As I stated earlier, one of my favorite pieces of Chinese-language media is the Three Kingdoms TV show.  The more I rewatch it, the more I remember one of it’s stand-out features: they REALLY want you to think Zhuge Liang is cool

Anyone anywhere who is at all a cool guy is consistently shown up by Zhuge Liang, who is not only the wisest and most capable general but is able to predict entire battles before they even happen.  Several characters outright state that Zhuge Liang is the Coolest Guy and Best Strategist, and those who think they’re better are always shown to be wrong before the episode is finished.  

Now in stories, this isn’t a bad thing, it makes the audience know that Zhuge Liang is a Cool Guy, and when well-executed it makes the audience like him BECAUSE he’s a Cool Guy.  But by necessity it can lead storylines down weird paths

Is wrestling there’s something calling “pushing” which is basically where you take a character and give them a lot of victories so the audience starts to like them.  Although audiences can root for underdogs, most underdog stories end in the heroes’ victory (just see every sports movie), so giving a character a bunch of wins lets the audience know that they are Cool and Competent and will definitely be important in the future, even if they’re still an underdog.  Conversely, characters who always lose are clearly not as special and good, unless the story focuses on their defeats and how they grow from those defeats (and start getting victories). When this is done well, the audience roots for exactly who you told them to root for and everyone is happy. When this is done poorly, sometimes a character can feel “overpushed,” when the audience gets sick of seeing them win all the time and wants to see someone else in the limelight instead.

When I watch Three Kingdoms, it feels like Zhuge Liang is being pushed for Summerslam.  He’s the smartest, he’s the best, and he needs to get a bunch of wins in a hurry to make up for lost time since he’s only just been introduced.  Not only does Liu Bei go through great lengths to recruit Zhuge Liang (indicating he’s super special and important), several characters all outright state that as a strategist, Zhuge Liang is far superior to any of the cool and competent characters we’ve met up until now.  He is routinely shown outsmarting Lu Su and Zhou Yu (his “rivals” from the Southlands) and masterminds the defeat of Cao Cao (his “rival” to the North). Zhou Yu in particular is shown to be a petty, insecure jerk constantly trying to one-up Zhuge Liang and then getting outsmarted like a mean principal in a kid’s show. To be blunt, I’m a bit tired of Zhuge Liang already, which makes me worried since I know he’s going to stay super duper important for a long time yet, I mean I visited his shrine in Cheng Du (the WuHouCi if you’re ever in the area).  I’m not sure why exactly I’m already tired of him, maybe it’s because he’s just too smart and it gets boring, or maybe I just perennially root for underdogs.  But while it’s still fun to watch the show and see what Zhuge Liang will get up to next, I’m a tiny bit more interested in the stuff I’m not seeing, but which I know happened in history.  I’d love to see more of Cao Pi (Cao Cao’s son who everyone agrees isn’t half as smart as his dad but eventually inherits everything anyway).  But everyone agrees Cao Pi is a moron so he’s not cool enough to get much focus yet.