And That's What I Immediately Loved About Him - Tumblr Posts

at no point does the mdzs novel consider nie huaisang morally grey. just because he gets away with what he did doesn't mean the story condones his actions or considers him a good person.

the only thing separating nie huaisang from the majority of the supporting cast's upper class hypocrisy (read: jiang cheng, nie mingjue, lan xichen, jin guangyao, jin zixuan etc.) is the fact that huaisang doesn't genuinely believe that what he does is righteous or justified.

huaisang knows what he did wasn't "right". he knows he used his own class and power to make his brother's murderer fall from grace and suffer tenfold. he's the only one who doesn't have an excuse or some inherent reason on hand when he's questioned.

part of it is because he's trying to avoid actually getting anything pinned on himself, but nie huaisang never once actually tells wei wuxian at the end of the book that jin guangyao deserved what happened, or that whoever did orchestrate everything "must've had a good reason".

nie mingjue, jin guangyao himself, jin zixuan, and jiang cheng would've said the former if they were in huaisang's position. the latter is lan xichen's go-to answer for these sorts of things.

some readers may think this is morally grey of nie huaisang, or that his circumstances were complex -- and while i personally disagree, my point here is that the BOOK lumps him in with all his other gentry peers. he is deeply entrenched in society’s cruel game of politics and cyclical rumors.

the book considers exactly none of those people as truly good. the book is very clear about what it considers right and wrong, and it very clearly slots huaisang with his manipulative proxy revenge scheme into the latter category.