Hi!

I don't have the brainspoons to infodump a lot of text right now but the tl;dr version is that it's the three kingdoms era of china ~190AD-~270AD (though most of the popular action takes place in the first 2-3 decades of the third century. It got popularised by the highly embellished 14th century novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms which has since been translated into English and adapted many many times in various media formats.

I personally read the novel last summer in the space of 3 weeks (just a warning that it is DENSE. It's like reading the Silmarillion but six times as long) and found myself desperate for more so I went on to watch the 2010 adaptation.

I then immediately went to watch another adaptation (which takes a somewhat different approach perspective to most, but I absolutely adored it) called the Advisors Alliance, and I made a long propaganda post about why people should watch it when you can view here.

There are also other related shows that come highly recommended such as the 1994 adaptation, which is still the most popular in China and closely follows the novel but I haven't seen it yet.

(EDIT) I also just found THIS video which gives a good overview of adaptations!

But anyway tl;dr there are warlords and they all behave super-homoerorically towards each other and their advisors. 10/10 would recommend.

(Cao Cao and Xun Yu, as referenced in the original post)

Ok I'm done

Happy new 2026 or whatever

I may be back tomorrow or in 5 months time

Star Wars kinda IS just like a Xianxia in Space though when you think about it

You have Jedi masters and their beloved padawans (disciples) who cultivate the Force, but if they take the dark path they become sith lords (demonic cultivators). And they all wear robes and fly/jump around fighting each other and having dramatic fall-outs and crying in like volcanoes and shit

I suppose they're more specifically like the daoists though because they're supposed to remain celibate