Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Red Cliff

This is the first time I’ve listed Big Damn Hero moments for anyone other than Whoniverse characters, but the amazing people in this story deserve it and then some.  Spreading the love between our various allied soldiers, here are the scenes that make me cheer the loudest (spoilers.)

Guan Yu Escapes Capture (Part 1)

Surrounded by enemy soldiers with their spears trained on him, Guan Yu isn’t ready to give in.  After staring down Cao Cao himself, Guan Yu breaks through the ranks around him and knocks over one of the imperial generals’ horse, throwing the general to the ground.  He then picks up his army’s fallen flag, mounts the horse just as it rights itself, and peaces out.  Hardcore.

Zhao Yun in the “Tortoise” Battle (Part 1)

I opted for this scene instead of Zhao Yun fighting a ton of soldiers while carrying a baby – cool, but cheesy.  This one, though, is just cool.  He goes to town on these imperial soldiers, so much so that he doesn’t even take the time to pull his spear out of whatever soldier he kills.  He just slides the dead soldier’s spear out of his hands and moves on the next one (or two, or twenty.)

Zhou Yu Saves Zhao Yun (Part 1)

Oh my gosh, this is amazing.  So, Zhou Yu sees a mounted imperial archer aiming straight for Zhao Yun, who’s too busy being a boss to notice.  Zhou Yu knocks his own horse off-balance so he falls in the path of the arrow, taking it in the shoulder to save Zhao Yun.  But guys, he’s not even done.  He yanks the arrow out, takes this leaping twist into the air, and stabs the archer in the neck with the arrow that the archer just shot him with.  No words for this.  Just amazing.

Zhu-ge Liang Gets 100,000 Arrows (Part 2)

Funny – even though Part 2 has the epic final battle, both moments I picked from it don’t involve direct fighting.  Zhu-ge Liang, for instance, gets his moment by being one smart BAMF.  With the allied army in desperate need of arrows, Zhu-ge Liang gets the imperial army to unwittingly give them to him.  He waits for a heavy fog to minimize visibility, then sends twenty sparsely-crewed ships covered in straw with strawman soldiers on the decks to the edge of the imperial camp.  Thinking it’s an ambush, the imperial generals order wave after wave of arrows shot at the ships.  So many get stuck in the straw that the ships look like heavy-laden pincushions.  And all the while, Zhu-ge Liang sits inside one of the ships calmly drinking tea.  Now that’s style.

Sun Shangxiang Reveals the Map (Part 2)

Sun Shangiang is great throughout as a spy in Cao Cao’s camp, but my favorite part is when she comes home.  To the shock of all the (male) generals, she disrobes in the strategy room because she has a huge, meticulously-detailed map of the enemy camp drawn on pieces of cloth that she sewed together and wrapped around her torso.  I love watching how animatedly she explains the finer points of the map, hastily shrugging off all attempts to cover her bare shoulders/midriff.