Gong Hua
Wow, watch me be long-winded and pour out all my thoughts about Gong Hua. :'D
I have to hand it to Yu Wo. She really did conclude Gong Hua in four volumes instead of the six volumes mentioned! I approached V4 with much trepidation since the series seems to have been prematurely ended, and my impression was that Gong Hua is one of the less popular (yet harder to write) of Yu Wo's works, so perhaps there's little reward for continuing it further. Ironically, Gong Hua can perhaps be considered her most intricate and ambitious work, but it's definitely not as "fun" as her other series. With the series regarded as a tragedy, just how were things to be concluded? In a single volume, when the end had seemed so far off with the ending of volume 3? I was a little scared to find out!
Volume 1 insert. This is what I mean by ambitious. Yu Wo had grand plans for this series. She seems to approach writing much the way I do (just a few bullet points and then write away), but she put in a lot more planning for Gong Hua, figured out where all the locations were, how the plot should unfold, etc. The races in Gong Hua aren't the usual elf, dwarf, etc, but rather of her own invention. There are multiple conflicts rather than a single one, but they all branch from the same source.
Volume 2 insert. If only we had maps like these for Legend of Sun Knight, ahhhhhh.
Volume 3 insert. Cas on the left, Gong Hua in the back, and Litelli in the front, I believe.
Volume 4 insert. Yin Qie Zi, the Leaf Lord.
Spoilers abound! (But the most spoilerish parts are in lj-spoiler tags.)
Maybe it's because I don't remember V1-3 all too well, as it's been some time since I read them, but I enjoyed V4 quite a lot, and it tackled lots of different plot threads that I'd already forgotten. There really wasn't a single lull in the plot (perhaps too much tension, some might even argue?) Going by comments over at Yu Wo's blog, most people felt the pacing was too quick. I was amazed at how dense the novel was, which was both a good and a bad thing. Sure, the content could totally have been spread out over two novels instead, but some part of me also appreciated how no-nonsense the content was. It was like all the wishy-washiness had been cut out. It sort of even reflected Gong Hua's state of mind in this novel, just like how he found his purpose again! One thing was taken care of after another. Perhaps a bit too neatly? But I was more impressed than anything because there were some plot threads that I thought couldn't possibly be neatly tied up, but even those were dealt with.
The pacing, if V4 was its own series, would totally be fine, but compared to previous volumes, it is much faster. "All that buildup to a hasty ending!" is probably what a lot of people come away with! But I appreciate the ending for what it is and am glad that the major threads have all been tied up. V4 does however, feel a bit like a different series because of the shift in tone, the pacing, and how it dealt with all the outcomes instead of layering on more mysteries. V4 was totally a volume that unlocked all of the mysteries while V1-V3 were all "buildup buildup buildup".
The biggest question I had going in was: is this series really going to end in tragedy? Will Yu Wo really kill off the main character? Will the main character do something he will regret forever? Sure, she's "killed" her main characters before, but they always came back to life somehow and survived to the end, whether it was because they hadn't actually died or there was some method to bring them back to life. Gong Hua, though, I thought had more of a chance of dying than surviving, and even until the last few pages, I still thought he was going to die and that even though he solved everyone else's problems, he himself still couldn't have a happy ending. Well, in the end, I'd say that the tragic events all happened in the past, and the present was more... desperate attempts to keep a glimpse of hope going. I would not say the ending was a tragic one. V1 was definitely the most tragic, while later volumes less and less so.
Premise!
So, the premise of this entire story is that the Spiritual Tree is dying. Before dying, the Tree gives birth to a Flower to protect the Leaf. To avoid withering away themselves, the Leaf must leave the continent and travel to a different continent where there is another Spiritual Tree that they can live under. They leave behind their Flower because without the Spiritual Tree around, their Flower was bound to go crazy.
Abandoned, the Flower is taken in by humans who treat Flower like a specimen on display. Flower, although humanoid, does not have human reproductive systems and does not eat, only needing to drink water. The moment the Tree dies, Flower goes insane and kills everyone in the village.
Instead of water, Flower is soaked in blood from killing the village. This is the origin of all the tragedy in the series. Though perhaps the origin can be traced back to Gong Hua being abandoned.
Owen and Mila take Gong Hua in (When first asked for his name, he said he was a "male flower," which sounds like Gong Hua.) He looks like a young girl, so they treat him like one, but human gender doesn't really apply to him. (But later on, he chooses to be regarded as a guy). Cedric and his younger brother Cas, survivors from the village, are introduced to Gong Hua. Cas, who is around 10 years old at the time, even proposes to Gong Hua, wanting Gong Hua to be his wife. Once, when Cas goes to play with Gong Hua in the water, Mila has Gong Hua promise that Gong Hua will protect Cas too. Gong Hua promises, and it becomes like a mission to him. That he will protect Owen, Mila, and Cas.
But things don't go so smoothly. The spiritual beast Nightclaw attacks. In an attempt to protect Owen, Mila, and Cas, Gong Hua uses his powers, calling upon vines to protect everyone. Cedric realizes that Gong Hua was the very culprit who had killed off the entire village. Cas doesn't believe so right away, but Gong Hua apologizes just like how Cas had taught him, admitting that he'd made a mistake.
Owen and Cedric force Mila to feed Gong Hua poisoned soup. Gong Hua drinks it, knowing it is poisoned, but Mila is shocked. She didn't know it was poison. She thought it was just a sedative. She tries to run away with Gong Hua, never ever even considering abandoning him. Cedric accidentally kills her. Mila dies in Gong Hua's arms, but he doesn't even know she's dead and only thinks she is sleeping. She makes him promise to leave the continent, change his name, and never go and find Owen and Cas. Unfortunately, he doesn't follow her wishes.
When Owen and Cedric find them, Cedric tries to attack Gong Hua again and ends up splitting apart Mila's corpse. Enraged, Owen kills Cedric and runs away with Gong Hua. While fleeing, Gong Hua remembers his promise to protect Cas, so he tries to leave the mark of a Flower on Cas, but Owen thinks Gong Hua is attacking Cas so tries to stop him. Gong Hua ends up injuring Cas's left eye, forever leaving his mark on him.
After Owen escapes with Gong Hua, he flees to his cousin West Paladin's place. With only Owen left to protect, Gong Hua hangs onto his every word. Gong Hua ends up being used as a weapon in the army and wins most of their fights for them, forcing the Danya troops to retreat. All the while, their own troops regard Gong Hua with fear. Once they've won, Owen thinks he and Gong Hua can finally live peacefully and that the king will pardon them, but West tries to kill Gong Hua, pushing him into a pit and burning him. In an attempt to save Gong Hua from the fire, Owen dies. Gong Hua survives the burns. Litelli finds him and nurses him back to health. Gong Hua attacks West for revenge, only to find that he has lost his powers. He does not manage to kill West, only his wife. He also ends up crippling the daughter.
For twenty years, Gong Hua bides his time for revenge against the one who killed Owen.
And now, the different threads.
Gong Hua's revenge
Despite all that Owen did for West, West decided to kill Gong Hua, which resulted in Owen's death when he tried to protect Gong Hua. Even though Owen's mind became twisted after losing Mila and he did something Mila would never want him to do, using Gong Hua as a weapon, he comes back to himself when Gong Hua is endangered. He tries to save Gong Hua from the pit of fire and ends up dying instead. Gong Hua promised to himself that he would protect Owen, Mila, and Cas. When Owen dies, he thinks he has lost everything he needed to protect, and so he loses his powers as a Flower. A flower is born to protect the Leaf. When all of the Leaf abandoned him, Gong Hua instead latched onto Owen, Mila, and Cas to protect. Gong Hua is born to "protect." With the loss of Owen, Gong Hua loses his powers. He does not understand why he lost his powers until V4.
With Owen dead, Gong Hua loses himself and turns to revenge instead. He hangs on to Cas's words, that if someone hurts you, you should hurt him back. (At the time, Cas was only repeating his brother Cedric's words) However, without his powers as a flower, it isn't easy for him to kill West just like that. He waits for twenty years to come up with a plan to make West feel despair as deep as his. He learns medicine through the help of Litelli, who is part of a clan who lives to serve spiritual beasts. Litelli latches onto Gong Hua as his master.
Gong Hua's plan is to get close to West's children, a set of twins with the names of Owen and Mila, named after the deceased Owen and Mila. He gives three bottles of medicine to Owen. The first two bottles will give him a physical boost while the last bottle will kill him. Once Owen dies, Gong Hua believes that Mila will fall into despair and die as well. Once he sees his children dead, West will taste the same despair Gong Hua had when his Owen died.
What Gong Hua doesn't realize, however, is that once he approaches Owen and Mila as Yin Qie Zi, they would come to regard him as their friend. Mila even falls in love with him, and both of them keep his secret for him, that he's a flower.
He doesn't realize that taking revenge in such a way would probably hurt himself even more than hurting West. Or perhaps he does realize it, because his second target for revenge is himself. He believes it's his fault that Mila died, and that Cas's life turned out tragic. So he's always looking for ways to sabotage himself...
[how this thread is tied up]For a long time, Gong Hua doesn't have a purpose. He has no Leaf to protect. He managed to survive because he had Owen, Mila, and Cas to protect, but when Mila dies and then Owen as well, Gong Hua falls into despair and loses his power. He feels he has no one left to protect. He hurts and hurts and doesn't know what to do. In the midst of his despair, he remembers Cas's words about revenge. He decides to make West feel the same despair he felt from losing Owen.
On a mission to escort the danya back, Nightclaw comes after Gong Hua once more. Cas stays behind because Gong Hua might die. If so, then he wants to kill Gong Hua before that happens. Litelli manages to convince Cas that they have a chance, so they end up fighting Nightclaw together. During the fight, Gong Hua feels a strong urge to protect Cas, and so he regains his powers once more.
He learns from the female flower on the other continent (through dreams via using her hair) that there are 3000 Leafs enslaved by the danyas. After regaining his powers as a flower, Gong Hua hears the voices of those 3000 Leafs and nearly goes crazy with the need to save them. He learns that the Tree gave birth to him in order for him to support these 3000 Leafs, because if he had not been on the continent for these past twenty years, they would have died a long time ago without the presence of the Tree. The only reason they are still alive is because of Gong Hua's existence. However, it has been so long that the Leafs will soon wither. Gong Hua, now struck with the need to protect, is no longer as focused on revenge. But he has already given the poison to Owen, and if he doesn't deal with his past with West, he can't move on.
So he pays West a visit. I really wondered how this encounter would go. Would Gong Hua really let Owen die? His hatred had already ebbed a lot by this time, and Owen is his friend. So, I was somewhat shocked that Owen did indeed down the poison, and Gong Hua only uttered "Owen" at the last minute, too late to stop him. This of course, all happened in front of West, who realized right when Gong Hua apologized to Owen that something was wrong. Gong Hua lets his hair fly up, which immediately clues West in about his identity. He just never thought "Yin Qie Zi" and Gong Hua were one and the same because he had always thought Gong Hua to be a girl. West asks why Gong Hua didn't kill him. Why go after his son and wife? Gong Hua answers, "Because you didn't kill me." You killed my Owen.
West reveals that Owen had believed that the king would welcome Gong Hua, but West knew that things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. The king would have wanted to use Gong Hua as a weapon but Gong Hua only answered to Owen. In the end, there would have been a huge massacre. West had only wanted to prevent that. Gong Hua was too dangerous a weapon. He hadn't wanted to hurt Owen. He didn't think Owen would jump down the pit to save Gong Hua. If he knew Owen would do that, he would have let them go. Both of them. He just hadn't wanted Owen to leave.
Gong Hua is infuriated by West's answer, but he also hears the truth in it. After living among humans for the past twenty years, he knows a lot more about human customs and politics. Things would not have gone as perfectly as Owen had hoped. Gong Hua reveals that there is an antidote for the "poison." West's son is only temporarily dead. He can be revived within 24 hours, but if 24 hours pass, then he will be truly dead. This is a "fake death" medicine that Litelli urged him to use. Because Litelli had always had the intention to secretly revive Owen. He did not want his master to regret his actions.
West doesn't understand what Gong Hua wants. Gong Hua just makes West to promise to help him by looking after 10 rescued Leafs. Even Gong Hua is surprised he can walk away from his revenge.
In the end, Gong Hua, because of regaining his purpose of "protecting," no longer has need of revenge. Revenge was something he used to fill in the void because he didn't know what to do, only that he didn't want to forget. So he hung on to his strongest emotions at the time, which were pain and hatred. I wondered how Gong Hua's revenge would be settled. There was a lot of buildup for his revenge throughout V1-V3, with Owen and Mila playing large parts, but they kind of faded away in V4 until their final confrontation. Was the final confrontation a bit of a cop out? Definitely. It actually felt like an aside. Then again, at the point in time of the confrontation, revenge is definitely an aside for Gong Hua. It's no longer his purpose.
I'm not sure what to feel about Owen being given just a fake death medicine. I'm happy for Owen that his "friend" hadn't killed him, and I'm happy for Gong Hua that he didn't do yet another thing that he would regret for an eternity, that he was indeed able to move past his revenge, but after three volumes of buildup, things were sure solved neatly, without lasting repercussions. It makes me feel a little cheated.
It turns out that the moral of the story is that you can move past revenge. There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time, I thought this story was a tragedy emphasizing that no matter what you do, it's hopeless! (I do appreciate happy endings though! Just didn't think this would get one.)
Cas's revenge
At first, Cas's older brother Cedric is the one bent on taking revenge for their slaughtered family that died in the village Gong Hua went crazy in. Cas himself doesn't understand revenge. It's not like the people who died would come back to life!
But when his brother Cedric is killed by Owen, and he thinks Gong Hua attacked him and gave him an eye injury, his feelings start to change.
He starts to believe that Gong Hua is the one who took everything from him. His mother. His father. His sister. His sister's baby. His brother. His village. (And even his first love) He trusted Gong Hua so much, yet Gong Hua took everything from him!
Cas is adopted by a prestigious family (Dainadan). But he leaves the family and becomes an assassin called Left Eye. He could have become a spiritmancer or some other occupation, but for the sake of exacting his vengeance, assassin is the best path. He works under a group of assassins for a long while, but he leaves the group when he is ordered to assassinate his "younger" brother (Ansiailuo), who is part of his adopted family. He takes two other assassins from the group and escapes. He rats the group out and then heads back with his subordinates to watch the hanging.
Throughout the years, he searches for Gong Hua, not knowing that Gong Hua has now chosen to appear as a guy. He is later approached by the king and becomes the king's special assassin. He's not given a choice.
Cas encounters Gong Hua once more when Gong Hua approaches West for revenge. Cas immediately stabs Gong Hua as a way of greeting him, but he doesn't kill Gong Hua. He doesn't just want to kill Gong Hua. He wants to torture him. He learns of Gong Hua's intention of getting revenge and settles for watching the show because he feels Gong Hua is doing a marvelous job hurting himself.
He always says that if Gong Hua is about to die, then Cas will kill him first. Gong Hua promises Cas that he will let him kill him, but only after Gong Hua takes his revenge. So, Cas waits.
Cas and Gong Hua's relationship is really quite deep. Full of conflicts. Full of regret. I always felt the story was more interesting when both were in the same scene. They know each other because of their shared past, yet they don't really know each other. They'd protect each other (Gong Hua goes without saying), but Cas will too because Gong Hua is his to hurt and no one else's.
Cas both loves and hates Gong Hua. Gong Hua's existence is one he will never forget. His encounter with Gong Hua shapes his entire life.
[how this thread is tied up]
Gong Hua has always promised Cas that he will let Cas kill him, but once Gong Hua learns that the 3000 Leafs would die if Gong Hua dies, he does not want to die anymore. He asks Cas to help him save the 3000 Leafs, and Cas actually helps come up with a plan.
After Gong Hua manages to save the Leafs and say farewell to Mila, Cas and Gong Hua have their final encounter, one that really can't be left out. Now that Gong Hua has "taken" his revenge and accomplished his mission of saving the Leafs, he has no more regrets! However, he yearns to go to the other continent to unite with the Leaf tribe, but he won't. He owes Cas too much, and so Gong Hua stays behind. For Cas. So that Cas can put an end to his revenge.
Cas knows that his family would not berate him if he kills Gong Hua. In fact, no one will, because they're all dead.
Cas stabs Gong Hua.
However, we are shown that Gong Hua doesn't die. Although Cas stabbed him straight through the heart, Gong Hua would not die from just one stab. Cas and his two subordinates follow Gong Hua to the other continent to escape from the clutches of the royal family.
In a way, they make up with each other and kind of live peacefully. I actually find it a bit surreal. After all that hatred, you're content with one stab? I suppose... Cas never did stop loving Gong Hua even while he hated Gong Hua. Gong Hua made him lose everything, yet Gong Hua is also the only one he has left. Cas was stuck in the same dilemma as Gong Hua's. Taking his vengeance would only hurt himself, but he never does realize that. Their lives are so intertwined. He would definitely feel empty without Gong Hua's presence. The thought of taking revenge on Gong Hua has driven him his entire life.
In the end, even he moves past revenge. He explains that in these years of chasing after Gong Hua, he probably knows more about flowers than even Gong Hua himself. Like Gong Hua, Cas becomes more world-wise. He understands what made Gong Hua lose himself. He just hadn't wanted to admit it.
Nightclaw's appearances
Nightclaw is a recurring spiritual beast. During his first appearance, he forces Gong Hua to use his powers to save Owen, Mila, and Cas, and thus Cedric learns that Gong Hua is the culprit behind the village's massacre. Nightclaw states that Gong Hua has strayed from his path, but Gong Hua declares that the Leaf have abandoned him. His path right now is the protect Owen, Mila, and Cas. With his powers, Gong Hua chases Nightclaw off.
In their second encounter, Gong Hua actually defeats Nightclaw and obtains a powerful sword that Owen names "Nightclaw" after the beast. Once Gong Hua loses his powers, he uses this sword as his weapon. It is one of the few weapons that can damage Nightclaw.
In their final encounter, Nightclaw is bent on defeating Gong Hua because of the defeat he had suffered under Gong Hua's hands. He also wishes to absorb Gong Hua to obtain power. Since Gong Hua no longer has his powers, he stands no chance against Nightclaw. Nightclaw once again states that Gong Hua has strayed from his path. Why is he even still alive? During his fight with Nightclaw, Gong Hua regains his purpose.
It is to protect.
I found it interesting that Nightclaw was used each time to make Gong Hua question his path and purpose. Nightclaw seems to be a metaphor for natural disaster in that he can't be stopped. It seems that in the story, only another natural disaster (such as Gong Hua) can fight evenly against him.
Indigo's revenge
Indigo is one of the four warlords of the danyas. On the battlefield 20 years ago, Owen ordered Gong Hua to attack him. The easiest way to win the war is to take out the commander. Gong Hua does as Owen ordered, however, when Gong Hua attacks, instead of killing Indigo, a female leaf by the name of Shui Lan jumps in front of Indigo. Gong Hua accidentally kills her instead. Only after the act does he realize that he has killed a member of the Leaf.
Only then does he even realize there are still Leafs around.
Shui Lan and Indigo are lovers. To protect him, Shui Lan jumps in front of him, knowing that flowers would never hurt members of the Leaf. But when she is stabbed, she understands that Gong Hua has lost himself. Her dying words are for Indigo to protect the flower. Indigo promises that he will do so. He also promises himself that he will exact vengeance for her. He knows she doesn't want vengeance because the Leaf are a kind race, but he wishes to do so anyway.
For twenty years, he doesn't know that his two promises contradict each other. His target for revenge is the very flower that Shui Lan wants him to protect. He chases after Gong Hua, and even though Gong Hua can easily kill him, Gong Hua flees each time, as if afraid to confront him.
Gong Hua is indeed afraid, plagued by memories of killing Shui Lan, a member of the leaf, someone he should have protected! His purpose is to protect the leaf. Yet he killed her instead!
Indigo, weakened by Gong Hua's attack, is near death by the time we see him twenty years later. Gold (Jin Qier) asks Gong Hua to make medicine for Indigo, which Gong Hua gladly makes. He owes Indigo too much.
[how this thread is tied up]
Indigo, because of having Shui Lan as a lover, has always been fond of the leafs. He turned his life mission into acquiring as many of the leaf as he can, spending all his money buying leafs from others so that he can protect them. He asks them time and time again about their tribe and their flower, but they all remain tight-lipped. They know they are naive. The don't know if they would endanger others of the leaf if they accidentally say something they shouldn't have. So even though they quite like Indigo, all of them resolve never to say anything about the leaf. Especially not about flower.
Indigo nearly thinks he cannot carry out Shui Lan's wish of protecting the flower. He searches all these years but finds very little clues.
During the battle with Nightclaw, Gold discovers that Gong Hua is the killer Indigo has been looking for and, at first, tries to kill him, but when Gold then discovers that Gong Hua is a flower, he feels despair for Indigo. The killer and flower are one and the same. What course of action will Indigo take?
Gold doesn't tell Indigo about Gong Hua's identity, wanting Indigo to drink the medicine Gong Hua made first. He's afraid Indigo won't drink the medicine once he learns of Gong Hua's identity. The medicine indeed returns life back to Indigo, and he feels better than ever.
When Gong Hua arrives at Indigo's house, he meets all the Leafs Indigo has acquired over the years. They are all stuck to the beds, unable to get off, weakened without the presence of their tree. They've hung on for twenty years, but they've reached their limit. When they see Gong Hua, one of them utters, "You've finally came..." Flower. Even to her dying breath, she, like all the others, resolves never to reveal information about him.
When it appears that she has died, and Cas flippantly says that Gong Hua is too late to save these dying Leafs, might as well give up, Gong Hua flies into a frenzy. Vines explode from the house. Indigo learns of Gong Hua's identity in the worst way possible.
Gong Hua is Shui Lan's killer. But Gong Hua is also the leafs' flower. Why had he hurt Shui Lan? Isn't he supposed to protect the Leaf?
Despite his conflicting feelings, he knows that Shui Lan wouldn't want him to hurt Gong Hua.
In the end, Indigo was quite a good guy... In fact, the danyas weren't bad at all despite being cast as the villains. It really is a matter of perspective because Indigo was fighting for his kinsmen. He had his own reasons to fight.
Yin Qie Zi (Leaf Lord)
We're given glimpses of the Leaf Lord throughout the series. He is a fairly straightforward person, full of regret for leaving behind their flower. His side of the story, I thought, was just as straightforward as he is, though his abandonment of Gong Hua is what leads to all the tragedy.
His duty is to look after the Leaf. Flower will go crazy, so they must leave him behind.
He never forgives himself for leaving behind Flower, and he never forgives himself for the 3000 Leaf they leave behind either. He thought them long dead, but after twenty years, when he hears that they are still alive, that Gong Hua even gave himself a name, Yin Qie Zi immediately wants to go back for them.
And he does.
Maybe twenty years is too late. Or maybe sometimes, it's never too late.
Mila
Both Milas play an important role in Gong Hua's life. The first Mila chooses never to abandon Gong Hua. She learns that Gong Hua isn't human and has strange powers. She's scared of Gong Hua, but she also loves Gong Hua out of the bottom of her heart and doesn't believe Gong Hua can do any wrong. Gong Hua is so innocent! Gong Hua just didn't know better. Gong Hua just needs to be taught. When she is forced to feed Gong Hua poisoned soup, her heart is just about the break when she realizes that Gong Hua knew it was poisoned. She decides to run away with Gong Hua but dies in the process.
She makes Gong Hua promise her to leave the continent, to change his name, and to never find Owen and Cas again. Gong Hua only manages to change his name.
The second Mila grows to love Gong Hua, and she is always eager to help Gong Hua learn more about himself. She helps him research the Leaf and Flowers. She's the one who lets Gong Hua know that the Leaf probably had a reason they couldn't take him along. Gong Hua would go crazy after the Tree dies.
Despite Mila's kindness, Gong Hua is only using her to take revenge on West. She always has a bodyguard with her, so Gong Hua bides his time, until they trust him enough to leave him alone with her.
[how this thread is tied up]
Once Gong Hua's drive for revenge fades, "killing" Mila doesn't even cross his mind. But revealing his hand against Owen and West means that Mila learns that Gong Hua is the one who killed her mother and crippled her. And now, Gong Hua has nearly killed her brother too.
However, Mila thanks Gong Hua for not killing her brother. She understands Gong Hua's actions. They had been in a war back then, and her father made a mistake. She is sorry that her father killed Gong Hua's Owen. She cannot forgive Gong Hua for killing her mother, but she thanks him for all he did in the war, because without him, her father surely would already be dead. They would not have won the war.
I wasn't teary-eyed throughout the entire book, but this scene was what did me in. Gong Hua thinks to himself that after all these years, it's this young woman who wasn't even part of the war who thanks him.
(Milaaaaaaaa)
As for the romance between Mila and Gong Hua, well, they both like each other, but they're both such good people that they can't allow themselves to do anything about it. Gong Hua wishes to be with his people and Mila wouldn't allow herself to leave with him. Gong Hua leaves medicine for her that will cure her crippled legs. It also cures her infertility. Now that she can have children, she immediately proposes to Prince Edward, who has always liked her. This way, she can watch over him and help maintain the peace that Gong Hua had worked so hard to build.
Milaaaaaaa. ;____; Just how good a person are you.... And Gong Hua... did you help Mila or doom her with that medicine??
Humans Vs Danya Vs Leafs
The conflict between humans and danyas drives a large part of the story, while the leafs are kind of tossed back and forth. The Leafs are a kind tribe that doesn't fight, so whenever faced with conflict, they surrender. And so, many leafs are enslaved. The danyas invade human land for want of crops and food. The only reason the humans are able to hold the danyas off is because of Gong Hua's existence. Gong Hua strikes so much fear into both sides that peace is maintained for twenty years. The danyas don't know that the humans no longer have Gong Hua to fight for them, and the humans cannot fight the danyas without Gong Hua. Meanwhile, the danyas enslave 3000 leafs who help them solve their food shortage for a while.
The king does not want war, but the prince wants war and so tries to assassinate the emissary from the danyas. Gong Hua does everything to try to save the emissary Jin Qier (who we find out at the end is the son of the danya's leader). Gong Hua escorts the emissary back to the danyas and is able to negotiate for the 3000 leafs.
[how this thread is tied up]
Surprisingly, this thread was tied up quite easily. The danyas are quite fond of the leafs, and since the leafs they have are all withering, they let go of them easily. The Leaf Lord brings crops and farming knowledge to the danyas to trade for the leafs. Now that the danyas have a ways of growing crops more easily, they no longer have need of invading human land.
Yeesh, you all should've traded a long time ago!
The nature of flowers
Another large part of the conflict was the nature of flowers. Gong Hua isn't human. He is a spiritual entity born to look after the leafs. He is born with great power that can easily be misused. Because the leaf abandoned him, he knows nothing about himself. When he accidentally massacres an entire village, he doesn't know that it's wrong to do so. Not at first. But when he gradually realizes the meaning of death, he is horrified by what he has done. He is one of the few flowers who knows the true meaning of death, of regret, of pain.
Other flowers are much more naive and less world-wise. The other male flower, since he dislikes fish being killed, will put a grilled fish back in the water and stare at it. No other flower has gone through what Gong Hua has suffered. However, Gong Hua eventually learns that all male flowers feel the need to protect the leaf, so much that they would be willing to massacre an entire village without even batting an eye. Gong Hua, however, is perhaps the only flower who would feel regret for doing so.
If Gong Hua had been taught from the start, perhaps he would not have misused his powers like that. But then he would not have learned how to be human. Ironically, it is perhaps because he has learned how to be human that the Leafs will continue to thrive.
The ending
So, like I've said, I thought the theme of this series was that despair is something you can never get out of, but it turns out that the theme is more something like there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. The cycle of revenge can be broken, and while there are some things you can never atone for, sometimes, it's not too late to start over.
[ramblings about the ending]
During the ending, we're shown Gong Hua finally settling in on the continent that all the leafs had departed to in the beginning. He is finally united with the leafs, and even Cas has come with him! I half thought that Cas would kill Gong Hua and then commit suicide or something, but instead, we actually got a happily ever after.
Gong Hua, determined to make sure that other races won't take advantage of the Leaf as easily in the future, starts training them. He makes them run eight laps everyday. At first, he just chose a small group of Leafs to train them, but then all of the Leaf join in, perhaps because they feel they owe him. (I giggled. Eight laps!)
The story ends with Gong Hua declaring that he wants to form an adventurer team. Will Cas join him? He wants the Leaf to gain more experience, so he will take groups of them out on adventures. He decides to name the adventurer team, "Sisha" which is the meaning of all life and the name of the world itself. Why? Because this is a group of leafs, of humans, of flowers. Of all life.
Gong Hua has really come very far. ♥
While the pacing of V4 was much faster than the previous 3 volumes, with the mysteries finally answered, I can finally say that I did enjoy Gong Hua as a whole. I expected a tragedy, and perhaps this would have been a stronger work if it really were a tragedy through and through, but I always enjoy happy endings, especially hard earned happy endings. =x
Now, if only fanfiction of Gong Hua existed. =x Does it even exist in Chinese... Don't tell me people haven't written Gong Hua x Cas stories with Cas being all, "Gong Hua darling, only I get to kill you~~" and all that. (Guess I should try googling) I'm kind of surprised the ending actually left Gong Hua's relationships open. Well, by "open," I mean that Gong Hua wasn't explicitly paired off (Yu Wo does seem to like giving the main character an official relationship). Mila got married off... Maybe because this is supposed to be a sadder story. :'D Anyway, it seems like Gong Hua will probably be together with the female flower for the sake of the leafs' wellbeing, but hey, Cas is around too. Perhaps they will bicker for an eternity.
Oh oh I see a fic on Yu Wo's forums about the new adventurer team. Yesss.
I have to hand it to Yu Wo. She really did conclude Gong Hua in four volumes instead of the six volumes mentioned! I approached V4 with much trepidation since the series seems to have been prematurely ended, and my impression was that Gong Hua is one of the less popular (yet harder to write) of Yu Wo's works, so perhaps there's little reward for continuing it further. Ironically, Gong Hua can perhaps be considered her most intricate and ambitious work, but it's definitely not as "fun" as her other series. With the series regarded as a tragedy, just how were things to be concluded? In a single volume, when the end had seemed so far off with the ending of volume 3? I was a little scared to find out!
Volume 1 insert. This is what I mean by ambitious. Yu Wo had grand plans for this series. She seems to approach writing much the way I do (just a few bullet points and then write away), but she put in a lot more planning for Gong Hua, figured out where all the locations were, how the plot should unfold, etc. The races in Gong Hua aren't the usual elf, dwarf, etc, but rather of her own invention. There are multiple conflicts rather than a single one, but they all branch from the same source.
Volume 2 insert. If only we had maps like these for Legend of Sun Knight, ahhhhhh.
Volume 3 insert. Cas on the left, Gong Hua in the back, and Litelli in the front, I believe.
Volume 4 insert. Yin Qie Zi, the Leaf Lord.
Spoilers abound! (But the most spoilerish parts are in lj-spoiler tags.)
Maybe it's because I don't remember V1-3 all too well, as it's been some time since I read them, but I enjoyed V4 quite a lot, and it tackled lots of different plot threads that I'd already forgotten. There really wasn't a single lull in the plot (perhaps too much tension, some might even argue?) Going by comments over at Yu Wo's blog, most people felt the pacing was too quick. I was amazed at how dense the novel was, which was both a good and a bad thing. Sure, the content could totally have been spread out over two novels instead, but some part of me also appreciated how no-nonsense the content was. It was like all the wishy-washiness had been cut out. It sort of even reflected Gong Hua's state of mind in this novel, just like how he found his purpose again! One thing was taken care of after another. Perhaps a bit too neatly? But I was more impressed than anything because there were some plot threads that I thought couldn't possibly be neatly tied up, but even those were dealt with.
The pacing, if V4 was its own series, would totally be fine, but compared to previous volumes, it is much faster. "All that buildup to a hasty ending!" is probably what a lot of people come away with! But I appreciate the ending for what it is and am glad that the major threads have all been tied up. V4 does however, feel a bit like a different series because of the shift in tone, the pacing, and how it dealt with all the outcomes instead of layering on more mysteries. V4 was totally a volume that unlocked all of the mysteries while V1-V3 were all "buildup buildup buildup".
The biggest question I had going in was: is this series really going to end in tragedy? Will Yu Wo really kill off the main character? Will the main character do something he will regret forever? Sure, she's "killed" her main characters before, but they always came back to life somehow and survived to the end, whether it was because they hadn't actually died or there was some method to bring them back to life. Gong Hua, though, I thought had more of a chance of dying than surviving, and even until the last few pages, I still thought he was going to die and that even though he solved everyone else's problems, he himself still couldn't have a happy ending. Well, in the end, I'd say that the tragic events all happened in the past, and the present was more... desperate attempts to keep a glimpse of hope going. I would not say the ending was a tragic one. V1 was definitely the most tragic, while later volumes less and less so.
Premise!
So, the premise of this entire story is that the Spiritual Tree is dying. Before dying, the Tree gives birth to a Flower to protect the Leaf. To avoid withering away themselves, the Leaf must leave the continent and travel to a different continent where there is another Spiritual Tree that they can live under. They leave behind their Flower because without the Spiritual Tree around, their Flower was bound to go crazy.
Abandoned, the Flower is taken in by humans who treat Flower like a specimen on display. Flower, although humanoid, does not have human reproductive systems and does not eat, only needing to drink water. The moment the Tree dies, Flower goes insane and kills everyone in the village.
Instead of water, Flower is soaked in blood from killing the village. This is the origin of all the tragedy in the series. Though perhaps the origin can be traced back to Gong Hua being abandoned.
Owen and Mila take Gong Hua in (When first asked for his name, he said he was a "male flower," which sounds like Gong Hua.) He looks like a young girl, so they treat him like one, but human gender doesn't really apply to him. (But later on, he chooses to be regarded as a guy). Cedric and his younger brother Cas, survivors from the village, are introduced to Gong Hua. Cas, who is around 10 years old at the time, even proposes to Gong Hua, wanting Gong Hua to be his wife. Once, when Cas goes to play with Gong Hua in the water, Mila has Gong Hua promise that Gong Hua will protect Cas too. Gong Hua promises, and it becomes like a mission to him. That he will protect Owen, Mila, and Cas.
But things don't go so smoothly. The spiritual beast Nightclaw attacks. In an attempt to protect Owen, Mila, and Cas, Gong Hua uses his powers, calling upon vines to protect everyone. Cedric realizes that Gong Hua was the very culprit who had killed off the entire village. Cas doesn't believe so right away, but Gong Hua apologizes just like how Cas had taught him, admitting that he'd made a mistake.
Owen and Cedric force Mila to feed Gong Hua poisoned soup. Gong Hua drinks it, knowing it is poisoned, but Mila is shocked. She didn't know it was poison. She thought it was just a sedative. She tries to run away with Gong Hua, never ever even considering abandoning him. Cedric accidentally kills her. Mila dies in Gong Hua's arms, but he doesn't even know she's dead and only thinks she is sleeping. She makes him promise to leave the continent, change his name, and never go and find Owen and Cas. Unfortunately, he doesn't follow her wishes.
When Owen and Cedric find them, Cedric tries to attack Gong Hua again and ends up splitting apart Mila's corpse. Enraged, Owen kills Cedric and runs away with Gong Hua. While fleeing, Gong Hua remembers his promise to protect Cas, so he tries to leave the mark of a Flower on Cas, but Owen thinks Gong Hua is attacking Cas so tries to stop him. Gong Hua ends up injuring Cas's left eye, forever leaving his mark on him.
After Owen escapes with Gong Hua, he flees to his cousin West Paladin's place. With only Owen left to protect, Gong Hua hangs onto his every word. Gong Hua ends up being used as a weapon in the army and wins most of their fights for them, forcing the Danya troops to retreat. All the while, their own troops regard Gong Hua with fear. Once they've won, Owen thinks he and Gong Hua can finally live peacefully and that the king will pardon them, but West tries to kill Gong Hua, pushing him into a pit and burning him. In an attempt to save Gong Hua from the fire, Owen dies. Gong Hua survives the burns. Litelli finds him and nurses him back to health. Gong Hua attacks West for revenge, only to find that he has lost his powers. He does not manage to kill West, only his wife. He also ends up crippling the daughter.
For twenty years, Gong Hua bides his time for revenge against the one who killed Owen.
And now, the different threads.
Gong Hua's revenge
Despite all that Owen did for West, West decided to kill Gong Hua, which resulted in Owen's death when he tried to protect Gong Hua. Even though Owen's mind became twisted after losing Mila and he did something Mila would never want him to do, using Gong Hua as a weapon, he comes back to himself when Gong Hua is endangered. He tries to save Gong Hua from the pit of fire and ends up dying instead. Gong Hua promised to himself that he would protect Owen, Mila, and Cas. When Owen dies, he thinks he has lost everything he needed to protect, and so he loses his powers as a Flower. A flower is born to protect the Leaf. When all of the Leaf abandoned him, Gong Hua instead latched onto Owen, Mila, and Cas to protect. Gong Hua is born to "protect." With the loss of Owen, Gong Hua loses his powers. He does not understand why he lost his powers until V4.
With Owen dead, Gong Hua loses himself and turns to revenge instead. He hangs on to Cas's words, that if someone hurts you, you should hurt him back. (At the time, Cas was only repeating his brother Cedric's words) However, without his powers as a flower, it isn't easy for him to kill West just like that. He waits for twenty years to come up with a plan to make West feel despair as deep as his. He learns medicine through the help of Litelli, who is part of a clan who lives to serve spiritual beasts. Litelli latches onto Gong Hua as his master.
Gong Hua's plan is to get close to West's children, a set of twins with the names of Owen and Mila, named after the deceased Owen and Mila. He gives three bottles of medicine to Owen. The first two bottles will give him a physical boost while the last bottle will kill him. Once Owen dies, Gong Hua believes that Mila will fall into despair and die as well. Once he sees his children dead, West will taste the same despair Gong Hua had when his Owen died.
What Gong Hua doesn't realize, however, is that once he approaches Owen and Mila as Yin Qie Zi, they would come to regard him as their friend. Mila even falls in love with him, and both of them keep his secret for him, that he's a flower.
He doesn't realize that taking revenge in such a way would probably hurt himself even more than hurting West. Or perhaps he does realize it, because his second target for revenge is himself. He believes it's his fault that Mila died, and that Cas's life turned out tragic. So he's always looking for ways to sabotage himself...
[how this thread is tied up]For a long time, Gong Hua doesn't have a purpose. He has no Leaf to protect. He managed to survive because he had Owen, Mila, and Cas to protect, but when Mila dies and then Owen as well, Gong Hua falls into despair and loses his power. He feels he has no one left to protect. He hurts and hurts and doesn't know what to do. In the midst of his despair, he remembers Cas's words about revenge. He decides to make West feel the same despair he felt from losing Owen.
On a mission to escort the danya back, Nightclaw comes after Gong Hua once more. Cas stays behind because Gong Hua might die. If so, then he wants to kill Gong Hua before that happens. Litelli manages to convince Cas that they have a chance, so they end up fighting Nightclaw together. During the fight, Gong Hua feels a strong urge to protect Cas, and so he regains his powers once more.
He learns from the female flower on the other continent (through dreams via using her hair) that there are 3000 Leafs enslaved by the danyas. After regaining his powers as a flower, Gong Hua hears the voices of those 3000 Leafs and nearly goes crazy with the need to save them. He learns that the Tree gave birth to him in order for him to support these 3000 Leafs, because if he had not been on the continent for these past twenty years, they would have died a long time ago without the presence of the Tree. The only reason they are still alive is because of Gong Hua's existence. However, it has been so long that the Leafs will soon wither. Gong Hua, now struck with the need to protect, is no longer as focused on revenge. But he has already given the poison to Owen, and if he doesn't deal with his past with West, he can't move on.
So he pays West a visit. I really wondered how this encounter would go. Would Gong Hua really let Owen die? His hatred had already ebbed a lot by this time, and Owen is his friend. So, I was somewhat shocked that Owen did indeed down the poison, and Gong Hua only uttered "Owen" at the last minute, too late to stop him. This of course, all happened in front of West, who realized right when Gong Hua apologized to Owen that something was wrong. Gong Hua lets his hair fly up, which immediately clues West in about his identity. He just never thought "Yin Qie Zi" and Gong Hua were one and the same because he had always thought Gong Hua to be a girl. West asks why Gong Hua didn't kill him. Why go after his son and wife? Gong Hua answers, "Because you didn't kill me." You killed my Owen.
West reveals that Owen had believed that the king would welcome Gong Hua, but West knew that things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. The king would have wanted to use Gong Hua as a weapon but Gong Hua only answered to Owen. In the end, there would have been a huge massacre. West had only wanted to prevent that. Gong Hua was too dangerous a weapon. He hadn't wanted to hurt Owen. He didn't think Owen would jump down the pit to save Gong Hua. If he knew Owen would do that, he would have let them go. Both of them. He just hadn't wanted Owen to leave.
Gong Hua is infuriated by West's answer, but he also hears the truth in it. After living among humans for the past twenty years, he knows a lot more about human customs and politics. Things would not have gone as perfectly as Owen had hoped. Gong Hua reveals that there is an antidote for the "poison." West's son is only temporarily dead. He can be revived within 24 hours, but if 24 hours pass, then he will be truly dead. This is a "fake death" medicine that Litelli urged him to use. Because Litelli had always had the intention to secretly revive Owen. He did not want his master to regret his actions.
West doesn't understand what Gong Hua wants. Gong Hua just makes West to promise to help him by looking after 10 rescued Leafs. Even Gong Hua is surprised he can walk away from his revenge.
In the end, Gong Hua, because of regaining his purpose of "protecting," no longer has need of revenge. Revenge was something he used to fill in the void because he didn't know what to do, only that he didn't want to forget. So he hung on to his strongest emotions at the time, which were pain and hatred. I wondered how Gong Hua's revenge would be settled. There was a lot of buildup for his revenge throughout V1-V3, with Owen and Mila playing large parts, but they kind of faded away in V4 until their final confrontation. Was the final confrontation a bit of a cop out? Definitely. It actually felt like an aside. Then again, at the point in time of the confrontation, revenge is definitely an aside for Gong Hua. It's no longer his purpose.
I'm not sure what to feel about Owen being given just a fake death medicine. I'm happy for Owen that his "friend" hadn't killed him, and I'm happy for Gong Hua that he didn't do yet another thing that he would regret for an eternity, that he was indeed able to move past his revenge, but after three volumes of buildup, things were sure solved neatly, without lasting repercussions. It makes me feel a little cheated.
It turns out that the moral of the story is that you can move past revenge. There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time, I thought this story was a tragedy emphasizing that no matter what you do, it's hopeless! (I do appreciate happy endings though! Just didn't think this would get one.)
Cas's revenge
At first, Cas's older brother Cedric is the one bent on taking revenge for their slaughtered family that died in the village Gong Hua went crazy in. Cas himself doesn't understand revenge. It's not like the people who died would come back to life!
But when his brother Cedric is killed by Owen, and he thinks Gong Hua attacked him and gave him an eye injury, his feelings start to change.
He starts to believe that Gong Hua is the one who took everything from him. His mother. His father. His sister. His sister's baby. His brother. His village. (And even his first love) He trusted Gong Hua so much, yet Gong Hua took everything from him!
Cas is adopted by a prestigious family (Dainadan). But he leaves the family and becomes an assassin called Left Eye. He could have become a spiritmancer or some other occupation, but for the sake of exacting his vengeance, assassin is the best path. He works under a group of assassins for a long while, but he leaves the group when he is ordered to assassinate his "younger" brother (Ansiailuo), who is part of his adopted family. He takes two other assassins from the group and escapes. He rats the group out and then heads back with his subordinates to watch the hanging.
Throughout the years, he searches for Gong Hua, not knowing that Gong Hua has now chosen to appear as a guy. He is later approached by the king and becomes the king's special assassin. He's not given a choice.
Cas encounters Gong Hua once more when Gong Hua approaches West for revenge. Cas immediately stabs Gong Hua as a way of greeting him, but he doesn't kill Gong Hua. He doesn't just want to kill Gong Hua. He wants to torture him. He learns of Gong Hua's intention of getting revenge and settles for watching the show because he feels Gong Hua is doing a marvelous job hurting himself.
He always says that if Gong Hua is about to die, then Cas will kill him first. Gong Hua promises Cas that he will let him kill him, but only after Gong Hua takes his revenge. So, Cas waits.
Cas and Gong Hua's relationship is really quite deep. Full of conflicts. Full of regret. I always felt the story was more interesting when both were in the same scene. They know each other because of their shared past, yet they don't really know each other. They'd protect each other (Gong Hua goes without saying), but Cas will too because Gong Hua is his to hurt and no one else's.
Cas both loves and hates Gong Hua. Gong Hua's existence is one he will never forget. His encounter with Gong Hua shapes his entire life.
[how this thread is tied up]
Gong Hua has always promised Cas that he will let Cas kill him, but once Gong Hua learns that the 3000 Leafs would die if Gong Hua dies, he does not want to die anymore. He asks Cas to help him save the 3000 Leafs, and Cas actually helps come up with a plan.
After Gong Hua manages to save the Leafs and say farewell to Mila, Cas and Gong Hua have their final encounter, one that really can't be left out. Now that Gong Hua has "taken" his revenge and accomplished his mission of saving the Leafs, he has no more regrets! However, he yearns to go to the other continent to unite with the Leaf tribe, but he won't. He owes Cas too much, and so Gong Hua stays behind. For Cas. So that Cas can put an end to his revenge.
Cas knows that his family would not berate him if he kills Gong Hua. In fact, no one will, because they're all dead.
Cas stabs Gong Hua.
However, we are shown that Gong Hua doesn't die. Although Cas stabbed him straight through the heart, Gong Hua would not die from just one stab. Cas and his two subordinates follow Gong Hua to the other continent to escape from the clutches of the royal family.
In a way, they make up with each other and kind of live peacefully. I actually find it a bit surreal. After all that hatred, you're content with one stab? I suppose... Cas never did stop loving Gong Hua even while he hated Gong Hua. Gong Hua made him lose everything, yet Gong Hua is also the only one he has left. Cas was stuck in the same dilemma as Gong Hua's. Taking his vengeance would only hurt himself, but he never does realize that. Their lives are so intertwined. He would definitely feel empty without Gong Hua's presence. The thought of taking revenge on Gong Hua has driven him his entire life.
In the end, even he moves past revenge. He explains that in these years of chasing after Gong Hua, he probably knows more about flowers than even Gong Hua himself. Like Gong Hua, Cas becomes more world-wise. He understands what made Gong Hua lose himself. He just hadn't wanted to admit it.
Nightclaw's appearances
Nightclaw is a recurring spiritual beast. During his first appearance, he forces Gong Hua to use his powers to save Owen, Mila, and Cas, and thus Cedric learns that Gong Hua is the culprit behind the village's massacre. Nightclaw states that Gong Hua has strayed from his path, but Gong Hua declares that the Leaf have abandoned him. His path right now is the protect Owen, Mila, and Cas. With his powers, Gong Hua chases Nightclaw off.
In their second encounter, Gong Hua actually defeats Nightclaw and obtains a powerful sword that Owen names "Nightclaw" after the beast. Once Gong Hua loses his powers, he uses this sword as his weapon. It is one of the few weapons that can damage Nightclaw.
In their final encounter, Nightclaw is bent on defeating Gong Hua because of the defeat he had suffered under Gong Hua's hands. He also wishes to absorb Gong Hua to obtain power. Since Gong Hua no longer has his powers, he stands no chance against Nightclaw. Nightclaw once again states that Gong Hua has strayed from his path. Why is he even still alive? During his fight with Nightclaw, Gong Hua regains his purpose.
It is to protect.
I found it interesting that Nightclaw was used each time to make Gong Hua question his path and purpose. Nightclaw seems to be a metaphor for natural disaster in that he can't be stopped. It seems that in the story, only another natural disaster (such as Gong Hua) can fight evenly against him.
Indigo's revenge
Indigo is one of the four warlords of the danyas. On the battlefield 20 years ago, Owen ordered Gong Hua to attack him. The easiest way to win the war is to take out the commander. Gong Hua does as Owen ordered, however, when Gong Hua attacks, instead of killing Indigo, a female leaf by the name of Shui Lan jumps in front of Indigo. Gong Hua accidentally kills her instead. Only after the act does he realize that he has killed a member of the Leaf.
Only then does he even realize there are still Leafs around.
Shui Lan and Indigo are lovers. To protect him, Shui Lan jumps in front of him, knowing that flowers would never hurt members of the Leaf. But when she is stabbed, she understands that Gong Hua has lost himself. Her dying words are for Indigo to protect the flower. Indigo promises that he will do so. He also promises himself that he will exact vengeance for her. He knows she doesn't want vengeance because the Leaf are a kind race, but he wishes to do so anyway.
For twenty years, he doesn't know that his two promises contradict each other. His target for revenge is the very flower that Shui Lan wants him to protect. He chases after Gong Hua, and even though Gong Hua can easily kill him, Gong Hua flees each time, as if afraid to confront him.
Gong Hua is indeed afraid, plagued by memories of killing Shui Lan, a member of the leaf, someone he should have protected! His purpose is to protect the leaf. Yet he killed her instead!
Indigo, weakened by Gong Hua's attack, is near death by the time we see him twenty years later. Gold (Jin Qier) asks Gong Hua to make medicine for Indigo, which Gong Hua gladly makes. He owes Indigo too much.
[how this thread is tied up]
Indigo, because of having Shui Lan as a lover, has always been fond of the leafs. He turned his life mission into acquiring as many of the leaf as he can, spending all his money buying leafs from others so that he can protect them. He asks them time and time again about their tribe and their flower, but they all remain tight-lipped. They know they are naive. The don't know if they would endanger others of the leaf if they accidentally say something they shouldn't have. So even though they quite like Indigo, all of them resolve never to say anything about the leaf. Especially not about flower.
Indigo nearly thinks he cannot carry out Shui Lan's wish of protecting the flower. He searches all these years but finds very little clues.
During the battle with Nightclaw, Gold discovers that Gong Hua is the killer Indigo has been looking for and, at first, tries to kill him, but when Gold then discovers that Gong Hua is a flower, he feels despair for Indigo. The killer and flower are one and the same. What course of action will Indigo take?
Gold doesn't tell Indigo about Gong Hua's identity, wanting Indigo to drink the medicine Gong Hua made first. He's afraid Indigo won't drink the medicine once he learns of Gong Hua's identity. The medicine indeed returns life back to Indigo, and he feels better than ever.
When Gong Hua arrives at Indigo's house, he meets all the Leafs Indigo has acquired over the years. They are all stuck to the beds, unable to get off, weakened without the presence of their tree. They've hung on for twenty years, but they've reached their limit. When they see Gong Hua, one of them utters, "You've finally came..." Flower. Even to her dying breath, she, like all the others, resolves never to reveal information about him.
When it appears that she has died, and Cas flippantly says that Gong Hua is too late to save these dying Leafs, might as well give up, Gong Hua flies into a frenzy. Vines explode from the house. Indigo learns of Gong Hua's identity in the worst way possible.
Gong Hua is Shui Lan's killer. But Gong Hua is also the leafs' flower. Why had he hurt Shui Lan? Isn't he supposed to protect the Leaf?
Despite his conflicting feelings, he knows that Shui Lan wouldn't want him to hurt Gong Hua.
In the end, Indigo was quite a good guy... In fact, the danyas weren't bad at all despite being cast as the villains. It really is a matter of perspective because Indigo was fighting for his kinsmen. He had his own reasons to fight.
Yin Qie Zi (Leaf Lord)
We're given glimpses of the Leaf Lord throughout the series. He is a fairly straightforward person, full of regret for leaving behind their flower. His side of the story, I thought, was just as straightforward as he is, though his abandonment of Gong Hua is what leads to all the tragedy.
His duty is to look after the Leaf. Flower will go crazy, so they must leave him behind.
He never forgives himself for leaving behind Flower, and he never forgives himself for the 3000 Leaf they leave behind either. He thought them long dead, but after twenty years, when he hears that they are still alive, that Gong Hua even gave himself a name, Yin Qie Zi immediately wants to go back for them.
And he does.
Maybe twenty years is too late. Or maybe sometimes, it's never too late.
Mila
Both Milas play an important role in Gong Hua's life. The first Mila chooses never to abandon Gong Hua. She learns that Gong Hua isn't human and has strange powers. She's scared of Gong Hua, but she also loves Gong Hua out of the bottom of her heart and doesn't believe Gong Hua can do any wrong. Gong Hua is so innocent! Gong Hua just didn't know better. Gong Hua just needs to be taught. When she is forced to feed Gong Hua poisoned soup, her heart is just about the break when she realizes that Gong Hua knew it was poisoned. She decides to run away with Gong Hua but dies in the process.
She makes Gong Hua promise her to leave the continent, to change his name, and to never find Owen and Cas again. Gong Hua only manages to change his name.
The second Mila grows to love Gong Hua, and she is always eager to help Gong Hua learn more about himself. She helps him research the Leaf and Flowers. She's the one who lets Gong Hua know that the Leaf probably had a reason they couldn't take him along. Gong Hua would go crazy after the Tree dies.
Despite Mila's kindness, Gong Hua is only using her to take revenge on West. She always has a bodyguard with her, so Gong Hua bides his time, until they trust him enough to leave him alone with her.
[how this thread is tied up]
Once Gong Hua's drive for revenge fades, "killing" Mila doesn't even cross his mind. But revealing his hand against Owen and West means that Mila learns that Gong Hua is the one who killed her mother and crippled her. And now, Gong Hua has nearly killed her brother too.
However, Mila thanks Gong Hua for not killing her brother. She understands Gong Hua's actions. They had been in a war back then, and her father made a mistake. She is sorry that her father killed Gong Hua's Owen. She cannot forgive Gong Hua for killing her mother, but she thanks him for all he did in the war, because without him, her father surely would already be dead. They would not have won the war.
I wasn't teary-eyed throughout the entire book, but this scene was what did me in. Gong Hua thinks to himself that after all these years, it's this young woman who wasn't even part of the war who thanks him.
(Milaaaaaaaa)
As for the romance between Mila and Gong Hua, well, they both like each other, but they're both such good people that they can't allow themselves to do anything about it. Gong Hua wishes to be with his people and Mila wouldn't allow herself to leave with him. Gong Hua leaves medicine for her that will cure her crippled legs. It also cures her infertility. Now that she can have children, she immediately proposes to Prince Edward, who has always liked her. This way, she can watch over him and help maintain the peace that Gong Hua had worked so hard to build.
Milaaaaaaa. ;____; Just how good a person are you.... And Gong Hua... did you help Mila or doom her with that medicine??
Humans Vs Danya Vs Leafs
The conflict between humans and danyas drives a large part of the story, while the leafs are kind of tossed back and forth. The Leafs are a kind tribe that doesn't fight, so whenever faced with conflict, they surrender. And so, many leafs are enslaved. The danyas invade human land for want of crops and food. The only reason the humans are able to hold the danyas off is because of Gong Hua's existence. Gong Hua strikes so much fear into both sides that peace is maintained for twenty years. The danyas don't know that the humans no longer have Gong Hua to fight for them, and the humans cannot fight the danyas without Gong Hua. Meanwhile, the danyas enslave 3000 leafs who help them solve their food shortage for a while.
The king does not want war, but the prince wants war and so tries to assassinate the emissary from the danyas. Gong Hua does everything to try to save the emissary Jin Qier (who we find out at the end is the son of the danya's leader). Gong Hua escorts the emissary back to the danyas and is able to negotiate for the 3000 leafs.
[how this thread is tied up]
Surprisingly, this thread was tied up quite easily. The danyas are quite fond of the leafs, and since the leafs they have are all withering, they let go of them easily. The Leaf Lord brings crops and farming knowledge to the danyas to trade for the leafs. Now that the danyas have a ways of growing crops more easily, they no longer have need of invading human land.
Yeesh, you all should've traded a long time ago!
The nature of flowers
Another large part of the conflict was the nature of flowers. Gong Hua isn't human. He is a spiritual entity born to look after the leafs. He is born with great power that can easily be misused. Because the leaf abandoned him, he knows nothing about himself. When he accidentally massacres an entire village, he doesn't know that it's wrong to do so. Not at first. But when he gradually realizes the meaning of death, he is horrified by what he has done. He is one of the few flowers who knows the true meaning of death, of regret, of pain.
Other flowers are much more naive and less world-wise. The other male flower, since he dislikes fish being killed, will put a grilled fish back in the water and stare at it. No other flower has gone through what Gong Hua has suffered. However, Gong Hua eventually learns that all male flowers feel the need to protect the leaf, so much that they would be willing to massacre an entire village without even batting an eye. Gong Hua, however, is perhaps the only flower who would feel regret for doing so.
If Gong Hua had been taught from the start, perhaps he would not have misused his powers like that. But then he would not have learned how to be human. Ironically, it is perhaps because he has learned how to be human that the Leafs will continue to thrive.
The ending
So, like I've said, I thought the theme of this series was that despair is something you can never get out of, but it turns out that the theme is more something like there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. The cycle of revenge can be broken, and while there are some things you can never atone for, sometimes, it's not too late to start over.
[ramblings about the ending]
During the ending, we're shown Gong Hua finally settling in on the continent that all the leafs had departed to in the beginning. He is finally united with the leafs, and even Cas has come with him! I half thought that Cas would kill Gong Hua and then commit suicide or something, but instead, we actually got a happily ever after.
Gong Hua, determined to make sure that other races won't take advantage of the Leaf as easily in the future, starts training them. He makes them run eight laps everyday. At first, he just chose a small group of Leafs to train them, but then all of the Leaf join in, perhaps because they feel they owe him. (I giggled. Eight laps!)
The story ends with Gong Hua declaring that he wants to form an adventurer team. Will Cas join him? He wants the Leaf to gain more experience, so he will take groups of them out on adventures. He decides to name the adventurer team, "Sisha" which is the meaning of all life and the name of the world itself. Why? Because this is a group of leafs, of humans, of flowers. Of all life.
Gong Hua has really come very far. ♥
While the pacing of V4 was much faster than the previous 3 volumes, with the mysteries finally answered, I can finally say that I did enjoy Gong Hua as a whole. I expected a tragedy, and perhaps this would have been a stronger work if it really were a tragedy through and through, but I always enjoy happy endings, especially hard earned happy endings. =x
Now, if only fanfiction of Gong Hua existed. =x Does it even exist in Chinese... Don't tell me people haven't written Gong Hua x Cas stories with Cas being all, "Gong Hua darling, only I get to kill you~~" and all that. (Guess I should try googling) I'm kind of surprised the ending actually left Gong Hua's relationships open. Well, by "open," I mean that Gong Hua wasn't explicitly paired off (Yu Wo does seem to like giving the main character an official relationship). Mila got married off... Maybe because this is supposed to be a sadder story. :'D Anyway, it seems like Gong Hua will probably be together with the female flower for the sake of the leafs' wellbeing, but hey, Cas is around too. Perhaps they will bicker for an eternity.
Oh oh I see a fic on Yu Wo's forums about the new adventurer team. Yesss.