Legend of Fuyao – The Drama - Part 5

Perhaps Fuyao is dressed as a male medic because she is used to cross-dressing, or perhaps openly being Wuji’s partner is inappropriate.  The Crown Prince is not, this time, attending in disguise, but being accompanied by a beautiful woman, which could set tongues wagging and undermine the job he has come to do.  In any event, Fuyao soon gets in trouble with the local constabulary, who misidentifies her as a wanted criminal. Right charge, wrong country.  Fuyao’s attempted arrest is akin to a stop-and-search, which would be funny if the consequences in real life were not so threatening and potentially damaging.  Along with Wuji and her brother, Xiao Qi, the trio escape after a brief scuffle between Fuyao and another officer. (Man? Woman? it’s hard to tell. Not really but let’s pretend.)  Irrespective of the gender, there’s fighting and flirting simultaneously.  That’s so clever, really. 

The scene is thus set for the coming arc of the drama.  A girl disguised as a man doesn't recognize another girl doing the same. No words needed by the viewer, just a series of sighs. Fuyao is brazen in her flirting with the sexually repressed Plough Queen Heir Apparent, Feng Jing Zhi. One moment that particular future queen is propositioning Wuji -- her sister's ex-fiancé -- under the pretext of creating an alliance.  Next moment, she’s propositioning the fake Zhong Yue. Both women are shameless. [1] It's clearly a land of equal opportunity!

There are multiple strands of action running in parallel in Plough.  They weave and they cross; they rise high; they swoop low.  Ultimately, they result in the death of a real princess, exposure of a fake queen, punishment of a deranged ex-saintess, discovery of a new relative, and an unexpected long-lost true monarch being crowned.  To get there, there’s talk of treason, of blackmail, and of the ghost of memories being laid to rest.  Amidst of all this, as ever, Fuyao is both the cause of and the solution to the problems. It turns out, too, that Wuji quickly links the various pieces together and, being ahead as usual, is able to protect and save Fuyao from the menace directed at her.  He’s not the only one there to protect unlucky Fuyao.  Fei Yan, she who is related and apprenticed to the ‘devil’, Di Feitian, who tried to rule the world and having failed, tried to destroy it, is on Fuyao’s side.  We’ve seen her protect Fuyao before.  Fei Yan does her bit to ensure Fuyao’s safe travel through Plough.  Interesting. 

It’s because Fei Yan knows what Wuji subsequently learns:  Fuyao is the one the myths say was born with a lotus flower in her mouth.  That means she is also the one that can awaken the phoenix bird that guides the lake of gold which the world relies upon for its various currencies.  The lava is  not what Fei Yan desires, however, having no earthly need for such riches.  She knows that, in the depth of a cave, at the heart of the Plough Lake, the presence of the five-coloured stones, currently worn as a medallion by Fuyao, can awaken Di Feitian.  He, the nuclear bomb threat to the world personified, was captured and ‘contained’ but not eradicated. The stones hold remnants of Di Feitian’s blood, and it is this that will be used to resurrect him.  A bit like recreating extinct creatures from fossils, I guess.  Fuyao is the only one that can awaken the phoenix as well as trigger the reincarnation of a devil whose plan is to again bring war and chaos to the world.  Not on Wuji’s watch, I say. 

Above ground, there’s something much more important holding the attention of the central characters.  It’s a battle for the throne leading to mother killing daughter, lovers falling out, and an orphan being brought back into the fold.  The queen of Plough has been living a wicked, dirty life, which catches up with her upon Fuyao’s arrival.  On his own, Wuji would have exposed her, eventually.  Having the magnet for trouble with him hastened everything.  It also puts their relationship, his and Fuyao’s, dead centre, full and unequivocal, when, in response to accusations by the reigning queen about his interference and his status, Wuji makes it known that:

“If I can’t protect the one who is more precious than life itself to me today, how am I going to protect the five regions tomorrow”. [2] 

Wuji has never been someone to beat about the bush when it comes to his feelings for Fuyao. 

There are lies and there is misinformation, but in the end, the stars line up, the phoenix rises, and all is well.  Fuyao survives and even finds her biological father. More impressive, she's instated as the rightful Queen of Plough.[3]  It  comes to pass that Fuyao’s mother’s twin sister, recently deposed monarch, killed her for her royal status and her man. Shocking!  It's a bitter-sweet outcome and doesn't make up for all the suffering she experienced during the two short periods she was in that country. There’s a positive, however.  Fuyao and Wuji have a history going back to childhood. They met when they were young but did not recognise the adult versions of themselves. The young Crown Prince took pity on a pathetic Fuyao and attempted to take her away from the clear hell she was living.  He failed, but the episode shows Wuji being as gallant a child as he is as a man. Wuji never forgot the encounter.  Fuyao?  Survival instinct wiped her memory clean. Between them, then, is destiny not fate.

You’ve got to be kidding

Jiminy Cricket! I'm so angry and frustrated that I’m spitting blood. Who would dare break the heart of Zhangsun Wuji?!  I'm upset for him and upset for the rest of humanity. If this representation of perfection can have his heart broken by the one he loves the most (after Fuyao, of course), what hope is there for the rest of us? It was all a big fat lie and a lifetime wasted of doing everything he could to please someone who was simply grooming him towards his own destruction. What the hell!  His mother betrays him, but it is his father that sets out to destroy him. Emperor Father uses the hand of the only person who truly loves him, his devoted son, Wuji, to wield his sword in a fabricated story against his wife and brother, citing himself the victim. [4] That lying toad of an emperor lord was raising poor Wuji as a weapon to settle a score that started in his youth. Against his younger brother.  For the love of a women that was never his.  Resulting in a son that was also not biologically his. The cruel, scheming, conniving SOB harboured the secret of the illegitimate offspring close to his poisonous, putrid heart. He showered the child Wuji with 'love' and created such a bond that the abuse was invisible. Like a lamb to slaughter, poor Wuji walked meekly behind the one he said he most admired. That corrupt, barefaced lying emperor lord, guided the son of the man he hates towards eternal hell for committing patricide.

Prince Virtue.  He lives as an unimpeachable subject under his king.  He also lives a life of poorly concealed adultery with his brother’s wife.  Except, it was the emperor who first broke the rule of coveting the other’s ‘wife’ by forcing Prince Virtue’s lover into marriage through his position as ultimate ruler.  Thus, with a passion that could not be quenched, the prince and the empress defied protocol and denied the moral code of matrimony.  Now learning that Wuji is his son, the new parent chooses to commit suicide to save the soul of their only offspring, Zhangsun Wuji, who is being used as a sacrificial lamb. He did it, too, to preserve the dignity of his one and only true love, Empress Yuan Qing Yi. 

Before that, the sword fight between father and son, each pretending not to know their relationship, is riveting. Each stroke of their respective sword mirrors the other’s. They may have both been trained by the Ancient Firmament, but it's their DNA that is controlling their fight style and skill. Any doubt they are closely related starts to ebb. Father never doubted once he learnt the truth. Son's implicit knowledge starts to crystallise. At the end, each saves the other from harm at the hand of the other: self-sacrifice versus avoidance of mortal sin. Father and son are in such sync that when the elder, as the best of no good options to ensure that his Crown Prince can ascend the throne, tries to impale himself on the approaching sword, it stops millimetres from his throat as awareness of the intention hits Wuji.[5]  The Emperor handed Wuji his own sword to use in the battle.  He insisted.  The brother switches the murder weapon mid-fight.  Wuji ends up holding his biological father’s sword ready to strike the final blow. (It took a couple of rewinds to see it, to understand it, to fully appreciate it.) Wuji stops Prince Virtue -- the man whom he has always hated but instinctively knows he must not kill -- with a physical blow to the chest instead.  Control and discipline, then, are also shared traits between them.

It's Not over Until It’s Over

As pitiful as Fuyao’s situation in Plough was, when the full truth of Wuji’s betrayal, also by his own kin, is exposed, my biased heart overwhelmingly bleeds for him. Hot headed Fuyao is solid as a rock when she has to protect those she loves. If, that is, those times when she is predictably unbridled and a danger not only to herself but also to those intentionally and unintentionally caught in the fallout of her ‘adventures’ are taken out of the equation.  Fuyao shines in the mother role, the philosopher role, the supportive partner role, the counsellor role. We've seen how Fuyao is able to mature rapidly in line with her life experiences. A firm, cool-headed, wise partner gets Wuji through what has clearly overwhelmed him and could possibly destroy him. All this whilst she copes with the recent knowledge that as the carrier of the five-coloured stones artifact, and also its literal embodiment, not only must she die to save the world, but Wuji is the one that must kill her. It’s dramatic indeed. Understanding that they are destined to love but also fated to destroy one another, Fuyao accepts it all -- Meng Fuyao style.  Not without a fight.

You get the feeling that things are coming to a head.  The pressure has been mounting for our lead characters in line with their romance settling gradually into a deep, permanent relationship.  They’ve laughed together, cried together, mutually declared their hearts, and accepted that one has to kill the other in order to survive.  Just everyday events in dramaland.  Each is a pawn to warring parties, except whilst Zhangsun Wuji is being tested as he approaches the final obstacle to world domination, Meng Fuyao does not know why she’s been chosen as the vessel of doom that could eradicate humanity.  Characteristically, they are having none of it.  Rules, as we they keep proving, are made for them to break.  How they will emerge victors in this war of potentially apocalyptic proportions is unclear. 

Having decided they will not be separated in life again, dying together is the only choice they have.  To save Fuyao, of course, Wuji will break the suicide pact they make, and she will do the same to save him, each setting out to sacrifice themselves.  Consequently, when the end comes they are, again, working as a team.  We’ve seen that, when fighting together, they are seemingly unconquerable.  This time, however, even their combined efforts may not be enough.  The punishment for Wuji’s defiance of his Ancient Firmament master’s command is harsh to the point of leaving him nailed to a proverbial cross to die.  By the time Fuyao comes riding to his rescue (or, rather, flying in), poor Wuji has lost all his magical powers and is a mere man.  Bruised, battered, blooded, but refusing defeat, he continues in his efforts to save Fuyao.  On her part, fighting Fei Yan -- she who is working to awaken the devil incarnate that will destroy the world -- is equally punishing.  Fuyao would have easily lost against such an opponent but for the help of the rest of the Rat Pack, summoned by that smart little guinea pig to aid her.  Their slow-mo walk towards self-destruction in the name of friendship is every bit as thrilling as any seen in an old-fashioned cowboy scene.  It’s particularly rewarding that our blind princess, Yalan Zhu, got her sight back in time to kick ass with the rest of the crew.  Let the battle begin.

Sometimes your perceived enemy is a friend in disguise.  So it is that the person who provides the most support to Wuji in his desperate fight to free himself from the chains that literally bind him is Tai Yan.  Fellow Ancient Firmament disciple and, up to that point, thorn in his side, she goes as far as passing her powers and her energy to Wuji.  This, she explains, is her sacrifice for the secret flame she has carried for him for many years.  Quite a price to pay for unrequited love.  Tai Yan’s fight with her previous master, Fei Yan, is sad to watch.  But, truthfully, more devastating was watching Xiao Qi taking on an army of Ancient Firmament disciples on his own.  His determination to hold the fort whilst the other ‘real’ fighters head into battle makes you proud.  Knowing the undoubted outcome of this doomed stand makes your heart hurt, too.  Perhaps, for all that he lacks the fighting skills of his elders, Xiao Qi is the bravest of the bunch.  From being prepared to die in the hands of the awful Princess Pei Yuan to give Fuyao a chance to escape, to refusing to divulge Fuyao’s whereabouts to Prime Minister Qi Zhen and suffering extensive water torture for his efforts, to now giving his life as his contribution to the ultimate battle to ensure the world’s survival, Little Brother earns our respect.  We openly weep the loss of the always smiling, always happy, able to follow without question, and always trying his best, Xiao Qi. Which is worse?  Knowing what will happen, or watching it happen?  Screaming ‘stop’, did not work this time.

As it turns out, the ‘real’ fighters hardly fare any better.  Fei Yan is a lethal weapon that has been held back in her ambition to resurrect her evil ancestor for years and the time to release all her accumulated rage has come.  Her already not insignificant martial arts skills are bolstered by the belief that victory is close. After all, she is a senior elite of the Ancient Firmament.  Not to mention that she has been boosting her impressive powers by bartering witchcraft abilities for the life energy of desperate, greedy, or no-choice individuals.  We see poor Wuji lying half dead at her feet. He’s not important to her other than that killing him will ensure he doesn’t interfere with her plans. It’s all about the five-coloured stones, the girl that wears it, and the combined power of both.  Fuyao, then, is her intended target.

The final headline battle is a bit of a disappointment.  It’s acted beautifully, but Fuyao’s fight against being taken over by the spirit of Fei Yan who has entered her body in an endeavour to control it, goes on for too long.  Way too long.  Irritatingly so. Like this arc, some other themes in the drama went on and on, and the excuses for and excesses of wicked or/and bad behaviour could do with some new inventions. But that's a fault in most dramas.  I was more concerned with how our one true pairing would avoid death and save the world.  With his seemingly life-threatening wounds, and with all Fuyao’s potentially fatal injuries, the pair manage to defy fate to hold onto their destiny -- to be together.  She is able to exorcise the ghost of Fei Yan; he is able to deny death itself.  It’s not believable, but it is a relief. 

There’s debate about the meaning of the end of the drama.  Did they, indeed, die and what we see are their spirits in the Afterworld?  Did they survive and we witness their unhindered love as they prepare to become parents?  Who knows and who cares?  The end of the journey in The Legend of Fuyao [6] ends as it started:  High octave, thrilling, leaving a smile on the face of the viewer.

Leonora 

asiandramaobserver@gmail.com

End

[1] Episode 55

[2] Episode 57

[3] Episode 58

[4] Episode 60

[5] Episode 62

[6] Legend of Fuyao. Yang Wenjun, Linmon Pictures, 2018. Rakuten Viki, https://www.viki.com/Legend of Fuyao/35844c