jun wu's ending will never not drive me absolutely insane. it's just...nobody's asked to forgive him or forget what he's done, but he's not being punished, either, and xie lian's deeply symbolic gesture of passing on the bamboo hat (representing the compassion he received at his lowest point) is so heavy with meaning.

jun wu is finished but he doesn't have to die and he doesn't have to suffer, or at least the narrative isn't lingering on his suffering - to the contrary! it portrays his defeat as a relief even to him. he doesn't even have to be imprisoned in eternal isolation - mei nianqing is there to stay with him explicitly as a friend.

it's such a compassionate ending for a main antagonist and it murders me.

(anyway once again mxtx's rejection of the punitive impulse and truly jun wu is the apotheosis of that and feels a little like mxtx banging the reader over the head with it as a theme. or maybe that's just me.)