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You know, for a long time it bothered me when Shen Jiu fans say "he deserved better", then I realized that it was because of the wording (plus how self indulgent fan work that treat this are).
I agree that he didn't deserve to be enslaved and abandoned, and I don't think he completely deserved to live any time as a human stick before being killed (which for me the amount living like that was probably worse than the act itself of being in this kind of fiction works), but at the same time I don't think he deserved to be aid by his martial siblings, even less for them to like or love him. I don't think he deserves an easy life after abusing disciples. I don't think he deserved Binghe forgiving him and letting what he did go.
He didn't deserve everything he went through, specially as a child, but he also didn't deserve, as an adult, to be given something better just because of his past.
I absolutely believe he deserved to be a human stick. If he didn’t want retribution from his victim, he shouldn’t have been victimizing people, should he have? The victim gets to decide how they deal with an abuser that tried to murder them on multiple occasions, especially if said victim was a child during all that. You deserve what you earn.
Anyways, what Shen Jiu stans don’t seem to understand is that Shen Yuan’s transmigration was the “better.” Instead of Shen Jiu destroying his reputation and sect and being responsible for the deaths of everyone in it by his own actions, he dies quietly and gets his reputation laundered by a person who is morally superior to him (by virtue of, you know, actually having morals to begin with). Shen Jiu gets to reap the benefits of Shen Yuan’s work even though he’s dead. If shit was really fair, Shen Yuan would’ve transmigrated into another character free of Shen Jiu’s sins and been tasked with completely ruining Shen Jiu before he had the chance to damn everyone else with him. That would be what Shen Jiu actually deserved. Instead, folks think a qi deviation fixed his attitude problems, and everyone lives happily ever after. Did Shen Jiu earn this grace? Absolutely not, and yet that was the greatest kindness mxtx bestowed upon her character. His stans should be goddamn grateful.