Post by ajk on Feb 18, 2008 16:52:08 GMT -5
This is a little late, but it's been rattling around in my head and I thought somebody should say something about it.
We've had a whole bunch of significant deaths in the last several episodes and they haven't been handled very well by the writers. They seem to be in such a hurry to kill these people off that they're rushing through the storylines and the deaths are just too abrupt. And the deaths of Li Kaigu and Chulin in #132 were the worst examples of this yet.
Most of us were probably anticipating that there would be one spectacular duel between DJY and Kaigu at the end of the series. But some of that anticipation was blown because they kept having little mini-duels that were broken up for one reason or another. And for me at least, the rest of it was blown when Kaigu poked his eye out. What kind of a fair fight would that be? Cover your left eye and see how much of your field of vision you lose. DJY is a good enough swordsman that he'd know how to take advantage of that.
So they had the duel in #132, and even though the eye thing was strangely not a factor (?!?), the duel was a huge disappointment. It was way too short and it wasn't even as good as some of the stuff we saw from other characters in the middles of battle scenes! Frankly, at that point I agreed with Mimosa ("Just put him to death") although you could understand DJY wanting to do the job himself. But to actually have the duel and then short-change us like that, it was very poor planning and poor writing.
And as for Chulin...she's the Khitan princess, for goodness sakes. Wouldn't she be thinking of her own people, and wanting to lead them to a better future within the new state? That whole business about always having loved Kaigu and wanting to run away with him, it just seemed entirely out of character and went against everything I thought she stood for. And her death seemed almost trivial. If they were going to kill her off, they should have written something that would let her go out a hero and die with dignity.
(I did think it was interesting that Chulin had been carrying around poison for so long, only because of the abandoned storyline about DJY's poisoning in front of the Tang emperor. When she was dying I hoped that she might confess to being the poisoner, since she obviously was adept with handling poison. But no, we didn't get that either.)
And then as they're lying there dying, DJY forbids Goem from going to them. Yes, Goem disobeyed orders, but DJY was ridiculously cruel. DJY is the one who's always been tormented by seeing his mother die and not being able to go to her and comfort her. He'd do the same thing to his own son? And remember how desperate he was to find his own father during he battle when he lay dying. And yes, Kaigu was a traitor, but if he was worthy enough for DJY to want to duel one-on-one, he certainly deserved to have his son tend to his body. An ugly scene that wasn't even necessary.
This series has had a lot of memorable moments and episodes and I've enjoyed it, but it isn't exactly going out with a bang.
We've had a whole bunch of significant deaths in the last several episodes and they haven't been handled very well by the writers. They seem to be in such a hurry to kill these people off that they're rushing through the storylines and the deaths are just too abrupt. And the deaths of Li Kaigu and Chulin in #132 were the worst examples of this yet.
Most of us were probably anticipating that there would be one spectacular duel between DJY and Kaigu at the end of the series. But some of that anticipation was blown because they kept having little mini-duels that were broken up for one reason or another. And for me at least, the rest of it was blown when Kaigu poked his eye out. What kind of a fair fight would that be? Cover your left eye and see how much of your field of vision you lose. DJY is a good enough swordsman that he'd know how to take advantage of that.
So they had the duel in #132, and even though the eye thing was strangely not a factor (?!?), the duel was a huge disappointment. It was way too short and it wasn't even as good as some of the stuff we saw from other characters in the middles of battle scenes! Frankly, at that point I agreed with Mimosa ("Just put him to death") although you could understand DJY wanting to do the job himself. But to actually have the duel and then short-change us like that, it was very poor planning and poor writing.
And as for Chulin...she's the Khitan princess, for goodness sakes. Wouldn't she be thinking of her own people, and wanting to lead them to a better future within the new state? That whole business about always having loved Kaigu and wanting to run away with him, it just seemed entirely out of character and went against everything I thought she stood for. And her death seemed almost trivial. If they were going to kill her off, they should have written something that would let her go out a hero and die with dignity.
(I did think it was interesting that Chulin had been carrying around poison for so long, only because of the abandoned storyline about DJY's poisoning in front of the Tang emperor. When she was dying I hoped that she might confess to being the poisoner, since she obviously was adept with handling poison. But no, we didn't get that either.)
And then as they're lying there dying, DJY forbids Goem from going to them. Yes, Goem disobeyed orders, but DJY was ridiculously cruel. DJY is the one who's always been tormented by seeing his mother die and not being able to go to her and comfort her. He'd do the same thing to his own son? And remember how desperate he was to find his own father during he battle when he lay dying. And yes, Kaigu was a traitor, but if he was worthy enough for DJY to want to duel one-on-one, he certainly deserved to have his son tend to his body. An ugly scene that wasn't even necessary.
This series has had a lot of memorable moments and episodes and I've enjoyed it, but it isn't exactly going out with a bang.