History Manhua / RavagesOfTime

* TheWorfEffect. The best way establish you are somebody within the Three Kingdoms era? Beat up one of these guys.
** Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan (and their squad) have been thrashed rather consistently to establish how badass Cao Cao's various enemies are, though Dun at least would recover somewhat as a "tunnel rat" during the Battle of Guandu.
** Lampshaded when Zhang Fei and Guan Yu 'cheated' to help Liu Bei win in a duel against Lü Bu. Liu Bei's fame immediately skyrocketed -- just as Zhang Fei and Guan Yu had intended..
** If a named character who hadn't appeared is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is presented as smart or powerful, you can be fairly certain, that he will be used by one of the original/historical characters as a stepping stone. Handicapped Warriors seem to be a major exception to that, until we learn that Liaoyuan Huo [[spoiler: actually is Zhao Yun]].
** On the advisor front, you know that the shit has gotten real when your Water-Mirror Geniuses get outwitted routinely by a single guy... though at least that single guy is [[spoiler:the first Water-Mirror Genius, Yuan Fang]].

** Liu Bei is one of the nicest guys Huo comes across. He's also a destitute and powerless lord, frequently falls victim to others' manipulations and schemes, and gets himself kicked out of the first power base that his followers worked so hard to get for him because he [[GoodIsDumb wants to believe the best of Lü Bu]]. His quest to restore glory of the Imperial family goes nowhere because none of the resident MaryTzu Eight Geniuses (who have divergent opinions about the future ruler) will lift a finger to help him -- the one who sympathises with his cause, Zhuge Liang, also demands that he be prepared to go the distances before Liang can offer his service to him.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: InUniverse, UpToEleven. For some examples, [[spoiler: Zhao Yun starts out as Sima Yi's assassin under the alias Liaoyuan Huo, while Diaochan is merely a cover identity of the eunuch assassin Xiao Meng, and Dong Zhuo is actually an AntiHero of sorts -- or at least he plays one in public, anyway.]] For more, see below.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Lots of examples, undestandably, but Lü Bu is once again on the top of the pile, [[UpToEleven topping his feats of backstabbing in the original Romance Of The Three Kingdoms by far]].

** Played UpToEleven, if that's even possible, in the novels.

** Chapter 177 plays this [[UpToEleven up to at least]] ''[[UpToEleven fifteen]]'' [[UpToEleven layers deep]]. Zhang Fei and Chen Gong were scheming against each other; the former was trying to lure Lü Bu to Xiapi to kill him while the latter wish to drive out Zhang Fei to take Xiapi. Both of them outlines their plans, and the narrative switch back and forth between them anticipating each other.

* TookALevelInBadass. Happens to many, during the course of the story. Take note that many of those people were Badass to begin with, so it is more properly titled as [[UpToEleven "took ''another'' level in badass"]].

* KillThemAll: It's a ForegoneConclusion, considering [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms the source material]], but the series doesn't shy away from making important characters' deaths [[TearJerker devastating]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Considering the [[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms source material]], this is to be expected, and the author throws in new characters, some of whom play significant roles, such as Yuan Fang, [[spoiler: Yuan Shao's bastard son]].