It has occurred to me that wuxia heroes have it very bad when it comes to women. I mean, to start with, the girls are always going to have good hair and gorgeous clothes, and if the guys are lucky, the wig isn’t horrendous and the clothes are half as nice. But really all these boys raised on islands/mountains/in caves never know if the girls they’re making googoo eyes at are the girl they were betrothed to at birth, the girl their best friend was betrothed to at birth, their long-lost sister, their enemy’s sister, daughter or betrothed, secretly a kung fu master, or a princess in disguise. Or a combination of at least half the above. Then, if they decide to just swear off heterosexual love forever, their short, slender new friend with nice hair and a lot of makeup says that there’s something he’s been meaning to tell him.
Anyway,
Paladins in Troubled Times is about Tie Mo Le, who’s traveling with his foster father to meet his uncle (of the “Dad’s BFF” variety) when they get involved in a bar brawl between the crossdressing martial artist Ling Shuang and the henchmen of Wang Kong’le (Who fights with a fan!), who is in turn the henchman of An Lu Shan. When Mo Le meets his uncle, Duan Fei, he learns that his father, Duan Fei, and another guy were bestest buddies forever and when Mo Le was a few years old, the other two friends had a son and daughter born on the same night, and the babies were immediately betrothed. Then An Lu Shan attacked and everyone but Duan Fei, his wife, and Mo Le were killed. Naturally, Mo Le must have vengeance. Cue adventures and betrayals and fights and cute thief girls and such.
There’s a lot of politics, but they’re introduced as they relate to Mo Le and his companions, instead of tons of it being dumped on the viewer at once. Mo Le is…not unlikable, but less interesting than most of the other characters, and not nearly as smart or clever as he thinks he is. I like him, but have to poke fun at him a lot. Also, while he has yet to actually realize that the women are way smarter and more badass than he is, he has no apparent issues at all with the fact that both Ling Shuang and Yan Yu are better fighters than he is, or that they rescue him a lot. (This is wuxia, so I sure he’ll end up the ultimate badass of the show and all, but I’m enjoying it for now.) Also, his reaction to Ling Shuang was basically “Oh, you’re a girl who dresses like a boy? And fights really well? Whatevs. Buddies?”
Ling Shuang is an interesting case of wuxia crossdressing for me because I think she’s the first one I’ve encountered who actually isn’t trying to pass for a boy, but dresses that way because it’s more comfortable and practical for her lifestyle, and not everyone goes “oh, boy” when they see her. This is also the closest to convincing wuxia crossdressing I’ve encountered. Which is to say, she still looks like a girl, but I can buy people used to strictly gendercoded wardrobes making the mistake at first glance. But her clothing is stark and practical, her hair is tightly bound, and she wears little makeup. No soft colored robes, gently flowing hair, or makeup that accentuates her femininity here. Though, she may want to reconsider, as crossdressing here seems to make you a villain magnet. First, Wang Kong’le hits on her every time they meet (it basically goes: Wang Kong’le: “Greetings, fair damsel! I realize I’m attempting to lop your head off with my fan right now, but perhaps later you’d consider a discrete courtship followed by lots of sex?” Ling Shuang: “…Why are the nice ones obliviously into thieves?”) and then there’s KongKong’er who…is introduced working with Wang Kong’le, but isn’t bad so much as he doesn’t seem to have much of a concept of actions having consequences and thinking things out before you jump in, so he does things like go “Sure buddy! I’ll duel a legendary hero for you so you can take over the island fortress he’s protecting! No questions asked!” Hopefully, he’ll clear future alliances with Ling Shuang. Anyway, I’m sure those two will have much “Our Love Cannot Be!” and then learn that they’re the supposedly dead babies who were betrothed at birth and so all other problems will go away. Incidentally, KongKong’er is Tae with a steel umbrella and awful hair. I think they took Bobby Dou’s hair from
Sword Stained With Royal Blood, added a few tangled, and plopped it on his head.
Anyway, the series is of the “wirefu and fluttering hair” variety and has lots of excellent fights. The kind where people actually take each other on up close and personal, as opposed to the “Martial Arts Move At Least Six Words Long And Includes Animal, Verb and Adjective And Sends Opponents Flying Away After Two Sword Swipes” variety, and it reminds me a lot of both
Sword Stained With Royal Blood and
Patriotic Knights, both of which I am quite fond.
The show basically “Serious plot with a side of angst and cute. Serious plot with a side of angst and cute. Serious plot with…HOLY MOLEY UBER ANGSTPLOSION OF EPIC DOOM! But there’s still cute, too.)
Spoiler alert!
( spoilers )And now, a non-spoilery picspam. I wanted to include more of the fights, but most of those caps were blurry.
( pics )![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yifu asked "If you could pick an all-ladies crime-fighting team from wuxia canon, who would the members be?"
