Hello, my name is AnalyticChick and welcome to my episode guide/running commentary on the wonderful Chinese serial that is Book and Sword 2002. I will also be posting this text to the “Book and Sword” forum under China Series as it gets written, but as it is now long and detailed enough to qualify as an episode guide, my prevailing instinct is – why not? Also, please note that the sarcasm and writing will generally get more methodical as the posts continue. For example, I am settling into writing one chunk for every episode and furthermore separating that chronologically.
Before we begin, I would just like to delineate some common abbreviations that I use for character names (since I write enough on this series as is):
Chen Jia Luo – CJL - Great Helmsman
Huo Qing Tong – HQT - Muslim Girl
Emperor Qian Long - QL- Emperor
Yu Yu Tong – YYT – Thirteenth Brother aka Flute Dude
Li Yuan Zhi – LYZ – Manchu officer’s daughter aka Cross Dressing Girl
Wen Tai Lai – WTL - Fourth Brother aka Noble Rebel Man
Luo Bing – LB - Fourth Sister (married to Fourth Brother) aka Object of Lust
Princess Fragrance- PF – HQT’s sister aka Fairy Pwincess
Dowager Empress- DE – Emperor’s mom aka Royal *****
Xu Tian Hom - XTH - Seventh Brother aka The Smart Lackey
Zhuo Qi- ZQ – Zhou patriarch’s daughter aka Loud Girl
Zhao Ban Shan- ZBS - Third Brother aka Fisherman
Zhang Zhou Zhong – ZZZ – Manchi officer aka Villain For Hire
Other Henchman - OH - QL's tall, bearded lackey who isn't ZZZ and isn't Zhou Hwai
Zhou Hwai - ZH - QL's general who is primarily concerned with making life tough for HQT and her tribe.
Also, I use RFS for the Red Flower Society and RFS-ers to refer to the collective gang of guys who work so diligently to overthrow the Qing Dynasty.
The reason this body of work is a “journey” more so than an “episode guide” is because I am a highly biased observer, and furthermore relish in my partialities. Also, I make no attempt to hide them so one can figure out pretty soon which characters and storylines I prefer, and, in particular, which character I am quite obsessed with.
If anyone would like to contend a point with me, could you please post that to the “Book and Sword“ thread in the Chinese section of this forum. If you would like a plot nuance explained, you could just post a response in this thread and I will try my best to explain myself and/or this series. However, this is all assuming that someone will actually read this thing which is definitely not a guarantee. In any case, I will write and you will enjoy.
Thank you