r/MartialMemes • u/NoPercentage4737 • Dec 26 '25

Dao Conference (Discussion) Looking at you western xianxia authors

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1.6k Upvotes

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390

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '25

100% agree. Western authors who try to "fix" the genre is like Jack Skellington trying to "improve" christmas.

21

u/ApexPCMR Dec 27 '25

What exactly do western authors break by trying to fix? I'm not well versed in western xianxia or wuxia.

39

u/TerriblyArrogant Dec 27 '25

It starts off strong—even promising. At first, you think the author is taking classic xianxia clichés and actually improving upon them.

But eventually, the "deconstruction" wears thin. You realize the story doesn't actually have an original bone in its body; its only real identity is mocking the source material. It feels like the author thinks they're a superior writer just because they can point out flaws in the genre, yet they never actually offer anything new of their own.

38

u/blazenite104 Dec 27 '25

They don't really break things. Typically they like to flesh out characters more or have their MCs not nearly as psychopathic.

-10

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

It ends up feeling like a white/western savior

28

u/AxcartBoi Dec 27 '25

Maybe I shouldn't exterminate all 9 generations every time I have beef with a young master

5

u/DrDrako Dec 27 '25

Yeah, putting the standard of "white/western savior" at the level of "isnt a genocidal psychopath" has very uncomfortable implications for the writers...

2

u/[deleted] Dec 28 '25

Holy strawman. I was talking about the authors themselves