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Thread: Good and bad motivations of Xian Xia protagonists

  1. #1
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    Default Good and bad motivations of Xian Xia protagonists

    PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE EXAMPLES OF SERIES NAMES FOR WORKS YOU THINK HAVE FLIMSY MOTIVATIONS; AUTHORS ARE PEOPLE TOO, THEY WORK HARD AND WRITE TO LIVE.

    (Actually, now that I think about it, I have no idea why I made this thread. Most people will not have read enough stories. They will come just to read the spoilers. >.< >.< Might as well post it anyways instead of deleting the whole thing.)

    What I thought were good motivations:

    Primary motivation-Immortality (What I think is the most important motivation of all in Xian Xia)
    1 example: FanRenXiuXianChuan (凡人修仙传) A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality
    DO NOT CLICK THE SPOILER IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ENDING-YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
    click to show/hide spoilers
    (The author ends the series when Han reaches the world of immortals, and achieves, well, immortality. A lot of readers want the author to continue writing about Han's journey after reaching the world of immortals, but the author gave an indefinite further continuation date, and started a new series, MoTianJi(魔天记) instead. I think the author is still thinking up of a new motivation for Han.)


    Primary motivation-Survival (Simple and direct. Get stronger or die)
    1 example: WuXianKongBu (无限恐怖) Terror Infinity
    DO NOT CLICK THE SPOILER IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ENDING-YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
    click to show/hide spoilers
    (The author built up the climatic battle between the protagonist and his copy for such a long time. Zheng Zha actually became strong enough that survival was not such a big priority near the end, and instead, his true motivation became helping his companions survive, and reviving his dead companions.)


    Primary motivation- Saving and helping Human Race. (Cheers for selfless heroes like these, in fiction and reality)
    1 example: TunShiXingKong (吞噬星空) Swallowed Star
    DO NOT CLICK THE SPOILER IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE ENDING-YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
    click to show/hide spoilers
    (The author says that the reason he stops Luo Feng's journey is because he became too overpowered, but I think it's actually because Luo Feng had stopped the ultimate threat to humanity)



    What I thought were flimsy motivations:

    Note: I think that flimsy motivations can become good if

    Primary motivation- None for protagonist or flimsy at best. Only written for vicarious journey for readers through author's imagination. (So, basically smart protagonist and/or interesting setting. The appeal of this motivation actually depends upon how cheesy the protagonist's journey is, in my opinion.)
    Examples: I can not think of any right now. There were some, but I forgot.

    Primary motivation: A random kid dies from Earth, crosses into another world, and obtains a cheating device. Ever stronger enemies pop out of the woodwork to piss off the protagonist, usually by threatening the protagonist or his family's lives. The enemies, personality-wise, are flatter than a pancake, and come to fall like a stack of ever taller dominos.

    Primary motivation: A random kid from Earth dies, and is "Unwilling to die at such a unfair death" His soul comes to a new world, and basically steals the body of some even more unfortunate soul (and destroys the soul of that person, so they can never reincarnate as well). Not satisfied with the fact that he even gets a second life, he curses God and the heavens on why his new life is even worse than his previous life, because his new body has some disability stopping him from practicing, and spontaneously gets an uber cheat device (Probably from God, by the way. They never question WHY they are allowed to reincarnate or HOW they get their uber cheat device. They just take it for granted) after cursing the shit out of God. (Man, I wish my life was this easy). The worst part is that he starts killing ever stronger flat pancake enemies, and acquires ever more beautiful AND talented wives like trophies. Scum.

    Primary motivation: Revenge. Not a bad motivation at all. The protagonists usually get transported to the past some years spontaneously, and their cheat device is their memory of future events. The problem is that after they achieve their revenge, their story does not end. They start facing ever stronger flat pancake enemies who pop out of the woodwork AND satisfy their desires that they were not able to in the past, such as acquiring the most talented and beautiful women of their generation like trophies, in addition to their "One true love who died in the past", who is ALWAYS understanding that these new women love him and all, so he MUST be allowed to marry them. Scum.

    AUTHOR DOES NOT EVEN TRY TO HIDE IT: Stories that I stop reading.

    Primary motivation: Handed a cheat device. Protagonist decides that he will acquire the beautiful women of the world like trophies. Author does not even try to hide it and appeals to a specific type of reader. (Ugh)

    Primary motivation: Handed a cheat device. Protagonist decides to murder massive numbers of enemies, AND acquire beautiful, talented, and flat personality women. Once again, author does not even attempt to hide it, and appeals to a specific type of reader. (Double ugh)

    Primary motivation: World is handed to protagonist on a silver platter. The writing is so infused with it, it leaks out, as events are essentially repeated, and protagonist faces no real challenge. (Boring & self-explanatory)


    What do you guys think about this subject?

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    to tell you the true even though I hate some those that does not have good motivation I only read them for the fighting and power ups but when the OPness gets too strong I drop them

    Also you should place this in r/noveltranslations on reddit if you want a larger audience

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    Quote Originally Posted by schnitter View Post
    to tell you the true even though I hate some those that does not have good motivation I only read them for the fighting and power ups but when the OPness gets too strong I drop them

    Also you should place this in r/noveltranslations on reddit if you want a larger audience
    Me too. I just ignore the bullshits like justifications of their cruelty (they were usually good people when they were weak, but they eventually turn into *******s after becoming stronger (obtaining cheats) and try to justify themselves: I became cruel because the world is cruel or power is the only thing that matter etc. ) and their stupidity (provoke some guys over nothing and their families get massacred bcz of their stupid actions; then they start massacring their enemies, including innocent people like slaves/subordinates/disciples/relatives of the enemies);
    But I like the power up, collecting treasures (more cheats) parts; It feels like playing a video game.

    Are there any chinese novels that MCs overthrow their bad emperors/rulers and establish democratic societies? Usually the MCs replace the old rulers and become good rulers but actually do nothing to change the political systems. Or that kind of novels are banned in China?

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    There should be MC that want to become strong just because he CAN or because it's FUN,,.....


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    Quote Originally Posted by billybuton View Post
    There should be MC that want to become strong just because he CAN or because it's FUN,,.....

    Like One-Punch man?

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    跳舞(Dancing) wrote another story set in the same world as (恶魔法则)(Law of the Devil), with a different protagonist that was set at many years after Law of the Devil.

    It was called 天骄无双. It had an interesting plot and characters too. But those book inspectors went nuts on the author. Maybe those inspectors got bribed? Or, as the author puts it himself, the tall tree attracts the wind. (Being an author in China is harder than it sounds. So much ugly competition.(slander+libel))

    The author explains it himself at the end of the novel too: "How I have "failed" and "disappointed" my loyal readers."

    After just the first few volumes, the inspectors told the author to cut away all the small ambiguous detail between the male protagonist and the female cross----dressing deuteragonist (2nd most important character). (You know, the standard gender bending stuff. I think the inspectors were grasping at straws, and based it upon some vague homosexuality reason).

    I was wondering why the author took a sudden 180 on the characterization early on too.
    (Now that I think about it, was the female deuteragonist originally female? Or did the author perform a sudden sex change operation due to the inspectors.) 0.0
    She/he suddenly changed from an effeminate "boy" to a strong, smart, and tomboy "girl".

    It gets worse.

    After writing over half the novel, the author was told to cut out all of his religious conflict main plot, because there was a religious extremist group in the news.( I have no idea how that even connects)

    His whole plot derailed, and the story unsatifactorily ended later on.

    I felt so bad reading the author's explanation.

    And some readers still blame him for it. ----("Why did you not know that it would get censored")

    (And you wonder why authors write these repetitive power up stories. At least they sell. But who knows, they could also be randomly censored one day due to "connection with video game leveling addiction".)

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    oh yh I forgot that china has their censoring on everything

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    "The only way you can save this beautiful, hot, curvy, breastful, deity-looking girl is by covering her with your magically enhanced semen." ... yup.

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