Discussion Chinese Novel Flaws

The symbology behind it. So yeah I agree a bit overused. Honestly I think it’s cool but it’s the Author who tends to ruins it.

Yeah a lot of people are ‘brainless fanatics’ =/. I love IET but none of them are what you’d call 5stars. There are some really good hidden gems out there but don’t see the light

 

If ur very desperate. Read BL. Some have the best plots.

 

1. Heaven Defying LUCK
2. BROTHER CON (as long as you said I'm your brother all cultivation, treasure, power, could be share free UNLIMITED 24/7)
3. NO ROMANCE, only......jade skin.....virgin smell....white as snow...from powerful families....holy maiden or saintess.....
4. 1D Character (why?, coz they only have if good role then all have a good persona (perfect), if villains then all have screw loose and moronic persona) e.g. a girl perfect persona, perfect appearance like in Strongest Abandoned Son; MC only see everyone in 1D view you're kind...you're asshole I killed you. Pal, if you lived in the forest then you become Tarzan-like personality if you live in a place with constant killing, rape,..like everyday breakfast then you...I hate MC only see someone 1D and author too all his wife is 1D if good then good if bad then bad, the world has no saint nor WHITE or BLACK it's GREY, it' would be good if the character like
   ~~~Shentu Tianyin @TranXending Vision (coz she's rich and has the persona of rich girl "like money and power" but still love MC tho at first she still underestimated and using MC, but no woman not using his man anyway). How to make a character, read this from WS; ~~~"Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical, full of hatred for his uncle's scheming and disgust for his mother's sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times prone to rash and impulsive acts."
5. NO SMART VILLAINS
6. RARELY HAVE INTERESTING ENDING......1 REALM,2,3,4,5,6,7,8...9 REALMS AND THEN BECOME OVERLORD OF UNIVERSE
7. if they're making Fanfic, all author almost all screw the persona of the original characters
8. N.B. other readers hate killing, massacre, orgy, rape...idiot to all readers who read something like Cultivation World where all evil in the world accumulated and hating it, then don't read it, for me it's normal in the dog-eat-dog world
9. MC RARELY Losing with Villains, you know the world ain't revolve around you, U know, but in this almost all novel the world revolve around mc ALL FOR MC, a bastard son of author

 

Have you ever considered you might like to try something else? Or is someone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read stuff you don’t like?

Plenty of good English language novels out there.

Your average library holds more novels than you could read in a lifetime. That doesn’t count that places like Amazon have millions of unique books.

I like a lot of Chinese books, and dislike broccoli, so I read the books I like and don’t eat broccoli. Life is hard enough that you really shouldn’t slog through stuff you don’t like as recreation.

 

Okay, I agree with you, but I have to shamefully admit that face-slapping is my guilty pleasure... I like it when good guys win, and that's why I like face-slapping CN novels. Compared to dramas, which take like 100+ episodes until the bad guy gets justice handed to them, MCs in CN novels be face-slapping left and right. It's mindless entertainment, but it's entertainment nonetheless.

And oh man, don't get me started on the rape trope in CN novels. I hate it when victim just somehow goes "Well, you just raped me, but I guess I love you now, so let's DATE!" That kind of thing is ridiculous, and I hate how some authors pass that off as romance. Please, just don't include romance in your story if you can't do it in the first place.

Tbh, sadly enough a lot of CN novels (especially xianxia and xuanhuan ones) feature most, if not all, those tropes you hate. Like other posters have said, maybe try reading different types of novels like Lord of Mysteries? The author pretty much incorporated some western novel elements into the writing, which makes it quite different from most CN novels. Maybe also look into western novels (because trust me, they are completely different compared to CN novels).

 

They never go to the bathroom. Where does it go?

 

Before someone says "read better novels" I want to emphasize that I have read the majority of novels which have above average rating on NU (and plenty of stuff not on NU). Yes, that includes novels like Lord of Mystery which was recommended 3 or 4 times here already.
The few of the many problems I see:

1. Plot recycling. The wast majority of novels have exactly the same plot. You can pretty much take any random novel and you will most likely find at least a few of these arcs: broken engagement, tournament, stopping the marriage, trial or school/sect arcs. In many cases there is no actual plot. Lets take MGA or ED for example. The "plot" is MC visits place>idiots insult him>morons support idiots>things escalate>MC ends up performing massacre>takes the best treasure>repeat. Heck, Emperor's Domination consists of nothing else but this sequence performed 50+ times.
2. Dumb characters. I don't mean just side characters or enemies. I mean EVERYONE. In many novels, it appears that that whether it is "geniuses", old characters with a lot of experience, heroines and MCs. MCs with 1 IQ appears to be smart only because everyone else has 0 IQ.
3. Stupid romance. Heroines have 0 reason to fall for MCs, but it happens in less than 5 minutes.
4. Cliche powers (+ without context). Thats the best way how I thought I could summarize it. Although there are hundreds of cultivation novels on NU, however, most of them has exactly the same power system and share similar abilities. Most of MCs train in exactly the same stuff: lightning, fire, swords and spears, as if there was no other interesting powers in the world. Not to mention the fact that MCs usually go train in some random cool sounding stuff without even thinking. Novels with "systems" are even worse. They don't even bother to explain what those systems are in the first place.
5. Pointless transmigration. In many cases MC somehow comes from earth to X world. This is all covered in like 2 chapters and is totally forgotten later. Transmigration itself provides nothing to the story.
6. Heaven defying luck. MCs are shown as "talented" individuals, however their only talent can be summarized as "Random day while walking I kicked a rock, which turned out to be divine rock, saw a tree, which is super rare and powerful artifact, went to a lake to see heaven defying beauty naked in it. I really worked hard".
7. "You dare! I am [insert flashy title]. / Stay your hand!" type situations.

 

Since now you have gotten over the initial starry-eyed "Everything about this is awesome!" phase, and can see the flaws, your enjoyment of the genre is waning. But at the same time, there is a new option open to you, a new way to enjoy the genre.

There are satirical novels out there that make fun of the common flaws and tropes. Go ahead and try one. Seeing an author freely admit, point out or poke fun at the tropes and flaws is somehow satisfying.

Similar to the feeling you'd get if you were in a room full of people saying 2+2=7 and complimenting each other on their math skills, and then you went to the next room and met someone saying 'Wtf? 2+2 is obviously 4'.

 

I believe a big reason for the insane amount of plot armor commonly seen in most cultivation novels is because of the nature of the cultivation world. A cultivation world is "The strong rule the weak" on crack. It's cruel, having no background can get you in a very bad situation. A good talent is very important, again, because having no background can lead to others preying a cultivator with no background. More factors apply in this. A very likely reason too, is that the authors are just lazy and want to spam young masters and angry elders everywhere.