Did LOCH become better/worse after Yeung Hong left the story?

[Ken Cheng]

Yeung Hong was the main antagonist of LOCH (sorry, Au Yeung Fung), but when he checks out of the story, there's still quite a bit of LOCH left (including some of the most exciting showdowns). Do you feel that the story of LOCH got worse after Yeung Hong died, or did it pick up and improve after his death?

[Trien Chieu]

I voted for the worse. After the death of YH, Kwok Jing and Wong Yung no longer together as much. In addition, the story focus too much on the hypocritical and evil Mongolians. I wonder why did Kwok Jing not kill all those Mongolians leaders if he really wanted to save the song dynasty.

[pannonian]

I voted for the worse. After the death of YH, Kwok Jing and Wong Yung no longer together as much. In addition, the story focus too much on the hypocritical and evil Mongolians. I wonder why did Kwok Jing not kill all those Mongolians leaders if he really wanted to save the song dynasty.

Guo Jing couldn't care less about the Song dynasty. In ROCH, when Khubilai invited him over to release the Wu brothers, Guo Jing ragged on about how worthless the Song rulers were.

About the thread subject, Yang Kang was never a significant character in the story. There were lots of plot points that involved him, but he never left much of a mark on the story. I preferred how the story went after his death, but that's because I like historical fiction, which the Mongol parts effectively were, and it has nothing to do with Yang Kang.

[PJ]

Personally, I liked the story better before YK died. But he had nothing to do with it.

[tape]

Personally, I liked the story better before YK died. But he had nothing to do with it.

Same exact thing for me. All the cool events happened before he died, even if he had little or nothing to do with it. Not much of the story was left afterwards, except Huashan and Mongolia, but the early Mongolia chapters were more entertaining for me.

[Ken Cheng]

I find it interesting how, structurally, the story of the Mongols in LOCH is framed *around* Yeung Hong's story. During the early parts of LOCH in Mongolia, Yeung Hong did not appear. When Yeung Hong appeared in the middle of the story, most of the Mongolian characters were absent. After Yeung Hong died, the Mongols and their subplot resumed in full force.

[chibidaisuke]

The story became worse after Yang Kang's death but it was only because Guo Jing and Huang Rong were separated for a large part of the remainder of the story, and while before Yang Kang died they were together and developing their relationship and that was where I loved the story most. I did not care one bit about Yang Kang at all throughout the story and I felt he was of absolute no importance.

[Ken Cheng]

Events in LOCH after Yeung Hong's death seemed to take place in a "lame duck" era for the story. Don't get me wrong: many exciting developments happened after Yeung Hong died (including the Mongol War and the Second Mt. Hua Tournament), but you get the sense that after Yeung Hong's death, the "main" narrative of LOCH was pretty much over.

ROCH had a similar "lame duck" period after the sixteen year interlude, as did HSDS after Tse Tsun and Sing Kwun's conflict was resolved. In some ways, DGSD also suffered a "lame duck" period after the big Shaolin Heroes' Conference resolved the feud between Siu Yeun San and Mo Yung Bok with the appearance of the Janitor Monk.

[judylcm]

I tend to think that the story drifted after Yeung Hong died. Ken is right. The main antogonists were Yeung Hong and the Mongols. Before Yeung Hong died, the Mongol characters got developed a lot.

When Yeung Hong and Gwok Jing became 18 and their destinies met, the Mongols disappeared. Everything that Gwok Jing and Wong Yung did was in reaction to Yeung Hong. When the writer (original author and TVB) killed off Yeung Hong (boo hoo hoo) then it was all about the war. The Wah San fight to me was a big letdown.

As for GJ and Wong Yung developing their relationship, I personally feel there was not much growing up or developing. GJ always acted like such a hen pecked husband. He was so in awe of WY that she almost always got her way, no matter how unreasonable. Even their love quarrels paled in comparison to Yeung Hong and Muk Lim Chi's quarrels, because now, YH and MLC had REAL ISSUES.