How Do You Solve a Problem Like Meng Yao?

     Well, I am thrilled to say that getting over the block about how to have the heroes win the battle to take Yueyang let me actually cross over the threshold and finally finish the freaking Sunshot Campaign.  Yesterday, in a single day of nearly 6,000 words, I got them from the siege of Yueyang to the death of Wen Ruohan.  Of course, there is still a battle going on in the streets of Nightless City (as per CQL canon), but that won’t take long to clear up, and then I get to move on to the drama as the Jin Clan immediately proves itself to be composed of 96% solid assholes.  😅

    But that also leaves me with a greater question, as referenced in the title of the post:  what in the world am I supposed to do with Meng Yao?

    Since this time I thought I’d make Jin Guangshan the villain, that means I have to figure out whose side his illegitimate son is on, and how much to lean into CQL’s version or how much to restore the novel version.

    Okay, well, technically, I already decided going in which side Meng Yao would be on, but there’s still the dire question of how to characterize him, because in the novel he’s a complex three dimensional character, and in CQL he’s pretty much evil from the word “go”:  it’s like the actor was told “okay, any time you’re not flirting with Lan Xichen, make sure to look as evil as possible!”  Which is more than a little frustrating to deal with as a fanfic writer, especially one who prefers the more nuanced version from the novel.  😅

    Just look at the difference between his timelines (up to this point in canon)!

    Novel version:

1. His mother dies (around the time he turns 15, probably), so he goes to Lanling to present himself to his father, only to be kicked down the stairs
2. He tries to make a living on his own (I’m wanting to say as like a clerk or an accountant?)
3. He encounters and assists the fleeing Lan Xichen
4. The Sunshot Campaign begins; for some reason he joins up with the Nie Clan
5. Hearing his men mocking Meng Yao because his mother was a prostitute, Nie Mingjue promotes Meng Yao dramatically
6. Soon after an incident where none of the others at a meeting are willing to drink tea Meng Yao serves them except for Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue gives Meng Yao a letter of introduction/reference/recommendation so he can meet and serve his father
7. Gap in Meng Yao’s personal timeline here that can potentially be filled in a few ways (as I’ll discuss below)
8. At the conclusion of a battle in which the Nie and the Jin fought side by side, Nie Mingjue encounters Meng Yao murdering a Jin Clan officer using a Wen Clan blade and technique; Meng Yao explains that the man was his commanding officer and was constantly taking all the credit for Meng Yao’s accomplishments, thus preventing Meng Yao from ever obtaining a position where he could gain his father's acceptance; when Nie Mingjue is not buying that as an excuse, given how thoroughly Meng Yao seemed to be enjoying killing his tormentor, Meng Yao stabs him and runs away
1. Timing of the above scene is unclear, but there has to have been at least a year left in the war, possibly a year and a half, because the next step would take a lot of time
9. Meng Yao journeys to Nightless City and climbs through the ranks of the Wen Clan (partially by acting as head torturer in Inferno Palace) until he is at such a point where he is allowed to act freely at Wen Ruohan’s side when normal members of the Wen Clan are expected to remain on their knees in his presence
10. Secretly, Meng Yao sends periodic letters to Lan Xichen with information on the Wen Clan’s military plans
11. When Nie Mingjue is captured at Yangquan, Meng Yao kills Wen Ruohan in order to save his life
12. This act wins him acceptance by his father, and also earns him a sobriquet and a place as the sworn brother of Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen (despite that Nie Mingjue doesn’t trust him an inch, and in fact insists on some very violent language in the sworn brotherhood oath, regarding what should happen to he who breaks the oath (most of which Jin Guangyao eventually does to him 😰)); the sworn brothers oath is the first time we see him with Xue Yang, but it is not their first meeting, though we don't know the timing of that first meeting

    Now, about that gap.  There’s an incident that happened at some point during the Sunshot Campaign--if Jin Guangyao’s speech in the final confrontation can be treated as honest (but actually I think he’s smart enough to lie as little as possible because it’s easier to not screw up that way, and he already knows he’s finished at that point, so I’m not sure he’d bother lying anyway)--in which he either spoke directly to his father or received a message from him.  Either way, what Jin Guangshan told him was either to kill Wen Ruohan personally or to act as a spy to leak Wen Clan information to the allies.  (Though I think it’s more likely to have been the former, since he didn’t send the information to his father, but to Lan Xichen, one of the only people who has ever treated him nicely.)  Now, the logical time for this to have happened is when Meng Yao went to Lanling during the Sunshot Campaign.  But the intriguing thing is that he’s listing this among the awful things he did to win his father’s favor, and he lists it as “betraying Sect Leader Wen," (Seven Seas translation, volume 5, page 89) which implies that he had initially gone to the Wen Clan just because he had nowhere else to go, rather than with the express purpose of being a spy/assassin.  That’s probably just a translation thing, but it's an intriguing thought, isn't it? If we're to take it that way, then Jin Guangshan had to somehow learn that Meng Yao had become highly placed in the Wen Clan and somehow sent a message to him saying that he would accept Meng Yao as his son if he turned on his new master. I'm not going with that as an explanation, because that would need to be the center of its own fic in and of itself, but it would be fascinating! (Especially since in one of the versions of canon (I can't recall atm if it was the novel or CQL) there was some speculation around the time of the indoctrination camp that if open warfare erupted the Jin Clan might actually side with the Wen Clan. What if Jin Guangshan was actually stirring up the Sunshot Campaign to make it easier for Wen Ruohan to get rid of those who opposed him, and only decided to actually rebel against him after he learned his eager-to-be-accepted bastard had become Wen Ruohan's new right hand man? That would make an epic fanfic, but I think it would be outside my abilities to write it.)

    So, ultimately, there needs to be one more thing on that list in novel canon, wherein Jin Guangshan orders Meng Yao to "betray" Wen Ruohan in one way or another, but I couldn't add it since it's not 100% clear where it fits in the order. (Though it does probably fit in the time after Meng Yao left Qinghe for Lanling.)

    On point 1, also, there is the interesting side note that Meng Yao is probably younger than Nie Huaisang, despite that following the sworn brothers oath the latter starts addressing him as an elder brother. Meng Yao is specified to share the same birthday as his half-brother Jin Zixuan, but also to be younger than Jin Zixuan, but it's not made clear if they were born hours apart or a year apart. (Given how young everyone is in the Sunshot Campaign, it's probably not possible for it to be more than a year apart; Jin Zixuan is only about 18 when the Sunshot Campaign breaks out (in the novel), so if Meng Yao was too much younger, he'd be too young to fight!) But what does that have to do with Nie Huaisang's age? Well, the start of the flashback sequences is when Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng arrive at Cloud Recesses to study. We're told (again, just in the novel here) that this is something that the promising pupils of the various clans do in the year they turn 15. Among the other students there to study that year is Jin Zixuan, so he and Wei Wuxian are both about the same age. Nie Huaisang is also there, but he mentions that he's been studying there for three years. So rather than being the same age as Jin Zixuan, Nie Huaisang could be three years older. Or he might have started studying there early, because his brother and Lan Xichen are such close friends, plus Nie Huaisang really doesn't fit in among the Nie Clan, and it might have been hoped he would fit in better with the Lan Clan. (Or that Lan Qiren would be able to force him to start behaving properly.) So, strangely enough, in the novel it's possible than Nie Huaisang is actually three (or four) years older than his "san-ge" Jin Guangyao. Which just sorta strikes me as funny all around. (Maybe that's just me.)

    Anyway, so that's the novel canon version. But in this fic I'm working with CQL canon, in which Meng Yao's timeline (up to the end of the Sunshot Campaign) is quite different.

    CQL version:

1. His mother dies (timing unknown, but as I recall they use the same actor for the flashback) and he goes to Lanling to present himself to his father, only to be kicked down the stairs.
2. He goes to work for the Nie Clan
3. When Nie Mingjue overhears his men mocking Meng Yao for being the son of Jin Guangshan and a prostitute, he promotes Meng Yao (timing is unclear, but probably before the next item on the list)
4. He accompanies Nie Huaisang to the lectures in Cloud Recesses, where he meets Lan Xichen and they both appear to be instantly taken with each other (seriously, the drama ships those two so hard it's palpable); he does not remain in Gusu, however, and leaves soon after the lectures start
5. He meets with Nie Huaisang in Yueyang (for some unspecified reason, despite that Yueyang is quite far from Qinghe, and extremely close to Qishan) and takes charge of the captive Xue Yang; there is an exchange of glances between Meng Yao and Xue Yang that approaches conspiratorial, but is not technically explained
6. The Wen Clan army attacks Qinghe to reclaim Xue Yang and the piece of Yin Iron he has; during the attack, Meng Yao murders a Nie Clan officer who had been verbally abusing him; Nie Mingjue witnesses the killing and is outraged, but in the argument following the murder, a Wen Clan soldier takes them by surprise and Meng Yao takes a blow in Nie Mingjue's place, saving his life; after the battle is over, it's discovered that Xue Yang has escaped; Meng Yao makes several claims regarding why he had killed an ally, including claiming that the man had freed Xue Yang, that Xue Yang was the one who killed him, and that the man had perpetually taken credit for Meng Yao's achievements (which made sense in the novel, but does not make sense here, lol); in the end, Nie Mingjue cannot bring himself to kill Meng Yao for the murder, since he owes Meng Yao his life, and merely banishes him from Qinghe
7. Following the attack on Cloud Recesses, Meng Yao assists the fleeing Lan Xichen
8. Meng Yao enters the service of the Wen Clan, quickly rises to a position of considerable influence and trust
9. Secretly, Meng Yao sends letters to Lan Xichen with information on the Wen Clan's tactics, particularly a map outlining where exploding cairn traps have been set up. (It's weird, don't ask.)
10. When Nie Mingjue is captured, Meng Yao seems delighted to assist Wen Ruohan in tormenting him. The confrontation in the throne room is broken up by the arrival of the allied army in Nightless City, and Wei Wuxian using the Yin Tiger Tally to disrupt the power of the Yin Iron pieces in Wen Ruohan's control. Wen Ruohan rushes outside and begins...basically Force-strangling Wei Wuxian. 😰 Meng Yao murders Wen Ruohan, saving Wei Wuxian's life.
11. His actions win him his father's approval, a sobriquet, and a sworn brothers oath with Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen, which has much more tame language than the one in the novel.

    Part of the "pure evil" framing the drama gives Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao is that it's implied that he sets Xue Yang free, which makes zero sense unless we're to believe he was already in the Wen Clan's employ...though even then it wouldn't make sense, since Xue Yang does not return to Qishan, but simply absconds with the Yin Iron piece he has, not to be seen (by the audience) again until it's time for the Yi City arc. 😅 It's pretty much a certainty that he's the one who convinced Jin Guangshan to (briefly) protect Xue Yang in the drama, even though that doesn't really make much sense from any angle, considering he had murdered the Chang Clan (and several other small clans, according to Xiao Xingchen) before the Sunshot Campaign started, and therefore should be viewed as evil by everyone. It's implied that Jin Guangyao is the one who brought Xue Yang to the Jin Clan's attention in the novel, as well, but we aren't given any further context as to how they met. (Again, that could make for some interesting fanfic material: did Wen Ruohan seek out demonic cultivators to counter Wei Wuxian's devastating techniques in the novel, and thus end up bringing in Xue Yang, so that he and Meng Yao already knew each other from their time at the Wen Clan court? Not something I could ever write if it was to be the basis of the fic, but it could be used in all sorts of interesting ways.)

    So on top of the drama's version of Meng Yao having a harder past to explain logically (why did he murder that guy in the open inside a hallway? why did he then save the life of the sole witness? was he the one who released Xue Yang? if so, why would he do that?), various of his later crimes are made worse in CQL (especially the death of Jin Zixuan, which instead of being just sending his half-brother into a dangerous situation in the hopes that it might get rid of him, he outright controls the situation, literally causing his death (because the drama was obsessed with keeping Wei Wuxian's hands as clean as possible, part of the reason I suspect Chinese TV follows a policy similar to the Hays Code)) suggesting that he's all around a worse person in this version, and the claim that his father had prompted him to turn on Wen Ruohan was omitted from the final confrontation. (Though I'm not even sure if that particular change makes Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao better or worse as a person...) The drama is even sort of wishy-washy on his killing of Nie Mingjue: on the one hand, they make it out to be considerably more pre-meditated than it was in the novel (especially in the Fatal Journey spin-off movie), but they also give him less motivation to commit that murder. Wait, no, that's not wishy-washy at all. That's just totally spinning more into the "Jin Guangyao = evil" equation that's just so boring.

    It's very awkward to try to deal with, because it's impossible to just ignore the character, but how am I supposed to deal with him? One of the major problems of CQL as a work is how ineffectively it blends the material straight from the novel with the original material, and Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao's actions particularly reflect that, especially where Xue Yang is concerned. After they moved the massacre of the Chang Clan to before the Sunshot Campaign so that Wei Wuxian and company could all be there for the capture of Xue Yang by Xiao Xingchen, they should have entirely removed any mention of Xue Yang ever working for the Jin Clan, because that no longer makes sense, and yet when it's time for the Yi City arc, they still talk about how Xue Yang became a guest cultivator of the Jin Clan and how Jin Guangshan insisted on protecting him until Chang Ping eventually recanted his testimony against Xue Yang. Thing is, Jin Guangshan protecting Xue Yang made sense in the novel, because Xue Yang was already a guest cultivator of the Jin Clan by the time he massacred the Chang Clan, instead of him having become a guest cultivator more than a year later, when he should be widely known as a dangerous psychopath. It doesn't make sense to knowingly hire a madman, y'know? More importantly, there was no reason for Xue Yang to have briefly been working as a guest cultivator of the Jin Clan in CQL; there was no need to describe his character or his past in that manner, because the audience has already met him personally and seen his glee at the slaughter he had wreaked.

    For that matter, we don't even know how old Meng Yao is in CQL. I mean, there's probably still a reference in there somewhere of him being younger than Jin Zixuan, but as the sole method we have of comparing ages--the lectures at Cloud Recesses--is different in the drama, that's not useful, because we don't know how old Jin Zixuan is, either. Unlike in the novel, where the students are all supposed to be fifteen, the lectures in the drama are specified as being a relatively unusual event, as Lan Xichen tells Lan Wangji that "many" of the students will be "about your age," making the lectures a rare opportunity for Lan Wangji to make some friends, suggesting that the last time these lectures took place, Lan Wangji was significantly younger than the students who had come in for the lectures. For the fic, I've gone with the assumption that the lectures take place every five years, and that anyone who has turned fifteen since the last lecture is eligible to attend (if they're from a prominent clan, ofc), and that all the students are therefore in the 15-20 range...which means Jin Zixuan could be the same age as Wei Wuxian or he could be the same age as his future wife, Jiang Yanli, who is also studying at Cloud Recesses in the drama because they wanted to give her more screen time. 😅 So in the drama, even if we assume that Meng Yao is still younger than Jin Zixuan, that could still make him older than Wei Wuxian and company. (We know that Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are still teenagers at the time of the Sunshot Campaign, because Jiang Cheng is specifically described by Jin Guangshan as a "teenage hero" so the maximum age he can be at that time is 19, despite that the actors are all clearly in their 20s.) We do at least know that Meng Yao is still younger than Lan Xichen who is younger than Nie Mingjue, but that's particularly meaningless, since CQL's Nie Mingjue seems to be significantly older than Nie Huaisang (like at least 10 years), and Lan Xichen also seems to have a larger age gap with his brother as well (given a line he has early on that makes it sound like he had personally raised Lan Wangji following the death of their father (who wasn't even dead yet at that point in the novel, but oh well)), so...yeah, I have no idea what to do with that, either. (And it doesn't help that it's very hard to search a fifty episode show for every little line of dialog that might reflect on things like character age and such. I did take notes when I was rewatching it before I started writing this behemoth, but some things I didn't really expect to come up, and also it was easy to get caught up in the show and forget to write things down. 😅)

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    Yeah....I've totally lost the thread of whatever I was trying to say.

    TL:DR version is that now that I've reached the point where Meng Yao is actually on screen (as it were) in my fic, things are getting more complicated, just because I have no idea how to characterize him. 😰