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Ne Zha 2: We Only See the Handsomeness of Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, but Few Notice His Evil
I.
In Ne Zha: Chaos in the Sea of Demons, many impressive male characters made their appearances. Yet if we were to ask who is the most handsome, everyone's answer would surprisingly be the same.
It would definitely not be the bald immortal with a white beard, nor Taiyi with long ears and a big belly, let alone little Ne Zha with dark eye circles. Even Li Jing, the dignified Commander of Chentang Pass, would not make the cut. As for the Twelve Golden Immortals, Shen Zhengdao, Shen Gongbao, the Sea Yaksha, and numerous male monster beasts—they also barely fit the standard of a "handsome guy."
Relatively speaking, the most handsome are Lu Tong, Ao Bing, and Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea. With silver long hair, clad in silver dragon-scale armor, Ao Guang exudes overwhelming aura every time he speaks.
However, we are often deceived by his appearance, and few people notice his evil nature!
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II.
They originally thought they could just let Ne Zha live happily for these three years without causing trouble. Unexpectedly, Li Jing found a way to save his son.
Since Ne Zha no longer had to die in three years, it was time to teach him the principles of life and a set of skills to protect himself. So after Li Jing and Taiyi Zhenren returned from heaven, they arranged for Ne Zha to take Taiyi as his master and taught him skills through the Cosmic Map of Mountains and Rivers. Of course, Li Jing kept his plan to exchange his life for Ne Zha's a secret from Lady Yin—only he and Taiyi Zhenren knew about it.
We won't elaborate on the subsequent story, but what we can see is that Li Jing and his wife never had high expectations for what Ne Zha would become. They only hoped that he could grow up happily. Even if he could only live for three years, they still wanted to clear his name by capturing the Sea Yaksha and throw him a happy birthday party.
Lady Yin's love for Ne Zha was deep and sincere. In the end, she even sacrificed her own life to bring Ne Zha back to life:
"Every day I spent with you, my son, made me happy. I never cared whether you were an immortal or a demon. All I knew was that you were my son... I will love you forever!"
Li Jing's love for Ne Zha was equally profound. He was not good at expressing it, but he used practical actions to defend his son's dignity and life. Especially when it came to shaping Ne Zha's correct outlook on life and values, he told him clearly: "Who you are is only up to you to decide!"
In the first film, Li Jing was already ready to sacrifice his life for Ne Zha. Yet when Ne Zha wanted to sacrifice his own life to save his parents in the Heavenly Yuan Cauldron, his parents strongly stopped him. Li Jing even asked Ne Zha:
"If you traded your life for ours, do you think your mother and I could live in peace?"
III.
Li Jing knew very well that even if Ne Zha escaped the Heavenly Tribulation Curse, it would be hard for him to avoid further pursuit by the Heavenly Lord after he emerged from seclusion. Nevertheless, he still believed that with the remaining two years, he could guide Ne Zha onto the right path and use his own sacrifice to secure a chance for the Demon Bead Ne Zha to survive.
In other words, Li Jing educated his son by sacrificing himself to help Ne Zha walk the right path and become a useful person to society.
Now let's look at the second father-son pair: Shen Zhengdao and his sons Shen Gongbao and Shen Xiaobao, who belonged to the monster clan of the Seven Mountains and Five Ridges.
According to the film's setting, they were born as monster beasts, which made their status inherently lower than that of Li Jing and Ne Zha, who were humans. Even Shen Xiaobao, who practiced hard, spent over a hundred years just barely cultivating a human form. And cultivating a human form was only the basic threshold for entering the Jade Void Palace to practice. Without someone to recommend him, it was still extremely difficult.
Although Shen Zhengdao was proud of having raised Shen Gongbao, a disciple of the Chan Cult, when training the little monsters under his command, he often said: "Blame it on yourselves for being born monsters." Therefore, they could only push themselves to the limit, practicing hard to develop their skills, in the hope of rising to prominence one day.
In other words, Shen Zhengdao himself did not accept his identity as a monster. Even though he was powerful, he felt inferior. Otherwise, he would not have cut off his own arm to curry favor when he saw the flag of the Chan Cult.
Under his influence, Shen Gongbao also always obsessed over his monster identity. All his efforts were about pushing himself to the limit, aiming to eliminate others' prejudices. Even his initial theft of the Spirit Bead was just to prove that he was more worthy of being one of the Twelve Golden Immortals:
"Prejudice in people's hearts is like a huge mountain. No matter how hard you try, you can never move it!"
IV.
Of course, even with such extreme self-pushing—he didn't even give up practicing when besieging Chentang Pass—Shen Gongbao still struggled to cross class boundaries and become a candidate for the Twelve Golden Immortals.
In the end, his biggest problem was precisely the self-rejection caused by his father's influence. He did not accept his identity as a monster and insisted on forcing his way into the ranks of immortals, even if it meant selling his soul. Therefore, Shen Gongbao does not deserve sympathy. What people sympathize with is not him, but the fact that even after working hard, one still cannot get a fair chance to compete. It is not sympathy for his so-called "efforts," which were based on doing evil.
Of course, his father Shen Zhengdao did not teach him this—Shen Gongbao figured it out on his own. Although he rejected his monster identity due to his father's influence, he also couldn't bring himself to be an evildoer, also because of his father's influence. However, if he wanted to make his father proud and have a bright future, he had to do evil to achieve it.
There was no other way. Without background or resources, Shen Gongbao could only make progress in this way. In the end, because of his father, he turned over a new leaf and chose to challenge the forces of evil.
Now let's look at Ao Guang and Ao Bing's family. At the beginning of the film, why did Ao Guang collude with Shen Gongbao to steal the Spirit Bead?
It was still because he felt that fate had treated him unfairly!
If we compare Shen Zhengdao's family to "small-town examinees" (people from ordinary backgrounds struggling to succeed through exams), then Ao Guang's family was like a declining noble family. Shen Gongbao studied hard like a poor scholar, but because of his background, he was looked down upon everywhere. He finally squeezed out other monsters who also studied hard—even killing them—to get the chance to join the Chan Cult.
Of course, even after entering the Jade Void Palace, he was still excluded because of his background.
V.
As for Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, and his family—once nobles—they were defeated in power struggles and had no choice but to lower their status. To gain the title of "Dragon King," Ao Guang chose to attack his own clan, yet he and his people were forever trapped in the Underwater Purgatory, deprived of freedom:
"After all, dragons are born from monster beasts. How can they gain the trust of heaven?"
Many people think that Ao Guang is the most handsome and that among the three fathers, he loves his son the deepest. But this is not the case at all!
On the surface, Ao Guang always took a positive approach to Ao Bing's growth. For the sake of his son's future, he used his over a thousand years of experience to pave the safest path for Ao Bing. He even went so far as to collaborate with Shen Gongbao, stealing the Spirit Bead and infusing it into his son's body—all to secure a bright future for Ao Bing and thus save the entire dragon clan.
At the same time, he did not neglect Ao Bing's education, raising him to be a polite, knowledgeable, capable, and responsible gentleman.
How Ao Guang hoped that with the help of his master Shen Gongbao and the entire dragon clan (who gave him weapons and the Ten-Thousand Dragon Armor), his son could escape his monster identity, join the ranks of immortals, and become the kind of person Ao Guang himself could only dream of being.
Unfortunately, Ao Bing disappointed his expectations. When the heavenly thunder descended, he followed his heart, chose to resist the thunder with Ne Zha, and even risked destroying the Ten-Thousand Dragon Armor—the hope of the dragon clan placed on him.
When his hope was shattered, the Dragon King of the East Sea flew into a rage and decided to make all the people of Chentang Pass bury Ao Bing with their lives. However, he never expected that Ao Bing's newly revived body would be destroyed again:
"I'm sorry, Father. I failed to fulfill the dragon clan's mission."
VI.
It was only then that Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, woke up from his obsession. Holding his son's body, he said:
"None of this matters. I just want you to live."
Later, to save Ao Bing's life, the Dragon King of the East Sea tried every means—he even planned to lead the dragon clan to storm the Jade Void Palace and seize the Jade Nectar Elixir. Even when Immortal Lord Wuliang later came to investigate and press charges, the Dragon King's first reaction was to confess his guilt voluntarily. And his only condition for a deal was neither to protect the dragon clan nor the underwater monsters he had suppressed, but only Ao Bing:
"I will let you do whatever you want with me. Can you spare my son's life?"
In the end, when the father and son embraced, the Dragon King of the East Sea finally told Ao Bing the truth. He said that he had previously placed too many expectations on Ao Bing and had never listened to his true thoughts, so he was sorry for him.
The reason he acted this way was that "a parent's love for their child is to plan for their future in the long run." He wanted to use his past experience to secure happiness for Ao Bing. But now it seemed that the experience of the older generation belonged to the past and was not necessarily all correct. One had to forge their own path:
"From now on, be loyal to the choices of your heart."
It was at this moment that the Dragon King of the East Sea's image transformed—from controlling his son to letting him go, from misunderstanding to trust. This made him appear even more noble and handsome in everyone's eyes.
Some even said: "This is what true fatherly love is. Being able to admit mistakes and treat your son as an equal—this alone makes him better than many parents."
It is true that the Dragon King of the East Sea's love for Ao Bing is touching, but this cannot hide the evil in his heart!
VII.
Many of us only see Ao Guang's handsome face and his unreserved love for Ao Bing, but we overlook that he is a cowardly leader who bullies the weak and fears the strong.
Do you remember why Ao Run, the Dragon King of the West Sea, joined the Dragon Kings of the South Sea and North Sea in betraying their elder brother (Ao Guang)?
To be more precise, it was the elder brother who betrayed them first. He locked them in the Underwater Purgatory for over a thousand years, leaving nothing but hatred and helplessness in their hearts:
"A thousand years ago, the four of us brothers fought against heaven together. Who was the one who broke the oath first and threw us into purgatory?"
So when the Dragon King of the East Sea was shocked that the three of them had defected to Immortal Lord Wuliang, the Dragon King of the West Sea said calmly:
"I learned this from you, elder brother!"
Ao Guang still tried to defend himself, saying: "Back then, for the sake of the dragon clan, I had no choice but to surrender." Ao Run also defended his own actions and left with these words:
"Now, to save myself, I also have no choice!"
In fact, the choices of the four siblings already show that no one agreed with Ao Guang's actions. After all, there are only four Dragon Kings in the entire dragon clan. If three of them chose to leave him, it must mean something.
As the eldest brother, was there anything that couldn't be discussed openly? Why did he choose to surrender to heaven alone, then betray his siblings and throw them into purgatory—instead of letting all four of them surrender to heaven together?
Was it that you couldn't convince them?
Or was it that if all four surrendered, you would no longer have such great power and influence?
In Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child, the Dragon King of the East Sea also said that he was granted the title of "Dragon King" only because he surrendered to heaven. Then who granted the titles of Dragon King to the West Sea, South Sea, and North Sea?
VIII.
If the Dragon King of the East Sea's actions back then were to save the entire dragon clan, then after over a thousand years, why are the other three seas left with only their respective Dragon Kings (with no other dragons under their command) among the dragon clan you "saved"? Where are their subordinates?
Why does Ao Run dislike her elder brother and even betray him? It also has to do with her mother (the former Dragon Queen).
Why do we say that?
Back then, heaven destroyed all the dragon eggs. If the Dragon King of the East Sea hadn't held one in his mouth, the entire dragon clan would have had no new descendants for a thousand years. Heaven neatly strangled your children in the cradle, yet the Dragon King of the East Sea still knelt so obediently. How do you think Ao Run, the Dragon King of the West Sea (who lost her children), felt about this?
Later, when Ao Bing died, the Dragon King of the East Sea, in his anger, no longer talked about saving the dragon clan. Instead, he insisted on destroying all the people of Chentang Pass. Not to mention that he had previously colluded with Shen Gongbao to steal the Spirit Bead, trying to send his son to the immortal world.
This is like in ancient times, when resisting an enemy invasion—at the critical moment, you led your army to surrender, then turned around and stabbed the still-resisting troops in the back, claiming that it was "to save everyone's lives."
Elder brother, your country has already fallen. Do you still expect others to respect you? To put it bluntly, your treatment isn't even as good as Wu Sangui (a general who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and was granted the title of "Prince of Pingxi")—at least Wu Sangui still had freedom.
To put it plainly, the dragon clan was at the peak of its combat power when the Dragon King of the East Sea surrendered. After that, they became self-castrated and suppressed, with no chance of ever rising again. And the only way he could think of to rise was to raise a descendant to take the "imperial examination" (the Ascension Assessment). If by some chance he passed the exam and became a high-ranking official, maybe he could plead with the Heavenly Emperor to grant the dragon clan a reward?
IX.
In fact, even so, the Dragon King of the West Sea did not lose hope in her elder brother at the beginning—she even supported his plan to steal the Spirit Bead. Otherwise, she would not have given him the hardest piece of dragon scale from her thigh.
Even after the plan was exposed, Ao Run still tried to figure out a solution and wanted to discuss cooperation with her elder brother:
“Are you interested in making a deal, elder brother?”
All she wanted was to loosen the chains around her neck, lower the temperature of the lava, and make herself a little more comfortable in this hopeless Underwater Purgatory.
In reality, this plan, when put nicely, was the Dragon King of the East Sea working for the benefit of the entire dragon clan. But when put bluntly, it was entirely for his own selfish desires—for his son's future—and he dragged the entire dragon clan into it. The Primordial Heavenly Lord had clearly stated that the Spirit Bead was to be reincarnated into Ne Zha, yet he insisted on colluding with a traitor from the Chan Cult to steal it.
To put it plainly: even if Ao Bing (who is a dragon) became an immortal, can he guarantee that no one would find out his true identity years later?
If he had to hide his identity forever, he would never be able to fight for power for the dragon clan. As soon as he mentioned the clan, his identity would be exposed. And if he never mentioned it, what practical help would his status as an immortal bring to the entire dragon clan?
Not to mention, for Ao Bing to become an immortal, the first step was to kill Li Jing and his wife, along with Taiyi Zhenren and Ne Zha. Taiyi Zhenren was the Primordial Heavenly Lord's most favored disciple—do you really think the Heavenly Lord would let this go if Taiyi was killed in Chentang Pass?
Moreover, if the plan went wrong, he would take even greater risks to slaughter all those who knew the truth—namely, the people of Chentang Pass:
“My son Ao Bing… the dragon clan’s thousand-year wait for a chance… I will make Chentang Pass pay with blood for this debt!”
He stole the Spirit Bead that was meant for Li Jing’s son, tried to kill Li Jing’s entire family, and after his plan failed, even wanted to massacre all of Chentang Pass. Is this something a normal dragon would do?
X.
Thus, we can see that for all the Dragon King of the East Sea did, his siblings looked down on him. For a thousand years, they never forgave him, and in the end, they even turned their backs on him.
In fact, it can hardly be called “betrayal.” The Dragon King of the East Sea surrendered a thousand years ago; the Dragon King of the West Sea simply finally came to his senses after enduring so long in purgatory:
“I was young and ignorant before. It took a thousand years in this prison to make me understand—who makes the rules of this world!”
Not only did his siblings fail to understand him, but even his son Ao Bing did not. Ao Bing refused to do as his father asked; instead, he stepped forward at the last minute to save Ne Zha.
Even when he finally fell out with Immortal Lord Wuliang, and entered the Heavenly Yuan Cauldron, the Dragon King of the East Sea never thought to first release the other three Dragon Kings so they could unite against their common enemy. He was even afraid that they would oppose his rule if set free. I even wonder: since the chains of the other three Dragon Kings were already broken, why did they still wait for their elder brother in purgatory?
Presumably, they wanted to give him one last chance—to see if he had the ambition to resist the Jade Void Palace.
After all, the dragon clan could once stand against heaven itself. Now, all they had to face was the Jade Void Palace—they were far from powerless to fight. Not to mention, after finally winning the battle with great difficulty, the Dragon King of the East Sea took the rest of his subordinates and hid away.
Therefore, among the three father-son pairs, the Dragon King of the East Sea is the worst. Every time, he claims he had no choice but to act this way “for the sake of the entire dragon clan.” But in the end, he always prioritized his own interests. It is like the time when evil spirits invaded: the soldiers under him all said they feared no death and were ready to fight to the end. But as their leader, he worried only about the child in his arms, so he decided to surrender—and even suppressed the brothers who refused to surrender and wanted to keep fighting.
Yet he completely ignored the fact that all the dragon eggs of the clan were destroyed by the very enemies he voluntarily knelt before.
Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, was a failure as an elder brother, and equally a failure as a father. Compared to Li Jing, he has nothing but a handsome appearance—one that can hardly hide the evil in his heart.
