The following relates to the work and all its adaptations in general:
- Accidental Aesop:
- A running trend experienced by the characters is that their successors have a tendency to become sucksessors who will undo all of their hard work. The lesson that can be taken from this is to make sure that the next generation doesn't make the same mistakes as their predecessors. The idea of a golden generation is nothing but a prideful delusion that will result in suicidal dependency and shouldn't come in the way of progress in any form as time will erase all eventually.
- Know When to Fold Them. Dragging out conflicts for ideals alone with no chance of victory will just paint you as a Doomed Moral Victor at best and an idiot that threw away the countless other lives at worst. Ideals and words are no substitute for actual power and talent.
- As Zhuge Liang demonstrated with how he handled Wei Yan and his work schedule during the Northern Campaigns which led to his death from overworking, no matter how talented an individual is, trying to take everything upon oneself is asinine. Being The Ace doesn't mean that everyone else is automatically The Load. Trust your comrades who have been with you thick and thin to carry the burden alongside you.
- At face value, Yuan Shu's downfall seems like Laser-Guided Karma for declaring himself emperor, and thus a cautionary tale against excessive pride. However, as multiple other characters declare themselves emperor two decades later - including The Hero Liu Bei - but don't suffer anywhere near as much for it, it could instead be read as a lesson about the importance of being patient and waiting for the right time to make your move.
- Adaptation Displacement:
- Based on a historical period, but it is more likely that people know the novel MORE than the history, even amongst Chinese. Because of this, learning how much history was actually harsher and the purported heroes weren't as virtuous can be kind of hard to swallow.
- To muddle things even further, the "modern" version of the novel was heavily edited by Qing-era commentator Mao Zonggang and his father, Mao Lun. It begins with the starting line ("The empire long divided must unite"), and goes on from there. Many adaptations/translations do not mention the heavy influences of the Maos.
- Quite a few people, especially those outside of Asia, would be surprised to know the long running series of games, Dynasty Warriors, is actually based off a book.
- Based on a historical period, but it is more likely that people know the novel MORE than the history, even amongst Chinese. Because of this, learning how much history was actually harsher and the purported heroes weren't as virtuous can be kind of hard to swallow.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- A considerable body of readers considers Liu Shan to be Obfuscating Stupidity while being a Manipulative Bastard. Especially considering he had one of the longest reigns (40 years, of which 29 were after Zhuge Liang's death) in Chinese history in the weakest state in one of the most turbulent eras, without being a tyrant, embroiled in a Succession Crisis (like Wu) or controlled by a Regent for Life (like Wei). His most Idiot Ball moment (claiming "I am too happy [in Luoyang] to think of Shu" after his surrender) was especially interpreted this way, as claiming to have any remorse towards Shu would most likely cost his head. As a matter of fact, he is also one of the few surrendered monarchs who died of natural causes.
- Historically, Liu Shan was never actually mentally retarded in the first place, nor was he dropped on the head by Liu Bei.
- The more recent Dynasty Warriors games actually run with this and have Liu Shan be the only one in Shu at the time to realise that the continued war efforts were a waste of time and men.
- Some fans tend to look at Zhuge Liang in a less heroic light, seeing his nigh omniscient strategies and heavily pressuring Liu Bei into both taking over Shu and later declaring himself emperor as an attempt to rule China from the sidelines while someone else takes the glory/scorn in the process. Though a more specific case can be made for his treatment of Wei Yan. Whether or not he originally intended to rebel after Zhuge Liang's death or was driven to do so by Liang's plotting is left somewhat ambiguous. The badmouthing form of scrutiny he's received from the historian Chen Shou does not help his case.
- Practically EVERY character can suffer this if you dare look at forums regarding their historical counterparts compared to their novel counterparts; some people received the bad ends of the scrutiny, while some are flat-out built from supposed folklore (or as some haters deem it to be, lies). In the original creator's eyes, it can be his own form of this trope as whole as well, due to how he expands the roles of certain characters and/or outright twists it apart from their actual recorded history.
- The whole Shu Kingdom is not free from this, as explained with both Zhuge Liang and Liu Shan; the former has a ton of myths surrounding him, with historians such as Chen Shou outright bashing him for incompetence on certain fields if his word was to be truly believed. Historically Liu Bei was a big case as well in terms of being just and virtuous or putting up a front that was as treacherous as his historical self, as this division stuck with him even with his Dynasty Warriors-portrayal.
- A popular tale about the demise of Diao Chan: Given to the three brothers Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, by Cao Cao no less after the defeat of Lu Bu, with his hidden intention of breaking up the brothers. It almost worked when Liu Bei and Zhang Fei bickered over her a lot, but Guan Yu was skeptical and knew what would happen to strong men when beautiful women was involved and this is Diao Chan they're talking about, so one night he took her for a walk alone and killed her to end the bickering. Usually, people call it a day with 'Guan Yu stops the bickering and thwarts Cao Cao's plan'. But alternatively, it can be said that Guan Yu is also doing a favor to Diao Chan, considering that she's been miserable: She lost her father after Dong Zhuo's remnants ransacked the capital, then she lost her one true love Lu Bu by Cao Cao and generally she didn't seem to be too interested with the brothers, and then she's told to do this seduction thing by the murderer of Lu Bu. Living didn't seem too joyful for her at that point, and by killing her, at least Guan Yu allowed Diao Chan to be with her true love in death.
- A considerable body of readers considers Liu Shan to be Obfuscating Stupidity while being a Manipulative Bastard. Especially considering he had one of the longest reigns (40 years, of which 29 were after Zhuge Liang's death) in Chinese history in the weakest state in one of the most turbulent eras, without being a tyrant, embroiled in a Succession Crisis (like Wu) or controlled by a Regent for Life (like Wei). His most Idiot Ball moment (claiming "I am too happy [in Luoyang] to think of Shu" after his surrender) was especially interpreted this way, as claiming to have any remorse towards Shu would most likely cost his head. As a matter of fact, he is also one of the few surrendered monarchs who died of natural causes.
- Badass Decay: In the first few chapters of the novel, Liu Bei displayed some serious fighting skills and was able to duel Lu Bu alongside his brothers. Later on, he became more of an Iron Woobie.
- Broken Base: There's a camp who enjoys the story for what it is... and then there's another camp who's absolutely furious that Shu receives way too much Historical Hero Upgrade while in history they're not that virtuous or great, and other kingdoms who are more capable had their capabilities downplayed and thus often felt compelled to make statements about how the history is always the "more right version." Of course, those in the latter camp may have missed the point about this being a "novel" rather than authentic history (Or more likely looking like wishing that the author picked their favorite kingdom (not Shu) to get the Historical Hero Upgrade).
- Complete Monster:
- Li Ru, the son-in-law of Dong Zhuo, is a mastermind behind his master's rise to power and complicit in his many atrocities. Convincing the warrior Lu Bu to betray and murder his own adoptive father to join Dong Zhuo's side, Li Ru intends to poison the Emperor and his family. Enraged by their death poems, Li Ru throws the Emperor's mother from a window; has his consort strangled; and personally forces the Emperor to drink poison wine. When coalition forces approach the capital, Li Ru has the city ransacked, killing thousands and forcing millions on a perilous march while pillaging, killing, and raping all they find.
- Sun Hao is the last emperor of the Wu dynasty, as well as its very worst. Revealing himself to be a brutal and hedonistic tyrant not long after taking power, Sun Hao would kill many of his own ministers for speaking out against his cruelty. Hao's excessive hedonism would result in him abusing Wu's treasury to host lavish parties where guests that displeased him were Flayed Alive or had their eyes gorged out, all while his people suffered from thirst and starvation. Sun Hao's actions would lead ultimately to the collapse of Wu, with the depopulated and destitute kingdom being easily swept aside when the kingdom of Jin made its final push to reunify China, with no one left to fight for him.
- Designated Hero: Liu Bei is held up as The Hero of the novel; virtuous, benevolent, etc. yet he repeatedly abandons his wife and children, doesn't punish a hunter for murdering his wife to feed him, and also throws his own baby to the ground. The book doesn't call him out for them because of Values Dissonance and his effort to restore the "legitimate" dynasty. It also does NOT help in that historically, Liu Bei was pretty treacherous during his time. While the novel tries to hide it, looking at the narrative shows that Liu Bei betrays an enormous number of sponsors over the course of the war before finally gaining the Riverlands. The book portrays each betrayal as noble and just for various reasons, but when his enemies start calling him "treacherous", it's hard to argue against them.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Ma Dai plays a small role in most of the book, but has the tendency to end up in every "Characters I want to see in the next Dynasty Warriors game" list. And voila, he did, for the seventh installment.
- Lady Zhurong is basically a One-Scene Wonder in all of the books she appeared in yet is widely beloved for being the only Action Girl in the novel.
- Diao Chan. She's close enough to be some sort of Original Generation (she is based on a real life, possibly nameless handmaiden), and her time in the novel is rather short (once Lu Bu bit the dust, she vanished from the story, with most pointing out that she's killed one way or another, and that's not even halfway of the story) and what she was doing, while vital for the plot, was nothing for its time, there's been a lot of Honey Trap plots throughout Ancient China back in the time. She's basically one of the most prominent and well-known female characters throughout the story and era, enough that the whole China declared her one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China for someone whose identity was taken from the novel (even the other Beautiesnote had the legitimate claims that they existed). Certainly impressive for a created-for-the-novel identity.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: Shu, Wei, and Wu are united into one at last and peace throughout the entire country of China can finally begin. Unfortunately the victors are a splinter group of Wei who usurped the throne, conquered Wu and Shu who at the time were being ruled by Liu Shan (a truly incompetent ruler who defiles everything Shu originally stood for) and Sun Hao (a tyrant almost as bad as Dong Zhuo). The kicker? When these two surrendered they were given lucrative positions and the readers were told they lived out their remaining lives in luxury. To be fair though this novel closely follows the real-life events in history and not a lot could be changed. And historically, the hard-fought reunification of China ended a decade or two later with a new barbarian invasion. Also, the war to unify China was itself one of the bloodiest in human history, killing (by highest estimates) 74% of China's population, more people than the Second World War. The victors ruled dust and ashes.
- Evil Is Cool: Lu Bu is one of the most iconic examples in Chinese literature - a cruel, treacherous Dumb Muscle brute who nevertheless managed to amass an enormous fandom spanning centuries and continents simply by kicking insane amounts of ass and doing so with unique, inimitable style. His famous sympathetic moment where he betrays and murders the tyrannical Dong Zhuo helps a lot, too.
- Fair for Its Day: It's a 14th-century C.E. historical novel depicting events in China during the 2nd to 3rd century C.E. Even so, there are still some exceptionally cruel or unusual characters even for its time, e.g. Dong Zhuo.
- Fan Nickname: Zhou Yu is referred to as a jaguar (美州狼) by the Chinese fandom because his nickname "美周郎" (Handsome Zhou) sounds exactly like it.
- That or just "Dadudu" (大都督), meaning Grand Commander (or simply "Dudu")
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Despite being a literary work about a period in Chinese history, it is incredibly popular in Japan, with the story receiving many anime, manga, movies, and video game adaptations over the years, namely Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Koei Tecmo.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Liu Biao's advisor who came up with the strategy that killed Sun Jian was named Kuai Liang. This would've been very forgettable since that's all he did; if it wasn't for NetherRealm Studios using his name for the real name of one of their most iconic characters, the ice-powered assassin/ninja Sub-Zero (though it took years after the franchise's foundation for the name to be used).
- Ho Yay: Liu Bei is noted to sleep in the same bed as quite a lot of his trusted generals, brothers, or strategists. While this is a thing one does in ancient China to show respect, the novel also indicates that Liu Bei and Zhao Yun specifically showed great affection for one another, down to tearful farewells and, in one traditional story, singing poems to each other about "being joined as one body."
- Mainstream Obscurity: Its importance in the Asian literary tradition is hard to overstate, and you can just scroll down below to see the extensive list of derivative works it's spawned, to say nothing of the numerous references that crop up so frequently in Asian culture (to the point that events in the book get painted on noodle carts
and people would recognize them). Yet, like Shakespeare and other comparable western classics, when it comes to people who've actually read it, particularly outside of a school context... - Memetic Badass:
- Guan Yu's portrayal in this novel pretty much single-handedly elevated him to War God status.
- Since his inception, Lu Bu has never not been portrayed as a memetic badass. Expect any work that portrays him to make him practically invincible.
- Zhuge Liang is the Chinese gold standard for Magnificent Bastardry by being able to outwit basically anyone.
- Zhao Yun. Being practically undefeated until his retirement and death by old age qualifies him as such, considering that most of his other peers died in combat or by illness. There's a reason why he is the Series Mascot of Dynasty Warriors or being present or having an Expy of him gracing the (mostly mobile-based) Multiplayer Online Battle Arena in Chinanote , a feat only rivaled with Sun Wukong.
- Memetic Loser: Liu Shan is a pretty extreme case of this, to the point that his childhood nickname, "Adou", actually entered the Chinese language as a way of referring to people who will never amount to anything, even with support from competent people. Some fans and historians have proposed to overturn this judgement a little (see Alternative Character Interpretation above), but the reputation still persists.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Various incidents from the Three Kingdoms have made it into the Chinese language in the form of proverbs, idioms and other well-known sayings, as well as being Trope Namers for several of The Thirty-Six Stratagems.
- As mentioned in its article, Kaizo Traps are called "Koumei's Traps" (act."Kongming's Traps") after Zhuge Liang's style name (in the on'yomi reading). The ultimate origin of this name, though, is from this adaptation. Specifically, when Sima Yi heard about Zhuge's dealth:
Sima Yi: Wait, be calm; this may just be another of Kongming's traps. - Never Live It Down: Despite a lack of historical evidence supporting this, readers would always remember that Liu Bei dropped his infant kid on the ground after the Battle of Changban.
- Nightmare Fuel: In the books, the nightmarish reign of Sun Hao. Like Caligula himself, Sun Hao was initially an impressive young ruler... but then the disgusting hedonism, torture and completely disproportionate retribution begins. Anyone who disapproved of his bizarre, prophecy-based politics would be executed, most likely in a horrendous way, including being boiled alive. When his brother was kidnapped to be used as a figure head for a rebellion, Sun Hao's forces defeated the rebellion... and then executed his brother, his mother and most of that side of the family just to make sure. At one point, one of his ministers sickened... and Sun Hao thought he was joking. So he had the guy whipped, sawed and burned alive. Said minister died under the torture. His whole clan was exiled. What a monster. Sun Hao can be considered the second coming of Dong Zhuo in the late Three Kingdoms without any of Dong Zhuo's small positive traits. Little wonder the people of Wu looking at the Jin army trying to conquer them decided to just surrender and sell out Sun Hao while they're at it, the invading Jin is seen more as a Big Damn Heroes to slap them awake from the horrible nightmare.
- Even worse: The historical Sun Hao was JUST AS BAD.
- One-Scene Wonder: Mi Heng. He only shows up in one chapter but his delivery of so much snark and of course his infamous "drumming naked" scene helps him make a lasting impression.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Xiahou Dun was historically known for being very insecure and irritable over the loss of his eye and despised his nickname "The Blind General" to the point where he would smash any mirrors in his presence. This is left out of Three Kingdoms (and almost every other major adaptation as a result) leaving him to have very few outstanding personality traits.
- On the other hand, Xiahou Dun was not a particularly skilled general, and his record essentially goes from getting tricked to getting ambushed to getting tricked. Later in life, he was usually put away from the front and probably kept his job because of his relationship with Cao Cao. In history
- Values Dissonance:
- This is not the 21st century. Events such as the value of one's body, and relationships (valuing of one's sworn brothers over wives and children) will only make sense in the light of historical Chinese culture.
- One doesn't even need to know that it's not the 21st century. The Three Kingdoms Era was actually one of the bloodiest civil wars in Chinese history (and one for world history for that matter). Cannibalism (referenced during Liu Bei being served dinner) was rampant during the time when lands and farming were very difficult to maintain from constant bandit threat or army invasion/maintenance. It's actually thought that the main reason why each kingdom gained so many officers and soldiers was simply that they would be able to feed the people and keep them safe.
- The book is originally made to appeal for the people of Ancient China who were very big on Confucianism in that time. This was why Liu Bei and Shu Kingdom was given the Historical Hero Upgrade, the author needed the heroes to be relatable to the people of Confucianism, just writing them as accurately as the history wouldn't make them as appealing. Likewise, it has the effect of modern people who knew the history and horrors of war without putting their pro-Confucianism goggles into believing that Liu Bei is just a Designated Hero.
