Romance of the three kingdoms tv tropes series#
Romance of the three kingdoms tv tropes free#

Later on, he became more of an Iron Woobie.

Badass Decay: In the first few chapters of the novel, Liu Bei displayed some serious fighting skills and was able to duel Lu Bu alongside his brothers.

Liu Bei was a big case as well in terms of being just and virtuous or putting up a front that was as treacherous as his historical self, as this division stuck with him even with his Dynasty Warriors-portrayal. Historically Zhuge was noted for his skills in politics and domestic affairs he was never brilliant in the field of battle.

Romance of the three kingdoms tv tropes free#

The whole Shu Kingdom is not free from this, as explained with both Zhuge Liang and Liu Shan the former has a ton of myths surrounding him, with historians such as Chen Shou outright bashing him for incompetence on certain fields if his word was to be truly believed.

In the original creator's eyes, it can be his own form of this trope as whole as well, due to how he expands the roles of certain characters and/or outright twists it apart from their actual recorded history.

Practically EVERY character can suffer this if you dare look at forums regarding their historical counterparts compared to their novel counterparts some people received the bad ends of the scrutiny, while some are flat-out built from supposed folklore (or as some haters deem it to be, lies).

The badmouthing form of scrutiny he's received from the historian Chen Shou does not help his case. Whether or not he originally intended to rebel after Zhuge Liang's death or was driven to do so by Liang's plotting is left somewhat ambiguous. Though a more specific case can be made for his treatment of Wei Yan.

Some fans tend to look at Zhuge Liang in a less heroic light, seeing his nigh omniscient strategies and heavily pressuring Liu Bei into both taking over Shu and later declaring himself emperor as an attempt to rule China from the sidelines while someone else takes the glory/scorn in the process.

The more recent Dynasty Warriors games actually run with this and have Liu Shan be the only one in Shu at the time to realise that the continued war efforts were a waste of time and men.

Historically, Liu Shan was never actually mentally retarded in the first place, nor was he dropped on the head by Liu Bei.

As a matter of fact, he is also one of the few surrendered monarchs who died of natural causes. His most Idiot Ball moment (claiming 'I am too happy to think of Shu' after his surrender) was especially interpreted this way, as claiming to have any remorse towards Shu would most likely cost his head. Especially considering he had one of the longest reigns (40 years, of which 29 were after Zhuge Liang's death) in Chinese history in the weakest state in one of the most turbulent eras, without being a tyrant, embroiled in a Succession Crisis (like Wu) or controlled by a Regent for Life (like Wei).

A considerable body of readers considers Liu Shan to be Obfuscating Stupidity while being a Manipulative Bastard.

Romance of the three kingdoms tv tropes series#

Quite a few people, especially those outside of Asia, would be surprised to know the long running series of games, Dynasty Warriors, is actually based off a book.Many adaptations/translations do not mention the heavy influences of the Maos. It begins with the starting line ('The empire long divided must unite'), and goes on from there. To muddle things even further, the 'modern' version of the novel was heavily edited by Qing-era commentator Mao Zonggang and his father, Mao Lun.Because of this, learning how much history was actually harsher and the purported heroes weren't as virtuous can be kind of hard to swallow. Based on a historical period, but it is more likely that people know the novel MORE than the history, even amongst Chinese.Trust your comrades who have been with you thick and thin to carry the burden alongside you. Being The Ace doesn't mean that everyone else is automatically The Load. As Zhuge Liang demonstrated with how he handled Wei Yan and his work schedule during the Northern Campaigns which led to his death from overworking, no matter how talented an individual is, trying to take everything upon oneself is asinine.Ideals and words are no substitute for actual power and talent.

Dragging out conflicts for ideals alone with no chance of victory will just paint you as a Doomed Moral Victor at best and an idiot that threw away the countless other lives at worst.