ROTK vs. LOTR
- Thread starter Dida
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kingjoshi
King
Even though I don't know Chinese, I used to watch it on CCTV. I've played the video games since I was a kid (KOEI rocks!). But I thought it was 'legendary', meaning there was some truth to it. If not, that's really disappointing 
EDIT: some things are both great in their own way. You can have two beautiful women and they can have different colored eyes, hair, different heights, etc. But both be beautiful and impossible to say which is prettier. Some works just transplant you to another world and captures your mind.
EDIT: some things are both great in their own way. You can have two beautiful women and they can have different colored eyes, hair, different heights, etc. But both be beautiful and impossible to say which is prettier. Some works just transplant you to another world and captures your mind.
Dida said:
The two novels are very different. I'm not sure which one is "better". Very different times, very different styles, very different messages.
RoTK definitely has had a greater cultural influence than LoTR though. LoTR massively influenced the Western fantasy genre of entertainment. However, RoTK is almost taken as a *Bible* of proper Confucian behaviour, the Mandate of Heaven, politics and war strategy. Even now you can find books on, "How to apply the strategies of RoTK to succeed in business." Also most Chinese believe that RoTK represent the *true* history of China in that period. In many ways RoTK represents a massively successful rewrite from a very biased POV of a very important time in Chinese history. RoTK does however contain very many elements of truth though.
Even now many Chinese probably take the opening verse as the "reason" why Taiwan should unite with the mainland. It is destiny that the empire split asunder and then reunite. You can't go against destiny.
LoTR massively influenced Western literature. However RoTK massively influenced collective Chinese *thought* and ideas about what the true Chinese "history" is. It still does so today. There is a reason why the Communist Party sought to rehabilitate the image of the villain Cao Cao. RoTK has so much influence on Chinese thought that by doing so they were able to provide further justification for their own rule. Sure Mao killed a lot of people, but sometimes you've got to be ruthless bastard to reunite a land shattered by civil war. It's for the greater good. No-one's tried to use LoTR to justify authoritarian rule yet. It's not just the Communist Party though. RoTK has been used throughout its history for propaganda reasons.
Finally, not many (sane) people go around building temples/shrines to pray to the heroes of LoTR
Zhuge Liang gets his own temples, I'm afraid that Frodo doesn't kingjoshi
King
Zhuge Liang is just awesome! Growing up, I wanted to be a tactian/adivsor. Oh man, his characters were just incredibly smart. Versus all the other characters, he was special.
Zhao Yun and Guan Yu performed heroic feats and were smart as well, but they don't hold a candle to Zhuge Liang. However, Gandolf is pretty damn cool too. And Sam in on another level in regards to loyalty and perseverance. But I digress..
Zhao Yun and Guan Yu performed heroic feats and were smart as well, but they don't hold a candle to Zhuge Liang. However, Gandolf is pretty damn cool too. And Sam in on another level in regards to loyalty and perseverance. But I digress..
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I read only the first book of LOTR, while the whole ROTK. I have the impression that the movie LOTR was way better than the book... I would go for LOTR, but maybe.... I don't know really.
Dida
YHWH
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BCLG100 said:
That would had to do with poor translation. Whose translation did you read?
I just finished reading Tao Te Ching in Chinese (it was very difficult, I still have almost no idea what the hell it was talking about), my next project is to read three kingdoms in Chinese.
Chukchi Husky
Lone Wolf
I never heard of Romance of Three Kingdoms.
Chukchi Husky
Lone Wolf
I never heard of Dynasty Warriors.
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I've never heard of Dynasty Warriors either. What's it?
its a game for the playstation/PS2 and maybe other formats.
Its basically a game which follows the story line of the novel but is actually good
Dynasty warriors
Its basically a game which follows the story line of the novel but is actually good
Dynasty warriors
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That's why I haven't heard of it...BCLG100 said:
Dreadnought
Deity
mrtn said:I like Tolkien and have not read ROTK, unless you mean Return of the King, of course.That's why the thread title confused me.
Same with me
I never heard of RoTK. So I vote for LOTR
Dann
Green bug
And Guan Yu. How can you forget this one? He's in altars everywhere. Even inside police stations.Uiler said:Finally, not many (sane) people go around building temples/shrines to pray to the heroes of LoTR
kingjoshi
King
I think the early Nintendo games were Bandit Kings and Destiny of an Emporer. The latter is one of my favorite games ever (an RPG for NES, find the rom and download an emulator if you've never played it!). Then you have the RoTK series. I was absolutely addicted to that series. I stayed inside for three weeks and my friend (who let me borrow his game) wondered if I was stealing it... Eventually, I went back outside..
Dynasty Warriors later came. I think many people that like Civ would love RoTK. Instead of building a civilization to stand the test of time, you unite China. And there are various characters you have. It's also a turn based strategy game, but you don't really get a chance to know the characters.
If you play Destiny of an Emporer, it goes through some storyline.
Dynasty Warriors later came. I think many people that like Civ would love RoTK. Instead of building a civilization to stand the test of time, you unite China. And there are various characters you have. It's also a turn based strategy game, but you don't really get a chance to know the characters.
If you play Destiny of an Emporer, it goes through some storyline.
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