Mo Yung F'uk - was it lack of talent, or lack of focus?

[Ken Cheng]

Mo Yung F'uk was a fairly good martial artist, but never reached the levels of the Elites, falling far short of the levels of his father, Siu Yeun San, Kiu Fung, and Kau Mor Tze, let alone the Siu Yiu Sect Elders, Hui Juk, and the Janitor Monk. But what was it that prevented him from attaining such levels? Did he lack talent, or did he lack focus?

Mo Yung F'uk's problem seems to be similar to the young Yeung Gor's. Like Mo Yung F'uk, the young Yeung Gor's martial arts were all over the place...a great diversity of techniques, but not much depth. That only changed after Yeung Gor took the Golden Wheel Monk's advice to consolidate his martial arts knowledge, and took that several steps further after gaining the Heavy Iron Sword and adopting Dook Goo Kau Bai's martial art philosophies (eventually culminating in the development of Sad Palms). Mo Yung F'uk, however, was never able to do anything similar.

[poppies]

Having a considerable number of people put him on a pedestal, and more importantly, ranking him on a par with Qiao Feng may play a part as well, perhaps? Qiao Feng was good. If I were as good as him, I might well not feel the need to push myself too hard.

[wkeej]

Possibly MRF has this constant pressure to re-build his kingdom. Possibly he is too dependent on his cousin WYY to decipher the martial arts skills for him.

[Ken Cheng]

Having a considerable number of people put him on a pedestal, and more importantly, ranking him on a par with Qiao Feng may play a part as well, perhaps? Qiao Feng was good. If I were as good as him, I might well not feel the need to push myself too hard.

Complacency and lack of motivation were never problems for Mo Yung F'uk. The guy was obsessed with improving his martial arts, and *never* seemed to feel that his martial arts were good enough.

But as dedicated as he was, after a certain point, his martial arts did not improve very much. He either lacked talent, or was doing something wrong. I suspect that he was doing something wrong.

[Dirt]

Possibly MRF has this constant pressure to re-build his kingdom. Possibly he is too dependent on his cousin WYY to decipher the martial arts skills for him.

Maybe he was as good as he was because she was doing this for him. Kinda the same with Guo Jing, he would not have been able to understand the complex bits of 9 Ying Zhen Jin without Huang Rong.

[Ian Liew]

I always got the impression that he was lacking in some really powerful internal energy cultivation method. His external skills were perfectly fine, and he had access to almost any martial art which he could want, but he lacked a strong internal energy base. His star-shifting stance was pretty impressive, but he didn't have the benefit of 210 years of cultivation, or Beiming plus some magic frog. In that respect, it makes Xiao Feng's achievements all the more impressive, actually, as he didn't have access to any particularly great internal energy art either, but still managed to brute force his way through mastery of the Dragon Subduing Palms and more than a healthy dose of honest courage. Murong Fu would think too much and calculate the benefits of any risks he would take, probably resulting in him only beating up inferior opponents all his life and lacking true battle experience when up against someone on par or better.

[Ken Cheng]

I always got the impression that he was lacking in some really powerful internal energy cultivation method. His external skills were perfectly fine, and he had access to almost any martial art which he could want, but he lacked a strong internal energy base. His star-shifting stance was pretty impressive, but he didn't have the benefit of 210 years of cultivation, or Beiming plus some magic frog. In that respect, it makes Xiao Feng's achievements all the more impressive, actually, as he didn't have access to any particularly great internal energy art either, but still managed to brute force his way through mastery of the Dragon Subduing Palms and more than a healthy dose of honest courage. Murong Fu would think too much and calculate the benefits of any risks he would take, probably resulting in him only beating up inferior opponents all his life and lacking true battle experience when up against someone on par or better.

What's really mind-boggling is that Kiu Fung, using only conventional Shaolin inner power development methods and no other special boosts, somehow acquired between five to six times the amount of inner power that Mo Yung F'uk acquired.

[tape]

I think we have to rethink the X amount of inner power that Greats have over others. I think it's more and more likely that a Great might only have ~2x the inner power of someone like a Quanzhen master (which is still a lot), but their efficiency and use of it just makes them able to take on 10 or more of them. It's not too farfetched if we imagine someone twice as strong and fast as someone being able to take out many people half their speed. The greatest athletes of all time are nowhere near 2x stronger/faster than anyone who has trained for a few years with a few exceptions.

Zhang Wuji kind of throws this all off with people bouncing off him, but generally Great level fighters will be seriously injured by people of Murong Fu level if they were actually able to hit them. They just aren't able to.

It makes more sense if Qiao Feng's natural talent allowed him to be 1.X-2X more inner power than Murong Fu, along with being able to learn, utilize, and understand techniques at a faster rate.

I mean, take any NBA starter and make him 50% faster and stronger, and he's leagues ahead of Lebron!

[Ian Liew]

I read somewhere, probably in the manga, that Xiao Feng got so powerful because of his constant battles against evil all his life. He spent his whole life taking on this bad guy and that bad guy, that even without super internal power (although Shaolin internal power wasn't weak by any means) he pushed himself to the limits and beyond. The Dragon Subduing Palms were a great art passed down generation by generation, but in his hands it was insanely powerful because he had conditioned himself through many many years of using it in life-and-death situations. Not sure if that would have been enough to compensate for not having a super internal art, but it seemed good enough to bring out the full power of the Dragon Subduing Palms.

[tape]

I read somewhere, probably in the manga, that Xiao Feng got so powerful because of his constant battles against evil all his life. He spent his whole life taking on this bad guy and that bad guy, that even without super internal power (although Shaolin internal power wasn't weak by any means) he pushed himself to the limits and beyond. The Dragon Subduing Palms were a great art passed down generation by generation, but in his hands it was insanely powerful because he had conditioned himself through many many years of using it in life-and-death situations. Not sure if that would have been enough to compensate for not having a super internal art, but it seemed good enough to bring out the full power of the Dragon Subduing Palms.

One thing contradicts that though, is that Xiao Feng himself knew that he always held the upperhand in almost all battles. He had the backing of the Beggar's Sect, which was the mightiest force of the time, and logically shouldn't be pushed to his limits as far as many protagonists who are left on their own devices.

After he left, he kind of realized the great position he used to be in.

[Dirt]

Didn't Qiao Feng read some of the Yijinjing when it was in his hands?

[Ken Cheng]

Didn't Qiao Feng read some of the Yijinjing when it was in his hands?

He couldn't have read it; it was written in Sanskrit, a language in which he was not literate.

[Yang Guo]

It was lack of luck. He had to be born in the area of gods among men. Had he been in any other era He would have been top tier.

[Trien Chieu]

He was lack of the luck that the protagonists have. If he has half as much luck and Hui Juk or Duan Yu have, things would be very different for him.

[hyoyatika]

I think MRF would had gotten much further if he had a real teacher. WYY helped him in terms of theory, but I don't think MRF benefited in terms of acquiring much deeper skills from her. His lackeys were all yes men who probably never challenged him and pushed him to another level.

Also, MRF had a lot on his hands. He had to train his martial arts while at the same time, build an army to restore the Yen kingdom. GJ had HR helping him and of course, the Beggar Sect to assist him in running of other errands as well.