Review V2 : The Ravages of Time

Another entry for The Ravages of Time.

The last volume is number 34, we are still in the early stage of the Three Kingdoms saga. Lu Bu has just died and now the focal point will be Sun Ce and his demise. Still, it will be a not-so-short way there.

Lu Bu, in the comic, is not as stupid as depicted in the novel, even his plea for life at the very end of his life is a plan. What is the use of reputation when one is dead? As long as you life, there will still be a chance.

This comic series and evoked my interest in the Three Kingdoms again, and thus, I started to re-watch the Chinese made TV series. In the series, it is just around 20th episodes and Sun Ce already dead. Looks like this comic progress slower than the already slow plot Chinese series.

But what to do, it is the magic of this comic series. A single battle in the original historical text, or even the highly fictionalized novel or the TV series, may only occupied one chapter or a scene, but in this comic series, it can span for a few volume. Reason being, the author took the same liberty as the author of The Romance of The Three Kingdoms novel to add more dramatic twist and character development in it. Thus, even if it is a small battle in history, or even in the novel, the comic writer gives it depth and made it exciting.

The one-eyed guy was an assassin, who later become Zhao Yun, his is not partial blind despite the eye patch; the long hair guy next to him is his boss Sima Yi, the main character of this comic and the far fight pretty lady is Xiao Meng, later known as Diao Zhan. He is an eunuch.

With each chapter, each volume, each battle, we get more insight of what may be playing in the characters' minds and how our perception of certain characters may be wrong or misled by the highly popular novel version of it. As a matter of fact, The Romance of Three Kingdoms is biased and derived a lot from the historical Chronicles of The Three Kingdoms. Since the novel can be written in such inaccuracy, why not a modern comic writer do the same? And the best thing is, he does it better~!

Diao Chan, the ultimate woman in the story, who being of one of the main course of dispute between Lu Bu and his foster father Dong Zuo was an eunuch, means this two dude is fighting for an Ah-Gua.

Left is Guan Yu, looks rather 'normal', moustache Jesus lookalike is Liu Bei and the opera mask is Zhang Fei, the protagonist I hated most in the novel but one of my favourite character in this comic. In the comic, he is also an established artist. Character design of him partially due to there is no actual historical record on how he actually looks like. The typical description of him are based to the popular novel. Seriously, if he really acts like in the novel, he should be dead since chapter zero.

Dong Zuo is not as stupid as depicted in the novel, and overall, almost none of the character in the comic is really stupid. It is always mentioned in the comic that there is no bad emperors or kings, all one to be good and serve his subject, it is just the propaganda from the rebel in order to justify their act, and a way historian makes every change of dynasty acceptable. History, is still depends on who is in charge.

Reading this comic, makes me think, how true is everything in the news? How true is our textbooks? Our history? All is written by human with his or her point of view, and as human, one can never ever really be objective.

6 out of the 8 Enigmas from the school that produces tacticians. Zhuge-liang, not pictured in number 7 while number 8 is still not revealed. The first one Yuan Fang, is an original fiction character.