Love Mattered In Mo Dao Zu Shi!
The Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation, at the end of the day, is about loss, memory and love!
Another aspect of Mo Dao Zu Shi I appreciate is that it shows individuals alone cannot change the world where people are profiting out of exploitation under the banner of righteousness. Wei Wuxian’s moral code was always intact and strong. But the world only saw him as an expendable tool.
They praised him for demonic cultivation when he fought the Wens. And they immediately condemned him when he protected the Wen refugees under his name. All Wei Wuxian ever wanted was to let others be and live.
He participated in the war because he wanted to protect the people he loved and cared for. And then his actions in the war were used as justification to shun him.
Why did he fight so hard?
Individuals have always been co-opted or targeted by larger groups to serve their purpose. Wei Wuxian failed in his first life to save the Wens, lost his siblings, and his best friends, and most importantly died alone trying to undo the powers of his amulet. At one point, he asks what the point of him fighting is when he couldn’t save anyone.
And I think the answer to Wei Wuxian’s question is A’Yuan.
Everything he did, every action he was made to do, was answered by A’Yuan. Love was there, and it didn’t change anything, but it mattered. A’Yuan was loved by Grandma Wen, Fourth Uncle, Wen Ning, Wen Qin and Wei Wuxian. And each of them tried to protect him.
Love saved A’Yuan
The Wens left him on the burial grounds, hoping for a miracle. Wei Wuxian held his own in the burial grounds until he destroyed his amulet and himself. And Lan Wangji despite his injuries went looking for traces of Wei Wuxian but found A’Yuan. Their actions saved him!
Love mattered, Lan Wangji’s love for Wei Wuxian made him save A’Yuan and raise him as his own and named him Sizhui: To recollect and long for.
The entire world had shunned the Yiling Patriarch, but Not Lan Wangji. He remembered and loved and lived, and in his memory, Wei Wuxian was preserved. And because Lan Wangji insisted, the Lan Sect adopted A’Yuan as their own. The change came slowly, but it came because of one individual’s love for another, hence I insist love mattered.
Sometimes it is one life you can save, and that’s all
Wei Wuxian was not able to save himself or others, but he was able to save one. And that mattered; when he returns to life in Mo Xanyu’s body and meets Lan Sizhui for the first time, he is impressed and praises the one who raised this young man with such compassion. He is surprised to find uptight Lan Sect to be friendly.
This was the change he initiated, Lan Wangji didn’t blindly follow the rules any more. He no longer trusted the people above him, he questioned the rules of morality. He took the best of both worlds— his and Wei Wuxian’s and raised A’Yuan.
And not only that, he taught the younger generation to be kinder and open-minded to the one who has been shunned or isolated by society. We see this in Lan Jingyi who is honestly outspoken and doesn’t let the polite code of conduct dictate his behaviour. If he sees wrong happening, he will point it out.
Lan Zhan held on to the memory of love
I like to believe Lan Zhan would’ve succumbed to his injuries! He was holding on to the hope Wei Ying survived. When he went to look for Wei Ying in Burial Mounds, I think he had prepared for no return either, this was a heartbroken man! Had it not been A’Yuan hidden in the tree bark, he would’ve collapsed.
The child was the only person in this entire world who (remembered) Wei Ying as Wei Ying, not Yiling Laozu, not as the head disciple of Jiang Sect or a War Hero or the unstable man who controlled corpses. And indirectly, Wei Ying died protecting A’Yuan!
Lan Wangji wouldn’t dare to die after everything the love of his life did!
Love was there, it couldn’t do much, but it saved one person. And I think this knowledge is where Wei Wuxian finds his solace.
Image source: Official Donghua poster of Mo Dao Zu Shi, and screengrabs from Manhua, edited on Inframe!
First published on my Tumblr, October 6, 2022