#And I won't accept that she's some 'everlasting beauty' because that's the Qiao's shtick

[thekingofsadness]

Liu Shan's mother in law was added, how do you feel?

Well one, let’s just call her what she is and that is ‘Xiahouji’. Secondly though, she is a UNPC which means she is either only a unique character model or a potential player character in subsequent updates/season passes.

As for my opinion? She’s a HORRIBLE pick. Horrible. Her real life counterpart was raped as a child and married to Zhang Fei, who was historically a horrible brute of a man. Making stories are victims—ESPECIALLY rape victims—are practically ticking TIME BOMBS because you are bound to upset someone. Make her story accurate to real life, it will be far too depressing and will take the audience out of the game’s overall stabby-stabby mood. Make a fictionalised accounts where she has a happier life, ALSO BAD because the people who know the historical context will find it appalling that a RAPE VICTIM has become a HAPPY WOMAN IN LOVE WITH HER ABUSIVE HUSBAND. It’s lose-lose.

Look, Liu Shan already is a controversial figure because of the disparity between his ROTK fantasy version, his real life counterpart and the DW version. Some people can’t separate the history from the character and that’s fine but at least Liu Shan had an interesting enough story so that, if handled well (which thank god did happen, MY SEXY MAN), can add a new element to the story.

Xiahouji just...exists. She got raped, she asked to bury a relative in a place, and she had kids. That’s it. There’s nothing for her outside of her sob story. For a three kingdoms drama, if she’s a character that pops up for one or two episodes to showcase the horrors of rape and/or abuse then SURE I APPROVE. But even then I’d use sparingly. It’s surprising of me to say but Xiahouji is EVEN MORE CONTROVERSIAL than Liu Shan. And considering Liu Shan’s cred in history, that is SAYING something.

If you read my fanfic (*coughcough* Link here, go read it why don’t you *coughcough*) I portray Xiahouji with Stockholm syndrome, who knows she has been abused but can only see the good moments, the good times she shared, and is ultimately broken with her husband’s death. She has to be there to be a motherly influence to Xingcai but outside of that, her story is supposed to tragic. Her story works because she is a living, breathing reminder to Xingcai of what abusive husbands can do to a person. She symbolises everything Xingcai is trying not to be. And since this whole story is about learning about love and all, I put her story in there.

So yeah, Xiahouji sucks. I like her...as a concept. Not as an actual character. I hope she STAYS a UNPC and I hope they do not FOCUS on her ‘romance’ with Zhang Fei. Let her be a quest giver or something, let her do stuff with her kids but keep her FAR away from Zhang Fei. It’s not a lot and it won’t do much but maybe it will make her tolerable compared to outright horrible.