About Post Resurrection Wei Wuxian,
Cw: sucidiality, not graphic
This is mostly personal thoughts as someone who both has c-ptsd and spends alot of time around others with c-ptsd.
But I think what a lot of people over look or ignore about Post Resurrection Wei Wuxian is that we never actually see Wei Wuxian start to move towards the idea of actually healing until the very end of the book.
Ever since i first read the novels it has always struck me just how deeply different MXY!Wei Wei Wuxian is compared to not just Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian, but also Disciple era Wei Wuxian.
Obviously YLLZ Wei Wuxian is Wei Wuxian in what would be considered Active Crisis, He's pretty newly disabled, cut off from his Main support systems (even if you don't like Jiang Cheng. the fact of the matter is Yunmeng Jiang is Wei Wuxian's primary support system for the majority of his life. Wen Qing and Wen Ning certainly tried their hardest to fill the gaps but neither of them, or the rest of the wens where really in the place to be the kinda support system someone in Wei Wuxian's level of crisis would have needed) Actively being persecuted, as well as trying to protect his friends from a similar fate, homeless, and with very limited ability to feed himself or the people under his care.
In the end the tipping point for Wei Wuxian's mental health is the death of Wen Qing, Wen Ning and finally Jiang Yanli. That is the moment that I personally believe to be the Point of no return for Wei Wuxian. It is the start of the very short road that leads to Wei Wuxian's death. Whether the backlash was an accident, you think Jiang Cheng killed him, whether you think he killed himself on purpose. No matter what happened after those three deaths the only path forward for Wei Wuxian's, in his own mind ended in his own death. Sooner or later.
This is obviously very different from the Wei Wuxian we meet at the beginning of the books. Wei Wuxian spends 13 years as a wandering ghost, with some awareness of the passage of time so he's not completely fresh in the aftermath of the first siege or Yanli's death. But based on how little Wei Wuxian reference having any concert experiences as a wandering ghost I think its probably safe to say that he wasn't doing any major trauma processing while wandering the Jianghu as a ghost.
The happiest we see Wei Wuxian is in his disciple years, Wei Wuxian is at his heart a very Driven, very Social person. He is at his best when he has a very strong social network, and something engaging to put his mind too. None of which he has post resurrection. "but what about Wangji ! what about the Juniors!" yes yes i hear you, and I'm sorry to tell you this, even THE MOST introverted person cannot get all their social needs met by their romantic partner and 4 teenagers, who by the end of the book have to hide that they even talk to him. That kind of social isolation is deeply unhealthy for even a non traumatized brain. We are simply not built to be that isolated.
So why then is Wei Wuxian post resurrection so very, peppy?
IMO this is where most people tend to take Wei Wuxian's demeanor at face value, or if not completely then at least partially disregard the shear level of disconnection and isolation Wei Wuxian's is experiencing post resurrection in favor of the admittedly very sweet second chance romance happening.
Wei Wuxian's peppy carefree demeanor post resurrection, is very very hollow. Most of the time, Minus some specific wangxian moments it's missing a lot of the spark, the expectation of true connection via his antics that Young Wei Wuxian had.
When young Wei Wuxian pokes and prods at Lan Wangji's boundaries its to illicit a reaction from him, something anything. It's a childish attempt to force establish a connection.
When Resurrected Wei Wuxian pokes and prods at Lan Wangji it's with the intention of making him Go Away. To Annoy Lan Wangji into Leaving. So that Wei Wuxian doesn't have to reckon with the past.
He does the same thing with Jiang Cheng. He is consistently though out the present day timeline of the books actively trying to sabotage any attempts at genuine connection. He Knows he's being annoying, he knows people hate him, and he often encourages them to push him away.
The entire on page post resurrection timeline Wei Wuxian is projecting a very very bubbly, care free, childlike mask. He has no desire and no expectation of earning back any sort of connection in the living world post solving Nie Mingjue's murder. Not even from Lan Wangji and especially not from Jiang Cheng. He firmly believes that every single bridge he has is burned beyond repair. And when Jiang Cheng even hints that Wei Wuxian could have some of it back, when he apologies for his part in what happened Wei Wuxian is startled.
Sect Leader Jiang always spoke with some degree of derision, but this time, he was not mocking anyone but himself. “I’m sorry,” he blurted all of a sudden. Wei Wuxian was taken aback. “…There’s no need for you to say sorry.” At this point, there was no way to measure who let down whom. “Consider it a repayment of my debt to the Jiangs,” Wei Wuxian added. Jiang Cheng raised his head and looked at him with bloodshot eyes. “…To my father, my mother, my sister?” he asked in a hoarse voice. Wei Wuxian rubbed his temple. “Forget it. It’s all in the past. Let’s not bring it up again.”
He thought this bridge was burned beyond repair. But its not, and he doesn't know what to do with that idea. So he disconnects further. He puts distance between himself and establishing another genuine connection to the living world. There's really no indication that Wei Wuxian blames Jiang Cheng for anything that happened to him, there's no reason for him to force disconnection where connection is offered. But he does. Even post confession i don't think Wei Wuxian feels very connected to the idea of actually living again.
Really at no point in the present timeline is Wei Wuxian really inclined towards genuine connection again, inclined towards actually building a new life to live out. Until the very end of the book, with "every day means every day"
which is all to say, I think if Lan Wangji had allowed himself to be genuinely separated from Wei Wuxian, "I.e Going their separate ways" I think It is very likely that Wei Wuxian would have attempted to, and probably succeeded in killing himself.
Wei Wuxian post resurrection is a deeply exhausted man with nothing left in his life to live for, hiding it behind a very bubbly, childlike mask in hopes that the people who still know him find him annoying enough to push him away so he can go off himself in the woods somewhere, and its only by like Lan Wangji's intervention that he doesn't manage it.
The book ends before we ever actually see him even start healing. for a majority of the book we only see the very empty shelled post resurrection persona meant to annoy people into leaving, I think this gives people a lot of off ideas about what Wei Wuxian's Ideal life with Lan Wangji is, because that persona is very easy to take at face value.
Except its just that, a persona. Wei Wuxian himself, the person who gave up his golden core for his shidi, who flirted with everything smiled back at him and was a cultivation prodigy who loved flying and inventing, Is not someone we ever really see in the main timeline outside of a flashes and blink and you miss them moments.
I don't think there's really another way to end then with exiled rebels translation of chapter 18
or even the 7s version
