#In real life sure. Liu Shan historically sucks

[thekingofsadness]

I might as well write about this in one post since they’re very similar topics. Just as a summary though, I don’t think Huang Hao would work in DW at all. At best, MAYBE an NPC but not someone I want in the game as a playable character. Honestly, I’d like Liu Feng in the game because he acts as a good example of the change between Liu Bei’s rule to Liu Shan’s.

Why do I not want Huang Hao? Well he never really participated in any battles. By all intents and purposes he’s a coward: all bark and no bite, if you will, regardless of if we are talking about history or fantasy. More than that however, he undermines the principle of DW’s Liu Shan: that Liu Shan is not in fact a fool but instead a genius in his own right. He’s not Shu’s counterpart to Jia Chong, and he will never fill that role. Not in DW nor in history.

See, adding Huang Hao in other fictional adaptations is fine but in DW, this portrays Liu Shan in a negative light—the bad kind of negative light, that is. Huang Hao’s main role should he be in the game is to corrupt and sway Liu Shan’s opinions, blind the emperor from the true injustices of the world before him. But that’s not something that should be done in DW because it does not make for a good ending. The fight between Shu and Jin, between Liu Shan and Sima Zhao, that is the final boss battle. Two rulers of similar personality and backgrounds coming to two different conclusions, facing each other in the battle that will mark the beginning of the end. It’d only make sense to make Liu Shan slowly but surely become more confident in the role that he plays, a worthy opponent for Sima Zhao. Letting Huang Hao into the game and belittle the emperor strips the meaning behind this final confrontation. Letting Sima Zhao fight his intellectual equal is more satisfying than Sima Zhao fighting this idiotic emperor that believes whatever someone tells him.

While it is certainly possible to hint at the slow corruption of Liu Shan’s court, I think a better way to portray the fall of Shu is the decay of the people’s faith in Liu Shan as a ruler, the slow but sure realisation that Shu’s view of benevolence and restoring the Han has been corrupted. It starts with the death of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Liu Bei is forced to kill Liu Feng for not doing his duty, which of course traumatises Liu Shan. Then Liu Bei dies and the whole of Shu is in grief. Sun Shangxiang secludes herself, Liu Shan is forced to become emperor yet because of his age and the rumours surrounding him, nobody takes him seriously. Zhuge Liang steps in and eases the people’s suffering, becoming the unofficial leader until Liu Shan is ready.

It’s not that Liu Shan is a bad ruler but rather it’s the power of opinion. People think he is only a figurehead, only good at talking, and that leads people to do their own thing. Disobeying the emperor and following the advice of others (e.g. Jiang Wei, Zhuge Liang), Shu begins to crumble. I want Shu in DW to fall. I want Shu to be so blinded to the chaos around them that they lose sight of their true goal: peace, and benevolence. I want Liu Shan to know what needs to be done but unable to bring it fully into fruition, unable to truly bring over people to see the world from his eyes. People are fighting for Liu Bei’s ideals of benevolence instead of Liu Shan’s ideals of peace, and that makes Shu deteriorate.So how does Liu Feng fit into this? He’s basically like Sima Shi in role. He represents what could have been. A bright, strong, talented individual who wants to help his brother, his life cut short, his death the catalyst in letting his brother realise what it means to be a ruler. He comes in somewhere after Chibi in terms of timeline, helps out in a few battles as a general. Not too important but wise as well as strong, and always has something to say about the battle and always has some advice for his brother, who eats it up like candy and loves him like he’s his world. He buddies up with Guan Ping, they have some cool back-to-back moments together and then they both die. Liu Feng surrendered his life so that others may live. Liu Shan’s most ardent supporter, the only one who knew how smart Liu Shan is, dead. And with it dies Shu’s dream of peace. Everybody mourns Guan Yu and Guan Ping. Nobody mourns Liu Feng. And I want that moment to mean something, to let Liu Shan understand the concept of sacrifice.I think Liu Feng fulfills better the role Huang Hao could take in that he predicts the downfall of Shu. He knows when to surrender, knows when to give up when push comes to shove, and I want his surrender to echo what Liu Shan will later do. More importantly though, Liu Feng does this while still keeping a good light on Liu Shan.Basically, I want Liu Shan to be the antithesis of Sima Zhao. I want DW9 to concentrate on two opposing ideas for Shu and Jin and I want their leaders to epitomise it much like Cao Cao is all about ‘ambition’ and Liu Bei’s all about ‘benevolence’. Let Liu Shan be ‘peace’ and Sima Zhao be ‘necessary evil’. Those two have the most interesting dynamic in the game and, if done well, can make a really good final battle and a satisfying conclusion to DW’s story. That was a big tangent from what you said but I felt I had to explain my ‘grand vision’ if you will so you understand why I’m not too hot on Huang Hao being included. So many people hate Liu Shan already so anything that can be done that can make Liu Shan more likeable and interesting as a character is all I can really ask for.

[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.