Anyone else getting more and more dissatisfied with Meng Hao in the later volumes? (SPOILERS!)
I am wondering if it is just me, or if there are also others who dislike MH's character development - particularly after the initial clash with the 33 Heavens.
I almost blew several fuses in book 8 and 9 and matters seem to get worse and worse...
My issues up to chapter 1566 in no particular order:
* Chu Yuyan - I am aware that Er Gen does not write harem, but this issue is getting more and more ridiculous. Chu Yuyan's sacrifices and merits as well as her feelings for our (immature and at times idiotic) MC are no less than Xu Qing. Plus: his wife encourages him to accept Yuyan - the poor girl is suffering because of him and he likes her!
* Man'er - his indirect daughter with Yan'er - handing her to the administration of the ninth district and telling the guys "That's my daughter, treat her well!" and then nothing up to the clash with the gods & devils... I mean - WTF?! All the bullshit about his love for family and then this...
* Chen Fan / Han Bei - I always thought Meng Hao treasures his friends. It's obvious that he was only barely able to resist the will of the heavens - how in bloody hell should his much weaker friend resist?! He knows damn well that after being marked there is nothing those guys can do - they are under complete controll. And he blames Chen Fan and Han Bei for "plotting".
* He is overly vindictive - Establishing prestige and warning the monkeys by killing a chicken - OK, I buy that. Just, after transcending all laws (and obviously gaining no maturity whatsoever) he still has to behave like that? Seriously? Why not just kick out heaven's will and calmly re-evaluate the involvement of the other parties + fix the damage done (Because you can! And you know the main culprit!).
I know he walks the "dark and demonic" path - but, at least for me, his behaviour which seems soo righteous and loving towards his friends and comerades does not give me the complete "evil whacko" image. More like a guy who is often reasonable and just does random (evil and often stupid) things at times - quite out of character.
Also the description of his "revenge" just feels like 99%+ filler, where it would suffice to write: "And with his god-like power he made their souls suffer endlessly in heavenly flames - without giving a damn about possible innocents. Especially the older 1000+ generation vented a lot of spleen and appeased their fallen masters, fellow disciples and family. Dao Fang, the monkey, suffered especially cruel retribution. But all outsiders are damnable because some like to eat humans. The ninth sea also paid the same heavy price." saving like 7+ chapters space.
ISSTH has chapters that make me REALLY laugh hard and others that have great suspense - but in the late books ... no idea what Er Gen was thinking here.
*sigh* I hope it gets better in the last 70-80 chapters.
Best wishes,
Tamashii
I almost blew several fuses in book 8 and 9 and matters seem to get worse and worse...
My issues up to chapter 1566 in no particular order:
* Chu Yuyan - I am aware that Er Gen does not write harem, but this issue is getting more and more ridiculous. Chu Yuyan's sacrifices and merits as well as her feelings for our (immature and at times idiotic) MC are no less than Xu Qing. Plus: his wife encourages him to accept Yuyan - the poor girl is suffering because of him and he likes her!
* Man'er - his indirect daughter with Yan'er - handing her to the administration of the ninth district and telling the guys "That's my daughter, treat her well!" and then nothing up to the clash with the gods & devils... I mean - WTF?! All the bullshit about his love for family and then this...
* Chen Fan / Han Bei - I always thought Meng Hao treasures his friends. It's obvious that he was only barely able to resist the will of the heavens - how in bloody hell should his much weaker friend resist?! He knows damn well that after being marked there is nothing those guys can do - they are under complete controll. And he blames Chen Fan and Han Bei for "plotting".
* He is overly vindictive - Establishing prestige and warning the monkeys by killing a chicken - OK, I buy that. Just, after transcending all laws (and obviously gaining no maturity whatsoever) he still has to behave like that? Seriously? Why not just kick out heaven's will and calmly re-evaluate the involvement of the other parties + fix the damage done (Because you can! And you know the main culprit!).
I know he walks the "dark and demonic" path - but, at least for me, his behaviour which seems soo righteous and loving towards his friends and comerades does not give me the complete "evil whacko" image. More like a guy who is often reasonable and just does random (evil and often stupid) things at times - quite out of character.
Also the description of his "revenge" just feels like 99%+ filler, where it would suffice to write: "And with his god-like power he made their souls suffer endlessly in heavenly flames - without giving a damn about possible innocents. Especially the older 1000+ generation vented a lot of spleen and appeased their fallen masters, fellow disciples and family. Dao Fang, the monkey, suffered especially cruel retribution. But all outsiders are damnable because some like to eat humans. The ninth sea also paid the same heavy price." saving like 7+ chapters space.
ISSTH has chapters that make me REALLY laugh hard and others that have great suspense - but in the late books ... no idea what Er Gen was thinking here.
*sigh* I hope it gets better in the last 70-80 chapters.
Best wishes,
Tamashii
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I actually think that Meng Hao would be then considered immature and childish if he decides to accept Chu Yuyan's one-sided love and lead her on as a lover, despite not loving her the same as he would love Xu Ying, rather than be the mature person by cutting off any one-sided interest from Chu Yuyan because Xu Ying is truly the person that he does love and not leading Chu Yuyan on. Also, you say that Xu Ying even "encourages" Meng Hao to accept Chu Yuyan later on, but I feel like the author himself was forced to do that most likely because of his fans in the later stages of the novel. I've heard that harems are pretty popular when it comes to love relationships and aspects of Chinese novels. But I feel, based on how he wrote how Meng Hao and Xu Ying's love developed for each other, that if he did wrote what he really wanted to write, I feel he would have probably made Meng Hao cut off Chu Yuyan's one sided love. But then again, I've never met the author or if he has exclusively wrote on the topic about it.
Also, throughout the story from what I've read up until the latest translated chapters, I feel like there wasn't even much love connection between Meng Hao and Chu Yuyan. At least a mutual love connection, that is. From what I can remember from the top of my head, the only parts of the story where they "met" each other was under that ravine, the alchemist arc, poisoning event, and the windswept arc. When they were stuck in that ravine, some people say that Meng Hao felt some love connection for Chu Yuyan. But I personally disagree. First of all, they were stuck in there, so even if he wanted to, he could not get away from Chu Yuyan. Now, of course, Meng Hao could have just left her to her own and not help her, but he did help her. But that's not necessarily a sign of a love connection. You have to realize that the author firmly established Meng Hao as a righteous and noble scholar, who even very much hated killing at the start of the novel (yes, he did end up killing another cultivator, but not because he wanted to, but he even said in the story he killed the guy because he was forced to from the circumstances; him getting chased around.) So, why wouldn't a noble scholar like Meng Hao not help Chu Yuyan when they were stuck in the ravine, especially when they can live out the crisis better if they worked together. There's no love connection there, just survival. And yes, he did end up taking her out of the ravine when he could have chosen not to do so, but that's not necessarily a love connection either. Like I said, Meng Hao was established as a noble character. Despite being his rival's fiancee, he knew that as a mature noble person, that punishing others related to his rivals and others who did not have a direct connection to the hatred connection between Meng Hao and his rival at that time, would be just pathetic and would stain his character. As for the alchemist arc, Chu Yuyan mainly grew love for Meng Hao as Fang Hao. They barely even met besides Chu Yuyan knocking on Fang Hao's door and maybe some other instances, but in those other instances it was with Fang Hao, not Meng Hao that Chu Yuyan knew. And when she got poisoned, obviously Meng Hao would help her. Is Meng Hao seriously just gonna let a very close friend of his just die like that? lol. Not a love connection at all. And as for the Windswept Arc, she did make sacrifices for Meng Hao, especially when she sacrificed her cultivation. But at that point, Meng Hao has already firmly established his love for Xu Ying. It was just a tragic story at that point. There was character development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, but definitely no mutual love connection, if any, between them.
Now if you compare that to the development to Xu Ying and Meng Hao, it was definitely deeper. First, their initial developments, which were in the Reliance Sect. The beauty pill was a huge symbol for their relationship. Now, even after the Reliance Sect arc, there really wasn't much love development going on. At most it was just two people having strong bonds with each other because they knew each other. But, before their second meeting, Meng Hao would always comment on how he misses and worries for Xu Ying (not necessarily as a love interest, but definitely as friends. But at least that having a strong friend bond that preludes to a love relationship is definitely deeper than a one sided love). And whenever they would finally meet, the author would always establish the mood of their meeting as if they haven't seen each other forever and they would always reminescene of the old times. And if we're talking about sacrifices here, Xu Ying floated on top of an ocean under the purple rain and also walked through hell and was willing to sacrifice her own life through the Rebirth Cave. Compared to the development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, the love development between Meng Hao and Xu Ying was definitely deeper and had more meaning. And they had the beauty pill as a symbol of the foundation fo their love.
Everyone can be great friends with each other, but not every man-woman interaction should turn into love. A great friendship development is always better than a forced love. Meng Hao could have chosen many other great women with top notch beauty like Chu Yuyan, but he chose Xu Ying, an ordinary woman that Meng Hao himself said. But that "ordinary" woman loved and cared for Meng Hao, and is also a person that Meng Hao loved back. The love was mutual; that's the important part.
I actually think that Meng Hao would be then considered immature and childish if he decides to accept Chu Yuyan's one-sided love and lead her on as a lover, despite not loving her the same as he would love Xu Ying, rather than be the mature person by cutting off any one-sided interest from Chu Yuyan because Xu Ying is truly the person that he does love and not leading Chu Yuyan on. Also, you say that Xu Ying even "encourages" Meng Hao to accept Chu Yuyan later on, but I feel like the author himself was forced to do that most likely because of his fans in the later stages of the novel. I've heard that harems are pretty popular when it comes to love relationships and aspects of Chinese novels. But I feel, based on how he wrote how Meng Hao and Xu Ying's love developed for each other, that if he did wrote what he really wanted to write, I feel he would have probably made Meng Hao cut off Chu Yuyan's one sided love. But then again, I've never met the author or if he has exclusively wrote on the topic about it.
Also, throughout the story from what I've read up until the latest translated chapters, I feel like there wasn't even much love connection between Meng Hao and Chu Yuyan. At least a mutual love connection, that is. From what I can remember from the top of my head, the only parts of the story where they "met" each other was under that ravine, the alchemist arc, poisoning event, and the windswept arc. When they were stuck in that ravine, some people say that Meng Hao felt some love connection for Chu Yuyan. But I personally disagree. First of all, they were stuck in there, so even if he wanted to, he could not get away from Chu Yuyan. Now, of course, Meng Hao could have just left her to her own and not help her, but he did help her. But that's not necessarily a sign of a love connection. You have to realize that the author firmly established Meng Hao as a righteous and noble scholar, who even very much hated killing at the start of the novel (yes, he did end up killing another cultivator, but not because he wanted to, but he even said in the story he killed the guy because he was forced to from the circumstances; him getting chased around.) So, why wouldn't a noble scholar like Meng Hao not help Chu Yuyan when they were stuck in the ravine, especially when they can live out the crisis better if they worked together. There's no love connection there, just survival. And yes, he did end up taking her out of the ravine when he could have chosen not to do so, but that's not necessarily a love connection either. Like I said, Meng Hao was established as a noble character. Despite being his rival's fiancee, he knew that as a mature noble person, that punishing others related to his rivals and others who did not have a direct connection to the hatred connection between Meng Hao and his rival at that time, would be just pathetic and would stain his character. As for the alchemist arc, Chu Yuyan mainly grew love for Meng Hao as Fang Hao. They barely even met besides Chu Yuyan knocking on Fang Hao's door and maybe some other instances, but in those other instances it was with Fang Hao, not Meng Hao that Chu Yuyan knew. And when she got poisoned, obviously Meng Hao would help her. Is Meng Hao seriously just gonna let a very close friend of his just die like that? lol. Not a love connection at all. And as for the Windswept Arc, she did make sacrifices for Meng Hao, especially when she sacrificed her cultivation. But at that point, Meng Hao has already firmly established his love for Xu Ying. It was just a tragic story at that point. There was character development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, but definitely no mutual love connection, if any, between them.
Now if you compare that to the development to Xu Ying and Meng Hao, it was definitely deeper. First, their initial developments, which were in the Reliance Sect. The beauty pill was a huge symbol for their relationship. Now, even after the Reliance Sect arc, there really wasn't much love development going on. At most it was just two people having strong bonds with each other because they knew each other. But, before their second meeting, Meng Hao would always comment on how he misses and worries for Xu Ying (not necessarily as a love interest, but definitely as friends. But at least that having a strong friend bond that preludes to a love relationship is definitely deeper than a one sided love). And whenever they would finally meet, the author would always establish the mood of their meeting as if they haven't seen each other forever and they would always reminescene of the old times. And if we're talking about sacrifices here, Xu Ying floated on top of an ocean under the purple rain and also walked through hell and was willing to sacrifice her own life through the Rebirth Cave. Compared to the development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, the love development between Meng Hao and Xu Ying was definitely deeper and had more meaning. And they had the beauty pill as a symbol of the foundation fo their love.
Everyone can be great friends with each other, but not every man-woman interaction should turn into love. A great friendship development is always better than a forced love. Meng Hao could have chosen many other great women with top notch beauty like Chu Yuyan, but he chose Xu Ying, an ordinary woman that Meng Hao himself said. But that "ordinary" woman loved and cared for Meng Hao, and is also a person that Meng Hao loved back. The love was mutual; that's the important part.
我只是来打酱油的
thats why I prefer wang Lin much better because although he grew up faster mentally then MH he didnt act like a spoiled brat throughout his adventures (I have read until 450 - this is the basis of my opinion if he changes in the future than my opinion will change). And his development was clear from an innocent child with a dream to fly in the sky to a ruthless cultivator seeking revenge to a cultivator seeking to reach the top and help those who loved him or helped him... I don't know what would happen next but I'm sure it would have been better than watching MH show off...
I just hope the ending is satisfying. Otherwise my "rating" of the novel would fall several stars - which would be an utter shame...
I always thought ISSTH is at the peak and really great - even when compared to CD/ST/DE (which I enjoyed very much) - but during the latest chapters, I have to say that IET's stories may be better in the sense that there are no drastic slip-ups.
But I kind of wrote that off under "character count quota" which is really sad in itself. I'd much prefer chapters with no fillers at all - or some "digest version" killing off all the crap.
TBH on that part I believe Er Gen is really good compared to others where you have over 50% fillers. Latest MGA 2836 for instance ... entire chapters an utter waste of time.
I actually think that Meng Hao would be then considered immature and childish if he decides to accept Chu Yuyan's one-sided love and lead her on as a lover, despite not loving her the same as he would love Xu Ying, rather than be the mature person by cutting off any one-sided interest from Chu Yuyan because Xu Ying is truly the person that he does love and not leading Chu Yuyan on. Also, you say that Xu Ying even "encourages" Meng Hao to accept Chu Yuyan later on, but I feel like the author himself was forced to do that most likely because of his fans in the later stages of the novel. I've heard that harems are pretty popular when it comes to love relationships and aspects of Chinese novels. But I feel, based on how he wrote how Meng Hao and Xu Ying's love developed for each other, that if he did wrote what he really wanted to write, I feel he would have probably made Meng Hao cut off Chu Yuyan's one sided love. But then again, I've never met the author or if he has exclusively wrote on the topic about it.
Also, throughout the story from what I've read up until the latest translated chapters, I feel like there wasn't even much love connection between Meng Hao and Chu Yuyan. At least a mutual love connection, that is. From what I can remember from the top of my head, the only parts of the story where they "met" each other was under that ravine, the alchemist arc, poisoning event, and the windswept arc. When they were stuck in that ravine, some people say that Meng Hao felt some love connection for Chu Yuyan. But I personally disagree. First of all, they were stuck in there, so even if he wanted to, he could not get away from Chu Yuyan. Now, of course, Meng Hao could have just left her to her own and not help her, but he did help her. But that's not necessarily a sign of a love connection. You have to realize that the author firmly established Meng Hao as a righteous and noble scholar, who even very much hated killing at the start of the novel (yes, he did end up killing another cultivator, but not because he wanted to, but he even said in the story he killed the guy because he was forced to from the circumstances; him getting chased around.) So, why wouldn't a noble scholar like Meng Hao not help Chu Yuyan when they were stuck in the ravine, especially when they can live out the crisis better if they worked together. There's no love connection there, just survival. And yes, he did end up taking her out of the ravine when he could have chosen not to do so, but that's not necessarily a love connection either. Like I said, Meng Hao was established as a noble character. Despite being his rival's fiancee, he knew that as a mature noble person, that punishing others related to his rivals and others who did not have a direct connection to the hatred connection between Meng Hao and his rival at that time, would be just pathetic and would stain his character. As for the alchemist arc, Chu Yuyan mainly grew love for Meng Hao as Fang Hao. They barely even met besides Chu Yuyan knocking on Fang Hao's door and maybe some other instances, but in those other instances it was with Fang Hao, not Meng Hao that Chu Yuyan knew. And when she got poisoned, obviously Meng Hao would help her. Is Meng Hao seriously just gonna let a very close friend of his just die like that? lol. Not a love connection at all. And as for the Windswept Arc, she did make sacrifices for Meng Hao, especially when she sacrificed her cultivation. But at that point, Meng Hao has already firmly established his love for Xu Ying. It was just a tragic story at that point. There was character development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, but definitely no mutual love connection, if any, between them.
Now if you compare that to the development to Xu Ying and Meng Hao, it was definitely deeper. First, their initial developments, which were in the Reliance Sect. The beauty pill was a huge symbol for their relationship. Now, even after the Reliance Sect arc, there really wasn't much love development going on. At most it was just two people having strong bonds with each other because they knew each other. But, before their second meeting, Meng Hao would always comment on how he misses and worries for Xu Ying (not necessarily as a love interest, but definitely as friends. But at least that having a strong friend bond that preludes to a love relationship is definitely deeper than a one sided love). And whenever they would finally meet, the author would always establish the mood of their meeting as if they haven't seen each other forever and they would always reminescene of the old times. And if we're talking about sacrifices here, Xu Ying floated on top of an ocean under the purple rain and also walked through hell and was willing to sacrifice her own life through the Rebirth Cave. Compared to the development between Chu Yuyan and Meng Hao, the love development between Meng Hao and Xu Ying was definitely deeper and had more meaning. And they had the beauty pill as a symbol of the foundation fo their love.
Everyone can be great friends with each other, but not every man-woman interaction should turn into love. A great friendship development is always better than a forced love. Meng Hao could have chosen many other great women with top notch beauty like Chu Yuyan, but he chose Xu Ying, an ordinary woman that Meng Hao himself said. But that "ordinary" woman loved and cared for Meng Hao, and is also a person that Meng Hao loved. The love was mutual; that's the important part.