Successfully Taking Revenge?

[Suet Seung]

Do any of the heroes actually succeed in taking vengeance for their dead parents or family and relatives?

It just seems like the murderer of their parents (or other family members) is either already dead, killed by someone else, falls off the cliff and dies, becomes a monk or commits suicide. It just doesn't seem like the hero actually commits the act of vengeance.

Do they even kill anyone (not counting soldiers from the opposite side or small not so important people)? Yes, I'm aware that little Guo Jing stabbed and killed Chen Yuan Feng, but what about adult forms of the characters?

It just seems the heroes remain pure that way.

[pannonian]

Guo Jing caused the deaths of thousands en route to avenging himself on Wanyan Honglie. That he didn't deliver the killing blow isn't important, as he'd captured him in battle and delivered him to Genghis for the appropriate treatment. If Guo Jing had demanded the right to execute him, Genghis would gladly have acceded.

[ChronoReverse]

Kinda ingenuous to say GJ caused the death of thousands when it was in a war that would've occurred regardless of GJ's participation. If anything, because GJ was able to quickly achieve victory, casualties were reduced. It doesn't absolve him of participating of course, but it doesn't warrant saying he's the cause whenever opportunity presents itself.

In any case, GJ did pretty much achieve both his revenges. The second one did involve him fighting and leading in the war which caused a Heroic BSOD

[Suet Seung]

Eh...maybe I should not have used Guo Jing as an example. I meant heroes not just GJ.

What I mean by revenge is to go battle it out with the murderer and piercing the guy with a sword or pulverizing his internal systems. I don't know a more direct approach of killing or maybe the use of scheme to ruin the guy's reputation or something like that.

[wuyuejin]

Wei Xiaobao. It's hard to regard this dude as a hero but he was a protagonist and successful in avenging his teacher's death.

[Doc Kwok]

I agree that in JY novels, the main hero tends to end up not taking revenge, at least not directly. The closest, ironically, was probably Zhang Wuji against the two Jingang-men disciples (who were responsible for the state of his 3rd and 6th uncles and, indirectly, the deaths of his parents) - he shattered the bones in their bodies into little fragments, though he did hold back on actually killing them. Di Yun also came close by sealing the Wan father and son into a wall, where they would have died horribly, though because he didn't actually kill them first, it led to the death of Qi Fang instead.

The rule, in JY novels at least, seems to be: if you actively act to take revenge, you'll pay dearly for it. The quintessential example of this is Lin Pinzhi in XAJH - as a direct result of his pursuit of revenge, he was: blinded, disfigured, castrated, crippled, wifeless and, eventually, locked up in a dungeon under a lake. Also, when Ren Woxing finally managed to kill Dongfang Bubai personally, it cost him an eye. Xiao Feng is also another good example, when he inadvertently killed his beloved Ah Zhu in his quest for revenge.

By contrast, in XAJH, we also have Yilin personally having her revenge on Yue Buqun by running him through with her sword, and she didn't really suffer for it afterwards. That may be because she did it to save Lingwu Chong, rather than with revenge in mind (she didn't even know who she killed at first!).

Some other examples of successful revenge that come into mind are:

- Xie Xun against Cheng Kun - blinded him and destroyed his martial arts
- Jiao Wan-er (in Sword Stained with Royal Blood) against the Taibai three heroes - knocked unconscious by Yuan Chengzhi then killed in their sleep, one after the other. He even showed her how to administer the killing blow.

Admittedly, Xie Xun is a borderline protagonist, and Jiao Wan-er is a minor character (how many even remember who she is?).

If we go beyond Jinyong novels, there are more examples of heroes taking revenge without major repercussions. The main one that comes to mind at the moment is Lu Si-niang at the end of 'The 3 Heroines' (Jiang-wu 3 Nu Xia), when she decapitated the emperor Yong Zheng to avenge her family.

[Ken Cheng]

Off-topic, but let me take this opportunity welcome DOC KWOK to the SPCNET Wuxia Forum. Yes, Doc Kwok is none other than the legendary KWOK of the old Yushy Wuxia Forums. He actually first contacted me two weeks ago, but I decided to keep a lid on his return until he increased his profile.

But make no mistake: the living legend is now a part of SPCNET. That's something you wuxia gabbers should get excited about.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Note; Xie Xun himself was blinded in the pursuit of attempting to take revenge on Cheng Kun, so that wasn't without incident. In addition, he did not kill Cheng Kun and the end and showed true repentance for his deeds, which is probably why he had a good ending.