Okay, so...<br/><br/>I just finished the first volume of Outlaws of the Marsh (three to go!) and there are two things that jump out of this novel.  First, the casual misogyny...  And second, the relaxed attitude to actual, y'know, criminal actions.  As in, "murder is no big deal, you didn't mean it, and besides you're my kind of stand-up guy.  Here's my cousin in Big City.  Go ask him for a job while I make things right with the authorities.  Good luck, amigo."<br/><br/>The heroes and the villains aren't so separate, and the goodness of an action seems to depend on who's doing it.  I suspect that this is supposed to be linked to the essential wrongness of the current regime, which has a selfish thug at the top (Gao Qiu) and is thus suspect, but a lot of the legalities being ignored are pretty normal...<br/><br/>(Case in point.  One character, who is praised for his virtue and generosity, ends up murdering his girlfriend when she tries to blackmail him over a gift he got from some local bandits because he did them a good deed...a gift he refused.  Incidental to this, he'd been ignoring her so she was cheating on him, so it wasn't anything like a happy relationship.  And he's still praised for being a pillar of virtue after coldbloodedly killing the girl...)<br/><br/>Anyway, this is where Wu gets his somewhat relaxed attitude toward these bandits.