Jingxiu, the zither loving villain of the romance fantasy drama Love And Destiny, turns out to have quite a well built up story arc. At times, he seems to be more of an anti-hero than a villain. To be frank, he’s only officially villain for one last episode.
Let’s take a brief look at Jingxiu with ten questions that cover flaws, consistency, development, etc, to see if he can pass as a strong character.. To each question, the answer would be either Yes (1 point), No (0 point), or Kind of (0.5 point).
* If you would like to understand the questions we use in this analysis first, you can visit the Character Evaluation Test Explained post.
* If you are in the mood to see the drama being made fun of, feel free to visit our Love And Destiny In A Nutshell video.
WARNING: this analysis 1) contains spoilers 2) is humor-free
1. Does he have a story to tell besides romance? Yes (+1)
Jingxiu’s story is introduced to revolve around a tragic childhood, deceased parents, and his determination to seek revenge despite his outward submissiveness to the queen of Shanling. And as the drama goes on, Jingxiu successfully accomplishes what he sets out to do (and possibly more).
1/10
2. Is he an active character? (Does he make things happen or do things happen TO him?) Yes (+1)
Jingxiu is definitely one of the characters who make things happen in this drama. He is directly involved in whatever happens at Shanling Clan. For a while, he keeps the fact that Lingxi – who is the baby they lost long ago – might be alive from his queen. He serves the queen’s adviser as a day job but secretly gathers loyalty from the court towards himself.
After his defeat by Zhonghao, Jingxiu spends some time sulking in his misery but it does not take long for him to get back on his feet and further drive his plans forward.
Ect.
2/10
3. Does he take action to accomplish his goals? Yes (+1)
The biggest goal Jingxiu sets for himself is avenging his loved ones (clan + father), which he achieves in the end. After being forced to flee from of Shanling due to his murdering Lingxi’s mother, Jingxiu’s new goal is to take it all out on Jiuchen and ruins the latter’s chance at happiness, to do this, he cooperates with Yuan Tong and becomes the new Demon Lord.
During his time in the mortal world, Jingxiu falls in love with A-mo, confronts his feelings, then makes it a point to protect her no matter what.
Jingxiu has goals that are both romance and non-romance related.
Ect.
3/10
4. Does he have an interest? Kind of (+0.5)
Throughout the drama, Jingxiu is seen to play music on his zither all the time. However, it is unclear whether he does this out of interest or just boredom. Other than that, he expresses no interest in anything else.
3/10
5. Does he act in accordance with his beliefs? Yes (+1)
It is without a doubts that Jingxiu displays very strong beliefs throughout the drama. He certainly lives with the an-eye-for-an-eye attitude and rarely changes his minds about anything at all once he has made his decision. However, aside from his vengeful intentions, Jingxiu does express a general care for the people of the clan he grew up in despite the fact that they are not his real family, hopes to settle the debts between him and his enemies with a minimum amount of destruction, and would like to be fair to the un-involved.
And although Lingxi is a big influence upon his life, for the most part, his beliefs do not bend completely because of her.
4/10
6. Does he develop throughout the story? Yes (+1)
Compared to the other characters including the main protagonists, Jingxiu’s development is fairly well done.
In the beginning, he is introduced as this mysterious, dark, and dangerous man who plays the role of an adviser to the queen of Shanling, waiting for an opportunity to bring his plan into action. In the mortal world, we see a defeated, broken, and hopeless person who is in need of guidance and probably companionship.
The period of time Jingxiu spends with A-mo, he is the best version of himself – devoted, caring, and free of his vengeful tendencies. This does not indicate that Jingxiu, for one moment, neglects his plans, but for a while, he is almost able to because his wish to protect A-mo, the woman who saves his life, is larger than anything else.
Back to Shanling Clan, the bad-ass Jingxiu is once again revived. And in the end, when his most trusted henchman dies and Lingxi chooses Jiuchen, whatever desire he has to become a better person, to let go of the past and guide Lingxi to become a queen, is lost and evil consumes him completely.
5/10
7. Does he have a flaw? Yes (+1)
Jingxiu’s perseverance is his great strength but stubbornness is his biggest flaw. There are many instances where he could have let go of hatred and grants himself an opportunity at a less tragic life, but Jingxiu chooses not to stray from the road he’s set for himself, which includes bringing down anyone who keeps him from his goals, who threatens to take away what he believes is important despite whether the person makes sense or not. This leads to Jingxiu’s sinister attitude towards Jiuchen and his constant attempts to sabotage the latter’s happiness with Lingxi in the last part of the drama.
He keeps sinking deeper into crimes and as a result, not only does Jingxiu fail to win Lingxi’s love, he also loses her respect among other things.
6/10
8. Does he have meaningful relationships with other characters besides his love interest? Kind of (+0.5)
Jingxiu’s most prominent relationship in the drama is with the Queen of Shanling. The two bear similar attitudes towards each other – suspicion and caution mixed with some respect. It is said that as children, they were friends. Then, because of the queen’s failure to keep her promise to help him avenge his family, they fall apart and start to guard themselves against each other.
Princess Baoqing is also a minor influence in Jingxiu’s life. Protecting her is one of his priorities, at least until she becomes an obstacle on his way to acquire Lingxi’s trust.
However, in the last arc, every relationship he used to have fades due to the drama’s need to make him into a plot device. He exists solely to cause trouble for the protagonists.
6.5/10
9. Is he consistent? Kind of (+0.5)
Jingxiu’s character is consistent for the most part of the drama in both personality and skill.
However, we must point out that near the end, Jingxiu behaves as a big-bad type of villain almost too abruptly. This has a lot to do with how the drama rushed everything that happens in the last episodes. Or it can also be that the writer felt a need to show what Lingxi’s attractiveness can do to men.
From the beginning, despite his vengeful nature, Jingxiu occasionally displays concern and care towards the innocent (unless they deliberately stand in his way). He wants to overthrow the queen of Shanling, but has always held back from doing so because she is, after all, a just ruler. In the mortal world, he wishes to spend as much time with A-mo as he can, but has never forgotten his responsibility toward Princess Baoqing.
His desire to avenge his family drives him to take the queen of Shanling’s life, but this is more to fulfill the promise he has made to himself since he was a child than to satisfy a thirst for violence, and he only resorts to killing her because she would have killed him otherwise. After the queen’s death, Jingxiu brings Lingxi to the throne, partly because he needs to earn her trust, but also because he has faith in her kindness, which would make her a suitable queen they all need.
We’d like to make it clear that these things do not redeem Jingxiu, however, his struggle to make these decisions are clearly established.
However, as soon as Lingxi abandons him, Jingxiu immediately throws his principles away and targets Jiuchen and is determined to make Jiuchen’s life miserable regardless of how his actions might bring chaos on the innocent.
Someone with Jingxiu’s personality would have take more time to carefully plan out his revenge and gather people to his side, or at least not fall prey to demonic magic right away.
Because of this, we can’t say that his consistency is… well, consistent.
7/10
10. Can you define his character by his personality? Yes (+1)
Jingxiu is a manipulative, calculating anti-hero who is not without a conscience and a good side. He is generally calm and considerate, especially towards those who are weaker than him, yet blinded by hatred and would not stop at anything to achieve his goals.
SO HOW WELL-WRITTEN IS JINGJIU?
8/10
CONCLUSION
Different from Jiuchen, Jingxiu is not the conventional hero who would throw his life on the line for the greater good, evident in his refrain from taming the beast that runs loose and nearly destroy a mortal town, since doing so might expose himself as an immortal in front of mortals, which is something that between-world’s rules forbid (we… think?). And very different from a classic old villain, Jingxiu has more on his mind than evil.
The interesting thing about Jingxiu is that there is actually enough goodness in him to overturn evil and his life could have turned out either way – villain or hero. But in the end, his choices and the solution he picks to deal with grief lead him onto the path of a villain.
Sure, the flashbacks of Jingxiu’s childhood are shown too frequently, making you unable to keep your hand off the forward button every time, and his courting the lovely A-mo might have taken up more screen time than necessary, but he IS a character with some depth. And amidst a crowd of one-dimensional love-crazed second-leads out there, Jingxiu certainly stands out.
Let’s briefly touch on the relationship between Jingxiu and Lingxi as A-mo before we end this analysis.
Jingxiu is used to power, fear, loyalty, and respect from the people who work for him. However, what he isn’t used to is care and pure kindness, the things he receives from A-mo. Jingxiu is also used to betrayal, he fears it – the very reason why he is reluctant to let even A-mo approach him when they first meet. But eventually A-mo becomes the first person Jingxiu does not have to be on his guard around, the first person he knows for sure isn’t taking advantage of him for a bigger plan even though he discovers her real identity pretty early on (and probably the first person who pulls him out of his room and asks him to carry a basket of peaches inside the house for her). It is understandable why Jingxiu is almost immediately smitten and feels a need to protect her back.
Jingxiu and A-mo do not remain around each other because he is a sad and sulking second lead or because she is a man magnet (at least not at this time), but rather because they both find comfort and understanding from one another during the hardest chapters of their lives.
This part of the drama appeals to some and repels others – mainly because it obscures the time A-mo could have spent with Jiuchen instead. Though objectively speaking, it is an important development for Jingxiu as a character.
Detail they put in that I like about this character: his self abuse. He actively enjoyed the pain that plant caused, he also had a scene where he let wax drip on to his hand. I thought it was a very nice touch to show his inner guilt and torment.
Unfortunately, the writer didn’t go far enough with the theme or something got changed during the filming, the fact that he felt guilt, he knew himself to be culpable, never got addressed. His character became self delusional and it was very annoying to hear him blaming everyone else for each and every single of his actions.
In a show, where multiple characters are subsequently forced to choose between the individual and the group, Jingxiu picked the individual, twice, himself and Amo. Therefore just once, I would like Jingxiu to embrace the guilt, to let it go and aknowledge to himself what he told his doctor when we just got introduced to him, and I paraphrase, “I just want to do what makes me happy”. And if what makes him happy means walking a tight rope between good and evil, and falling toward the dark so be it, he will make his choices with both eyes opened. It will make his character stronger. It will make him an interesting opposition to Jiuchen whose mantra is “you can’t seek happiness, only for peace of mind”, also paraphrased.
It will make his self abuse and progression toward embracing the dark more layered, I think.
Instead, we got a delusional character who is deeply in love with the idea of being a victim, acting like every single choice he’d made was forced.
I have disagree with the point where Jingxiu made Lingxi queen because he thought she was kind and will be a just queen. He made her queen because he knew the rule of Shangling and wanted to keep her and Jiuchen apart.
I also have doubts about the idea of him being madly in love with Lingxi in the third arc. He was in love with Amo, he absolutely didn’t want Lingxi to return. He tried to prevent her from passing her trials. I feel like in the third arc, what drove him was hatred toward Jiuchen for killing Amo, and whatever he did later were just manipulation attempts to keep them apart. Lingxi, even when she was Amo, never gave him enough justification for him to harbour any hope of winning her over.
And eventually, it’s was the lost of Amo that drove him to embrace the dark side, he wanted to use the mights of the demon army his, to take revenge on the Celestials. Just like he used Zhonghao and his rebellion.
All in all, strong character, I agree, but too delusional for my liking.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts.
Yes, agree on the delusional part. Jingxiu’s story arc would have been more complete and he himself would’ve been more likable if there had been more struggle and a sense of acceptance. We chalk this up to the drama not caring to give him more development, they focused too much on using Jingxiu to highlight Jiuchen’s goodness and overall make (more) trouble for Lingxi in later episodes, to be honest. Just like what they did with Yuan Tong.
You might be right about Jingxiu wanting to separate Lingxi and Jiuchen, therefore making her queen. We’re on the fence about that one.
And his self abuse is apparent, indeed. Maybe we should add masochism as his interest and give him a point for this question?😂
Agreed. I wish they touched more on why he likes to abuse himself.
I think the third arc was too rushed. There was so many issues that weren’t properly dealt with. They could have cut out some of the fillers and give us proper developments. Like that Baoqing princess, what a waste of screen time, or the love interest for the brother. Or even some of Yunfeng screen time.
I meant, they hinted at some of the darker themes that I thought would be nice for them to explore further. Like the issue of what make a person a person, lived experiences or the soul. How would Lingxi dealt with the trauma of dying twice. Like how Jiuchen suffered from Ptsd and has a death wish. How immortality is actually not all that. Many of the immortals in the shows are trapped within one instant of suffering and are unable to move on despite the long passage of time and kinda aimless. Or spending an eternity being a maid.
They could have made a meta xianxia drama to end all future xianxia dramas and they got 2 very good serious actors to do it with.
But I guess, in the end, making a fluffy summer romance is easier.
I do love the fluffy romance very much though.
Yes, it’s very rushed, especially the final fight; and like you said, the things with the psychology concerning Lingxi too. Yunfeng’s crush on Qingyao, Shisan and Siming’s half romance and princess Baoqing could have been cut and the story wouldn’t change.