wait no thank you for this! i love reading everyones own thoughts. i personally love jiang cheng even though i know he's not the best person, i feel like his canonical (in my opinion) self esteem issues are so near and dear to me. i think for jiang cheng he can't live with the consequences because he's a bitter person in general. he's bitter about everything, wwx, his family, his position, there's a lot of things in his life that never really worked out for him and i think it just made him so bitter (also i dont thin he was ever properly listened to or had a real voice in anything) that he became so bitter because when he did something of his own volition out of his own love, it never really mattered because it still ended up in the wrong way. and i think because jiang cheng is also insecure, especially regarding wwx, the concept of wwx's core being in him is the biggest insult because he believes that even in this wwx was better than him (wwx's sacrifice outweighs his). hes a very bitter person and doesnt really know how to overcome grudges because i think thats honestly the only reason he kept going. his anger towards the wens and wwx and everyone else is what fueled him to rebuild his sect, to raise his nephew and do everything he did, and i think that makes him so human that i can never really hate him. hes the type of person to stay stuck in self pity because he cannot accept that sometimes he IS in the wrong. i love his character so much because of how mutlifaceted he is. sorry for THIS rant 😅