XYS vs MRB

[Dennis Chen]

Who takes the cake?

[Loke-Gao-Zhu]

XYS for the win

[Ken Cheng]

They both die, most likely.

[R!chard]

They both die, most likely.

KC hit it spot on. Just recall the OYF and H7G fight.

[CC]

Both will fight for 1000s of strokes without a victor and its a toss-up as to who fire-deviates first and loses.

[wang23]

Who was actually older? I would imagine they were about the same age, but QF and MRF were quite different in seniority? Thus suggesting MRB is either younger or QYS had QF at an early age?

[Extremer88]

I would say Murong Bo is slightly, just a bit slightly better than Xiao Yuanshan.

[Whsie]

I would say MRB too based on feelings, so mines is just an opinion.
From what I see, MRB has the better technique while XYS has the better instinct.

[CC]

From what I see, MRB has the better technique while XYS has the better instinct.

What do you base that on though? IIRC, JY never did drop any hints on the contrast between these 2 except that it was inconclusive everytime they had an exchange while sneaking around Shaolin.

[Whsie]

Technique just because MRB does have the better overall arts than XYS does. I overall predict that XYS has better instinct because he seems to have a part of that wild XF self in him.
Ultimately, if ranked, I would rank them with the exact % for reasons you said and mutiple other instances where XYS was pretty clearly equal to MRB.

[CC]

Technique just because MRB does have the better overall arts than XYS does. I overall predict that XYS has better instinct because he seems to have a part of that wild XF self in him.
Ultimately, if ranked, I would rank them with the exact % for reasons you said and mutiple other instances where XYS was pretty clearly equal to MRB.

Actually, with his Canhe Zhi and other arts, why was MRB so intent on studying as many Shaolin Arts as possible (he even sutdied more then XYS over a comparable period). Could it be that the 72 Arts are not as 2nd tier as many believe?

I can see where you get the Xiao family fighting instinct theory from (the Yan Men Guan incident mainly) but MRB seemed to kick major butt in his youth too (e.g. killing experts while in his teens).

[Whsie]

I personally don't think so. I think what MRB is capable of far surpasses the limits of the Shaolin Supreme Arts are able to give. JY has mutiple wuxia novesl, yet none of the monks were able to dominate with the Shaolin Supreme Arts so much.

Don't forget, his faimly line is the great MR faimly. If the Shaolin arts really are that strong, then every generation would have learned the Supreme Arts and or at least improve the MR faimly art to surpass the Shaolin art since the MR faimly of course have the MR faimly pride to hold up.

[KJ]

I personally don't think so. I think what MRB is capable of far surpasses the limits of the Shaolin Supreme Arts are able to give. JY has mutiple wuxia novesl, yet none of the monks were able to dominate with the Shaolin Supreme Arts so much.

Don't forget, his faimly line is the great MR faimly. If the Shaolin arts really are that strong, then every generation would have learned the Supreme Arts and or at least improve the MR faimly art to surpass the Shaolin art since the MR faimly of course have the MR faimly pride to hold up.

MRB's actions seems to contradict your theory. If his family martial arts is that strong, then why would he be sneaking around Shaolin learning their supreme arts? None of the monks are able to dominate because they are not as talented (and lucky) as the main characters, yet they are still among the top fighters of the rest of wulin.

[chibidaisuke]

I would say Murong Bo is slightly, just a bit slightly better than Xiao Yuanshan.

What makes you say that?

[hyoyatika]

I always thought the general consensus was XYS was slightly better?

Keen to hear why people believe MRB to be better, thanks.

[CC]

I always thought the general consensus was XYS was slightly better?

Keen to hear why people believe MRB to be better, thanks.

Mainly because XYS had no 'named' skill as his base. MRB came from the Murong martial family which was a major force in the wulin for many generations. XYS only had an unknown teacher with no named skills.

I always felt most readers give too much credit to 'brand name' skills. Not that they are not important but when ranking fighters, I feel too much weight is given there.

[hyoyatika]

Mainly because XYS had no 'named' skill as his base. MRB came from the Murong martial family which was a major force in the wulin for many generations. XYS only had an unknown teacher with no named skills.

I always felt most readers give too much credit to 'brand name' skills. Not that they are not important but when ranking fighters, I feel too much weight is given there.

You might be onto something. After all in TLBB, two of the best fighters got to be XF and SM. While we know XF uses XL18Z, we have no idea what is his inner energy skill. And then we have zero idea what skills does SM actually has.