Some people say that martial arts stories are superficial, after all, martial arts fans are only pursuing that sense of happiness and hatred, but people who have read Jin Yong's story will not agree with this point of view, he once said that his story focuses on "chivalry", not "martial arts", and his chivalry is not only confined to martial arts disputes, but also has people who have the world in mind, such as Guo Jing, and the reason why "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" is particularly successful is also related to Guo Jing, the protagonist is extraordinarily brilliant.
However, not all of Jin Yong's protagonists are as "successful" as Guo Jing, and he even wrote three protagonists in one work one after another, can that story still become a classic?
(Guo Jing, Yang Guo stills)
The work that the author refers to is "Dragon Babu".
1. The protagonist who writes about collapse one after another
is different from "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "Dragon Babu" is inevitably confused just by the title of the book, what kind of story is Jin Yong going to tell this time? Isn't there eight core characters in the book? Each represents "one part"?
Don't care about those, at least read it along the plot of the original book, the story of the three protagonists can be said to be slightly messy, and the characters of the three protagonists are far from the traditional sense of "martial arts novel protagonists", especially when compared with Guo Jing, Guo Jing is upright, loyal to feelings, and has a benevolent heart, while the three protagonists in "Dragon Babu" are completely opposite to him.
Don't be misled by the TV series, in fact, the first protagonist in the original book is Duan Yu, the third brother of the three brothers, and the story is unveiled from his perspective.
Duan Yu doesn't like to practice martial arts, there is nothing wrong with this character, but it will make the episodes where he learns magic skills because of various adventures become more dramatic, but after he meets the "fairy sister" Wang Yuyan, this role is difficult to like.
Readers experience the plot from the perspective of the protagonist, but who would want to bring in a "dog-licking" character? His love for Wang Yuyan was too humble, so much so that it was difficult for Wang Yuyan to truly bless Duan Yu when she turned to him in the dry well of Western Xia.
(Xiao Feng stills)
Next to appear is the eldest brother Xiao Feng, as the leader of the beggar gang, he can be said to be the peak of his debut, he has a body of magic skills, and he also has a body of righteousness, but he is burdened with the revenge of killing his father, but he will inevitably have a body of anger.
The battle of Juxianzhuang can be called the battle of Xiao Feng's personality, if Guo Jing is replaced, he will inevitably defeat the heroes or fight and retreat, but Xiao Feng is different, he even killed his old friend Elder Xi after killing the red eye.
Xiao Feng is certainly a hero, but as the protagonist, he is inevitably too ruthless.
So in the twenty-ninth episode of the original work, the third protagonist Xuzhu appeared, compared to Xiao Feng, he was much more merciful, and even in the face of the old monster Ding who deceived the teacher and destroyed the ancestors, he couldn't bear to kill the killer, but Xuzhu also had a fatal problem, he was too lustful.
Although he said that he was devoted to the Buddha, after a few entanglements with Meng Gu in the Xixia Ice Cellar, he would even take the initiative to ask Grandma Tong to tell him the news of the woman, and he had completely fallen.
(Grandma Tong, Xuzhu stills)
You must know that Menggu combined with him because she was in a dark ice cellar, she was shocked and scared, so she committed herself to Xuzhu, and Xuzhu called the other party "Menggu", and she actually knew very well where she was in her heart, to put it bluntly, he deliberately ruined Menggu's innocence, and his behavior was no better than that Zhen Zhibing (Yin Zhiping in the old version).
In this way, the characters of the three protagonists can be said to have collapsed, can such a story still usher in a happy ending?
The answer, of course, is no.
Second, the ending that is too painful
The ending of "Dragon Babu" is not only unsatisfactory, but even gives people a sense of consternation.
Like "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Legend of the Sky and the Dragon", the story is no longer limited to "martial arts disputes" at the end, but this time the war has a kind of thunder and rain, Duan Yu and Xuzhu easily captured Emperor Liao, and then Xiao Feng forced Emperor Liao to retreat, and a big war was quelled.
And what is even more surprising is that Jin Yong actually let Xiao Feng choose to commit suicide after calming down the Song Liao dispute, and a generation of heroes exited in such an absurd way, which is unacceptable.
As for Duan Yu and Xuzhu, they didn't even explain their endings in the old version, but a setting was added to the new revised version.
That reputation said that he became a monk after being an emperor for forty years, while Xuzhu only mentioned that he completed the inheritance of the beggars' martial arts on behalf of Xiao Feng, and his whereabouts were unknown after that.
(Duan Yu stills)
This setting seems to be to round the inheritance of the beggars' martial arts in the "Condor Trilogy", rather than serving the "Dragon Babu" itself, so this change is not very good.
Therefore, whether it is from the character design of the protagonist or the ending of the story, "Dragon Babu" is difficult to be satisfied, as if Jin Yong wants to express a lot, but the plot presented is slightly messy, and the ending is too hasty.
So is that really the case?
Maybe we have this feeling just because we didn't understand Jin Yong's deep meaning back then.
3. A perfectly interpreted theme
Take the title of the book "Eight Divisions of the Heavenly Dragon" as an example, when we first read this work, we may still be busy looking for "which characters correspond to the eight divisions", and even more do not know that the so-called "eight divisions" are the eight divisions of Buddhism, namely the one day, the two dragons, the three yakshas, the four gandavas, the five asuras, the six garudas, the seven kinaras, and the eight madhuragas.
So what kind of story does Jin Yong want to write?
In fact, if you reopen the original book and read the "interpretation" part that you skipped carefully, you should probably understand.
Jin Yong explained it this way: "The eight kinds of Shinto spirits of the Eight Divisions of the Heavenly Dragon have their own peculiar personalities and supernatural powers, although they are beings outside the world, they also have the joys and sorrows of the world. There are no Shinto spirits in this novel, but this Buddhist scripture term is borrowed to symbolize some of the worldly characters. ”
To put it bluntly, what he wants to write is never just the story of the three protagonists, or that all the beings in the book are the protagonists, and the three protagonists are just pawns with relatively positive images to promote the development of actions, they are just ordinary people like you and me, and they will naturally have all kinds of shortcomings.
(Stills of the three Tianlong brothers)
And the core theme of this story lies in the three words "can't beg", so Xiao Feng can't marry Azhu, can't be a Han Chinese, Xuzhu can't be a monk, and Duan Yu can't get a fairy sister.
As for those supporting roles, Murong Fu couldn't recover Dayan, Ding Chunqiu couldn't get the secret book of Wuyazi, and Duan Yanqing couldn't be the emperor.
You see, the experiences of all the people in the book are in line with the theme of the story, and now looking back, the seemingly chaotic plot and the seemingly broken protagonist seem to have become reasonable.
At first, I thought that this story was unfinished, but our own realm was not enough, but now when I read it again, I only feel that it is wonderful.