Discrediting Princess "Smelly"

[HuangRong]

Okay. So, ever since I first read Book and Sword, I have hated Princess Fragrance, and after watching ZJZ's adaptation I hate her even more.

It annoys me that she's portrayed as such a wonderful, amazing, beautiful girl, so... basically I want to come up with as many possible theories to discredit her "beauty" as possible

- Utilizing the same "deterioration theory" commonly used for MA let's say that though Princess Smelly is extremely beautiful for her time she's only half as beautiful as people before her like HR, or ZM , or even XLN (blargh) I realize that this argument is really bad, but hey, I really don't like this character

- Yet another nonsense argument: the instant of her stopping an army in its tracks, was not from beauty but from sheer ugliness

- Last, and this is my favorite! The smell that lingers around her is poison and casts a spell/hallucination over all within 20 yards of Princess Smelly. This poison attacks the brain and fools the victims into thinking that they are looking at a beautiful person...

[whiteskwirl]

What don't you like about Princess Fragrance?

[Ian Liew]

Which was the ZJZ's adaptation? I've seen two China adaptations (one with Vincent Zhao, the other with Qiao Zhenyu), and neither Princess Fragrance really did the character justice beauty-wise. The only Princess Fragrance which I wanted to hug so badly (and not in a lecherous way, but in the way you'd want to hug something really cute and beautiful) was Candice Yu in the 1976 TVB version with Adam Cheng. The way she threw the Qing camp into chaos just looked so.. natural. Maybe because she wasn't only the prettiest Princess Fragrance, she was also the best actress of the lot, and carried forth the sweet naive innocence so convincingly.

[HuangRong]

@Ian: It was the one with Vincent Zhao, I think.

@whiteskwirl: Wait, are you a XXGZ fan? No offense if you are, but... I didn't think it was possible that Smelly actually had a fan...
Well, when I see Smelly in Book and Sword I'm reminded of the monk from Journey to the West. That's not the reason I dislike her- it's just that, it seems to me, both books would be a whole lot better without these characters...
When I think of my favorite characters from Book and Sword, they're Huo QingTong and Li YuanZhi. Both are characters with personality, (relatively) high martial art skills, and smarts.
I think it's understandable, then, that the innocent (the nice way of saying it) / stupid (the mean way of saying it) and one-dimensional (to me) XXGZ wasn't exactly my favorite character from the start.
Then, because CJL leaves HQT for her sister, I wasn't very pleased with either CJL or XXGZ (understatement of the year).
I felt that CJL already gets a lot of hate, so I started a thread about XXGZ...

[kidd]

I don't think ZJZ has produced any Book & Sword adaptation yet.

Princess Fragrance is a very sweet and nice person. I guess her extreme naivete, sweetness and innocence might irk some readers. I remember when I listened to the radio drama adaptation of the novel, I was annoyed with her too initially. But, later on, I grow to like her. She really is a nice person.

[whiteskwirl]

@whiteskwirl: Wait, are you a XXGZ fan? No offense if you are, but... I didn't think it was possible that Smelly actually had a fan...

I don't have any particular feelings about her at all. I was just curious why you dislike her so much.

[HuangRong]

I don't think ZJZ has produced any Book & Sword adaptation yet.

Princess Fragrance is a very sweet and nice person. I guess her extreme naivete, sweetness and innocence might irk some readers. I remember when I listened to the radio drama adaptation of the novel, I was annoyed with her too initially. But, later own, I grow to like her. She really is a nice person.

Ah. Well, anyway, the Vincent Zhao version then...

Perhaps she is a nice person. But as a reader of the novel and fan of HQT, I can't feel anything but dislike for this person. Besides the exaggerated descriptions of her beauty that made me want to , I don't think she has a lot of personality- she's not exactly the most interesting character ever.