ASKS: qin su and jin guangyao's relationship

[thatswhatsushewrote]

[originally posted here on september 10, 2024.]
---

anonymous asked:

Thoughts on qinyao?

my answer:

i don't think my thoughts on them are that complicated or surprising, anon: i think their situation is quite sad and tragic, since it seems clear from what the text shows us that qin su is one of the only people in jin guangyao's life who did not allow his parentage to influence how she felt about him. all told, while i don't think that jin guangyao's feelings for her are comparable to what he felt for lan xichen (whether you interpret their relationship as being romantic or otherwise, it is on a different level from the rest of his relationships), i do think he truly cared for her and wanted to have a family with her.

a lot of other people have already spilled digital ink weighing in on whether he was in the right or in the wrong re: withholding information from her, and i firmly come down on the side of there were no good options. he was going to do her irreparable harm either way, and i think he was trying to spare her the pain and suffering that he had no choice but to endure, alone, for the entirety of their marriage. i think it is very easy, and very tempting from our vantage point, to say what we think he should have done, or what we think we would have done if we were in his shoes. i also think it's... not a waste of time, exactly, but not really a line of questioning i'm interested in pursuing, because one way or another you end up tempted to ascribe blame to someone who shouldn't imo be blamed for any of this.

truly the only person i hold responsible for this tragedy, ultimately, is jin guangshan.