Thinking about the paths in hsr and how some inform so much about the characters once you figure out the logic behind them, and specifically about ratio longing for nous's recognition but following lan's path - he's obviously a scholar, so him being an erudition character would have made a lot of sense when you don't think too deeply about it, but despite characters with less ties to knowledge walking that path ratio does not. He follows the path of the hunt. And that's a very cool fact about him imho

During his quest screwllum says that more than a scholar he feels like ratio's a doctor with the way he tries to cure people of their ignorance, which isn't strictly wrong and I love that about him (and I love about screwllum that he thinks so poetically too), but the way I see it ratio really is a hunter. He does follow lan's path, when you think about it. His travels are all about his fight against ignorance, after all. Thinking about him and his relationship to the aeons really put a lot of things about the paths into perspective for me - I thought the paths were somewhat more literal, but after all it's about the driving force behind a character's actions, is it not?

Nous is the unrelenting pursuit of the truth, of knowledge and information, and that's why someone like argenti follows that path despite being the furthest thing from a scholar you could think of - his travels are first and foremost about finding the truth about idrila, after all. On the other hand ratio isn't actively devoting his life to finding a truth or amassing more knowledge, and that's why nous won't look at him. He is extremely intelligent and competent, and he does value learning above all else, but his main pursuit is to use that knowledge to rid the universe of ignorance, and that's why he follows lan's path - the hunt is the path of those devoting their life to fighting against something, in the end, be it a literal enemy or a figurative one.

It's really really interesting to me? There's a ton of characters that are given depth by understanding their path, I love to think about it

sometimes i think about how jc's actions in response to his supposed victimhood are on par with xy's, especially if you take into account how many innocent people he killed over the years for reminding him of wwx. coupled with his handling of jl, the fact that the people of yunmeng and his own sect have genuine reason to fear him, his abuse of power, and the extreme brutality he exhibits towards wwx once he's back, and the fact that despite all of that he never faces consequences for his actions due to his position, it's kind of insane that he's not only so beloved by the fandom but actively defended to the extent he is. at least xy stans understand that xy is a deranged serial killer. at the very least xy doesn't discriminate who he murders based on class, or have access to the privledge that jc does. xy has connections to jgy, who is powerful, but jc is an independent sect leader. he gets to make decisions that affect his entire district, and people act like it's such a tragic burden that jc has all this responsibility, how terrible that he had to build his sect all by himself because wwx selfishly abandoned him. not mentioning the fact that jc has always been ambitious, always wanted the position he has, constantly put wwx down and was ultimately very successful without wwx's help (also not mentioning the fact that wwx DID help him and at great cost. lol). look at su she, who actually built his own sect from the ground up despite obstacles jc never faced; the fact that his society looked down on his efforts and that he wasn't building on top of a foundation that was already there. su she started out with even less assistance than jc had. and still none of that is an excuse for su she's abuse of power and killing of innocent people later in the story (things jc also does! even more directly and with even more freedom!). in fact, su she is even more criticized for it than jc, despite jc having been born into his position and historically showing a proclivity towards classist behavior. i'm not saying su she or xy are sympathetic characters, i'm just pointing out that jc has a lot of similarities in common with them and often even less excuse for his behavior. and pointing out the fact that despite this, literally every other character is criticized more heavily than jc himself in this fandom. characters are even blamed for influencing the terrible actions of jc himself in an effort to justify his character. it's asinine. how many bodies has jc piled up over the years in his spite? how often were his intentions ever truly good and, when they were, not also conveniently self-serving? not denying that jc has moments where he is caring and protective towards his loved ones or that he isn't always innately cruel but all those times are just like the bare minimum of what a good person would do. loving your family, protecting them (sometimes), making sacrifices for the good of others, those are things that jc not only does extremely and increasingly infrequently as the story progresses, but no where near to the extent of being equal to practically any other character aside from the worst villains in the story. and also they're all things that should, to an extent, just be expected of someone. like he does them so rarely and so poorly that he's disproportionately praised when he does the bare minimum such as looking kind of sad when reminded that he sort of killed his brother. on the exact opposite end of the spectrum, wwx gives so much of himself so often that fans seem almost blind to it at this point. it's so backwards.

literally like jiang cheng made a career out of getting innocent people killed and yet the same people who recognise the issues w xue yang’s worldview are out there saying jiang cheng deserves to collect blood debts because... having disproportionate wealth and influence is really difficult, i guess? people will forgive and justify any degree of moral cowardice from jiang cheng as long as it enables some kind of vague benefit for the sect, of which he is the primary profiteer, because he’s apparently innately entitled to chase that power at the expense of others.

like. su she. fuck that guy but i don’t see anyone defending him on the basis that he had no choice but to do what was most politically beneficial for him, or justifying his behaviour by pointing out building a sect was hard and people are rude to him. once again i cannot overstate how much i don’t care about su she but the idea of him ‘deserving’ success less than the idiot sect leader who treats human lives as currency is... annoying! especially when taking into account that characters like su she are rightfully punished in-universe and by the narrative for the crimes they commit, while jiang cheng can go around annoucing his intent to murder and torture people without anyone batting an eye.

jiang cheng... over the course of the series has done way more harm than good, yet is almost exclusively rewarded for it. like you said he fulfilled his ambitions of becoming a strong sect leader, he has power and money and wei wuxian’s cultivation and the fame and prestige of killing the yiling laozu. he lost a lot but he gained most of it back, he is very well off, which isn’t something i can say about many less malicious characters.

in the end i just think it’s pretty insane that jiang cheng can get away with doing horrible things, inbetween ongoing threats and announcements that he’ll do more horrible things, while ensuring that the people who saved and protected and healed him suffer immensely, but he’ll turn around and say he’s actually the victim because those people’s heroism made his consistent self-interest look bad! really crazy