History Characters / DynastyWarriorsShuKingdom

* MsFanservice: Yue Ying's costumes and appearance gets more and more {{fanservice}}y in every installment.

* ForWantOfANail: The biggest example for a single character in the series, since he is a major contributor to not one, but ''two'' hypothetical routes in ''8''.

%%* SwornBrothers: With Liu Bei and Guan Yu; they're sworn brothers after all.

* BloodBrothers: With Liu Bei and Guan Yu; they're sworn brothers after all.

* BloodBrothers: With Guan Yu and Zhang Fei by way of the Sworn Brotherhood oath.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In ''4'' he doesn't die like in the novel, just like everyone else. It also happens in Hypothetical Route for Shu and Wu's story in ''8''.

* BashBrothers: With Zhang Bao, swearing a [[BloodBrothers brotherhood oath]] just like their fathers.

* BashBrothers: With Guan Xing. Based on novel, they also made a [[BloodBrothers brotherhood oath]] just like their fathers before them, though depending on the route and the player's actions it can end tragically.

* BloodBrothers: He makes a "sworn brothers" pact with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Regardless if it was to save a fellow officer, killing your own lord won't make you the most trustworthy of allies. Certainly not to the one person whos authority appears to be second to your new lord. This is implied to be why Zhuge Liang did not trust Wei Yan.

* KilledOffscreen: In the historical paths of ''7'' and ''8'', he disappears after Shu's storyline to coincide with his historical death.

* DragonTheirFight: Takes over as Shu's battlefield commander at Wuzhang Plains in scenarios that depict Zhuge Liang's mid-battle death.

* SparedbytheAdaptation: Historically and in the novel, he is died in 229 that was reported by his sons and Zhuge Liang. But in this way, Zhao Yun had a long lived to fight at Wuzhang Plains in ''8'' and ''9''.

* Spared by the Adaptation: Historically and in the novel, he is died in 229 that was reported by his sons and Zhuge Liang. But in this way, Zhao Yun had a long lived to fight at Wuzhang Plains in ''8'' and ''9''.

* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: This game series fully cements his current status in the ''Dynasty Warriors'' fandom and novel readers alike; the historical Zhao Yun didn't achieve much until later years during Liu Shan's reign. Even then, it doesn't last long as he died in 229, six years after Liu Shan became Emperor. If anything, he's more like [[AlmightyJanitor a personal guard]] for Liu Bei and his family (akin to Dian Wei for Cao Cao) which is why his main duty during Battle of Changban was protecting Liu Bei's family instead of fighting in the frontline. Arguably, another contribution to this status of his is also possibly some historical fictional biographies of him which can be deemed as "ancient Chinese fanfiction". WordOfGod stated that this was because the series needed a poster boy hero that suited their tastes for an action-based setting (seeing that their initial proposal being Liu Bei didn't fit into that concept too well). [[note]]However, Chen Shou had a high appraisal of Zhao Yun as follows: "Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun were fierce and mighty warriors, just like claws and teeth. Were they the successors to Guan Ying and Lord Teng (Xiahou Ying; both men served with distinction under Han Gaozu Liu Bang)?" [[/note]]

* LightIsGood: Personality wise, averted; in most games, Zhao Yun's predominant color has always been white, as per the novel, and is synonymous with his historical counterpart. His clothing in white serves as a sign of his purity - a man who is good, loyal, and somewhat faultless.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Once informed of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's deaths, he immediately drops his idealistic imagery and goes on the vengeful warpath against Wu.
** In a more traditional sense, he's TheGoodKing who can mow down hordes of {{Mooks}} with his sword(s), whether he only uses one (2-5) or two (6 onwards).

* BigNo: Seen in the cutscene preceding The Battle of Yiling in Shu's storyline in ''7''. Guan Yu's death was enough to make Liu Bei want to attack Wu -- though he managed to calm down enough to apologize for the impulse -- but hearing about Zhang Fei's death immediately afterward drove him over the edge. What follows is Liu Bei using his own sword to slice his own throne in half while doing this trope.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: From Wei's point of view in the Hypothetical route. At the start of the Three Kingdoms Era, he was a minor lord with limited military and political experience and no land to call his own. His only real claims to fame was his significantly more powerful sworn brothers and the fact that his charisma and benevolence gained him a large following. He spends a good portion of the story perpetually on the run from Cao Cao, and his previously cordial relations with Wu turn sour following the dispute over Jing Province. However, by the end of the route, he's not only resolidified his bonds with Wu, but wins battle after battle against Wei until finally capturing their capital and slaying Cao Cao.
** That, and the historical Liu Bei was known to lose all of his independent campaigns. His first real victory was at Hanzhong with the help of Fa Zheng.

* HandsOffParenting: He doesn't seem to interact with his son much most especially in the hypothetical route where they don't even talk to each other asides from the in-game quotes where he does acknowledge him. It's possible that he's too busy fighting for a land of benevolence and doesn't have much time to be with his son which could also explain Liu Shan's lack of assertiveness in the later years. It doesn't help that his historical counterpart abandoned his wife, concubines and children in the middle of battle just to save himself, and there's his infamous baby-dropping incident after the Battle of Changban in the novel.

** In Wei's hypothetical finale in ''8'', Liu Bei becomes the leader of the anti-Wei Coalition. Now think about it, in this scenario Wei has become a legitimate vassal kingdom under the Han Dynasty with Emperor Xian's blessing and this is one of several reasons why, in an optional hypothetical objective, many of Sun Quan's officers and eventually Sun Quan himself submitted to Wei. So, in many ways, Cao Cao is not only ''de facto'' ruler of the Han Dynasty, but also a legitimate regent to the Han Emperor. This means that, by continuing to defy Cao Cao, Liu Bei and pretty much the rest of his anti-Wei coalition members aren't so different from the Yellow Turbans that disrupted the Han Dynasty many decades prior. Furthermore, this makes all of Liu Bei's preaching about creating the land of benevolence completely [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] when he himself defies the legitimate government.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade:
** Liu Bei in real life, while he had the tenacity and charisma, was by no means a nice person; he constantly did things for his own gain even to the point of betraying everyone he served under, and his infamous deeds in Runan. It's worth noting, however, that he was ''also'' backstabbed by Lu Bu when the latter took over Xu Province from him.
** When analyzed more closely, his actions may have also been fair for its day due to the fact that he was a product of the chaotic and awful times of the Three Kingdoms period, thus his actions may have just been him trying to get by and survive. His only supposed mentions of betrayal outside of claiming Yi Province was also him merely packing himself up and leaving as an independent force, as he never bothered to rat out his former superiors to their respective enemies.

* HotterAndSexier: From ''6'' to ''8'', he loses his facial hair and looks much younger and more handsome. Players can see why Sun Shangxiang would switch allegiances for him. It doubles as a strange sort of (probably unintentional) humor: prior to ''6'', Shangxiang would nearly always remain with Wu in the games and in fan pairings, yet now she tends to stay with Shu. In ''9'', He got his facial hair back while still retaining his youthful look.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In ''9'', after Zhu Ran executes the fire attack on the main camp, Liu Bei stares in horror as he watches the camp go up in flames. Then, he realizes that he neglected all the virtues that he had been fighting for and instead [[RevengeBeforeReason focused on avenging his brothers' deaths]] which led to his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Yiling.

* ReluctantWarrior: Of course! He ''is'' an AllLovingHero, after all, so he doesn't like fighting. Unless innocent people are getting killed or his brothers are getting murdered by betrayal; unfortunately, it happens often.