Many can understand how to ruin a Xianxia just by reading a bad review on Novelupdates about them.
They have repetitive arcs, repetitive 'young masters' who are looking for a beating, bland main characters, and so on... Though most of it is because Webnovel Authors in the east sometimes don't care about quality and add more quantity.
Their audience are a bunch of slobs who want a good underdog story that has a daily release schedule. They want template main characters they can project themselves onto without any consideration for character growth and so on.
When looking for Webnovels, you may see a lot of stories that have titles that is just 'Cultivation' but with a gimmick added on in the end. Maybe it's a Xianxia in an Apocalypse or maybe the main character is a spaceship. Anyway, what most people do when they tune in to read a Xianxia is see the face-slapping unfolding every five to ten chapters. They haven't come for a 'Great Tale'.
Now you may be confused by what I mean by saying this, so let me explain: Just like in my Underdog Trope Analysis, there are a lot of characters in Xianxia who fit the model of an underdog since this is a breeding factory for them.
The setting is just perfect for such a story. There is a divide between the talentless and the talented, it always features a corrupt government that favours the strong, there's petty injustices everywhere, and some virtuous people wanting to put a stop to it.
The magic aspects of a Xianxia work extremely similar to a LitRPG, but they use different ways of explaining level ups eastern culture. Since people like martial arts in the east, they bring that to the forefront and make imaginary levels and 'ranks' for those play out in an underdog story. This is a particular flavour of 'Underdog' you all know well.
They are not thoughtless, but they are also short-tempered. These Underdogs know the injustice of the world but can't do anything about it since common sense in a Xianxia promotes violence.
It is hard for organisations to stay strong when you are also having to consistently spend money on levelling up your members everyday... The 'Heavens' in these stories is basically like a Game Master who gives everyone a hard time in life.
There is a common misconception people of the west have when writing Xianxia, and that is that the cultural stuff added in a 'Immortal Hero (Xianxia) Genre Webnovel' are necessary for it to be good.
But I will come back to that explanation later as right now it is best to explain the common tropes:
Just like how you see in the common Hero's Journey format, the protagonist of these stories always has something he want to achieve, and most of the time in Xianxia's, that is enlightenment to become a Celestial entity above other people.
They start off from a low point and fight evil people, but fighting injustice is never their main goal. They seek understanding of culture and life through their battles, which can be considered more 'graceful' than fighting for fighting's sake.
The reason 'Immortals' (Eastern version of this word meaning more of a godly entity) mostly look like scholars in Xianxia is because their aesthetic is being able to fight but not seeking battle themselves. They only do and learn what they want to learn, unlike warriors who seek battle and generals who seek political and tactical might.
You will hear the 'Dao' mentioned a lot in these stories as they seek basically what Sun Wukong sought in Journey to the West: Enlightenment that can solve the initial problems they have at their core. Until they've found their answer or have done what they have had the ambition to do since the beginning, they won't stop their journey whatsoever. The ending of every good Xianxia is normally spiritual enlightenment that lets them live with their family peacefully or attaining their goal.
To reach that goal, they will overcome and survive any trials in their way. They will meet new people and go on their epic journey. You can consider Xianxia part Epic Fantasy like The Lord of the Rings in the regard. Though their personalities vary.
Some love the wonders of the world despite the cruelty that comes along with it, some are indignant and are unable to stop themselves from treating everyone as a potential enemy. This is why there are those that give off a slightly juvenile feel.
To go back to an earlier point, there is no need to worry about certain tropes people see all over this genre as long as you remember the core points of a Xianxia, and that is the 'Medicine Journey' structure before Mark Campbell transformed this ancient story template into a familiar collection of tropes we call the Hero's Journey in the present.
The Medicine Journey has 3 stages like this:
1. A problem exists which our ordinary understanding of the world cannot solve.
2. The protagonist must travel elsewhere to find the solution and search for the answers himself.
3. He returns back with the solution in hand. (The reason this is called the 'Medicine' Journey.)
Most Xianxia have added a bunch of eastern tropes to this to see the common format you see today.
Although deific figures, ancient heroes with big egos, martial arts, and mysterious forces of unknown or demonic origins have been in this genre since the beginning, power levels are different. Even how you conceptualise these tropes I've just listed out can be altered to fit a more western look if you feel like it as it's THAT EASY.
People read Xianxia for the action, but there are some experienced readers who have read all the tropes a million times before who just want something fresh every time they read it.
Story's like My Disciple Died Yet Again are parodies of Xianxia but it isn't like it's hard parodying a genre that constantly makes us in the west frustrated by certain tropes. My point is know whether your story is for new readers or more experienced readers before you write as there is always a chance you'll have to repeat arcs.
Just remember that in the end of the day, rather than copying jokes from a culture you are not familiar with, try turning the things you see into stuff that would give both you and the audience a look of intrigue. Like add 'Holy Swords' instead of Flying Swords and try using other kind of magic currency that is the standard Spirit Stones.
Techniques can also be westernised to a certain extent as long as the core of the story’s journey doesn’t change. The magic system in Xianxia’s are known to be so soft that literally anything will work as long as you explain it with a glib tongue.
You only gotta be great at being persuasive when speaking of magibabble and literally most people will ignore inconsistencies. After keeping all this in mind, you will be ready to write your story.
Thank you for reading and request more Analysis blogs like this in future! See you guys later~
Im trying to fuse or clash western and eastern fantasy in a few of my mental stories.
Usually i just want to dissect a trope that bothers me when i read xianxia and examine how i would have liked the trope to play out. I also like the xianxia magic abilities, i like martial arts stuff, but there are some aspects that bother me a lot. Like the ridiculous amount of time spent meditating, the constant use of drugs and medicine, and that ancient lost knowledge is always super strong, we are supposed to build off of our predecessors knowledge and improve! How is ancient knowledge that wasn't important enough to be remembered stronger that techniques that had an extra hundrad thousand years of refinement and adjustment!?
That’s how we westerners view it.
For them, it’s more like: ‘Sempai, that is so cool!! I I love how old age = power and not, well... age.’
@Love4NovelGuy thanks again for taking my request for this seriously. and one thing I've been curious about but what's the difference between xianxia and wuxia, 'cause honestly I really can't tell.
@Megamink That’s easy to explain:
Wuxia focuses on a Pugilistic World where people with exaggerated techniques fight each other. It has the same elements of a Xianxia but no immortal cultivation and stuff. Techniques are a little more grounded into reality yet still fictional.
Xianxia is all about the Spirit Stones and cultivation like Buddhist Monks where they sit to meditate in one place until they have self-justified themselves into enlightenment. These ones generally go to ‘Higher Realms’ to reach the path of Godhood.
@Megamink i also didn't know the difference until a recent post on NUF explained it, essentially wuxia is 'low fantasy' while xianxia is 'high fantasy'.
In wuxia the focus is martial arts and technuiques, flying is super difficult, and they find skillful use of qi more important than vast quantities of it, for example experts will show off by destroying a specific item on the table by tapping the table.
In xianxia the focus is more on cultivation then martial skill, so they meditate a lot more and for longer, their lifespan improves tremendously and sustenance becomes optional, sometimes even detrimental. They quickly gain the ability to fly and most of their "martial" techniques use some form of elemental form to create mid to long distance attacks
@Love4NovelGuy @drakensji oh. well, honestly smething that tends to turn me from these series are how cruel and arragont and cutthroat the characters are and can be. i know that's just part of the genre, but still it kinda does turn me away because in my eyes it's too much....and maybe they just seem too similar for me, and the stories feel like they have the same problem as isekais,they're all just way too similar. i mean i like isekais(minus how repetitive it is), but i guess to me it's the cruelty that makes it hard for me to handle it.
@Megamink I also had a lot of troble stomaching the chinese constant arrogance, all their characters both good and bad, are super arrogant. eventually i got used to it and could ignore it in the better written stories. I found that femal main characters and their stories have a more easily stomachable ambience
@drakensji i guess i read too many bad ones because i have trouble reading stories in these genres for the most part.
@Megamink i dread cultivation stories so much that if i see a tag for it, i run for the hills very quickly for the most part.
@Megamink so far the best cultivation novel i am reading is "birth of the demonic sword", it probably isnt eastern, it has quite a bit of western flavor to it. But the genre is completely cultivation xianxia. The main character is a bit cold and ruthless, bordering on evil by my standards
@drakensji one of the big things i tend to not like about cultivation novels is that alot of characters are cruel for amost no reason, i get that it's supposed to be a corrupt society, but when you first read these stories. You don't know that and that is what makes it a little difficult read, for me anyway. i was reading a semi cultivation story, that is also an isekai story. it's not truly cultivation, but it definitely has the qualities of cultivation, not nesecarily the genre too much, but more the principles fo it, i guess.
@Megamink I Shall Seal The Heavens is the best Xianxia while A Will Eternal is the best Comedy/Xianxia. I highly recommend them since you’ll definitely get a good chuckle out of the latter one.
@Love4NovelGuy i've heard of i shall seal the heavens, can't remember if i read that one, though. A will eternal i dunno if i've heard of it though
@Love4NovelGuy i have read xianxia, but that was ages ago, I'm not certain that i knew the difference between wuxia and xianxia, or the what was it xuanhuan or those other genres that aren't pure cultivation that feature magic or other fantasy elements.
@Megamink No worries, those stories are even good for those unfamiliar with the tropes, though they are even better if you DO know the tropes.
@Love4NovelGuy well, saying i read quite a few before i eventually got tired and even a little sick of them, then yes i'd say i kinda am, not quite certain if what i read was an xianxia or wuxia but i'm certain i read more of the former than the latter.
@Love4NovelGuy which is ironic becuase i use to read them on wuxia world.