Why did Siu Yeun San change his mind about revenge?

[Ken Cheng]

Immediately after his family was murdered by Chinese wulin warriors at Ah-Mun Pass, Siu Yeun San vengefully killed many of those who had attacked his family. This is understandable. Nobody could blame him for that.

And yet, towards the end of the fight, Siu's hatred seemed to vanish, and he felt only grief (for his wife's death) and remorse (for the lives he had taken). He didn't kill all of the people who assaulted his family; he spared quite a few of them. Then, because he felt remorse for having violated his promise to his teacher to never kill a Han person, Siu committed suicide in repentance.

Those are the actions of a compassionate, good-hearted man who, under normal circumstances, wouldn't willingly kill anyone, and only did so because he had been driven to understandable momentary rage by an unprovoked act of savagery against his family.

For nearly thirty years, Siu Yeun San did not reappear to take revenge against the remaining participants in the Ah-Mun Pass Massacre. He seemed to have forgiven them, or at least, decided not to pursue further acts of vengeance against them.

Then, suddenly, not long after his son Siu Fung's heritage and origins are revealed, Siu suddenly reappears and goes on a murder spree...killing many of those whom he had spared years earlier.

Why this change of heart on Siu Yeun San's part? He went from seemingly having no interest in revenge for nearly thirty years to becoming bent on revenge against people he had previously spared.

[Guo Xiang]

I thought he went "silent mode" to "steal" as part of his revenge plan?

He probably was angry at the way his son was treated. Revered and then discarded aside and treated like a harmful piece of human trash. All that only because he's a Khitan.

[Ken Cheng]

I thought he went "silent mode" to "steal" as part of his revenge plan?

Perhaps, but his actions and words immediately after the massacre indicated a remorseful man, not a vengeful one. Somewhere along the way, he had a change of heart and decided he *wasn't* going to forgive after all.

He probably was angry at the way his son was treated. Revered and then discarded aside and treated like a harmful piece of human trash. All that only because he's a Khitan.

That's a reasonable reaction, but his chosen method of response only made matters worse for his son.

[Guo Xiang]

Perhaps, but his actions and words immediately after the massacre indicated a remorseful man, not a vengeful one. Somewhere along the way, he had a change of heart and decided he *wasn't* going to forgive after all.



That's a reasonable reaction, but his chosen method of response only made matters worse for his son.

His method is debatable. But his intention could also be that he wanted Xiao Feng to see what the Hans are like at the core of their hearts. How ugly people (the Hans) can get.

Are they really better than the disgraced Khitans?

Needless to say, Xiao Feng learnt alot about the Hans than he ever would as a phony Han during the course of his sufferings.