Gabiluzbad
Finished Iron Widow. Full spoilers
Gabiluzbad
Holy shit
Gabiluzbad
Holy shit
Gabiluzbad
A primal scream of a book indeed
Quinneapolis
the last like
Quinneapolis
2 pages of the book
Gabiluzbad
I started to get the feeling that the Hundun weren’t as mindlessly evil as they were made out to be pretty early on but even so Yizhi’s discovery right at the end took me off guard
Gabiluzbad
They ain’t on earth
Quinneapolis
Huanxia is a mining colony
Gabiluzbad
Humanity came to this world to conquer it
Gabiluzbad
The scourge of the universe
Quinneapolis
when I heard that line
Quinneapolis
I was like "are we getting into some GETTER SHIT"
Quinneapolis
and no, we're getting into tenra bansho zero
Gabiluzbad
I don’t think we are, exactly
Quinneapolis
no?
Gabiluzbad
But I don’t doubt that whatever happens next will be JUST as raw as anything Getter comes up with
Quinneapolis
oh not getter
Quinneapolis
but yeah
Gabiluzbad
Oh
Gabiluzbad
I’m on mobile in bed so slow updates
Quinneapolis
ahh
Gabiluzbad
Yeah this is 100% TBZ
Quinneapolis
book 2: Emperor Zetian VS the galaxy
Gabiluzbad
I love that the legendary emperor is just
Gabiluzbad
Around, now
Quinneapolis
he seems like kind of a loser
Gabiluzbad
To be fair he’s been asleep for over two hundred years
Gabiluzbad
We’ll see if he remains a confused loser
Gabiluzbad
Once he’s done waking up
Quinneapolis
"Get in the yin seat" "No it's for girls" "Come on dude" "Ugh fine"
Gabiluzbad
Basically
Gabiluzbad
I loved the final confrontation between Yizhi and his dad
Quinneapolis
god yes
Gabiluzbad
I thought it was gonna be some kind of big debate
Quinneapolis
just fucking smites his ass
Gabiluzbad
But no it’s just violence
Quinneapolis
Yizhi's energy going into it
Yizhi's energy going into it
Gabiluzbad
Anyway now the heavens themselves have decided that they can control Zetian
Gabiluzbad
I bet that’s going to work out great for them
Quinneapolis
lots of people have tried to control Zetian
Quinneapolis
some of them are even still alive
Gabiluzbad
Are they?
Quinneapolis
I said it but I'm not sure
Quinneapolis
she killed a lot of people
Gabiluzbad
You know who I ended up liking more than I expected?
Quinneapolis
Yizhi did try to marry her that one time
Gabiluzbad
Sima Yi
Quinneapolis
remind me
Gabiluzbad
Their manager in the army
Gabiluzbad
Kind of an asshole but also you really got the sense that he was just desperately trying to work within the system to keep Zetian and Shimin alive
Quinneapolis
I was amused that Son Wukong got a cameo
Gabiluzbad
Yeah that was great
Quinneapolis
and Zhuge Liang for that matter, he's also in everything
Gabiluzbad
Went on to retire and become a comedi
Gabiluzbad
an
Gabiluzbad
Is he a historical character?
Quinneapolis
Zhuge Liang - Wikipedia
Quinneapolis
his era's Sun Tzu
Gabiluzbad
Haaaa
izzy.vrm
zhuge liang and sima yi are both Romance of the Three Kingdoms important characters
izzy.vrm
Sima Yi - Wikipedia
Doge-lover Joja
Didn't know we had cameos from Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang
vered
A lot of the characters are historical cameos
vered
Li Shimin is the second emperor of the Tang dynasty 
Emperor Taizong of Tang - Wikipedia
vered
The turtle pair were the first emperor and empress of the Ming Dynasty 
Hongwu Emperor - Wikipedia
vered
(fun fact, zhu was the only commoner to become emperor, he used to be a monk)
vered
Tiger pair were the first emperor and empress of the Sui dynasty 
Emperor Wen of Sui - Wikipedia
vered
Yang Guang was his son 
Emperor Yang of Sui - Wikipedia
vered
I was wondering if Yizhi was based on someone historical too but I couldn’t find one for him
vered
wait i’m an idiot
vered
Yizhi has to be the Gaozong Emperor 
Emperor Gaozong of Tang - Wikipedia
vered
Irl the Taizong Emperor (Li Shimin) was the emperor that Wu Zetian first was the concubine to, but he largely ignored her
vered
At the same time his son (Li Zhi, so not a 100% match with Yizhi like the others, but he was surnamed Gao in the books so I reckon he must be), fell in love with Wu Zetian
vered
So when the Taizong emperor died, all the concubines traditionally got sent to the nunnery, but the Gaozong emperor loved Wu Zetian so much that he brought her back to be his concubine (unheard of), from where she eventually made her way to empress after he died
Gabiluzbad
The order of events are obviously a little different here
Quinneapolis
I didn't know most of this
Gabiluzbad
This doesn’t even mention the giant robots
Echo
vered
: On the Iron Widow website, Xiran Jay Zhao actually mentions which historical person the three members of the Iron Triangle are based on, character-wise. (Although they are also careful to note that in the end, the history parts are all just loose inspiration and the actual basis for everyone is "what would be fucking awesome".)
Echo
Li Shimin is absolutely based on Emperor Taizong, you're correct there. Yizhi's inspiration is listed as, and I quote " a variety of the historical Empress Wu’s pretty boy lovers because she had like 5 of the same type", which the author chose to amalgamate into one person because "I’m not about to fill a duology with that many twinks".
Echo
Which is valid.
vered
Echo
ooh good to know, I’ll go check out the site!