the thing about shen jiu's character is the fact that his trauma made him a terrible person is why he is such a tragic character
he is presented to us as someone who hurts people everywhere he goes, he is harsh with words, he's always angry, he insults the peak lords just bc yes, and tortures lbh, he does everything that makes u look at him and think "he's a TERRIBLE person"
and then later we learn that he hurts people so they cant hurt him first, that he tortures lbh out of jealousy bc lbh will be what he never could, so he decided to make lbh suffer the same way he did, he insults peak lords bc he's always defensive, he's always angry bc he thinks the whole world hates him for being such a filthy person, for being a men
we learn his backstory, his relationship with yue qi, with qiu haithang and her brother (I forgot his name), we learn that he was a kid who lived in poverty, who had to steal to survive, he was a slave, he was also abused as a kid
it's tragic, yes, it makes you want to hug him and take care of him even though he would probably bite your hand off until it fucking bleeds and push you away
but he's still a bad person
he was abused as a kid but didnt he do the same to lbh?
he blames yqy for never coming back to him and says to himself that yqy is a terrible person, but isn't he also pushing yqy away and throwing harsh words at him to make yqy feel worse about himself?
he says no one ever helped him and everyone treated him badly but doesn't he also treats everyone badly even when they do try to help him?
he suffered his whole life, but doesn't he also make everyone around him suffer?
yes, we know its a way of him to defend himself, to make sure no one will hurt him again, but isn't it all still bad stuff?
you cant look at a trauma without acknowledging the consequences of said trauma, and not all trauma victims are good people, not all abusive victims will look at people and think "I dont want them to suffer like I did" some of them will look at people and think "I want them to go through worse, I was the abused once, I was the inferior one, so now I want to be the one on top, the abuser, I want to know what its like to be on the powerful side"
shen jiu is like that, that's why he does what he does to lbh, to yqy, and to everyone around him, bc during all his life, he was the worm being stepped on and now that he finally had power, he wants to be the one stepping on other worms, even if he has to turn them into worms
you cant look at his character and take all of that away bc its part of who he is, and he was like that ever since he was a kid, he was only ever kind to his yue qi and no one else, he didnt care about the other kids as long as him and yue qi would be okay, he suggested more than once to yue qi that they left the other kids alone and ran away to survive together, he was a bad person even as a kid
if we never got to see his trauma, everyone would hate him for being a bad person (just like people who read pidw wanted him castrated) but we do get to see it, we get to understand him, we get explanations to why he is the way he is, but explanations don't justify his actions, it doesn't erase all he did, it doesn't take away the trauma he caused on people purposefully
and if you cant look at all of him, traumas and flaws and still love him for who he is without taking away a very important part of his character, than maybe you should read the book again or admit you dont actually love all of him
