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.