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You may be familiar with China's "Three Kingdoms" period; it's been covered in various video games such as Dynasty Warriors or the recent Total War: Three Kingdoms, and has been covered in television shows, films, and more. It's the subject of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Classic Chinese novels (and the main source for most adaptations rather than the history itself).
A very prominent figure of that period was the first Emperor of the Wu dynasty, Sun Quan. However, no adaptation has really done Sun Quan justice; he's usually portrayed as a fairly serious figure, although how competent he is varies by adaptation.
The real one, however, had a pattern of unusual behaviour.
It started out fairly innocent; when he was young he was admonished multiple times for risking his life by hunting tigers from horseback (and got a custom made chariot to do it from instead) and being careless in battle.
This progressed to having one of his generals remove their clothing at a party to show off all their scars to deflect criticism of their promotion, and poking holes in the wall so he could check in on a sick man without disturbing them.
He got worse with age, though. The single weirdest story came later. Sun Quan long had an unusual relation with his advisor Zhang Zhao that was full of obvious affection but also incredibly strained. At one point they got into an argument and Zhang Zhao retired to his home, the two piling up dirt on both sides of Zhang Zhao's gate.
Zhang Zhao turned out to be right, as he generally was. Sun Quan went to apologize, but Zhang Zhao still refused to come out. So Sun Quan made his most rational decision yet:
He lit the gate on fire. So he could apologize to the person inside.
Zhang Zhao was not just highly intelligent, though; he lived through decades of horrifying civil war and was probably incapable of fear by this point; he just shut the door to his house even firmer, and Sun Quan had the fire put out.
Ultimately, Zhang Zhao's sons carried him outside so Sun Quan could apologize, breaking the stalemate.
Now, if that had occurred in a work of fiction that wasn't a comedy you'd find it ridiculous, right? That's why adaptations like Dynasty Warriors don't even try to portray Sun Quan accurately.
A very prominent figure of that period was the first Emperor of the Wu dynasty, Sun Quan. However, no adaptation has really done Sun Quan justice; he's usually portrayed as a fairly serious figure, although how competent he is varies by adaptation.
The real one, however, had a pattern of unusual behaviour.
It started out fairly innocent; when he was young he was admonished multiple times for risking his life by hunting tigers from horseback (and got a custom made chariot to do it from instead) and being careless in battle.
This progressed to having one of his generals remove their clothing at a party to show off all their scars to deflect criticism of their promotion, and poking holes in the wall so he could check in on a sick man without disturbing them.
He got worse with age, though. The single weirdest story came later. Sun Quan long had an unusual relation with his advisor Zhang Zhao that was full of obvious affection but also incredibly strained. At one point they got into an argument and Zhang Zhao retired to his home, the two piling up dirt on both sides of Zhang Zhao's gate.
Zhang Zhao turned out to be right, as he generally was. Sun Quan went to apologize, but Zhang Zhao still refused to come out. So Sun Quan made his most rational decision yet:
He lit the gate on fire. So he could apologize to the person inside.
Zhang Zhao was not just highly intelligent, though; he lived through decades of horrifying civil war and was probably incapable of fear by this point; he just shut the door to his house even firmer, and Sun Quan had the fire put out.
Ultimately, Zhang Zhao's sons carried him outside so Sun Quan could apologize, breaking the stalemate.
Now, if that had occurred in a work of fiction that wasn't a comedy you'd find it ridiculous, right? That's why adaptations like Dynasty Warriors don't even try to portray Sun Quan accurately.