The Kings Avatar Live Action (Quanzhi Gaoshou) Review of Episode 04 – Fantastic

Episode Summery

We left the last episode with a bit of cliff-hanger… You will love this episode if you would like to get a bit more into the game of Glory and maybe you will appreciate that Ye Xiu isn’t quite as much of a nice guy as we first thought, he can be a bit of a back-stabbing git (or maybe that is all part of his tactics – you decide – this is my favourite episode so far by the way.

This is the episode 4 review of the ‘The Kings Avatar’ (Quanzhi Gaoshou).  The first three episodes can be found here: Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3.  As I’ve mentioned previously, each show seems to get better than the last, some of you will be unimpressed with the pace but I think it’s ok because this is geared to people who may not only be new to gaming, but also that are new to the story.  As with previous shows the only negative comments are the poor direction and writing for comedic sketches which weren’t very funny as only tolerable because of the quality of the acting talent.  In fairness, the poor comedic sketches weren’t as bad in this episode. 

It may be a little difficult to keep up with Chinese character names and Character ID’s and group/guild names.  I’ve therefore put together a table of main characters appearing in the show to help.  Or at least I hope it does. 🙂

Key Players Appearing In This Episode

Name:  Ye Xiu ID:  Lord Grim Class:  Un-Specified Guild:  Unassigned (sometimes plays as member of Lanxi Pavilion).  Once known as Fighting God Ye Qui when he was with Excellent Era (Jiashi).  He now works for Chen Guo who does not know he was once Ye Qui (who was her idol).

Name:  Chen Guo ID:  Chasing Haze Class:  Gunner Guild:  Unassigned. Manager Happy Internet Cafe (pet name of GuoGuo by Tang Rou).  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:  Bao Rongxing ID:  Steamed Bun Class:  Ranger/Brawler Guild:  Unassigned. Works in a warehouse. Unusual way of playing but quick and agile fighter with a good sense of spacial awareness.  His ambition is to game professionally.

Name:  Tao Zuan ID:  N/A Class:  N/A Guild:  Team Boss of Excellent Era (Jiashi).  Committed to making the guild the best and most profitable.  He is ruthless enough to fire his star player (Ye Xiu) because he thought it is what the sponsors would have wanted.

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  Class:  Spellblade Guild: Excellent Era (Jiashi).  All round scumbag.   Rarely wins his battles and although considered a good solo player, does not do well in a team.  He bares a grudge against Ye Xiu who once threw him out of the team for selfish play.

Name:  Yu Wenzhou ID:  Swoksaar  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:  Xu Boyuan ID:  Blue River Class:  Swordsman Guild:  Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue Rain 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 Zhou ID:  Bound Boat Class:  Cleric Guild:  Blue Brook aka Lanxi Pavilion (I think this is an affiliate of Blue Rain 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.

Episode 04 Review

Xu Boyuan and his teammates are poised to fight the boss in the ice area (Ice Forrest) and they ask for tactics from their raid-leader, Lord Grim.  He draws a circle and asks them to stay in it.  He then runs off to fight the boss himself!

This is very embarrassing for the top players of a raiding guild/team.  Some might even say it’s a bit disrespectful, still others might say it’s a smack in the face.  Xu Boyuan however is pleased that his team will get a shot at a server first kill and at this point is prepared to take any silliness that Lord Grim will force on them – Lord Grim currently has the reputation to get away with it.

The guys clearly look a little embarrassed which is weird because they are avatars! Apparently Glory is so good that the characters/avatars expressions can match their player-owners.  After 15 minutes they are getting bored and a little worried that they are being made fun of.  They decide to prepare to fight and take part themselves and prepare to head out to the battle.  Suddenly an announcement is made that their guild, Lanxi Pavilion, (including and Lord Grim who joined them so that they could team up) are now the owners of the ‘Break the Ice Forrest’ record which was achieved in 15 minutes and 24 seconds.

The team are overjoyed and Xu Boyuan is very pleased with himself – until an in-game announcement is made that Lord Grim has left the guild.

Ye Xiu feels smug as he upgrades his weapon

Ye Xiu checks his materials to see if he is able to upgrade his weapon.  This new kill certainly helped.  It has now taken the attack power of his 1000 Machine Umbrella weapon from 16 attack power to 25.

Ye Xiu allows himself a slight smile.

In the meantime, Tang Rou has created her character called Soft Mist with the help of a prideful Chen Gou.  Chen Gou asks her why she didn’t create a character that was a gunner class like Chen Gou’s character – she could then teach her game play, presumably to help her learn faster.  Tang Rou replies that she wants to be more up-front and personal and that she wants to see her opponents die in front of her rather than at a distance.  (A Gunner is a ranged class so they typically shoot for kills at a distance).

Tao Xuan, the boss of Excellent Era (Jiashi) introduces the new captain of the team playing the character Autumn Leaf, Sun Xiang.  Sun Xiang makes some lofty statements about starting a new dynasty for the team and Su Muchen looks a little unimpressed. Sun Xiang tells them that they will soon be fighting Blue Rain (Lan Yu) in the next competition and that this session is to train for that.

Chen Yehui is snubbed by the boss

Tao Xuan leaves the training room and is caught up by Chen Yehui.  Chen Yehui asks if it would be possible to be brought back into the Excellent Era  team now that Ye Xiu was gone.  Tao Xuan told him that as far as he was concerned, the Captain of the team at the time had made a decision, and that decision was final.  He clapped Chen Yehui on the shoulder a little too harshly for comfort just to make the point.

Sun Xiang then leads his team into battle.  The team try to follow his as best they can but they aren’t used to his play style and soon wipe (all die). Sun Xiang then goes on to act like a complete dick!  I guess it’s important to make a mark and stamp your authority, but Sun Xiang wanted his team surrounding him at all times, there was very little instruction, it was more about brawling and keeping up with his attacks.

Su Muchen’s problem was that she was used to working a certain way with Ye Xiu and the method of play Sun Xiang commanded was different.  Sun Xiang’s problem was that he was unable to communicate what he wanted effectively and this is what caused the team to lose (I think).  He unfairly blamed Su Muchen.

Su Mucheng needs to hear a friends voice

She feels upset and heads off to Ye Xiu’s old room at Jaishi to reminisce (and long for the comfortable times when she was appreciated).  She telephones Ye Xiu and they talk.  Ye Xiu thinks he can understand why she is calling and I think he guesses that she may have had a run-in with her new Captain.  He reminds her of some old rules they used to follow in that they shouldn’t get too annoyed with new members and that if they were going to sulk it shouldn’t be for long.  It all seemed like good advice at a time when she needed to hear it from a friend.

Meanwhile, back at the Happy Internet Cafe, Chen Gou is remembering the awesomeness of her idol, Ye Qui when she notices that they are taking down his picture outside Excellent Era (as of course they need to put up the picture of his replacement, Sun Xiang).  She rushes over to save the large image from being thrown away.  She tries to put it on the roof of her building so that she can look at it, but it’s too big and when it rains, the picture crumples and this upsets Chen Gou.

When Gou is feeling down in the dumps and this isn’t helped when she thinks of her father and his ideals for gaming and how it can be fun and good for people.  This is one of the reasons why she decided to keep the Internet Cafe business when her father died, she wanted to continue his dream.

Chen Guo Insists

Later, when she returns downstairs, she notices Tang Rou still practicing, more specifically she is reading tactics.  Chen Gou explains that the best tactician in the game as far as she was concerned was Ye Qui and that her network Manager was really good at imitating Ye Qui.  Tang Rou isn’t impressed and Chen Gou thinks it would be better to get Ye Qui to approach her and instruct her on how to play her character using the best tactics.  Ye Qui doesn’t want to press the matter since he is losing face every time Tang Rou refuses his help.  But Chen Gou explains how if will be good for them both if he succeeds.  Chen Gou will get less scrupulous tutorials from Tang Rou because she will be intently trained by Ye Qui.

She also indicates that this could be financially beneficial to Ye Qui at a time when he needs it to be.

Next we see three teams preparing to enter the Gory stage to take out the Bloody Gunner boss.  It’s a tough boss and nobody has managed to down it in less than half an hour.  Lanxi Pavilion (led by Xu Boyuan), Zong Caotang (led by Che Quainzi) and Batu (a team led by Ye Du Hantan) teams are at the site and preparing.  Suddenly Xu Boyuan heads back out to his office.

A little later, he returns and discusses the opportunities with his team.  It seems that non of the three teams are confident of outright killing this boss and Xu Boyuan explains that whoever attempts to kill it first is likely to be ‘wiped’ (all their team members killed).

Who will get the First Kill

Then there is a great scene where each of the team captains meet at the site and try to goad each other to make the first attempt.

Then Steamed Bun appears (the avatar of the supercool and mouthy Bao Rongxing).  I’m trying to decipher the subs which are all over the place and get bits from websites all of which conflict.  I’ve managed to get most of the characters summarised in the character sheet above but I’m not sure how accurate it is.  I’ll make sure to update it as I get more information.

Bao Rongxing is the warehouse worker who plays on his laptop and throws bricks at his opponents.  Ye Xiu respects him as a player even though he is a little rough around the edges.  His is affectionately known to the followers of this show and the anime as “Steamed Bun” and he is currently soloing the Bloody Gunner boss and everyone watching from the three guild teams is impressed with his performance (doomed to failure though it seems to be). The graphics as usual (despite the image below), are really good by the way.

Xu Boyuan smugly tells his team-mate that he has arranged a meetup with ‘the Master’ to take down the Bloody Gunner.  And sure enough, the ‘Master’ shows up and joins up with Steamed Bum to take out the Bloody Gunner – all by themselves.  Or so we are led to think.

It seems that Lord Grim feels that the others will jump in on the action any minute.  Which of course they do.  Team Zong Caotang (led by Che Quainzi) and Batu (a team led by Ye Du Hantan) jump in to the fray.  Alas, poor Xu Boyuan joins in under pressure from his team, Lanxi Pavilion.

They all fall for it

Almost on que, the Bloody Gunner goes bonkers, it’s like he enrages or something and starts killing those who have just started the fight.

Xu Boyuan seems to realise what’s happening and begins to shout to his team to pull back.

But it’s all too late as the Bloody Gunner, in a dazzling array of game graphics, starts shooting up the place using his unending supply of gun ‘arms’ (excuse the pun but yes, guns, ammunition and …. arms).

They are wiped out after a few seconds.  The team captains are furious and blame Lord Grim who is hiding with Steamed Bun behind a rock.  They emerge and quickly complete the first kill of the Bloody Gunner boss.  Honestly, that seems a little harsh on Xu Boyuan who asked him to join them.  He could have at least let him in on the action, instead he made an enemy of not only him, but the other team leaders too.  A bit stupid to be honest. Maybe it’s different in China, but such tactics get you a very bad name elsewhere, no matter how good a player you are.

A dishonest player?

Later Xu Boyuan confronts Lord Grim online and tells him that he is dishonest.  Lord Grim says that if he likes, he will take out a different boss with him when he next has time – if it was me, I’d have told him to fuck off!  Xu Boyuan seems pleased and agrees.  It seems that being stabbed in the back by the great Lord Grim has already been forgiven.

Ye Xiu continues his quest to upgrade the 1000 Machine Umbrella and he gradually manages to get its attack power up to 34 points (I wonder how many other players he cheated or stabbed in the back). Before he has time to look smug however, the venerable Chen Gou pulls him back down to earth and tells him that he now has only a couple of hours as they agreed) to encourage the rookie Tang Rou to friend him so that she can be instructed on how to efficiently play her character.

And there this great episode ended.  We saw how Ye Xiu gradually manages to upgrade the 1000 Machine Umbrella and how he is alienating himself from the other guilds and raiding teams in the game.  Although this may well be part of his tactics.

Conclusion

The story was well told and great to watch, the pace was just right (not too quick and not too slow).

I’m not sure if I interpreted the un-fairness or greediness of Ye Xiu properly, he seemed a bit of a miserable git in this episode.  The game-play graphics were really good though and made me want to play World of Warcraft and numerous other MMO’s even though those graphics had nothing to do with gaming – no game currently available has graphics that good, or internet cafes that bright and cheery, or online RPG players that attractive or that many professional game player guilds in one town ….. but then again, that’s why we love this show – we still wanna hang out there.X

Another terrific show.  I wonder how they will be able to keep up this much excitement for the rest of the saga – we still have over 30 episodes left!

The Kings Avatar Episode 04 rated a huge 9.2 out of 10! Even if Ye Xiu was a git! 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, Episode 2 Review is HERE and Episode 3 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.

Thanks to the very cool Raphael Canaris for the following clarifications in this review:  Chen Yehui plays a Spellblade and not a Warlock as I originally indicated – he played a  Battlemage in other adaptations of the saga.