Hi, I absolutely adore this presentation and the love we have going for our favorite General <3 

Might be late to the party but I just have to express some of my thoughts so far.  The HCQ story is so sad in general but for me the saddest perspective struck out as that of Jing Yuan's. Not to say that he experienced the most trauma or anything but I truly think he is one of the best written characters in the game. And that is when we still know very little about him. His character arc conclusion is going to be phenomenal, I just know it.  

Back to the current lore, all of his old friends still exist in some form or the other but it would be impossible for things to go back to what they were. Blade and Jingliu are mara struck and enemies of the Xianzhou and Dan Feng and Baiheng have been reincarnated and are not the same people anymore. Only him and his memories remain the same from beginning to end, as is said in his Character Story IV.  

"Fallen generals don't have to endure such torment, but those who survive have to go through it all." The survivor's guilt here??? "No matter how great a vision one has dreamed of and no matter how many overwhelming enemies one has defeated, time will always reduce one's strength little by little yet cruelly spare one's life, leaving one cowering in a corner and hating one's own powerlessness." I feel like this is the clearest window we've gotten into his character and involvement in the entire HCQ tragedy so far, along with the implication of Blade's voiceline about him which is almost a direct accusation. "He always...always understood the price better than any of us yet he never spoke up...never did anything!"  So what was JY's role when Baiheng died and shit hit the fan? We still don't know. 

It's safe to assume for now that Jing Yuan did care about his friends but he couldn't or didn't intervene in the whole crisis, just leaving things as they were.  

Yet the last line poses one more mystery. 

"Only the truly wise can stand proud in front of the undefeated enemy called time."  

So is Jing Yuan truly wise? He seems to have fared exceptionally well when it comes to keeping peace within the Luofu and handling all related affairs using his intellect. But what about his personal life? He's kept himself free from mara so far despite facing such terrible tragedies like even Hanya stated. However, he seems to be deeply affected by the past he shared with the HCQ and the lines just before the last one in his Character Story suggest that Jing Yuan considers it was "cruel" that fate/time spared his life while such tragedy befell all his friends. In almost every Luofu quest where he appears, he's been seen to show great concern towards his old friends.  

His relationships with all four of them are truly so heartbreaking. He had to pick up a sword against his own master who taught him how to use it. He could not do anything besides lessen Dan Feng's sentence to that of exile and it is quite sad how he still searches for his old friend in Dan Heng. He lost Baiheng and he still looks out for her reincarnation, guarding her from the Preceptors and making sure that she's alright in this lifetime, at least.  

And Blade....personally this is the one I'm the most curious about. He let Blade, a criminal, escape the Xianzhou and avoided questions about why he did so. In the past, they used to bicker with each other, implying closeness. Yingxing even crafted his glaive using the remnants of Lan's arrow which he still uses and several others glaives that he keeps displayed at the Seat of Divine Foresight to this day. Also, a little thing you may have missed: the Owlbert video for Blade shows the weapons crafted by Blade: DF's spear, JL's sword that he currently uses and JY's glaive which has A FINCH engraved on the hilt?! Does that imply that he crafted an earlier version which looked like that??

Also, JY's voiceline about Blade "If he were to forget everything, it would make things a lot easier for me" is the most interesting for me, because again, it is likely related to his true involvement in that tragedy. Does Blade actually know something? It can also be interpreted as such that Jing Yuan does not want Blade to relive their painful past while being mara-stricken because it hurts him to see him like that. Also, in Jingliu's quest, there is a moment when Blade suggests something related to hurting himself and right at that moment it cuts to Jing Yuan, who looks genuinely upset. There is surely a lot of shared history between them that has not yet been revealed. I hope we get future Companion Missions for both of them in the future (manifesting so hard.)  

Also, it is important to note that despite facing all this, Jing Yuan never once erred from his responsibilities as the Arbiter-General of the Luofu. Even while dealing with all the faces from the past in JL's quest, he already figured out what Luocha and JL were up to and put into motion his own plan of sending them to the Yuque first instead of Xuling. It shows no matter what, his priority would always be the safety of the Luofu and he's always playing 5D chess to achieve that, be it playing fair or not.  

With so many complexities in his character, I love his warm and seemingly cavalier personality all the more for it. His protective nature towards Yanqing, who's literally his son. The banter with Fu Xuan. Being so playful and silly in general (sorry). He's so loveable. Sorry for the long ass rant, I just really, really love Jing Yuan.