"One-trick ponies" of wuxia?

[Ken Cheng]

Some wuxia characters are notorious "one-trick ponies": in other words, they aren't well-rounded martial artists who are highly proficient in numerous hand-to-hand, melee weapon, inner power, and lightness skills, but have that one supreme skill that evokes fear and awe in their opponents. Take away that one trick, however, and they don't have much else to back them up.

SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, RUTHLESS SWORD notoriously featured two protagonists who were so characterized: Lee Chum Foon's martial arts skills outside his fearsome flying dagger skill were decent, but not extraordinary (many people could defeat LCF in hand-to-hand or sword combat). Similarly, though Ah Fei had that awesome fast sword technique, he lacked inner power, lightness skill, and even basic acupoint sealing/unsealing skills.

In Jin Yong's DEMIGOD AND SEMIDEVILS, Deun Yu was also very much like this. His Bak Ming Divine Art inner power absorption technique, Ling Bor Mei Bo lightness skill, and 6 Mak Divine Swords made him a dangerous opponent, but he did not have ANY conventional hand-to-hand or weapons skills. Like LCF and Ah Fei, if you managed to bind DY's hands behind his back (something that more well-rounded martial artists such as the Kiu Fung, the L/ROCH Greats, or Gu Long's Luk Siu Fung and Chor Lau Heung could break free of or work around), he'd be helpless.

[Snafu3721]

To an extent, I feel DG9J can almost be put into this category

Other JY arts had theory, internal requirements, profound descriptions of each stance

DG9J was almost like-- here is the perfect counter move. You don't need anything else, it's almost doesn't make logical sense (much like Ah Fei's Sword strike), and it carries the user very far WITHOUT further development or honing of the skill.

And the reason I feel it sort of fits the "one trick pony" category is because

1) LHC runs into 50 badits-- DG9J
2) LHC fights super powerful swordsmen- DG9J
3) LHC needs to cut a tree to build a fire- DG9J
4) LHC needs to go to the supermarket and buy a lottery ticket- DG9J

Other characters had to use various aspects of their technique. Modify their stances to counter others... or even at times resort to trickery or change strategies DURING a fight. A good example is GJ who constantly utilizes various skills and adapts in the middle of a fight. Or with young YG in many of his fights. Even ZWJ had to shift strategies and adapt when fighting the Persian emissary and the Du Monks.

LHC literally just swings his sword in the perfect position (as many posters used to joke about)

I guess all protagonists have a signature move-- XF with Dragon Palms, GJ with Dragon palms, etc. But it's the way LHC is so broken and solves all his problems with "stab stab" that makes me lump him and DG9J into this category

[CC]

if you managed to bind DY's hands behind his back (something that more well-rounded martial artists such as the Kiu Fung, the L/ROCH Greats, or Gu Long's Luk Siu Fung and Chor Lau Heung could break free of or work around), he'd be helpless.

Well JY did seem to have a brain fart moment in Chapter 50.

When assaulting the Liao Emperor, it was specifically written that DY dispatched several soldiers with _chained_flying_kicks.

Now where the hell did he learn that from?

BMSG?

6MSJ?

YYZ?

LBWB?

He found some taekwondo manual lying around? Learnt from watching XF?

[CC]

LHC literally just swings his sword in the perfect position (as many posters used to joke about)

That's because in many of the situations, the scene defies inter-spatial perception. Imagining flying dragons shooting out of XF's palms or YG controlling his sleeve remotely is still within visualization limits. Having LHC move his slower sword into a surprising position which beats otherwise elite swordsmen just sounds cheesy and cheap.

Can you visualize this? A and B are moving bricks from pile Y to Z. A is moving 1 brick a second, B is moving 2 bricks a second. But because of the surprising way A is moving the bricks, after a minute A has moved 500 bricks to pile Z while B only moved 120.

[a_tumiwa]

maybe you tanzhi , his poison ice palm always make trouble to A-class fighter like Xiao Feng
while his overall external martial arts is suckz