I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about Xie Lians specific brand of pacifism. Itās outlined so well in that Banyue cave scene, where theyāre like āhim trying to save lives on both sides is literally pointless. Heās just prolonging the conflict and making everyone hate him!ā And yes! Itās true!! Xie lian is far from an idiot. He knows this, and does it BECAUSE of that. Itās the whole two cups analogy. He WANTS people to fight him instead of each other, because he can take it and then thereās less fighting (between others). The tragedy of Xie Lians character isnāt his trauma, not really. Itās that all of it is self inflicted.
He could let go! He could give up on his ideals at any time! Just say, not my circus, not my monkeys. Drought in Yongāan? Not my problem. Civil war? Iām a god, itās not my place to judge mortal conflicts. Human face disease? Iām a martial god, do I look like a fucking doctor? Youāre about to use your last words to order to wipe out the remaining xianle citizens? Not my CIRCUS-
ā¦but he doesnāt. He canāt. He got close with the genocide, but Wu Ming just cemented those ideals in him, and now he canāt stop. And thatās the real tragedy. Usually, those painfully naive characters are forced to face reality. The realisation that they canāt save anyone, that by prolonging it their indecision is only hurting MORE people, that sometimes ruthlessness saves more lives than mercy. That in the end, you can sacrifice everything for people and they will still blame you for what they lost. And Xie Lian looked at that. And said okay. Letās do that then. Iāll fight the world if it means I can save one more person, even if that person hates me for it. And he DID. And ruined himself in the process.
andulkaphoto
ellievsbear
titsay
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romaincrisis
