Wahhh!!!! Thank you! It's all I can think about these days, so sometimes it's all over the place, but I do try to do the characters justice and not just slam their characters (except for Jin Guangshan, he sucks)