Sunday, October 27, 2013

Here's a history lesson for ya

So Alex's post gave me the idea to do my own on a game I've been talking about: Dynasty Warriors. It currently has 8 games in the series and I started playing at number 3 when I was in 3rd grade.

So I'll tell you the story of the Three Kingdoms and Jin.

Currently in number 7 which is what I've been playing (I'm too broke to buy 8) these are the character available to play

I'm not going to tell you who all these people are or else we'd be here forever.

So there's a lot that happens in the beginning, but I'm going to focus on the key events.

In the beginning there was peace until this man

Dong Zhou became the tyrant and took over the capital and basically caused chaos.
He had a bodyguard

 
Lu Bu. Possibly the most feared, strongest man in the story. He killed his adopted father to join Dong Zhou.

A man named Wang Yun grew tired of Dong Zhou's tyranny over the land so he sent his daughter Diao Chan to put a wedge in between Lu Bu and Dong Zhou.

Both Lu Bu and Dong Zhou fell in love with her and Diao Chan played both of them. In the end, Lu Bu killed Dong Zhou and won Diao Chan over.

After that, the country needed a new ruler but there wasn't one clear ruler.

To the east there was Wu.

I started off playing for Wu when I was little and I played for Wu all the time because I loved them so much. Up until number 7 but more on that later.

These are all the people from Wu, but

These are the ones who are really important at this point.

So the man in the middle, Sun Jian, during the fight against Dong Zhou, stole the Imperial Seal and ran east. The Imperial Seal was this thing that the beholder was supposed to have all Imperial power in the land. Basically it was important. Anyway, he started creating the kingdom of Wu. Whenever an enemy asked him about the Seal, he swore that he should die by sword or arrow if he was concealing it. Well, needless to say, Sun Jian was shot with an arrow and died. The man on the left, Sun Ce, took charge of the Wu forces. But he also didn't make it too long before he was shot down. Finally, the man on the right, Sun Quan, laid the foundations for the Wu kingdom and took the majority of the land East.

Now for my favorite characters of Wu (there's going to be more of them than any other kingdom probably because I'm more attached to them).

This is Zhou Yu. He's not really in my favorites anymore but I wanted to include him because he was either the first or second person I ever played in the whole series. He was the strategist for Wu and best friend of Sun Ce.

This is Sun Ce's wife, Da Qiao. In the third game I always loved to play as her... I don't really have much to say about her...

This is her sister Xiao Qiao and wife of Zhou Yu. She's about the same as the last but I like her attitude better.

This is Sun Shang Xiang. I felt like I should include her because she is the daughter of Sun Jian and the sister to Sun Ce and Sun Quan. She fell in love with the leader of Shu, Liu Bei, and switched from Wu to marry him.

And this guy...oh man I love this guy. He is my absolute favorite! I don't know why I liked him so much when I was little but it's just carried over throughout the years and I still love him. After Zhou Yu died, this guy, Lu Xun, succeeded him as Wu's strategist. He was brilliant. He led Wu to many victories and helped to defeat Guan Yu, Shu's strongest warrior. 'Nuff said.

So the second kingdom that formed was Wei in the North.

Here's all the characters for Wei

And here's the ones we care about

To be honest, I hate Wei. I really do. They were a bunch of power hungry people and I could really care less for them. I don't even know what to tell you about them. Their leader Cao Cao

pretty much took over the land from what I understand. I don't know. They don't really give too much detail about him in the game and I haven't really gotten this far in the book. Cao Cao was basically the main ruler who set the foundation for Wei. He died at an old age and his son Cao Pi took control. It wasn't long after that that the kingdom of Jin took control but more on them later.

Highlights I guess

This is Xiahou Dun. I only put him here because I thought it was interesting that when he was shot in the eye with an arrow, he took the arrow out with the eye on it and ate the eye because he felt that his eye belonged to him and it should be with him... disturbing? Haha too bad you already read it.

Zhen Ji. When I was talking about Zhou Yu I said that he might have been the first person I ever played as. Well it's between him and this lady. She's the only person from Wei I'll play willingly.

Ok so the last of the Three Kingdoms is Shu. They were the last kingdom to be formed.

I actually like all of these people but here's who's important


Before I played the 7th game, I could have cared less for Shu, but now they're my favorite.


So basically, Shu started with these three men. The leader is Liu Bei, in the middle. His sworn brothers are Zhang Fei (left) and Guan Yu (right). By sworn brothers I mean that they're not related but they did some special ritual in a peach garden and now they are the equivalent of brothers... if that makes sense. They swore to die on the same day of the same year. After Wu and Wei worked together, they killed Guan Yu and Zhang Fei within days of each other, but Liu Bei would live another year before he joined his brothers. Anyway, Liu Bei got his late start because he didn't want to be considered a ruler. He was to kind to take those titles away from others. I don't know what made him change his mind but he finally controlled the land in the West. Liu Bei wanted a land of benevolence. He wanted what was best for the people. He wasn't some power hungry man. And for that, he's become my favorite of the three who created the foundation of the Three Kingdoms.

Now for the people

This is Zhoa Yun. His is basically the poster boy for the Dynasty Warriors series. He's on most of the covers for the games. At least I think so. I don't know why they picked him. He's pretty cool I guess but they had like 70 other people to choose from.

Here is Lord Zhuge Liang. He was Shu's strategist. I included him because he is believed to be the best strategist of his time (yes, better than Lu Xun). He was the one who brought forward the idea of benevolence to Liu Bei. He was succeeded by Jiang Wei who had the same beliefs as Zhuge Liang.

I absolutely adore this boy. His name is Guan Suo, one of the four or five children of Guan Yu. He's nice to everyone. When Wu and Wei attacked his father, he tried to help his father escape. At least one of his brothers, Guan Ping, was killed in attempt to hold the enemy back so Guan Yu could escape. In the end, the enemy was too many and Guan Yu threw Guan Suo into a river so he could get away and live while the enemy took their prize. Guan Suo did survive.


That's the story of the Three Kingdoms, now let's talk about their fall to one family.

This is the Kingdom of Jin. They're so small I only needed this one picture and I'll talk about all but two of these people.

Sima Yi was the founder of Jin. Jin started in the Wei region up North. Sima Yi was originally Wei and was their strategist during Cao Cao's late years. After Zhuge Liang died Sima Yi wanted to unite the land under one rule and he felt he could do this. By this time Sun Quan, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei had died along with Wu's master strategist, Lu Xun. All three kingdoms were undergoing new rule. Wei's new leader, Cao Pi, eventually died and Sima Yi took control over his new territory Jin. He didn't make himself emperor though.

I don't know much about Jin. Only what they say in the game. I have like a hundred years to go in the books, so my knowledge may be wrong in some small places. For instance, I'm not exactly sure when the name "Wei" fell and "Jin" took it's place. From now on, I'll stick to what I know.

Sima Yi started building his Jin army and fought against Shu and Wu. Jin was just starting to make a name for himself when Sima Yi died of disease.

His first born son, Sima Shi, took over Jin. They made and defended countless attacks from Shu, who was not willing to give up so easily. Shu continuously attacked the North and was always defeated. Wu made some attempts to attack Jin, but not as many as Shu. Sima Shi wasn't in charge for very long before he too fell ill and died.

The title now fell to his little brother, Sima Zhao, who was not ready to have so much resting on his shoulders. In short, he was lazy. But once he realized how much the people admired him, he stepped up and took charge. He showed mercy to his enemies and gave them the opportunity to fight for him. He too, cared about the people. After Shu had attacked Jin countless times, Shu ran low on provisions. Sima Zhao took this opportunity to attack. And just like that, the kingdom of Shu fell to Jin. What was once Wei and Shu were now Jin. Unfortunately, Sima Zhao died the year after Shu fell. I don't remember the name of the man who took charge of Jin after Sima Zhao. But it would take Wu thirty years after that to fall to Jin.

Here's the last of the people

Wang Yuanji. She was the wife of Sima Zhao. She encouraged him when the weight of the kingdom was thrust onto his shoulder. She's pretty much a badass.

This is Zhong Hui. He is one cocky son of a bitch. He has the best weapon.

Xiahou Ba. He's my favorite from Jin. I mean he's considered Jin, but after some event I can't remember, he fled from Jin and defected to Shu because he feared someone was trying to kill him.



Sun Quan of Wu, Cao Cao of Wei, and Liu Bei of Shu were the men who built the foundations of the Three Kingdoms. Almost 120 years after their creation, they all fell to the Sima clan.

And the land was finally united under one rule.

The end.

I didn't spoil the game for you, I taught you a history lesson. No really, these aren't really spoilers : /

I feel like I did this for my own enjoyment...

3 comments:

  1. *wipes forehead* okay. wooh. that took me awhile to read, but i read the whole thing! and holy shit, DID THIS REALLY ALL HAPPEN?? OMG I FEEL SO LEARNED NOW. i want something to come up in my life now where i have to know something about this and i'll be like, "psh, piece of cake." DID THAT GUY REALLY EAT HIS OWN EYEBALL????? I love the fact that these games are based off of true events and that you're so into them. I even looked up one of the guys. He's real. o.o This was really interesting to read AND IT MAKES ME WANT TO KILL PEOPLE EVEN MORE ERRGHHHMKFMD

    Alex <3

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  2. I'm sorry Rachel but these names! I got lost . It sounds really interesting though.
    G

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  3. Yup all of this really happened. I just want to teach a class about this... and yes: "Bellowing in pain, Xiahou Dun plucked out the arrow; the eyeball had stuck fast to the point. 'The essence of my parents cannot be thrown away,' he cried and swallowed the eye." It's easier to follow when you know how to pronounce the names. And it does help to be able to put faces to the names even if it's animated faces.

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