MXTX once said that in her worldview, Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen would never be together. I’m glad she did. Xue Yang doesn’t deserve Xiao Xingchen.

Do I love Xue Yang?

Absolutely.

Is he completely irredeemable and undeserving of XXC?

Yes.

Am I still sad anyway?

Unfortunately.

Personally, it is not a question of deserving. As a writer, I enjoy exploring complex and interesting dynamics, because writing about extremes can be a lot of fun. It will never be canon any which way, but there is no harm in people playing around with it and creating 'what if' scenarios where some factors are changed, etc. The joy of fiction!

P.S.: did you delete this or post twice or did I imagine posting to this before? What weirdness...

SONG LAN is a much better match. The Man DIED IN SILENCE just so that he wouldn't traumatize his best friend.!

I really like their story and dynamic. It's super messed up, there's no ethical way that XY and XXC should end up together in canonverse, but I really enjoy thinking about XY's character and XXC's effects on his life.

Maybe I'm biased because I went through some longterm abuse as a kid that resulted in what my therapists called a "muted" emotional response to things. I have feelings.. they're just toned waaay down because that's the only way I knew how to protect myself. Sometimes I look at journal entries from before the abuse and I don't even recognise myself. So on some level I sympathize with XY. I see him as a representation of what happens when people are forced too far and don't have guidance growing up, like a more physical and extreme version of JGY. And I find him a nice breather from the main cast's whole saving people and eternal loyalty heroism (I still love wangxian, I just can't relate emotionally). He's crass, he's not at all kind, and he's selfish as all fuck. By the time XXC came around, it was too late for XY. He could barely recognise kindness for what it was, and he certainly couldn't reciprocate it. Instead he drew XXC into his own twisted mind games and ended up losing everything for it, and in the end I'm not sure he even understood what happened. He deserved it, but I also feel sad for him.

I like reading AU fanfics where someone picked up XY when he was still young and taught him what it means to be cared for and to care for others. In my headcanon, I think he would've still been an asshole, but he would have core morals and use his genius more productively. Maybe he would've met XXC, who already has SL, and they could've been friends purely because XXC is such a boundlessly kind and giving person. I like to think XY had that potential, but the world stomped it out of him.

I do find it interesting how people find JGY so much more redeemable than XY though, even though they were both insane and hurt tons of innocent people. Does it matter if someone does something bad because they felt their hand was forced, or if they just accepted/embraced that evil is the way things are? I don't know. It does bum me out that JGY seemingly has so many more sympathizers than XY though.

Its funny because years ago I would’ve enjoyed Xue Yang’s dynamic with Xiao Xingchen, but now I look at it and I hate the ship. It’s an interesting dynamic, but the lies, the deception, everything about it is built on the fact that Xiao Xingchen is blind and decided to trust a man who wouldn’t give him his name.

But also a personal gripe is that MXTX says flat out that XXC was closer to A-Qing then Xue Yang and yet no one write about their bond as friend and that’s a god damned shame IMO. Her and Song Lan deserve better

Deserving or not, whether it was love or some strange, cruel infatuation; I cry extremely hard every time this arc comes to a close. I’m not sure that XY would ever be redeemed, but I want to think, that at some point he did care deeply about XX, even if it was in a twisted way.

I mean, the moment when WWX and LWJ found the crushed “candy” (I’m British and salty) zing his dismembered arm, I sorta felt hurt for him, but, really, he doesn’t deserve XXC after all the vile things he made him do, or even taking a head for an eye. Generally, I understand this ship (they’re yandere fans, I’m guessing), but, yes, I’m glad it doesn’t happen, since the relationship would completely destroy the reality of XXC’s righteousness and XY’s the fact that he can’t understand his emotions with his ambition [cough] obsessions [cough] and dark past [cough] grudges [cough].

Think I choked on water near the end, sorry. 🙂

True, its so sad that XY became that way... if only his backstory was diffrent than maybe XY might have been good.. I felt pity for him...

But poor XXC!!! He didn't deserve to die!!!! So did SL and AQ

i think the beauty of writing something like is the fact that it was so believable and so human. There was the element of terror in the mind of the readers when they realised that xiaochen was being manipulated, there is a pause in our thinking when we realize that xue yang is warming up, there is anger at the fact that xue yang made xiaochen kill song lan, there was heartbreak for a-qing, plus a mixed feeling when we think about how xue yang died. There is hatred for him, plus there is an unconscious sympathy in many of us to see how he never got better. I mean that's what a good story is all about. Its not about having poetic justice, its the beauty in just knowing that these things HAPPENED to these characters.

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It's a very toxic relationship. Scary even.

I feel sorry for Xue Yang though. I don't hate him. MXTX created a realistic character for him. He is a very simple child. He wanted no more than to eat something sweet. But things turned out bad for him because of some really mean people. Evil breeds evil.

I honestly can't like XY even if I tried to force myself to. Sure, I can understand killing the person who deceived you as a child for revenge, but murdering the entire sect is unforgivable. Even more than that, he manipulates XXC to the point where he commits suicide and his soul is fragmented because he doesn't want to live anymore. I'll take Song Lan, thanks.

It’s the tragic angst that drew me to them as a ship, while it’s not something I actively seek out, if it comes across my Twitter I will like fanart of them. I’m well aware XY is a bad person and it’s a very toxic dynamic, for me it’s not a ship designed for love or even nsfw art, it’s designed to hurt in the best way. They don’t fit together, they were never meant to even according to the author, and yet multiple things he could of done to change for XXC pop into mind.

XY is so fundamentally flawed he didn’t realize how good he had it until it was taken from him, his desperation holding the only person who might possibly be able to reunite them hostage showed he had actually come to care for the other man in his own sick and twisted way. XXC deserves better definitely, but XY deserved to realize he killed what little happiness in life he had, and he has no one to blame but himself.

What? Why?! ....I love them so much.... why MXTX..... sniff sniff Why does everyone hate xue yang. Obsessive people do that...

Personally I love the dynamic between the two. Xue yang is a sociopath his world views are screwed by this and he's only seen it in one dynamic. Then xiao comes along..someone he believed he despised.. yet blind and unknowing who he is Xiao cared for him with no discrimination.

It showed him the life he could have had. And it started to change him. Grand you can't completely changed a sociopath.. that is something you can't change.. you can help with therapy but it's an actual change of the brain. Unfortunately ancient china they didn't have any of that so xue yang coped in the only way he knew how.

What he did was wrong yes.. but I'm his brain this was the only way he knew how to exist.

meh idc, it was incredibly interesting and the donghua / drama even added some weird hotness to the mix. It was far more engrossing than some fluffy 'I'd die for you' vanilla ship for me. It's fucked up but it's fiction. It's a delicious forbidden fruit.

it is Song Lan who doesn't deserve him

They get together in my headcanon. This subplot was such a wasted opportunity.