Lately, I've started wondering if Niao Sun might have just become an amalgamation of the other unannounced leaders rolled into one character. Niao Sunās original character description from the 90s reads:
"Wearing a voluptuous red dress, her manner seduces and distracts. Her fearsome eyes pierce everything and are constantly on the hunt for their next prey. She takes pleasure in cruelty and eliminates people like bugs".
However, in Shenmue 3ās character descriptions, her profile has been altered:
"One of the leaders of the shadowy Chi You Men criminal organization. Belying her captivating beauty, she is an expert martial arts practitioner. However, her greatest talent is said to lie in the area of plotting and strategy, and she makes use of her cunning wits to play dirty tricks. 'Niao Sun' is merely her nickname inside the organization, a reference to one of the Four Heavenly Beasts - the Vermilion Bird. However, regarding such details as her real name, background, and why she joined the Chi You Men, nothing at all is known".
Niao Sun is now defined not by her sexiness but by being a master strategist. We see this in Shenmue 3 when she outwits Ryo and Shenhua to obtain the Phoenix Mirror and poses as an ally before trying to assassinate Lan Di to secure total control of the Chi You Men. From interviews with Suzuki-san in the early days of Shenmue 3ās development, we know that strategy and manipulation had been qualities previously reserved for one of the other yet unannounced leaders who was going to appear in Shenmue 3 as one of the four big bosses.
āYS: There will be many new characters. There are the four main bosses. There will be Lan Di from the previous games, and two more fighters. One of those is an extremely beautiful and sexy, but cruel woman. I briefly introduced her image in Shenmue II, but in Shenmue III she will have a proper and extensive role. The last one, on the other hand, is strategist using more cunning than head-on fighting.ā (Source:
https://www.dualshockers.com/shenmu...tech-romance-ps4-pc-frame-rate-and-much-more/)
Yet, here is Niao Sun now exhibiting these same traits which should be exclusive to the other unannounced leader.
We know that Suzuki-san spent some time around 2015 figuring out the Chi You Men leader arrangement for Shenmue 3 so he could feature āfour big bossesā (see the below images which were drawn-up in 2015).
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This is what I think must have happened: much like Baisha, I wonder if during this same time Suzuki-san found the other leaders (who he hadnāt revisited since penning his VFRPG scripts in the 90s) to be a bit underwhelming or uninteresting for whatever reason, hence they did not appear in the finished product. Given that they were not considered important or intriguing enough to be revealed alongside Niao Sun as far back as promotion for the first two Shenmue games, them being underwhelming would honestly not surprise me if it turns out to be true.
Shenmue 3 is written in such a way to suggest these other Chi You Men leaders are non-existent to the organisation which is weird considering we infiltrate their stronghold which would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce everyone as a set-up for Shenmue 4. For example, it is a bit telling that at Niaowu Castle, Niao Sun says āThe Chi You Men belong to me now!ā when she thinks sheās finally killed Lan Di ā not really something a mere subservient member of a four-person group who all answer to a bigger overlord would say unless thereās now, in fact, no-one else around to challenge her.
So, rather than make Niao Sun just a walking pair of evil boobs based on her 90s profile, Suzuki-san did the same thing he has been doing when repurposing elements from his 11 chapter concept: he took bits and pieces which would have been reserved for the other villains he drafted in the 90s for VFRPG and gave them to Niao Sun to make her that more interesting. Now, Niao Sun is not only evil, and sexy, but also a master strategist who uses strategy and illusion to get what she wants. If this theory of mine is true, Suzuki-san just made her even more interesting by giving her more characterisation which would have otherwise been reserved to split between the two other unannounced leaders.
Honestly, I could be completely wrong about all of this, and the other leaders are probably still planned to be revealed at the Emperorās Cliff Temple in Shenmue 4. I just find it weird that one big focus for Shenmue 3 dating back to 2015 was a big fight with all four bosses that would comprise the Chi You Men. Suddenly, this idea gets quietly scrapped alongside Baisha, and then when Niao Sun is finally unveiled, she's exhibiting some traits which would have been personified by a different leader.
If the Four Leaders being cut is true, I can see how this reduced villain composition might inevitably anger people considering that this is a fandom that triggered itself enough over the EGS fiasco to lovingly send death threats to a 60-year old developer who was only trying to make a fucking computer game. But I donāt know man, if my suspicions are correct and the other leaders were felt to be rather uninteresting Iād rather have two villains who are a bit more multi-faceted than cramming in four bosses with Post-It notes stuck on their foreheads saying āStrategy bossā, āSexy bossā, āFighter bossā etc who you have to defeat at their own respective dungeon in order to advance
Legend of Zelda style. Its always been my feeling that Lan Di and Niao Sun would have been the more interesting members anyway, given how they both represent a Dragon and a Phoenix in their organisation which reiterates the same symbolism we keep seeing everywhere in this series of these two opposing mythical creatures.
