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Thread: a notable instance of wuxia-real life paralleism

  1. #1
    Senior Member PJ's Avatar
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    Default a notable instance of wuxia-real life paralleism

    Just thought of something.

    In Sentimental Swordsman, Shangguan Jinhong wanted to test the true power of Dagger Li's dagger, so he purposely triggered Li to throw a dagger at him, killing him.

    In World War 2, Japan wanted to test the true power of USA, so it prvoked USA by dropping a bomb there, only to be bombed by it in return on a higher magnitude.

    Random thought of the day?
    忽见柳荫下两个小孩子在哀哀痛哭,瞧模样正是武敦儒、武修文兄弟。郭芙大声叫道:「喂,你们在干甚麽?」武 修文回头见是郭芙,哭道:「我们在哭,你不见麽?」

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PJ View Post
    Just thought of something.

    In Sentimental Swordsman, Shangguan Jinhong wanted to test the true power of Dagger Li's dagger, so he purposely triggered Li to throw a dagger at him, killing him.

    In World War 2, Japan wanted to test the true power of USA, so it prvoked USA by dropping a bomb there, only to be bombed by it in return on a higher magnitude.

    Random thought of the day?
    One critical difference: Seung Gwoon Gum Hung was more powerful than Lee Chum Foon, and the fight was his to win as long as he didn't do something stupid (which he did; talk about wuxia's greatest bonehead plays).

    Japan never had a real chance against the U.S.

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    Senior Member PJ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    One critical difference: Seung Gwoon Gum Hung was more powerful than Lee Chum Foon, and the fight was his to win as long as he didn't do something stupid (which he did; talk about wuxia's greatest bonehead plays).

    Japan never had a real chance against the U.S.
    Yeah I thought of that too. But Japan didn't know how strong the US really was, since they hadn't fought before, so perhaps their only way of gauging their opponent's level was to provoke them.
    忽见柳荫下两个小孩子在哀哀痛哭,瞧模样正是武敦儒、武修文兄弟。郭芙大声叫道:「喂,你们在干甚麽?」武 修文回头见是郭芙,哭道:「我们在哭,你不见麽?」

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    Senior Member CC's Avatar
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    Japan did know that the US was stronger than they can hope to utterly defeat.

    Japan did not dream of invading the continental USA or even capturing Hawaii.

    They knew that US production would out-do them in the long run and were hoping to inflict enough attrition to make the USA go 'Screw this!' and leave East Asia to Japan.

    The Japanese Grand Plan was to draw the USN closer to the western pacific and slowly attrite them thru submarine attacks and destroyer skirmishes with their secret 24 inch Long Lance. After the USN were battered by the light units, there was to be a 'Decisive' battle with the capital ships of the IJN. They were dreaming that after such a beating, the USA would just 'go away' (sort of like the Russians in 1904).

    Nice elaborate plan on paper but they obviously forgot the axiom 'no battle plan survives contact with the enemy'.

    If you want a wuxia parallel, it would be like a fighter thinking 'I'll counter his crane style with my plum plucking hand and when he follows up with his eagle kick using his right leg I'll sweep his left leg out with my dragon tail kick, then when he is on the floor I'll execute my reverse genocide whirlwind axe kick on his head". Then when the opponent finally attacks, its with a single punch so powerful it KOs the guy.
    Its BIxie Jianfa Gawdammit you guys!!!!

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    In SGJH's defense, he gave LXH a really small chance to win. SGJH had already made sure that the odds were overwhelmingly in his favor by controlling all the factors that would affect the fight such as time, location, momentum,etc. Most importantly, Jing Wumin's presence made LXH's chances of wininng seem nil. Of course, we know that JWM didn't actually intercede in the fight but no one knew that before the fight. The threat of JWM must have had a lot of impact on LXH mentally.

    Like most GL fights, those aforementioned factors are just as important as physical ability. SGJH's manipulations meant that LXH's chances of winning were almost non-existant, even if his martial arts were slightly superior to SGJH's. Also, I believe it was mentioned that LXH had to release his dagger from an impossible angle which meant that SGJH didn't leave a very wide opening.

    In the end, SGJH lost his gamble but it really wasn't that bad of a gamble for the glory of being known as the only man that dodged Little Lee's flying dagger.

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wu Wudi View Post
    In SGJH's defense, he gave LXH a really small chance to win. SGJH had already made sure that the odds were overwhelmingly in his favor by controlling all the factors that would affect the fight such as time, location, momentum,etc. Most importantly, Jing Wumin's presence made LXH's chances of wininng seem nil. Of course, we know that JWM didn't actually intercede in the fight but no one knew that before the fight. The threat of JWM must have had a lot of impact on LXH mentally.
    Wasn't the Ging Mo Meng factor neutralized by the reemergence of Ah Fei?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    Wasn't the Ging Mo Meng factor neutralized by the reemergence of Ah Fei?
    Ah Fei could have countered JWM but the doors were locked. That is why everyone thought the fight was hopeless for LXH.

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    Senior Member sarakoth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Cheng View Post
    One critical difference: Seung Gwoon Gum Hung was more powerful than Lee Chum Foon, and the fight was his to win as long as he didn't do something stupid (which he did; talk about wuxia's greatest bonehead plays).

    Japan never had a real chance against the U.S.
    I believe Japan did stand a chance.

    They had four carriers, the Zero which outclassed American counterparts until 1943, and the most powerful battleships in the world.

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sarakoth View Post
    I believe Japan did stand a chance.

    They had four carriers, the Zero which outclassed American counterparts until 1943, and the most powerful battleships in the world.
    It wasn't the quality of the weapons used that made the difference, but the logistics of each country.

    Japan didn't have much in the way of natural resources. It's an island. Much of what Japan needed to operate its war machine, it needed to import.

    The United States, on the other hand, had vast natural resources at its disposal. Just through sheer attrition alone it would defeat Japan.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sarakoth View Post
    I believe Japan did stand a chance.

    They had four carriers, the Zero which outclassed American counterparts until 1943, and the most powerful battleships in the world.
    I agree with Ken concerning natural resources. Furthermore, battleships were not as useful in battle as carriers. If Japan had created carriers instead of big battleships like Musashi, they might have won more battles and extended the war for a year or two, but victory was impossible in the long term.

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    They had 6 fleet carriers. Not 4.

    They might have had the 2 Yamato class ships but the USN's 2 South Dakotas and 2 North Carolinas with their Radar Fire Control was more then a match.

    In 1942 the IJN was at an advantage over the USN. But without the logistics train and the industrial depth behind them, the IJN was not in a position to attack US territory (even at midway, there was no hope of them holding Midway even if they captured it). And without the industrial depth, losses in material and men cannot be replenished.

    The best the IJN could have done was to sink all USN carriers at Coral Sea and Midway while keeping all their aircrew and ships. That would buy them time until late 1944 when the USN would counter-attack with 3-5 times the IJN's strength. And Japan won't be in good shape because they had not invested in ASW and the US interdiction of their merchant shipping from 42 to 44 would still be crippling (as it was historically).

    And after all that. There is still the B-29 with the A-Bomb.
    Its BIxie Jianfa Gawdammit you guys!!!!

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