I Can't Believe I Am About To Say This, But Ep 21 Showed To Me That FL Completely Picked Right To Hook

I can't believe I am about to say this, but ep 21 showed to me that FL completely picked right to hook up with head of secret police. This is a man with USEFUL skills and attitudes to have around in her life.

When her evil aunt hung herself in front of FL's house to create issues, ML was the first and only one to see (it was the middle of the night.) He had no particular reaction and just calmly, quickly, and efficiently moved the corpse and quietly hung it in front of aunt's equally evil husband's house so now evil husband is being investigated, that household is covered with scandal and our FL's family is oblivious since he didn't even bother mentioning it to anyone and just went to bed after this to sleep like a baby after moving and staging a middle-aged lady's corpse.

Later, when FL wonders if she's been too mean to cut off said evil aunt (still not knowing her boo just lugged around said aunt's corpse!) and is her family too much trouble in his eyes, he responds that hey, his grandpa killed a bunch of his own kids, his uncle killed a bunch of his brothers, and his father killed his mother, so nothing she does even registers for him and she could do way worse/have way more troublesome family and he wouldn't be bothered.

I kinda choked.

PS Girl, you are gonna have a hell of a dinner with the in-laws, someday.

Hey man stories where the mc wishes someone will save them and then someone does are/were the standard for escapist fantasy. No one who’s been abused sincerely believes they can twiddle their thumbs and wait to be saved, but wouldn’t it be nice if they could? Wouldn’t it be nice if they handle their situation with grace, kindness, and compassion that someday they’ll be taken somewhere safe and loved forever? (Cinderella) Wouldn’t it be nice if someone might hear your darkest thoughts about needing to be rescued and not even death could stop them from loving you? (Snow White) Wouldn’t it be nice if the real world was even better than you imagined and your real family who loves you has been waiting for you all your life? (Rapunzel)

We know. No childhood victim of abuse watched a children’s film and thought that’s how real life worked, because the real world already sucked. We knew. It was comforting. Even if they’re being mean, I can be nice like Cinderella. Some day my prince will come. I am what I love, not who loves me. That’s why it’s called escapist fantasy.

One of my favorite things is taking someone to the Great Lakes for the first time - or describing how you can fly over them and see only hundreds of miles of glittering blue water and no coasts at all; how they have their own Coast Guard (the only lakes to do so); that the Earth's rotation steers their currents; that they're studied using ocean models; that they have wrecked more than 6000 ships - and watch them realize that the word "lake" is misleading and that they had no idea of the size and majesty of them at all.

I've been thinking of how JC attempts to sacrifice himself for WWX when they first run from the Wens after the fall of LP and his reasons/feelings for doing that and reconciling them with this person who acts so shamefully and is full of such hatred that he kills all 'demonic cultivators' after wwx's death. Even as WWX thinks of whether JC and JL are okay, I notice he calls JC "Sect Leader" out loud to others. I don't know how they could reconcile. Sorry lots of feelings.

Hi again anon 👋🏻

I've answered your two asks separately as they were addressing different aspects of the novel and my original response was getting rather long 😆

It certainly was an unexpected revelation when we found out that JC lured the searching Wen cultivators away from an unsuspecting WWX. Of course, I don't think it was his intention to get caught in the process, but he definitely thought about someone else other than himself for once - which was interesting. Although it was one of the very few selfless acts he did during the course of the novel, it still doesn't retract any of the awful things he has done, nor the way he treated WWX or his homophobic outburst.

Even after WWX has died, JC's bitterness remains very strong and he does indeed hunt down those that use the ghost path in hope of capturing WWX, should he return. Which I always find quite telling of just how little JCs actually knows and understands WWX - who would never actually do such a thing.

In all honesty, JC actually redeemed himself ever so slightly at the very end of the novel, when he decides not to tell WWX about how he really lost his golden core. Instead, he finally let him go, severing the very last thread of "debt" and "obligation" between them. It was actually a fitting character arc for him and it showed a glimmer of possible growth.

Even if JC had selfishly told WWX that particular fact, I don't think it would have changed much at all. WWX has already paid back his "debt" and "obligations" to the Jiang sect far beyond what was required or reasonable. There is nothing left to say between them and WWX literally has nothing left to give. Too much water has gone under the bridge. All of that is in the past and WWX always focuses on the present. So either way, nothing would have changed. I also think WWX would not want to associate with someone he thought his love for LWJ was disgusting and shameful regardless of anything else at play. He chooses love, happiness and freedom as his parents did before him.

JC and WWX are too different, in both personality and virtue. They would not have been friends or hung out in any other scenario bar the circumstance they found themselves in during the course of the novel. They both literally embody the traits that the other actually cannot stand! Their relationship was that of a master and subordinate, it was toxic and they are both better off giving each other a wide berth and moving on.

A reconciliation would never happen and it doesn't need to. WWX is entitled to a happy life for all his efforts in his previous life and JC needs to live with the consequences of his actions and learn from them in his own way.

I know it's probably not the response you were hoping for. But if you consider the above, they both got some form of a happy ending. JC is finally learning to let go of things that little bit more and WWX is free to move on and live his life how he always wanted. I honestly couldn't think of a more suitable and realistic ending.

Russian lies are meant not only to disinform, to make action more difficult, but also to demotivate, to make action seem senseless. Russian memes work not by presenting Russia as a positive alternative, but by demoralizing others. No one wants to be close to "Nazis," and the simple introduction of the lie is confusing and saddening. The same holds with the Russian meme to the effect that Ukraine is corrupt. A completely bogus Russian source introduced the entirely fake idea that the Ukrainian president had bought yachts. Although this was entirely untrue, Representative Greene then spread the fiction. Senator J.D. Vance also picked up the "yacht" example and used it as his justification for opposing aid to Ukraine. The larger sense of that lie is that everyone everywhere is corrupt, even the people who seem most admirable; and so we might as well give up on our heroes, on any struggle for democracy, or any struggle at all. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelens'kyi, chose to risk his life by remaining in Kyiv and defending his country against a fearsome attack from Russia which almost all outsiders believed would succeed within days. His daring gamble saved not only his own democracy, but opened a window of faith that democracies can defend themselves. It confirmed the basis lesson of liberty that individual choices have consequences. The lie directed at Zelens'kyi was meant not only to discredit him personally and undermine support for Ukraine, but also to persuade Americans that no one is righteous and nothing is worth defending.

Timothy Snyder

Bunnies day 2; Grumpy Lan Bunny, sassy Wei bun