Okay, so back in April, I mentioned the fact that it had long been my assumption about/reaction to Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen that they were supposed to be a reflection of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, or more specifically that they actually are what most everyone else in the story sees when they look at Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji together: an evil demonic cultivator harassing a pure and proper cultivator. And that meanwhile Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are also a reflection of the true relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, only one where the tragic ending remains in place, with no revival stepping in to reunite them. (Okay, actually, looking at that post again, I didn't so much mention that as tangentially imply it. But that was what I thought on reaching the later portions of the Yueyang sequence in The Untamed when I first watched it, that the three of them provided a double mirror of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Um, except at that time I didn't know that Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen's story would end in tragedy. 😭)
And I still do think that's the case, no question. Those parallels are absolutely there.
But in thinking about the chapter of my fanfic that went up yesterday, I realized that Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan serve as mirrors to another situation within the main plot of MDZS: that of Wei Wuxian with Jiang Cheng. (I mean, the clue's right there in their names, even! Jiang Cheng and Song Lan are the only adult characters in the novel (as far as I can recall, anyway) who are consistently referred to by their birth names by the narrator. Oh, uh, no, duh, there's also Wen Ning. Okay, so that breaks the birth name part of the comparison a bit. (And then there's Wen Xu and Wen Chao, whose only known names sure sound like birth names, but that makes zero sense all around unless the Wen Clan uses courtesy names differently from the other clans.))
Let me sum up my thinking on this thusly. Um, after a "read more" tag just in case somehow someone stumbles on this post who hasn't read (or watched) the whole story. (Unlikely, I know, but...)
So, here's the tale...
Man A and Man B are very close. But then Man A does something to piss off an evil man. The evil man decides to use violence to punish him; this violence causes the deaths of almost everyone that Man B cares about, and causes Man B a permanent physical harm. Man B blames Man A for his losses. Man A does the only thing he can to make up for what happened, and uses his own body to repair Man B's injury. Man B is not (immediately) sufficiently grateful, and a fissure grows between them.
Sums up either one perfectly, doesn't it?
Now, there's differences, obviously. They're close in different ways: Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are basically brothers, whereas Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are obviously in love with each other (though it's unclear whether or not they've ever said or done anything about it). What Wei Wuxian did to piss off Wen Chao was...not entirely advisable given the larger circumstances (and yet also something deeply heroic), whereas what Xiao Xingchen had done was 100% advisable and laudable, and also Song Lan took part in it. The deaths at Lotus Pier were almost everyone that Wei Wuxian cared about as well, whereas Xiao Xingchen had no connection to anyone at Baixue Temple; also it wasn't Wen Chao who personally killed everyone at Lotus Pier or destroyed Jiang Cheng's golden core, but it was all done on his orders, so it might as well have been him.
And the biggest difference, of course, is that Song Lan knows what Xiao Xingchen has given up for him, and yet he still initially said that there was no need for them to meet again, because he was just that torn up inside over what had happened. But Jiang Cheng has no idea what Wei Wuxian had given up for him, and thinks he's just being an arrogant brat when he won't obey various cultural norms like carrying his sword, so the fissure between them grew more slowly, and only became a true separation with the death of Jiang Yanli.
There's also the difference that Song Lan spent years searching for Xiao Xingchen after he finished healing from the eye transplant, having repented his earlier harsh words and wanting to mend matters between them. By the time Jiang Cheng finds out what Wei Wuxian gave up for him, it's more than ten years later, and everything's such a mess between them. The last exchange between Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling on the subject of Wei Wuxian does imply that Jiang Cheng has at least partially forgiven Wei Wuxian, and that maybe someday they'll be able to get back at least some of what they once had, but then none of the bonus chapters addresses that at all, so we don't have any resolution on the matter. (Likewise, we never find out if Xiao Xingchen's soul is ever restored during Song Lan's wanderings as an intelligent fierce corpse, but...it's still super-tragic either way, isn't it?)
...
Yeah.
I don't actually have much of a point.
I guess I just felt like sharing that I had thought of it?
I'm sure everyone else out there recognized that right away, and I'm the only one who was blinded by the more blatant comparison.
...
Mostly, I think I just wanted to post something. And this was a convenient something to post.
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