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Within the first 10 minutes, this arc had a crossdressing heroine who had to learn to fight by spying on her father because he forbade her to learn, and she spends her crossdressing time hunting demons who prey on local women. She is accompanied by her friend who is Sekritly In Love with her and is totally fine with the crossdressing demonhunting, except that he’s her father’s subordinate, and it could get him in trouble.
Anyway, Mue is Our Heroine. As I mentioned, she is a crossdressing demon hunter. Unknown to her, her maid is a fox demon who was once married to a powerful local man and had a daughter, Yuefu, with him. When he banished her and told her she could never see their daughter again because she wouldn’t use her powers to make him more powerful in the government, she cursed him so that his wrongdoings would result in harm to Yuefu, who was the only person he cared about. So, basically, she’s Chinese fox demon Medea. When Mue learns the truth, they join forces to hunt demons. (Mue does not approve of the cursing, but there were other things going on.)
This is, I think, the only wuxia story where the heroine has been presented as the badass fighter, and she wasn’t eventually overshadowed by A Guy Who Wants To Be A Hero, or turned into the Damsel In Distress, but is actually allowed to maintain the lead hero status. There’s an unfortunate aspect where Mue falls in love with a doctor who tells her to “be more womanly” and likes to criticize oh, you know, everything about her (as opposed to the friend, Wukui, who thought she was awesome just the way she was) but he thankfully got over that by the time they started having a lot of scenes together, though I was never happy with that subplot. I may, however, love the arc forever and ever for the ending.
Yuefu and Wukui both die (Sorrow!) and Mue and the doctor, Xianggu, have drunken sex way later, which results in Mue getting pregnant. Mue is told that the only way she can defeat the main demon is if she sacrifices the baby and bonds its soul to her sword. She wins, heavily pregnant, without doing so, and resurrects Yuefu so that she and Xianggu can be together and raise the baby, because she knows that she’d never be happy settled down, and is meant to save people, so she heads off for a lifetime of adventures and saving people. I wouldn’t want to see it all the time, but it was an awesome reversal.
Anyway, Mue is Our Heroine. As I mentioned, she is a crossdressing demon hunter. Unknown to her, her maid is a fox demon who was once married to a powerful local man and had a daughter, Yuefu, with him. When he banished her and told her she could never see their daughter again because she wouldn’t use her powers to make him more powerful in the government, she cursed him so that his wrongdoings would result in harm to Yuefu, who was the only person he cared about. So, basically, she’s Chinese fox demon Medea. When Mue learns the truth, they join forces to hunt demons. (Mue does not approve of the cursing, but there were other things going on.)
This is, I think, the only wuxia story where the heroine has been presented as the badass fighter, and she wasn’t eventually overshadowed by A Guy Who Wants To Be A Hero, or turned into the Damsel In Distress, but is actually allowed to maintain the lead hero status. There’s an unfortunate aspect where Mue falls in love with a doctor who tells her to “be more womanly” and likes to criticize oh, you know, everything about her (as opposed to the friend, Wukui, who thought she was awesome just the way she was) but he thankfully got over that by the time they started having a lot of scenes together, though I was never happy with that subplot. I may, however, love the arc forever and ever for the ending.
Yuefu and Wukui both die (Sorrow!) and Mue and the doctor, Xianggu, have drunken sex way later, which results in Mue getting pregnant. Mue is told that the only way she can defeat the main demon is if she sacrifices the baby and bonds its soul to her sword. She wins, heavily pregnant, without doing so, and resurrects Yuefu so that she and Xianggu can be together and raise the baby, because she knows that she’d never be happy settled down, and is meant to save people, so she heads off for a lifetime of adventures and saving people. I wouldn’t want to see it all the time, but it was an awesome reversal.
