SPW is ostensibly the story of Ling Wu Chung, but nine episodes into the 1984 TVB adaptation of the story, it seems to me that the focus is just as much if not more on Lam Ping Tze. Was Lam Ping Tze meant to be a secondary protagonist in SPW?
SPW is ostensibly the story of Ling Wu Chung, but nine episodes into the 1984 TVB adaptation of the story, it seems to me that the focus is just as much if not more on Lam Ping Tze. Was Lam Ping Tze meant to be a secondary protagonist in SPW?
A guy seeking revenge for his family and finally learns a power MA and ends up with a beautiful wife .... hmmm
NO. LPT is one of the villains in the story, not a protagonist. A protagonist would NOT kill his wife who loves him with all her heart. He deserves what he got in the end. I don't feel sorry for his tragic ending.
LPZ role similar with YK I would call them "anti-hero" not "villain"..
I get this strange feeling that Jin Yong started out writing THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER with the original intention of having Lam Ping Tze be the protagonist, but somehow changed his mind a few chapters in and decided to make the story about another guy named Ling Wu Chung instead.
Jinyong said that he wrote SPW as a allegory for politics. In Lin Pingzhi, I see those who are oppressed by those in power. However... once they come into power and turn the tables, they turn out to be no better than their oppressors were. This has happened many times in history - e.g. Li Zicheng after sacking Beijing, or the French revolutionaries after they had cut off a few royal heads.
LPZ started off as a decent man (if a bit spoiled) who was helpless against those with power (Qingcheng, Mu Gaofeng, Huashan). On acquiring power of his own though (via Bixie swordplay), he became drunk with power, taking his revenge in the cruelest way he could think of (which backfired on him big-time, leaving him blind and disfigured), jealous and scornful of others with comparable power (LHC), and paranoid that others wanted his power (though it didn't help that it was true to an extent).
It's not the first time JY made a U-turn. Rumor is that LOCH was originally gonna be joint male leads with GJ and YK sharing the lime light, while in ROCH YG was supposed to end up with with Guo Xiang and in DSHS ZWJ was supposed to have had a dark side and even started off plotting to avenge his parents.
I'm fairly sure it was Yang Guo and Guo Fu, not Guo Xiang. Anyway, this was just a rumour.
This actually happened in the first edition. ZWJ talked about killing Cheng Kun's family in retaliation for killing Xie Xun's family, and noted everyone present at his parents' suicide with the intent of taking bloody revenge on them all when he grew up.