The Kings Avatar Live Drama Episode 09 Review (Quanzhi Gaoshou) – Blisteringly Good!

Last weeks show saw things getting a little hotter for our heroes.  Other guilds are getting annoyed that the monopoly of achievements and in-game-credits for the larger guilds is broken – the saga is hotting up!  In this King’s Avatar Episode 9 Review, Little Moon managed a not so little achievement to help save his guild, Yue Lun. We are also introduced to a new tactical genius who is also VERY shy and not a very good player. But best of all, we watch a lot of naughty players from other guilds take on our heroes – will they win? Lets see.

Refreshingly, the only actor in the saga who can do scenes with any form of comedy in them, plays quite a large part in this episode.  Thanks to the very cool Raphael Canaris for letting me know that Sleeping Moon’s live character name is Chang Xian.

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 Impression – The Kings Avatar Episode 9

Yet another introduction to a new character.  It seems like a weekly occurrence and one that is set to continue for a while. Although I’m only up to the episode 9 review, I’m actually watching episode 30 at the moment and there are quite a few characters to add before the story really takes shape.  These introductions are, for the most part, pretty good – but I warn you, there are certainly a couple of filler episodes on the way, thankfully this isn’t one of them.

The pace in this episode is pretty good and the story is pulling different elements of the plot together very nicely.  Unfortunately, some realism is lacking and we see some games that are so impossible (no matter how good a player is) that they are difficult to watch if you play MMORPG’s regularly.  I think this is done with the average non-gaming viewer in mind and I tried not to let it get in the way of my enjoyment.  It’s another great episode – yer gonna like it!

Key Players Appearing In This Episode

Name:  Ye Xiu ID:  Lord Grim (Jun Moxiao) 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 – she does not know he was once Ye Qui (an idol of hers).

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 (aka The Invader) 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:  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:  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:  Chen Yehui ID:  The Darkness 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:  Luo Ji ID:  Mei Guang Class:  Cleric Guild:  Unassigned.  He is a paying member of the VIP room in the Internet Cafe who uses his time to create very detailed strategies for completing dungeons (even low level ones). They are very useful to new and experienced players.

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.

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.

Kings Avatar Episode 9 Review

In the last episode, Qiao Yifan was asked by Ye Xiu to consider changing his class from an assassin. By the end of the first scene, that decision was pretty much made.  The battle that Chen Yehui (playing a character called, The Darkness) led against Lord Grim and his team was thwarted by Qiao Yifan and he felt that the decision to change playing class and style was an important decision.  He had missed his examination with other members of the training group, but the examination of his new class was one of the most important of his gaming life. It’s corny I know, but it seems he had found his new calling in the game and a new enthusiasm.

In particular, Qiao Yifan remembered his conversation with the master, Ye Xiu.  He was told that he didn’t yet have a professional mentality but if he didn’t panic and learned to make adjustments, then he could avoid making mistakes and would be ok.

The High Price of non Exclusive Boosting

In the Happy Internet Cafe, Ye Xiu is chatting in-game with a Captain from another guild on the 10th server. He is negotiating a deal to help boost a group through a dungeon.  Ye Xiu wants a lot of money and the guild captain reluctantly agrees.  You can see though, that he isn’t happy about it.  He also asks that Ye Xiu stops boosting other guilds and just stays with his. It isn’t actually said, but you can see that Ye Xiu will not make that happen.  Ye Xiu sits back smugly.

He is joined by Chen Guo who lightly chastises him for playing games rather than actually doing some work.  She sends him off on a chore.

Alas, although Chen Guo wants to hang out with her pall Tang Rou, Tang Rou is busy and asks her if she has finished her studies.  Chen Guo admits that she hasn’t and is sent off to complete them.

His guild is dying – he needs help from the Master

As she leaves, we see the venerable Sleeping Moon, one of our favourite characters from the earlier shows, attend the Internet Cafe.  He gets his account card and a bottle of water and sits down.  Unfortunately, when he logs on, he finds that his guild is in dire-straights and rapidly diminishing in status on the server and player membership.  He heeds to do something drastic or all the members of his guild, ironically called Full Moon, will empty.

He chats to one of his guild mates to see what can be done to fix the problem.  His colleague suggests that he speaks to a master to see if he will help them get achievements or credits to encourage more people to join their guild.  He tells Sleeping Moon that this is now about survival and not losing face.

Sleeping Moon (sorry, I haven’t found his non-gaming handle yet), leaves his desk and practices what he should say to apologise to Lord Grim in game.  He then hopes to ask him sincerely for help.  Little did he know that the real Lord Grim is stocking one of the vending machines in front of him.  Sleeping Moon practices what he will say to Lord Grim by way of an apology.

Ye Xiu sees him talking, he assumes it is to him and provides some words of encouragement.

The actor playing Sleeping Moon, in this very cool comedy scene, chastises the confused Ye Xiu for not knowing his place and tells him to go and get him some water. He hasn’t yet realised that Ye Xiu is Lord Grim.

Master, help save my guild?

In game, Sleeping Moon apologises to Lord Grim and offers him as much loot in compensation for his previous trickery as he can.  Lord Grim tells him that if he helps the guild he will need Sleeping Moon’s sword as the loot he is offering is pretty crappy.  Sleeping Moon offers him his sword.  Ye Xiu pretends that he hadn’t noticed a cool lance in the original loot offering and now that Sleeping Moon had passed his little test (unselfishly give me your best weapon and I might help you), Lord Grim reluctantly agrees to help him save his guild.  I’m not sure he recognised Sleeping Moon as the arrogant customer in the Internet Cafe.

Get me a paper and a Pen

Before the dungeon starts, Ye Xiu catches up with Tang Rou and Chen Guo and notices that they are reading dungeon strategies and in particular, one from a player called Mei Guang.  Apparently it’s very detailed and well put together – and, interestingly, he even does strategies on low-level dungeons.  Chen Guo received a call from one of her VIP clients (a person who used the Internet Cafe but has a VIP room) requesting some paper and a pen.

Ye Xiu is tled to take the paper and pen to the client.  He does so but when he gets there it is the wrong thickness of paper and the wrong type of pen.  Ye Xiu gives them to him and asks him to relax as he closes the door.  The person turns out, of course, Mei Guang.

Lord Grim is the enemy of us all!

In the Lanxi Pavilion Guild, Xu Boyuan is talking with his second in command, Xi Zhou about how Lord Grim has stripped the guild of materials and that they are not able to continue getting new dungeon records.  Worse still, Lord Grim is teaming up with other guilds to boost them and Lanxi Pavilion is suffering. Xi Zhou is not sympathetic and tells his boss that he thinks they are in this mess because he was being selfish (I assume he means he was enjoying being boosted (personally) by Lord Grim and didn’t care that it cost the guild a lot of resources).

Xu Boyuan stops chatting to join a video conference call with eight of the other guilds.

It seems that they are all fighting amongst themselves and they are meeting to organise a truce.  They mention that the situation is being exacerbated by Lord Grim who is boosting some of the guilds and even the lesser guilds who shouldn’t be able to attempt such difficult game content unless they were boosted by a master like Lord Grim.  This is sending all the other guilds into disarray.

They argue about it and Xu Boyuan seems sympathetic to the cause of Lord Grim – then he suddenly hears that an unknown guild (the Full Moon guild) has a new record achievement in a dungeon. Nobody on the video conference call had even heard of Full Moon and this upstart guild now had a record achievement and it made the more established guilds like theirs look bad. They decide to call a truce and to deal with the threat of Lord Grim collectively.

Xu Boyuan feels a little guilty after the call and tries to message Lord Grim’s account. I think he likes Lord Grim and is grateful for what he has done, but he also thinks that things need to change.  He decides to delete the message warning Lord Grim of the guilds’ displeasure.

He is good but expects perfection

Lord Grim passes on the staff he received from the grateful Sleeping Moon to Tang Rou as an upgrade to her pretty crappy battlemage staff.  She smiles and thanks him.

Bao Rongxing and Qiao Yifan discuss the dungeon strategies that Mei Guang has been publishing on the internet.  They are really impressed with the detail but they soon realise (with Ye Xiu’s comments) that the strategies assume that each player is fully kitted out and that they play perfectly.

Unfortunately, as you probably know if you are a gamer. most players are just having a laugh and bash stuff when they play and regularly screw up during a fight and aren’t always well geared or correctly gemmed/enchanted etc.  Ye Xiu makes a good point.  The best strategy is useless if the team playing it can’t follow it properly.

Seven Guilds Gang-up for a Slaughter

Ye Xiu gathers his team together for a team activity.  He is joined by Su Mucheng who misses her friend.

Meanwhile, six black vans draw up to the Jiashi front door and six professional Glory Guild combat teams alight and set up in the main game room.  It looks very impressive.  It also looks like Lord Grim is going to get a lot more grim if they succeed.  Today, is the day that the guilds get their own back on Lord Grim for making them look fools.

Initially they have already identified the main characters that form Lord Grims combat team.  They have worked out (somehow) where they will spawn and are waiting in the vicinity.  As each of the players come on line, the assign a team to go and shadow them until they are ready for a surprise attack.

Eventually all the team have logged on and the assasination teams are in place.  Chen Yehui issues the order to start and each member of Lord Grims team is individually surrounded by a team 5 or 6 characters of the enemy.  Tang Rou is busy reading a dungeon strategy and doesn’t notice that her character is already under attack by Chen Yehui.  She is killed very quickly and the new weapon that she had only just received from Lord Grim is taken.

She is really upset.  Ye Xiu calmly tells her to respawn in Kongje City and await further instructions.

It won’t be an easy Massacre

The team manage to handle themselves really well.  Alas it isn’t appropriate or me to describe the battle sequences because frankly, not being a Glory player, I have no idea what’s going on.

Bao Rongxing is chased by a large group and accidentally falls down a hole and hides.

Su Mucheng and Qiao Yifan meet up and manage to evade being killed by running away towards Lord Grim who is joined by Huang Shaotian who had turned up to fight Lord Grim on his own – he was surprised to find out he was already engaged in a fight and wasn’t interested in fighting a load of noobs.  He thought the situation looked fun and chastised Lord Grim for winding up so many players that they had all decided to gang up on him.  He suggested that he had gone off with someone’s girlfriend but when Lord Grim explained that it was because of achievement in low level dungeons, Huang Shaotian laughed.

Lord Grim tried to point out that he was just an ordinary player now and this was how he was able to progress.  He suggested that Huang Shaotian may actually be a little frightened as he was not used to fights this big.

The two teamed up and hid for a while.  They gradually managed to get in position and just as the were about to attack, the show ended.

The battle sequences for this episode were the best in the series so far.  Very well choreographed and drawn and very interesting to watch.  Even though I have obviously never played Glory, I could still broadly understand what was going on.  I guess if you have a basic knowledge on MMOs you can follow the battle sequences and you need to remember that in China, MMORPGs are big business.  Warcraft the film took more money in the box office in China than it did in the other countries of the world put together.

It was a definite cliff hanger for the next episode which I can pretty much tell you, is also awesome!

Not wishing to add a downer to the show, but as a gamer, seven teams of 6 people attacking 6 individual players would be a battle that would last about 6 seconds.  The idea that such a small team could battle such a large team of professional players in this way is ludicrous  – it’s like watching six 3d Jackie Chan’s fighting  🙂 –  really fun to watch  🙂 

I’d therefore rate this a hugely entertaining 9.2 out of 10.  The production was marvelous and graphics were gripping.  I enjoyed every in-frame part of the game. If you liked it too 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 and the in this live action version of the story,  Chen Yehui plays a Spellblade and not a Battlemage – he played a  Battlemage in other adaptations of the saga.