The Kings Avatar Live Action (Quanzhi Goushou) Review of Episode 3 Very Cool!
Kings Avatar (Quanzhi Goushou) – A little background and introduction before the review
After the last amazing show, this weeks episode continued the momentum and set the scene for the introduction of other characters. I’m finding the series really interesting and absolutely love the production values. I find myself talking to people at work telling them I’m becoming addicted to a Chinese TV drama that is about professional gamers. There are two fools sat behind me talking about some rubbishy run-of-the-mill show on British TV at the moment – it feels like we are from different worlds and I feel sorry for them. Anyway, there is an increasingly large amount of information about the saga on the internet, alas, much of it is out of date or simply inaccurate – if you want the latest stuff, see HERE for background information about the saga.
The episode opened with a recap of the rather nail-biting exchange between the boss, the wonderful Chen Guo (played by the lovely Maggie Jiang) who has asked the Ye Xiu to put on some clips of her favourite Glory player (Ye Qui – who, as you know, is Ye Xiu in real life!) while Ye Xiu is, at the same time, playing an important first kill opportunity on the Glory 10th server with his newly created character, Lord Grim). It’s a bit tense and also quite funny.
Many of us are struggling to keep up with the character names, ID’s and the group details of the teams they are affiliated to. I’ve set up a character summary table that I’m hoping will help:
Key Players Appearing In This Episode
 Name: Ye XiuID: Lord Grim (Jun Mo Xiao) Class: Un-Specified Guild: Unassigned (sometimes plays as member of Lanxi Pavilion). Once known as God Ye Qui when he was with Excellent Era. He currently works for Chen Guo who does not know he was once known as the Fighting God Ye Qui. |
 Name: Chen GuoID: Chasing Haze Class: Gunner Guild: Unassigned. Manager Happy Internet Cafe (pet name of GuoGuo by Tang Rou). Her idol is the Fighting God Ye Qui and she doesn’t know that this person is Ye Xiu in real life. She is a very enthusiastic supporter and player of Glory but we rarely see Chen Guo win a match. |
 Name: Tang RouID: Soft Mist Class: Battlemage Guild: Unassigned. Tang Rou is affectionately called Tang Rou (Little Tang) by Chen Guo. She originally thought that Glory was boring but was beaten by Ye Xiu in a duel and has vowed to get even. |
 Name: Xu Boyuan ID: Blue River Class: Swordsman Guild: Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue River Guild on the 10th Server as they have the same logo). Team Captain. A well respected player. One of the top swordsmen on the 10th Server. |
 Name: Xi ZhouID: Bound Boat Class: Cleric Guild: Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue River Guild on the 10th Server as they have the same logo). Vice Captain. Friend and of Xu Boyuan. Can sometimes seem disrespectful, but is always there to support and carries out Xu Boyan’s requests, usually without question. |
The Kings Avatar – Episode 3 Review
Eventually, Ye Xiu manages to connect the TV screens up in the Happy Internet Cafe but he plugs in the wrong video feed. Instead of a video of Ye Qui, he manages to place a stream of his own monitor where he is about to die by the Spider (in reality, that’s SOOOOO difficult to do accidentally).
Lord Grims team mates want to put the poor dude out of his misery by rolling a large stone on top of him (although Moon simply wants to make Lord Grim suffer). I think the reasoning is that once Lord Grim dies, it would reset the instance and they would be able to start the fight again once he was resurrected. They attempt to do so but just in the nick of time, Lord Grim manages to revive as Ye Xiu gets back to his desk.
His HP (health points) are very low, but he attempts to recover the situation and starts his battle against the boss. He is now also being streamed without his knowledge to the whole Internet Cafe.
You have to remember that Ye Qui (Lord Grim) is a very special player – a legend in his own time even. He has just started a battle with a monster boss that would normally need to be engaged by a few players all fighting together to bring it down – and his health is down to about 15% (if it gets to 0, he dies). In such a situation, he would die if the boss hits him once and the giant spider has considerably more health points that Lord Grim. Me or you would last approximately 3 seconds in such a situation. If we were really, really good, we would lose after gruelling battle of 10 minutes of running around trying to avoid being hit. Lord Grim wins after 2 minutes to the amazement of his colleagues and those watching in the Internet Cafe.
His boss (the attractive one not the dead spider) could see it all. She noticed that Lord Grim’s style of play was similar to Ye Qui’s, she even briefly considered that the two were the same. Then she laughed it off as a silly notion. Maggie Jiang is so good at playing this role, totally believable and a lot of fun to watch!
Ye Xiu sat back in his chair and seemed only mildly pleased with his win. Even though the odds were against him, maybe this was a little too easy. And yet. he also thought (background voice-over) that the fight had helped him regain a lot of the excitement for the game (I guess he is not one for showing his emotions in public).
Moon wasn’t so happy and he disconnected from the game in disgust. I think he wanted to see Lord Grim fail and had still not forgiven him for getting the better of him in the last fight.
Chen Guo confronts Ye Xiu and he tries to apologise.
Chen Guo however is ecstatically pleased She was so impressed with how her Network Manager plays like Ye Qui that she even bragged about it to one of the customers (who also agreed).
Moon returns to his place of employment (he is an intern journalist) and discusses the piece that he wrote about Ye Qui being forced out of his guild. The boss thinks that he needs more facts and cant print the article.
We then go into a long part of the backstory between Su Muchen, Ye Xiu and a childhood friend. It seems that Ye Xiu and Su Muchen are old acquaintances and his best friend of the time, is her brother. Or should I say was, it seems like he is reminiscing about a long lost friend. It’s possible at that his friend has since died. Strangely, and I’m still trying to get how this is possible. His friend was in the process of designing his amazing 1000 machine umbrella weapon. I’m not sure how this can happen – i.e. that a 14 year old kid can design and place an epic weapon is a popular MMORPG, but this seems to be what happened. I guess we’ll find out as the saga unfolds. Ye Xiu clips a beloved picture of his friends to his desk.
One thing is clear however, his friend had some considerable influence in his gaming and Ye Xiu is keen that he upgrade his weapon to be the best that it can be. It’s attack power (I think that’s the stat he was looking at) is only 15 at the moment, but at his present rate, it will increase pretty quickly as each new boss he kills relinquishes a set of materials that he can use to upgrade the weapon.
The next scene is an introduction to a new major character is the show, she is a pretty woman playing the piano in a competition (i.e. in front of judges). She is called Tang Rou and is played by the very pretty Daisy Li.
Unfortunately, her standard of piano playing isn’t quite up to her standard of beauty and she drops a couple of bum notes. She stops playing and leaves the stage. And, it seems, the piano competition.
Later, we see Tang Rou in a taxi headed off to visit her friend, Chen Guo and the two speak on the telephone. Chen Guo is pleased that she is coming for a visit. We later learn how the two met up. It seems that Chen Guo thwarted a robbery attempt when a man tried to sneak something out of Tang Rou’s bag. Chen Guo hit him with her handbag and he ran off. The two then accidentally took the wrong bag and had to meet up later the exchange them back. They became friends soon after.
When Tang Rou arrives, Ye Xiu asks one of his work colleagues if she is a friend of the boss Chen Guo. The colleague says ‘yes and no’ meaning that they are good friends but also rivals. Chen Guo is studying for something (I’m afraid I wasn’t able to determine what) and Tang Rou has some experience or is tutoring her. When Tang Rou is taken up to Chen Guo’s room she is given a study book and reads it. It is incomplete and when Tang Rou challenges her friend why this is, Chen Guo tells her that it is because of her network manager who is disrupting/distracting her. Chen Guo then encourages Ye Xiu to lie and corroborate the story. He does by saying that Chen Guo is always being beaten by him and it’s great! Tang Rou challenges him to a duel in Glory and tells him that he will lose.
I think she is doing this to teach him a lesson but I’m not sure. I guess it is not often pretty girls ask dudes for a PvP (Player versus Player)/PK (Player Killer) game in an MMORPG. I’m out of my sphere of understanding here. Chen Guo stays in her room and finishes her study work while they play.
Alas, the dude doesn’t so much kill the pretty opponent as ‘massacre’ her. She asks for a rematch, then another, then another etc. Apparently Tang Rou doesn’t like to lose and eventually she has suffered 10 straight defeats. When Chen Guo joins them she is surprised.
Tang Rou asks Chen Guo for a game card so that she can learn enough to beat him. She is determined and resourceful and a little bonkers!
Then the scene changes to the Blue Brook headquarters and specifically, the Lanxi Pavilion. Their team boss Xu Boyuan enters the room and everyone stands to attention. In this team, the team boss is very important! His assistant, explains that there is a really good player on the 10th Glory Server and Xu Boyuan determines that he should enrol him into the team.
He goes to his desk and ‘friends’ Lord Grim. He negotiates, on behalf of his guild and members, to utilise Lord Grim for a First Kill attempt. It’s quite a long and complex negotiation and although Xu Boyuan is pleased he has persuaded Lord Grim to help, his team assistant, Xi Zhou explains that he was simply being manipulated by Lord Grim. The thing about the Blue Brook Guild is that they are relatively rich in materials and this is quite attractive to Lord Grim, who wants to continue to upgrade his weapon (he needs a considerable amount of materials to do that). Lord Grim says he will help them get a first kill if they give him: 30 Powerful Spider Silk, 8 White Wolves Sharp Teeth and 8 white Langhao
Even I know that’s a lot of materials and I don’t play Glory – Xi Zhou pulls a face, this will eat into the guilds reserves…. badly. Lord Grim is finally beaten down to a few White Wolf teeth. Xi Zhou explains that this was Lord Grim’s plan all along. Lan Yu is deflated. I think there was some comedy element to this whole scene but it was lost in translation, I suspect that Xu Boyuan is a classy player but he comes across as a fool – the translation for the subtitles I was watching were pretty poor (don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful! I wouldn’t have been able to watch this show without the subs – it’s just that it makes it difficult to write a decent review as some of the assumptions I’m making may be wrong).
Eventually, Lord Grim joins the guild and he is joined by four members (including Xu Boyuan) to defeat the boss.
Xu Boyuan pays Lord Grim half the White Wolf fangs up front and agrees to pay the rest when the boss has been downed. Then, when Lan Yu asks Lord Grim for tactics for the boss fight, Lord Grim draws a circle around his team mates.
He tells them to stay in the circle and leaves them to face the boss on his own. The rest of the the Blue Brook warriors are not sure what to do. They stay in the circle as instructed and although they feel helpless and a little annoyed, they can’t really disobey since this is what was agreed. Lan Yu and Xi Zhou decide to wait it out, at least for a few more minutes.
And there this amazingly cool show ends. So far, each episode has improved a little on the previous and this one was great too. I’m really looking forward to the next and I’ll be posting a review here as soon as I’ve watched it!
So, in terms of my thoughts for the episode, we were introduced to a few more secondary characters and one new main character. This worked pretty well and didn’t distract too much. i know I keep banging on about her, but the star of the show is definitely Maggie Jiang at the moment. She is carrying the other cast members who are all really good too, especially Yang Yang who was great but possibly not quite as ‘great’ as he was in the previous two episodes. It worked quite well. It also really helps that Tang Rou is very pretty and Liu Qiushi (as Xu Boyuan) a fine actor that really tried hard to handle the crappy comedic writing for the show (which for me, is the only negative element).
The story is great, the acting talent wonderful and the production is magnificent. Daisy Li stood out in this episode, she has a dead-pan, introverted cute comedy-timing and a lovely smile that wins the audience, but the venerable Yang Yang seemed a little forced. I hope it gets better in the next show. And, the elephant in the room…. nobody mentions this in the other reviews and news about the show but I guess I have to mention it here – the gamers featured in this show are ludicrously attractive, so much so that it is almost a distraction. Just go to a gaming convention and compare the top players there with the acting talent for this show and you will be surprised (unless it’s just that all Asian people are cute – cute gamers in the west are very rare – hell, the last one I met I married!!
I guess this still works well because the gaming competitions, internet cafe and the staged scenes are all futuristic and pristine, clean and bright, exciting and fun. There are no seedy dark and dusty Internet cafe’s, no gamer tantrums and nasty over-the-top arguments in this show so I guess the attractive scenery and acting talent are all the more believable. It still makes me smile though 🙂
Therefore, I have to say, that the only way I can get my head around the realism of the show is to assume that it is set in the future. To me, this show is science fiction. There, I said it, now I’ll shut up – until the next episode 🙂
Episode 3 rated a deservedly massive 9.3 out of 10! What did you think?
(By the way, you can review this show yourself by clicking on the Users tab in the review block at the top- right of the page. You don’t need to register and we’d love to see what you thought of the show too.)
The Kings Avatar (Quanzhi Goushou) Episode 1 Review is HERE and Episode 2 Review is HERE
Chat about this is the Kings Avatar thread of the Sci Fi forum
The pictures, story, news details and everything else about the Kings Avatar Live action TV series are copyright Tencent Penguin Pictures, Linmon Pictures and Phoenix Entertainment. All rights reserved.
This article is copyright Tony Fawl and not for reproduction without the authors express permission.