Novoland: Eagle Flag (九州·缥缈录, Jiǔ Zhōu Piǎo Miǎo Lù) is a 2019 Chinese series starring Liu Hao Ran, Song Zu Er, and Chen Ruo Xuan. It's based on the novel of the same name by Jiang Nan and is part of the Novoland universe. It's the fourth television series based on the Novoland series.
Lü Gui Chen/Asule Pasu'er, Crown Prince of the Qingyang Tribe, is sent to Xiatang as a hostage. He becomes friends with Ji Ye, a nobleman's illegitimate son, and Yu Ran, princess of the Winged Tribe. The three of them decide to join the fight against the warlord who's manipulating the emperor, and in the process stumble upon another, even darker conspiracy.
The series can be watched on Viki
with English subtitles.
In case anyone's confused: no, the "eagle flag" in the title has nothing to do with the flag of Albania (or any of the other historical kingdoms/empires that have put eagles on their flags).
Contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Ying Yu thinks the best way to demonstrate her crush on Ji Ye is to physically and emotionally torture him.
- Adoption Angst: As a baby Gui Chen/Asule, son of the emperor of Qingyang, was sent away to be fostered by the Zhenyan tribe. He only learns the truth after Qingyang's army invades Zhenyan and massacres his adoptive family.
- Agony of the Feet: Yu Ran stabs a Chi Ya soldier in the foot.
- Altar Diplomacy:
- Asule, the Crown Prince of Qingyang, is expected to marry Baili Huan, a princess of Xiatang. When that plan falls through he's expected instead to marry Yu Ran, a princess of the Winged Tribe.
- Yu Yi, a princess of the Winged Tribe, married Baili Jing Hong, emperor of Xiatang, to help her people.
- Xiao Zhou marries a prince of Xiatang so she can become empress.
- Ambiguous Ending / No Ending: Asule and Ji Ye lead their combined armies into battle, they charge at the enemy, the scene fades out before the armies collide, cut to a shot of the city... and that's it. No definite confirmation that Asule and Ji Ye won, but also nothing to indicate they lost.
- Annoying Arrows: Zhang gets shot in the chest, snaps off the arrow's shaft, and continues fighting.
- Awful Truth: When he lost control of his powers Asule accidentally killed Su Ma's sister in front of Su Ma. This was so traumatic that Asule repressed all memory of it until Lei Bi Cheng reminds him of it.
- Back from the Dead: Asule is stabbed to death. Then the Celestials bring him back.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: An enemy brings a massive axe/sword down on Asule's shoulder. Asule grabs it and holds it away. In real life grabbing it would have been useless and the force of that blow would have cut off his arm and probably half of his ribs too. In the series Asule's shoulder is cut, but his hands aren't hurt.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The Viki subtitles are mostly coherent, but the way they translate titles leaves something to be desired.
- The subtitlers come up with gems like "Heavenly Samurai" (somehow they missed that the series is set in fantasy China, not Japan... and that the series is named after these guys; "the Eagle Flag order" is a perfectly good and far more accurate translation) and "Blue Cloud Ancient Tooth Sword".
- Yu Ran's title as priestess of the Winged Tribe gets translated (somehow) as "Valkyrie". How is a mystery for the ages, as there is nothing about the situation that remotely resembles Norse mythology.
- Blood Oath: Asule and his bodyguards Tie Yan and Tie Ye cut their hands and press the wounds together when they swear to be brothers.
- Blood from the Mouth: Shows up regularly when someone's injured or killed.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Ji Ye tells Yu Ran he never cared for her and to leave him alone, because he's now a prisoner who expects to be executed for treason and she'll be in trouble if she talks to him too much.
- Break the Cutie: All three protagonists go through hell.
- Asule sees his adoptive family murdered in front of him, is forced to marry Yu Ran, and is betrayed and murdered by a man he thought was his friend. Then he's resurrected... badly.
- Ji Ye is abused by his family, sent off to a Hellhole Prison, believes his true love and best friend have betrayed him, and is repeatedly tortured.
- Yu Ran is forced to marry Asule, which means she can't marry her true love Ji Ye. Then Asule is killed and resurrected. Then Yu Ran and her friends are nearly killed when the city's destroyed. She finally manages to get some peace after this... and then she's drugged and given to bandits to be raped. Then she's rescued, but her rescuer has an agenda and takes her away from her friends.
- Bullying a Dragon: Baili Jing Hong has Asule staying at his court as a Political Hostage. The logical course of action would be to treat him well, because he's a foreign crown prince and will one day rule an kingdom famous for its military. What does Jing Hong do? Mistreats Asule's best friend, ensuring Asule will want revenge.
- Came Back Wrong: When he's resurrected Asule has lost his memories and thinks his friends want to harm him.
- Catapult Nightmare: Gui Chen jumps up when he wakes from a nightmare.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Yu Ran breaks a chair over a pervert's head.
- Dead Guy on Display: Longge Zhenhuang and his soldiers are put on display after their deaths.
- Despair Event Horizon: Ji Ye crosses it when, after being Made a Slave and forced to work in the iron mine, he's told Yu Ran has cheated on him with Asule.
- Determinator: Ji Ye. When he decides to break out of prison he hauls himself up a nearly-sheer cliff then kills the guards. He does this shortly after being savagely beaten, while his wounds are still bleeding.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Lü Song. He sent his son to be fostered by a rival tribe and never made any attempt to contact him or reveal his true identity, then attacked the rival tribe and killed his son's adoptive father, then is surprised that his son is traumatised and wants nothing to do with him.
- Jing Hong wants to arrange a diplomatic marriage between Asule and a princess of Xiatang. But Jing Hong's daughter refuses the marriage, so he makes Yu Ran, his niece-by-marriage who is otherwise unconnected to Xiatang, a princess just to marry her off to Asule. Neither Asule nor Yu Ran want this marriage. It never seems to occur to Jing Hong that he has just given Yu Ran an excellent reason to hate Xiatang, and that when Asule becomes emperor he will have the ability and certainly the motive to invade Xiatang.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight:
- Su Ma dies in Asule's arms.
- Yu Yi dies in Yu Ran's arms.
- Dies Wide Open: Longge Zhenhuang. His eyes are still open even though he's obviously dead (and has an arrow sticking out of his head).
- Disappeared Dad:
- Gui Chen's adoptive father dies in the prologue.
- Baili Yin's father died when he was a child, so Baili Jing Hong adopted him.
- Xiao Zhou has no idea who her father was. She suspects he was the former emperor, but he never acknowledged her as his daughter.
- Doomed Hometown: Gui Chen's home village is destroyed within the first five minutes of the series.
- Epic Tracking Shot: The shot as Ji Ye and Yu Ran lead Asule through the battle. It's a minute long and follows the protagonists as well as the fighting around them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The King of Li wants to Take Over the World, but he wants to do it by defeating his enemies fairly in battle. He's unhappy when he hears Lei Bi Cheng created the Chi Ya army, an army of superhuman soldiers who can defeat ordinary soldiers easily.
- Evil Teacher: Lei Bi Cheng is the Crown Prince of Li's teacher, and is secretly planning to use his position in the King of Li's court to cause chaos all over the continent. He also kills the crown prince to increase his magical powers.
- Flipping the Table: Ji Ye flips over a table when he's had enough of Ying Yu taunting him.
- Foreign Queasine: Asule is baffled by Xiatang's cuisine. Played with because it's not that the food's bad, just that he's unfamiliar with it. Case in point: his efforts to eat a crab when he doesn't know how to remove the shell.
- Go Out with a Smile: Su Ma smiles at Asule just before she dies.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Ji Ye implicitly stabs Sun Zhi Miao's hand, but this isn't shown. The scene cuts from Ji Ye raising his spear to Sun screaming in agony.
- Harmful to Minors: As a child Ji Ye was tortured and Forced to Watch as his mother was killed in front of him.
- Hellhole Prison:
- As a child Ji Ye was imprisoned with his mother in the prison of Da Li Temple. While there he was tortured, almost drowned, and Forced to Watch as his mother was murdered.
- The iron mine. It's little more than scaffolding on the side of a sheer cliff. Prisoners are lowered on ropes and have to hammer away at the cliff-face. Some of them fall to their deaths and the guards couldn't care less.
- Heroic Bastard: Ji Ye is illegitimate.
- I Have Many Names: Downplayed with Asule, who has only two names: Lü Gui Chen and Asule Pasu'er.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Gui Chen's adoptive parents both die this way, his mother by being stabbed through the chest and his father by being shot through the head.
- The Chi Ya soldier in episode six gets thrown onto Ji Ye's spear with such force that he slides past the blade and all the way down the shaft.
- Improbable Weapon User: Asule uses a wagon wheel and a piece of wood in his fight with the Chi Ya soldier.
- Jerkass: Lü Song, Gui Chen's father. When he's told his son is traumatised after the battle (in which his adoptive family and his friends were killed in front of him), he coldly says, "A boy who is traumatised by the battlefield is a coward."
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Sun Zhi Miao has raped female prisoners and gotten away with it for years... until he meets Ji Ye, whose mother was one of his victims.
- King Incognito: A palace maid is sent to accompany Asule on his journey to Yin. When he arrives he discovers she's really Xiao Zhou, the emperor's younger sister.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Lu Yan kills Asule, who gets resurrected and kills Lu Yan.
- Love Triangle: Gui Chen and Ji Ye both fall in love with Yu Ran, who loves Ji Ye but is forced into a diplomatic marriage with Gui Chen/Asule.
- Made a Slave:
- Su Ma is made a slave after her village is destroyed.
- Ji Ye becomes Ying Yu's slave after he escapes from the mine.
- Meaningful Name:
- "Asule" means "longevity" in Qingyang's language. His father named him that because he hoped he would have a long life.
- Xiao Zhou's nickname means "little boat", because the emperor gave her a boat as a present. (Her real name, Zhou Yue, is comprised of the characters for "boat" and "moon".)
- The "Ye" in Ji Ye's name means "wilderness".
- Missing Mum: Gui Chen's adoptive mother dies in the prologue. His biological mother committed suicide after he was born.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Yu Ran and Asule are forced to get married for political reasons and to save Ji Ye's life. Afterwards they're told that Ji Ye has become a soldier and has been sent to the border. Actually he's been arrested and sent to work in the mines. He has no idea why Yu Ran and Asule got married, so when he hears the news he assumes his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend.
- Nephewism: Yu Ran is an orphan, so her aunt Yu Yi looks after her.
- Oblivious Adoption: Asule has no idea he's adopted until his biological father invades his home village.
- Ominous Chinese Chanting: The opening credits feature very eerie chanting.
- One-Man Army: Ji Ye kills Sun Zhi Miao's guards easily.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Ying Wu Yi outlives his son the Crown Prince.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Sun Zhi Miao is a serial rapist who thoroughly deserves everything Ji Ye does to him.
- Political Hostage: Asule is sent to Xiatang as one.
- Princeling Rivalry: Asule was sickly as a child, so his brothers think he won't live to become emperor and are plotting against each other to decide who'll succeed him.
- Razor Wire: Su Shun Qing uses a collection of wires to dismember and kill a lot of people in episode eight.
- Rebellious Princess: Yu Ran starts out as one. Her immature behaviour causes headaches for her aunt, who has to remind her of how she should behave in front of foreign royalty.
- Repeat Cut: Used in the first episode when Gui Chen uses his powers.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Happens to Asule/Gui Chen twice.
- First he's born without a heartbeat. Everyone quite reasonably assumes he's dead. Then he starts to cry... after his mother has stabbed herself in grief.
- Played with the second time, when he's stabbed and apparently killed. Then he reappears alive, if not exactly well. He did actually die and was brought back from the dead.
- Su Ma was thought dead. At least a year later Asule learns she survived and became a spy.
- Roof Hopping: Yu Ran and Ji Ye's first meeting leads to him chasing her over the rooftops. This gets them mistaken for assassins.
- Royal Brat: Ying Yu takes this to psychopathic levels. She tortures and tries to drown Ji Ye, then threatens to gouge out the eyes of the servants who helped her find information on Ji Ye's family.
- Royally Screwed Up: Ooooh boy...
- Asule finds out he's adopted when his biological father kills his adoptive father and massacres Asule's home village.
- Baili Yin tortures Ji Ye. His father Baili Jing Hong is the spectacularly stupid sort of screwed up and goes out of his way to antagonise Asule, the future ruler of a rival kingdom.
- Ying Yu tortures Ji Ye and sees him as a wild beast to tame, while also having a weird unrequited crush on him.
- It's tradition that when the emperor of Yin dies, all of his concubines (and possibly his illegitimate children too) are executed.
- Lu Yan murders Asule once he outlives his usefulness. Later Lu Yan burns his own palace rather than let Ying Wu Yi take over.
- Sadistic Choice: Asule wants to save his friends from being enslaved, but he refuses to acknowledge his father. So his father gives him a choice.Lü Song: If you want these slaves, you can have them all. But you have to live like a slave. This is the price you must pay for your stubbornness in being Longge Zhenhuang's son instead of mine.
- Sexless Marriage: Asule and Yu Ran are friends who were forced to marry for political reasons, so their marriage is never consummated.
- Shaking Her Hair Loose: Yu Ran does this when she removes her hairpin and lets down her hair.
- Sitting on the Roof: Yu Ran and Ji Ye sit on a rooftop during the Ghost Festival.
- The Speechless: Su Ma was born mute. Or so she pretends.
- Star-Crossed Lovers:
- Ji Ye and Yu Ran love each other, but he's illegitimate and she's a princess. In the end she takes a Vow of Celibacy and becomes a priestess.
- Asule and Xiao Zhou love each other, but when they first meet he's been forced to marry Yu Ran for political reasons, and later Xiao Zhou agrees to marry a foreign prince for political reasons.
- Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Asule holds a sword to his own throat and threatens to kill himself if Tuoba Shang Yue doesn't release Ji Ye.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Ji Ye's reaction to hearing about Yu Ran and Asule's marriage is to stare straight ahead blankly, whispering Yu Ran's name and apparently oblivious to the fact he's being tortured.
- Trauma Conga Line: Ji Ye's life is nothing but misery. As a child he was tortured and saw his mother killed in front of him. As a teenager he was mistreated by his father and stepmother. As an adult he's arrested and sent to a Hellhole Prison, he's tricked into thinking his best friend and love interest have betrayed him, and he's forced to watch as the only person who was kind to him falls to his death.
- Travel Montage: Asule's journey to Xiatang is shown with both the "line on a map" and "short glimpses of places along the way" varieties.
- The Unfavorite: Ji Ye. His father and stepmother hate him and prefer his legitimate half-brother. He's forbidden from even listening to his half-brother's lessons.
- Viking Funeral: The Qingyang Tribe burn their dead on a mass funeral pyre.
- Vow of Celibacy: The Winged Tribe's priestesses are required to stay unmarried.
- Winged Humanoid: The Winged Tribe, obviously.
- Wuxia: Specifically the xianxia subgenre.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Lu Yan kills Asule because Asule has become a hindrance to his plans.
- Youngest Child Wins: According to the rules of the grassland, the emperor's youngest child inherits everything. Asule/Gui Chen is the youngest child, so he becomes crown prince.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Asule has been sickly all his life, so he isn't expected to live beyond twenty-four.
- You're Not My Father: This is the first thing Asule says to his father when they're reunited.
