LogFAQs > #983722161

Isn't Cao Cao way more revered outside of RotK? I mean he was not only a charismatic and liked leader of what was very clearly the largest leading faction, he was also a scholar. There are a lot of pretty famous historical books that specifically go out of their way to include Cao Cao's commentary in them, namely The Art of War. His poems were also quite well known and preserved throughout the years. In terms of war, he wasn't quite up to Zhuge Liang in terms of tactics, but in general, he's almost never lost, and his underlings were arguably loyal on the level of Zhang Fei or Guan Yu to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei on the other hand, he was the likeable underdog with great people skills, but he was just about mediocre at everything else. If he didn't have his lineage, he probably wouldn't have gotten as much attention as he ended up getting.