thoughts on cultivation based novels to discuss

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Geor, May 14, 2022.

?

are cultivators a strange form of undead?

Poll closed May 21, 2022.
  1. Yes

    1 vote(s)
    25.0%
  2. No

    3 vote(s)
    75.0%
  3. other (post in comments why to get the discussion going)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Geor

    Geor Well-Known Member

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    know I've been seriously considering this for years so before folks blow a gasket on these thoughts, I just wanted to see if others had the same thoughts in the back of their minds or not and it's not meant to be an insult to these types of works as I genuinely enjoy them. (my disclaimer)

    For years now I've suspected that all of these cultivators are some form of undead. Proof: They live till they are killed, usually in a very bloody explosive fashion loosing all the different things that are targeted when hunting Undead. They hardly have kids, or never depending on the story. They can lose everything that makes them Human and still function like near normal (including their emotions and other little things we use to differentiate human from animal). They take more questionable drugs then would be safe if prescribed by a doctor. In cases where the cultivation is ruined they age at speeds normally seen in horror movies with ghosts and such (I had 3 pop in to my mind just writing that).
    this has formed my conclusion that they are some strange form of undead.
     
  2. BigBadBoi

    BigBadBoi Well-Known Member

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    Or they might just be drug addicts
     
  3. DustySpiral

    DustySpiral Well-Known Member

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    First you need to define what you mean by "undead". Some definitions, such as the requiring a previous "living" state, followed by a "dead" state and only then achieving the "undead" state would obviously not fit (at least not for all cultivators of any given setting). Many zombie flicks go straight from living->undead, however, making this requirement less clear. Basically, some depictions of undead are less tied to actual.. death than others.

    A lot of common cultivator, or rather higher-level cultivation, stuff overlaps with some depictions of undeath, sure.
     
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  4. ExiledMage

    ExiledMage Well-Known Member

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    Not literally but the amount of blood they are spitting are really making me question why they haven’t died to blood loss
     
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  5. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    What a bizarre way to phrase things. The OP is taking a few random features from one group, and trying to use these features to establish commonalities with another group so as to conflate them. And that's just not how things work. Think of it this way: using same technique I could argue that a pigeon is a form of rat because they're both scavengers, they both leave droppings everywhere, and they both breathe oxygen. It's just absurd.

    Let's put this in very simple terms: the state of undeath is a form of death. Xianxia cultivators is a form of immortality. They both comment on death in some way, but they're not even speaking the same languages here. It's not so much that I think that it's altogether unfair to associate the two, but the arguments in the OP are just silly.
     
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  6. Fluffums

    Fluffums 【R-18 Researcher】【Seeker of Moe】

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    I'm not sure what cultivation novels you've been reading, but uh, most of the time the main character is the child of a cultivator, his friends and love interests are also children of cultivators (except when they're demons, in which case they're children of demons), and every arrogant young master is arrogant because he's the son of a powerful cultivator, who is also the child of a powerful cultivator, etc, in a powerful cultivator family that spans many generations.
     
  7. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    well some cultivation indeed only work for dead stuff..... undead spirit cultivation stuff

    funny enuf they may physically strong with toughness of cockroach but kinda dumb sometime~ maybe because of they lack of social interaction~
     
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  8. Joospinch

    Joospinch Don't click my avatar!!!

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    You pretty much describe d a meth addict
     
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  9. Greater thunder

    Greater thunder Well-Known Member

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    Its these common traits that draw chinese webnovel authors to replace oversaturated xianxia market with undead fics (oversaturating Arthas or generic Azerothian Undead fic or Heroes of Might and Magic III's Undead-mtl saying Invincible Heroes is HOMM- market).

    Next up is shit like writing xianxia in thin bodysuit of anime settings (I used to run into Naruto fics on mtl, full of stupid shit like training the meridians(chakra network) ) or writing in cultivation stomping superheroes and villains of comics.

    Bottom line, hate the writers, not the genre.
     
  10. powwder

    powwder Well-Known Member

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    Thats more like immortals than undead.

    For example, look at Immortals in mythology. They all live forever until they are killed. they all eat mystical magical foods like ambrosia and flat peaches. They all have human or humanoid forms (well most of them do). They all have human emotions like greed, lust, anger. Basically everything you listed would apply to immortals of myths, and that's backed by the fact that the end game of all cultivators is to become immortal.
     
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  11. UndyingSLIME10295

    UndyingSLIME10295 [•Figment of your Imagination•]

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    Ah yes, the pain of being a psuedo immortal being. This slime can sympathize.*sighs with a hint of loneliness*