Bao Zhi Ruo - YK's mommy - YG's grandma

[flyingfox2002]

What happened: When we first meet Bao Zhi Ruo (aka Xi Ruo), it's apparent that she is a VERY kind-hearted woman. She made her home into a pet farm/animal shelter. She saves WYHL after Cownose Qiu slaughters all his other pursuers and neglects checking for survivors. She never informs her husband of the one who got away.

My comments: [It's a little weird to have an animal shelter in your backyard, but no problem. Saving the life of an enemy is kinda stupid, but she's extremely good hearted, so I'll give her a pass. BUT, her big sin here is not informing her husband because she feared that he'd yell at her. Had she told him, he would have realized the possible remnifications and they would have likely moved far away. Basically the last chance they could have had of averting disaster went down the toilet because she was afraid her husband would get mad.

What happened: Months later, Duan Tian De, under order from WYHL, comes and kills Guo Xiao Tian and apparently kills Yang Tie Xin as well. WYHL "heroicly" comes out of nowhere to save her, claiming to be a merchant who not only happened to have been passing by Ox Village that day of the Cownose killings (even though he was dressed identically as the Jin spies) but this day as well. He's like, oh it's really dangerous here, your friends and husband are dead, you must come with me. So she's like for the sake of my unborn baby, I have no choice. Then it turns out he is a Jin prince, not a merchant after all. Oops.

By that time, she was stuck there, not much she can do about it. Having her baby at a palace under good medical care ain't so bad.

My comments: Not much to fault here. She didn't really have a choice. Although, the novel does mention her daddy was a teacher or something (no mention of his death that I saw), so perhaps she could have asked WYHL to send her to her daddy, but WYHL would probably have sent someone ahead to kill him behind her back anyhoo so she would have ended up in Jin anyhow. She was dumb to buy that she was a merchant, but perhaps she HAD to lie to herself to protect her own sanity.

What happened: We flash ahead many years. It turns out she was never happy as a Jin royal consort (It musta sucked to live a life of luxury but a "proper" Chinese wife was expected to spend the rest of life miserable when her husband kicks the bucket so isn't she nice. It's a good thing too, cuz Cownose would have blew a fuse and killed her if she had the audacity to be enjoying life). WYHL moves her old home, literally, to the palace in hopes of making her happy.

While she spent her time moping, she kinda forgot to parent YK. She decides oh it'd just upset him if she told him about his heritage so she intends to keep it a secret until he's old enough. So YK grows up a spoiled prince.

Outta nowhere YTX shows up, all old and locked up by his (unknowing) son. She's like oh son HE is your daddy! We must get out of here now! And he's like mommy are you nuts? No way this old dude is my father! And YTX is like Luke I am your father. And then we have a good old fashion chase and Bao and YTX both end up dead after JY teases us about them possibly getting away.

My comments: So she turned out to be a crummy mom and crappy wife to her new husband. Luckily for WYHL she didn't save the life of any assassins at least... But anyhoo, she neglects her parenting duties and then out of the blue expects her son to elope with her and her lost husband. Totally unfair to YK (Put yourself in YK's shoes. How would you have felt?) but under the circumstances perhaps there was nothing else she could have done since she wasted all that time NOT parenting or telling him the truth, except perhaps come up with a plan. However, in LOCH, we kinda get the sense that planning isn't Cownose, YTX, or BZR's forte...

Overall conclusion: Unfortunately for her, her character had no chance. JY was intent on making her a useless damsel in distress type, totally passive and powerless. She was victim to a powerful man's lust (or love if you wanna be romantic) and to her own extreme compassion.

The two things you can fault her for are 1) failing to realize the potential danger of the enemy getting away and warning her husband, and 2) being a doting and incompetent mom.

I definitely don't like her, but over the years I have hated her less.

[Candide]

What, no comment on how beautiful she is supposed to be?

Wasn't she described to be more beautiful than both young girls, Mu Nianci and Huang Rong?

I think she's a bad mother mainly because nobody's ever taught her how to be one. If she had been at home (her village), the older women would've shown her a thing or two about parenting. She likely got married very young and was only a few months pregnant with the first child before all of that happened.

[Dennis Chen]

I think she was an emotionally weak, co-dependent character. She seemed to have passed this on to her son and grandson.

A stark contrast to Guo Jing's mother.

[flyingfox2002]

What, no comment on how beautiful she is supposed to be?

Wasn't she described to be more beautiful than both young girls, Mu Nianci and Huang Rong?

I think she's a bad mother mainly because nobody's ever taught her how to be one. If she had been at home (her village), the older women would've shown her a thing or two about parenting. She likely got married very young and was only a few months pregnant with the first child before all of that happened.

You must have me mixed up with trien chieu. I don't care about fictional characters' beauties. I care about their characters

[junzi]

Was she ever called Zhi Ruo?

[Guo Xiang]

Was she ever called Zhi Ruo?

It's a jab.

[Trien Chieu]

What, no comment on how beautiful she is supposed to be?

Wasn't she described to be more beautiful than both young girls, Mu Nianci and Huang Rong?

I think she's a bad mother mainly because nobody's ever taught her how to be one. If she had been at home (her village), the older women would've shown her a thing or two about parenting. She likely got married very young and was only a few months pregnant with the first child before all of that happened.

What?? is she that beautiful?? I thought she might be at par with Mu Nianci but would never match up to Huang Rong according to LOCH82...

As for Bao Zhi Ruo, I feel sorry for her very much... She might not have the parenting skill but she definitely a good person. What had happened to her is beyond her controlled. She would never leave her husband for a more romantic man like Nan Lan of FFOSM. Unlike Nan Lan, she did everything she could for her family....

[Extremer88]

Can someone please respect YG, and not call his grandma "Zhi Ruo"?

[flyingfox2002]

She's just a fictional character. It's just a personal preference. I prefer to know her as Zhi Ruo because to me it's a more apt name.

[wuxiagurl]

Why is Zhi Ruo a more apt name than Xi Ruo? Does the Zhi and the Xi mean something? Maybe I don't understand Mandarin that well. But the Ruo part means gentle/weak, right?

[kidd]

Why is Zhi Ruo a more apt name than Xi Ruo? Does the Zhi and the Xi mean something? Maybe I don't understand Mandarin that well. But the Ruo part means gentle/weak, right?

'Ruo zhi' means retarded in chinese. Maybe that's the reason for the choice. Just a guess.

[Extremer88]

I wonder how Bao Xiruo's beauty would fare against her grand daughter-in-law XLN?

[jadebunny9]

What?? is she that beautiful?? I thought she might be at par with Mu Nianci but would never match up to Huang Rong according to LOCH82...

As for Bao Zhi Ruo, I feel sorry for her very much... She might not have the parenting skill but she definitely a good person. What had happened to her is beyond her controlled. She would never leave her husband for a more romantic man like Nan Lan of FFOSM. Unlike Nan Lan, she did everything she could for her family....

Buddy, you need to stop using adaptations to compare novel characters, especially TVB ones. According to the novel, Bao Xi Ruo is the most beautiful character in LOCH. However in LOCH 94, I do agree that the actress who played her was absolutely beautiful.

Bao Xi Ruo definitely wasn't like Nan Lan, but her naiveness bugged me. I mean, the supposed "merchant" that she saved was dressed in one of those black I'm-doing-something-that-I-don't-want-to-disclose-to-the-general-public outfits and she believes him. Then he comes right back at the nick of time and then later she finds out he's not a merchant but a Jin prince. I guess she was thinking for her child at the time, but come on.........why couldn't she be strong like Guo Jing's mom?

[kidd]

Bao Xi Ruo in Legend of Arching Hero (aka LOCH2003) is the most beautiful.

Beautiful Bao Xi Ruo
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[flyingfox2002]

Buddy, you need to stop using adaptations to compare novel characters, especially TVB ones. According to the novel, Bao Xi Ruo is the most beautiful character in LOCH. However in LOCH 94, I do agree that the actress who played her was absolutely beautiful.

Bao Xi Ruo definitely wasn't like Nan Lan, but her naiveness bugged me. I mean, the supposed "merchant" that she saved was dressed in one of those black I'm-doing-something-that-I-don't-want-to-disclose-to-the-general-public outfits and she believes him. Then he comes right back at the nick of time and then later she finds out he's not a merchant but a Jin prince. I guess she was thinking for her child at the time, but come on.........why couldn't she be strong like Guo Jing's mom?

But she had no choice but to follow him at that point. She never knew that WYHL was the mastermind behind the tragedy (neither did anyone else until Duan Tian De confessed).

This brings up another question. It seems that Cownose Qiu never bothered to ask her how she ended up in Jurchen. Or perhaps he did, and all she told him was that WYHL rescued her from the Sung soldiers. Had she told him that she had saved WYHL previously, I think even Cownose would have put two and two together.

She was a sheltered daughter of some teacher whereas Li Ping was a peasant, thus you'd expect toughness out of Li but you can't expect the same from BZR. She was just some weirdo who has a collection of animals in her backyard. I think JY also intended to contrast the two women just like he wanted to contrast GJ and YK.

Side note, I am sure Yang Tie Xin loved the smell of animal poo in the morning and the squishness of it under his shoes. Teehee. He did get to sleep with a super hot lady for a year or two so he probably didn't mind.

[Trien Chieu]

But she had no choice but to follow him at that point. She never knew that WYHL was the mastermind behind the tragedy (neither did anyone else until Duan Tian De confessed).

This brings up another question. It seems that Cownose Qiu never bothered to ask her how she ended up in Jurchen. Or perhaps he did, and all she told him was that WYHL rescued her from the Sung soldiers. Had she told him that she had saved WYHL previously, I think even Cownose would have put two and two together.

She was a sheltered daughter of some teacher whereas Li Ping was a peasant, thus you'd expect toughness out of Li but you can't expect the same from BZR. She was just some weirdo who has a collection of animals in her backyard. I think JY also intended to contrast the two women just like he wanted to contrast GJ and YK.

Side note, I am sure Yang Tie Xin loved the smell of animal poo in the morning and the squishness of it under his shoes. Teehee. He did get to sleep with a super hot lady for a year or two so he probably didn't mind.

Yeah, I agree that we can't expect BZR to be as strong as KJ's mom. If I remember correctly, I believe BZR and YTX married for only few months before the tragedy begun... She was only 2 months pregnant when WYHL rescue her...

[xiaolong]

In the novel, the guards described BXR as being much more beautiful than MNC.

What?? is she that beautiful?? I thought she might be at par with Mu Nianci but would never match up to Huang Rong according to LOCH82...

As for Bao Zhi Ruo, I feel sorry for her very much... She might not have the parenting skill but she definitely a good person. What had happened to her is beyond her controlled. She would never leave her husband for a more romantic man like Nan Lan of FFOSM. Unlike Nan Lan, she did everything she could for her family....

[Lucre]

In the novel, the guards described BXR as being much more beautiful than MNC.

her beauty probably rubbed off YK, and subsequently passing down the genes to YG.

im curious, did she ever sleep with WYHL? (seemed a weird question to ask considering that shes a princess-consort) but shes moping about her ex-husband and she & WYHL have no offsprings...

[xiaolong]

Yup, she did. In the novel she admitted that she lost her chastity. No explanation given why she didn't have any other children.

YK is suppose to be a pretty boy who looks likes his mom, maybe that's why WYHL loved him.

her beauty probably rubbed off YK, and subsequently passing down the genes to YG.

im curious, did she ever sleep with WYHL? (seemed a weird question to ask considering that shes a princess-consort) but shes moping about her ex-husband and she & WYHL have no offsprings...

[ByTmE]

her beauty probably rubbed off YK, and subsequently passing down the genes to YG.

im curious, did she ever sleep with WYHL? (seemed a weird question to ask considering that shes a princess-consort) but shes moping about her ex-husband and she & WYHL have no offsprings...

Not weird. I was wondering the exact same thing LoL thanks for asking. And thanks xiaolong for clearing it up.

YK is suppose to be a pretty boy who looks likes his mom, maybe that's why WYHL loved him.

::shrugs:: You know what they say, if you love someone, even the tile on their roof is worth mooning over. Besides, didn't WYHL raise YK? You tend to love kids raised close in proximity to you whether they are really your own or not. If BXR was so beautiful, what did Yang Tie Xin look like? My mother's really cute, but I look like my dad haha. Did they say what WYHL looked like too?