Let's see how the party went, shall we?

The "Good" people hold a mother and children hostage, then kill them, while other "Good" people watch and do nothing, giving their tacit consent.

The "Evil" people are composing sweet, sweet music in the mountains.

That's it... I am apparently evil.

I've seen this disc before. A couple of years ago I went through ( Read more... )

While watching Sword Stained with Royal Blood, people kept referring to the "stupid king", or "that stupid king Chongzhen" (那昏君崇祯, I think). In Iron Empress, I keep wanting people to start saying the same thing (though in Korean). Because wow, stupid king. Like Chongzhen in the other show, this guy is constantly believing the lies of evil ( Read more... )

In the end, it's not one of the better shows I've seen, but it has its moments.

The bad first: there are some silly scenes. The entry into the lair of the Five Poisons Cult is one of the better examples of the bad. It's just... indescribable. Sometimes He Tieshou and her aunt are caricatures. Later on, when they gain some depth, it only makes more ( Read more... )

Chongzhen Emperor: "The country is in trouble because I'm incompetent."

Yes, that is kind of the problem with everything, isn't it? At least you admit it.
Chengzhi: "Oh, I almost forgot: People in the palace are conspiring with Prince Hui to kill your father tonight and take over the country."

How do you almost forget that when you're talking to ( Read more... )

It's hard to remember specific examples, because it's everywhere. The way we absorb stories and pieces of stories over a lifetime, you just get impressions of certain figures. Archetypes. In stories, the person who knows, develops and uses poisons is generally a bad person. A Prince or Evil Minister descends stairs into a dark lair to obtain ( Read more... )

1. Why is there always an Evil Poison Cult?

2. Why doesn't everyone have a Magic Ice Toad?

3. Is "let's just run in and kill stuff... again" really as effective a strategy as it looks?

4. When it was obvious that all the rebels knew the Princess on a "hi there!" basis, why didn't the Jinyi Wei commander standing right there ask her "What's up with ( Read more... )

The first few episodes were kind of shaky. Qingqing has been raised by Repugnant Family, and it took some time to move the story away from them. And for a while there seemed to be so many factions/groups, I was just bewildered. Now everything has settled down into three factions.

I'm enjoying the story, actually. It's not terribly deep, but it's ( Read more... )

As I'm on the last disk of Condor Heroes, I'm thinking about what's coming up. I'm still fiercely caught within a need for wuxia, so it looks like some or all of the following might happen soon:

• Sword Stained with Royal Blood
• Chinese Paladin 3
  
• Da Ren Wu (Big Shot)
  
• Patriotic Knights
  
• Romance of Red Dust
  

Watching the credits for Condor Heroes again, I'm remembering that I really liked Yang Kang back when he was trying to be a good guy. I'm slowly remembering what was happening, and now after episode 35 I think I pretty much remember... except I'm a little unclear on what Yang Kang thinks he's doing at this point. "I'm going to infiltrate the Jin ( Read more... )