Hi there~ I was just wondering, how do you feel about Nie Huaisang? ☺️
He is my son. I call him Sneaky McSneakerson.
No, but really, he is a fantastic character. Almost every character in the entire story is not what they initially appear to be (Xue Yang disguises himself as Xiao XingChen, Wei WuXian is in Mo XuanYu’s body, Lan WangJi represses his emotions but is actually willing to do anything for someone he loves, Jiang Cheng seems like he is always making selfish choices and we find out in the end that he loves Wei WuXian just as much as he loves him, and those are just the more blatant examples).
Nie HuaiSang is introduced to us as “the Head Shaker,” the guy who might as well be running his sect into the ground because he’s supposedly incompetent, and the flashbacks do nothing to change this opinion. But despite his “I don’t know, I don’t know, I really don’t know!” mantra, he actually… knows way more than anyone else. (I think you stated as much in one of your metas!)
Nie HuaiSang truly loved his brother, no matter how unyielding and demanding Nie MingJue was. His pleading with his brother to recognize him when he’s dying was heartbreaking. Because that was what he wanted all along: his brother to see him as he was. He didn’t want to be a soldier and a skilled saber-wielder. He just wanted to do calligraphy and decorate fans. Nie MingJue never saw him that way, though (though I think Nie MingJue clearly adored him–their relationship strikes me as a pretty strong parallel to say Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling’s, wherein the older brother/uncle is a tsundere). He kept trying to make him into a stronger warrior, and in the end when he’s dying, he only sees dozens of Jin GuangYao’s around him.
See, Nie HuaiSang is a strong foil for Jin GuangYao as well. Both of them are, well, the younger brothers of Nie MingJue, the man with the biggest dick energy in the world who still died a virgin, and Nie MingJue’s increasing harshness with Nie HuaiSang paralleled his increasing frustration with Jin GuangYao. Nie MingJue’s biggest problem was his strictness. He’s what Lan WangJi is seen as at first: righteous to the extreme, truly so, but lacking in empathy and refusing to understand that, as Jin GuangYao says, not everyone comes from the same place in life, and even if they do, they aren’t necessarily going to turn out the same. And for the record I actually love Nie MingJue’s character, but his… stubbornness and refusal to grant Jin GuangYao any sort of forgiveness, his stern way of trying to make him earn forgiveness, directly led to his death. Nie HuaiSang still loved Nie MingJue no matter what, though, but by his refusals that led to his death, he contributed to the path that HuaiSang will choose to walk on, and it’s pretty similar to Jin GuangYao’s path.
Both HuaiSang and JGY are excellent at reading people and exploiting their strengths and weaknesses. Nie HuaiSang understands that Jin GuangYao is his own worst enemy. He knows he is not a match for him in terms of talent or likeability, so he brings back Wei WuXian to do his fighting for him, and HuaiSang uses Jin GuangYao’s better moments–his best relationships–to ruin him, but he can only do so because Jin GuangYao’s own insecurities have already ruined many of them and they’re supported by lies only at this point.
First, Mo XuanYu, whom Jin GuangYao was kind to and then Mo XuanYu fell for because the kid needed someone to help him. HuaiSang and Jin GuangYao are the ones who gave Mo XuanYu the information he needed to kill himself and summon Wei WuXian. Like… that is very dark.
Qin Su, the wife Jin GuangYao probably did love and expressed gratitude towards for never looking down at him for his mother’s status, the woman he refused to sleep with again once he found out who she was yet made a point to treat with the utmost respect–HuaiSang exposes how Jin GuangYao did not ultimately respect her enough to tell her the truth.
Jin GuangYao spares Sisi, and HuaiSang frees her, taking advantage of JGY’s care for her and also being kind himself, but it’s still for a purpose.
HuaiSang poisons the coffin in the temple Jin GuangYao built over his mother’s brothel, the temple he had his mother’s icon erected in.
HuaiSang uses Lan XiChen to kill Jin GuangYao, having a sworn brother kill another sworn brother who killed a sworn brother who was his brother (whew). The one person Jin GuangYao never thought of hurting, the person whom Jin GuangYao trusted and loved (like HuaiSang trusted and loved GuangYao), is tricked into killing him (whiiich is also a parallel to Xue Yang tricking Xiao XingChen into killing Song Lan).
In other words, HuaiSang uses Jin GuangYao’s best relationships to poison him, just like how Nie MingJue’s best relationship–as a big brother–was what led to his downfall. But that’s really a very simplified way of reading it, and it isn’t the fill truth. In HuaiSang’s actions more so than Jin GuangYao’s (but still a bit in Jin GuangYao’s) we have to ask what on earth justice even is. Is it revenge? Is it an eye for an eye? HuaiSang’s actions are certainly understandable–he’s a grieving brother in over his head who has no one to turn to, so he’ll play from behind the scenes because he’s so used to being underestimated. Unlike Jin GuangYao, though, it doesn’t seem like HuaiSang will walk a self-destructive path once justice is served, but we really don’t know.
In Xue Yang, Jin GuangYao, and Nie HuaiSang, we also see characters who attempt to force others to feel what they feel. An eye for an eye, to an extent, but also it’s a way of forcing empathy/trying to feel less alone. But there is a bit of progress in each of them, showing the slow progress of society. Xue Yang kills people for just belonging to a family. Jin GuangYao kills people who threaten him. Nie HuaiSang kills Jin GuangYao and a few people to get to that endeavor, and he’s still alive at the end–and notably, no one wants revenge on him (not that most people even know what he’s done). He also is motivated by care for others more than by trying to protect himself and his pride, unlike the other two. So I think he’ll be fine post-canon, hopefully make his brother proud. But he’s still a sneaky mastermind.
