flemmings | Finished

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Finished

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. She meant it. She really meant it. The one crawling fear I've had for half the series. And how *could* she, just then?

That's the greatest betrayal in the series; I suspect now it was a mutual one. And if I wrote corrective AUs that's where I'd start. Who cares if Gou Jian does or doesn't get back with Fan Li or Fu Chai? What matters is that Ya Yu should be there, whatever else is happening.

Short list of people I am not mourning:

1) Wu Zi Xu. No you are not a noble wise hero betrayed by fate and the tragedy of having chosen the wrong prince. Yes, by all means go join your dead king, and not a minute too soon. Slugs, the pair of you.

2) Fu Chai. Mr Kill-the-messenger right to the end. Could have done without Fu Chai's Mad Scene as well. He almost had me liking him near the end, and then-- sheesh. Couldn't take all the self-knowledge and humility, obviously. Drove him insane.

3) Bo Pi. Though I still don't know what happened to him. Did I miss something? Gou Jian says Escort him back, after throwing yet another sword down. One doesn't execute ambassadors, not while preaching the Way of Heaven. So how come only Bo Pi's head returns?

4) Fan Li. No I know he's not dead. But this series did *not* do him any kind of justice. And the cutting, dear god- we go from sitting up all night talking together, to him having to pester Wen Zhong to find out what the king's policy is.

I feel very dispirited and tempted to send the rest of my disks to

incandescens without a rewatch. I won't, I suppose: must track down those last episode echoes of echoes of echoes, including the surrender scenes and Fan Li being catechetic. But yeah. Not feeling so hot right now.

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Ya Yu

Yaaaaa I kept hoping against hope that she wouldn't do it, when she was dismissing her maids I was like STAY WITH HER you idiots don't let her do it!! At least until Gou Jian comes back! But ;__;

Bo Pi

I took it to mean Gou Jian gave him the option of killing himself, since it's the only course for him having failed to negotiate a truce. Though why only the head I'm not sure.

Fan Li

You're as hard on the poor boy as Uncle Ming is! I thought Jia Yiping turned in quite a nuanced performance, once he got past the initial smug-and-irritating. But Fan Li's part did kind of fade into irrelevance when the Xi Shi sub-plot came into prominence. I suppose I like him because he's not Zhuge Liang omni-brilliant. He's smart, good at what he does when someone asks him to do it, but has no ambition. A bit lacking in heart, as

paleaswater said a couple dozen threads ago. It's a nice change from the expected.

But this series is Not Kind to people who like happy endings. I felt lousy for a couple of days after finishing it. =/

You're as hard on the poor boy as Uncle Ming is!

Ah, so? Referring to what?

See, I was expecting Zhuge Liang omni-brilliant, and kept wondering when it'd turn up. I think of all of them he was the one worst served by the subtitles, because all the scenes with Wen Zhong just... didn't register. Couldn't figure out for the life of me what was going on. And, well, lacking in heart is a bad thing for the romantic hero of the piece to be. He at least looks concerned enough over gou Jian, even if he doesn't over Xi Shi.

(Parenthetically I didn't realize the young woman smiling in the closing titles was Ya Yu. I thought it might be made-over Xi Shi (no, I have no eye for the details of adult faces) finally earning her reputation as an empire-shaking beauty. Damn, that's who should have played Xi Shi, for sure.)

I felt lousy for a couple of days after finishing it

Then this is nothing unusual, I suppose. (deep sigh)

Oh, it's terrible that his scenes with Wen Zhong didn't come across. These are the ones that establish his character as someone who's uncannily prescient and perceptive, but unlike Wen Zhong always chose the easier way forward.

You finished it! ^_^

She really meant it.

;_; yes yes she did and my heart just plummeted when the messenger came bustling into the palace with the good news.

corrective AUs

Corrective AU and rewatches are definitely necessary.

Sort of disappointed that they didn't got the whole hog and display his eyes on the city wall as requested :p

Drove him insane

Fu Chai seemed to be quite composed and dignified during the actual surrender scene shortly after, so unless the editing is screwed again (which is a bit less likely since he does get calmer and acknowledge that he has to beg for preservation of Wu's temples and people etc) I tend to see it as venting before he returns to his senses.

Re: Bo Pi - IIRC (no viewing access today since am on call *sigh*) but Gou Jian tells a general (Zhu Jiying? Jie Zibao?) to "send him on his way" if he appeared to reject the sword (suicide) - hence his head was probably taken off by said general.

Fan Li - either completely sucky editing or the director needed to find an urgent reason why he should be going off with Xi Shi at the end instead of staying in Yue (though historically, yes I know bigoted opinion of anti-Yue chroniclers etc, he was the one who sent Wen Zhong the unheeded warning.)

I thought she'd... I don't want to say, get over it; but, well, find that the destruction of Wu was enough to satisfy her. Maybe I didn't quite believe what she said to Xi Shi (stock party line a dishonoured woman must come out with, mustn't be unconventional with the young, but what a conventional attitude for her to have. You can't die, dammit, your king and country still need you.)

I tend to see it as venting before he returns to his senses.

But he hears voices and mistakes his servant for Gou Jian and has utterly lost it. Surely a bit excessive for venting.

Ah well. 'See him on his way' was what the subtitles said, and I assumed it was meant literally. Mh. Where does Gou Jian get off telling the ambassador of a conquered nation to kill himself, I wonder.

Wikipedia said nothing about someone warning Wen Zhong, and RoTR is vague on the point. Where would I find the whole story?

She had tears in her eyes when she was speaking with Xi Shi. These things never end well >_<

he hears voices and mistakes his servant for Gou Jian and has utterly lost it

Initially I thought he was going to do himself in right there in his fit of madness, but his turnaround was so fast that it sorta threw me. (I have had apaprently delusional patients like that, except without, er, the actual completed homicide, who then became quite functional without any pharmacological intervention - on investigation we decided that they didn't actually have a psychiatric problem i.e. just acting out. But it usually took them a considerably longer period to calm down, so am not sure that Fu Chai is completely out of his mind.)

Where does Gou Jian get off telling the ambassador of a conquered nation to kill himself, I wonder.

Same place he gets the idea to walk in and take over the essentially unguarded capital of a hegemon, I suppose.

This Chinese page (http://jczs.news.sina.com.cn/2004-10-23/1620237017.html) (not the wiki but IIRC wiki page also quotes same advice from Fan Li) says that Fan Li told Wen Zhong just before his departure that:
高鸟散，良弓藏；狡兔尽，走狗烹 = birds above scattered, the good bow is kept; cunning hares finished, running dogs cooked.

Well, in an interview Jia Yiping said, they'd just started filming and he'd done a few scenes with Chen Daoming. Then Uncle Ming sent him a message saying something like, I am telling you solemnly, and I will only say this once, but I am very dissatisfied with your performance so far. You are acting using 小聪明 (uhh petty cleverness, unworthy tricks) when you have the potential to really bring out this character. And so Jia Yiping seeks out Guru Chen, they thrash out the character, and presumably Yiping-kun improves.

Yes Fan Li sees the same things as Wen Zhong does, sometimes more, but just doesn't have Wen Zhong's energy/devotion to duty/pig-headedness to see things through. Pity about the subs. =/

(but then who will be our empire-rebuilding beauty?)

Corrective AUs. Anything is possible, even happy endings (http://rasetsunyo.livejournal.com/75827.html?thread=283187#t283187)!

using 小聪明

ahaha art imitating life or vice versa? or was the corrective action before the scene in which Fan Li tries to impress Gou Jian by talking a blue streak only to have him walk off halfway?

Fan Li sees the same things as Wen Zhong does

And maybe in a more detached manner which e.g. allowed him to realize that Yue was headed for defeat with Wu, and later when he tells ~~off~~ Wen Zhong about letting Shi Mai et al form factions against him while he was working his ass off for Yue. Foreshadowing, ahoy!

Happi endo AU: exposition..exposition..exposition..oho! and hee! and awwwww ^_^
(the alternate 转世ending is also quite sweet, though)

(but then who will be our empire-rebuilding beauty?)

Utter awesomesauce by me would have been the same actress playing both parts but with different mannerisms, approach, dress, make-up, whatever, to distinguish between mature married noblewoman and innocent but determined country girl.

I don't think I feel like feeding that story through babelfish. In what way is the endo happi?

And now one must wonder how much Gou Jian knew or sensed about what she felt, and was he referring to it in their last scene together with its obscure subtitles.

As for Fu Chai- I'm inclined to put this too down to Fifteen Missing Minutes Syndrome.

Mhh- somehow walking into an unguarded city under false pretenses feels to me like tactics, while offing ambassadors is a breach of 礼, but Spring-Autumn probably saw both as the latter. And of course my Japanese instincts say, well Bo Pi was de facto Gou Jian's man so Gou Jian gets to say what happens to him.

高鸟散，良弓藏；狡兔尽，走狗烹

And I thought this period was more direct in its utterances than Tang or Ming? ^_^ So Wen Zhong thought he was the bow, not the dog?

(Have only just now noticed what the cat in your icon is saying. Snerk.)

From memory Gou Jian sensed that she was going to do it at some point, but perhaps felt it was too painful for both of them to refer to explicitly (and here is where I can't get the man-as-saint/sage: why for the love of holy matrimony are you so reticent with your *wife*), but need to rewatch to be sure.

Fifteen Missing Minutes Syndrome

Even Lucia needed half an hour to get through her mad scene.

Bo Pi was de facto Gou Jian's man

Plus maybe Gou Jian thought it was payback for when Bo Pi refused to help him when he was chained to the cangue in the quarry, I don't know. Actually walking into an unguarded city under false pretenses might have been a sorta breach of 礼, since nominally Yue was a vassal state of Wu and Gou Jian was supposed to be marching those soldiers to Huangchi to aid his overlord.

Cooking presumably loyal and effective hunting hounds sounds pretty direct (not to mention barbaric and wasteful) to me! I think both bow and dog refer to Wen Zhong, in the sense that tools/pets that are no longer needed can be discarded especially if they can be used against oneself. The article also says that Wen Zhong after receiving this message claimed illness to excuse himself from court but didn't leave posthaste (;_;), whereupon Our King's mind was turned against him by other courtiers (saying that Wen Zhong's remaining six strategies to conquer Wu - of which three of the original nine were sufficient- could be used against Yue in future) and ordered him to fall upon his sword.

(I love that icon. Was made by talented LJ-friend.)

*wistful* That would have been nice. But the gimmick might have distracted attention from Zuo Xiaoqing's acting.

Happi Endo #1

In a sleepy hamlet in the middle of nowhere there one day appeared a white- robed gentleman and a lovely maiden, refined in manner and appearance. It's a strange place for such personages to turn up, but they kept to themselves and soon the villagers thought no more of them, nor of the fact that the gentleman would sit for hours under the same tree cradling a scabbard to himself. Such a shame, a fine-looking gentleman like that a poor fool.

One day years later the gentleman was not to be seen under the tree. The curious villagers went to their abode but there was no trace of the couple, nor any sign that the place had ever been inhabited. The villagers murmured that it was a good thing they never had much to do with the couple, who knows what would have come of associating with fox spirits.

But this minor stir was soon forgotten with the news that the old king had passed away and a new King crowned. A new King, yes, surely that's something worth celebrating.
_____

A lone man, robed in white, watches the frothing river. Few now know that the clear waters once stank with the blood of a thousand warriors; even fewer know that this unremarkable granite boulder was where the King of Yue decided the fate of the nation, so many years ago. But this man standing here, he knows.

"So you really did turn up, Fan Li." An amused voice, accompanied by a light tap to the shoulder.

"Your Majesty!" Almost by reflex, Fan Li whirls and drops to his knees. "Your Majesty, I came as soon as I heard the news, but I never thought... Your Majesty would turn up too."

"Certainly, since I have given my word. Or have you forgotten that night in the cell?"

Fan Li flushes as the King watches in amusement. He lets Fan Li fidget a while more, and continues, "I can overlook you leaving without a word, but you stole my scabbard as well. I've been carrying an unsheathed sword all these years, you little thief. Now that I've finally caught you perhaps it's time you return the scabbard to me."

Torn between tears and laughter, Fan Li notes that the sword at the King's hip is indeed unsheathed. As warmth spreads in his chest, he starts to hold draw out the sheath, but retracts it at the last moment.

"Your Majesty's scabbard is indeed with me, but I do not intend to hand it over gracefully. Your Majesty will just have to make me."

"Cunning as ever, I see."

"I thank my lord for his regard."

[There be a smexing scene set that night when Gou Jian apologises to Fan Li. I do not care for it.]

[Ending #2 later]

Yes agree, the bow is "kept" in the sense of put away, when it is no longer needed. Not in the sense of kept by one's side.

BUT I maintain that It Did Not Happen That way in this Woxin. >__>

Mh- this is a meeting beyond the grave? What happened to Xi Shi?

Mh yes OK happi endo just... mh well stock slash happi endo complete with coy allusions.

kept

There may be other meanings of the word as well, viz. "kept hidden" to refer to what Fan Li did and was warning Wen Zhong to do before it was too late, or "kept secret" from other people for one's own use (Gou Jian suspicious of his Chu officials seeking alternative employment i.e. they left their home country once, they can do it again), or yes, "kept by one's side" in the sense that you keep ~~enemies~~ untrustworthy people closer. But eventually I think Fan Li's intent was just to tell his old friend to GO NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE especially with an aging, suspicious and possibly unhinged ~~by the multiple losses~~ hegemon-elect.

and here is where I can't get the man-as-saint/sage: why for the love of holy matrimony are you so reticent with your *wife*)

I don't believe in perfect understanding per se, but something very like it exists between Gou Jian and Ya Yu. Sufficiently alike to know how the other thinks without being told, and in that case he might well have known that there was nothing he could say or do. She knew he'd attack Wu when no one else thought it possible, he knows she'll kill herself when the time is right, talking won't change either of those facts.

Ahh, I thought the bow was being carefully stored against further need, whereas a dog once eaten won't come back. But

rasetsunyo is right. That Didn't Happen.

I assume so. No idea about Xi Shi, didn't say. ~~(who cares she's not important)~~

Happi Endo #2 starts off the same way except it has the villagers discovering Fan Li's bloody corpse and shell-shocked Xi Shi when they nosily visit their home. Of course this is the day Gou Jian died. Fan Li's suicide note says "I'm sorry." 2500 years later reincarnated (!!!) Fan Li i.e. Liu Dongbei has a minor accident and is sent to the hospital, there he meets reincarnated Gou Jian Dr. Song Jianping, Dongbei flirts shamelessly with Jianping and it is the start of a Beautiful Friendship.

I suppose it's too much to ask for an ending that's happy but not easy.

meeting beyond the grave?

Er not sure if I'm reading this correctly but there is a passage in the first ending (after 范蠡张了张嘴却不知该说什么才好 i.e. Fan Li making like a goldfish) which says: 他虽在大王有归隐慨叹之意的时候提出了诈死脱身的计策，并趁着胆色还在时定下了约见之地，但在彼时彼地又是那种境况下说出的话，他却也不曾奢望大王会记在心里。所以当他得知越王驾薨的消息后，也只是抱着姑且一试的心态别过西施，单人独骑等在河边。事实上，他本已打算好日落后便投身于河水中殉身的，只是万万没有想到，大王，竟还记得他的话，并且真的来了。

"...although he had proposed the strategy of faking death to escape when the King had expressed a wish to retire, and had set a meeting place while he still had the courage, it had only been the talk of *that* time and place, and he had not dared to hope that the King would remember it. So when he had received the news of the Yue king's demise, he had bidden farewell to Xi Shi and ridden alone to the river, just to to try. In fact, he had already planned to throw himself into the river at sunset to follow his King in death, and he had never, never, thought that the King would actually have recalled his words, and really come."

OKIC. Thanks. For reasons best known to himself Gou Jian finally fakes his death (err- how?) and slips away to be with Fan Li. And Xi Shi vanishes because she never existed in the first place. (Oh. Plot bunny comes and nibbles on my shins. Must consider it.)

(dunno - maybe AU!Wen Zhong was in on the plot XD. IIRC historical!Gou Jian lived for 8 years after his final conquest of Wu and was succeeded by one of his many sons.)

rabbit pie, glorious rabbit pie! we're anxious to see it :p

I must say, this translation sounds better than the original. I actually kind of liked the second one -- who needs happily ever after when you can *really* be happily ever after in all your incarnations.

It finally registers that 31_days isn't a *drabble* community but a *fic* community. Much more room for ideas. I think the rabbit fricassee may be done by the 16th.

Speaking as one who has canon reincarnation in a main fandom, it only works if you both remember who you are. Otherwise it gets a bit heart-breaky. But reincarnating as all your other roles ain't a bad way to do it.

Ohhh hahaha selective reading, my bad. "Ah more exposition about That Night, SKIP!" >__>

Your excellent translation has all the important bits, though ^_^

(I found the preceding parts of the original a tad tough to read, what with the EXPOSITION and the ELUCIDATION of everything that might possibly be going through Fan Li's head >_<)

Thanks! :D

(Same. Skipped right to the happi endo ~~and smex~~.)

Ahaha thanks, must be due to leaving out the exposition bits. >_> The reincarnation one is cute, makes me kinda want to track down the series.

But reincarnating as all your other roles ain't a bad way to do it.

Just as long as they don't reincarnate as the Jasmine Flower roles, that's really heart-breaky.

Also, maiden? (for serious, story calls her 姑娘) Even asssuming she was, oh, twelve or something when Fan Li picked her up she'd be in her thirties when they reached the village. Hmm. Maybe she really is a fox spirit; might explain why men find her irresistable.

(fox spirits are known to be fiercely loyal to their benefactors but make fearsome enemies if betrayed.)

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