It's not really a reference per se, but yeah, that moment is what we had in mind when writing this bit.

Substitute the paintbrush and mop for Wong's head and you might be onto something there.

I think that it was only a death threat tagging after means Fei does have a soft side. He didn't just kill him for soiling the robes. I'm sure if it was anyone else right now, they'd probably be dead.

Yeah, good point.

I think Fei really "is" a dick, but masters of his era probably kill common folk for any reason whatsoever..

Wongs probably gonna go through the kind of training hell that would make even Kenichi from the History's Strongest Disciple manga thank his luck that he doesn't have such strict masters.

Spare the rod, spoil the X, etc.
 

"The Tao of Fei"

Fei: What's the sound of one hand clapping?

Wong: Hmm...

Fei: *smacks Wong in the face* THAT!

"If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, I hope it falls on you."

I hope the "kill you after" line is a reference to an intense one-on-one training session. If Wong had kept his guard up he might have fared slightly better with the knee in the ribs. This is some great work here. Keep it up.

Tao of Fei part 3:

"Teachers open the door, you enter it by yourself... then they slam it in your face and kick you in the nuts twice."

I can just about see Wong saying "that's not a clap, that's a slap," and receiving a kick in the nuts from Fei for being a smartass.

Judging by the art the last few pages, I assume it's still daylight hours. It seems like Fei pretty much gave Wong the day off. If his ribs are willing to suffer it anymore there's a good get out of work free card!

Tao of Fei:

"Jade must be repeatedly kneed in the ribs and punched in the groin before it can be considered a gem."

Fei never specifically told Wong to stop copying Fei, so maybe Fei is just an incredibly violent and pissy trickster mentor. Only minus the tricks and add kick and knees to the ribs and groin along with many biting insults and jerkassery.

Following the Princess Bride theme, noticing panel # 5

The Dread Pirate Roberts is giving his daily greeting to Westley for the day.

Add in that stupidly hard manual labor is a decent way to lose fat and gain muscle and we may have Fei's method of training, after all if someone can spy on the students well enough to learn it they must be smart, and if they endure the chores and keep doing it they must be strong of both mind and body and thus they should make good students. And none of it breaks Fei's image of being a cruel master.

Awww. I think that Master Fei has taken a liking to the little scamp.

That's what I was going to say. Fei is a pretty cool dude. He just acts like an ass.

I'm pretty sure Fei also attacks his students without warning at various times throughout the day.

You know, to keep their senses sharp.

If he keeps kicking them when they're on the ground, it's just to make sure that their senses are REALLY sharp.

Or because it's good stress relief -- and a man like Fei needs all the stress relief he can get.

One kick is simply not feedback enough. He needs to reinforce the point that a lack of sharp senses will have much further-reaching negative consequences than just one measly kick.

EDIT: Heh, if Fei really wanted Wong dead he would have just let him run away. If it weren't already obvious he wants to train Wong, this is a textbook segue into a reluctant, grudging acceptance of becoming someone's teacher if I ever saw one. "Okay, I will teach you, but you better keep up. Fall behind and I will kill you, understood? Now fetch me tea," followed by a swift kick to the nuts and "lesson one, fat boy: evasion."

I have to wonder why Fei would watch Wong and provide him with advice if he did not at least like him. After all so far we have seen Wong as a barely capable worker with a tendency towards losing his focus.

Because, unlike Fei's worthless sons, Wong a) does some work around the house, and b) is actually trying to learn the martial art.

Maybe.

Does this prove he has a softer side, or that he hates seeing good potential wasted?

For manual labor. Being able to block an attack without direct instruction is the sign of a prodigy...

Something any master worth his salt would jump at, because a talented disciple is a reflection on the master, and worth a lot of face for them.

Master fei is a pretty cool guy. Eh hits children and doesn't afraid of anything.

I think you over estimate being able to block an attacks value, that has more to with reflexs than skill. I doubt Fei was attempting to put his skull inside of his torso so blocking a half hearted attack isn't that amazing although i'm sure it peaked in feis interest.

Fei wasn't trying to kill him or anything, no. But when someone like Fei says "Almost competant", that's pretty damned high praise. That means, from merely watching what little he could while he's pretending to be working (Because if he was just staring, he'd surely be caught), Wong managed to almost get the proper blocking technique down pat.

Anyway you slice it, that's pretty impressive. I've taken my share of martial arts, and it's common for even proper blocking technique to be difficult for a newb to master without an instructor to help him on the finer points. Certainly, even if the student has the motions down, he wouldn't be able to apply it straight away in a block like Wong did (Regardless of the power of the attack), due to lack of timing and an understanding of how the blocking motion works...

It's nice to know that even when looking out for the well-being of his servants, Fei needs to be a backhanded jerk about it. :P

http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/06/...ings-straight/

Huh. So HIKYM is the war epic he was talking about. Great prediction!

I'm fairly certain you're seeing things that aren't there..or rather making misassociations.

And I'm fairly certain you're taking my post way too seriously.

I thought the epic war... um, epic was the Battle of Long Wang Pass comic. Wasn't it?

HIKYM isn't exactly an epic war epic cos we're not gonna have any epic wars (that I know of..) Maybe Brian and John have plans for one, but I'm not sure it'd suit the tone really.. I think HIKYM is more down to the personal nitty-gritty of combat (maybe there will be fights among groups of people but I'm not sure about whole armies of 'em) .. That's not to say there are no epic war epics cooking in the oven though...

But will future possible epic war epics have references to Lu Bu and Romance of the Three Kingdoms? erm.. not sure on that one (or AM I?...dun dun duuun -- not really). It'd be cool anyway :)

EDIT: Keep in mind there's a possibility I could be misleading you about the story information I give for the sake of surprises......or not.... oooooOOOooooo

Yeah, it was Lao Tze and the Battle of Long Wang Pass.

We've had a couple of fat references from Fei directed at Wong now. Even though he's skinnier than Fei's sons ;)

Anyway, chinese martial artists wern't normally built like Bruce Lee. Normally they had at least a bit of bulk to their body (see some early martial movies). If you see any pic of chinese masters from the 1900's or so, a lot of them have these huge barrel chests and solid bodies.

Yeah you're right, Bruce Lee was kind of a revolutionary in terms of conditioning and physical fitness wasn't he?

I'm not sure how accurate I'll be about their bodies... It's something to consider, for sure, as I'm pretty sure there weren't people as anatomically chiseled as Lee was back in this time period (how could anyone really get that way without modern fitness equipment/dieting/supplements?). However, for the purposes of "cool factor" I might have to be slightly anachronistic on it (at least some of the time -- like with Chan Sen) ^_^

It's worth nothing that Fei may not actually think that Wong is fat. Fei's a jerk. He says mean things.

Fei is very shrewd

This dude looks like he has done too much opium. He is very dude-iful.

Heh. His original name in the script was "Dude" because I wanted to get the scene done while it was fresh in my head and didn't have time to figure out a proper name.

He was later given one thanks to Mr. Speroni's input. We'll learn it in a few pages.

...he seems kinda like a Chinese "dude," yeah.

Clearly evil.

I cannot resist reading this comic.

Man, Fei's a damn fine teacher.

But who is Wong's mysterious but friendly interlocutor? Is he a member of the Po "Never Open Your Eyes" clan? A long lost servant? A Tea Specialist brought in to make sure Fei's favorite beverage is served properly? Stay tuned....... (or not and then learn about it later.)

I'm betting on ninja assassin. That or tea merchant. Or both.

All I can hear in my head is Fei yelling "Did I tell you to stop and talk to strangers? No! I said run to the river and back until Po called you to work! Now clean up this bloody mess of a failure the Cho-mano clan sent to kill me."

The guy's probably going to try and trick Wong into doing something.

You can tell because he has his eyes closed.

I hope Wong gets to fight him, and I hope it's due to him 'defending' Fei somehow.

Lol. I love whats going on here. Wong wants to run away, but is afraid of dying. Master Fei is interested in his potential but wants to rid him of his weakness. So Master fei is training him in the proper art of "Running Away"
Seems Rule 1 in everything seems to be Cardio.

Prediction: Old friend Fei teamed up with to fight... evil, who is much wiser than he looks/acts, and he brings news that... evil has returned.

I was thinking dojo hunter or something similar and he'll end up saying that the guy must first go through Wong before he will fight or some such.

I have a feeling that Wong will be putting into use his 29 days of running training now.

Either that or that guy is a tea merchant with whom Wong becomes a regular customer of. Also Wong is silly, it sounds like he doesn't have much sense of danger about him. At least he's building up speed though.

lol, that's almost exactly what I heard too.

You'd better finish up your run and then hurry home Wong, otherwise you won't be able to run away!

This is one of those old-school ancient Chinese political tricks.. Where you do what your boss says. Because he is your boss, ipso freakin' facto. It is similar to the story of Zhao Gao, the chief eunuch as well as Prime Minister to the second Emperor of the Qin dynasty.

The story is "Pointing at a Deer and Calling it a Horse" and it is time to demonstrate my uber nerdy Chinese Historical acumen:


Zhao Gao, thru machinations, became Prime Minister. The Second Emperor was an idiot, buffon, clown, Liu Shan before there was a Liu Shan (Brian will get that), and Zhao Gao wanted him gone/dead but wasn't sure how much support he had in the Imperial Court. So one day Zhao Gao brought forth a deer and called it a horse. The Emperor said he was wrong and that it was a deer. Later, Zhao Gao had the Court assembled and brought the animal out and the question was posed again. The majority of them were afraid of Zhao Gao so they said it was a horse because that's what he said it was. When Zhao realized he had the majority on his side, he murdered the Emperor and then subsequently killed all the Court Officials who said the deer was actually a deer.



(Then after that they installed a new Emperor, who realized Zhao Gao was an asshole and had him executed :p )

Ah yes, body conditioning. Fun times await you Wong. wait till he starts train your root (stances). Da pain, DA PAIIIIN!

This year I became a disciple of my school's lineage, accordingly my sifu has started teaching me Baji. There are a couple of important energies that we need to develop for Baji to be any good and that takes a LOT of hard work. We've been doing training for nearly three months now, and we are only halfway through learning the first Baji from. We will be

Hell, even doing Taiji (Tai chi) stances is murder if you're doing them correctly. Now, whenever I hear someone say that taiji is "relaxing", I just bite my tongue and try not to shake my head. :D

I would like to be the first to say that this strip is full of win

and further more I pray for some good wong action in the next strip even tho im expecting alot more running than action.

I can still hope

come on you guys cant tell me it would be great to see 2 armed adults taken down by an unarmed kid

I bet Po is watching over Wong.

Well, it looks like he gets to put all that running to good use.

Thinking about it I would not be surpised if Po somehow set this up to see exactly how much potential Wong has.

4 options seem to appear which are really viable from here.

1. Wong uses his month of running training not to run, but to keep himself from getting shredded, at least. That is, he takes the defensive. Fei shows up about 2 minutes in, pissed about Wong not doing his running, kicks some attacker behind, and berates Wong accordingly.

2. Wong runs off. The attackers are surprised at his speed, etc, and Wong reaches Fei in time to get berated for not fighting the guys and possibly taking too long with his running. Fei beats them to a pulp, then tells Wong to clean up the mess and then keep running.

3. See 1/2, but with an ending of Fei talking about Wong being able to run decently well, but still not being able to live longer than a few days. Cue transition to more training.

4. Wong tries to fight the attackers, realizes he's going to die at the rate things happen, and runs off. See 1, 2, or 3 from here.

It simply doesn't seem viable for Wong to be good enough to fend off assassins yet. Fei pretty much is guaranteed to do it. Whether this be earlier or later, he's still, by a rather large margin, probably going to be the one doing the winning. The results of his winning, or the timing, could vary, though.

I'm with #2.

I dono. It relaxed my insides and gave me killer gas.

Well Fei said there'd be bandits.....and so far he's not been one to lie.

Actually, yeah, I can. It breaks suspension of disbelief for me when that kind of thing happens, or, at least when it happens with kids as young as Wong appears to be. I realize that Wong is bound to show his potential sooner or later (and has shown he can block a half-assed backhand) and that martial arts themed comics and movies aren't terribly realistic, but overall, I prefer it when kids are well, kids. Besides, the alternative scenario in this case might be seeing an unarmed Master Fei take down two armed adults, and I have a feeling that it would be considerably more entertaining. Well, either that or so short a confrontation so as to be anti-climactic, but that's still sort of cool.

Let's not go assuming things. Maybe they're just taking out the weapons to... I don't know... protect Wong. From ghosts.

But I do hope to see Master Fei kicking some ass pretty soon.

Well the alternative is that Wong's mother really sent them to rescue her son or something from being under foot of crazy old “Demon-Eyes” Fei, the Oni-eater or some such. Now that they know they’ve found him they don’t have to hide and can finish their mission safely escorting Wong through the bandit-ninja infested forest.

……..Yeah, I don’t buy it for a minute, but it could happen.

I imagine that Master Fei would be more upset at Wong being attacked because it would make Fei look bad if anything happened than because Wong was in any danger. (Nobody wants to be told by their peers "Ha ha, you couldn't protect a small child.") Also, I think Master Fei has zero faith in Wong's fighting ability at this point, so it's not like he would actually expect Wong to defend himself in that circumstance.

At least, that's the way Master Fei has seemingly been characterized so far.

Panel 2, to me it looked like the guy hit Wong on the back of the head to knock him out.

Silly Wong, didn't anyone teach him about Stranger Danger?

I see 3 courses of action

1. A tea-pot flies from the heavens and magically disintegrates the assassins (awesome but impossibly unlikely)

2.Running until Fei saves his ass (likely)

3. He runs until he gets to Fei, and it turns out that they were not assassins at all, they either were socially inept and found it neccesary to pull out their swords or hired by Fei to scare the crap out of Wong (unlikely)

I'd be stoked if Fei kills the bandits with a teacup.

I see a sharp kick in the shin followed by some judicious ass-hauling in the near future.

All he has done so far (that we can see) is running to build up his stamina. He would be very wise to use that trining now.

It would be suicidal for Wong to try and fight. As soon as that sword came out he should realise that it's time to split (once he gets over the shock that dudes a and b are not delivering a message from Lady Liu of course).

MSperoni, you mean man you. He looks so happy in that second last panel...only to have those same men try to kill him...

That looks like a sword he's pulling out of his stick. Wong wouldn't stand a chance in combat.

One thing that's sticking to my mind at the moment...

The leading bandit with the stick/sword at first is holding his hidden sword by the bottom (the sheath). On the 3rd panel, same character is holding the weapon by the very top of the hilt while still having the sheath pointing downward and his other hand not holding anything in particular at all.

Wouldn't the sheath have slipped down from the blade in that case without anything like straps to preventing it from slipping down the blade's shaft via gravity?

(Not an expert in how tight sheaths are around a blade.)

Well, I've never had a cane-sword of my own, but I've seen tons of Zatoichi movies, and he's held his cane-sword many times in the same fashion and you never see it slip out of place. He sometimes uses his cane as a weapon (with the blade sheathed), clubbing people with it and swinging it all around. I've never seen it slip out of the sheath in those movies, and I was basing Jiao's cane-sword (that's his name btw) on Zatoichi's.


So I guess it kinda "locks" into place. That makes sense to me anyway. I would think if you were trying to conceal your weapon in a cane and it kept slipping easily out of the sheath it wouldn't be a very good concealed weapon! ^_^


For notes or Sardapedia: Jiao is the name of the guy with the cane-sword. Bao is the name of the guy with the club.

They do lock into place. There's a bit right by where you would normally have a hand guard at the base of the blade that is thicker and generally has some ridges on it that slides tightly enough into the wood sheath to grip and 'lock' it in place. It actually takes a good tug to free a sword from a wooden sheath. Cane swords MIGHT have a slightly better locking mechanism, I'm not sure, but I doubt one would be strictly necessary.

Am I the only one who heard "DUN DUN DUNNNNN!" playing at the end of this strip?

Looks like Wongs father made a lot of enemies...

Or perhaps Wong's mother isn't exactly as faithful and loving as the father or son thought she was...

Holy shit.

That would be really really awesome.
I hope that happens.

Showing Wong his first glimpse of the "Flying Teacup" style that he would later use to defeat Chan Sen and his army, of course.