One of my favorite literacy pieces is Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ironically my favorite game is Dynasty Warriors so for a special top ten here are my top ten favorite moments from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Note that all entries must reference the original source material or in some cases at least make sense in context.
Honorable Mention: Zhang He’s Dance Ending
Wei General Zhang He is no stranger to being fabulous and emphasizes this best in an old Dynasty Warriors ending where he gets his whole army to dance; made even funnier in the dub when you consider that his voice is also fabulous, but misses the list as it’s obviously not accurate to the source material.
10. Meng Huo & Zhurong’s Escape & Captures
When the Nanman tribes came into the story, the Shu army didn’t know what to make of the husband and wife team of Meng Huo & Zhurong who constantly kept getting captured until eventually they conceded defeat and joined the Shu ranks.
9. Yueying & Her Pets
Yueying on her own is the most unique of all the females in the original story, she was said to be plain looking with red hair and a small tan, when you consider standards back then she would be considered ugly, especially when other females were depicted as being either stunningly beautiful or warrior women. The story depicts her challenging various suitors to dare remove her veil; however it was Zhuge Liang who saw through the whole thing, and approached Yueying not for her beauty but for her brains. Although Yueying’s pets aren’t accurate to the source material, it is still insanely awesome to have ancient Chinese tanks shaped like Tigers that shoot fire.
8. Jiang Wei’s Arrow Catch
During a battle, strategist Jiang Wei dropped his quiver, when that happened he accidentally caught an arrow aimed at him, he returned the arrow and killed his assailant Guo Huai in one shot, I always complain about Jiang Wei being a cheap imitation of Zhou Yu, and his strained dub voice doesn’t help but does restore some pride with this scene.
7. Sun Quan Kills Zhang Liao
Zhang Liao has been a thorn in Wu’s side since the battle of Hefei, so it makes it all the more satisfying when Sun Quan takes him down with one stab to the torso in such a bad ass way, the cut scene I reference is the one in DW7, when Zhang Liao attacks Sun Quan, but is held off by Lianshi & Ding Feng which follows with Sun Quan killing him with a single stab. Again it’s not that accurate but makes sense in context and is awesome.
6. Dian Wei’s Last Stand
In a defiant standoff against increasing attacks, Dian Wei was able to protect Lord Cao Cao during his escape from an enemy compound, it would’ve been considered a noble sacrifice, but Cao Cao decided to hire the man who masterminded the whole thing. It’s been said that Cao Cao didn’t care much but lamented losing Dian Wei, along with Guo Jia & Xiahou Yuan up until his death.
5. Guan Yu’s Last Stand
But Guan Yu gets bonus points for a noble sacrifice and managing to kill the General who committed the murder through haunting him to death, so says the entry on the Battle of Fan Castle. Lu Meng was already sick but was finished off by the attack, Guan Yu stood defiant in a death not much different to Whitebeard’s in One Piece.
4. Zhang Fei’s You Shall Not Pass
Zhang Fei maybe a prolific drunk but at the battle of Chengban he stood at the bridge and let out a massive warcry, loud enough to scare off the pursuing army. This scene is in the source material.
3. Xiahou Dun’s Eye
If you’re squeamish, then I suggest you skip this entry. During a fight against Lu Bu’s troops, Xiahou Dun was shot in the eye by an arrow, and this is the squeamish bit; he plucked out his eye and ate it, not joking, he ate his eye. Not just bad ass and defiant but utterly disgusting as well.
2. Zhao Yun’s Epic Rescue Mission
Back at Chengban and while retreating from Wei troops with peasants, Liu Bei carelessly left his baby son behind in a garrison. General Zhao Yun plows through a storm of troops, retrieves the baby and proceeds to plow through the troops again to return the baby to his father. Sadly what stopped this from being number one is Liu Bei then throwing the baby to the floor and scolding Zhao Yun for putting himself in unnecessary danger.
Liu Bei apparently said in the source material that Generals were like limbs and women & children were like clothes; you can replace torn clothes but you cannot replace lost limbs; For a man who dictates benevolence, he’s quite an ass hole when it comes to family matters, he even over looked his son for Emperor of Shu insisting Zhuge Liang become Emperor instead.
1. The Battle of Chibi
It is the defining moment of the whole of the Three Kingdoms story when Wu & Shu collaborated in a fire attack that destroyed the entire Wei Navy.
Pang Tong acted as an insider and tied all the ships together, Lu Su drew Cao Cao’s troops north to distract him from the place of attack, Zhuge Liang prayed for the winds to change direction to South East, (Romanticized, In reality it is implied that they obtained the knowledge from a local fisherman) Huang Gai acted as a traitor before crashing his ship into the fleet and setting the whole navy on fire, a defector within Wei also blocked the escape of Cao Cao and his men. They were then chased out of Chibi, Guan Yu had a chance to finish them off but his honor didn’t allow him to harm Cao Cao as a return for him giving Guan Yu mercy when he was captured. It would’ve been kinder to kill Cao Cao, he was left to wallow in defeat until dying of natural causes not long after Guan Yu.
The entire plan was all down to Zhuge Liang, China’s greatest strategist. A victory which marked the three kingdoms era.
