Jin Guangyao Meta Bits

[x_los]

Not that this would make getting a dozen sex workers killed okay, but I was wondering whether the women Jin Guangyao had offed after making them accomplices to his father’s murder (barring Sisi, who’s spared because in book canon she’s an old family friend) might be people Guangyao actually knew from his brothel years. I assumed he chose aged and less-attractive women because they’d be ‘least missed’ by patrons wondering where their favourite had gotten to, or by Madams looking for their high-earners, as well as to embarrass his father. But these women could be old enough that Guangyao might simultaneously be taking vengeance against his father and his ancient enemy, Wage-Garnish Wanda.

***

I don't think it was Guangyao's plan, exactly, but I do think that ruining Lan Wangji’s life and pushing him into seclusion introduces fragility to the Lan brothers' previously-tight relationship. It creates room for Guangyao to manoeuvre. Lan Wangji is absent during his time in seclusion, so Xichen can’t rely on him as he's used to doing. Afterwards, Wangji is somewhat lastingly bitter about what Lan (and indirectly, Xichen) have cost him, disenchanted and prone to taking on field work. Guangyao, however, is ready to accept Xichen’s personal token and come help him plan everything: to be his confidant, to believe (or seem to believe) that Xichen is right without question. Guangyao is affectionate with Xichen as an equal, in a way no one else left is or can be. Guangyao even arranges matters so that he’s fictively addressed as ‘younger brother’, employing the informal terms that the Lans themselves (who’ve been, since childhood, engaged in offering one another respect to build up their credibility in an unstable clan) don’t use for one another. excaliburedpan points out that Guangyao may well have trial-run a similar triangulation in Nie. 

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remembering Her (Mo Xuanyu's kidneys)

I can't believe the Xiyao troll hasn't yet observed that Guangyao is literally toxic, because of his cinnabar huadian. “Following long-term use of cinnabar, renal dysfunction may occur." ‘GEE THIS FIC IS GREAT, IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT XICHEN'S URINARY TRACT!!!’

Guangyao’s coming for your Kidneys. He’s gonna get your renals!! 

uminohikari suggests that Jin Guangshan ‘had so many children to increase his chances of donor compatibility, and that he’s keeping an eye out for one who has yet to be damaged by the Jin dot.’

Mo Xuanyu, or as the Jins call him, “Two Tasty Fresh Kidneys"

***

DISCLAIMER: fandom sometimes acts like Nie Mingjue is particularly dumb or uncouth (I once saw a modern AU where he just ate steak with his hands, for some reason??). There is not much textual evidence of that (beyond Mingjue's anxiousness for Huaisang stop fucking about and do his job as an heir—and given that Mingjue dies young, like their father before him, he was right to be wary!), and in fact it’s annoying. This is just a joke I made early on, before I was quite so weirded out by the prevalence of this assumption.

aralias: I bet they have some books on asexuality in the Lan library—

Me: Do they? Lans have fucked since day one. Lan An left his monastic order: to fuck. Maybe the Nie library??

aralias: Nie doesn’t have a library, they just have books Huaisang hides from his brother. Maybe when Meng Yao lived there.

Me: Like Belle borrowing that one book again and again from the shop, and a goat keeps trying to eat it—

***

On Nie Mingjue:

excaliburedpan: I know I shouldn't joke on his beHalf, but—

Me: I mean you can’t spell ‘dismember’ without ‘member’, so this situation was already sexualised.

excaliburedpan: His relationship with Meng Yao is, canonically, all about head.

Me: And Meng Yao’s character is entirely about getting a head, so there we go!

Comments

[cats_eyes]

I hadn't considered that angle before, but I think it's likely; Jin Guangyao has a habit of making his revenge schemes as personal as possible (which is arguably his downfall), so it wouldn't surprise me if the women he used to murder his father were also people who'd 'wronged' him. (Honestly, on top of being needlessly cruel, his method of assassination was... kind of stupid? Like, he intentionally included a bunch of people - all of whom could've leaked something about his plan to others! - and then had them executed, making sure that anyone who cared about them would be angry/potentially looking for revenge. It just seems like a great way to make more enemies, and it was completely unnecessary.)

I haven't seen a lot of discussion about Lan Xichen's decision to send Lan cultivators to back up Jin Zixun's ambush (behind Wangji's back!), which is unfortunate because I think that it's one of his biggest 'Xichen what were you *thinking?*' moments. Because either Jin Guangyao convinced him that Jin Zixun would be totally fair! and non-antagonistic! during his confrontation with Wei Wuxian (which I don't think Xichen is stupid enough to believe) or he took Jin Guangyao's word on *very* minimal - if any - proof that it was justifiable to lure Wei Wuxian out on false pretenses (by *using his brother*) and kill him. I actually kind of wonder if that's a small part of why he's reluctant not to trust Jin Guangyao post time-skip? If they're right and Jin Guangyao set things up, then Xichen backed an unjust murder, which would be a pretty big blow to his sense of self.

Fandom in general is pretty awful at writing smart characters (see like 70% of Wei Wuxian's characterization in fics), and physically buff characters get dumbed down *really* badly.

[superborb]

I have vague memories of Sisi being like the only other person in the brothel that treated him/his mom well, which would track with him wanting to get revenge on other prostitutes...

[allycat796]

It's been a while since I read the novel and it's kind of hard to tell what's canon and what's fanon I've picked up around the internet, but if memory serves me correctly at least some of the prostitutes he used to kill jgs had worked at the brothel with his mom and were unkind to her. Not necessarily all of them, but enough that I guess he just thought he'd be really efficient about his revenge. This makes more sense to me than him just murdering a bunch of random women for no real practical reason. I think he also burned down the brothel he used to live in, with a lot of people in it, again to get revenge for his mom. Though I have to imagine there would've been at least some turnover since he was there as a teenager. I think jgy does not have a very high opinion of most prostitutes based on his negative experiences with a lot of them as a kid, and therefore is not too fussed about collateral damage where they as a class are concerned. I kind of wonder if he sees his mom as One Of The Good Ones, who shouldn't even have had to slum it with all those other prostitutes in the first place.

[x_los]

Yeah, CQL doesn't explicate this bit well at all. Granted, it's BUSY. But!

[x_los]

That's really interesting, re the negative attitude, because fandom is--reasonably, I think--keen to side with Guangyao in the the classism of the cultivation world, but Guangyao's coping strategy IS to strongly integrate with that system at its highest levels, rather than to reject or distance himself from it.

[x_los]

Yeah, it's not logistically as neat or dispassionate as it could and perhaps should have been.

I tend to think Xichen DIDN'T okay Lan cultivators being sent out, but that the Chief Cultivator's authority (so Guangshan's, as conveyed by Guangyao), or Guangyao's own efforts, sent them there? He could say something misleading to them, or just be like 'I asked them to go because I thought Zixun might do something dumb, and a third party as respected as Lans could calm things down/see justice done! I sent some Lans after him immediately!', and that sounds prudent, even. Or some of them, bc Guangyao let slip what was happening/ensured they knew, 'elected' to go after the incident with the labour camp and the war itself, because they don't like WWX, not knowing their presence had been pretty engineered by Guangyao to cause maximum bullshit?

I do think Xichen in part stands by Guangyao bc Sunk Costs Fallacy, but make it about his whole sense of self and actions over the past decades and the potential harm he's participated in. To be fair though, Guangyao would have reeled him in there to develop that sort of leverage!

[kiezh]

Yeah, I don't think JGY is actually against classism, really? He's against it being used against HIM, but that's true of physical violence and demonic cultivation, too, neither of which he has any problem with using himself.

I don't think there's any evidence in any version of canon that JGY thinks there shouldn't be an enormous wealth gap between the rich and the poor, or that there shouldn't be a handful of people (men, specifically) who wield all the political power in the realm. He thinks HE should rightfully possess that wealth and power, as his birthright (and because he's smarter/more ruthless/etc. than the people he's taking it from). He might, if I'm feeling generous, want to do a better job of ruling than his father, but he still thinks there should be a ruler and it should be him.

He doesn't identify with underdogs or the oppressed; he wants to escape that category. He loved his mother and hates that people insult her, but he's also ashamed of her and does believe that her profession is a stain on him.