#da fei

Our tale starts off way back in a chicken farm, where in the timeline POV, we meet Dai Bo, Xiao Fei and Da Fei at their earliest. And it’s not a great envirronement.

The place is quite litteraly a prison. This is a farm, you know how it works. It’s a dead end, you are born, raised and eaten. BUT, Da Fei still wants a way out, not for himself, but for his son’s, Xiao Fei’s sake.

At last in the english dub, Da Fei explains that Xiao Fei’s mother was eaten, one of his loved ones was already taken away, but he perseveres for the sake of his son. And what does he plan to do? Become a fighting chicken, so his family will be bred to become fighting chickens as well, and so not be eaten. But to do that, he needs to win at cock fighting.

Da Fei maybe the first instance timeline wise of someone willing to risk their life for the sake of someone they hold dear. A father protecting his son.

Dai Bo himself tells him it’s madness, that a chicken can’t even hope to beat King Pheasant, but still, Da Fei enrolls himself in the cock fighting, and trains day after day. And he drops a line that clearly stays with Dai Bo:

“How will I ever know if I don’t try?”

This exact quote is used again by Seven later, but I’ll come back to that later in a later post, probably. If I don’t forget about it.

The fight ensues, Da Fei surprsingly holds his ground after a rough start and manages to put King Pheasant, who was seen to be an unbeatable enemy, on the ropes.

But again, we know what happens. King Pheasant uses the DX enhancer, drugging himself and overpowers Da Fei. When there is a hope spot, that the time has ran out and that Da Fei won by surviving 15 minutes, they are brought back to reality:

That the fight will not end, because people, humans, only want the blood of the chickens for the kicks. This world is cruel and unfair, and because of that, Da Fei is beaten to death.

In an attempt to protect what he loves, he lost his life. However, it is NOT a senseless sacrifice. It moves Dai Bo, swearing to pick up the mantle of his fallen comrade.

In that moment, Dai Bo accepted the cruelty of this world, that you do not get by through fair means, and that to succeed, you need to be cunning and even cheat. And he will do it himself for the sake of what Da Fei failed to protect, Xiao Fei.

He enrolls in the cock fighting, he fights, and steals the enhancer through trickery and provocation, something “unsportsman like”, but he couldn’t give less of a shit. The world doesn’t play fair, why should he?

When he takes the drug, he passes out, but powers through it after he listens to Da Fei say to him in his head:

“Protect Xiao Fei.”

And Dai Bo powers through adversity to do just that.

We saw multiple times characters breaking the rules, common sense and status quo to keep what they love safe and this is but one event in this big web. Dai Bo does the impossible, defeating his unbeatable opponent.

But, it’s but a means to an end, what will really change things will not to kill King Pheasant, but the man behind the cock fighting, so he lunges at him, take him hostage and make him release the chickens.

It’s what happens afterwards that matters most.

He has his claws on the man’s throat, he can kill the man responsible for all his pain and suffering right then and there, avenging Da Fei and countless other chickens.

But Xiao Fei, a child, the one he did the impossible for, is watching. Eyes clearly pleading for him not to do it.

Dai Bo hears the words of his friend once again, “Protect Xiao Fei.”

And so, he spares the ring leader, not without a nasty hit, and walks to Xiao Fei declaring he cannot scar the kid like this, and that the world is still a wonderful place. In complete contradiction to what he said earlier, that the world is unfair and cruel.

But he would protect Xiao Fei from this cruel world, instead of making him see death and suffering, he would guide him to a peaceful home and live happy, thus they go to Chicken Island. Protecting doesn’t just mean protecting from physical harm, but mental too.

But not before Xiao Fei himself does some saving of his own, doing the impossible for a chicken, flying, to carry Dai Bo to safety.

And they arrive on chicken island, and right off the bat, we get the final member of out beloved chicken trio.

Seven, lying half dead on the beach.

At this point, Dai Bo hates humans, and rightfully so. So he walks away, not getting involved in their business, and refusing to help a despicable human being. He wants nothing to do with them.

But Xiao Fei insists on helping, doing what I can only describe as the chicken version of CPR on Seven.

Xiao Fei doesn’t exactly speak, so it’s quite hard to know what he’s thinking, but he’s a child, and good natured. Unlike Dai Bo, who hates humans and think the world is horrible, Xiao Fei is innocent, and from the fact that he did not want Dai Bo to murder a human, probably does not share the belief that all humans are iredeemable pieces of shit that deserves to die. For Xiao Fei, maybe, this is just someone who needs help, so why refuse?

Dai Bo can’t refuse the little guy, so he sighs, calls it a pain, and drag Seven out of the water, and to everyone’s surprise, Seven still lives! And The episode ends with them dragging him to the doctor. The rest is history.

A conclusion for now; Protecting means breaking expectations, the rules, the ethics and beliefs. To truly protect someone or something, you must be willing to put everything at stake for it. Just like Da Fei, then followed by Dai Bo. A pattern I’m sure you recognize in even more characters.