Been watching She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan lately ... and it's pretty amazing how the characters are interwoven together. Have always been a fan of Shen Diao Xia Lue so it's quite an eye-opener to see where Guo Jing, Huang Rong and the other characters come from.

Like for example the story behind Yang Kang, how come he was branded evil and was 'killed' by Huang Rong. Different scenarios often come into mind as to how the story would have changed if he was good. But then eventually i would slap myself out of this daydreaming and marvel at how much i actually like the ending of Shen Diao.

I mean if Yang Kang hadn't died, Yang Guo possibly wouldn't turn out to be so great. Haha ... let me indulge in some form of wuxia fantasy for this few weeks.

Well ... at least it allows me to appreciate characters like Hong Qi Gong whom was just a vague memory for me in Shen Diao. His uprighteousness and glutton-personality, coupled with the fact that he was the shifu of Guo Jing and Huang Rong made me felt a tinge of sadness when he was attacked and poisoned by Ouyang Feng.

And because of this two stories, i realised that this She Diao is actually a trilogy, ending with 倚天屠龍記. Well it did arouse my interest to go find out more but i guess whereas the first 2 was a continuation in the sense that some of the characters were brought forward, the third story was a bit foreign as it took place a hundred years after Shen Diao. Probably the only familiar ones still involved in 倚天屠龍記 were Guo Xiang and it's only her formation of Emei Sect.

But i also realised that in the trilogy, the constants that are present are the fight for power and martial arts skills like Jiu Ying Zhen Jing, Xiang Long Shi Ba Zhang and also the military textbook Wu MU Yi Shu apparently written by Yue Fei. Other stuff also include being upright, good vs evil, relationship and status evils, as well as the power different dynasties and cults wielded at that period of time.

Then it got me wondering who was the most powerful of them all, no thanks to Dragonball and Naruto =x ... but i guess there would never be an answer because unless a tournament was set out which wasn't possible because all the characters couldn't be there. Wang Chong Yang was hailed as Tian Xia Di Yi, but he died of old age. Tong Xie Xi Du Nan Di Bei Gai all had their unique techniques. Guo Jing learnt from many people, well so did Yang Guo, but the latter's intellect is definitely higher. And he learnt 蛤蟆功, 古墓派功夫, 打狗棒法, 獨孤求敗剑法, 九陰真經 and then he developed his own unique set of 黯然銷魂掌.

Well ... it would have been some fight.