What Do You Look for in a Xianxia Novel

[D.C.Haenlien]

Hello as a long time xianxia fan (also currently writing my own as of right now) I want to see what the reader community looks for in a Xianxia Novel

For me I have several
-Wholesome relationship: When the main pairing is just two people and there aren't any stupid cliche misunderstandings
-Characters are not Forgotten: I enjoy it that characters can keep up with the MC or they are not forgotten just because the mc becomes stronger and goes to a better place, leaving them behind
-Strength: I enjoy it when the characters transcend their tribulations and become stronger
-Unique Cultivation: As the mc you have to be special (not an absolute)
-Awe: I enjoy it when the surrounding characters are awed by the MC's strength, not to the point of stupidity though
-Morals: The MC doesn't have to be a saint, he just doesn't have to have a double standard and keeps to his way, unless character growth or an important event happens that changes it
-Swords: I love swords, the end
-Dragons: I love dragons, the end
-to be added

DISLIKES
-Harems: They're often bland and the characters are often just printouts with a gimmick
-Double Standards: MC holds other people to standards he does not keep
-Overly Arrogant: They pick fights with people who look at them the wrong way or they cling onto the smallest of grudges
-Characters left behind
-Romantic interest left behind until the end
-MC is 'forced' to consummate sex because of reasons, ie Xiao Yan and Medusa
-to be added

So what do you look for in a Xianxia novel and what kind of title catches you eye?

 

[Alienix]

All the things I want have been said by u. I tolerate harem btw as long as the mc doesnt cast them away and they are still relevant to the story.

Oh but it is nice if the mc doesnt use sword and spear. I'd like to see mc with axe, mace, nonchaku maybe. Well, sword and spear are okay too.

I can tolerate arrogant character as long as they get nice development

Oh it is nice if they use other elements than fire and lightning

Note: DRAGON HAS TO BE THE STRONGEST CREATURE IN EVERY FANTASY STORY (PERIOD)

Ignore my note btw

 

[D.C.Haenlien]

Because dragons are cool no matter what kind it is, western or eastern.

 

[BreezyNovels]

Sect Building, I am tired of Main Characters joining other sects and causing their destruction. Or the Main Characters who have so many cultivation techniques and know so many secrets yet find reasons to join another sect. I personally think Sect Building makes Xinxia novels way more interesting, Clan Building works too but I think it's better to use Clan Building as a foundation for Sect Building.

 

[Xiaoshen]

As long as it doesn't read like it was created on a Xianxia assembly line, I'll give it a shot.

 

[Sinpathy]

I need my daily fix of arrogant young masters. Without them, I wouldn't feel like I'm the one who stole their missing brain cells.

 

[gaylolis]

absurd comedy, like ones in Library of Heaven's Path.

it still made me lol so much, when Zhang Xuan collected the piss of his saint beasts, and people misunderstood him for peeing that much

i'm not into the serious types. if they're comedic with an OP main character, I think it'd be good.

 

[Primate]

The Dao.

 

[Jemini]

More a writing critique, I don't like it when they tell you it's a survival of the fittest world where it's eat or be eaten. This irks me for 3 different equally gallsome reasons. 1. It's a cliche. 2. It's a very tired and done-to-death trope in Xianxia worlds. 3. It's telling rather than showing.

I much prefer it when either 1. The world has more of a cooperative mind-set, or 2. They absolutely NEVER say that line or anything remotely similar to it, but it's shown with actions rather than words. If you go with #2 though, it still doesn't solve the issue of it being a tired trope, so you still have to find your own unique spin on the idea that's different from how all the others do it.

Yeah, with that standard, it would be much easier to impress me just by making the world more cooperative. Something a little closer to medeival Europe would be enough. Some back-stabbing, but "eat or be eaten" is at least not the matra of the world. The reason why humans evolved past lions, who were the apex predators before we came along, is because we learned how to cooperate and move past that mentality after all. And the reason we got the industrial revolution is because we went even further toward discarding our violent past. And the reason we entered the information age is because the virtuous cycle of becoming less violent and progressing technology kept spinning faster and faster, with each generation becoming less brutal at the same time as technology progressed with each leading into the other.

(Hey, that's almost like cultivation on a global scale, isn't it?)

It's kinda baffling that the meditation practices of the peace-loving Tibetan monks would be appropriated into a fantasy genre that likes glorifying violence and cruelty to other sentient beings more than any other genre in existence.

 

[Monk_Origins]

I am not the most familiar with Xianxia, but I have red couple 1000+ chapter ones.

There are few things that make me close the tab for good.

1. NO F-ING AMNESIA ARC PLEASE. Jesus, author. I don’t care how stuck you are with the story, but you can’t expect anyone to forget about last 1000 chapters and read MC being a 75 IQ moron for 50 chapters. Stop it.

2. SWORD AND SABER SUPREMACY. No, author, a 3 cun sword is not a weapon to dominate them all, and a saber isn’t the best cutting weapon either. You pulling 2000 word long chapter out of your backside won’t make them any better. Why can’t you make the MC choose a weapon because he likes it, instead of making him jzz all over it?

3. OH NO, HE SAW ME NAKED SO HE MUST MARRY ME!

4. NO, BIT**! I, THE MAN WHO RESPECTS ALL WOMEN IS RIGHTEOUS, AND WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING!

5. DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS?!

6. DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER’S BROTHER IS?!

7. DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER’S BROTHER’S WIFE’S AUNT IS?!

8. HA! I DID THIS ALL FOR YOU! Dear fellow author, you can’t expect me to continue reading the novel when you re-introduce a girl you left behind in chapter 50 at chapter 2746 as the most talented disciple of the biggest sect of the world. Even more so when you write that she is living only for her love for him. Especially just when the MC is about to get married to another woman he loves.

Thank you for this therapy session. When will it be again..?

 

[AkalE]

I have a few issues that really irk me.

1. Stop using measurements that's not universal. Use kilometres or even miles. Don't use cun's and all that.

2. Don't try to mimic a translation you read. I am not reading a translation. Don't make me memorise Chinese names just because you want me to feel like I am reading a chinese novel.

3. What the hell is with all novels having lightning tribulations? What the hell is it even? Does it make sense that it's always lightning? Especially when all these xianxia's seem to have no gods.

4. Make a believable society. A society where literally can start flying if they work hard, people are going to work. Besides, if there are superheroes in a society, it will have an interesting dynamic.

5. The MC doesn't need to be the strongest and you do not need to keep writing till the point where he is the freaking strongest in the universe. That is boring af.
Just think of all the stories you have enjoyed. Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, or whatever. The MC is never the top dog. They always have to work through the system with the help of others. Harry wasn't the strongest wizard. Sherlock still needed a passport to travel (and the occasional snort of cocaine.)

6. Some things have to be consistent. If the attack leaves a crater, how is the MC not naked? Or how is it that storage rings were a rarity for the first 50 chapters, but after that they drop like flies. Who are making these rings?

7. End the story at some time while the novel is still fun to read.

 

[vanta_luxe]

Personally I dislike confusing "ladders" for the cultivation growth.

200 inner ranks 500 heavenly outer ranks, Gold blue platinum GO!

It's just needless to me. The titles are fun, to be sure. But at some point it gets in the way.

 

[AkalE]

I feel so tired and beaten down by the genre I don't even have any preferences or requirements when it comes to Xanxia stories, just dealbreakers. Like, genuinely don't care who this dude is and what his cultivation style or whatever is, all pretzels is the same. The baseline requirements I have is that it doesn't have

1. harem,
2. an MC that makes me uncontrollably vomit, and
3. just a general gross slime of weird misogyny coating every crevice of the narrative.

Literally everything else is fair game. I don't even care anymore. Please don't have a weird, horny, predatory hatred of women and write an MC I don't want to actively die. That's my baseline.

Yet it's still very rarely met.

amen. No.3 is an especially rare bird to find.

 

[YuriDoggo]

y u r i xianxia

 

[Monk_Origins]

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??? No please really I had a plot contrivance bout of amnesia.

#saynotoamnesia

Now, not all of them same, gudetama-chan. A story about amnesia or time loop is totally fun and interesting, , just that almost all xianxia stories just do it half assed. :)