Did the New Greats' titles not stick in the public mind like the Old Greats' titles?

[Ken Cheng]

East Heretic Wong Yerk See, West Poison Au Yeung Fung, South Emperor Deun Chi Hing, North Beggar Hung 7 Gung, and Central Divinity Wong Chung Yeung all received their directional titles before the story of LOCH proper began. Hence, throughout LOCH and ROCH, we frequently hear those titles attached to those men's names. At the end of ROCH, there was a massive reorganizing of the names and titles. Other than East Heretic Wong Yerk See being unchanged, the new titles were West Passionate Yeung Gor, South Monk 1 Deng, North Hero Gwok Jing, and Central Mischief Chow Bak Tung.

ROCH ends at that point, and we do not directly hear from these characters again. A few of them are mentioned a century later in HSDS, however.

During HSDS, the names of Gwok Jing and Yeung Gor come up quite often. It doesn't seem, however, that the titles "North Hero" and "West Passionate" were attached to their names the way "North Beggar" and "West Poison" were once attached to Hung 7 Gung and Au Yeung Fung's names. Did the new titles for the new Greats just not stick in the public imagination of wulin the way the old titles did for the old Greats?

[Wu Wudi]

Well, in Gwok's case, he has already been known for decades before as big hero Gwok so it's not surprising that he kept the title for years after. Big hero also sounds more impressive than just North hero . GJ also sacrificed for the whole country and not just the North so maybe his original title makes more sense. Also, I got the feeling that the new titles were just a funny thing for them to laugh over since I can't see such Wulin elders telling people what their new titles are.

[Ian Liew]

Of the five new greats, three of them probably didn't have much longer to live (and to compound matters, all three were reclusive in the extreme by then), while the youngest one went into seclusion without doing much PR for his name. The last one remained in Xiangyang defending the city until its fall, and would arguably be the most famous as Guo Daxia. Since there wasn't really a North, South, East, West, Central division anymore, most people wouldn't bother with Bei Xia.

[hyoyatika]

I think they grew into fame because of Huashan Lun Jian. As there was no more Huashan Lun Jian, it sort of lost some story line appeal. Also, the country was at the brink of being conquered, so I think people were less concerned about some Nan Di Bei Gai nonsense.

[St3v3]

Among all the new Greats, only GJ die as a hero defending Xiangyang, not only as a Great martial artist. This made him wellknown even after 100 years after XY falls.

[Brainsuker]

Of the five new greats, three of them probably didn't have much longer to live (and to compound matters, all three were reclusive in the extreme by then), while the youngest one went into seclusion without doing much PR for his name. The last one remained in Xiangyang defending the city until its fall, and would arguably be the most famous as Guo Daxia. Since there wasn't really a North, South, East, West, Central division anymore, most people wouldn't bother with Bei Xia.

Wait, if my memory is right, the 3 olds are Yi Deng, Cho Po Dong and Huang Yao Shi right? While the youngest is Yang Guo? So after that, nobody can take their place as the 5 greats anymore?

[Western Eccentric]

The Original 5 Greats have a great highlights perhaps due the fact that they get their title by "fierce competition" while The New 5 Greats get their title by "connection"..

[EdenResident]

The 4 new monikers sound really lame. The original 4 titles absolutely destroy their new counterparts, in English and even more so in Chinese.

Western Poison >> Western Eccentric
Southern Emperor >>> Southern Monk
Northern Beggar >>>>>> Northern Hero (lol lame, Huang Rong screwed up big time here)
Central Divine > Central Urchin

Again, in Chinese, the new 4 monikers are absolutely slaughtered.