This is an idea for a youtube video i want to work on but it might not happen, time will tell. However i do want to know the answer to this. Here is the question: What is your opinion on Cultivation novels In terms of answering that question, I do not mind if it is short and to the point, but id like longer and thought-out answers so that I have content to talk about myself as i shall be giving my opinion on the comments in this thread and try give my experience with the genre. If you find cultivation novels terrible, why is it? Is there a specific reason? Examples? If you find cultivation novels great, why is it? any novels stand out particularly? If this does well, and I actually create the video, then i shall be making more forum posts with random questions on the webnovel industry as a whole because i love this sort of stuff.
I don't think it's great. It might be because I've read a lot of cultivation genre and become bored of it. But even my first experience with reading such novels was quite mediocre. Even those that people consider a masterpiece like Er Gen's works are quite mediocre with some above average moments. The thing I dislike about the genre is the fact that the side characters are always left behind. I really hope that the side characters would at least be able to keep up and accompany the MC til the end, even if they don't reach the same standard as the MC. In that regard, I guess Er Gen's work are good because some side characters still can be relevant in the later arcs. Another thing I dislike is the fact that they always start at a backwater place of a backwater kingdom of a backwater world. Of course, I also have somethings that i like about it. Like the clear power level, although it can also be a negative. If a novel of cultivation genre can be a bit more creative, it can also be a great one. For example, I personally like a cultivation novel with the title "Absolute Great Teacher" as it focused more on the MC's students each with their own specialties and weaknesses. I also liked Library of Heaven's Path but it's very repetitive and doesn't focus as much on the students.
good cultivation novels - something where the MC doesn't have a hero-complex or is a harem magnet. God-complex is acceptable but rlly hard 2 pull off properly (don't recommend majority of those novels) - chill MC's in cultivation novels, although rare, r actually better quality Overall pretty difficult 2 find a good novel without the mass-produced cliches that r prevalent in majority
I can't say that I'm a fan of them, largely because the vast majority of the ones I've tried reading turns out to be an endless power fantasy that feels like it is progressing like some sort of MMORPG. It doesn't matter how many new locations and characters the author introduces, it will still feel repetitive if most of what the mc does is just a cycle of power ups so the mc can beat up stronger and stronger braindead enemies with about the same ease. The few ones I can honestly say that I've enjoyed in hindsight tend to be shorter ones that tried to put more focus on other things, like Ascending, Do Not Disturb, though even that one got rather bogged down by the more typical tropes toward the end.
I have no strong feeling towards the genre one way or the other, it's just a thing, among many other things.
I liked them a lot better when they were wuxia novels. The main issue that I have with the current crop of cultivation novels is just uncompelling they are. The impression that I get is that all too many are about the push and the process of constantly getting stronger. While, sure it's something that's pretty easy to write, but it doesn't feel meaty enough to be worth checking out.
I'm all in on cultivation as a concept, have an idea for one with an actual story, just idk what the deal is with Chinese authors and why they write the way they do. I hate that cultivation novels are viewed this way, this stupid stigma will carry over to other original authors that want to inject cultivation into actual stories. The main problem is a good story is about something, and becoming strong to the top of the universe isn't a compelling something. Never will be without there being something else to it.
I personally have a love/hate relationship with cultivation novels as they are good fillers when I have nothing to read. They're plain and it's always a template + different names but they have a lot of chapters so it's a never ending supply. If I don't have extra time then I will stay away from cultivation novels. Here's the template to writing a cultivation novel: 1. Arrogant young master, Mc goes face slapping. 2. Mc levels up. 3. Mc gets beauty. 4. Repeat step 1. See I just wrote a cultivation novel. Very repetitive but there are a lot of them.
The thing is, wuxia writers figured this out ages ago and their books serve as blueprints on how to pull it off. However, it's a lot more effort to write than the common cultivation novels so these blueprints don't get followed so much. What's funny is that it's obvious that cultivation novel writers have all read up the wuxia writers but they've been learning the wrong lessons from it.
I've only ever read one unique cultivation novel. Every other novel just uses the same old plots. It's either "I was betrayed by my friends in the immortal realm and have to start over," "My fiancee was stolen from me, I'm going to show her and slap the face of the guy she left me for," or "Everyone picks on me. I'll show them!" Like, can we have some actual mature stories instead of this repetitive childishness? It also doesn't help when every story has fights that are 27 chapters long and most of those chapters are describing one character performing A SINGLE MOVE and how supposedly cool and awe-inspiring he looks while performing it.
In my opinion Chinese cultivation novels tends to have the same Repetitive story over and over, the same genre like arrogant characters, harem(which I hate the most) the story gets to long and when you find your self halfway the story you are already bored by it. I think most Chinese authors have inferiority complex issues
The concept and methodologies utilised by characters in Cultivation Novels is something I find interesting, and I especially enjoy reading about the characters ranking up and the tribulations they undergo. That said, most Cultivation Novels have issues with the middle of their story. In that the author doesn't exactly know what to do for it, with the end result being "Great Opening Act, Decent Following Act or Two, Middle 500~1500 chapters is boring, Fairly Decent Act Towards The End, Acceptable to Terrible or Stock Standard End". World of Cultivation, for example, has 915 chapters. In those chapters, opening starts, MC get's Ghostly Grandpa, learns secrets to cultivating that his sect wouldn't give him due to their origin being non-human that MC's better suited for, MC develops with crafting skills aiding him becoming someone of note and authority. Plot happens and MC no longer has authority, and the benefits of his crafting skills start to fall to the wayside over time as MC becomes stronger. Thus starts the cycle that constantly repeats in this story, where MC becomes someone of authority utilising his crafting skills, outgrows his gear, and then remembers to make himself gear suitable for his level after he get's his ass kicked, becoming someone of authority in the process of crafting. Immortal Executioner (aka Zhanxian) has so much waffling about that, despite the interesting start to the story, there's nothing going on for a significant number of the chapters. MC gets reincarnated back into his past body, with his memories from when he was living as a tortured immortal due to the people in authority in both the immortal and mortal realms being related douches and him not submitting to said douches. He returned knowing a potential improvement technique that a villain related to his death utilised, as well as an execution of immortals that would happen around the time he returned to, using a mortal executioner due to situations. MC takes the opportunity to become an executioner temporarily to utilise the execution of the immortals to improve his base potential, while learning where they left all their goodies on the mortal plane. He gets through the execution, plot happens, and purposefully becomes the student of his old sect master again, before building himself a small harem of 4 or 5 girls from memory (they all know about each other). Now, if the story was just MC flirting with his girls and crushing the sect that tortured him in his last life, it could easily be 500 to 1000 chapters. It's 1330 chapters long, with a few story arcs dedicated to MC doing thing X for minor reason Y, that gives insignificant benefit Z. I believe that one arc, that could have easily been 75~200 chapters, was MC and Harem Member C living as mortals for a mortal's lifetime because they could or something, I'm fairly certain the reason I saw was insignificant enough to forget immediately. Now, there are decent, if not great, cultivation novels out there. But if you're reading a Chinese Translation Cultivation Novel, you will need to either be willing to skip up to dozens of chapters at once and hope you can continue to follow the story (which is depressingly easy, particularly around the middle of these stories), or be willing to read through a slog of a story.
oh btw watch this those two will give you at least intro toward cultivation story which can enrich your video
Personally I still enjoy cultivation novels, even though I read my first one years ago now. Obviously the genre has a lot of problems, including repetitiveness, forgettable and shallow characters and of course cliches. That being said, I don't think that cliches or tropes are inherently bad, it's more a question of how you use them and how good you are at implementing them. Sadly most xianxia authors use cliches as cheap writing tools to save time and effort, and I believe it has a lot to do with the webnovel publication system as a whole. You can't reasonably expect authors to release chapters on a daily basis while maintaining a decent writing quality after hundreds of chapters, it's just not sustainable in the long run. I've even read some cultivation novels in which you could clearly see the tipping point, the exact moment when the author reached the end of what he had planned in his draft and went full improv. Needless to say, it never ended very well. Now, I can think of a couple reasons as to why I still like cultivation novels to this day. - First off, I enjoy chinese fantasy. Simple as that. I like the characteristic worldbuilding of xianxia novels, the ancient China atmosphere, and all the concepts usually involved, from cultivation sects to having several planes of existence. I also like the very idea of cultivation, all the mysticism surrounding it, the typical taoist and buddhist mythology and all of that. For example I very much enjoy reading chapters explaining in details the cultivation system of a novel, or having a whole chapter (or even two) detailing how the MC is making a breakthrough and what's happening inside his body/mind etc. - Second, I like power fantasy novels. And xianxia are kings in this category (alongside LitRPG novels). I've seen quite a lot people saying that they don't like how overblown xianxia are with their ridiculous numbers : authors are always talking about gazillions of people, billions of years and millions of km. But hey, I like it. What can I say. For me it's so ridiculous and grandiloquent that it goes through the roof and somehow becomes cool. I mean it's always kinda badass to have DBZ-level fights with actual gods who can destroy continents and create huge ass rifts across the whole planet with a single strike. Plus it's always nice to see some good authors like IET who manage to actually use the concept well and integrate it in their worldbuilding. Speaking of fights tho I've always kinda had a problem with the combat scenes. They're not very good. It always just comes down to who has the higher cultivation base or the best treasure/weapon/technique. You can never feel an actual flow in the battle, they're always just throwing techniques/treasures at each other and it feels kinda artificial. So most of the time the fight in itself isn't that interesting, what really sells it are the stakes surrounding it. Who is the MC fighting against ? For what ? What is at risk ? Who is in danger ? That sort of things. If the author manages to establish a modicum of tension and/or hype then the scene will work. But sadly most of them use a cheap writing tool to artificially create this hype : the peanut gallery. Probably one of my most hated cliches in cultivation novels. What's worse is that they didn't even invent the concept, but I've yet to read a single xianxia that can execute it decently and, above all, doesn't abuse it. So for me the ideal cultivation novel should have the perfect mix between quality worldbuilding and good, non-cringeworthy power fantasy elements (yeah I haven't really talked about that but it's another huge issue of this genre). In this regard I kinda like IET. As an author he embodies pretty well the flaws and qualities of the genre. His characters are shit but his worldbuilding is always top tier.
most cultivation novels i’ve read have been obnoxious long and drawn out. It’s fun to read along as the mc levels up and fights whatever relative/ enemy on their bad side. But after 1000 chapters things start to get repetitive.
My favourite cultivation novel was My Discipple Dies Yet Again. There was cultivation, (a good) transmigration, humour, some twists and it wasn't boring at all. The thing I don't like about cultivation novels most of the time is that they are too long, I mean, they have at least 1500 chapters where the things just repeat again and again, there is nothing new. I detest novels where the harem members are there only to be vases and only the MC gets action. I like a good jaw drop from the audience, but that just becomes meaningless if there are beauties among them who won't even do that, they will just stand looking smugly and stare at the MC with hearts in their eyes. They are not even funny or cute anymore. I also don't like that in many romance cultivation novels the MC's love interest is more powerful or higher in rank and is trying to pamper her. And while I like the cold that doesn't mean that I only need cold love interests. In these novels I would rather ship the side characters instead of the main couple.