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	Jagra's Journey Jagra, a teenage boy at the start of the series, sets out to become a scholar, traveling to a distant monastery to study. Over the course of the seasons, he has many perllous adventures, makes friends in odd places, and becomes a skilled mah jong player. The series takes its time, spending three seasons on his side quest into professional and competitive mah jong. Season 1 - The Callow Youth 26 episodes. Jagra spends time with his friends and the important people of his rural village, examining their relationships and discussing his desire to become a scholar. He sets forth on his journey in the mid-season special, and is immediately swept away by a flash flood set off by a battle high in the mountains causing an avalanche. The rest of the season deals with Jagra recovering himself, what is left of his gear, and getting on with his journey, only to be picked up by soldiers in the final cliffhanger as there is an order for people who can read and write. Season 2 -- The Unwilling Scribe 32 episodes. The horrors of war unfold around Jagra, as he is required to document each battle, and help with cataloging scout reports and other intelligence that arrives. Jagra is the narrator in several episodes, rather than an onscreen character, providing commentary as the events of the story he is chronicling unfold. Each of these episodes has a final scene where Jagra discusses the story with the general who holds him captive. In the final episode cliiffhanger, the pack train is on its way through a mountain pass when a rockslide, started by the enemy, carries off several wagons, includiing the library wagon with Jagra aboard. Season 3 - The Herbalist's Apprentice 28 episodes. Jagra, having survived, awakens in a temple with a broken leg. The healer assures him that the break was clean, and it is set properly, but it will be many months before he will be able to travel again. For something to do, and because he can offer his skills in return for the care he has received, Jagra apprentices to the herbalist. The season focuses on his healing from the physical and emotional trauma of spending a year in war and nearly dying in the landslide. He develops a relationship with a novice monk, that ends tragically when the novice decides to take his final vows and leave for a distant monastery. The season ending cliffhanger has the body of the young monk brought back to the temple, having been found dead beside his donkey in the stable, his lips blue. Poison, says the herbalist. Season 4 - The Herbalist's Investigator 25 episodes. Jagra helps the herbalist solve the mystery of the poisoner, who had intended the poison for another target, and goes on to assist with several other investigations. He becomes involved with a guard officer, Kwan-Lun, from the city watch, meeting her initially in the poisoning investigation. In the cliffhanger, word arrives that the army of the general who held Jagra prisoner is on its way. Season 5 - The Approaching Army 30 episodes. Each episode documents one day in the preparation of the city for the approach of the army. Jagra and Kwan-Lun deal with panic buying in the marketplace, hoarding, misallocation of supplies, tensions breaking loose in many ways, and the constant flow of traffic out of the city. Half the time, the person they need has already left. The military bolsters their defenses as best they can, but reinforcements are still three days' march away when the general's army arrives. In the last episode, Kwan-Lun is cut down in street fighting, Jagra is taken prisoner, and the general walks in. Season 6 - The Enslaved Scribe 22 episodes. Jagra is put in chains and put back to work on the new library wagon, working to piece back together the battle chronicles that were salvaged from the wreckage of the previous wagon. Kwan-Lun recovers from her wound in the care of a temple healer who has many struggles keeping her hidden. In the final cliffhanger, Kwan-Lun enters the library wagon, breaks Jagra's chain, and they prepare to flee, when they are confronted by a senior officer. Season 7 - The Fugitive Scribe 28 episodes. Jagra and Kwan-Lun, having been allowed to slip past by the senior officer, try, several times, to find a place to rest, but are hunted by the general for the wealth of knowledge in Jagra's head. One of the innkeepers who hides them briefly teaches Jagra mah jong, which he takes to, playing it against the town guards among others. He trades their debt for their silence and assistance when he and Kwan-Lun have to flee again. In the final episode, Jagra plays a game against a senior official who has recognized him, and threatens to turn him in. Jagra wagers his freedom against his willingly telling the official what he knows of the general's tactics and plans. In the final cliffhanger, Jagra reaches for the tiie that will seal his fate. Season 8 - The Gambler 18 episodes. Having won his freedom on a single tile draw that determined the game, Jagra sets out once again in the direction of the monastery where he intends to one day study. He and Kwan-Lun pay for their lodgings with his mah jong winnings, as he gains skill. The episodes linger over the game play, leading viewers to complain the show had become a mah jong manga. Season 9 - The Crossing 23 episodes. Jagra, becoming known under his false identity as a gambler of some skill, and Kwan-Lun cross the battle lines, and make contact with officials from the opposing forces. They offer amnesty for Kwan-Lun and restoration of her office in return for the battle plans and other information that Jagra currently has, but that will split the two, as Jagra cannot go back to the city himself. In the final episode cliffhanger, Jagra must choose between making a fair play that will lose Kwan-Lun, or keeping Kwan-Lun with him by cheating and making a poor play. Season 10 - The Wild Player 24 episodes. The opening episode consists mostly of Jagra and Kwan-Lun saying their goodbyes, and recriminating over how things might have gone otherwise. Jagra moves on, under his gambler identity, and loses himself for a time in competitive play. He works his way through the mah jong world, getting further away from the war but also further off course for the monastery. In the last episode, he is offered a choice between cash winnings, or a rare book that is peculiarly within his wheelhouse, but only if he wins a single draw against the contest judge, to see if the spirits are willing to let him have the volume. He reaches for the tiles. Season 11 - The Scholar Reborn 22 episodes. Jagra drifts away from competitive mah jong as he works his way through the book, a teaching volume supposedly left by a bodhisattva. Many of the episodes focus on a single passage from the book, and a self contained story that illustrates the point of that episode's passage. Some viewers complained bitterly of the lack of action, while others called it a breath of fresh air. Season 12 - The Difficult Road 29 episodes. Jagra, his purpose once again clear, sets off for the monastery. After a few small adventures, he stumbles upon a patrol of the opposing general's forces, who recognize him and take him prisoner. He is treated well in his captivity, and escorted over several episodes to the capital of the opposing forces. There, he meets with the general, and there are several rounds of discussion between them as the general tries to convince Jagra to yield up his knowledge of the first general willingly. It's not even of that much value, this may years on. Jagra yields a bit here, a bit there, writing some, telling other parts, but watches as the situation shifts. The senior officer who let Jagra go took command some time ago. The war has long been at a stalemate, but now, with Jagra's information, and his insights into the new general's character, the opposition is making inroads and the war starts to heat back up. Jagra, regretfully, plays on the affections of one of the guards who escorted him to the city, and is smuggled out with a work battalion as one of their clerks. In the final cliffhanger, the opposing general, watching the departing battalionn through a spyglass, sees Jagra in the ranks. Season 13 - The Long Road 23 episodes. The general decides it's not worth chasing Jagra at this point. The series spends a few episodes on the work battalion, as they maintain and repair the road that they are traveling on. Jagra allows some distance to grow between himself and the city before he quietly slips away one night and resumts his journey. Going straight to the monastery is just not possible. It takes him across the war. He decides to circle around eastward, and try approaching the monastery from the other side. This begins the Travels section of the series, where each episode has Jagra encounter a situation on his journey that he is able to resolve by the end of the episode and travel onward. The cliffhanger at the end sees Jagra come face to face with the guard who helped him escape the city, now working as a mercenary in a foreign land. Season 14 - The Road Goes On 19 episodes. The former guard, Hwong, and Jagra begin a somewhat tempestuous relationship, as Jagra joins the caravan as their new accounting clerk in order to earn his passage. The caravan follows the road formula, with each episode having Hwong and Jagra resolve a transitory issue while working out yet another issue in their relationship. The viewers begin to complain of the formulaic writing. The final cliffhanger sees the caravan on a bridge that starts to wash out, and Hwong putting himself in considerable danger to rescue Jagra. A viewer vote was then started as to how the cliffhanger would resolve. Season 15 - The Road to Court 22 episodes. Hwong and Jagra survive, by a series of near miracles. Hwong has a religious awakening. He and Jagra leave the caravan, after helping salvage what could be saved from the bridge collapse, and start off northward, to follow Jagra's idea of circling around. They discover, though, that there is a high mountain range between them and the monastery, held by a kingdom neither of them know much about. The season focuses on the two traveling into the kingdom, learning its ways, and finally coming to the realization that they will have to gain some sort of official approval to use the kingdom's pass throught he mountains. Jagra sits for a clerical examination, to gain both an income and a degree of standing, with the final cliffhanger being the anouncement of the exam results. Season 16 - The Time At Court 24 episodes. Jagra, having passed the exam, takes a clerical position in the town. In the fourth episode, he's summoned to court as his performance has been noted. Jagra becomes embroiled in minor court intrigues, and wins through largely by making the most ethical choice available. He and Hwong become estranged, as Hwong has only been able to find work as a city watchman, while Jagra is at the king's court and behind a literal wall much of his time. A courtier, Tong-Li, makes a play for him, but Jagra is not interested in her, or in anyone really. He feels that he is losing focus, and in the final cliffhanger, has a slanging match with Hwong. Season 17 - The Envoy Projected 26 episodes. Jagra takes on a new status as a king's envoy, to get him through the pass. He and Hwong have a final, bitter meeting. Their relationship is over and they go their separate ways. Jagra travels through the pass, taking three episodes, and arrives at the kingdom on the far side. Multiple court intrigues are already running, and Jagra has landed in the middle of them. Considerable expository heavy lifting is done under the guise of a royal banquet to welcome the new envoy, which takes an entire episode. And this is where the series currently stands. Current fan arguments: Will Tong-Li turn back up, and if so, how much trouble is she going to cause? Will Hwong turn back up, and will Jagra have exchanged an old lover for a new enemy? Having accomplished himself in three kingdoms, albeit one by force, and one by the threat of force, and about to take on a fourth, will Jagra arrive at the monastery as a student or as a visiting scholar in hs own right?

Jagra's Journey

Jagra, a teenage boy at the start of the series, sets out to become a scholar, traveling to a distant monastery to study. Over the course of the seasons, he has many perllous adventures, makes friends in odd places, and becomes a skilled mah jong player. The series takes its time, spending three seasons on his side quest into professional and competitive mah jong.

Season 1 - The Callow Youth

26 episodes. Jagra spends time with his friends and the important people of his rural village, examining their relationships and discussing his desire to become a scholar. He sets forth on his journey in the mid-season special, and is immediately swept away by a flash flood set off by a battle high in the mountains causing an avalanche. The rest of the season deals with Jagra recovering himself, what is left of his gear, and getting on with his journey, only to be picked up by soldiers in the final cliffhanger as there is an order for people who can read and write.

Season 2 -- The Unwilling Scribe

32 episodes. The horrors of war unfold around Jagra, as he is required to document each battle, and help with cataloging scout reports and other intelligence that arrives. Jagra is the narrator in several episodes, rather than an onscreen character, providing commentary as the events of the story he is chronicling unfold. Each of these episodes has a final scene where Jagra discusses the story with the general who holds him captive. In the final episode cliiffhanger, the pack train is on its way through a mountain pass when a rockslide, started by the enemy, carries off several wagons, includiing the library wagon with Jagra aboard.

Season 3 - The Herbalist's Apprentice

28 episodes. Jagra, having survived, awakens in a temple with a broken leg. The healer assures him that the break was clean, and it is set properly, but it will be many months before he will be able to travel again. For something to do, and because he can offer his skills in return for the care he has received, Jagra apprentices to the herbalist. The season focuses on his healing from the physical and emotional trauma of spending a year in war and nearly dying in the landslide. He develops a relationship with a novice monk, that ends tragically when the novice decides to take his final vows and leave for a distant monastery. The season ending cliffhanger has the body of the young monk brought back to the temple, having been found dead beside his donkey in the stable, his lips blue. Poison, says the herbalist.

Season 4 - The Herbalist's Investigator

25 episodes. Jagra helps the herbalist solve the mystery of the poisoner, who had intended the poison for another target, and goes on to assist with several other investigations. He becomes involved with a guard officer, Kwan-Lun, from the city watch, meeting her initially in the poisoning investigation. In the cliffhanger, word arrives that the army of the general who held Jagra prisoner is on its way.

Season 5 - The Approaching Army

30 episodes. Each episode documents one day in the preparation of the city for the approach of the army. Jagra and Kwan-Lun deal with panic buying in the marketplace, hoarding, misallocation of supplies, tensions breaking loose in many ways, and the constant flow of traffic out of the city. Half the time, the person they need has already left. The military bolsters their defenses as best they can, but reinforcements are still three days' march away when the general's army arrives. In the last episode, Kwan-Lun is cut down in street fighting, Jagra is taken prisoner, and the general walks in.

Season 6 - The Enslaved Scribe

22 episodes. Jagra is put in chains and put back to work on the new library wagon, working to piece back together the battle chronicles that were salvaged from the wreckage of the previous wagon. Kwan-Lun recovers from her wound in the care of a temple healer who has many struggles keeping her hidden. In the final cliffhanger, Kwan-Lun enters the library wagon, breaks Jagra's chain, and they prepare to flee, when they are confronted by a senior officer.

Season 7 - The Fugitive Scribe

28 episodes. Jagra and Kwan-Lun, having been allowed to slip past by the senior officer, try, several times, to find a place to rest, but are hunted by the general for the wealth of knowledge in Jagra's head. One of the innkeepers who hides them briefly teaches Jagra mah jong, which he takes to, playing it against the town guards among others. He trades their debt for their silence and assistance when he and Kwan-Lun have to flee again. In the final episode, Jagra plays a game against a senior official who has recognized him, and threatens to turn him in. Jagra wagers his freedom against his willingly telling the official what he knows of the general's tactics and plans. In the final cliffhanger, Jagra reaches for the tiie that will seal his fate.

Season 8 - The Gambler

18 episodes. Having won his freedom on a single tile draw that determined the game, Jagra sets out once again in the direction of the monastery where he intends to one day study. He and Kwan-Lun pay for their lodgings with his mah jong winnings, as he gains skill. The episodes linger over the game play, leading viewers to complain the show had become a mah jong manga.

Season 9 - The Crossing

23 episodes. Jagra, becoming known under his false identity as a gambler of some skill, and Kwan-Lun cross the battle lines, and make contact with officials from the opposing forces. They offer amnesty for Kwan-Lun and restoration of her office in return for the battle plans and other information that Jagra currently has, but that will split the two, as Jagra cannot go back to the city himself. In the final episode cliffhanger, Jagra must choose between making a fair play that will lose Kwan-Lun, or keeping Kwan-Lun with him by cheating and making a poor play.

Season 10 - The Wild Player

24 episodes. The opening episode consists mostly of Jagra and Kwan-Lun saying their goodbyes, and recriminating over how things might have gone otherwise. Jagra moves on, under his gambler identity, and loses himself for a time in competitive play. He works his way through the mah jong world, getting further away from the war but also further off course for the monastery. In the last episode, he is offered a choice between cash winnings, or a rare book that is peculiarly within his wheelhouse, but only if he wins a single draw against the contest judge, to see if the spirits are willing to let him have the volume. He reaches for the tiles.

Season 11 - The Scholar Reborn

22 episodes. Jagra drifts away from competitive mah jong as he works his way through the book, a teaching volume supposedly left by a bodhisattva. Many of the episodes focus on a single passage from the book, and a self contained story that illustrates the point of that episode's passage. Some viewers complained bitterly of the lack of action, while others called it a breath of fresh air.

Season 12 - The Difficult Road

29 episodes. Jagra, his purpose once again clear, sets off for the monastery. After a few small adventures, he stumbles upon a patrol of the opposing general's forces, who recognize him and take him prisoner. He is treated well in his captivity, and escorted over several episodes to the capital of the opposing forces. There, he meets with the general, and there are several rounds of discussion between them as the general tries to convince Jagra to yield up his knowledge of the first general willingly. It's not even of that much value, this may years on. Jagra yields a bit here, a bit there, writing some, telling other parts, but watches as the situation shifts. The senior officer who let Jagra go took command some time ago. The war has long been at a stalemate, but now, with Jagra's information, and his insights into the new general's character, the opposition is making inroads and the war starts to heat back up. Jagra, regretfully, plays on the affections of one of the guards who escorted him to the city, and is smuggled out with a work battalion as one of their clerks. In the final cliffhanger, the opposing general, watching the departing battalionn through a spyglass, sees Jagra in the ranks.

Season 13 - The Long Road

23 episodes. The general decides it's not worth chasing Jagra at this point. The series spends a few episodes on the work battalion, as they maintain and repair the road that they are traveling on. Jagra allows some distance to grow between himself and the city before he quietly slips away one night and resumts his journey. Going straight to the monastery is just not possible. It takes him across the war. He decides to circle around eastward, and try approaching the monastery from the other side. This begins the Travels section of the series, where each episode has Jagra encounter a situation on his journey that he is able to resolve by the end of the episode and travel onward. The cliffhanger at the end sees Jagra come face to face with the guard who helped him escape the city, now working as a mercenary in a foreign land.

Season 14 - The Road Goes On

19 episodes. The former guard, Hwong, and Jagra begin a somewhat tempestuous relationship, as Jagra joins the caravan as their new accounting clerk in order to earn his passage. The caravan follows the road formula, with each episode having Hwong and Jagra resolve a transitory issue while working out yet another issue in their relationship. The viewers begin to complain of the formulaic writing. The final cliffhanger sees the caravan on a bridge that starts to wash out, and Hwong putting himself in considerable danger to rescue Jagra. A viewer vote was then started as to how the cliffhanger would resolve.

Season 15 - The Road to Court

22 episodes. Hwong and Jagra survive, by a series of near miracles. Hwong has a religious awakening. He and Jagra leave the caravan, after helping salvage what could be saved from the bridge collapse, and start off northward, to follow Jagra's idea of circling around. They discover, though, that there is a high mountain range between them and the monastery, held by a kingdom neither of them know much about. The season focuses on the two traveling into the kingdom, learning its ways, and finally coming to the realization that they will have to gain some sort of official approval to use the kingdom's pass throught he mountains. Jagra sits for a clerical examination, to gain both an income and a degree of standing, with the final cliffhanger being the anouncement of the exam results.

Season 16 - The Time At Court

24 episodes. Jagra, having passed the exam, takes a clerical position in the town. In the fourth episode, he's summoned to court as his performance has been noted. Jagra becomes embroiled in minor court intrigues, and wins through largely by making the most ethical choice available. He and Hwong become estranged, as Hwong has only been able to find work as a city watchman, while Jagra is at the king's court and behind a literal wall much of his time. A courtier, Tong-Li, makes a play for him, but Jagra is not interested in her, or in anyone really. He feels that he is losing focus, and in the final cliffhanger, has a slanging match with Hwong.

Season 17 - The Envoy

Projected 26 episodes. Jagra takes on a new status as a king's envoy, to get him through the pass. He and Hwong have a final, bitter meeting. Their relationship is over and they go their separate ways. Jagra travels through the pass, taking three episodes, and arrives at the kingdom on the far side. Multiple court intrigues are already running, and Jagra has landed in the middle of them. Considerable expository heavy lifting is done under the guise of a royal banquet to welcome the new envoy, which takes an entire episode.

And this is where the series currently stands.

Current fan arguments:

Will Tong-Li turn back up, and if so, how much trouble is she going to cause?
Will Hwong turn back up, and will Jagra have exchanged an old lover for a new enemy?
Having accomplished himself in three kingdoms, albeit one by force, and one by the threat of force, and about to take on a fourth, will Jagra arrive at the monastery as a student or as a visiting scholar in hs own right?