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Review: The Advisors Alliance Part 2: Growling Tiger and Roaring Dragon (大軍師司馬懿之虎嘯龍吟) (2017)
I'm finally finished!! This was a long ride. Overall, this show was not perfect, but it was entertaining and it gave me another perspective on the historical figures of those times, from the point of view of the Sima clan.
I would recommend part 2 of this series as a supplement to those who are interested in the Three Kingdoms story. However, I would caution that this drama does not attempt to challenge the viewer to think about Sima Yi as anybody other than a great strategist. He was such a man, but Sima Yi had a big attitude change near the end of the series that I felt the writers could've taken advantage of to challenge the idolization of historical figures.
That's just me nitpicking though. In general, I thought the Advisors Alliance was good for some popcorn time viewing, but I thought that part 1 was more interesting than part 2. I'll talk about it more below the cut.
Spoilers. And this is going to be another no-edit review ^^;;
P.S. My review of Part 1 of the Advisors Alliance is here.
As usual, I will refer to the Advisors Alliance as AA, and to the Three Kingdoms 2010 drama as 3K.
Story
What I thought was interesting about Part 1 was that it was almost totally internal. All of the important events that happened during Cao Cao's reign were brushed over because they had less of an impact on Sima Yi specifically.
The first part of Part 2 focused on the strategic battles between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. I didn't think that the show was particularly interesting during these scenes because these had been covered all the time in all sorts of media regarding the Three Kingdoms period. In addition, AA focused on Zhuge Liang as a major supporting character as opposed to focusing solely on the Kingdom of Wei, which turned this part of the story into something that was no different than other Three Kingdoms dramas.
After Zhuge Liang died, the focus turned back to the Kingdom of Wei. Cao Rui and Sima Yi's relationship was strictly professional, but still stable because Cao Rui could see that Sima Yi was his most valuable and most intelligent minister. The one thing Cao Rui would not yield on, however, was the idea that Guo Zhao was the cause of all of the misery in his life.
After Cao Rui died, the Kingdom of Wei was incredibly unstable. Not only was Cao Fang not fit to rule as a literal child, but Cao Shuang was also much more volatile of a minister than his father Cao Zhen. Their struggles built up to the point of Zhang Chunhua's death.
After Zhang Chunhua died, Sima Yi used force to gain control over the regime. The drama ended with the Sima clan firmly in control. I initially thought that the drama would lead up to the beginnings of the Jin Dynasty, but I was wrong. It only led up to Sima Yi's death.
As I mentioned, I felt that Part 1 was more interesting because it showed the story that we already knew in a different light. The first part of Part 2 showed the story that we already knew in a light we were already familiar with. I did enjoy the middle part, up until Cao Rui died, mainly because I thought that Sima Yi and Cao Rui's relationship was so interesting. As for the end, I acknowledge what the writers were trying to do, but I think I was expecting a bit too much (i.e. expecting to see more of the Sima clan lineage) and was slightly let down. But I still saw it as a conclusive ending. The ending was meant to show us how Sima Yi had died having accomplished much for his family, but also at the expense of many friendships and relationships.
I was uncomfortable towards the latter half of Part 2 because of Sima Zhao's constant habit of undermining his father and then being a devious little devil. But I understand that it was necessary because it was factually correct, and also I think it helped us ease better into the idea that perhaps he was just a part of Sima Yi that he hadn't dared awaken until now.
In Part 1, we had seen Sima Yi's relationships with Cao Cao and Cao Pi, both who were very intelligent rulers. The two rulers in Part 2 were Cao Rui and Cao Fang. While Cao Rui wasn't totally dumb, he was not as sturdy as his father and grandfather. And of course, Cao Fang was a child. In this part, I thought it was interesting to see Sima Yi's relationships with two rulers that he had clear intellectual power over.
As I mentioned above, I felt that this drama spent too much time on the Kingdom of Shu Han, from Zhuge Liang's perspective. Sime this was a drama about Sima Yi, I thought it would make sense to show things from Sima Yi's perspective only.
When Xiahou Xuan was imprisoned, he told Sima Shi that he'd never seen Sima Yi as the loyal and patriotic subject that his son saw him as. I thought that it was a message that may have also been directed at audiences (though I think it mostly flew over people's heads). But I had an "oh!" moment then, realizing that we'd been seeing Sima Yi from a very familial standpoint up until then, and thus was unable to see the less than kind parts of him.
In the end, Hou Ji was the only one of the "older generation" that stayed with Sima Yi. I thought that it would've been more powerful if Hou Ji truly had a falling out with Sima Yi because of their differences in ideologies. However, the writers decided that they'd have a longlasting friendship regardless, and ended the show on a more humorous tone with those two. I felt that it was a copout, and I was a little disappointed. I was expecting Sima Yi to die a lonely old man, as the payoff for achieving power the way he did. That being said, he did do that in a very short time span (in the context of the show) so maybe he didn't deserve an end that was that miserable.
Overall, the story was fine. The writers didn't have much leeway because they had to stick to historical facts, so they could only make creative choices on small things, such as how certain people died.
Writing
I thought that the tension between Sima Yi and Cao Shuang was built up in an interesting way. What I mean by interesting was that I was uncomfortable the entire time, which I think was meant to be the point. Cao Shuang was obviously not Sima Yi's match and yet he still had a foothold on Sima Yi because Sima Yi refused to overstep.
The tension built up to a point that the truth of Xiahou Hui's death didn't even matter. It was just an excuse for Cao Shuang to move in on Sima Yi.
One of the advantages that Chinese dramas based on history have over other types of dramas (even historical dramas that are not based on history) is the ability to portray morally ambiguous characters. Sima Yi was supposed to be the protagonist, but it is undeniable that he killed a lot of people. We saw Sima Zhao grow up from baby to young man, and right before our eyes we saw him turn into a cold-blooded villain. That stuff is freaky, yo. But we cannot deny it.
Another thing I love about Cdramas is how they portray romance. Yes, part of it is the censorship, but there's something very special about olden day romances. It was never about the fiery passions or the grand displays of affection. It was always about spending time with each other, understanding each other, etc. In particular, I felt very sentimental towards Hou Ji's wedding. All the women in discussion were dead (Zhang Chunhua, Bai Lingyun, Xiaoyuan), but Hou Ji and Sima Yi still treated them as if they were alive, taking into account their personalities, intentions, etc. It's such an old man thing to do, but carrying around their wives' name tablets, speaking to them (including Sima Shi speaking to Xiahou Hui at her grave), that is something that I don't think we'll ever get again because of how modern people view romance and death.
Production
Time skips
I felt that it was sometimes hard to see how much time had passed because there were both short time skips and long time skips. One such example was how we'd completely skipped Sima Zhao's marriage to Wang Yuanji, who'd just shown up in the house very randomly. Other such examples included children growing up at very fast intervals. However, I understand that the showrunners had their hands tied in this regard because they could only cast so many actors for a certain character without getting people confused.
Casting
For Part 2, I felt that the young actors playing older actors didn't bother me as much as it did in Part 1. For example, the actress for Guo Zhao was 8 years younger than the actor for Cao Rui, but I think it was acceptable to me, because we'd seen how Guo Zhao had grown since Part 1, and thus it was easier to believer her to be a more mature character than she used to be.
Length
The entirety of AA was 86 episodes, which of course is pretty lengthy. The entirety of 3K was 90 or so episodes, and it covered a longer period of time than AA.
In terms of whether the episode count was warranted, my answer is "maybe." I say this because I felt that some subplots were dragged out, and there were some other events that I felt could've been added in for a more coherent story (e.g. Sima Zhao getting married).
Music
The same background music from Part 1 was used in Part 2. Again, most scenes had background music to them, but as I mentioned in my last review, they helped with doing the emotional heavy lifting on behalf of the audience.
Costumes
I liked the costumes from Part 2 a little more than the costumes for Part 1. I think that maybe it was because the characters were older and more powerful, and thus had access to fancier costumes.
For example, the red robe that Sima Yi wore when he first decided to go on the offensive against Cao Shuang was pretty grand looking. In addition, after Sima Yi gained control, we had a scene of Sima Shi, Sima Zhao, Deng Ai, and Zhong Hui all dressed regally in their winter capes. Those were some good looks.
Characters
Sima Yi
I mentioned in my last review that Part 1 was the easy part for Sima Yi. It was easy to root for him when he was the underdog. In Part 2, Sima Yi was already acknowledged as a big player in palace politics. He was under attack by everyone, and in the end, he finally stopped defending and attacked back.
Up until Zhang Chunhua's death, Sima Yi still stood by the idea of being a loyal subject. I think he decided that as long as she was alive, that he would stay alive so that they could always be together. His idea of staying alive meant never stepping out of line.
One Zhang Chunhua died, I think Sima Yi did what he had always wanted to do but never dared to. I admit Sima Yi was kind of badass when he dropped the senile act and guided his troops to arrest Cao Shuang and his allies. That being said, I did feel that the ambition came out of nowhere. I don't doubt that he was an ambitious man all along, but I wonder if there was any way to show that there were times that he really wanted to act out but did not.
Another interpretation of Sima Yi's change in attitude was that although he acted as a loyal and obedient subject who only cared for the good of the Cao family and the people, his hands were never clean. He had fought in war, and he had indirectly killed others through his military campaigns and such. Since his hands were bloodied anywhere, perhaps he felt that he might as well do what he needed to do to protect their family.
I thought there was an opportunity to explore Sima Yi's relationship with Sima Zhao in the last few episodes. There was that scene of Sima Yi and Sima Zhao eyeing each other across the lawn, but they didn't say a word. Sima Yi was shown to be angry when confronting Sima Zhao about how he killed not only possible political allies, but members of his own household. Sima Yi said he would kill Sima Zhao but Sima Shi insisted that they shouldn't because they were family.
Zhang Chunhua told Sima Zhao that Sima Yi always doted on him. I don't doubt this. Sima Zhao was clearly a bright kid, and I think an intellectual such as Sima Yi would've loved it. The issue was that Sima Zhao was guided by his ambition whereas at the time that Zhang Chunhua was alive, Sima Yi was still guided by self preservation and loyalty to the crown. However, near the end, we saw that Sima Yi was not a not ambitious man. His ambition was just dormant. What I'm trying to get as is whether Sima Zhao represented a trait of Sima Yi's that he had never dared to pursue until the boys were mature enough to protect the family.
Overall, I preferred Wu Xiubo's Sima Yi to Ni Dahong's Sima Yi (from 3K), but I still wouldn't say that Sima Yi was a favourite character. That being said, I still learned to sympathize with the character and his family.
Zhang Chunhua
Zhang Chunhua was the rock of the Sima clan. Without Zhang Chunhua to hold down the fort, I think Sima Yi would not be able to throw himself into politics, or if he did, his home would be completely neglected.
Although she and Sima Yi were dearly in love, we also saw that they conflicted a bit when it came to parenting Sima Zhao. Zhang Chunhua babied him a bit because he was her youngest, whereas Sima Yi wanted to instill some discipline in him so that he wouldn't make the same huge mistakes again.
On her deathbed, Zhang Chunhua told Sima Zhao to listen to his father. He did technically do so, but it was only because his father had decided to take power by force and that was in line with Sima Zhao's ideals. She'd also asked Bai Lingyun to take care of the family, and asked Sima Zhao and Wang Yuanji to let Sima Shi adopt one of their sons to continue his family.
Obviously, Zhang Chunhua's death was a huge blow to the Sima clan. I don't doubt that all of Sima Yi's emotions at the time were real, but he later took advantage of that to lower his enemies' defenses.
Overall, I enjoyed Liu Tao's performance as Zhang Chunhua. She was a bit forceful, but she also knew when to use diplomacy to protect the family.
Bai Lingyun
Bai Lingyun continued to be a companion to whom Sima Yi could discuss his work with. She was an intellectual, and was able to keep up with Sima Yi's political maneuvering.
Towards the end of the drama, I started to feel that Bai Lingyun was to Sima Yi what Xun Yu was to Cao Cao. Cao Cao even told Xun Yu that they had to be closer than married couples, but Xun Yu ultimately left Cao Cao when he didn't approve of his political decision to gradually overthrow the Han Dynasty.
Bai Lingyun was also an advisor to Sima Yi, and eventually did not approve of Sima Yi killing so many of Cao Shuang's relatives, including the 3-year-old Cao Lin. When Bai Lingyun was attacked in her carriage, she felt that it was probably the right time to die because she felt Sima Yi was no longer the man she'd fallen in love with.
I honestly felt that Bai Lingyun could've been a more interesting character if she'd done something about her suspicions of her own child. Clearly her son was also too smart for his own good, and at the time, she could've used her authority over him to try to steer him in the right direction. Unfortunately, she kept quiet, but Sima Zhao did say that she would do whatever she could to save him, so I guess in that moment she made up her mind that she would hide this because otherwise Sima Yi might've put both Sima Zhao and Sima Lun to death.
Sima Shi
I legitimately thought Sima Shi was going to die because I'd glanced over a gifset but quickly scrolled past it to avoid spoilers. So I was glad that he didn't die lol. Plus, it wouldn't make historical sense because he did still have a lot of his career to go after his father died.
Sima Shi was portrayed as a guy who saw the best in everyone, and was possibly a bit too naive for this cutthroat world. He was the kind of kid who listened to his father, so that was good.
Sima Shi was also shown as having a very loving relationship with his wife Xiahou Hui and his brother-in-law Xiahou Xuan. Unfortunately, this was seen as the "weak spot" from the eyes of Sima Zhao and Sima Lun.
After Xiahou Hui's death and taking power by force, Sima Shi's relationship with Xiahou Xuan weakened quite a bit. His brother-in-law tried to kill him in the name of fighting treason, but only poked out his eye. That being said, the two never stopped being friends. On the chopping block, Xiahou Hui expressed his friendship to Sima Shi, who responded in kind, and also bled blood from his eyepatched eye.
Historically, Sima Shi became estranged from Xiahou Hui and was suspected of poisoning her because he was suspicious of her relationships with the Cao family. I wouldn't have minded if the show portrayed this type of relationship, but I am also happy that they showed such a cute and loving relationship between Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui.
Overall, I thought that Xiao Shunyao did a good job of portraying this "good boy" type of character.
Xiahou Hui
I felt so bad for Xiahou Hui. She was truly stuck in the middle. She obviously loved her husband a lot, but she and her brother also had blood ties to the Cao clan. Xiahou Hui and Xiahou Xuan were actually firmly on Sima Yi's side for most of the show.
However, when shit started getting real, Xiahou Xuan said that he needed to know the truth. Knowing that Sima Shi was keeping some information secret, she decided she needed to see the truth. I don't think she did this out of nosiness. I think she truly believed that if she gave her brother the correct information, he would be able to protect himself. I don't think she thought that her brother would turn against the Sima family.
Unfortunately, she ran into Sima Lun who was a snake in training. While Sima Zhao obviously didn't wake up one day and plan on killing her, he took advantage of the situation. In Part 1, we saw that Sima Zhao was not the happiest on Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui's wedding night, and it was confirmed that he was actually in love with her, to the point that he'd kept the fabric of her fan from her wedding day. Sima Zhao asked Xiahou Hui if she would run away with him, but she rejected him, which prompted Sima Zhao to kill her out of anger. In addiiton, I think that from the time that Sima Zhao knew about the secret army, anybody not surnamed Sima (besides Ji Bu) who knew about the secret army had to die.
I felt really bad for Xiahou Hui and she died in such a way that was so shitty for her :(
Sima Rou
She was the eldest of Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui's daughters. I read that historically, they had five daughters, and that was why Sima You was adopted into their family instead.
In the drama, Sima Rou was betrothed to a boy from the family of Empress Dowager Guo (adoptive mother of Cao Fang) in order to strengthen the alliance between the Sima clan and the Empress Dowager. This was suggested by the Empress Dowager, and everyone from the Sima clan was wary because Sima Rou was actually quite young at the time. I think she might've been around 13 years old.
In the drama, Xiahou Hui was killed in the days leading up to the wedding, so I don't know if the wedding went through.
Sima Zhao
This snake. I'll admit that I find Tan Jianci kind of cute so I thought that I might've ended up sympathizing with him in the end even though I knew he was going to do bad things.
I was wrong. I hated this man's guts. First of all, the fact that he always undermined his father really grinded my gears. During the war with Shu Han, that worked for him exactly one time, and the only thing he gained was the wooden ox that was used to transport rations. Otherwise? Sima Yi, Sima Shi, and Sima Zhao nearly died because Sima Zhao had asked Guo Huai to take him on a secret mission.
Afterwards, Sima Zhao built up a relationship with He Yan in order to get an in with the Cao clan. Despite his family and friends repeatedly telling him to stay away, he kept on going at it, believing he could truly play the long con. He did eventually, but whether or not it was necessary is up for debate. I felt that he only used He Yan to get a confession that would otherwise not be too hard to get, and also to cover up the murder of Xiahou Hui that Sima Zhao himself had committed.
Sima Zhao said he wasn't sorry for his actions, and had accepted that Sima Yi would kill him for the murders he committed. I think he believed that Sima Yi would not fall for his crocodile tears so he might as well lay everything out. When it came to Sima Shi's confrontation, I think he tried to play the repentant card because Sima Shi was that kind of guy. I don't think Sima Shi cared much for Sima Zhao's theatrics, but I think at that point he prioritized keeping the family together, and he knew that Sima Zhao was a smart guy who could do great things if there was only someone to guide him in the right direction.
For a guy who hadn't done that much acting prior to this show, I think Sima Zhao did a good job of showing us Sima Zhao from an ambitious and bright-eyed young kid to a super conniving and evil ruthless villain. God, I hate the bastard.
Wang Yuanji
We only saw her briefly before Zhang Chunhua's death, where she'd asked her if it was okay that Sima Shi adopt Sima You.
Sima Lun
I hated Sima Lun as much as Sima Zhao. He was also very smart, but it seemed that Sima Yi was a bit too busy to pay as much attention to him as he did to Sima Zhao. Thus, Bai Lingyun was responsible for most of his education, but was not the disciplinarian that he perhaps needed.
Sima Lun figured that Sima Zhao was the brother to back because he felt that Sima Zhao would do whatever necessary to protect the family, which was in line with his views. The thing is, Sima Lun was a child, and Sima Zhao was an adult, so technically, Sima Zhou should've reined him in and tell him to calm the fuck down, youngster.
However, Sima Zhao instead took advantage of the opportunities that Sima Lun presented to him, which acted as encouragement to keep doing what he was doing.
After Bai Lingyun died, Sima Lun even told Sima Zhao that he was wary of Xiaoyuan, and they had her killed, which is pretty awful when you consider that Xiaoyuan likely had a big part in raising Sima Lun.
Psychopath child, seriously.
Sima Fu
Sima Fu continued being an administrator for the Kingdom of Wei. He was in agreement with his brother for most of Part 2 until he went on the offensive and became a bit too bloodthirsty. Sima Fu was also shocked that Sima Yi thought it was appropriate to put a 3-year-old to death. At that point, he told Sima Yi that he would always be a subject of the Kingdom of Wei, and Sima Yi told him that he should do so. Since they were already so old, they were just going to each keep doing what they wanted to do.
We saw that Sima Fu never stopped loving Guo Zhao. When she was imprisoned, he came to acommpany her until she was released. Even though it was kind of sad that Sima Fu never found a spouse of his own, I don't think their relationship was necessarily sad. I think they still saw each other as close friends.
Hou Ji
As mentioned above, I kind of wish Hou Ji had really turned his back on Sima Yi for all the bloodshed he'd caused. It would've shown how Sima Yi's dormant self was so fearful that even the loyal Hou Ji refused to stay with him.
Instead, the writers not only reconciled their relationship, but turned it into a humorous episode. Reconciling it was fine, but turning it into comedy felt a bit cheap, especially when we were coming to the end of an 86 episode show. Or perhaps I just interpreted it as more comedic because of the choice of background music.
Hou Ji did say the words that no one else had dared to say though, that Sima Yi was a hypocrite for what he'd done.
I did think that the wedding between Hou Ji and Xiaoyuan was kind of sweet. We only saw a handful of scenes between them, but there was a special cute dynamic between these two characters. After their wedding, Hou Ji said he was going to spend some intimate time with his wife (implied to be sexual) but he just ended up grieving and honestly, I think that that was more important to him than anything at the time. Xiaoyuan had agreed in her dying breath to marry him, and Hou Ji just wanted to grieve the fact that they didn't get the chance that they'd both realized that they wanted.
I actually liked Hou Ji's character though, despite my grumbling about the fact that he wasn't used to his full potential. First of all, he actually had some really fun costumes! I also enjoyed that he was pretty much a part of the family. Though I said that Zhang Chunhua was the rock of the family, Hou Ji was also arguably a rock of the family, as he was often a mediator between family members.
Xiaoyuan
Xiaoyuan didn't have as big of a role in Part 2 as she had settled in as a member of the Sima clan.
After Bai Lingyun's death, Sima Lun spoke to her, and he realized that Xiaoyuan also shared his mother's skepticism about his involvement with Xiahou Hui's murder. As I mentioned above, I thought it was incredibly cold that Sima Lun would be so okay with killing a woman who probably had a part in raising him.
Xiaoyuan probably wasn't even going to say anything. She seemed content with continuing to serve the Sima clan. And there was that awkward misunderstanding when she thought that Sima Yi was proposing to her, when he was really proposing to her on behalf of Hou Ji.
If everything had gone according to plan, she would've married Hou Ji, and I think they'd just continue living as part of the Sima clan, but unfortunately, we never got to see that :(
Xinyuan Yima
I did my boy dirty by not mentioning him in my last review. But I think our beloved turtle deserved a shoutout. I don't know what it is with Three Kingdoms stories and their affinities with pet turtles, but now I want a pet turtle.
In the end, Sima Yi released Xinyuan Yima out into a lake, right before he died.
Ji Bu
Ji Bu's relationship with Zhang Chunhua was never really explored, but Sima Yi clearly came to respect him, so I think we could just take for a fact that he and Zhang Chunhua had a strong platonic friendship.
Sima Yi asked Ji Bu to train a private army for him. At first, it was only for precautionary purposes. Ji Bu only took orders from Sima Yi, but he'd allowed Sima Shi to take 30 men to protect Sima Zhao while he was under the command of Cao Zhen.
When Sima Yi first mobilized this army, it was to arrest Cao Shuang. Afterwards, Ji Bu took his leave. He said that it was because he'd already done all that he could do. I think this was technically correct because he was a martial arts expert and not a military strategist. He could only train the individual soldiers. It was up to Sima Yi to give them orders on where to go and who to fight.
Ji Bu, good character. Cool dude.
Cao Pi
He died right at the beginning of Part 2 lol. Before he died, Cao Pi had appointed Coa Zhen, Cao Xiu, Chen Qun, and Sima Yi as ministers to support Cao Rui. He then told Cao Rui that they would fight amongst themselves, and that he should let them fight.
Cao Pi also acknowledged that he didn't do right by Cao Rui's mother. I really don't think that Cao Rui hated Cao Pi. In several scenes, we saw him eating grapes, which I thought was a sign of him thinking about his father. Cao Rui instead pushed all of the blame onto Guo Zhao, which obviously was incorrect because Cao Pi was the one who'd treated her poorly.
Guo Zhao
While Guo Zhao adopted Cao Rui, she never quelled the hatred he had for her. While Guo Zhao technically always had maternal authority over Cao Rui, things were different when he became Emperor, because for the first time in his life, he had power to rival hers.
As mentioned, Guo Zhao was the one thing that Cao Rui would not yield on. He eventually forced her to commit suicide. This was true according to history, but according to history, Guo Nvwang was not as blameless as Guo Zhao was here.
Shi Chun
He was the Eunuch who'd served Cao Pi. He was shunned when Cao Rui ascended to the throne, as he favoured Bixie. However, he was brought back after Cao Fang ascended the throne, because Empress Dowager Guo did not trust Bixie.
Cao Rui
I was really quite impressed with Cao Rui's performance. When we first met Cao Rui, he was an emotionally unstable man. He still hadn't gotten over the grief of his mother, and we saw that he was also very emotionally dependent on his eunuch Bixie. Also, it was portrayed that he liked to crossdress as a way to feel closer with his mother.
However, as the story unfolded, we saw that while Cao Rui wasn't as competent and sharp witted as Cao Cao or Cao Pi, he wasn't totally unaware. His father told him that it was okay to let his ministers fight amongst themselves. Because of that advice, he tended to favour the ministers who gave him results, and more often than not, that was Sima Yi.
In the drama, Cao Rui also had a very special personal relationship with Sima Yi because Sima Yi had literally saved his life. If he'd not been adopted by Guo Zhao, he would've been shunned and possibly put to death because he reminded his father too much of his hatred for Zhen Fu.
Unfortunately Cao Rui also died early like his father. While ill, things were already getting feisty in the Cao clan, as several different relatives wanted to seize power. However, as we know, Cao Rui looked at results, and so he entrusted his crown prince to Sima Yi and asked him to carry him one last time before he died.
At the beginning of the story, Zhuge Liang said that Cao Rui was a man who kept a "male pet," implying that he had sort of a lover or boytoy, which was supposed to be Bixie. I suppose they were implied to have at least a bit of a sexual relationship, but we saw that it also was intimate too.
In the drama, Cao Rui did have a daughter, Shu'er. I think she was probably his biological daughter, seeing as how she seemed to be his favourite daughter. Cao Fang was apparently an adopted son. I don't know about his other son. But what I'm trying to get at is that he might've slept with both men and women.
I was very impressed with Liu Huan's portrayal of Cao Rui. I thought he held up well in his interactions with Sima Yi. Though he was so much younger, I could feel that he was aware and confident in his own power as the Emperor and to a degree knew what he was doing.
Bixie
Bixie was a very sinister character, especially because his resting face is a smiling one. At first, I thought that maybe he was purposely causing shit in the court in an attempt to dismantle the Kingdom of Wei.
However, I think he was just acting on behalf of what he thought Cao Rui wanted to do, but didn't do yet because of one reason or another. I came to this conclusion because after Cao Rui died, I felt that Bixie was truly sad, so I don't think he was sent there by someone else.
Cao Zhen
In Part 1, Cao Zhen was a rash frat bro. However, he was older in Part 2, and as a minister as well as a general, I think he learned to be a little more subtle and diplomatic in his approaches.
He learned to interpret intellectual sorts like Sima Yi. When Sima Yi came to ask him for help in pleading for the release of Guo Zhao, Cao Zhen told him that he didn't want to hear any of his superficial words; he just wanted to hear about what benefits he could yield.
On his deathbed, Cao Zhen also acknowledged that Sima Yi was a very capable guy and that was why he asked him to do some things for him (I've forgotten what they were, sorry).
Basically, I think that Cao Zhen and Sima Yi came to a mutual respect, but Cao Zhen realized that they'd never agree, purely because Cao Zhen was from the Cao clan, and Sima Yi was not.
Cao Xiu
Cao Xiu was the other general who was appointed as a minister by Cao Pi. However, he died early on.
Cao Fang
Cao Fang was the adopted son of Cao Rui and Empress Dowager Guo. Because he was a child, and Empress Dowager Guo was also not very experienced with politics, the situation in the palace became very volatile.
By the end of the show, however, we saw that he at least respected Sima Yi, because without him and his administrative work, the country would be in shambles.
Empress Guo/Empress Dowager Guo
Empress Dowager Guo had to rule as regent, but she was not very experienced herself. She relied heavily on Sima Yi, which obviously did not sit well with Cao Shuang.
Han Lin
Han Lin was the eunuch that was bought out by Cao Shuang to be kind of a spy and an inside man.
Cao Shuang
Cao Shuang was Cao Zhen's son. However, from early on in the show, we saw that Cao Zhen did not approve of his son's ways. Basically he thought his son was kind of dumb and didn't take things seriously.
Even as an adult, Cao Shuang was not as capable as his father as a minister. He was very simplistic in his ways of thinking. Especially when you compared him to Sima Yi, who had worked for FOUR rulers. In the end, Sima Yi put him and his son to death.
Near the end, we also saw that Cao Shuang had dreams of putting his son on the throne. These ideas were further encouraged by He Yan. His wife was very iffy about this, but that only furthered proved that he was a threat to Sima Yi.
Jianjia
Jianjia was Cao Shuang's wife (technically not legal wife). They had a child, Cao Lin, who was put to death alongside Cao Shuang. Jianjia had wanted to die alongside her husband and child, but Sima Shi had disallowed it.
In the end, Jianjia had gone mad, and hung around the execution grounds :(
Xiahou Xuan
He was Sima Shi's brother-in-law, and Xiahou Hui's older brother. For most of the show, he was in full support of Sima Yi. He'd asked his sister if the Sima family was into any shenaniganery because he'd have to prepare himself if that was the case. I don't know whether he would have planned to turn on the Sima family completely, because his sister was part of their family, but of course Sima Zhao and the others couldn't be sure of that.
What fully turned Xiahou Xuan against the Sima family was when they took power by force. Xiahou Xuan was arrested, and tried to kill Sima Shi while in prison. In the end, he was executed.
As mentioned above, I don't think that Sima Shi and Xiahou Xuan really hated each other. It's just that when it came to patriotism and loyalty to the throne, it was a different playing field, one that was above their interpersonal relationships. So they had to put aside their friendship to deal with that first, but their friendship would always be there.
He Yan
I was pretty confused when we first met He Yan because he was played by a female actress. I later looked up the historical figure and he was apparently described as an effeminate man. However, Wikipedia said that he was disliked by his contemporaries, so it makes sense that that was just a smear campaing. Even if he was effeminate, however, I felt that a male actor could've been casted. After all, we had two crossdressing men in the show.
He Yan built a false friendship with Sima Zhao. He wanted to manipulate Sima Zhao's ambition in Cao Shuang's favour. Sima Zhao played dumb and in the end, successfully manipulated He Yan in his own favour.
Chen Qun
Chen Qun was a fellow minister of Sima Yi. He died after trying to defend Guo Zhao from being arrested and killed by Bixie.
Zhong Hui
Zhong Hui was Sima Yi's student and Zhong Yao's son. In Part 2, he took on a more sly role.
At first, Zhong Hui had advised Sima Zhao to stay away from He Yan, but later on, when shit started getting real, Zhong Hui and Sima Zhao would work together as they felt that perhaps Sima Yi had lost his will to fight.
Zhong Hui was one of those guys with resting smiling face. It's just that his resting smiling face turned from cute young son to politician who knows more than he lets in on. Anyway, I thought this character made an impression on me.
Deng Ai
Deng Ai had a smaller role in Part 2. This made sense because historically, most of his work was done in the field of agriculture and so he was not in the city centre often.
Sun Li
Sun Li was one of the generals that Sima Yi had commanded while battling against Zhuge Liang.
Guo Huai
Guo Huai was another of the generals that Sima Yi had commanded. He was also the one whom Sima Zhao had successfully convinced to take him out, only to get ambushed by Zhuge Liang.
Zhang He
He was a general who was allied with Cao Zhen, and was always butting heads with Sima Yi while under his command in the battle against Zhuge Liang.
Liu Shan
In 3K, Liu Shan was more of a simple-minded pacifist, but in AA, Liu Shan was the kind of useless kid who didn't learn and listened to the wrong people.
While Zhuge Liang was out fighting wars, he was led astray by Huang Hao and fell in love with Li Yan's daughter. Through his daughter, Li Yan tried to take away control from Zhuge Liang which DID NOT sit well with him and he shut it down real fast.
After Zhuge Liang left, possibly for the last time, Huang Hao wanted to introduce another lady for Liu Shan to meet and he agreed. We can all predict that through his lack of sense of duty, his Kingdom was not going stand the test of time under his "rule."
Huang Hao
He was Liu Shan's eunuch and was not a good influence on him.
Zhuge Liang
I felt that Zhuge Liang was given too much screen time. He was technically a villain, but I think I would've preferred seeing the story from the Wei perspective more.
The empty fort strategy in which Zhuge Liang tricked Sima Yi was portrayed to be more strategic than it really was. In real life, I had just interpreted it as Sima Yi falling for some reverse psychology. However, AA tried to go all 4D chess on us and showed that Zhuge Liang had indirectly threatened Sima Yi's family through a series of telepathic conversations. I wonder if there would've been another way to express their mutual respect without showing these cheesy telepathic conversations.
I was used to Lu Yi's Zhuge Liang in 3K, and I felt that Wang Luoyong's Zhuge Liang was a little more aggressive, but overall I didn't hate his portrayal, just maybe that he was written in a way that I didn't prefer.
Ma Su
LOL so Ma Su was one of those guys in 3K that I liked until he messed up real bad on his one shot. Anyway, because I knew he was going to be a big liability, this time I didn't get too attached to him lmao.
Li Yan
Li Yan was the minister who wanted to take away some of Zhuge Liang's power. He didn't succeed.
Qingxiao
Qingxiao was Li Yan's daughter, whom Liu Shan eventually took on as a concubine. She helped her father plead with Liu Shan to try to get Zhuge Liang to give up some control. However, Zhuge Liang saw through everything. Zhuge Liang had authority over Li Shan in a paternal sense, but not the romantic sense, which was where Li Yan could move in by introducing Liu Shan to his daughter. So Zhuge Liang had to do away with that. However, as mentioned, Huang Hao was going to introduce Liu Shan to another lady, so Zhuge Liang's Shu Han was doomed from the start.
Overall
Overall, the Advisors Alliance was entertaining. There were actually quite a few humorous parts throughout the show, but I think the few humorous parts in the last 10 episodes or so should've been taken out.
Other than that, I thought the acting was stellar, especially from actors like Liu Huan who kind of came out of left field, and stood his ground when acting against Wu Xiubo.
However, I don't think this is the kind of show that would attract a younger audience, and I do think it was created with a bit of an older audience in mind (which I am).
I would recommend part 2 of this series as a supplement to those who are interested in the Three Kingdoms story. However, I would caution that this drama does not attempt to challenge the viewer to think about Sima Yi as anybody other than a great strategist. He was such a man, but Sima Yi had a big attitude change near the end of the series that I felt the writers could've taken advantage of to challenge the idolization of historical figures.
That's just me nitpicking though. In general, I thought the Advisors Alliance was good for some popcorn time viewing, but I thought that part 1 was more interesting than part 2. I'll talk about it more below the cut.
Spoilers. And this is going to be another no-edit review ^^;;
P.S. My review of Part 1 of the Advisors Alliance is here.
As usual, I will refer to the Advisors Alliance as AA, and to the Three Kingdoms 2010 drama as 3K.
Story
What I thought was interesting about Part 1 was that it was almost totally internal. All of the important events that happened during Cao Cao's reign were brushed over because they had less of an impact on Sima Yi specifically.
The first part of Part 2 focused on the strategic battles between Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. I didn't think that the show was particularly interesting during these scenes because these had been covered all the time in all sorts of media regarding the Three Kingdoms period. In addition, AA focused on Zhuge Liang as a major supporting character as opposed to focusing solely on the Kingdom of Wei, which turned this part of the story into something that was no different than other Three Kingdoms dramas.
After Zhuge Liang died, the focus turned back to the Kingdom of Wei. Cao Rui and Sima Yi's relationship was strictly professional, but still stable because Cao Rui could see that Sima Yi was his most valuable and most intelligent minister. The one thing Cao Rui would not yield on, however, was the idea that Guo Zhao was the cause of all of the misery in his life.
After Cao Rui died, the Kingdom of Wei was incredibly unstable. Not only was Cao Fang not fit to rule as a literal child, but Cao Shuang was also much more volatile of a minister than his father Cao Zhen. Their struggles built up to the point of Zhang Chunhua's death.
After Zhang Chunhua died, Sima Yi used force to gain control over the regime. The drama ended with the Sima clan firmly in control. I initially thought that the drama would lead up to the beginnings of the Jin Dynasty, but I was wrong. It only led up to Sima Yi's death.
As I mentioned, I felt that Part 1 was more interesting because it showed the story that we already knew in a different light. The first part of Part 2 showed the story that we already knew in a light we were already familiar with. I did enjoy the middle part, up until Cao Rui died, mainly because I thought that Sima Yi and Cao Rui's relationship was so interesting. As for the end, I acknowledge what the writers were trying to do, but I think I was expecting a bit too much (i.e. expecting to see more of the Sima clan lineage) and was slightly let down. But I still saw it as a conclusive ending. The ending was meant to show us how Sima Yi had died having accomplished much for his family, but also at the expense of many friendships and relationships.
I was uncomfortable towards the latter half of Part 2 because of Sima Zhao's constant habit of undermining his father and then being a devious little devil. But I understand that it was necessary because it was factually correct, and also I think it helped us ease better into the idea that perhaps he was just a part of Sima Yi that he hadn't dared awaken until now.
In Part 1, we had seen Sima Yi's relationships with Cao Cao and Cao Pi, both who were very intelligent rulers. The two rulers in Part 2 were Cao Rui and Cao Fang. While Cao Rui wasn't totally dumb, he was not as sturdy as his father and grandfather. And of course, Cao Fang was a child. In this part, I thought it was interesting to see Sima Yi's relationships with two rulers that he had clear intellectual power over.
As I mentioned above, I felt that this drama spent too much time on the Kingdom of Shu Han, from Zhuge Liang's perspective. Sime this was a drama about Sima Yi, I thought it would make sense to show things from Sima Yi's perspective only.
When Xiahou Xuan was imprisoned, he told Sima Shi that he'd never seen Sima Yi as the loyal and patriotic subject that his son saw him as. I thought that it was a message that may have also been directed at audiences (though I think it mostly flew over people's heads). But I had an "oh!" moment then, realizing that we'd been seeing Sima Yi from a very familial standpoint up until then, and thus was unable to see the less than kind parts of him.
In the end, Hou Ji was the only one of the "older generation" that stayed with Sima Yi. I thought that it would've been more powerful if Hou Ji truly had a falling out with Sima Yi because of their differences in ideologies. However, the writers decided that they'd have a longlasting friendship regardless, and ended the show on a more humorous tone with those two. I felt that it was a copout, and I was a little disappointed. I was expecting Sima Yi to die a lonely old man, as the payoff for achieving power the way he did. That being said, he did do that in a very short time span (in the context of the show) so maybe he didn't deserve an end that was that miserable.
Overall, the story was fine. The writers didn't have much leeway because they had to stick to historical facts, so they could only make creative choices on small things, such as how certain people died.
Writing
I thought that the tension between Sima Yi and Cao Shuang was built up in an interesting way. What I mean by interesting was that I was uncomfortable the entire time, which I think was meant to be the point. Cao Shuang was obviously not Sima Yi's match and yet he still had a foothold on Sima Yi because Sima Yi refused to overstep.
The tension built up to a point that the truth of Xiahou Hui's death didn't even matter. It was just an excuse for Cao Shuang to move in on Sima Yi.
One of the advantages that Chinese dramas based on history have over other types of dramas (even historical dramas that are not based on history) is the ability to portray morally ambiguous characters. Sima Yi was supposed to be the protagonist, but it is undeniable that he killed a lot of people. We saw Sima Zhao grow up from baby to young man, and right before our eyes we saw him turn into a cold-blooded villain. That stuff is freaky, yo. But we cannot deny it.
Another thing I love about Cdramas is how they portray romance. Yes, part of it is the censorship, but there's something very special about olden day romances. It was never about the fiery passions or the grand displays of affection. It was always about spending time with each other, understanding each other, etc. In particular, I felt very sentimental towards Hou Ji's wedding. All the women in discussion were dead (Zhang Chunhua, Bai Lingyun, Xiaoyuan), but Hou Ji and Sima Yi still treated them as if they were alive, taking into account their personalities, intentions, etc. It's such an old man thing to do, but carrying around their wives' name tablets, speaking to them (including Sima Shi speaking to Xiahou Hui at her grave), that is something that I don't think we'll ever get again because of how modern people view romance and death.
Production
Time skips
I felt that it was sometimes hard to see how much time had passed because there were both short time skips and long time skips. One such example was how we'd completely skipped Sima Zhao's marriage to Wang Yuanji, who'd just shown up in the house very randomly. Other such examples included children growing up at very fast intervals. However, I understand that the showrunners had their hands tied in this regard because they could only cast so many actors for a certain character without getting people confused.
Casting
For Part 2, I felt that the young actors playing older actors didn't bother me as much as it did in Part 1. For example, the actress for Guo Zhao was 8 years younger than the actor for Cao Rui, but I think it was acceptable to me, because we'd seen how Guo Zhao had grown since Part 1, and thus it was easier to believer her to be a more mature character than she used to be.
Length
The entirety of AA was 86 episodes, which of course is pretty lengthy. The entirety of 3K was 90 or so episodes, and it covered a longer period of time than AA.
In terms of whether the episode count was warranted, my answer is "maybe." I say this because I felt that some subplots were dragged out, and there were some other events that I felt could've been added in for a more coherent story (e.g. Sima Zhao getting married).
Music
The same background music from Part 1 was used in Part 2. Again, most scenes had background music to them, but as I mentioned in my last review, they helped with doing the emotional heavy lifting on behalf of the audience.
Costumes
I liked the costumes from Part 2 a little more than the costumes for Part 1. I think that maybe it was because the characters were older and more powerful, and thus had access to fancier costumes.
For example, the red robe that Sima Yi wore when he first decided to go on the offensive against Cao Shuang was pretty grand looking. In addition, after Sima Yi gained control, we had a scene of Sima Shi, Sima Zhao, Deng Ai, and Zhong Hui all dressed regally in their winter capes. Those were some good looks.
Characters
Sima Yi
I mentioned in my last review that Part 1 was the easy part for Sima Yi. It was easy to root for him when he was the underdog. In Part 2, Sima Yi was already acknowledged as a big player in palace politics. He was under attack by everyone, and in the end, he finally stopped defending and attacked back.
Up until Zhang Chunhua's death, Sima Yi still stood by the idea of being a loyal subject. I think he decided that as long as she was alive, that he would stay alive so that they could always be together. His idea of staying alive meant never stepping out of line.
One Zhang Chunhua died, I think Sima Yi did what he had always wanted to do but never dared to. I admit Sima Yi was kind of badass when he dropped the senile act and guided his troops to arrest Cao Shuang and his allies. That being said, I did feel that the ambition came out of nowhere. I don't doubt that he was an ambitious man all along, but I wonder if there was any way to show that there were times that he really wanted to act out but did not.
Another interpretation of Sima Yi's change in attitude was that although he acted as a loyal and obedient subject who only cared for the good of the Cao family and the people, his hands were never clean. He had fought in war, and he had indirectly killed others through his military campaigns and such. Since his hands were bloodied anywhere, perhaps he felt that he might as well do what he needed to do to protect their family.
I thought there was an opportunity to explore Sima Yi's relationship with Sima Zhao in the last few episodes. There was that scene of Sima Yi and Sima Zhao eyeing each other across the lawn, but they didn't say a word. Sima Yi was shown to be angry when confronting Sima Zhao about how he killed not only possible political allies, but members of his own household. Sima Yi said he would kill Sima Zhao but Sima Shi insisted that they shouldn't because they were family.
Zhang Chunhua told Sima Zhao that Sima Yi always doted on him. I don't doubt this. Sima Zhao was clearly a bright kid, and I think an intellectual such as Sima Yi would've loved it. The issue was that Sima Zhao was guided by his ambition whereas at the time that Zhang Chunhua was alive, Sima Yi was still guided by self preservation and loyalty to the crown. However, near the end, we saw that Sima Yi was not a not ambitious man. His ambition was just dormant. What I'm trying to get as is whether Sima Zhao represented a trait of Sima Yi's that he had never dared to pursue until the boys were mature enough to protect the family.
Overall, I preferred Wu Xiubo's Sima Yi to Ni Dahong's Sima Yi (from 3K), but I still wouldn't say that Sima Yi was a favourite character. That being said, I still learned to sympathize with the character and his family.
Zhang Chunhua
Zhang Chunhua was the rock of the Sima clan. Without Zhang Chunhua to hold down the fort, I think Sima Yi would not be able to throw himself into politics, or if he did, his home would be completely neglected.
Although she and Sima Yi were dearly in love, we also saw that they conflicted a bit when it came to parenting Sima Zhao. Zhang Chunhua babied him a bit because he was her youngest, whereas Sima Yi wanted to instill some discipline in him so that he wouldn't make the same huge mistakes again.
On her deathbed, Zhang Chunhua told Sima Zhao to listen to his father. He did technically do so, but it was only because his father had decided to take power by force and that was in line with Sima Zhao's ideals. She'd also asked Bai Lingyun to take care of the family, and asked Sima Zhao and Wang Yuanji to let Sima Shi adopt one of their sons to continue his family.
Obviously, Zhang Chunhua's death was a huge blow to the Sima clan. I don't doubt that all of Sima Yi's emotions at the time were real, but he later took advantage of that to lower his enemies' defenses.
Overall, I enjoyed Liu Tao's performance as Zhang Chunhua. She was a bit forceful, but she also knew when to use diplomacy to protect the family.
Bai Lingyun
Bai Lingyun continued to be a companion to whom Sima Yi could discuss his work with. She was an intellectual, and was able to keep up with Sima Yi's political maneuvering.
Towards the end of the drama, I started to feel that Bai Lingyun was to Sima Yi what Xun Yu was to Cao Cao. Cao Cao even told Xun Yu that they had to be closer than married couples, but Xun Yu ultimately left Cao Cao when he didn't approve of his political decision to gradually overthrow the Han Dynasty.
Bai Lingyun was also an advisor to Sima Yi, and eventually did not approve of Sima Yi killing so many of Cao Shuang's relatives, including the 3-year-old Cao Lin. When Bai Lingyun was attacked in her carriage, she felt that it was probably the right time to die because she felt Sima Yi was no longer the man she'd fallen in love with.
I honestly felt that Bai Lingyun could've been a more interesting character if she'd done something about her suspicions of her own child. Clearly her son was also too smart for his own good, and at the time, she could've used her authority over him to try to steer him in the right direction. Unfortunately, she kept quiet, but Sima Zhao did say that she would do whatever she could to save him, so I guess in that moment she made up her mind that she would hide this because otherwise Sima Yi might've put both Sima Zhao and Sima Lun to death.
Sima Shi
I legitimately thought Sima Shi was going to die because I'd glanced over a gifset but quickly scrolled past it to avoid spoilers. So I was glad that he didn't die lol. Plus, it wouldn't make historical sense because he did still have a lot of his career to go after his father died.
Sima Shi was portrayed as a guy who saw the best in everyone, and was possibly a bit too naive for this cutthroat world. He was the kind of kid who listened to his father, so that was good.
Sima Shi was also shown as having a very loving relationship with his wife Xiahou Hui and his brother-in-law Xiahou Xuan. Unfortunately, this was seen as the "weak spot" from the eyes of Sima Zhao and Sima Lun.
After Xiahou Hui's death and taking power by force, Sima Shi's relationship with Xiahou Xuan weakened quite a bit. His brother-in-law tried to kill him in the name of fighting treason, but only poked out his eye. That being said, the two never stopped being friends. On the chopping block, Xiahou Hui expressed his friendship to Sima Shi, who responded in kind, and also bled blood from his eyepatched eye.
Historically, Sima Shi became estranged from Xiahou Hui and was suspected of poisoning her because he was suspicious of her relationships with the Cao family. I wouldn't have minded if the show portrayed this type of relationship, but I am also happy that they showed such a cute and loving relationship between Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui.
Overall, I thought that Xiao Shunyao did a good job of portraying this "good boy" type of character.
Xiahou Hui
I felt so bad for Xiahou Hui. She was truly stuck in the middle. She obviously loved her husband a lot, but she and her brother also had blood ties to the Cao clan. Xiahou Hui and Xiahou Xuan were actually firmly on Sima Yi's side for most of the show.
However, when shit started getting real, Xiahou Xuan said that he needed to know the truth. Knowing that Sima Shi was keeping some information secret, she decided she needed to see the truth. I don't think she did this out of nosiness. I think she truly believed that if she gave her brother the correct information, he would be able to protect himself. I don't think she thought that her brother would turn against the Sima family.
Unfortunately, she ran into Sima Lun who was a snake in training. While Sima Zhao obviously didn't wake up one day and plan on killing her, he took advantage of the situation. In Part 1, we saw that Sima Zhao was not the happiest on Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui's wedding night, and it was confirmed that he was actually in love with her, to the point that he'd kept the fabric of her fan from her wedding day. Sima Zhao asked Xiahou Hui if she would run away with him, but she rejected him, which prompted Sima Zhao to kill her out of anger. In addiiton, I think that from the time that Sima Zhao knew about the secret army, anybody not surnamed Sima (besides Ji Bu) who knew about the secret army had to die.
I felt really bad for Xiahou Hui and she died in such a way that was so shitty for her :(
Sima Rou
She was the eldest of Sima Shi and Xiahou Hui's daughters. I read that historically, they had five daughters, and that was why Sima You was adopted into their family instead.
In the drama, Sima Rou was betrothed to a boy from the family of Empress Dowager Guo (adoptive mother of Cao Fang) in order to strengthen the alliance between the Sima clan and the Empress Dowager. This was suggested by the Empress Dowager, and everyone from the Sima clan was wary because Sima Rou was actually quite young at the time. I think she might've been around 13 years old.
In the drama, Xiahou Hui was killed in the days leading up to the wedding, so I don't know if the wedding went through.
Sima Zhao
This snake. I'll admit that I find Tan Jianci kind of cute so I thought that I might've ended up sympathizing with him in the end even though I knew he was going to do bad things.
I was wrong. I hated this man's guts. First of all, the fact that he always undermined his father really grinded my gears. During the war with Shu Han, that worked for him exactly one time, and the only thing he gained was the wooden ox that was used to transport rations. Otherwise? Sima Yi, Sima Shi, and Sima Zhao nearly died because Sima Zhao had asked Guo Huai to take him on a secret mission.
Afterwards, Sima Zhao built up a relationship with He Yan in order to get an in with the Cao clan. Despite his family and friends repeatedly telling him to stay away, he kept on going at it, believing he could truly play the long con. He did eventually, but whether or not it was necessary is up for debate. I felt that he only used He Yan to get a confession that would otherwise not be too hard to get, and also to cover up the murder of Xiahou Hui that Sima Zhao himself had committed.
Sima Zhao said he wasn't sorry for his actions, and had accepted that Sima Yi would kill him for the murders he committed. I think he believed that Sima Yi would not fall for his crocodile tears so he might as well lay everything out. When it came to Sima Shi's confrontation, I think he tried to play the repentant card because Sima Shi was that kind of guy. I don't think Sima Shi cared much for Sima Zhao's theatrics, but I think at that point he prioritized keeping the family together, and he knew that Sima Zhao was a smart guy who could do great things if there was only someone to guide him in the right direction.
For a guy who hadn't done that much acting prior to this show, I think Sima Zhao did a good job of showing us Sima Zhao from an ambitious and bright-eyed young kid to a super conniving and evil ruthless villain. God, I hate the bastard.
Wang Yuanji
We only saw her briefly before Zhang Chunhua's death, where she'd asked her if it was okay that Sima Shi adopt Sima You.
Sima Lun
I hated Sima Lun as much as Sima Zhao. He was also very smart, but it seemed that Sima Yi was a bit too busy to pay as much attention to him as he did to Sima Zhao. Thus, Bai Lingyun was responsible for most of his education, but was not the disciplinarian that he perhaps needed.
Sima Lun figured that Sima Zhao was the brother to back because he felt that Sima Zhao would do whatever necessary to protect the family, which was in line with his views. The thing is, Sima Lun was a child, and Sima Zhao was an adult, so technically, Sima Zhou should've reined him in and tell him to calm the fuck down, youngster.
However, Sima Zhao instead took advantage of the opportunities that Sima Lun presented to him, which acted as encouragement to keep doing what he was doing.
After Bai Lingyun died, Sima Lun even told Sima Zhao that he was wary of Xiaoyuan, and they had her killed, which is pretty awful when you consider that Xiaoyuan likely had a big part in raising Sima Lun.
Psychopath child, seriously.
Sima Fu
Sima Fu continued being an administrator for the Kingdom of Wei. He was in agreement with his brother for most of Part 2 until he went on the offensive and became a bit too bloodthirsty. Sima Fu was also shocked that Sima Yi thought it was appropriate to put a 3-year-old to death. At that point, he told Sima Yi that he would always be a subject of the Kingdom of Wei, and Sima Yi told him that he should do so. Since they were already so old, they were just going to each keep doing what they wanted to do.
We saw that Sima Fu never stopped loving Guo Zhao. When she was imprisoned, he came to acommpany her until she was released. Even though it was kind of sad that Sima Fu never found a spouse of his own, I don't think their relationship was necessarily sad. I think they still saw each other as close friends.
Hou Ji
As mentioned above, I kind of wish Hou Ji had really turned his back on Sima Yi for all the bloodshed he'd caused. It would've shown how Sima Yi's dormant self was so fearful that even the loyal Hou Ji refused to stay with him.
Instead, the writers not only reconciled their relationship, but turned it into a humorous episode. Reconciling it was fine, but turning it into comedy felt a bit cheap, especially when we were coming to the end of an 86 episode show. Or perhaps I just interpreted it as more comedic because of the choice of background music.
Hou Ji did say the words that no one else had dared to say though, that Sima Yi was a hypocrite for what he'd done.
I did think that the wedding between Hou Ji and Xiaoyuan was kind of sweet. We only saw a handful of scenes between them, but there was a special cute dynamic between these two characters. After their wedding, Hou Ji said he was going to spend some intimate time with his wife (implied to be sexual) but he just ended up grieving and honestly, I think that that was more important to him than anything at the time. Xiaoyuan had agreed in her dying breath to marry him, and Hou Ji just wanted to grieve the fact that they didn't get the chance that they'd both realized that they wanted.
I actually liked Hou Ji's character though, despite my grumbling about the fact that he wasn't used to his full potential. First of all, he actually had some really fun costumes! I also enjoyed that he was pretty much a part of the family. Though I said that Zhang Chunhua was the rock of the family, Hou Ji was also arguably a rock of the family, as he was often a mediator between family members.
Xiaoyuan
Xiaoyuan didn't have as big of a role in Part 2 as she had settled in as a member of the Sima clan.
After Bai Lingyun's death, Sima Lun spoke to her, and he realized that Xiaoyuan also shared his mother's skepticism about his involvement with Xiahou Hui's murder. As I mentioned above, I thought it was incredibly cold that Sima Lun would be so okay with killing a woman who probably had a part in raising him.
Xiaoyuan probably wasn't even going to say anything. She seemed content with continuing to serve the Sima clan. And there was that awkward misunderstanding when she thought that Sima Yi was proposing to her, when he was really proposing to her on behalf of Hou Ji.
If everything had gone according to plan, she would've married Hou Ji, and I think they'd just continue living as part of the Sima clan, but unfortunately, we never got to see that :(
Xinyuan Yima
I did my boy dirty by not mentioning him in my last review. But I think our beloved turtle deserved a shoutout. I don't know what it is with Three Kingdoms stories and their affinities with pet turtles, but now I want a pet turtle.
In the end, Sima Yi released Xinyuan Yima out into a lake, right before he died.
Ji Bu
Ji Bu's relationship with Zhang Chunhua was never really explored, but Sima Yi clearly came to respect him, so I think we could just take for a fact that he and Zhang Chunhua had a strong platonic friendship.
Sima Yi asked Ji Bu to train a private army for him. At first, it was only for precautionary purposes. Ji Bu only took orders from Sima Yi, but he'd allowed Sima Shi to take 30 men to protect Sima Zhao while he was under the command of Cao Zhen.
When Sima Yi first mobilized this army, it was to arrest Cao Shuang. Afterwards, Ji Bu took his leave. He said that it was because he'd already done all that he could do. I think this was technically correct because he was a martial arts expert and not a military strategist. He could only train the individual soldiers. It was up to Sima Yi to give them orders on where to go and who to fight.
Ji Bu, good character. Cool dude.
Cao Pi
He died right at the beginning of Part 2 lol. Before he died, Cao Pi had appointed Coa Zhen, Cao Xiu, Chen Qun, and Sima Yi as ministers to support Cao Rui. He then told Cao Rui that they would fight amongst themselves, and that he should let them fight.
Cao Pi also acknowledged that he didn't do right by Cao Rui's mother. I really don't think that Cao Rui hated Cao Pi. In several scenes, we saw him eating grapes, which I thought was a sign of him thinking about his father. Cao Rui instead pushed all of the blame onto Guo Zhao, which obviously was incorrect because Cao Pi was the one who'd treated her poorly.
Guo Zhao
While Guo Zhao adopted Cao Rui, she never quelled the hatred he had for her. While Guo Zhao technically always had maternal authority over Cao Rui, things were different when he became Emperor, because for the first time in his life, he had power to rival hers.
As mentioned, Guo Zhao was the one thing that Cao Rui would not yield on. He eventually forced her to commit suicide. This was true according to history, but according to history, Guo Nvwang was not as blameless as Guo Zhao was here.
Shi Chun
He was the Eunuch who'd served Cao Pi. He was shunned when Cao Rui ascended to the throne, as he favoured Bixie. However, he was brought back after Cao Fang ascended the throne, because Empress Dowager Guo did not trust Bixie.
Cao Rui
I was really quite impressed with Cao Rui's performance. When we first met Cao Rui, he was an emotionally unstable man. He still hadn't gotten over the grief of his mother, and we saw that he was also very emotionally dependent on his eunuch Bixie. Also, it was portrayed that he liked to crossdress as a way to feel closer with his mother.
However, as the story unfolded, we saw that while Cao Rui wasn't as competent and sharp witted as Cao Cao or Cao Pi, he wasn't totally unaware. His father told him that it was okay to let his ministers fight amongst themselves. Because of that advice, he tended to favour the ministers who gave him results, and more often than not, that was Sima Yi.
In the drama, Cao Rui also had a very special personal relationship with Sima Yi because Sima Yi had literally saved his life. If he'd not been adopted by Guo Zhao, he would've been shunned and possibly put to death because he reminded his father too much of his hatred for Zhen Fu.
Unfortunately Cao Rui also died early like his father. While ill, things were already getting feisty in the Cao clan, as several different relatives wanted to seize power. However, as we know, Cao Rui looked at results, and so he entrusted his crown prince to Sima Yi and asked him to carry him one last time before he died.
At the beginning of the story, Zhuge Liang said that Cao Rui was a man who kept a "male pet," implying that he had sort of a lover or boytoy, which was supposed to be Bixie. I suppose they were implied to have at least a bit of a sexual relationship, but we saw that it also was intimate too.
In the drama, Cao Rui did have a daughter, Shu'er. I think she was probably his biological daughter, seeing as how she seemed to be his favourite daughter. Cao Fang was apparently an adopted son. I don't know about his other son. But what I'm trying to get at is that he might've slept with both men and women.
I was very impressed with Liu Huan's portrayal of Cao Rui. I thought he held up well in his interactions with Sima Yi. Though he was so much younger, I could feel that he was aware and confident in his own power as the Emperor and to a degree knew what he was doing.
Bixie
Bixie was a very sinister character, especially because his resting face is a smiling one. At first, I thought that maybe he was purposely causing shit in the court in an attempt to dismantle the Kingdom of Wei.
However, I think he was just acting on behalf of what he thought Cao Rui wanted to do, but didn't do yet because of one reason or another. I came to this conclusion because after Cao Rui died, I felt that Bixie was truly sad, so I don't think he was sent there by someone else.
Cao Zhen
In Part 1, Cao Zhen was a rash frat bro. However, he was older in Part 2, and as a minister as well as a general, I think he learned to be a little more subtle and diplomatic in his approaches.
He learned to interpret intellectual sorts like Sima Yi. When Sima Yi came to ask him for help in pleading for the release of Guo Zhao, Cao Zhen told him that he didn't want to hear any of his superficial words; he just wanted to hear about what benefits he could yield.
On his deathbed, Cao Zhen also acknowledged that Sima Yi was a very capable guy and that was why he asked him to do some things for him (I've forgotten what they were, sorry).
Basically, I think that Cao Zhen and Sima Yi came to a mutual respect, but Cao Zhen realized that they'd never agree, purely because Cao Zhen was from the Cao clan, and Sima Yi was not.
Cao Xiu
Cao Xiu was the other general who was appointed as a minister by Cao Pi. However, he died early on.
Cao Fang
Cao Fang was the adopted son of Cao Rui and Empress Dowager Guo. Because he was a child, and Empress Dowager Guo was also not very experienced with politics, the situation in the palace became very volatile.
By the end of the show, however, we saw that he at least respected Sima Yi, because without him and his administrative work, the country would be in shambles.
Empress Guo/Empress Dowager Guo
Empress Dowager Guo had to rule as regent, but she was not very experienced herself. She relied heavily on Sima Yi, which obviously did not sit well with Cao Shuang.
Han Lin
Han Lin was the eunuch that was bought out by Cao Shuang to be kind of a spy and an inside man.
Cao Shuang
Cao Shuang was Cao Zhen's son. However, from early on in the show, we saw that Cao Zhen did not approve of his son's ways. Basically he thought his son was kind of dumb and didn't take things seriously.
Even as an adult, Cao Shuang was not as capable as his father as a minister. He was very simplistic in his ways of thinking. Especially when you compared him to Sima Yi, who had worked for FOUR rulers. In the end, Sima Yi put him and his son to death.
Near the end, we also saw that Cao Shuang had dreams of putting his son on the throne. These ideas were further encouraged by He Yan. His wife was very iffy about this, but that only furthered proved that he was a threat to Sima Yi.
Jianjia
Jianjia was Cao Shuang's wife (technically not legal wife). They had a child, Cao Lin, who was put to death alongside Cao Shuang. Jianjia had wanted to die alongside her husband and child, but Sima Shi had disallowed it.
In the end, Jianjia had gone mad, and hung around the execution grounds :(
Xiahou Xuan
He was Sima Shi's brother-in-law, and Xiahou Hui's older brother. For most of the show, he was in full support of Sima Yi. He'd asked his sister if the Sima family was into any shenaniganery because he'd have to prepare himself if that was the case. I don't know whether he would have planned to turn on the Sima family completely, because his sister was part of their family, but of course Sima Zhao and the others couldn't be sure of that.
What fully turned Xiahou Xuan against the Sima family was when they took power by force. Xiahou Xuan was arrested, and tried to kill Sima Shi while in prison. In the end, he was executed.
As mentioned above, I don't think that Sima Shi and Xiahou Xuan really hated each other. It's just that when it came to patriotism and loyalty to the throne, it was a different playing field, one that was above their interpersonal relationships. So they had to put aside their friendship to deal with that first, but their friendship would always be there.
He Yan
I was pretty confused when we first met He Yan because he was played by a female actress. I later looked up the historical figure and he was apparently described as an effeminate man. However, Wikipedia said that he was disliked by his contemporaries, so it makes sense that that was just a smear campaing. Even if he was effeminate, however, I felt that a male actor could've been casted. After all, we had two crossdressing men in the show.
He Yan built a false friendship with Sima Zhao. He wanted to manipulate Sima Zhao's ambition in Cao Shuang's favour. Sima Zhao played dumb and in the end, successfully manipulated He Yan in his own favour.
Chen Qun
Chen Qun was a fellow minister of Sima Yi. He died after trying to defend Guo Zhao from being arrested and killed by Bixie.
Zhong Hui
Zhong Hui was Sima Yi's student and Zhong Yao's son. In Part 2, he took on a more sly role.
At first, Zhong Hui had advised Sima Zhao to stay away from He Yan, but later on, when shit started getting real, Zhong Hui and Sima Zhao would work together as they felt that perhaps Sima Yi had lost his will to fight.
Zhong Hui was one of those guys with resting smiling face. It's just that his resting smiling face turned from cute young son to politician who knows more than he lets in on. Anyway, I thought this character made an impression on me.
Deng Ai
Deng Ai had a smaller role in Part 2. This made sense because historically, most of his work was done in the field of agriculture and so he was not in the city centre often.
Sun Li
Sun Li was one of the generals that Sima Yi had commanded while battling against Zhuge Liang.
Guo Huai
Guo Huai was another of the generals that Sima Yi had commanded. He was also the one whom Sima Zhao had successfully convinced to take him out, only to get ambushed by Zhuge Liang.
Zhang He
He was a general who was allied with Cao Zhen, and was always butting heads with Sima Yi while under his command in the battle against Zhuge Liang.
Liu Shan
In 3K, Liu Shan was more of a simple-minded pacifist, but in AA, Liu Shan was the kind of useless kid who didn't learn and listened to the wrong people.
While Zhuge Liang was out fighting wars, he was led astray by Huang Hao and fell in love with Li Yan's daughter. Through his daughter, Li Yan tried to take away control from Zhuge Liang which DID NOT sit well with him and he shut it down real fast.
After Zhuge Liang left, possibly for the last time, Huang Hao wanted to introduce another lady for Liu Shan to meet and he agreed. We can all predict that through his lack of sense of duty, his Kingdom was not going stand the test of time under his "rule."
Huang Hao
He was Liu Shan's eunuch and was not a good influence on him.
Zhuge Liang
I felt that Zhuge Liang was given too much screen time. He was technically a villain, but I think I would've preferred seeing the story from the Wei perspective more.
The empty fort strategy in which Zhuge Liang tricked Sima Yi was portrayed to be more strategic than it really was. In real life, I had just interpreted it as Sima Yi falling for some reverse psychology. However, AA tried to go all 4D chess on us and showed that Zhuge Liang had indirectly threatened Sima Yi's family through a series of telepathic conversations. I wonder if there would've been another way to express their mutual respect without showing these cheesy telepathic conversations.
I was used to Lu Yi's Zhuge Liang in 3K, and I felt that Wang Luoyong's Zhuge Liang was a little more aggressive, but overall I didn't hate his portrayal, just maybe that he was written in a way that I didn't prefer.
Ma Su
LOL so Ma Su was one of those guys in 3K that I liked until he messed up real bad on his one shot. Anyway, because I knew he was going to be a big liability, this time I didn't get too attached to him lmao.
Li Yan
Li Yan was the minister who wanted to take away some of Zhuge Liang's power. He didn't succeed.
Qingxiao
Qingxiao was Li Yan's daughter, whom Liu Shan eventually took on as a concubine. She helped her father plead with Liu Shan to try to get Zhuge Liang to give up some control. However, Zhuge Liang saw through everything. Zhuge Liang had authority over Li Shan in a paternal sense, but not the romantic sense, which was where Li Yan could move in by introducing Liu Shan to his daughter. So Zhuge Liang had to do away with that. However, as mentioned, Huang Hao was going to introduce Liu Shan to another lady, so Zhuge Liang's Shu Han was doomed from the start.
Overall
Overall, the Advisors Alliance was entertaining. There were actually quite a few humorous parts throughout the show, but I think the few humorous parts in the last 10 episodes or so should've been taken out.
Other than that, I thought the acting was stellar, especially from actors like Liu Huan who kind of came out of left field, and stood his ground when acting against Wu Xiubo.
However, I don't think this is the kind of show that would attract a younger audience, and I do think it was created with a bit of an older audience in mind (which I am).