I am often bothered by some of the details of legendary epics. Below are three legendary characters from those epics that practically pissed me off ...
Zhao Min/Tio Beng
From: Louis Cha's Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre
She is the "true love" of Zhang Wuji/Thio Bu Ki. I am pissed by her because she is the very definition of a traitor. Oh yeah, she betrayed her family, her nation, her culture for a man. My bullshit detector AUTOMATICALLY detected 2 double standards at the same time:
1) If a man do that, he would be reviled. You betray your own nation for a woman? LOW LIFE TRAITOR! His reputation won't be far from Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Quisling, or Wang Jingwei. Really. But since it is a woman who do that for a man ... "AAAAAH, so romantic!" Bullshit.
2) If a Chinese do that, she would be reviled too. How dare you betray the glorious middle Kingdom, center of the universe! But since she is a Mongol who actually betray her nation for the Chinese, suddenly it is all okay. Bullshit again!
A traitor is a traitor. He/she maybe useful, but I won't trust him/her. Let alone making her the main love interest. That's why I really can't enjoy this last part of the condor trilogy as much as the previous 2 parts.
 |
| Lauw Pie. From US Public Domain. |
Liu Bei/Lauw Pie
From: Luo Guanzhong/Lo Kuan Chong's Romances of the Three Kingdoms
This legendary novel tried REALLY HARD making Liu Bei the nicest politician in the story. Many pointed out that Lauw Pie is the best emperor among his peers of that time. There is only 2 problems though ...
1) That claim is basically based on an ancient notion that an emperor was chosen because his father is an emperor, or at least he has some family ties with previous emperors. Not because he is the most qualified man in the country. Even the genius Zhuge Liang/Cukat Liang used this argument. Whenever he debated on the topic of the best emperor candidate, he always returned to this argument: "He has the surname Lauw, the surname of the Emperors of the Han Dynasty! Oh yeah, the imperial historians already approved that he really descended from the Han Dynasty! Even Cao Cao/Co Coh can't deny that!" I know I has to put this in context, that this happens 2000 years ago, when "meritocracy" is still limited to cabinet level, but seriously, it become tiresome when they repeat this argument for the 1000th time.
2) He is a hypocrite. Really. After sooo many times spouted about "filial duties" "Confucian ideals" "put the people first" yadda yadda yadda, he finally met his end because he invaded Sun Kwan, to avenge his sworn brother, Guan Yu/Kwan Kong. Oh by the way, Sun Kwan realized his mistakes, and tried EVERYTHING to appease Lauw Pie. But no. That is not good enough. All his ministers, and generals, Cukat Liang included, tried EVERYTHING to change his mind. No. Revenge was his priority, not the people, not the country. After several months (or years?) of preparation, and ignoring Sun Kwan's and his minister's pleas, he finally invaded Sun Kwan. And all ended in fire ...
Cao Cao/Co Coh on the other hand ... is a ruthless bastard. But at least he didn't pretend to be "Just, filial, and above all ... nice"! Sun Kwan was something in the middle. Not as ruthless as Co Coh, but far less hypocritical than Lauw Pie. Either one of them was the far superior emperor's candidate.
So tell me again why Lauw Pie is our best candidate for the emperor position?
 |
| The purity test. From US Public Domain. |
Rama
From: Valmiki's Ramayana
Okay, no more Chinese character bashing. This time it is the Indian's turn. Let's talk about RAMA, the main hero of the epic "Ramayana." He was forced to leave his kingdom with his wife, Sinta, and his younger brother Lakhsmana. During that exile, Rahvana the demon king kidnapped Sinta. He lead an army of monkeys (I kid you not) to rescue his wife. Long story short, he defeated Rahvana and his demonic army. But, that is not the end of the epic. He suspected that Sinta was raped by Rahvana, so he tested Sinta by ordering her to walk into the fire of purity.
WHAAAAAT??
Are you fuckin kiddin me? He asked Sinta, a woman without magical or fighting or any other battle skill, to resist the Demon King rape? If the Demon King REALLY forcefully raped her, it would be her fault? As a decent human being I AM DISGUSTED! "A wife that is raped by another man can be killed" is a very despicable moral ... who am I kidding, many men are obsessed with virginity, obsessed with thinking that their woman is their PROPERTY, of course this kind of thinking is not unusual. Yeah, but it is still disgusting. Rama never loves Sinta. He only loves his ego. His ego was HURT when another man "steal his property." His ego is the priority. His ego has to be satisfied, he couldn't "lose face" accepting back "used goods". What a misogynist jerk!
No wonder that Lakshmana, and EVERY SINGLE MONKEY there were horrified. Heck, even the remaining demons were all appalled! Oh yeah, by the way, if Sinta is really raped by Rahvana and FAIL at that test ... that means THOUSANDS of his monkeys army died for nothing. If I were them, I would be VERY PISSED. Same case with the remaining demons who just lost their king over this Indian version of Helen of Troy.
Boy, I really wished Lakshmana snapped and provoked the whole monkey and demon armies to actually ganged up on Rama, and teach him a lesson to respect female! That would be awesome!
No comments:
Post a Comment