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Woxin 17/ mid-18 thoughts
That's a great pre-battle speech of Gou Jian's. Even in subtitles that's a great battle speech, and makes me positively like the man and want to root for him, except for the fact that the previous sixteen episodes have taught me not to trust a word that falls from Gou Jian's exquisitely carved lips.
Fu Chai OTOH turning into his Queen of Hearts half-brother makes me very glad I know how this series ends. Did these guys *ever* learn that accidental judgements and casual slaughters are not the way to win a people's hearts and minds? (-is why Gou Jian's speech resonates so nicely.)
The last battle- snerk. I was thinking 'Look it's clearly spring here, this can't be the Big One' until we have the montage and the swelling music. OK, it's the Big One and everyone's going to buy it. Flipping subtitles have made the tactics involved completely obscure. No idea what WZX wanted to do, no idea what Fu Chai then did, short of somehow luring Yue into their abandoned camp and then surrounding them. Probably doesn't matter anyway. The death of
And finally, here is Wen Zhong twisting Bo Pi about his little finger. And here is me noticing an odd western reaction in myself. As
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feliciter saysHe has the guts to speak the truth to *everyone* regardless of what they think or what they might do to him, the smarts to know exactly what to focus on, and the tenacity to bring them round (mostly) to his POV.The first and third are virtues here, the second- very oddly- not. Our virtuous men are not supposed to be able to manipulate, even if they manipulate by telling the exact truth. They're supposed to tell the exact truth and be executed for it. Practical political wisdom here is a necessity but not a virtue; and a truly virtuous political figure, a man of integrity like Thomas More, is supposed to be crushed by the dirty system he's too good for. If he can play the system like an instrument, as Wen Zhong does, we suspect him of not being as virtuous as he looks, because honest guys ought to finish last.
I think I blame Plato for this suspicion of political ability, though I can't say why. Him and his Forms and their surpassing reality that makes Down Here just the shadows on the cave walls. Certainly it got a boost from Platonic-derived Christianity and its attitude that involvement with the things of this fallen and sinful earth is by definition a bad thing, distracting your attention from where it should be, on the next world.
Or maybe it's that politics is so likely to compromise principle that we don't believe anyone can navigate its waters uncompromised. I look forward to Wen Zhong, clever *and* honest, proving to be an exception.
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It is! Simple sentiments designed to appeal to heart and guts in good ol-fashioned plain speaking that should be fairly easy to translate, I imagine, and I thought he really meant it.
No idea what WZX wanted to do, no idea what Fu Chai then did
luring Yue into their abandoned camp and then surrounding them is exactly what Fu Chai did! WZX calls this audacious (I think his original idea was to sacrifice the navy while waiting for the land troops to arrive) perhaps because he thought that Gou Jian (whose mistake was to spread his soldiers too thin without adequate communication)wouldn't fall for that and because WZX was too cautious to gamble on the Yue forces not being able to join up in time (hence Ling Gu Fu got cut off from the others and, as rasetsunyo says, did a Boromir). Fan Li explained in the aftermath that the terrain was suitable for Fu Chai to do so (too hilly, hence making it hard travelling for the armies and preventing them from following each other's movements?).
Fu Chai OTOH turning into his Queen of Hearts half-brother
;_; he is a lot more amenable to reason and magnamimous in victory, though.
They're supposed to tell the exact truth and be executed for it
I thought Wen Zhong was risking his neck by rushing back and trying so many blunt methods (culminating in displaying mourning for the impending demise of Yue) to persuade Gou Jian not to fight a second battle. With Bo Pi, he's selectively telling the truth (WZX doesn't like Bo Pi and he might very well, based on past events, claim the glory for himself, and Gou Jian will follow up on the bribe). But it is true that a lotus which rises above the muddy waters of politics immediately gets its head lopped off (am mixing metaphors, never a good sign).
Your icon is excellent!
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is impossible to avoid major spoilers for historical series like these, but the series itself has done a pretty good job of keeping us guessing on the details
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I still want to think of Fu Chai as still having something of that nice guy but it gets harder and harder to do so, something essential really has changed.
OTOH Hu Jun is on the record as saying he didn't want to play Fu Chai as the typical 暴君 because it's boring, instead going for a 很阳光，但是有毛病的夫差。So he could be playing him straight.
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something essential really has changed.
I think he was (and still is, to a certain extent), but the politicking he found himself in, current circumstances and his ambition (always there) contributed to the hardening of his personality and the loss of his
innocenceability to treat everyone with genuine sincerity.his magnamity is more about preserving the image of a great king than any inherent generousity
But given the circumstances of the times, I don't think any of his fellow kings would have disapproved if he had just done what everyone else would have: executed his enemy (and exacted revenge), taken the harem for his own and incorporated conquered territory into his own country.
很阳光，但是有毛病的夫差
Ooh. that's certainly...interesting XD
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