The Kings Avatar Live Action Episode 13 Review (Quanzhi Gaoshou) – Great Show

In the last episode the excellent All Star Tournament started and caused a bit of an upset when the Tiny Herb newcomer (and Vice Captain) beat his boss, the hugely respected Captain of Tiny Herb, Wang Jiexi.  If you thought that was a bit of an upset, BOY are you in for a surprise this episode!  There were upsets all over the place.  Indeed, if I’d have been a spectator in this gamers tournament, I’d have been loving every second!

We also got an indication that Ye Xiu’s history as the Fighting God Ye Qui may have it’s days numbered as one of his inner circle for friends gets to learn (or at least guess) his secret identity.

One of the things I really liked about the episode was the analysis by the different teams of what was happening in each of the matches.  We got differing perspectives on the moves, strategy and outcomes of each match which broke up the whole episode nicely and again, helped pacing – we were never bored during the episode – except possibly by the weeping and whining Qiao Yifan and his whining and weepy sister Gao Yingjie.

I have to say that the exceptionally attractive Tournament announcer played a spectacular part in interviewing each of the contestants and generally being attractive.  In fact, all the girls were great to watch in this episode.

Hmmmmmm in fact there were too many.  Yeah I know, I can’t believe I actually said that either.  But there were!  Have you ever seen pictures of gamer conventions and in particular the audience?  I have – hell, I’ve even been to a few and boy there were hardly any women there and the ones that were were tightly linked to their boyfriends arms.

Most of the dudes are pasty-faced and slightly (ar a lot) overweight. They don’t get our much and yet in this tournament, the girls seem to outnumber the boys by a HUGE amount.  I appreciate that this is sci fi, but it should be a little more realistic – outnumbering the dudes by 10-1 is a little excessive. Also, if you are gonna force women to sit in a gamer convention/tournament, at least make them look like they are enjoying themselves and not just sat there as extras in a Chinese tv show about professional gamers.

If you need a recap of the story so far, all the previous episode reviews are here: Kings Avatar Live Action News & Reviews Thread).

Overall Comments – The Kings Avatar Episode 13

All the had work that the writers have done so far to introduce us gradually to the key players is paid off in this episode.  Most gamers are boring fools with know life, if you are one, thn you know exactly what I mean – not you of course, but the characters that you play with.  They really aren’t that interesting.  Imaging therefore, a writer having to gather a group of gamers each with individual personalities, skills and ways they communicate.  AND, still make them seem interesting.  

It’s difficult right?  Then put them all in a big room and have them chat about each others abilities, that’s just got to be a recipe for disaster right?  No, it actually was awesome, I really enjoyed it and that aspect in particular made this episode really fun to watch.  Watching Huang Shaotian gossip about the captain of another team, listen to the sensitivity of a senior player worried about his age and how long he will last in the game – all of this was enthralling and interesting.  

The gaming was great to watch too!

Overall, this was one of the better episodes.  Production, as usual, was fantastic and the screenplay and direction were also excellent. Strangely, I enjoyed it more after watching it a second time.

Key Players Appearing In This Episode

Name:  Ye Xiu ID:  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 (jiashi).  He currently works for Chen Guo who does not know he was once known as the Fighting God Ye Qui.

Name:  Chen Guo ID:  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 Rou ID:  Soft Mist Class:  Battlemage Guild:  Unassigned. Tang Rou is affectionately called Xiao Tang (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:  Qiao Yifan ID:   Ashen Moon Class:   Assassin Guild: Tiny Herb (Wei Cao). Considered a very weak player and not usually picked for any team activities.  Poorly respected by team colleagues but not the Team Captain who thinks he has potential.  He also has a really good friend (Gao Yingjie) who believes in him and tries to support him where possible.

Name:  Sun Xiang ID:  Autumn Leaf Class:  Battlemage Guild:  Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Is new to Excellent Era which was handed to him after it was taken away from Ye Xiu. His  previous class was a Berserker.  He is not very popular with Su Mucheng.

Name:  Su Mucheng ID:  Dancing Rain Class:  Gunner Guild:  Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Childhood friend and staunch ally of Ye Xiu and his biggest supporter.  She is a exceptional Gunner who is rated as the best in the game.

Name:  Yu Wenzhou ID:  Swoksaar (aka Su Ke Sa’er) Class:  Warlock Guild:  Blue Rain (Lan Yu).  Very highly respected player and venerable team captain of Blue Rain.  Accomplished tactical player known as one of the Four Tactician Masters in Glory

Name:  Huang Shaotian ID:  Troubling Rain Class:  Swordsman Guild: Blue Rain (Lan Yu).  Vice-captain of Blue Rain.  Is sometimes used as a weapon to disorientate his opponents with his quick speech and aggressive, antagonistic banter.

Name:  Chang Xian ID:  Sleeping Moon (aka Little Moon) Class:  Swordsman Guild:  Full Moon (Yue Lun) a lesser known guild new to the 10th Server. Captain and Boss . Little Moon is a journalist intern and huge fan of Ye Qui – but he doesn’t know he is Ye Xiu (the Network Manager of the Happy internet Cafe that he frequents) or Jun Moxiao (Lord Grim) on the 10th Glory Server.  In his day job, he is a reporter (or probably just an intern journalist at the local newspaper)

Name:  Wang Jiexi ID:  Vaccaria Class:  Witch (possibly Warlock or Wizard class since the non-female-gender use of the word Witch has not been used in this way since the 16th Century) Guild: Tiny Herb (Wei Cao). Wang Jiexi is the very highly respected Captain of Team Tiny Herb. he is famous for unorthodox play style and is often referred to as the Magician.

Name:  Gao Yingjie ID:  Kind Tree Class:  Witch (possibly Warlock or Wizard class since the non-female-gender use of the word Witch has not been used in this way since the 16th Century) Guild: Tiny Herb (Wei Cao). He is a very good player and respected Vice Captain.  He is modest and self-effacing and a very good friend of Qiao Yifan (the two of them are like winey sisters! together)

Name:  Han Wenqing ID: Desert Dust Class:  Striker. Guild:  Tyranny.   He is the Captain and a very respected player in the professional Glory player community.  He is older than most of the other players (by about a year  🙂 ) and was also considered Ye Qiu’s true rival amongst the professional Glory players.

Name:  Zhang Xinjie ID: Immovable Rock (Ahas an Alt called Misty Mountains) Class:  Cleric. Guild:  Tyranny.   He is tone of the Four Master Tacticians and he is strict and serious – in particular, everything has to punctual.

The Kings Avatar Episode 13 Review

The aftermath of the Gao Yingjie beating his boss Wang Jiexi intensifies with interviews by the press.  They don’t believe it and Wang Jiexi has to try and explain to them that his subordinate was indeed playing very well and that the win was not a fluke.

The Battle Between the Wimp and the Thug

Gao Yingjie takes a seat with his team mates later and he is still feeling a little in awe of his captain and the fact that he has just beaten him.Then suddenly, the excellent presenter lady announcers that the next rookie match is between our very own wimpy rookie, Qiao Yifan and the Xu Kong Team Captain, Li Xuan.

Ye Xiu comments that this is a bad opponent to fight at the All Star Tournament – he can’t understand why he chose him.  He looks pretty mean spirited too.  The dude looks like a scary bully even in the bright coloured lights of the convention. Worse still Li Xuan is an expert at his class, the Assassin (same as Qiao Yifan) and it looks as though this particular Team Captain wants to bite Yifan’s head off and spit down the hole!

Mr Wimpy Wimps Out and Starts Crying

Sure enough he loses miserably and in record time. It could even be said that the Qiao Yifan had made a fool of himself. He leaves the stage dejected and in tears. As he walks back to his teams enclosure, he meets Ye Xiu in the corridor. Ye Xiu doesn’t have any sympathy for Qiao Yifan and points out (harshly) that Qiao Yifan had only managed to learn the basic Ghost Array move a month ago – why then, would he try and play the recognised best Ghost Array player in the game – it was a poor choice.

To be honest Ye Xiu was overly harsh and it was out of character for the Ye Xiu – we all know from the graphic stories and animated series that Ye Xiu is not cruel to his fellow players (least not the ones that look up to him) – such cruelty was a little silly and hardly helpful in trying to boost the confidence of someone who was his friend – I’m not a big fan of Qiao Yifan as  you know, but he was already feeling down and seemed pointless for ye Xiu to make him feel worse.  As Ye Xiu walks away, Qiao Yifan breaks down in tears and Te Xiu tries to comfort him with a silly anecdote about bouncing back like rubber.

As you walked back to his seat in the Auditorium he meets up with his old friend and rival Han Wenqing, the Captain of the Guild Tyranny. They joke about how it must feel for Ye Xiu to be sitting in the audience rather than playing. Ye Xiu tells Han Wenqing that it feels good. Han Wenqing tells him that he will never be a spectator.  This entertaining sparring match continues as Ye Xiu mentions that we are all getting older and we should embrace it – and by the way, isn’t he one year older?

Status Battle between Old and Young

The next battle is between Sun Xiang who, although he’s a newcomer, is also the Captain of Excellent Era and his experienced opponent is non-other-than the Captain of Tyranny, Han Wenqing. When the two meet on stage to greet each other Sun Xiang makes a comment that Han Wenqing is too old and that the older player should step aside.

As the game progresses the two excellent players look evenly matched.

In the meantime, across the auditorium, Tang Rou discusses premature retirement with Ye Xiu she makes it very clear that she knows he is Ye Qui. Ye Xiu acknowledges that she knows and asks her to keep it to herself.

Tang Rou is a little worried for her friend, Chen Guo, especially the effect it may have on her when she eventually finds out.  Ye Xiu assures her that he is convinced she would be able to handle it.

I’m off dude

In another part of the auditorium the wimpy Gao Yingji is trying to encourage Qiao Yifan not to give up and to continue to try and impress the Captain, Wang Jiexi. Qiao Yifan acknowledges however, that his future is not with Tiny Herb. I think we all agree.  Indeed, Qiao Yifan should give up gaming and go back to being a waitress.

Meanwhile in the Han Wenqing gradually gets the better of Sun Xiang and wins the match convincingly.

Sun Xiang is furious at losing the game and to make things worse on stage and in front of the pretty presenter lady, he refuses Han Wenqing’s had he takes the microphone and tells and audience that Han Wenqing was lucky and that next time, he will surely win.

They leave the stage and during the press interviews, Han Wenqing wins the ‘Battle of the Antagonisms’ by pointing out in front of the press that, “If Ye Qui had fired that final Dragon Head Rising, I probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid it.”

In other words, Sun Xiang is not as good a player as his predecessor, Ye Qui. Ooooo, that must have hurt!

Tang Rou – It’s Your Turn

The next match is a surprise contender is chosen, it’s basically a player picked from the audience to play against one of the Professionals it’s considered very lucky to be chosen from the audience and our very own Tang Rou is picked to play somebody from the Excellent Era team.

Laughingly, when the player statistics are shown on the screen, her opponent has 1095 days gameplay where as Tang Rou is seen to only have 29.  The auditorium almost bursts into laughter – they don’t quite know her as well as we do!

Of course Tang Rou acquits herself very well against the Jiashi battlemage.  She is particularly good at remembering the instructions from Ye Xiu about how to fight battlemages and in particular the sequence of moves they have when they get into trouble. Since she knows how professional Battlemages play, she is able to anticipate his moves and gradually get the better of him.  The audience is surprised and enthralled by how well she is playing.

During this excellent match across the other side of the auditorium Huang Shaotian is talking to his Captain Yu Wenzhou about the fact that Sun Xiang has lost two Han Wenqing and now his apprentice is losing to the rookie Tang Rou – what does this mean for the Jiashi Guild?

Yu Wenzhou tells him to stop being a gossip.

The Cheat Takes The Stage

Sun Xiang leaves the auditorium – it’s as if he can hear what Huang Shaotian is saying about him.  He seems angry as he leaves. Meanwhile, Tang Rou is just about to place the killing blow when suddenly, her excellent manoeuvre is dodged! Sun Xiang has gone to the player enclosure and is aiding his colleague – this is most definitely cheating.

Most of the senior professional players have also noticed that this excellent move was probably not made by the same player and that he is receiving some assistance – it’s pointed out by Yu Wenzhou as he talks to Huang Shaotian, “Who do you think makes a manoeuvre like?” Huang Shaotian immediately comes back with Sun Xiang – they both look over to her where Sun Xiang should be seated and notice a sheepish looking Su Mucheng

I appreciate half the readers are looking at the beautiful Su Muchengs legs but if you could drag your eyes to her face you’d notice that she is looking slightly embarrassed because she must realise her team Captain is cheating too!

Sun Xiang suddenly takes control of the match and Tang Rou is surprised that her moves aren’t working and that she seems to be playing a completely different player. Ye Xiu is also concerned and leaves the auditorium and heads for the players enclosure.

The dastardly Sun Xiang then decides to try and humiliate Tang Rou by attacking her with very slight but humiliating moves to make her look like a bad player.  Little jabs and pokes that make her fall and squirm.  The other professional players in the audience aren’t impressed.  A professional player humiliating an amature is very poor display of player etiquette.

Erm… The Good Cheat Takes to the Stage Too

Ye Xiu puts a comforting hand on Tang Rou’s shoulder and takes over her character. The game suddenly changes and Ye Xiu and Sun Xiang battle it out to the excitement and confusion of the spectators watching outside.

Again the senior professional players notice that suddenly Tang Rou is able to dodge easily a move which she shouldn’t be able to do at her current level of skill. Su Mucheng smiles – she knows exactly what’s going on.  While both players are on very low health, they both release a Dragons Head Battlemage spell at each other. Sun Xiang’s spell misses but Ye Xiu’s spell not only hits, it rises!

As you may remember, the Dragon Head Rising spell was only ever done correctly by one player, Fighting God Ye Qui!  The crowd are initially confused, then excited (a rookie amature has just beaten a professional) – then they realise – It’s Ye Qui!!!  The press dive for the player enclosure and all of them surround an intimidated and surprised Tang Rou – they shout, “Master, Master Ye Qui?”  she responds, “He has just left.” and points to the door,

The press rush after him.

In the final scene Ye Xiu is walking down the corridor back to the auditorium and he says something ridiculous about retirement meaning a final return (I think there was something lost in the translation),

And there this excellent episode ends.  This was full of gameplay, excellent graphics, intrigue and excitement and the acting even in-game lol, was excellent. This is one of the best episode yet!

Conclusion

Really, really good episode!  Marvelous gameplay, screenplay and production – the pacing was magnificent and kept my attention throughout. 

Let’s not mention that this gamer tournament, had absolutely NO security.  This would never happen. In a Glory tournament, it’s possible for anyone to go and play as anyone else!  and therefore cheat! – naa, nobody could believe that! it’s really impossible – you know what gamers are like, telling another gamer, “You cheating bastard” is like us greeting each other with a,  ‘Hi, how are you?” Any opportunity to cheat in-tournament would be almost impossible.

Still, it was great fun to watch – I’d rate this episode an amazingly great 9.3 out of 10.  This was one of the best episodes yet – very, very entertaining. Don’t you agree? You don’t have to, why not 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.

See more details of this on 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.

Thanks to the very cool Raphael Canaris for the following clarifications in this review: Sleeping Moon’s live character name is Chang Xian