Why Lan Wangji Endures

I breifly touched on this topic before in this post, but I wanted to go more in-depth with it in combination with this post. When Lan Wangji says this:

—Chapt. 99: A Hatred for Life Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

...he is not making a statement on the morality of either his or Wei Wuxian's actions. In fact, his opinions about the moral righteousness of their actions are separate from his opinions on his clan's (and the greater cultivation world's) meted-out punishments. Why? Because the rules and laws of the cultivation world are now wholly separate from what is moral, and so Lan Wangji has matched Wei Wuxian in cleaving his sense of morality from what is considered acceptable by the status quo. Lan Wangji cannot confirm to Lan Xichen (or the Lan Clan, or the cultivation world as a whole) whether Wei Wuxian was right or wrong because they are not operating under the same understanding of "right and wrong." At the same time, Lan Wangji's (summarized via Lan Xichen's) speech above is not in conversation with his brother but actually in conversation with Wei Wuxian's speech back in Yiling:

—Chapt. 75: Distance, exr

Wei Wuxian was put into a dead-end situation where any act of self-defense or defense of innocents was an automatic crime. In the end, he experienced the ultimate consequence of death because his act of self-defense led to the death of an important individual, a death that was seen as "unforgivable" in the eyes of the cultivation world, unlike the deaths of Wei Wuxian and the Wen remnants. Likewise, Lan Wangji's actions in protecting Wei Wuxian against his clan were met with punishment, because even though he had good cause in rescuing the Wen remnants' only protector, going against his clan is "unforgivable" in the eyes of a society ruled by tradition and orthodoxy over morality. This is why Wei Wuxian says that the self must judge the self, and why Lan Wangji is following that creed by enduring the Lan Clan punishment while maintaining an unshakeable belief in Wei Wuxian's righteousness.

It was never about Lan Wangji doubting his or Wei Wuxian's morals. It was never about Lan Wangji putting love above righteousness. It was always about how Lan Wangji so much believed in Wei Wuxian's morality and the righteousness of his actions that he was willing to protect the man when the entire world said he was in the wrong, when his own family stood opposite him. And just like Wei Wuxian eventually accepted the consequences of his actions and used his last moments to attempt to destroy the Stygian Tiger Seal, Lan Wangji, too, endured being whipped 33 times by the discipline whip, then went on to rescue Wen Yuan and raise him and the other Lan disciples with morals so strong that they could transcend the mob mentality that their parents never learned to unsubscribe from. Lan Wangji's steadfastness in the face of the incredible hypocrisy and corruption baked into the system he lived in is why Wei Wuxian is able to resurrect into a world where the new generation can look up to him as a hero and a mentor rather than a scourge and a terror.

This endurance is Lan Wangji's ultimate act of love.

It's true that the cultivation world and the two of them were working on two different lines of morals. Where the society saw criminals and their protector, they saw tortured prisoners and innocence. I can't quite say if LWJ meant that his right and wrong was different from the society's right or wrong, or if he was talking about WWX in Nightless City, where he was clearly innocent, clearly provoked and yet everyone in attendance was attacked (and people killed).

But LWJ wasn't there at the beginning of Nightless City, was he? He just came when WWX was playing his flute. So damn.

I don't know what exactly LWJ was saying then, but he did mean to act as one in the eyes of the world. He just took WWX to the one place that could protect him and let himself be exposed to the judgement of the cultivation world, believing (or hoping?) he would be judged as acting in concert with WWX.

I say hoping, because I honestly don't think he thought WWX would die. Or at least, he thought he could convince or turn his clansmen somehow. Or maybe he was just grasping at straws to turn the tables on what would certainly be WWX's death with no intervention from someone else. He just had to be that someone else.

I think you place too much weight on Lan Wangji’s opinions of the cultivation world. He didn’t help Wei Wuxian in Nightless City because he wanted the cultivation world to judge them together. He did it because that was the man he loved and, separately, it was the right thing to do. What the cultivation world thought or how they would judge him was not a thought in his mind, because they do not matter. Same with the Lan Clan: Lan Wangji’s actions weren’t to convince any of his clansmen of anything, because just as he knows what’s right and wrong, so, theoretically, would they. The Lan Clan was willing to massacre the Wen remnants and stand against Wei Wuxian because they are a part of the same corrupt gentry that believes that the powerful should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as they adhere to hierarchy and social niceties. There was no changing people’s minds by that, so Lan Wangji doesn’t bother. If his actions inspire others to be better people (like the juniors) then that’s fine. If others repudiate and ostracize him for it (like Lan Qiren and the Lan contingency of the second siege), then that’s fine too.

I don't know where I said his actions were due to anything but his convictions? Lan Wangji is a kind of person who doesn't care about judgements or opinions of the people. His actions are taken solely because of his judgement of what he thinks is right or wrong.

For example, he spoke up for WQ & WN when they gave themselves up. This was literally after Jin Zixuan died, after the entire cultivation world blamed Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian for Jin Zixuan's death. I think something like that takes an unimaginable level of guts or an utter disregard for the opinions of others.

I think, that Lan Wangji's actions were based very much on his own righteousness. But, I also think that while he did not have a high opinion on the cultivation world's righteousness, you are also not being kind enough to them.

There were many pieces of information that most of the cultivation world were not aware of, that made them dance to the Jin's tune. To be perfectly honest, the one person who had the most amount of information and the ability to turn the tides was Jiang Cheng, and his disregard for Wei Wuxian became pivotal in the Jin's plan to destroy him.

The Lan Sect honestly isn't that bad.

Firstly, when Wei Wuxian stormed in during the Jin banquet, he only asked for Wen Ning. And everyone was quite aware of the fact that the people who were broken out of the camps did not contain any elderly or young people. They only knew that WWX had done a jailbreak, stealing away all the Wen cultivators from the camp and going to the burial mound, which gave WWX the strongest source of power. Power he needed for... what?

Cultivation world is stupid and did not realize that WWX needed the power to defend himself from them. They thought he needed the power to build a stronger army or something, they didn't know, but if the Jins, who were the most informed in the situation said so, it must be so, right??

Second, the meeting was called so an explanation for Wei Wuxian's actions could be provided. What did JC do here? He said "WWX has always been like this, we'll promise reparations". Did he ever say if WWX was right or wrong? When Lan Xichen said that WQ had been innocent and never killed people, NMJ asked why exactly did she need to be treated differently from the other Wen cultivators? Did she expect special treatment just because they didn't know if she had killed or not? She was still on the enemy side. Had she done something for them, that she needed to be treated differently?

Here, JC stayed quiet.

No one knew that the Wens were anything other than young healthy cultivators. They knew about WN, WQ and cultivators taken from the prison. JC went and told WWX "no one could defend you during the meeting" when it was only he who had not defended WWX. LWJ, LXC, LQY had.

By nightless city, what exactly did the cultivating clans know? They knew that WN & WWX had killed JZX. They knew that WN & WQ had arrived at their doorstep, and that LWJ had stepped up to speak for them. That when WN went berserk, THE LANS died trying to stop his rampage. Someone needed to take responsibility.

The Nightless City seemed more like a show of support for the Jins than an actual promise of assistance against WWX, but they all had their reasons for being there. They did genuinely consider WWX as evil. No one defended him, no one told them that he wasn't evil and nor was any evidence given to the contrary.

Then the Nightless City massacre happened.

Honestly, unlike us, who have the omniscient viewpoint, people only got to know things due to people's gossips or talking about incidents. With so many people injured or dead, what could they do?

See, here you missed that though LXC was already quite influenced by JGY, he also wasn't a bad guy. The Lans, probably cause of LWJ, were the ones who actually took a lot of damage due to "WWX". And still, during the first siege, the Nie and Lan forces were so small that they might as well not have been there.

I feel like the impression the Sect gave to WWX, who actually did break all the rules all the time, made people think really badly of the Sect itself.

Honestly, most of the problems in WWX's first life happened because of JC and the Jins. JC was the one who was exempted from being attacked by the hundreds of corpses outside BM, who "took advantage of WWX's weakness to lead the attack". The weakness could have been that the 50 Wens were old and weak people, could have been his very presence which meant the corpses wouldn't attack him, would allow him to pass by unharmed and start killing the Wens and destroying WWX's inventions. Or it could have meant he knew that WWX was busy doing something like destroying his Stygian Tiger Seal and he would be weakened during this period.

So, no, I resent being told that the Lans were as bad as the rest of the cultivation world, who were also not as bad as your saying, but still pretty much the dirt under our boots, just not upgraded to complete shit until the Siege. The Lans were that bad because of LXC's unconditional support for JGY, and they were anything close to good at any point of time due to LWJ.

I only brought up the Lan Wangji is not caring about anyone else’s opinions because you ended your commentary saying that he might have hoped to save his clansmen’s minds through his actions. I may have misunderstood what you meant by adding that, but I def don’t agree with this added comment. The Lan were absolutely as bad as everyone else. No they didn’t go to the Burial Mounds settlement to verify the truth but… that was their negligence. Not following Wei Wuxian to the labor camp was Lan Xichen’s negligence. (The Qiongqi Path labor camp was also a joint-clan endeavor, but that's neither here nor there.) The Jin were spinning lies about Wei Wuxian and not only do Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen close ranks around the lies, Lan Xichen praised Jin Guangyao for them in private while publicly contradicting Lan Wangji who called the lies out (proof). Lan Xichen is neither ignorant to or naive about any of the Jin's intentions nor specifically of Jin Guangyao's crimes (proof). It is a running theme that leads directly to his narrative punishment and subsequent character growth.

Nobody thought that Wei Wuxian was “building an army.” That is runaway fanon. Their grievances against Wei Wuxian were that he, a mere servant's son was more powerful and popular than them, and the lies they told to justify hating him was that he’d build his own cultivation clan that would overshadow the orthodox clans, thereby challenging their power and authority as the ones who must be given deference by everyone (proof from Wen Qing):

—Chapt. 73: Recklessness, exr

And even if he was building an army? The cultivation world sat still while the QishanWen built up an army and trampled over anyone they felt like. The same cultivation world sat still while the LanlingJin did the exact same thing directly after the Sunshot Campaign, despite having the power to do something about it before the Jin became unimpeachable (proof and proof 2). Yet Wei Wuxian is the only one they felt moved to go against. Gee, wonder why.

And even if them thinking that Wei Wuxian had an army was canon? They certainly didn’t by the time they showed up and slaughtered a settlement of impoverished farmers and threw their bodies into the blood pool (proof). None of the participants of the second siege are shocked by the existence of the Wen remnants crawling out of the blood pool, including the Lan. They knew. Somebody smashed Granny Wen's head in, and a bunch of other somebodys watched. The cultivation world isn’t stupidly “choosing to believe the Jin’s lies.” They were active and willing participants in the spreading of these lies with the explicit intent of restoring the classist hierarchy by tearing the “servant’s son” down from what they considered their rightful place on top of the food chain. Just like they all sat back when Xue Yang was running around massacring clans and only Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan stepped in to stop him.