What would have made Yeung Hong a better villain?

[Ken Cheng]

Yeung Hong isn't a very popular character among Jin Yong fans...not necessarily because he was a villain, but because he wasn't a very effective villain. His martial arts skills were underwhelming, and his capacity to scheme and plot were not that much better. The only thing Yeung Hong had going for him as a villain was his utter depravity, but even then, other Jin Yong villains did that better as well.

If it were up to you, how would you upgrade Yeung Hong as a villain?

[Banh Mi]

I would make his motivation more for loyalty to his adopted father than greed. Let him be able to justify why just because he was a han doesn't mean he owes an allegience to them.

[PJ]

What Banh Mi said. Also, if he were more of a threat to the protagonists, that would make him more interesting.

[Dirt]

Yang Kang was very effective as a foil to Guo Jing. To change him would imbalance the duality, the "yin and yang" of the 2 characters.

[Ken Cheng]

What Banh Mi said. Also, if he were more of a threat to the protagonists, that would make him more interesting.

Would that take the form of his becoming a more powerful martial artist or a better schemer, or both?

Yang Kang was very effective as a foil to Guo Jing. To change him would imbalance the duality, the "yin and yang" of the 2 characters.

I don't think that making him a more substantial threat by increasing his martial arts abilities or making him a more effective schemer would have had a negative impact on that.

[PJ]

Would that take the form of his becoming a more powerful martial artist or a better schemer, or both?

Either would do.

p.s. I thought OYK was more interesting than YK, one dimension as OYK is.

[Dirt]

I think the point of Yang Kang was how underwhelming he was despite the vast resources he had at his disposal versus Guo Jing who had very little. Yang Kang was the stepson to a rich and powerful man. He was a student personally taught by one of the more powerful students of Central Divinity and likely was able taught the true essence of Quanzhen Arts. He was gifted with intelligence and talented. But, ultimately, he came to nothing because he was greedy and petty.

[Ken Cheng]

I think the point of Yang Kang was how underwhelming he was despite the vast resources he had at his disposal versus Guo Jing who had very little. Yang Kang was the stepson to a rich and powerful man. He was a student personally taught by one of the more powerful students of Central Divinity and likely was able taught the true essence of Quanzhen Arts. He was gifted with intelligence and talented. But, ultimately, he came to nothing because he was greedy and petty.

Hmmm. OK, when you put it that way...

Still, in terms of being a villain, Yeung Hong left something to be desired.

[Ken Cheng]

One thing about Yeung Hong that I never quite understood is that for all the effort he put into maintaining his status and wealth, we don't see Yeung Hong enjoying that status and wealth that much in LOCH. The benefit of having status and wealth is supposedly carefree luxury. Yeung Hong should have been throwing lavish parties and goofing off every day, but the man *worked* to maintain his own...putting himself into dangerous situations in wulin and all. If you set aside the stuff that TVB likely made up for LOCH '82, then I don't think Yeung Hong ever really was shown enjoying the pleasures of being a prince at all.

[athlee]

I think the point of Yang Kang was how underwhelming he was despite the vast resources he had at his disposal versus Guo Jing who had very little. Yang Kang was the stepson to a rich and powerful man. He was a student personally taught by one of the more powerful students of Central Divinity and likely was able taught the true essence of Quanzhen Arts. He was gifted with intelligence and talented. But, ultimately, he came to nothing because he was greedy and petty.

GJ was the student of H7G, was also taught by WCY's martial brother and senior student. He is also the future son-in-law of Genghis Khan with both a title/position and (later in the novel) army under him. In terms of resources, GJ actually only loses out to YH on intelligence.

[LuNaR]

he coulda raped HR at the end of LOCH. Now ROCH becomes more interesting if it was Guo Fu + YG falling in love and they turn out to be sister + brother.

[Snafu3721]

YK started out with vast resources, GJ had to earn them.
It was the theme of stroy whereby GJ would work his way up and achieve success whereby YK already had it but wastes his fortune by being a retarded jackass.

I too always wondered why it was such a big deal for YK to "compete" with GJ?! He already had a lavish prince life, why didn't he do what OYK did and just sleep with beautiful women everyday? It's not like YK wanted to become chancellor of wulin or anything, and he would have inherited WYHL's position sooner or later.

[Banh Mi]

Is ambition really that hard to understand? Plenty of leaders are pushing boundaries when they can just sit back and chill.

[Ken Cheng]

Is ambition really that hard to understand? Plenty of leaders are pushing boundaries when they can just sit back and chill.

Yeung Hong didn't seem to be the type. Besides, as the son of just one Jin prince (not even the crown prince), it would seem that there would be many other people who would take on that challenge before he needed to.

[smurf120]

YH never really struck me as ambitious. I thought he kinda failed at being really greedy too. What I saw in the translation was a scared spoiled teen whose mom made him choose his biological father then live like a beggar for months. Not sure if the Han/Sung people ever made that strong of a case for him to be loyal to his origins. YH only had one woman (MNC) so he was no Duan style playboy.

[PJ]

Yeung Hong didn't seem to be the type. Besides, as the son of just one Jin prince (not even the crown prince), it would seem that there would be many other people who would take on that challenge before he needed to.

Wanyan Honglie was the most capable of the Jin princes; he was positioned to become the next king (by edict OR by force), and YK knew that.