Lover vs Hero

QK, friend of RZ, showed bafflement last night during a dinner gathering, for the distress induced in the audience of a drama when the main character died. This dude (main character, not QK) was, to start with, the leader of a well-known sect, possesses great martial arts skills and of a generous, bold, unconstrained nature. Then it was found out that he was of a different ethnicity, and was born of the country, Liao, with which the Song Dynasty was having war. On top of that some other guy framed him of murdering a whole bunch of people. And to find that guy he killed his girlfriend by mistake. Facing utter rejection and ill-will, he returned to the country he originated from and got an important official position. In the final scene, where the Liao army was marching out of one of those desolate checkpoints at the Liao-Song borderline to invade Song, this guy put himself between the two opposing armies and, with his amazing skills, forced a pledge, from the Liao commander, of no invasion for fifty years. Thereafter, having acted against the favour of his homeland, he compromised by plunging the two pieces of a broken arrow into his heart.

That's a tragic hero if there ever was one. And my heart goes out to him. (I used to fear death more than anything else, and thought there can always be better ways than to die. For some reason I overcame these reservations.) QK asked if I would cry for him. I was extremely sleepy then from dinner and habitual early nights, while at ten o'clock we were still wandering along the Singapore River amidst huge crowds of a pre-National Day bustle. So I simply said "yes". He asked, "But why would you cry over him than over, say Romeo and Juliet?" On the other hand, QK's issue is about the propriety to mourn over the death a hero over the death of a lover. "Would people cry over the death of Romeo rather than the death of Genghis Khan?" he asked. Personally I thought R&J are really bad examples for being lovers for they're really kids (though it is common for Chinese martial art stories to have really young main characters). And Ghengis Khan died of old age. There's a difference between drama heroes and important people. I wonder how come QK didn't see this simple sentiment. He is really quite out of the world - that's another virgo.