The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#1
What is a story?

I guess it's something you read to pass your time for the goal of entertainment.

The goal of a story is for the writer to express himself in his own way.

But who cares about what a writers truly trying to express through letters?

Nobody, and I mean nobody.

Even I don't care about who wrote some of my favourite fictions.

All I care about is one thing.

And that is what I like about the story.

I don't care how the writer if an amateur teen or an skilful old man.

If their story is good then it's good. If you've read up to this and haven't just skipped to the bottom, then I commend you for being such a patient person.

Moving on, what kinds of stories do I like as your average, everyday reader?

Don't bullsh*t me and ask why I'm not asking you about your thoughts, if you've read this description then you know I'm here to be long-winded.

I like just about anything that can properly get its point across and is entertaining to read throughout the writers journey as he explores Meg concepts. What I like is when people have the guts to write no matter how they think others feel about their work.

It shows motivation, it shows that even if your characters are flawed and unreasonable, it shows that you as a writer are a person who loves to write.

I commend you amateur writers.

I commend you for your ingenuity in trying keep your works fresh and new.

Now don't get embarrassed because I might curse you later on if I read you're works that have horrendous English.

Now let me try and put my meaningless thoughts onto this as an outlet.

What's with martial artist in xianxia novels anyway? Why are they always cardboard cutouts of the same formula.

If you've read My Disciple Died Yet Again on Novelupdates, a breakdown of the Xianxia tropes, you'd see that there are a lot of bullsh*t written these days- No, if you've read a bunch of Xianxia novels you'd realise the same thing: Reincarnated Xianxia MC's are f*cking morale-less d*ckheads.

What do I mean by that? Let's go back and think of a novel I hated to my very core: Peerless Martial God

Don't get me wrong. When I first read the story, it was my second Xianxia I read after Coiling Dragon, so I found it quite good at the time I read it.

However, after reading things like ISSTH and World of Cultivation, I've come to the conclusion that most writers only know how to write one kind of male protagonist in a novel.

You might have wrote a similar book and have done the Xianxia tropes I have listed justice, but I'm here to talk about my thoughts, so stop reading this if you think I'm aiming at you.

1. Protagonists NEED a Harem.

It's not that a protagonist can't be faithful to one girl, it's just that he doesn't want to, because 'beauty'.

A protagonist who sees a beautiful girl needs to stick to her until he's done messing around with her, then move on to the next harem target near him.

Some people do the harem genre justice by showing how the Female Leads would fight for their lovers affection or not accept the each others existence unless there's a very good reason for them to like each other.

The novel named Sevens does this in a good way by making it so each female harem member has their own reasons for being part of the MC's harem. Some have affection for him, some just want to stick with him because he has a lot of strength, and the list goes on.

However, most writers decide that such interactions are unnecessary and that adding more reasons to love that girl through an entire 'arc' is passable.

Well, I'm here to tell you stupid writers who were about to make a Xianxia about a protagonist who is supposed to be likeable that it's not passable at all.

Take the likes of Against the Gods as an example of why you shouldn't try to force in harem members because 'plot'.

The MC loses his girl and decides that he will live his new life brightly.

He has a fiancé, who he marries, then is forced to grow stronger in order to gain a place in the irrational world he was in and in order for him to survive.

The first part of Against the Gods was amazing because of how unique the character was and his shamelessness.

And no, I don't mean he was a lustful *sshole that chased around women, I mean the Meng Hao type of shamelessness that really gets us to laugh with his antics as he grew.

That was until the real idiocy of the novel came along and he had a bunch of 'love stories' with different women.

All of them, who for some stupid reason, don't know if each other's existence or a completely fine with him going and being an adulterous b*tch!

You can write love stories, you can say that their hearts connected because they went through life and death together, but how the hell is a guy supposed to truly 'love' a big harem.

Does he remember all of their names?

Good, then does he remember which girl he slept with first and last? What bullsh*t writer calls this 'true love'?

It's basically Disney style for them because now that he saved them from some horror, they HAVE to like him for one reason or another, no exceptions.

Some writers take a step beyond that and make the girls 2D images of whatever fetish they might have and not even try to characterise them.

Take Martial God Asura as an example of this, do you remember the name of even one of his harem members? If you do, do you even remember their name?

I especially hate it when some character is just supposed to be a b*tch because that's their character trope.

Take the misuse of the Tsundere trope as an example. People like Tsundere's because they are a lot more entertaining than cute girls who don't talk much and blush all the time, but just making a girl hyperactive like a guerrilla just 'because she's a Tsundere and no other reason' doesn't cut it.

You can't simply write that a girl has anger management issues then call her a Tsundere! Now I'm gonna have to mention a Tsundere done right.

Toradora, Monogatori series, perhaps someone has already made a list on YouTube on different dere tropes.

Getting back to the main point, you can't just personify a character as a Dere trope, a female lead must have their own motivations other than the MC. Though doing that for side characters is acceptable in such a story.

After you've written a female lead, you must not let them become 'baggage that must because females are useless in a fight' because that sexism right there. Who says a female can't be badass? I'm sure that there's many none revenge-driven/special/reincarnated female leads in other novels that are strong and wise.

Having a Female Lead doesn't mean having a damsel in distress that can't do anything without the help of the MC. A Female Lead must at least grow to become stronger in such a story or they'll just become cannon fodder for the MC's enemies that are really strong.

Look, I get that girls usually have less physical strength in such novels, but a Xianxia is a world with magical power called Qi, who says a girl who uses Qi to defend herself HAS to be weak?

In fact, compared to blockhead guys who normally use force, shouldn't girls be more skilful in utilising Qi? Do the only things special about women in Xianxia's have to be their Physiques?

Oh and let's just not mention that physique in ATG that made the Female Lead a universal target for all cultivators under the sun. In fact, just adding sexual elements to cultivation just makes it sound retarded, so just fucking a girl for a few days equals power? Why doesn't everyone in a Xianxia world use it if it's so awesome.

Oh yeah, because most of the time such methods are 'evil', and all the general population of a Xianxia world that's usually showed as morale-less and selfish who'd do anything for power actually care about right or wrong.

It was a good concept when it was used in Martial World, within a faction of the first Sect he joined, but the execution was done wrong due to them saying that such people are naturally evil. If you're going to use such a mature element in your novel, just don't turn it into a reason to turn females into sex objects, a dark part of society doesn't have to be all evil.

Sometimes, people just have their circumstances, maybe some are not evil but misguided in the path of cultivation or something. Either way, objectifying woman in novels is just stupid.

Stories like this are what get on my nerves the most, they portray the protagonist as a saint who's doing the girl a favour by sleeping with them and basically turning those Harem members into a target for his enemies.

The next thing closely relates to this.

2. Antagonists = stupid motherf*ckrs.

Every antagonist has to be evil for the sake of being an evil guy with no other motives than to d*ck around.

They are characters who the readers compare the MC to and think: Isn't the MC fricking Jesus-like in this world?

There's no antagonist that is against the main character for a good reason.

In Dragon-Marked Martial God, these kinds of evil mob-like antagonists were actually very good since they were fleshed out as template photocopies the MC knew about of beforehand. They were interesting despite their lack of depth due to the Author's ingenuity.

But other people just don't understand how these enemies are supposed to play out. They tend to just get a random strong guy, make him somehow bump into the MC, then the action of punching each other pursues.

They don't have any other meaning than fighting each other or becoming a stepping stone for the MC's glory.

They pop out the bushes everywhere like Pokemon, but these are the kind the MC HAS to either cripple or kill.

It's not like they have to be written in such a way. Some authors do a good job of showing a misunderstanding between the MC and antagonist.

In fact, the other guy might not even be an antagonist, since you could write it like a the difference in views caused them to have no choice but to fight.

That's not saying that cardboard cutout antagonists are bad, nope, you just have to write more about the reason they do what they do in the first place.

If you're a really good writer and want to make a memorable antagonist. Make one that actually wins against the MC without losing anything in return. An antagonist that really makes the MC feel powerless due to his strength and scheming mind. Such characters are ones that people love seeing defeated.

I remember that the only true villain that kept me engaged was from True Martial World, it was a villain that had his own backstory, his own potential.

He wasn't just some snob who's going to get his *ss handed to him by the main character, he was guy who you hated to the bone, but also understood somewhat and sympathised with even after he got his just desserts.

He was an antagonist that was stronger than the MC and defeated him in battle. No plot armour helped the MC win by default nor was there some sudden master popping up and saving the MC plus family at the last moment.

The MC lost in an unfair battle, and was caged as a result. Even though he was in the right, the Antagonist was just that strong and scheming.

He was a true antagonist that made me hate his personality to the bone, but I never got tired of seeing him be trampled upon by the MC, the one who at least had some morales in his heart.

Maybe I'm just ranting about nothing.

Maybe adding antagonists like that would waste too much time for the author to flesh out. But either way, you can't just say someone is evil because they are evil, there must at least be something that makes them hated.

Like greed, anger, a judgemental personality, whatever is fine really. It just has to be a reason that's believable.

Now let's look at the most important point that I really hate in Xianxia's.

3. Morale-less or retarded MC's

Writers are addicted to portraying their characters as the personification of Jesus who can never do wrong, even if they kill, rape or murder people.

Take Martial God Asura as an example of this. The MC is a pitiful guy, other people plotted against him that made him like an 'Asura', but his whole attitude towards it was like: 'I'm still a good person even if I act retarded.'

Oh wait, how could I have forgotten to mention the 'Anti-Heroes' who are good people despite being *sshats.

You can write that character is morally wrong and be done with it, but if you try adding an excuse on top of it, the story becomes really retarded fast.

Anti-Heroes are generally people who you can emphasise with, not sympathise with, because murdering is bad no matter how you look at it.

If you want your character to be a villain, then make him a villain, don't try to make him an abomination that tells the reader how sad he is after doing something so ridiculously sinful!

I remember a scene in Limitless Sword God (I think it was called.) where the MC raped a girl and started to say useless shit about how he is still in the right while he was doing the deed.

Rape, Murder, and every other crime is a crime no matter how you put it. A long explanation on why the character is good despite doing that is bullshit.

Someone who does such things for survival can be forgiven to a certain extent depending on circumstances.

I remember a scene in Wu Dong Qian Kun where the MC was barely still morally right because his will was messed up by a mind technique.

The girl he was trying to talk sense into really wanted to cut off his manhood and ruin his cultivation to save her own life. Plus, it was her fault for not checking whose tomb she was robbing anyway because that guy she wanted to steal from was completely bananas.

Now, making the girl unlikable and then putting a scene where he 'accidentally' rapes her isn't forgivable in its own right. Just because a beautiful female hates you, it doesn't mean that you've suddenly earned a rape pass, because it wrong on so many levels that I just can't describe.

However, if you were to write a scene where the rape part was unable to be avoided like in that Jewel Kingdom thing... (Can't remember that other novel the author of Dalu Douluo wrote.) Then it can at least be forgiven in some extend depending on how the two react to it. And yes, I meant the both of them, because how the girl takes it matters more than the guy.

Have you ever heard of a story that depicts the guy getting raped as something unforgivable? The guys heart doesn't matter in such cases even if he is regretful of what happened. The sadness he experienced will never be able to compare to the girls trauma.

If you want to make an antagonist out of the MC instead and skip the girls feelings, then never justify criminal acts like that as something 'good'.

Never pull a MGA and say that the MC is regretful before moving on.

Either way, whether the MC is right or wrong, he will always be on the 'light side of the force'. The antagonists on the other hand will always be on the 'dark side'. Everybody will hate them regardless of why they do their evils.

Let me tell you writers, yes, I'm talking to you there who was about to pick his pencil up to write about your saintly protagonist who never does wrong.

An MC's imperfections make him more human. I'm not saying give him reasons to be a complete d*ckhead, I'm saying that imperfections are fine.

Take the MC from stories like Otherworldly Evil Monarch and Realms in the Firmament as a good example of this. The MC's make mistakes and lose battles because of their mistakes. They are MC's that sometimes don't understand those mistakes themselves, that's why the writer addresses them and makes a joke out of their lovable antics.

Those MC's are a lot more believable than your average high schooler becoming the saint of the realm because he's the only good guy.

That's not to say that I hate goody two shoe MC's, since those nice guys are nice to read, but even in the end of that they are not memorable at all.

In fact, I know that murder is normal in a dystopian society with a Xianxia world, but saying murder is right because of it doesn't sound believable.

In Chaotic Sword God, the MC kills a guy within a restaurant and everyone just decides to ignore it as if it was none of their business to judge.

However, such a scene is unrealistic for many simple and obvious reasons.

For example: Even if you live in a world where the murder count has already crashed through the roof, would you not be scared of a psychopath who kills people in broad daylight?

Wu Dong Qian Kun is known for its good fight and bullshit power jumping that doesn't make sense, but even that had a lot more believable world built.

Killing may be the norm for Xianxia worlds in general, but making Xianxia worlds that don't at least put Life and Death Arenas for bitter hatred doesn't make the sense, at least it shows that some authority is keeping order.

Also, saying why the MC is smart isn't enough for the reader to judge his intellect, you must show and not tell when it comes to that type of stuff.

Just by saying an MC's certain action is ingenious won't make him one. Since it will only display how much of a retard he is if he can't continuously make such decisions throughout the novel.

If the MC is just a regular guy who somehow thought of a ingenious idea due to seeing the problem in a different perspective, the character will look less retarded later on when he makes mistakes, because that will showcase how he isn't a perfect person.

Which now brings me to the last one.

4. The MC is a special OP existence

Writers tend to make special MC's for the sake of spicing up the plot, but in a world where the distance between the MC and those around him grow to a level it becomes unsurpassable is what turns the readers off from Xianxia's.

Only stories like Undefeated God of War that have a likeable MC that is surrounded by a cast of interesting characters can be forgiven for having an MC that can't be beaten. Actually, it is not like the MC of that novel can't be beaten, it's just that he's basically an immortal cockroach that always survives no matter how dangerous the situation becomes for him.

Which is normal because he's the MC, no reader truly expects their MC to die because he was beaten by someone.

Even if he loses a battle, all he needs is to learn from his mistakes, and grow stronger as climbs to the worlds peak.

Take Naruto as an example- And yes, I mean that Naruto anime you probably threw to the side after the shipuden ruined the entire ninja experience.

I'm not going to talk about how everyone turned into overpowered mages that could shoot of bullshit spells with fast-paced hand signs.

What I'm going to talk about is how you were REALLY affected as time went on in the naruto franchise.

The main character was a special guy who had an OP fox inside of him, but what really made him special wasn't his strengths, but his weaknesses.

He was a guy used basic tactics to fight his enemies and lost horribly. He grew stronger with other as the anime progressed like any other character.

However, the change from that reckless and special teen in the first half and the saintly guy in the second half made all the other fleshed out characters meaningless when sh*t hits the fan.

Like when Pain destroyed the Leaf Village and the only thing they could do was sit tightly while watching Naruto fight for the village without help.

In most Xianxia's, those characters we all liked in the beginning are all thrown aside because they can't keep up with the MC's improvements and are unable to harm him in any sort of way.

The MC is always invincible, and even if his weakness is exploited, he's like Superman who's been exposed to cryptonite or whatever.

The MC can be special, but if he's too special the whole meaning of him interacting with others becomes another part of slice of life, they never make a difference because he's strong.

Well, it's not like you can't have someone who's both special but has room to grow. But like I said before, he must lose a battle completely if you ever want him to look like he actually struggles, no exceptions allowed.

He can be saved after having his ass handed to him, because if he doesn't then the story would end, what's important is to always showcase that there's always someone stronger.

Peerless Martial God and many other Xianxia's do this by having the MC get chased, but fleeing from a battle isn't losing, it's just a draw. Allowing your character to understand his weaknesses like in Absolute Choice is what you must do in order to flesh him out.

A special MC doesn't make him perfect.

If you are able to think of more things you hate about MC's in Xianxia's, just comment your honest thoughts.

Also, this isn't advice nor is it genuine criticism, it's just me writing a rant and blowing a fuse due to insomnia.

Well then, I'm out, see you later.[/align]
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RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#3
Why is your huge post aligned with the right side? Do you know how much of a pain that makes it too read? Not only did you write a rant about xanxia tropes, something people have read plenty of times, but you aligned it on the right. So basically anyone who might have been willing to read that huge post, probably lost interest when they saw this huge, right aligned, rant. Just saying, go back and aligned it left.

@skullcyber There is the anti-hero tag. It is somewhat similar to evil mc. Not exactly the same but it is similar. I imagine you can find evil mc's searching under that tag.

RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#4
'TheGreatWhiteNortherner' pid='820438' dateline='1484386039' Wrote: Why is your huge post aligned with the right side? Do you know how much of a pain that makes it too read? Not only did you write a rant about xanxia tropes, something people have read plenty of times, but you aligned it on the right. So basically anyone who might have been willing to read that huge post, probably lost interest when they saw this huge, right aligned, rant. Just saying, go back and aligned it left.

@skullcyber There is the anti-hero tag. It is somewhat similar to evil mc. Not exactly the same but it is similar. I imagine you can find evil mc's searching under that tag.

true, but its a pain reading stories that don't have the type of mc you want since not all authors will say there mc is evil or neutral in the summary.

RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#5
REPLY RANT! MUAHAHAHA!

I agree with all of your points but disagree with the notion that none of them can be done properly. You can have a harem done right (maybe Mushoku Tensai style but probably more like a romcom cheating story where the harem is hidden and the reveal is part of the plot and leads to conflict) Having a dumb villain can be fun in a comedy/light story, but I agree, a serious story needs a smart villain (most of the time.)

MCs that are evil/arguably evil but portray themselves as just/good can be done well. Nabokov does this particularly well in pale fire and lolita. You just need to be a master author, make sure the reader still hates the character/realizes their questionable morality etc. I find that internet readers don't give their authors the benefit of the doubt when it comes to MC morals (seen several stories where people complain of hypocrisy without waiting for new chapters or caring for the author's intentions.) Then again, as you've noted above, that isn't the average reader's fault. They've been bombarded with so much "MC IS ALWAYS RIGHT!" in webnovels that they immediately assume other authors are doing the same thing when the MC tells the other characters to "not kill animals." (disclosure, that's from my fic. Someone complained the MC's morals were hypocritical, without realizing that that was the point. The MC kills animals in chap 1, but suddenly doesn't want to do that anymore after several things happen.) Again, I feel it is the author community's duty to bring more morally varied characters to our audiences, but I'd like to add that some RRl readers would do well to not carry their expectations/experiences from other webnovels over to other novels.

Finally, OP MCs. The genre itself is interesting and I feel like your statements were a little blanketing. Some OP MC stories (think superman) manage to bring in different angles of OPness and the struggles associated with it. Some of superman's best stories are ones in which he doesn't get challenged physically as much as he gets challenged emotionally or morally. (kingdom come, all star superman, red son)

So yeah, sorry for the rant. Just wanted to respond because I liked your analysis.
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RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#7
Well, that's a rant I can agree with. I have not read overly many Xianxia's, having only recently dared myself into trying them out but the points you've given already are putting themselves in the way of my enjoyment. I was lucky to first start with a decent MC, interesting side characters and decent power curve and was really eager to find more stories like that. However, the more I read others, the more annoyed I got. In one story, it seems like all enemies are just there to be killed by the mc. There's no other way to deal with them but to kill the lot of them. Again and again. Even neutral side-characters end up killed because they act a bit greedy. Like seriously, is there no other way to solve your problems besides murder? I understand that your sect has been suppressed and you, as its main talent, are to be hunted down but what's with all those special treatments accorded to you for killing, random trinkets that kill enemies ten times above your power level and killing everyone in sight? It's like reading someone's rpg adventure where they go around slaughtering everyone with a top level account while wearing beginner robes and pretending to be a newbie.

Then another story has a talentless MC that achieves things in a month that people in five years  manage or not. Like seriously? I understand that he has to move fast to be a peerless talent but make it somewhat believable. Just how bad everyone else is for the 'talentless' mc to be that great with just a little extra help from that little special trinket he received to become the mc? On top of that, the only goal the mc has is to become strong. I don't know about others, but being strong just for the sake of being strong sounds hollow to me. It doesn't sound like a human being to me but a robot. Something I can't identify with whatsoever. Then how am I supposed to be interested to read on?

I haven't read a single story with a harem tag yet and so far haven't seen anything encouraging to try any of them out. Even if one out of a hundred is good, I feel like that's not exactly worth the effort of sifting through the rest that make no sense and would only make me want to bang my head against the table, questioning human intelligence.
Dream Chaser - After the world got destroyed, four people find themselves in a society under the feet of an Energy user. It is their wish to survive and help those around them, but how do you fight an opponent that can shape the whole world as they see fit? 

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You might want to think twice before you try to use a man's conscience against him. It might just turn out he doesn't have one.


RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#8
i started avoid any "wuxia", "martial artists", "xianxia" fictions after i read like 2 of the kind =))
after skimming through this type of stories, i came to a conclusion of how to write 1 of such: (a bit exaggerating but meh lol)

1. there got to be harem

2. all/atmost all heroine(s) 'fall for' MC 'at 1 fking 1st sight', some with twisted interest like a M or S =)))

3. 'spit/spout/spat/... mouthful of blood'

4. 'God', 'Heaven', 'Immortal', 'Dao', 'Emperor', 'King', 'Dragon',....or any other 'O'-Mighty' words

5. ranking, 'Low/Medium/High' '...-SSS-SS-S-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-....' / '1-2-3-4-...Star' 'Magnus/Warrior/Knight-...', with overly physically impossible strength like being able to shatter mountains with 1 punch, 1/3 higher rank xxx can go against 100 1/3 lower rank xxx

6. heroine(s) (~95% of the time) gotta be virgins, beauties non can be compared

7. even though it's stated countless time in countless xianxia fictions that strength, 'type of cultivation technique/martial art' means power, i still can't get used to stuff like the so-called retainer guys always gotta be weaker than their 'bosses', and 'kings', 'emperors',...are always some kind of last boss, with 'A rank this, SSS rank that'

8. and of course, meditation, cultivation, martial artist 'technique'/'legacy'/'blood'/'sect'/... can't be absent, together with the yoga-like meditation postures Neutral

RE: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#11
'batotit' pid='834858' dateline='1526135027' Wrote: Sorry, I'm not gonna read that wall.

A few lines in and my eyes glazed over.

Just one question, if you hate the genre enough that you need to rant about it, then why just not read it and move on?

You are probably correct, but if everyone just kept their opinions in, the forums wouldn’t exist.


I just think that you guys need to read classics like the Water Margin, how an evil magistrate plotted to take one of the heroes out because his wife is beautiful. It’s today’s modern culture that made harems a thing.

That said, I think this Is all about preference. I like classic wuxia stories because it of their themes, like piety, patriotism and struggles from living in a world full of violence. Xianxia is a mixed bag as I can only name one classical novel, but I am pretty sure it is a ghost story and not xianxia.

Well, enjoy your readings and to each his own.

Re: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#12
Skipped a bit, I'll go back over it after I write this, I've seen one who killed his entire family and bathed in their blood to increase his talent. Although, he was marked as outright evil, he did masquerade as a reasonable person in-front of them though. To be fair, they were jerks, and they didn't even try to sugarcoat it.

The problem with many of these stories is that the writers seem to write many thousands of chapters and millions of words just to hit some sort of quota, most likely tossing up a chapter or more every-day and just shovelling anything they can to squeeze every drop of cash they can.

And then, folks go ahead and translate those stories and that's what we all end up with. This is particularly the case for bottom of the bucket stories like MGA, ATG, etc. which I wouldn't even bother looking at again, they are just too terrible. Also, the culture over in China is a little different to what you'd find acceptable and it spills over in the extreme particularly in the bottom of the bucket.

Re: The Xianxia Rant (Bias and Harsh for the me to just vent.)

#13
'mlovolm' Wrote: i started avoid any "wuxia", "martial artists", "xianxia" fictions after i read like 2 of the kind =))
after skimming through this type of stories, i came to a conclusion of how to write 1 of such: (a bit exaggerating but meh lol)

1. there got to be harem

2. all/atmost all heroine(s) 'fall for' MC 'at 1 fking 1st sight', some with twisted interest like a M or S =)))

3. 'spit/spout/spat/... mouthful of blood'

4. 'God', 'Heaven', 'Immortal', 'Dao', 'Emperor', 'King', 'Dragon',....or any other 'O'-Mighty' words

5. ranking, 'Low/Medium/High' '...-SSS-SS-S-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-....' / '1-2-3-4-...Star' 'Magnus/Warrior/Knight-...', with overly physically impossible strength like being able to shatter mountains with 1 punch, 1/3 higher rank xxx can go against 100 1/3 lower rank xxx

6. heroine(s) (~95% of the time) gotta be virgins, beauties non can be compared

7. even though it's stated countless time in countless xianxia fictions that strength, 'type of cultivation technique/martial art' means power, i still can't get used to stuff like the so-called retainer guys always gotta be weaker than their 'bosses', and 'kings', 'emperors',...are always some kind of last boss, with 'A rank this, SSS rank that'

8. and of course, meditation, cultivation, martial artist 'technique'/'legacy'/'blood'/'sect'/... can't be absent, together with the yoga-like meditation postures Neutral
Don't forget this phrase: "You're courting death!"