Lü Bu

Lu Bu, Ding Yuan's adopted son and lieutenant; corrupted by Li Su with the warhorse Red Hare, gold and pearls. Murders Ding Yuan in his tent, presents the head to Dong Zhuo, and is taken as Dong Zhuo's new adopted son - the betrayal that defines his arc.

Dong Zhuo's shadow: strikes down the assassin Wu Fu on the palace steps, and his presence at the couch keeps Cao Cao's sword sheathed. Sent to pick out a horse as a gift, his brief absence gives Cao Cao his moment - and his return ends it. He is also first to voice the suspicion that the 'gift' was an assassination attempt.

Lu Bu in his coming-out chapter; cleaves through the coalition's named champions before being held in check by all three of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei together. Withdraws to Hulao Pass under his lord's umbrella, dropping Mu Shun and Wu Anguo and shattering Fang Yue along the way.

Sent to rifle the tombs of emperors and consorts for their jewels, then commands the rearguard at Yingyang, trading blows with Xiahou Dun until Li Ru and Guo Si's flanking columns crush Cao Cao's pursuit.

Lu Bu; first promised Diao Chan as wife by Wang Yun, then enraged when Dong Zhuo takes her. Steals into the Phoenix Pavilion to meet her in secret; Dong Zhuo catches them, hurls his halberd, and Lu Bu flees - falling at the gate into Li Ru. The lovers' set piece.

Won over by Wang Yun's needling - 'your name is Lü Bu; his is Dong Zhuo' - he swears by his own blood, spears his 'father' through the throat at the palace gate, then takes Diao Chan at Meiwo and exterminates the Dong clan. He executes Li Su for losing to Niu Fu and Hu Chier for treachery, is baited ragged by Li Jue and Guo Si's alternating attacks, and when the capital's gates are opened from within, flees to Yuan Shu - abandoning his family to the flames.

The refuge odyssey: refused by Yuan Shu, nearly executed by Yuan Shao after beating Zhang Yan, sheltered by Zhang Yang, hunted by Li Jue and Guo Si, he lands with Zhang Miao just as Chen Gong proposes seizing Yanzhou. He takes the province and Puyang, twice waves off Chen Gong's advice - no Taishan ambush, no strike on the road-weary enemy - yet routs Cao Cao in the field behind his eight generals, springs the counter-trap on the night raid, and ends the chapter closing in on the exhausted Cao Cao himself.

Springs Chen Gong's Tian-family letter trap and nearly kills Cao Cao in burning Puyang - even tapping the masked fugitive's helmet to ask where Cao Cao is. Then the tables turn: he charges into the fake-funeral ambush at the Maling Hills, ignores Chen Gong before Puyang and is mobbed by six generals, is locked out of the city by the turncoat Tians, and at Dingtao loses two-thirds of his army to the embankment ambush - yet rallies his generals and turns back, 'still enough to break Cao Cao'.

Chased from Dingtao, he takes Chen Gong's advice and throws himself on Liu Bei's hospitality at Xuzhou - and nearly accepts the proffered seal until he catches Guan Yu and Zhang Fei glaring. His 'good younger brother' familiarity ignites Zhang Fei's three-hundred-bout challenge, and he removes to Xiaopei as Liu Bei's uneasy guest.

Shown Cao Cao's secret kill-order by Liu Bei himself, he weeps at the 'miscreant's scheme for sowing discord'. But when Cao Bao's letter arrives - Liu Bei away, Zhang Fei drunk - he takes Xuzhou by a midnight ruse at the gates, then posts guards so no one disturbs Liu Bei's abandoned family.

Baited by Yuan Shu's promised grain, gold, and horses into sending Gao Shun against Xiaopei - then stiffed on the reward and minded to turn his army on Yuan Shu instead. Chen Gong redirects him: recall Liu Bei as a wing. He restores Liu Bei's family untouched, even offers to return Xuzhou itself, and settles into an uneasy peace of exchanged presents.

The archery-feast chapter: he seats Ji Ling and Liu Bei at one table and stakes peace on hitting the halberd's side-blade at a hundred and fifty paces - and does. Then the marriage snare: he accepts Yuan Shu's alliance for his one daughter, sends the wedding party out to music, and recalls it at old Chen Gui's warning. Goaded over Zhang Fei's horse-theft he besieges Xiaopei, lets Liu Bei slip away north, and takes the falcon flattery whole: 'yes, he understands me!'

Target of the seven-army invasion. He nearly beheads the two Chens on Chen Gong's accusation, spares them for Chen Deng's plan, and reaps it whole: Han Xian and Yang Feng turn their coats, the night flare breaks Zhang Xun, and Yuan Shu himself - all imperial pomp and silver mail - is routed after Lü Bu's third-bout maiming of Li Deng. Cao Cao names him General of the Left Army.

His hunting party's catch - Liu Bei's intercepted reply to Cao Cao - exposes the plot against him. He executes the courier and strikes four ways at once: the Taishan bandits toward Yanzhou, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao at Xiaopei, Song Xian and Wei Xu west, himself in reserve - arriving before Xiaopei just as Gao Shun beats the vanguard.

The end: gulled out of Xuzhou by Chen Deng's triple-cross - fighting Chen Gong's own troops in the dark - he holes up in Xiapi, twice shelves Chen Gong's ox-horn plan for the tears of Lady Yan and Diao Chan, and drinks while the rivers Yi and Si rise around the walls. Hou Cheng steals Red Hare; Song Xian and Wei Xu bind him in his sleep and drop his halberd from the wall. At the White Gate Tower he pleads for life until Liu Bei's quiet 'remember Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo' - and is strangled and beheaded.

Dead offstage: his family is packed off to the capital as the victors leave Xuzhou.

Remembered as the late master of Song Xian and Wei Xu - the 'famous veteran generals' Cao Cao throws at Yan Liang, to their deaths.

First entry in Cai Mao's indictment of Liu Bei's career - 'first followed Lu Bu, then he served Cao Cao, and next he joined himself to Yuan Shao'.

First name on Wang Can's list of Cao Cao's destroyed enemies - 'he took Lü Bu at Xiapi.'

First name in Sun Quan's private inventory of Cao Cao's enemies - all gone now but Liu Bei 'and my poor self.'

Second trophy in the spear's resume - 'this is the spear that broke up the Yellow Scarves, captured Lü Bu...'

Listed in the apologia's roll of the destroyed - 'broke the power of Lü Bu.'