Thread by @martyrsdaughter, mmkay so the thing about mu qing that is often overlooked or [...]

mmkay so the thing about mu qing that is often overlooked or not really taken into account when discussing why he acts the way he does in response to feng xin and especially xie lian is that he was an impoverished kid entered into a world of unimaginable, untouchable wealth.

not sure how many of the people who discuss how "ungrateful" mu qing is in the novel really understand what that's like, but imagine that your entire life centers around going to feasts and the only thing you're allowed is scraps from the table when you clear the plates.

sometimes, those scraps are delicious! probably all of the time, really. better than anything you've ever eaten. but you're never sure whether you'll have them, how much or for how long, and you are always eating them cold and left over after the main event; an afterthought.

xie lian shows genuine care and appreciation for mu qing as a person, but he has also lived his entire life cared for and pampered by servants. a prince cannot truly *have* friends, not in the way we think of friendship. no one is at the proper level to give him that!

always, there's status between him and feng xin, and him and mu qing. feng xin at least comes from a respectable background in comparison to his current station. while xl/fx are not equals, xl/fx are both far higher up than mq in terms of their societal status/their upbringing.

even when they're mortals and xl *does* consider them to have something close to a friendship, we see moments - hints - that this is false. xl, for instance, has little to no understanding of mq's relationship with his mother. he doesn't think of mq's family at all. why should he

unless reminded? and he's generous, in the way a prince can be, when he *is* reminded. but that generosity is born from incredible privilege. he cannot understand why mu qing is proud/embarrassed in the cherry-picking scene to the point where he makes things way worse for him.

this is a pattern that continues. feng xin doesn't understand the implications of accusing mu qing of any involvement in xie lian's missing earring. if these are the moments we *see*, imagine all the times this kind of thing happens off screen? blunders that go misunderstood?

all of this further opens a chasm between xl/fx and mq, especially in mq's eyes. they *cannot* understand him at that point, and their attempts are rare, awkward, and mostly failures. mq is in a friendly, if out of touch, workplace environment. work! it's work! he's a servant!

fx is also working, but unlike mq, his family is in relatively good standing. their survival is not 1=1 dependent on whether fx is successful in his duties. fx is responsible for the safety of *xl*, who i will remind you is one of the most powerful mortals to ever be born.

fx takes his duty extremely seriously, but xl is also... almost never in real danger, nothing he can't fight back from.

every single good thing in mq's life is directly dependent on xl. cultivation training, money, livelihood, family safety, pure survival, all by xl's whim.

then, they ascend. i won't get deep into the nitty gritty on that because i just don't feel i have the time, but as xl's general, he remains subservient to him. mq gets upgraded in that he doesn't have to bathe and dress dianxia anymore, but he remains subservient. not friends.

he cautions xl repeatedly about his plans, but what can he do? what can any of them do? he follows xl into war as his general. he does his utmost to see xl's vision realized. when it fails, he is punished right along with xl and fx. they are all *horrifically* traumatized by this

and because of their trauma, everyone sort of retreats into themselves. it becomes about survival, and the royal family must always come first, even when there's nothing left under their domain. mq is shunted back down into doing the menial tasks he has the most experience with.

once again, he mends, he cleans, he does things that are frankly below his skill level because most of the people in the house don't know how to do them and are rarely self-aware enough to realize that they must learn. they're all so fucked up by the fall of xian le. they can't.

and in the wake of that tragedy, no one remembers that mq does have a family. a mother he cares for desperately, a mother who only has him. he is expected to shoulder the burden of someone else's family before his own, to put xl before himself, and for what? because xl chose him?

xl lifted him up, yes, but xl also personally led him into ruin. good intentions don't change choices made, here. xl also inadvertently destroyed xian le, and therefore ruined mq's mother's life too. but did any of them actually ask about it? well aware of mq's attachment to her?

of course not. they're traumatized, and grieving, and shitty, because that stuff can make you shitty sometimes. it's not anyone's fault, but it isn't mq's fault for seeing, before anyone else did, that this shit was not sustainable. he had things outside of the royal family he -

needed to fight for. between the 3 of them, he was the *only* one who had any experience doing dirty work to survive all throughout his life. mq makes choices that keep him alive, choices that get him ahead, because he has always been the strong back for someone else to lean on.

we see evidence of this way of thinking when he returns with the sack of rice, and when he tells xl that he would have helped him rob people if he'd asked. mq is a pragmatist surrounded by people who have never needed or relied on such pragmatism, and can't cope with it.

he's never been uncaring, but do you see how someone who has always been well aware of their place *below* the people closest to him would therefore believe that they don't see him as a friend? would you expect your friend to sew your clothes, to clean your home, to wash you?

if you spent the formative years of your life as a personal servant to someone, *could* you then consider them a friend? perhaps, but it would be difficult, and they would need to make a direct overture to show they no longer thought of you as a subservient being to themselves.

we joke about the "i wanted to be f-friends" scene, but it's actually fucking devastating. mq wanted so badly to be xl's friend and never felt that sort of attention from him, or from fx. whether they saw him that way or not, he never felt it, not once, and he still *tried*.

yes, mq is a bitch. he's mean. he's pretentious. he's vain. he's sexist.

but his pride is the sort that comes from poverty, from having to force people to take you seriously and see that you have worth and value. he has a massive, deserved chip on his shoulder. is that right?

is that healthy? not necessarily, but it would be unfair to say that he's not a good friend to people he's never considered his friends, as much as he wanted that to be the case. friendship involves reciprocity of care and a level of equality that wasn't afforded to him.

tl;dr mu qing is certainly not a perfect person, but everyone in tgcf has massive flaws. he shouldn't be denied the same empathy we afford other complicated characters just because he's prickly? he's fucking fascinating, and *very* loyal in his own right.

AND I LOVE HIM THE END

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