If there is any character that the title My Vow to My Liege applies to, it's Wu Zixu. Though all the love interests are loyal (or not) to Fuchai, Wu Zixu's vow is front and center from the common route on. He clearly states that his goal in life is to see his king and country prosper. Though he and Fuchai disagree a lot, particularly on the common route, it feels like constructive disagreement. He's there to point out the things she can't or won't see, and there's no doubt that he will never abandon her, no matter what decisions she makes. Zixu dies on half the routes, protecting her kingdom in her absence after getting her to safety.
It was really hard not to like the guy after that, and I was glad I saved his route for last as it let me end the game on a high note. Not only is his route the most unique out of the four (the march to Qi doesn't happen at all), but it's replaced with palace intrigue and more nods to history than any other route, including Goujian's. He even quotes the classic poem Young Reeds Before Flowering (蒹葭) that is used as the lyrics for the ending credits song.
My only disappointment was that his bad ending didn't include his historical line to Fuchai that his eyes be posthumously hung on the gates of Gusu so he could watch the capital's capture. I guess that wouldn't have made for a tragically romantic ending, and I did like his actual bad ending, which flips an earlier question Fuchai had about what the king would be without her prime minister, making it clear that neither of them are anything without the other.
I suppose that was a dismal note to start things off with, so let's get to the meat of his route.
Getting Zixu's route involves pissing off Goujian (by being willing to kill him as a scapegoat), which I was all for, and results in a much more contentious king of Yue for the rest of the story. I found I liked it when Fuchai stops backing him up so much. And the thing is, even though Zixu's warnings about Goujian seem overly much during the common route, he's absolutely right about him.
Once the naval battle happens, Fuchai returns to the capital after hearing about a possible coup, only to find out that Wu Zixu is being dunked on by the rest of the palace ministers, led by Bo Pi (who historically was bribed by Goujian). Because Gusu's granaries were damaged on his watch, Zixu temporarily exiles himself from court.
This eventually leads to Zixu being framed for treason once mind-controlled Chenfeng "confesses" to setting the city on fire on Zixu's orders. And Goujian, who is providing much needed food aid to Ng, lets Fuchai know that he was shot during the naval battle by Ng forces (which we know from Goujian's route was done on Zixu's orders).
Fuchai's ministers push for her to execute Zixu and she's furious that she seems to be the only one who trusts him. She demands to see the room in the palace where he's being held and her ministers are clearly afraid that allowing her a private conversation with him will convince her to spare him, but she's so upset that no one dares deny her.
What happens next is one of my favorite scenes. She wants to convince Zixu to become her husband (and even tries to undress before he stops her) because, she reasons, the father of the future king would be above reproach. But Zixu, being the guy that he is, tells her that she should execute him, even if the charges are false (mostly, he did give the order to kill Goujian). He tells her that she can't run a country without her ministers, and in aggregate she needs them. If his dying preserves the peace, so be it.
Fuchai does not take this very well. And to the player it looks like she angrily respects his wishes when she tosses a sword at him and tells him to stab himself, leaving her to fly solo for much of the remainder of his route. We even see his "corpse" hauled out after said stabbing.
While I was not surprised he would come back later in the story, since it was far too early to be either a good or bad ending, I wasn't sure how that would happen. And I definitely did not think that faking his death (by not quite stabbing himself lethally enough) would be the case.
Apparently "stab yourself to end things once and for all" is code for "fake your death and escape the city with a bunch of loyal followers" so Zixu can save the day when Goujian and the Kingdom of Qi try sacking Gusu. I am hoping something was just lost in translation (perhaps a reference to a historical event?) because I couldn't read into the exchange so Zixu's return came out of left field. I thought it would be more likely that the dream world (when Fuchai is trying to become master of the Ding of Virtue) would revive him somehow, since she's able to influence the past in it.
Still, Zixu's route ended up being my favorite of the bunch. I really liked how forward Fuchai was, from initially suggesting the marriage as an off the cuff method of getting Zixu back in court, to seriously trying to get him to marry her to save his life, to actually marrying him in the epilogue. Having all the palace intrigue didn't hurt either.
Fuchai remains king in Zixu's good ending and they have a daughter, who will inherit the throne since Fuchai has since made amendments to the law to allow a woman to become king. The implication is that Fuchai herself still presents as male at court though (likely to make sure that the law has teeth) and her marriage to Zixu is a secret.
I'm not surprised by that, since it's likely something he would have been in favor of, but I'm a wee bit disappointed that we find out he's stepped down as prime minister in his good ending, since it's not clear what he's doing with his time anymore. Their daughter is recognized as the legitimate heir, so she's probably being taken care of by palace nursemaids (if not Chenfeng, who is babysitting in this ending), so Zixu probably has lots of time on his hands now.
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