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skullsandwineglasses · 2 years

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FL Character Development in Xianxia

There’s a great reddit post that explains the “heroine’s journey” in xianxias where there is a departure, descent, and return.

Tbh, I never really had a problem with the naive and childish FL. In fact, I like defending FLs who aren’t traditionally strong or badass. But my issue with xianxias is how poorly written the FL’s maturation arc is.

When you think about it, the naive and childish FL at the beginning of xianxias has the most agency. Her agency comes from her naivete. She has a goal that she is determine to work towards, despite all obstacles and potential punishments. Usually this goal is irrevocably linked with the ML in some way: to either train under his tutelage, to obtain something from him, or to try to get past him in order to attain what she wants.

I’ll use Immortal Samsara as an example since that’s the xianxia I most recently finished (so some of this may not apply to Love Between Fairy and Devil, which I haven’t watched yet but appears to be earning high praise from everyone lately).

The FL in Immortal Samsara wants to find whoever is flipping the turtle and to bring justice against this turtle abuser. The turtle abuser just so happens to be the ML, a high-ranking god who was the one who named her when she cultivated into her human form. The ML takes an interest in her because of her aptitude in chess and sees a potential in her to help him solve a chess/war strategy puzzle that’s been eluding him for years. He takes her under his wing and indirectly teaches her different spells and skills by having her copy scriptures. Like all stoic and stone-cold gods of war, he doesn’t admit or openly reveal his growing fondness of her but is hella protective of her when she’s bullied or mistreated by others, even though he bullies her himself.

In the Journey of Flower, the FL wants to be the ML’s disciple, and the same goes for Love and Destiny. In Love and Redemption, the FL simply wants to be the ML’s friend. But the idea is that the FL has a non-romantic goal of finding happiness and fulfillment, whether it be improving her powers or through simply making friends, and this non-romantic goal is connected to the ML.

The xianxia FL isn’t afraid to strive for what she wants. She’s headstrong. She has gumption. Her innocence and passion and freedom to live life how she wants is something that the ML never had but wishes he did. She embodies everything he wants but can’t have. She is whom he could be if he was raised in a different environment without the responsibility of the Three Realms. And so, he wants to protect her. This symbol of what he dreams to be and have.

But eventually, the ML rubs off on her, and she begins to mature. She starts to develop complex feelings, and her goals shift. She now wants the ML, to be with him. She begins to take on a protector role. She wants to protect her friends and family, and the ML. She is no longer his manic pixie dream girl, but she is starting to have goals that conflict with his. And he has to come to terms with it. He tries to contain her, but fails.

But the FL’s agency can only climb so high before it hits the restrictions of reality. After a lifetime of being sheltered and getting what she wants, the FL’s world is shattered when she believes that she’s been betrayed by the ML.

Hua Qian Gu, the FL in Journey of Flower, describes the irony the best: The people who loved me, died while trying to protect me. While the one I love wants me dead.

The FL who uses her whole heart to love and care for people genuinely doesn’t get her feelings reciprocated. In Immortal Samsara, she believed that she was doing what was best for her sister, only to learn that her sister felt belittled by her decisions.

The FL learns that reality can be cruel. And she conducts a final act of agency: to choose how to die on her own terms. This is the infamous “turning point” of the xianxia plot where the FL jumps off from a terrace or a cliff or a bridge in hopes of ending her misery and to find relief and freedom.

The FL is often rewarded with relief and freedom after doing this. For instance, in Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, Bai Qian immediately regains her immortality after jumping from the terrace and has an even higher rank because she successfully passed her love trial, despite the pain and trauma it caused her. Goodbye My Princess is a historical romance that has a xianxia structure, and Xiaofeng gains relief from her pain and trauma by having her painful memories with the ML erased.

But In Immortal Samsara, the FL continues to suffer for 900 years before she is able to reincarnate as a carefree demon spirit in the mortal realm.

The FL goes through a “descent” and “rebirth”. She has a new life and new identity. Often times, this involves a reincarnation into the mortal world where she has a different personality. It then raises the nature vs. nurture discussion: which version of the FL is her “true” self? In the heavenly realm, the FL had the agency to be whomever she wanted, while she often is raised in oppressive conditions in the mortal realm, leading to a more repressed and subdued personality.

In Immortal Samsara, the FL’s personality in the mortal world is almost unchanged from her immortal personality because she lands in the mortal as a full-fledged flower demon. She’s a blank slate with no mortal upbringing, and so the core essence of her personality is preserved.

The mortal realm is a place for second chances. The ML gets a chance to love the FL properly. The FL learns more about the world and meets more people. She widens her horizons. And when faced with a better understanding of the world, she has to ask herself whether the ML is still worth loving when there’s a huge world out there to explore.

During this descent and rebirth phase, the FL is faced with a choice: to choose a new and different life or to choose the ML again. It’s another test of agency. Another trial. She has to learn to love the ML while still preserving herself.

But this is when the maturation arc tends to falter. The FL’s growth is interrupted by a rude awakening from her past where her memories come flooding back.

The mixing of past and present changes her permanently, and she’s thrust into a new state of being. She’s neither the naive and innocent girl from the beginning nor the weary, ignorant mortal from the second arc. Instead, she’s a completely different character now. Calm, collected, jaded, and lacking some of the fiery passion at the beginning.

I always had a problem with this sudden, overnight transformation. It always feels like the FL’s essence is lost. I think Goodbye My Princess did a great job of showing the FL’s tormented reaction at regaining her memories. She’s conflicted because she hates the ML but also loves him, and so she ends up hating herself because she doesn’t know how to face reality.

But in xianxias, the FL’s growth tend to stagnate after this revelation. It’s as if the authors think that this is the final state for the FL. She’s done developing once she regains her memories. Time to shift focus to the ML as a noble, tragic, suffering hero who tries to repent for what he does (not in Goodbye my Princess though, but that’s not a xianxia).

Part 1 of Immortal Samsara had been about the FL’s love for the ML and her subsequent suffering and redemption. But Part 2 shifts focus away from her, and it becomes the ML’s story. He’s now the one whom we’re supposed to pity, and it almost makes you forget that the FL walked the Forgetting River for 900 years for him. While I don’t blame the ML, I do think that the misunderstanding could have been handled better and avoided. He just blinded trusted a report saying that she had passed over to the mortal realm, without actually going down there to verify himself. And then he fell into a coma because he lost the will to keep going without her.

Likewise, I didn’t like how the FL in Love and Destiny suddenly had a holier than thou attitude when she returned to the heavenly realm. In Love and Redemption, the FL had poor judgment that made her doubt the ML despite all that they’ve been through together, which was such a contradiction to how she unconditionally trusted and protected him before her maturation.

Xianxias really make you grapple with 2 questions: what does good character growth mean, and how can a character still be consistent after having gone through growth?

It makes me think about the Louis Cha’s legendary wuxia stories, The Legend of the Condor Heroes and the Return of the Condor Heroes where we follow characters through decades of growth, but they still feel like the same characters. American TV shows can sometimes span a decade, and the writer have to make sure to keep their characters consistent.

Overall, I love xianxia, I love the angst, and I enjoy the switch to the ML’s story (especially when it involves Cheng Yi). But I always have an issue with how it’s integrated with the FL’s story and how the last phase of her heroine’s journey is often developed sloppily and lazily.

I started writing this post while watching Part 2 of Immortal Samsara, and now that I’ve finished it, it just further supports my critique that the FL is sidelined in favour of the ML at the end. The FL in Immortal Samsara is reduced to being nothing but a love interest for the ML, and she has no goals of her own except to help the ML save the world.

In xianxias, the FL’s third phase of her heroine’s journey often ends with a separation from the ML before an eventual reunion. This separation is meaningless to her growth, because the story tends to jump ahead hundreds to thousands of years into the future straight to the reunion. So we don’t see her mature as an independent person during this time, but we only see her waiting.

In Ashes of Love, the ML is the one who waits, and so this is even worse because we don’t see the FL at all until she reappears at the end.

Character growth and maturation is important, but you should still be able to draw a line between the character in the first episode and the last episode. Is there a connection? Think Anakin Skywalker and Vader. Or MingLan across 80 episodes.

Say what you will about xianxias and how illogical they are, but it’s such a niche genre that it’s fun to compare and contrast the different storylines and character from the growing (but still small) list of dramas in it.

I think my next post should be about comparing the different villains in xianxias.

#immortal samsara #xianxia #cdrama #love and redemption #ten miles of peach blossoms #eternal love #ashes of love #love and destiny #journey of flower #goodbye my princess

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