Though we are not brothers sworn by oath

Our meeting must be as fate ordained!

Brave and loyal to the Han you remain Spirit alike to the Peach Garden's names!

A lone rider of one spear-breaking shields With Valor, that sends all foes to yield!

Stained is that white gown with deep scarlet At Dangyang your glory shines starlit

Ziling, Ziling, rivalled by none! Legend of the Five Tiger Generals!

The 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series Zhao Yun song at Changban. Translation by the 94 translation project. The First Dynasty Warriors game was released in 1997 and their first one of of hack and slash genre was in 2000.

I can't point to really modern Asia and how much Dynasty Warriors has added to it but I believe I can provide a few things to help including that it existed before. Sorry for the wait

History and novel significance

I think one part of the puzzlement you might be feeling is your sense of Zhao Yun as a fairly minor character is perhaps not the same as others have of him.

In history, the idea of his being unimportant or minor is one I have seen regularly. He doesn't have the major errors or the personality flaws of many of the other figures but his sometimes quiet-seeming career and lesser ranks than some prominent other generals of Shu-Han go against him. It can also be connected to pushing back against the glorification of certain Shu-Han figures and without the character flaws or disasters, Zhao Yun's weakness is that his career shines less. I wish to try and give Zhao Yun's career another look.

Zhao Yun does have a somewhat small main biography but this perhaps reflects the poor quality of Shu-Han's record-keeping, particularly for anything pre-establishing an independent base in Jing. It is true that, in comparison to Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang, he wasn't a figure in Liu Bei's camp that drew a lot of attention from others in the records but he also got unusual levels of honour in Shu-Han.

Zhao Yun was an old friend of Liu Bei and a cavalry officer who would become the general at some point in Jing. He was the man who rescued the future Emperor Liu Shan from danger at Changban then later, according to Xi Zuochi's account, part of the second rescue of the infant heir, this time from his stepmother. During the conquest of Yi, he was part of the southern push and led separate troops to take Jiangyang and Jianwei before rejoining Zhuge Liang south of Chengdu.

While this may not seem like much, he had separated from the army to take lands in Yi, he was a general with long-established closeness to his lord. There are also the famed rescues, the second preventing Liu Shan from being used as a hostage or political problem by Sun Quan and his sister 00-Sun. While if Liu Shan had gone missing at Changban, perhaps Liu Bei would have fathered another child more quickly, Shan was only barely old enough to provide an adult for a stable rule when Liu Bei died as it was. However, Zhao Yun still had a role left to play when Liu Bei died and Zhuge Liang was in charge as Chancellor.

For Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun held an important administrative role in the army then during the first northern campaign he served as a decoy and, while heavily outnumbered by Cao Zhen, he managed to prevent a disaster in defeat, keeping the decoy army together in difficult circumstances. Then he died.

While there are doubts about who wrote the memorial Zhuge Liang is supposed to have written to justify launching the second northern campaign, Zhao Yun was listed first of the generals they had lost recently. He was one of only twelve to gain a posthumous title, only one of five of Liu Bei's generals. Chen Shou placed his biography with the other four to be rewarded as such, men of fame and renown, while Chen Shou praised Zhao Yun's bravery as comparable to heroes of old. Another officer of Shu-Han, Chen Dao was compared to Zhao Yun. So Zhao Yun was a figure held up as brave as figures of old and to whom other brave men could be compared.

He was also important enough that someone, sadly unknown, wrote a biography of him that Pei Songzhi uses to supplement the main biography. It is a bit hagiographic, Zhao Yun is handsome, virtuous and wise but it provides a lot more information on Zhao Yun's career and gives a little more of a glimpse onto Lady Sun.

Zhao Yun bond is such he sometimes shares Liu Bei's bed and Liu Bei throws a weapon at someone who believes Zhao Yun has left at Changban, so certain Liu Bei is that Zhao Yun would never betray him. He is the man Liu Bei can trust to look after his family but also to try to keep the considerable potential threat of Lady Sun, one of his biggest worries at the time, under check. He captures an officer at Bowang, guards the key area of Guiyang when Jing is their only base.

He and Wei Ping are the only people with credible claims of an Empty City ploy during the era and his bravery drew admiration from Liu Bei with a nickname spreading about his tiger-like valour. Guarding the southern positions of Yi, he reinforces the desperate Liu Bei after the devastation at Yiling, he personally oversees the rearguard after the defeat to Cao Zhen in the northern campaign. As an adviser, he tempers Liu Bei after the conquest of Yi and warns against that fateful final campaign. Add the Lady Fan story for a bit of colour (and a too-good opportunity for a shot at Liu Bei's later marriage) and you have a career with some eye-catching incidents and a lot of trust.

Sima Guang's year-by-year chronology highlights him repeatedly: His "why I joined you Gongsun Zan", Changban, holding Guiyang, remaining in Jing when Liu Bei first went to Yi as a guest, intercepting Lady Sun's attempts to leave with the heir, role in taking Yi. Advising not to pillage Yi, empty city ploy, don't attack Wu, the first northern campaign (it also has the northern campaign memorial which is more Zhao Yun is in it then Sima Guang mentioned). This is not a minor figure who gets one-off mentions but someone important enough to be mentioned repeatedly for his advice and his service to Liu Bei. It is also worth noting the "remaining in Jing" isn't much other than Sima Guang felt him important enough to include in the who Liu Bei was leaving behind as part of the arrangements when Liu Bei was going into Yi.

When one says he was an insignificant figure, he was a long-time supporter of Liu Bei who twice saved a child. Renowned for bravery, trusted twice to lead forces away from the main army and guard important places, empty city ploy, provided wise council. A close bond with his lord even under the direst of circumstances, to restrain the threat of Lady Sun and given special honours after his death. For fiction writers to come, particularly with his service to Liu Bei earlier than others and living longer than the other "tiger generals", Zhao Yun would offer a lot.