I think the writing is fine. I want to see more of our MCs getting put in situations where we see their weaknesses. It’s just more entertaining for me.
MCs being put in bad spots isn't the issue for me.
The issue is those bad spots being contrived through questionable writing.
A Kou thinking he could reverse a scenario on Ri Boku was questionable. He should have known Ou Sen wouldn't want anyone attacking Ri Boku without his supervision. Still, you can set that aside fairly easily.
Exposing his back in a panic and hurry like that just because SBS's army made
contact with Ou Sen's army is where the writing needs to justify where it wants to go. For me, it hasn't done enough.
At Shukai, Akou was near death so it’s natural we wouldn’t see his reaction. And Ousen may have been in danger, but Sou Ou/Denrimi/Shiryou knew the best way to help Ousen was to defeat Riboku, so they never went back to help him.
All of Ou Sen's generals are wanting/trying to come to his aid when he has 50K vs 30K and the engagement has just started.
It's not Ou Sen's HQ under attack. It's not his personal unit under attack. It's not even a case of his army crumbling.
Regardless of Seika's intimidation factor, these are not young men. These are not newly minted generals. These are the chosen vassals of Ou Sen, and they can't seem to hold their cool right now despite the fact they did exactly that at Shukai.
This isn't an issue of creatives choices I don't like. This is about the way those choices executed in the story and I think the way it's been done is wanting.
But here there is no win-condition. Either Ousen dies and the Qin lose the battle, or Shibashou dies and the Zhao don’t lose the battle. There is no benefit to leaving Ousen alone to fight Lord Sheeb, while there was benefit to leaving Ousen at Shukai. So that’s why we’re seeing Akou charge back to help like this. Plus Akou just doesn’t want to lose the ‘greatest man in China’ lol.
We are nowhere near this being the case. SBS came in with a lot of momentum, but now his men are dying all around him, and he has fewer of them.
It's crazy to me people think Ou Sen is such danger based on what has happened so far.
But nah, we saw Kanki’s weakness at Gian, maybe we’ll see Ousen’s weakness at Hango? It would really be some shit if Ousen just up and abandoned the rest of the Qin army by retreating himself, could explain why the Qin will have such enormous casualties this war, because Ousen selfishly retreats and leaves Yotanwa to get hit directly by Shibashou. That would be some shit lol, and would really stress that Ousen is still someone Qin can’t fully trust, since that plot line has yet to be really expanded since the entire Zhao campaign began.
I think Ou Sen's weakness is an intangible thing. It's not like a lack of strategic knowledge with Kan Ki (which imo is one of the worst choices by Hara), it'll be something related to his what Ri Boku claimed made him unable to create a kingdom.
imo, it should've been YTW vs Shi Ba Shou from the beginning. We could've gotten a lot of hype feats for all the Seika generals and there would've been plenty of named characters to kill off.
I don't know if Ou Sen will retreat, but I definitely think it would be an interesting writing choice. Even if Sei was furious over it or mistrusted him more after, they can't afford not to use Ou Sen, so aside from some friction, I don't think there'd be any negative repercussions for Ou Sen.