"Real heroes use ordinary iron/steel.": a Gu Long hang up.

[Ken Cheng]

Gu Long seemed to have this hangup that true heroes used weapons made of ordinary iron and steel. Both Lee Chum Foon's famous flying dagger and Sai Mun Chui Sheut's swords were specifically described as weapons forged from ordinary iron and steel, and it was the skill and talent of the men who used the weapons that made them deadly, not the material from which the weapons were forged. On the other hand, it seemed to be the losers and wannabes who typically used weapons made of rare, special alloys, but still got skewered by the likes of LCF and SMCS with their ordinary blades.

[CC]

Gu Long seemed to have this hangup that true heroes used weapons made of ordinary iron and steel. Both Lee Chum Foon's famous flying dagger and Sai Mun Chui Sheut's swords were specifically described as weapons forged from ordinary iron and steel, and it was the skill and talent of the men who used the weapons that made them deadly, not the material from which the weapons were forged. On the other hand, it seemed to be the losers and wannabes who typically used weapons made of rare, special alloys, but still got skewered by the likes of LCF and SMCS with their ordinary blades.

Wouldn't call Yan Shisan, Ding Peng and Go Songyang wannabes or losers. They had pretty treasured weapons. I think you are generalizing based on your exposure to Lee Xunhuan, XMCX and LXF.

[CC]

And I would also think that in order to make the hero appear, well, more heroic, most authors would not have the star of the story be reliant on some super weapon in order to win. So even when the hero has a superweapon, GL had Ding Peng use a wooden sabre to beat the curved sabre and JY had YG use his Sad Palms in the final boss fight as examples.

[hirobo2]

It's called "glory". If a heroes beats u up with an ordinary weapon while you wielded one costing millions, the hero appears more glorious. All authors use this kind of story "gimmick". Even Chow Yun Fat fought with a wooden stick vs metal sword and won in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. This is y RoCH is my fav JY work. Guo Jing can beat up all the guys he wants but its still 2 arms vs 2 arms. The glory occurs in a 1 arm vs 2 match/duel...

[hirobo2]

Oh yeah let's not forget Wolf Warriors II. IMO the reason it made close to 1 billion USD was becoz Wu Jing used primitive bow and arrows to go up vs machine/shot guns and won!!

[Stance]

Tvb's Mystery of the Twin Swords. They weren't less of a hero to me 😁