This isn't the end of the Kingdom of Shu, but we can see it from here. Wei's forces have kicked down the door, and Emperor Shan twittles his thumbs even as the blade nears his neck. Jiang Wei remains incapable of winning a meaningful victory, and Wu's forces clearly won't arrive in time to save their allies. Next week, the last episode of Three Kingdoms. It all comes down to this.

If you want to contact us on Twitter, Em is at @em_being, Jackson is at @headfallsoff, Jen is at @jbu3, and Six is at @sixdettmar. Our art is made by @saltysprout! The intro music for this episode is the Paragon Found from the Total War: Three Kingdoms DLC A World Betrayed, and our outtro music is The Bringer of War from Dynasty Warriors 5. The Kingdom News bumper is from Strong Bad Email #89.

The end of the podcast is RAPIDLY APPROACHING! Please send your emails to [email protected] !