"The Banyue Incident" | TGCF Volume 1 Analysis: Chapter 9 – 11

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]What's going on, guys? It's your boy Trollte here for another video. So, today we are getting into the last final part of volume one of um Heaven Officials Blessing. So, this is chapters 9 to 11. Again, we have a many notes. A many notes like yeah, so many notes. So, we have like five pages of notes as always. Uh a lot to get through. So, the way I'm going to do this review, analysis, whatever you want to call it, is I will get through like the main kind of themes and, you know, more like deep analysis. And then we'll end the video with my favorite personal moments, whether it was funny moments or whatever in these chapters, which someone recommended in the comments.

[00:00:52]Can't remember who it is, but that was a good idea. So, yeah. Um, we're going to do that. So, yeah, we're going to get through the serious analysis and then my favorite moments.

[00:01:02]And, um, I feel like people can probably guess what my favorite moments in these chapters were, but we'll get into that.

[00:01:09]Okay, so let's start this pretty simply.

[00:01:13]Um, we're gonna there's going to be a lot of discussion of Baru Banu is that how you say her name the character because there's a lot of interesting thing interesting [ __ ] happening with her in relation to her and even in relation to Shilang in a way. Okay, let's talk about like the true history of this character and like what that reveals and what's that kind of exploring, right? So I feel like Banu is a big representation of people trapped between multiple identities. So her big conflict really is the fact that she her parents one is from Baru the the kingdom. Um, and then one's from Yong Yongan, I think it's called. Two separate kingdoms, right? And so she's kind of split between these two worlds.

[00:02:05]Like, is she loyal to one, is she loyal to the other cuz, you know, she opens the gates and then BU gets overrun and all that stuff, which we'll get, we'll get more into that. But I think she's a big representation of identity and, you know, balancing multiple identities. And I do think there's also this discussion of like people that don't share multiple identities, they their expectation is you got to pick our side, right?

[00:02:32]Where BU is a character where she is rel like she should have loyalty to both sides cuz she's both, right? Um, and it's a perfect representation exploration for me on how people that aren't like like plagued by identity issues might view it as like, oh, it's such an easy choice.

[00:02:55]Just choose our side or choose this side or whatever. But it's not that easy when you were in that position where you feel a sense of like belonging to both sides, whatever the history of it was. because based on what we learn, her dad basically just abandons um her mom and then she's born and then I think her I think she said her mom died is in childbirth or something kills herself or something like that happened.

[00:03:21]I can't remember the exact um specifics of it. So even with that history, she still feels this sense of belonging to both sides, right? and she wants to protect both sides of who she is and her identity, but she can't because the other side is constantly trying to like spew hatred to the other side and she's got to she's kind of stuck between that like swirling hatred and it's really interesting. Anyway, let's move on from that point. And um what's really interesting about Bu is she is someone that clearly is trying to do the right thing. She's trying to bring about peace, but all that does is she's labeled as a traitor from both sides, which again goes into identity issues.

[00:04:10]And it's an interesting commentary, I think, in this world. When people try to do the right thing, their reputation suffers. Whether it's Banu or Shilyang or someone else, whenever they try to do the right just thing, fight for peace, fight for the common people, they are negatively impacted by that 10 times out of 10, which is really fascinating to me, which is a clear like it's on purpose. the writer is 100% being like this is a world where if you do the right thing it will not be rewarded right and that's a big commentary on like what the world's run and and so on and so forth which we're going to get much more into that idea um later in the video so I think of this whole backstory of BU it asks a big major question is do people actually want the truth or do they want something to blame? Right?

[00:05:12]Because a big plot point, especially earlier in the chapters as the truth's being revealed, Kimmo, which is the general from Baru, he despite the truth being like revealed to him, it's just constantly the narrative he's created on what this is about, that's just constantly what he's reiterating, right? Even in the beginning when um Ha Cheng I think was kind of explaining like why they were there and kind of um he was kind of basically playing devil's advocate of like if you were trying to kill us like why wouldn't we try to attack you back and then kind of chemo basically is like oh no what I'm saying in my narrative is correct right so I think that is really suggesting the big question is people generally don't want the truth that's just a fact they just want um something to blame that is not them right they don't want to ever look to the actual fact of the matter and the truth of the matter even in in the in the world like people say I love people that are like I love honesty and truth but in reality no they don't people don't like it at all um I think there's nothing more in the world people dislike more than the truth in fact Right? Like even think of it from a joking perspective like you know we we always have the joke right of like when someone asks you how do I look and then you you know you know you say oh yeah you look wonderful even though they look like a [ __ ] hot bag of trash right like even from that element truth honesty it's not really something people want right they want to hear something that's going to make them feel good that's going to uh acknowledge what they're feeling and then what they're thinking and they what they desire from that interaction, right? Um I'm not saying when someone asks, "Oh, like do I look fat? You tell them no, yeah, you look like a [ __ ] whale." I'm not saying do that. But like generally people don't want to hear the truth, right? So I think that's a big criticism of that and a big question that's being analyzed in the in these chapters. Um I think this these chapters and just the book in general is really suggesting that history our history whether it's our history this history whatever history in general I think is always nine times out of 10 shaped by the collective's emotional response than you know things like morality and truth right it's it's shaped by things like fear here it's shaped by things like anger in this case nationalism right the nationalism from the general's perspective of the baru general's perspective like where clearly both kingdoms were wrong because they were attacking each other but he's like no we we deserve to act attack them because this is our land right this is our land we deserve to attack them we deserve to kill these guys because they they they came into what belongs to us Right. Um, so there's a lot of that going on and the history is shaped by the emotional side of things and not the actual morality of the situation. The moral stance of it would be the two kingdoms sit down to have a conversation and dialogue about, okay, how do we do this without killing each other, right? How do we live in this region together without killing each other? That would be the moral act, right?

[00:08:50]So it's clear that whether it's our history or the history being portrayed in this book, it's all shaped by the collective's emotional response, right?

[00:09:00]Like what is the like most common emotional perspective of a situation?

[00:09:07]That is how history is shaped. So let's use it in context of Shilong. Sheilyang is the laughingtock. He's a he's sh he's a shameful god. That's the common popular emotional perspective, right?

[00:09:19]And so that's the truth. That's what history is. That that's what history has decided is fact. Um so I think that's really interesting. Okay.

[00:09:30]Philosophically when it comes to like baru I think it's an exploration of like whether a pertinent a pertinent a person's intentionality on a situation even matters at all. if the world around them has already kind of decided who that person is. So in Bayu's perspective um situation for example she wanted to do the right thing. That was her intention. She wanted to create a sense of peace and you know balance I guess in a way to quote Avatar um in the world that didn't exist or at least among these two kingdoms that didn't exist. She was trying to always do the right thing and help as much as people as she could. Like she was sacrificing her well-being and safety to soothe the anger of the Baru ghosts, right? So, she was always trying to do the right thing.

[00:10:26]However, does the right thing even matter if the world has already decided what and who you are, who you are and what those intentions are. I think that's a big question being asked in these chapters and in this book book in general that again it goes for Shilang as well like if his intentions are good and just does that even matter when the heavenly realm has decided what he is and what his intentions are like they believe his intentions is cause as much trouble as he can possibly right does his true intentions even matter at that point I think that's a big question being asked which we're going to get get even deeper into that, but let's just move on for now. Okay, let's talk about like Baru in relation to Sheilang like defending her constantly throughout these chapters, right? Obviously, it's the number one thing of Shilang refusing to judge someone by their reputation.

[00:11:26]That's always something that's been like prevalent with his character throughout the start from chapter 1 to chapter 11, right? that's kind of been a thing. Um, and it's it's a it's kind of done interestingly in these chapters in like in a in a two-way street kind of um way.

[00:11:45]So, what do I mean is obviously he doesn't judge reputation of people he doesn't know, but also what's interesting is he doesn't judge someone based on his history with them. So, for example, when he is like, "Okay, we we've got to figure out what's going on here, and we can't judge without knowing all the details." But then when he finds out it's BU, who he realizes is the little girl that he was, you know, um he would spend time with when he was a general of the kingdom, right? And in the mortal world, he doesn't automatically be like, "Oh, she's innocent." He's still like, "Okay, we got to figure out what's the truth of the matter." Because even though he has positive feelings to this person, he still doesn't let that reputation that he's, you know, built with this person blind him to finding out whatever the truth of the matter is. Right. So, that's really interesting and I really love um how the writer did that. Um, another thing is what's really clear here is Shilong has an interesting morality cuz he is I think objectively a good moral being. I think I don't know how objective anything morality can be because you know morality is quite subjective. But what's fascinating is his morality, it rests on compassion, not like law, authority, rules. So I think the point that this is setting up is that Shilang will be he's willing to become like the villain of the world as it were as long as he believes morally he's on the side of compassion, right? So if he he needs to break every single rule of the heavenly realm he possibly can to do the right thing, whatever he determines that to be, that's another question. He will do it, right? So, I think that's what makes um Shilang's morality much more malleable than a lot of people where I think I can understand why his reputation has suffered so much because it's clear we don't still don't know why he descended the first three times.

[00:14:07]Well, we know the second time he got he descended was because well, he only descended twice. This last time he descended was because he crashed out um when he when he ascended again and attacked a bunch of um gods, right? Or yelled at him or whatever and then he he descended again. We know that. Um [snorts] I'm sure there's deeper reasons to it than just that, but generally we don't know why he kept descending. So, you know, we could theorize that his compassion led him to standing against a lot of the rules in the heavenly realm and that's why he descended most likely.

[00:14:45]>> But yeah, that's one one thing that's really uh fascinating cuz like where do you draw the line on if his morality morality lays in compassion, right?

[00:15:00]How is compassion?

[00:15:05]Is it going is it something that Shilon could be willing to do some pretty ruthless things in the name of being compassionate to the weak and vulnerable, right? So, that's kind of an interesting thing and I'm I'm curious to see how that all um how that's explored and how it plays out. Um but let's move on from that point.

[00:15:28]I think what's really interesting to me about this book and the writer and stuff is it presents kindness not as like an innocent state of mind or an in innocent act. It is a conscious act that is a retaliation against the very normalized cruelty whether it's in the mortal realm or the heavenly realm. I think that's what's most fascinating to me in in Shilang's kindness. It's not a like, oh, look how nice he is. It's a the world is so cruel and unjust.

[00:16:05]This is a direct challenge against the world order as it were, right? And that's really interesting. I think philosophically, if we look at it from like a philosophical lens, um, Shilang is kind of a representation of how quote unquote moral good, whatever that means to, you know, different individuals can only exist in the world if there is absolutely zero reward for it. Because I think when you are when you are rewarded for an act, it cannot be morally good just fully, right? Because if you do the right thing for gain, does that constitute that being a moral good?

[00:16:56]Right? Because you're not doing it for pure goodness. You're doing it to gain something. Right? So I think the Shilong in particular is a representation of the fact that no good a moral act can be a a purely moral good unless you gain nothing from it. Right?

[00:17:14]And that's his whole character. He gains nothing any time through any of his good actions. Um well I guess you could argue he gets Hua's loyalty from being as good and just and you know gentle as he is but other than but that's not something he is acknowledging that oh if I do this I'm going to gain people's loyalty. In Shilong's perspective it's I don't I'm not going to gain anything from any of these good things I do. And he even says that in one of his um passages. He's like, "There's nothing to g gain from this, but I'm going to do it anyway."

[00:17:52]Um, but anyway, let's move on from Shilang and let's talk about Pay Junior.

[00:17:57]We got a lot to talk about him and I guess the what I would term pay Junior is like the representation of institutionalized morality and we'll get into what that means. Um, so obviously Pay Junior has been a pretty major character in the last five or six chapters. And I think what's really interesting interesting about him as a character is he is kind of a good person in a way or like he believes he is but his like the way he values stability and reputation over justice is where of a lot of his evil stems from. Right.

[00:18:41]I think he's kind of a reflection that the systems in power are always going to sacrifice the weak, the vulnerable in their pursuit of order, right, and kind of structure in society.

[00:18:59]And I think Pay Junior is a perfect representation of that where he's kind of subjectively doing the right thing as as he determines it by um you know um giving sacrifices to the Baru generals because that keeps their their you know their um their what's the word I'm looking for? It keeps their just their rage and evil at bay as it were.

[00:19:30]But it is morally an evil act, right?

[00:19:35]And I think that's pag more than anything is a big criticism of how systems very normally um continue this cycle of evil and cruelty. Right.

[00:19:50]What's most terrifying though about Pay Junior is he does not view anything he does as evil. He does not view his acts as acts of cruelty and evil. From his perspective, he's the good guy. That's what makes him so dangerous and makes him so interesting as a character because he genuinely believes I'm doing the right thing by murdering these people, by torturing them. I'm the I'm on I'm on the right side of history here, right? And I think that's what makes this dangerous. Like what makes the heavenly realm as a the way it's structured dangerous is these heavenly officials are doing evil things and they do not believe that they are evil? And I think that's a that there's a point of discussion there. Does anyone that's evil really believe they're evil? Right?

[00:20:39]Like did the Nazis believe they were evil? No one thinks that they're evil. I think um a big a perfect representation of this is um I'm blanking on the name of the I think it's Inglorious Bastards I think it's called the film >> and one of the major characters is a Nazi general guy and the way he's portrayed in it is like I don't view that I'm doing evil acts right so I think there's a there's a perfect representation of that going on here that these evil people, that's what the heavenly officials are. They're evil, don't believe that they're evil, which makes them worse than if it was like Sauron who knows he's evil, right? Um anyway, I think from a philosophical perspective again, uh this is like a big question of is quote unquote pragmatism um does that become does pragmatism reach a level where it stops bringing simple pragmatism and it goes into becoming immoral behavior where human suffering is simply viewed as collateral damage, right? It's no longer something to be considered seriously. It's just like, oh yeah, that's just that's just what happens.

[00:22:06]That's collateral. It is what it is, right? So, when does pragmatism and, you know, we've got to be realistic become immoral, right? Um, but let's move on from that. Let's talk about Hua Chang a bit. Huai Chang and his kind of constant support of Shilang in this in the I was going to say in this episode in [clears throat] these chapters really interested me because I think it tells a lot about who Hua Cheng is. The first thing obviously Hua admi the thing he admires most in Chiang is his kindness right and that says something about Hua is like what has he experienced in his life that kindness is the fir foremost and most important thing to admire in someone right like what has happened to Hua in his life that kindness is like this magical thing that no one has which is what makes Shilang so special um and I think this like kindness that we see through Shilang um and like Huaching's perspective of it gives another point on Shilang is someone that becomes gentler and kinder the more he's hurt by others where anyone else they would just grow bitter and angry and cruel right and I think that's the thing Hua Cheng is like I can't believe this person exists.

[00:23:32]Like, how do you go through what you've been going through as Shilang, right?

[00:23:36]He's kingdom dead. He's been um kicked from heaven three time two times.

[00:23:42]Everyone hates him. They constantly talk [ __ ] about him. They constantly talk ill of him. Like, how do you go through all that and still choose to be kind? And I think views that as the greatest strength that even he doesn't possess, right? And I think that's why he's so loyal and loves um Shilang so much is because he I genuinely believe Hua views Shilyang as a existence that even he can't equal right. I like obviously watching the anime we know how strong Shilang is but it's not even about physical strength. I generally think Hua as powerful and feared as he is, he doesn't feel like he even holds a candle to who Shilang is.

[00:24:28]He feels like a peasant in comparison.

[00:24:31]And I think that was like that's really obvious by how quickly he listens to Shilang, how loyal he is. Like like he will say no to something and then Shilang will be like, "Oh, can you actually do that thing?" He's like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, no worries." Like obviously he couldn't joke about it and be like, "Oh, he's a s whatever." And that's a funny side of it. But if we look at it analytically, it's also just a I guess analysis in or exploration in Hua viewing Shilang as so much more above himself and everyone else. Right?

[00:25:08]Anyway, one thing I really want to talk about is Baru's self-hatred in this and it in her self-hatred and in relation to how that is kind of like a mirror to who Sheilang is and how much he hates himself. I'm going to talk about that.

[00:25:23]So, what's intriguing about how Banu hates herself is she kind of takes society's hatred upon herself, right? because she believes that she deserves punishment, right?

[00:25:40]Because um she's constantly for years, hundreds of years, we don't know how long, I think it's been like a hundred years, they said, just constantly hearing, you know, the hatred of these kingdoms and she's the to blame. and she's kind of taken that on herself because she's so um she cares so much about other people and you know she is willing to take on all their hatred if she can protect them in some way. And I think this is a reflection of generally how oppressed groups in society internalize the hatred of the dominant groups in society.

[00:26:22]Right? So you this is um this is reflected through thing like you know this is reflected through the way um minorities will kind of um you know have the talking points of dominant groups. I guess perfect example is America's um kind of social system right now where it's a very I don't know there's no polite word for it. It's a very racist hatefilled rhetoric, right? And you see minority groups speaking in support of that racist rhetoric that's aimed at them, right? So I think that's a big reflection of that where oppressed groups are they internalized that hatred and cruelty and they almost accept it right um after a certain point.

[00:27:21]It's that idea of like when enough people like sneer at you, when enough people declare that you are the guilty party, right? Those people are going to eventually surrender to that identity and they're going to accept that identity, right? And that judgment, which again you clearly see happening in America right now and not only America, honestly, it's happening in Australia.

[00:27:46]It's happening in a lot of countries.

[00:27:48]Like it's not just an American problem.

[00:27:50]that's the originator of the problem, but it's not just an American problem.

[00:27:54]It's like a worldwide problem right now.

[00:27:56]Um, anyway, let's move on from that.

[00:27:58]Let's talk about, we kind of mentioned it, but let's kind of talk about the dynamic and kind of parallel of like history versus truth in context of these chapters, right? Let me just have a sip of water.

[00:28:16]Okay. So the number one thing is the public memory like the memory of the general masses is unreliable which we know like through their opinion of Shilang um you know through their opinion of what happened with like the kingdom of Banu and Banu herself and just a bunch of things right the public masses opinion and information is unreliable um at best, right? Um which is really important to show like that history as we understand it in this world and in our own world is not that it's unreliable, but we do need to take a lot of historical um perspectives with a grain of salt because again biases come into play and all that stuff.

[00:29:12]I think this book it questions whether historical perspectives are truth or are they merely dominant perspectives, right? I think there's things that we can't discount that are historical truths. Like for example, um in 1937, um World War II was declared, right? It is 1937, right? I I don't want to bring a fact and then be wrong about that fact.

[00:29:45]I'm pretty sure it's 1937. I might be wrong. I'm bad with date names, date um things, but like let's say 1937, World War II pops off, right? That's a fact.

[00:29:56]I'm not sure if that's the year, but just just bear with me, right? That's an indisputable fact, right? There's so so there's certain things that are just factual information, but then there's a perspective of something where is that the truth or is that just the dominant perspective, right? Like um I can't think of anything right now, but you kind of know what I'm talking about, right? I think this is a perfect representation especially in this chapter that the dead people of their past can never have control of their life stories and their you know opinions and who they were as people. It's all in the hands of people that speak that history, right? And so, how much of history can we write off as, you know, facts that have been exaggerated or um portrayed in a certain light and facts that are just facts, right? I think there's an interesting question there, but let's move on from that point. I think we could talk about like myth verse history for a long time, but let's talk about the further kind of critique of the heavenly court or the heavens as it were. The book really I think challenges the assumption that when we think of like divine authority, right, or the authority at be, we think it equals a sense of righteousness and justice because it's heaven. Like, of course, it's going to be just and righteous, right?

[00:31:30]But the reality is whether it's in heaven or in our world or whatever, power is often a thing that is going to always prioritize self-preservation over justice, morality, the right thing.

[00:31:48]It is always going to choose to be a continued source of power. It's never going to sacrifice its place in the cosmos as it was to do the right thing. And I think that's the big I guess um hole in heaven as a structure and whether it's heaven or any other bureaucratic system. That system is never going to choose to sacrifice its place in the hierarchy to do the right thing. Which is why the governments and politicians never do the right thing because they're never going to um sacrifice themselves, their power, their money, their position for the weak and vulnerable who they are supposed to um you know fight for.

[00:32:38]Right? So I think that's a big critique going on in this book. In these chapters, what I really loved is how horror elements were kind of used as big symbolic kind of storytelling um tools. Right now, tell you what I mean. So, I think especially in these chapters, but in the book in general, ghosts are manifestations of human suffering. That's really at the end of the day, we can argue are ghosts evil?

[00:33:08]Are they not? What is it? What's going on there? But at the end of the day, ghosts are a manifestation of the suffering of humans, which we can directly put the blame for ghost existing in the hands of the heavenly officials who are really people either who are directly involved with human suffering or who turn a blind eye to human suffering. Right? Evil in this world, it's not born of malice and cruelty. Evil through the ghost perspective is born of being abandoned. Whether it's Zwanji who was abandoned by General Pay or these people who were abandoned by Pay Junior or in the heavenly court or any other group of people, right? Evil or Hua, it's not. They weren't these things people and ghosts weren't born through an act of evil. They were born through the heavens and the powerful people at play turning a blind eye to human suffering. That's really what it boils down to. Um, and the ghosts, I think really the the point of them is just they are human resentment taking a physical form.

[00:34:26]They're a physical representation of human suffering and the resentment of humans to the divine. Whether it's in this book or in in the real world, when something bad happens, what's the first thing you curse? God, right? Like, how could God do this to me? Like, I don't know, your child dies of cancer. How could God allowed this to happen? Right?

[00:34:48]Um, that's kind of the I think that's a big symbolism of these ghosts and these horror beings and it's really cool. Um, another thing is I think the ghosts represent that ghosts are not um something to be how do I explain it?

[00:35:15]It's like ghosts are representation that pain that's and suffering that's ignored by society is not something that is just resolved suddenly when you don't pay attention to it. Right? It's something that is transformed into these evil malice field beings of dark powers, right? That's obviously in the real world that's not the case. But in this world, >> the heavenly officials are like, "Oh, if we ignore it long enough, it'll fix itself." But in reality, that's just creates this um kind of ecosystem of ghosts that the heavenly officials have to go to the mortal world to deal with.

[00:35:57]So they're really dealing with their own problems and then wondering why do we always have to deal with these ghosts, right? So it's a big criticism of them being blind to like what the [ __ ] is going on in their realm. Okay, now I really want to talk about the Shilang and Banu parallel. This is the most interesting thing to me in these chapters. So number one thing, obviously both of them are punished for trying to help others, right? We talked about that. They're both tried to do the right thing and as a result are punished by society at large which is a big um exploration of like what is the society in this world that goodness and helping is the thing that is most punished. Um going from that point is they are both these isolated figures and symbols of failure. Shilang is a failure of protecting his kingdom, right? She is a failure of B uh the kingdom of Banu and Yongan disappearing basically, right? They're both victims of failing their people and failing.

[00:37:07]Yeah. Failing the people that they were willing to do everything for, right? So they're both symbols of that and they're both kind of isolated from their societies. Like from Bayu's perspective, her kingdom hates her as the traitor villain. And in the prologue of this volume, we find out that the remnants of Shilang's kingdom also blame and hated him. And even though he was trying to help, they were like, "Oh, that guy can just [ __ ] off." Right? So, they're both isolated and they're both symbols of failure.

[00:37:41]Another thing is, this is probably what I love most is the act of Shilang defending Banu is really interesting because it's not him defending Banu.

[00:37:53]What's really happening in my opinion is he's defending himself, but he can never outright do that because he doesn't feel like he has the right to defend himself. So him defending Banu, it's really him trying to defend himself and trying to explain himself to people because he never allows himself to ever view himself as not at fault of something like he's always like it's my fault. I deserve this. That's his perspective. But in subconsciously, I think he does want to defend himself against what people say about him, but he can never allow himself to do that. So BU is like the perfect chance for him to defend himself by defending her even if it's a subconscious thing. And I found that really interesting philosophically this idea I think it questions that the big questions being asked here is compassion worth it if it only leads to suffering suffering which we we clearly see in this book that's all that compassion leads to is further suffering right is it worth it if that's the case in my opinion opinion this book and the writer is saying that yes it's very much worth it doesn't matter how bad things get how terrible things are as a character I think is a representation that despite it despite the badness despite the terror despite the horribleness of doing the right thing you still need to do the right thing because sheang despite his self-hatred despite the hatred of the world despite the mocking and the sneering and everything else he still chooses to do the right thing so I Think what this book is saying is despite it being the worst thing, nothing's going to come of it. It's always going to be [ __ ] after you do the right thing. You still need to do the right thing. I think that's really cool and really interesting. What I love about this book is like just how idealistic it is, you know? Because a lot of books now these days, they really go into that like they really lean into like pragmatism and like you need to be, you know, um, smart about things and, you know, you've got to kind of have an anti-hero vibe to you. Like a lot of books do that and I don't mind that. I like that. That has its place as well.

[00:40:21]But like I miss just good old idealism of doing the right thing no matter the consequences. And I think honestly I think a big person to blame for this change in the societal kind of perspective of storytelling is [clears throat] George RR Martin.

[00:40:43]Honestly, in my opinion, I love A Song of Ice and Fire. It's my favorite book series. I love it to death.

[00:40:50]But I like I got to be honest, George R.

[00:40:53]Martin did irreparable damage with his story um to the conscious uh like critical analysis of stories. And he didn't do it on purpose, but it was the fact that like his story being what it was, people just there's a lot of people that have zero critical analys like analysis skills and media literacy. So, they just understood from his story what they wanted to and really not what was actually being portrayed. Like, what I'm talking about is Ned Stark as a character, right? Um, I'm going to try to do this without spoilers, but it's been many years. So, if you haven't read at this point, I don't know what to tell you, but I'm going try not to spoil it.

[00:41:36]Obviously, next Ned Stark is a good upright just dude in the book, right?

[00:41:42]And negative things happen to women in book and people only regard him as like, oh, he's so stupid. You got to be smart.

[00:41:48]You got to be you got to be he's an idiot. Why why would you do the things that you were doing? But he was just being an honorable upright, you know, doing the right thing guy. Doesn't matter what the consequences of that. He was willing to accept that. Right.

[00:42:04]So because of that and everyone having the perspective, oh that's so stupid. I think from that point on like pragmatic, politically smart characters were just like the preferred thing and it's not bad. I don't mind it. I like those characters as well. But like I think that like a song of did irreparable damage to idealistic heroic characters.

[00:42:32]And it's not it's not George R. Martin's fault. It's really just the pe the fact that a lot of people that um take in stories now are brain dead. Honestly, it feels like more of a Game of Thrones the TV show problem than the book problem because in cuz in the books like we get like what for example in the books we get um a lot of yeah the people do view like Ned suck as an idiot cuz he was honorable and stuff but like the response of the honorableness um and how loyal people are to him even after what happens at the end of book one happens like decades after they're still loyal to him shows like how good it is to be an ideal honorable person right but in the show it's very much played off as like oh yeah Ned Zark was an idiot right and there's none of that like loyalty thought like the loyalty he created in the people that knew him >> in the show so I think it was more of a show problem that [ __ ] people's brain up when it came to media literatur interesting in like idealistic characters. But yeah, that that that really did like irreparable damage to the to viewers, you know, in my opinion. I did irreparable damage to media literacy in my opinion. Okay, let me get into my favorite moments now of these chapters.

[00:44:06]Um, obviously my favorite, one of my favorite moments was just Hua Cheng carrying Shilang, like when they're in the pit and Sheilang, I mean Hua just refusing to put Chileong down the whole time. Like this [ __ ] is thirsty.

[00:44:21]But honestly, I'm not just going to give it to Hen cuz Sheilang's thirsty as well. Because the amount of times this man was just looking at his Adam's apple and like touching his chest and shoulders. I'm just like sh young man like you're you're saying oh like oh I'm put me down but then 5 seconds later you're just like absolutely salivating over his collarbone like please Shilong why are you like this? Um that was a that was a cool m that was a funny moment. I like that. Um, another moment I loved was the moment where Sheilyang reveals that he knows it's Hua Changeng cuz it was such a Sheilang way where they just they walk into the hut and then he just asked a simple question and then he's like Hua and he calls him Hua. And that moment I was like whoa what the [ __ ] And I don't remember if that's how it was in the anime. It might have been but I can't remember. But that was perfect. That was perfect. Like I loved that that's how he revealed that he knew cuz I'm pretty sure Xileang knew from like the first meeting that it was Hua. Like after the heavenly officials told him about Hua.

[00:45:29]I'm pretty sure he knew that Slang was Hua from that point on but he never kind of um talked about it because you know he was just like I'm going to respect your need for secrecy. So that was amazing.

[00:45:44]Like 10 out of 10 no notes. Next moment I really loved. Oh, this was one of the funniest moments. Nanfen um he kind of he walks into the hut or wherever they were and he looks between Hua Chang and Shilong and he he kind of like points between him. He's like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." And I feel like in that moment he realized he's like, "Wait, wait, are you guys are you got Wait, is is this what's going on?" He doesn't say anything and then he just leaves. But I'm pretty sure in that moment he was like, "Oh, I see what's happening. I see what the [ __ ] happening." I think that moment was hilarious to me. I love that moment. Um the last moment that I really enjoyed, it's not really a moment, but more of like a common occurrence [laughter] was um Hing talking so much trash about Kirong where the amount of times he me like because she mentions him um as like one of the calamities that they just put in to fill in the numbers and why J's like I [ __ ] hate that [ __ ] That's basically what he says. He's like I I just hate him so much. Like watching his hatred to Kurong, [laughter] I think that's how he says him, is amazing, bro. It's so funny cuz he's so calm the whole time and then anyone mentions him and he's like, I [ __ ] hate that [ __ ] I hate him so much. I loved it, man. Like in this chap in these chapters was just so funny.

[00:47:12]Anyway, um that was my review analysis of chapters 9 to 11. So that was volume one. I think it was really good. And so volume one was essentially the entirety of season one because I remember season one ending with Guaen disappears. So I guess the next volume will kind of focus on what happens in season 2. So I imagine we're going to go to the ghost realm. We're going to meet the orangehaired general guy um whose family was murdered by um Shilang or that's what we that's what it's um that's what it shows. So I think we're going to go through that whole plot and then I think volume three is when we'll be entering uncharted waters. So I'm excited for that. Um, so with the next volume, I'm I'm thinking, tell me what you guys think in the comments below. Actually, I'm thinking the way to do the continuing like chapters is I'm going to because in the in the next books, the chapter index, it shows it as like arcs. So, I'm thinking of doing like arcbased reviews as opposed to just volumes. So like like I still do volumes but like for example so this is book two right? This is book two and if I go to the chapter index it shows like like it shows um yeah it shows like from chapter 12 to 24 is like the first arc right and Oh no. Oh no. Okay. So I think from Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I think from volume one, I mean chapter one, volume one to chapter 24, volume 2, that's the first arc.

[00:49:08]Okay.

[00:49:10]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:13]Okay. Maybe not. Yeah. But we'll just we'll just do the same thing and we'll split it into four chapters. So, I guess volume two will be chapters 12 to 16, then 17 to 20. and 21 to 24 and then Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we'll just do it the same way.

[00:49:34]Okay. Um but yeah, maybe for once we get into the second arc, we can do arc by arc in each video or would there be just too much stuff in that? I don't know.

[00:49:45]Tell me what you guys think in the comments below. Anyway guys, [clears throat] thank you guys for watching and I will see you next time.

[00:49:51]Goodbye.