I haven’t posted on tumblr in a long time, but my recent obsession with Mo Dao Zu Shi makes me need an outlet for my thoughts.
Serious MDZS spoilers below the cut (up to the point of the novel fan translation by Exiledrebels)
So I think Jin Guangyao is simply a brilliant and scary antagonist, one of the best I’ve personally seen. I love that in a setting full of powerful magic users, the antagonist seems to have rather meagre magical skills, but tremendous social skill instead. No matter how strong you are in magic, like Wei Wuxian or Nie Mingjue, it won’t help you achieving your objectives without societal support among people in general.
Jin Guangyao uses his good memory to keep personal track on everyone, as well as the social skill to get on everyone’s good side by complementing them for something they’ve done by using that good memory, all while appearing harmless and humble as he manipulates people. He also seems to have tremendous skill to always appear like the wronged one in any conflict by keeping his politeness while pushing others to rash actions and anger. He gets wine spilled on him, gets pushed down the stairs among other things., which from the outside makes him clearly seem like the one deserving sympathy (none the less because he really does deserve sympathy in many cases)
As a socially awkward person with a bad memory for names and faces, an antagonist whose main weapon is his social skills and memory about people sounds completely nightmarish. Especially Nie Mingjue’s situation made me feel frustrated and helpless. He sees through Jin Guangyao, yet is powerless to anything, because he lacks the social skills to get support from the general population. He can’t keep calm and thus seem rational, instead reacting with anger and violence, which is the wrong reaction if one wants to make others listen. Seriously Nie MIngjue, insulting someone’s mother’s social status and pushing a physically smaller and weaker person down the stairs isn’t exactly endearing oneself to the general population, and clearly unfair and wrong. He hates social manoeuvring, and that is why he loses against it, because he can’t contain his rage at seeing it in action. When he notices how Jin Guangyao even wins over his own little brother with social skills and flattery, he reacts with more anger, thus having the effect of pushing his brother away further. His life ends while knowing his murderer yet being unable to make anyone else understand and accept that fact because in everyone else’s eyes he is the raging madman out of his mind, while Jin Guangyao is polite and harmless.
Wei Wuxian does have social skills, and can also manipulate others to a certain degree, but no ambition to use it further, also mostly living by his own sense of justice which makes him rebel against popular opinion. His low social status as an ostracized necromancer makes him unable to gain any social support even though he knows the truth about Jin Guangyaos machinations.The only supporter is Lan Wangji, which isn’t exactly the best ally to have against a social mastermind antagonist. Lan Wangjis argument boils down to that he trusts Wei Wuxian and doesn’t trust Jin Guangyao. No explanations why. No wonder Lan XiChen isn’t convinced at first. And that feels so scary and relevant as someone belonging to several marginalized minorities as well as having generally bad socializing skills, that even if you know you are right, it means nothing unless the majority of society is on your side as well. Mo Dao Zu Shi truly illustrates the scary side of social skills and social power, and this is very clearly a main theme. The novel (and donghua) even starts by telling us the general societal opinion of the events that transpired.
Nothing more chilling than an antagonist that knows the right time to serve chilled fruit slices and hand out compliments.
