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Thread: Which wuxia story had the best ending?

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    Moderator Ken Cheng's Avatar
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    Default Which wuxia story had the best ending?

    For writers of all media and genres, sticking a fitting and satisfactory ending is the greatest challenge, and often, even the greatest writers don't quite pull it off. The famous wuxia writers are no exception to this general trend.

    Sometimes, however, a writer manages to pull off a nearly perfect ending that neatly answers all outstanding questions and satisfies the audience. In all of wuxia, which works provided the most satisfying, complete ending?

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    For me there are two types of satisfying endings - the sort which has everyone good living happily ever after and the bad guy getting his comeuppance in a most spectacular and satisfying way, such as in Sword Art Online Season 1, and the sort which has a lot of twists and turns and which somehow, through some creativity, has everything resolve and make you feel really clever at the end for understanding it, such as in Steins:Gate.

    In terms of the first category, stories like Flower Guarding Bell, Righteous Blood Cleansing Silver Spear all had happy endings, and the bad guys' plans fall apart completely, and almost all the supporting cast live happily ever after, but I found way too much plot armour in both stories, and you almost feel sorry for the bad guys as to how many coincidences worked against them at the end. LOCH, I felt, ended suitably heroically, while XAJH had a slight anticlimatic feel to it when Ren Woxing ended up a loose end after all that effort to beat Yue Buqun (who wasn't really a match for the heroes in the first place), but it ended happily. Many of JY's endings were happy, with the odd exception, and in that respect they were satisfying.

    Those which neatly answer questions resolve loose ends well tend to be the mystery detective stories such as those involving Lu Xiaofeng and Chu Liuxiang. LXF's The Duel and the Embroidery Bandit, and CLX's Phantom Love, probably had the best flow for me, where the conclusion was unexpected, but made sense.

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    LOCH, which was the story of Genghis Khan from a Han person's perspective, ended thematically perfectly, with said Han person giving his conclusion, which he'd come to from hard experience, on Genghis Khan's worldview. Some of the wuxia components in LOCH were a little clunky, despite the many iconic ideas which saw daylight. However, as a story, LOCH was probably the best structured and themed that Jinyong wrote. Most probably because he had ample dramatic material to work with in the story of Genghis Khan.

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    Perhaps, Ode to Gallantry for me. The ending is quite happy for everyone.

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    Senior Member Ian Liew's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wkeej View Post
    Perhaps, Ode to Gallantry for me. The ending is quite happy for everyone.
    Ode to Gallantry ended quite frustratingly for me, as Mongrel never did get to confirm from his adoptive mother whether or not he was really Shi Qing and Min Rou's son. All signs point to it, and we could probably take it as a given, but it would have been so nice to get some evidence.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Liew View Post
    Ode to Gallantry ended quite frustratingly for me, as Mongrel never did get to confirm from his adoptive mother whether or not he was really Shi Qing and Min Rou's son. All signs point to it, and we could probably take it as a given, but it would have been so nice to get some evidence.
    DNA test? Ok, just kidding.

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    How's about Handsome Siblings? The twin brothers knew the truth in the end; Jiang Bie He lost all his skills; Yao Yue got her "punishment" (death/mad).

    But then, it will be nice if there is a "long" fight between Yao Yue and Yan Nantian. Lianxing (afterall she prevented the deaths of the twin babies) did not die.

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    Senior Member junzi's Avatar
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    For me, out of all the JY novels, Lian Cheng Jue, full of hope:

     狄云在丁典和凌姑娘的坟前种了几百棵菊花。他没雇了帮忙,全是自己动手,他是庄稼人,锄地种植的事本是内 行。只不过他从前很少种花,种的是辣椒、黄瓜、冬瓜、白菜、茄子、空心菜……

      他离了荆州城,抱着空心菜,匹马走上了征途。他不愿再在江湖上厮混,他要找一个人迹不到的荒僻之地,将 空心菜养大成人。

      他回到了藏边的雪谷。鹅毛般的大雪又开始飘下,来到了昔日的山洞前。

      突然之间,远远望见山洞前站着一个少女。

      那是水笙!

      她满脸欢笑,向他飞奔过来,叫道:“我等了你这么久!我知道你终于会回来的。”

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