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i feel like one of the subtler bits of wei wuxian’s characterisation that is sometimes slightly skewed is that he is actually not the jump-into-the-heat-of-battle kinda guy, rather he’s one to hang back and observe before making a very clear and decisive move. look at the xuanwu cave predicament—wei wuxian did not immediately oppose wen chao, instead he stayed put as things escalated and once he realised how futile the situation was, he enacted a plan that was neither impulsive nor self-serving, but one that was optimal to benefit the most amount of people possible. similarly, he wasn’t pushed or blinded by his anger when wang lingjao came to lotus pier. even then, at the cost of himself (which imo, was much more calculated than people give him credit for but i digress), he chose de-escalation. same goes for the appeal he made to jin guangshan about the labor camps and same goes for every single instance of wei wuxian working his nighthunting and info-gathering knowledge to use before even approaching a danger-zone/haunt.
yes, wei wuxian is incredibly powerful and is formidable in battle but he’s not some violence-loving, battle-smug individual who would try to jump into the thick of things to flaunt his fighting prowess. the moments that people refer to as wei wuxian jumping the gun—the nightless city massacre, the ambush fight, opposing wen chao—are, infact, proof of how the battle is thrust to wei wuxian instead of wei wuxian thrusting himself into a battle. i would say that maybe the only example of wei wuxian getting heated into action is when he punched jin zixuan and even jin zixuan would agree to deserving those fists. i guess the reason i bring this up is because this sort of undermines another characteristic of wei wuxian which is his impeccable emotional regulation. if he was angered by every unjust circumstance and lost his wits about him as some of the popular fanon believes, wei wuxian would’ve never gotten as far as he did. it was because of his keen sense of seeing the truth in people and situations and then adjusting his own responses that helped him save himself and the wens for as long as he did and later stand tall before the cultivation world and show them the flaws in their mob logic. he’s not an emotionless man carefully tailoring his personality to suit his needs but he’s also not a emotionally volatile person pouncing at every opportunity to talk with fists instead of words. he’s as good at verbal sparring as he is at the physical counterpart of it and it’s always a bummer when his intellectual battles are reduced in favour of portraying him a certain, canonically divergent way.