#lv meng

[headcannonballs]

For all that DW9 is absolutely awful in many ways, I will forever love Lv Meng's story for finally finally acknowledging the bond between Sun Quan and Lv Meng.

I mean who cares that historically Lv Meng was Sun Quan's most trusted commander, the one he personally groomed from footsoldier to general commander, the one that he cared for the most when ill (even Ling Tong and Zhu Ran came after).

Who cares that in the Romance Sun Quan declared that by conquering Jing province, Lv Meng has proved himself better than Lu Su and Zhou Yu?

Who cares that 'Sun Quan teaching Lv Meng' is such a famous anecdote that it is compulsory reading in school texts?

No, of course Sun Quan is closest to Zhou Tai, a bodyguard who had so little military accomplishments as to require Sun Quan's declaration of "he suffered for my sake" to make other generals even listen to him. Nevermind that being a bodyguard and being a commander-in-chief requires completely different capabilities. And then Sun Quan never made him in charge of any large scale operation again.

And Lv Meng is of course closest to: Gan Ning (who he hated and only kept around because he is useful), Ling Tong (who he only worked with a couple of times before Ling Tong's death), Lu Su (who had previously looked down on him, and who he didn't see the need to rush to aid when ordered to do so) and Zhou Yu (who saw enough in Lv Meng to choose to reward him with troops, Lv Meng however did not appreciate his effort and instead went straight to Sun Quan to reject the troops).

I mean really, even when pro-Shu fans disparage on Lv Meng, the most common insult is that he is Sun Quan's loyal dog. Lv Meng to Sun Quan is like Guo Jia to Cao Cao or Fa Zheng to Liu Bei. He is Sun Quan's most loyal general, because he serves only Sun Quan and puts Sun Quan's interests first. He is not bothered with personal ambition or the fate of the world or the people of Wu (or at least not above Sun Quan).

This is why of the 4 'grand commanders' of Wu, he had the best ending. The reason why Sun Quan mourned his death the most. It just sucks that DW never seemed to get it before DW9.

[headcannonballs]

My biggest issue with the various portrayals of Lv Meng in media (and there have been plenty of those) is that virtually none of them get the most basic (and defining) character trait of him correct - he loves manipulating people. Absolutely loves it, thrives on it in fact. If he is on the good side he is definitely a guile hero, and not an action hero. And if he is a villain, he should be a magnificent manipulative bastard. Like he has more in common with Gandalf and Saruman than Aragorn and Boromir.

This is someone whose first ever recorded deed is to sneak into the army when underage and when caught, guilt trips his mother into letting him be. Whose follow up to murdering someone (and yes he definitely planned it seeing how he did it in a single blow and even had an escape route planned) was to get enough people to speak on his behalf so that he got a promotion out of it.

A lot of people get stuck on the fact that he had to be ordered by Sun Quan to read books, and so think that he was a ruffian and a muscle-over-brain kind of guy. But Lv Meng has never been that (plus his sickly disposition didn't really allow it). If you are picking a Disney character he resembles, it is Aladdin and not Hercules. He needed to read books to become more learned and refined, not because he wasn't already smart.

Lv Meng's most famous military manuevers all had an element of trickery in it, not only because it works but also because it is what he excels at. To cancel out the trickery is to miss out on who Lv Meng is altogether.

Lv Meng is someone who thinks that making up appearances at last minute is just as viable as hardwork to earn a promotion. Who may offer tactics to his direct supervisor, but loves to go talk directly to Sun Quan behind their back and earn even more brownie points. Who can tell a bald-faced lie to coax a surrender, and then immediately laugh in their face once the surrender is assured.

Lv Meng is like Machiavelli's the Prince - he is pragmatic. He is never evil, because being evil is unhelpful and would make enemies out of everyone else (much like what happened to Dong Zhuo), but he is never nice just for the sake of being good either. Instead Lv Meng uses niceness like a weapon, putting on a veneer of faux affability to ensure he always reaches his goals. For every nice thing he seems to have done, he always has a pragmatic reason behind it. That is also why he had no qualms doing not so nice things either. All that matters is if it is beneficial to do so.

Really, with all the fuss that people make about Romance Zhuge Liang and DW Sima Yi, you would think that more adaptations would jump on the bandwagon to hype up a similar type of person in Wu. And rather than Zhou Yu or Lu Xun, Lv Meng is your guy for it.

[headcannonballs]

There was this beautiful MV on bilibili link here that had a scene where Sun Quan and Lv Meng went out by themselves on horses to hunt tigers. And then they got caught by Zhang Zhao when they came back.

Sun Quan was all smiles trying to pass it off as nothing, but Zhang Zhao was having none of it. And Lv Meng stood silently at the side trying to blend into the background. I can just imagine Zhang Zhao sighing "Ziming when I entrusted our lord's safety with you I meant stopping him, not protecting him while going along with it..."

If there is one incident I would point out as the most incongruent to Lv Meng's life story, it would be the fact that it was Zhang Zhao who recommended Lv Meng to take over when Deng Dang (his brother-in-law) died.

Zhang Zhao, who is famous for being stern and strict on propriety, who did not look favourably on ruffians and warriors, who made his disdain for someone as learned as Lu Su obvious. Yet somehow, he saw something in Lv Meng which made him look kindly upon the boy.

My personal headcannon is that Zhang Zhao's stuck-in-the-mud ways made it very difficult for him to find someone willing to listen to him preach. Even Sun Ce often used to act busy to get out of listening to Zhang Zhao's lectures.

Lv Meng, being the smart Alec he is, knows that Sun Ce views Zhang Zhao with high esteem. So in a bid to curry favour, he goes to Zhang Zhao with a sob story of being forced to fight despite his young age and how he never had the opportunity to go to school.

Zhang Zhao is overcome with sympathy for this poor young boy and takes him under his wing, teaching him about anything and everything (which Lv Meng manfully tries to pretend he finds interesting). Due to his close relationship with Zhang Zhao, Lv Meng gets to skip on menial labours ('he is coming with me for his lessons'), is given extra rations ('you must eat more as a growing boy') and all sorts of other small favours.

When Deng Dang passes away, plenty of other officers fight to gain control of his troops. But Zhang Zhao goes straight to Sun Ce, declaring that it is only proper that Lv Meng takes over from Deng Dang, and threatens to go into a long speech to explain exactly why. Sun Ce defers to Zhang Zhao's wisdom, and Lv Meng finally gets his own troops to command.

Years pass. Although Lv Meng has grown from footsoldier into Grand Commander, Zhang Zhao still sees him as that little boy who came to him for stories about morals and ethics. He calls Lv Meng to join him for dinner often, and though the latter is often too busy to make it, every once in a while they do manage a meal or two.

"Ziming" Zhang Zhao calls him, one of the few people who do. Perhaps it was even Zhang Zhao himself who originally gave Lv Meng that style name, since Lv Meng's father had passed on long before the chance came. He would nag for Lv Meng to take better care of himself, share knowledge from the latest books he had come across, and ask Lv Meng for anecdotes from his travels across the country. And Lv Meng would humour him, not only because Zhang Zhao remains an important advisor to Sun Quan, but also because over the course of 20+ years he had come to view this elderly man as a father figure of sorts.

At the end of the meal, Zhang Zhao would once again entrust the safety of his Lord Sun Quan into Lv Meng's hands. He knew that this young boy, whom he had watched grow up, would be up for the task.