PeachBlossomGoddess

Oh ho ho ho!!! How SAD! Too BAD!!!

Single handedly destroyed Journey of Lwgend.

True but poison is a very popular trope in classic wuxias.😅

I think he didn’t give him enough poison to kill him.

The drama actually whitewashed the emperor, portraying him as seeking peace. In real history, his predecessor (I think it was his brother) was still alive just in captivity by the Jurchens. He was afraid if Yue Fei reclaimed the Notth, he would have to give the throne back.

It is because he is trapped by Confucian ethics that govern the relationship between ruler and subject. He trusts the ruler to ultimately act in the interest of the greater good of the country even when he doesn’t agree with his decisions. He does the same thing to his followers in the Power sect, compelling their compliance to his authority by forcing them to take the Misery pill.

Quite sure WW3 will not be started by China. Looks to me like it has already started in the ME. But I sincerely hope I am wrong about that. Peace to you too.

Of course and I am not advocating one system over another, they both have pros and cons. I am just surprised (and impressed) that the drama's main character is allowed to so clearly advocate for winning hearts and minds as over forcing compliance. But of course the original novel was written by a Malaysian/Taiwanese author so we can guess where he stands on such issue. I pretty much live in China and am no fan of American style democracy. But I believe criticism of all matters should be allowed for that is how we progress.

It is actually quite critical of the Chinese government to be honest. Their intentions may be good but instead of winning hearts and minds they use force and harsh discipline to achieve their goals.

I believe even in the original novel they are described as bearing an uncanny resemblance to each other. They are written to be mirror characters, both after the same thing (defend the country) but have different means to achieve their ends.

I was not convinced he had no choice. In the end, even if Yue Fei didn't agree, he would have obeyed the emperor's decision to cede territory. Interestingly, they managed to rescue Yue Fei in this version but at the cost of LCZ's life. I don't know what happened in the book and whether Wen Ruian stuck with history wrt Yue Fei.

I have seen many versions Yue Fei's story, it must be one of the most adapted Chinese legends ever. In many of them, the emperor is portrayed as the ultimate traitor bc he killed a loyal soldier, one who risked his life every day to defend king and country. In this drama, the emperor does acknowledge what he does will be viewed controversially but

Well, you can interpret it as he died in the hospital but stayed in the wuxia world.

Yes I love his prose, he is a a so much better writer than the screenwriter that its too obvious the dialogue was written by too different people. They just should have stuck with the original story and skipped all the AI transmigration crap.

Well it’s true to the novelist intention - that this is a hero and the audience can decide whether it’s worth it.

Quite sure all 3 versions of him died - that's how one becomes a legend. The title already tells you everything from the get go. It makes sense - he was pretty much electrocuted in the real world and it was very clear he was flatlining in the hospital. But the consolation prize is... all his buddies survived in the real world.

Yups that one. Yeah... it had issues... but in any case it was also Wen Ruian's works.

No, this is a story based on real history where the Gaozong Emperor did not want to fight. He ceded the Northern territories and agreed to be a vassal state of the Jin/Jurchen empire. But as a result, he and the Southern Song dynasty stayed in power - he went on to reign for 20 years after killing Yue Fei and the empire survived after him. Yue Fei who was a national hero wanted to fight and keep all their lands. Who was right? We will never know.

Did you watch Heroes (2022)? It was also an adaptation of Wen Ruian's works, one that is closer to his original work than this is. Its is also a very dark exploration of what it means to be a hero. Which is also a big underlying theme in this story.

The writer Wen Ruian is brilliant and under appreciated bc he writes very cynical, dark and profoundly tragic wuxias. Even as a huge fan of this genre, I found his works hard to read - they are dense and depressingly realistic. It is no wonder he never came close to Jin Yong or Gu Long's popularity. Their stories were more balanced.