History Literature / LegendOfTheCondorHeroes

''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' is a {{Wuxia}} tetralogy written by Chinese author Creator/JinYong (pen name for Louis Cha). It follows the adventures of many members of the Jianghu world, especially Guo Jing, a slow-witted, talentless child who, with the help of lady luck and many incredibly talented masters, slowly rises to a prominent position in the martial arts world.

It's one of Jin Yong's most widely known works, and it has been ported to many media, including an acclaimed TV series.
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!! ''Legend of the Condor Heroes'' presents examples of:
* AcceptableEthnicTargets : As far as the heroes are concerned, everyone aligned with the (Jurchen, or Manchu) Jin Empire is evil by the virtue of being aligned with the Jin Empire. While it is justified in-universe because the Han people were being invaded, the work as whole never attempts to contradict this prejudice.
** Especially jarring when even the Mongolian are portrayed more sympathetically than the Jin, given the nationalistic undertones in the series, because historically, it was the Mongolians, not the Jin, who wipes out the Song Dynasty. This may have been due to lingering anti-Manchu sentiment, given the numerous problems China faced during the later Manchu Qing Dynasty.
* ActionGirl: Huang Rong fits the role perfectly.
** Mu Nianci is more of a FauxActionGirl or OvershadowedByAwesome. She was briefly instructed by Hong Qigong and easily takes down the first few challengers in her marriage contest and effortlessly downs armed mooks, proving that she is quite a badass compared to a normal person. Unfortunately for her, this is a WorldOfBadass.
* AdultFear: [[spoiler: How about watching your baby son, the only reminder of a lover who left you, slowly suffer and die over the course of a day because the only person who could save him was a GreenEyedMonster that you broke up with in the past? No wonder Ying Gu went [[DiseaseBleach white with the shock.]]]]
* AnyoneCanDie
* ArrangedMarriage: Poor Guo Jing runs into tons of these, and the ones with the girl he actually likes don’t stick past the hour.
* BadassAdorable: Huang Rong.
* BadassBookworm: Huang Yaoshi and his daughter Huang Rong
* BadassGrandpa: Every single old man in the books, to a varying degree. Foremost among them are Huang Yaoshi and the Beggar King Hong Qigong.
* BastardBastard: [[spoiler: Ouyang Ke]]
* BestHerToBedHer: Mu Nianci and her father literally said that they would marry her to the man who defeats her in the contest they had set up. [[spoiler: Though her father was against it, she does end up with the man who defeated her on that stage.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Guo Jing is about as nice as a human can get, until he decides that you are an enemy…
* BigBad: Not a clear-cut case, due to the serialized nature of the original novel. Wanyan Honglie is the political and ideological Big Bad who instigates the plot, but he is very removed from the Wulin aspect of the story. Ouyang Feng is the one who presents the greatest physical threat to the heroes in battle, but his motivations and ambitions are less far-reaching than Wanyan Honglie’s.
* BigEater: Hong Jiugong
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: A lot of conflicts arise in this story because almost every character operates on this. Han people are good, Jin people are bad. Hong Qigong is good, Huang Yaoshi (and by extension, his daughter) is bad, and so on
* BreakTheCutie: Guo Jing and Mu Nianci
* CharacterDevelopment: Huang Yaoshi was an AxCrazy murderer who broke the legs of his innocent students and kept Zhou Botong jailed on his island, [[spoiler: but over the course of the story, he begins make amends to his students, saved and spared many lives in his fights, and ultimately becomes someone the heroes could rely on for support.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Second Master from the Seven Freaks was also known for being an expert pickpocket. [[spoiler: Prior to his death,]] he lifted the evidence that helped Huang Rong uncover the real identity of the murderer.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Is there anyone [[spoiler: Yang Kang]] didn’t betray at some point in the story?
* ClingyJealousGirl: Huang Rong and Huazhen.
* CloudCuckoolander: Zhou Botong and [[spoiler: Ouyang Feng in the sequel]]
* ComfortingTheWidow: Wanyan Honglie’s plan regarding Bao Xiruo.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: A lot of conversation with the slow-witted Guo Jin ends this way
* CoolPet: The Condors
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Zhou Botong, the "Old Urchin".
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Hong Qigong lampshades that the formidably smart and powerful Huang Yaoshi would not appreciate the slow-witted Guo Jin as a son-in-law. This trope is subverted as Huang Rong actively tries to change Guo Jin into someone her father would approve of by making the famous Qigong take him on as a student.
* FailureToSaveMurder: [[spoiler: More justified than most examples in Monk Yideng's case. Ying Gu asked him to save her son with Zhou Botong and he agreed, but had an attack of jealousy at the last minute and decided to let the baby die.]]
* EvilCounterpart: The talented, well-bred, and clever [[spoiler: Yang Kang]] is this to the slow-witted, brutish, but kind-hearted Guo Jing.
** Wanyan Honglie is one to Genghis Khan.
* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: Huang Yaoshi's brutality can be traced to the eloping of two of his students, which led to his wife's death. Ying Gu's vengeance-filled mindset is the result of losing her son.]]
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: [[spoiler: Zig-zagged. Ouyang Feng's adultery with his older brother's wife, for the brief time it's mentioned, is used to highlight his evil behavior. On the other hand, Zhou Botong and Ying Gu, Monk Yideng's ex-queen, had their affair portrayed sympathetically.]]
* GoodIsNotNice: a mild case in Huang Rong, who is by no means evil, but she would prank people and rile them up for the heck of it.
* GoodIsNotSoft: A lot of famous heroic fighters earn their reputation by beating down foreign invaders, traitors to the nation, and perpetrators of injustice. For example: Hong Qigong, Qiu Chuji, The Seven Freaks, and later, Guo Jin and Huang Rong
* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler: Monk Yideng, the Southern Emperor, had a very brief bout of this. His ex-wife's lovechild with Zhou Botong was badly wounded and needed his help. Instead, he let the baby die after seeing that there was a love poem from Zhou Botong to Ying Gu on the baby's clothing.]]
* HandicappedBadass: Ke Zheng'e, Mei Xiaofeng after being blinded.
* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler: Yang Kang is a little too happily adopted, given the father who raised him actually killed his biological father]]
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Subverted. It's pretty safe to say that Guo Jing had a lot less natural talent for kung fu than Yang Kang. However, due to Huang Rong's help, his own ridiculous amount of persistence, along with some of the most legendary kung fu masters pounding all their techniques into his slow head, he eventually manages to surpass Yang Kang and become very strong.
* HeroicBSOD: hits Guo Jing hard, twice, with the deaths of [[spoiler: his five masters, and later, his mother]].
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Genghis Khan.
* HonorBeforeReason: Guo Jing and, to a lesser extent, the Seven Freaks.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Yang Kang and Ouyang Feng. The first one dies, the second one goes mad.]]
* IdiotBall: the last story arc was kicked off because Guo Jin and Ke Zheng'e fell for a plot designed to split up Guo Jin and Huang Rong. It is somewhat justified because Guo Jing is always dense and Ke Zheng'e is blind, but the immense burst of stupidity is still rather jarring even for their characters.
* LoveHurts: How many couples did not end up with a widow(er), years of separation, or a unrequited love sort of scenario?
* LoveMakesYouDumb: [[spoiler: contributes significantly to Bao Xirou, Mu Nianci and Guo Jing’s inability to recognize Yang Kang’s true colors.]]
* LoveMakesYouEvil: All over the place. [[spoiler: Huang Yaoshi became a grouchy, brutal old man after the death of his beloved wife. Wanyan Honglie [[MurderTheHypotenuse murdered Yang Tiexin]] for Bao Xiruo. Monk Yideng had a very brief stint of this that left him TheAtoner and inflicted this trope on his ex-wife Ying Gu. Mei Chaofeng and Chen Xuanfeng were this for each other.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Yang Kang]] doesn't take this revelation too well.
* ManChild: Zhou Botong, to the point that his nickname is "Old Urchin."
* MasterPoisoner: Ouyang Feng, the "Old Poison".
* MeaningfulName: Guo Jing and Yang Kang, whose given names together is a reference to the Jingkang Incident. Qiu Chuji named them, hoping they would grow up to be patriotic like their fathers and help the Song Dynasty fend off the invading Jin. It doesn't quite go as planned.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: six of the Seven Freaks suffers this fate after becoming Guo Jin's mentor.]]
* MoralityPet: Yang Kang is a weird version for his father[[spoiler: actually stepfather]], Wanyan Honglie. No matter what evil things he does over the course of the book, he loves and wants the best for Yang Kang.
** Mu Nianci is also something of this for Yang Kang, who seems to genuinely love her and wants her love in return, despite all his other faults.
** Huang Rong is something of one for her father, who tones down his AxCrazy to appease her.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: And then adopt his son, if you're Wanyan Honglie. Huang Yaoshi also offers to kill Huazhen for this reason, for his daughter's sake.]]
* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler: Before his ultimate defeat,]] Wanyan Honglie points out that all the great empires, be it Song or Jin or Mongolia, will rise and fall with time, leaving a bloodbath in its wake. This is especially poignant considering the AcceptableEthnicTargets and ethnic pride as a motif throughout the books.
** Qiu Qianren pleads this when the Great Masters come after him for the people he had killed on his quest for power.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: [[spoiler: the real Qiu Qianren,]] who turns out to be every bit as powerful as his lying and bumbling twin boasted to be.
* OhCrap: Huang Rong, upon realizing the Qiu Qianren she's fighting is the real deal.
* PapaWolf: Huang Yaoshi, in spades.
** Ouyang Feng is a dark version. While he was pretty terrible at instilling any sort of ethics into Ouyang Ke, he's still very protective of his nephew [[spoiler: who is actually his illegitimate son. He becomes a full-on non-evil version to Yang Guo in the sequel, despite also being a CloudCuckoolander.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: The Five Masters could easily become this if they were so inclined.
* PowerFloats: One of the many kung fu skills are the ones related to lightness, allowing to climb steep cliffs running, make impossible jumps and so on. When the fake Qiu Qianren is introduced, everyone thinks he has a superhuman level of martial arts because he could walk over water.
* PunchParry: happens quite a lot, specially with palm strikes.
* RaisedByOrcs: [[spoiler: Subverted for Yang Kang. His adoptive father loved him and gave him a happy childhood, even though he was the one who murdered Yang Kang's real father to begin with.]]
** Play more straight with Guo Jin, who grew up in the Mongolian Camps despite living with his biological mother. His childhood friends are Mongolian, and he appreciates their food and sport, which is hinted to be less sophisticated than those of the Han people.
* SignatureMove: all of the Five Greats get at least one, as does Zhong Botong.
* SupremeChef: Huang Rong. Actually used as a plot point once.
* TeenGenius: Huang Rong is still in her mid-teens during this course of this story, but she shown to be an excellent fighter, cook, scholar, musician, and strategist, even amongst the adults and elders, [[spoiler: and becomes the leader of the Beggar’s Sect, one of the largest and most respected Wulin factions. ]]
** [[spoiler: UpToEleven: she becomes the brains behind Guo Jing’s successful military campaigns that dismantled several barbaric kingdoms and the Jin Empire.]]
* TheAtoner: Monk Yideng
* TheRival: both Ouyang Ke and Yang Kang could be considered to fill this position towards Guo Jing.
* TookALevelInBadass: Throughout the books, the mastery levels of many characters varies wildly due to training, meditation and discovery of ancient secrets. Guo Jing and Zhong Botong deserve a special mention. The former went from being a nobody to a level nearing those of the supreme Five Masters in less than a year, while the latter went from truly skilled to probably being the most powerful martial artist of the time.
* TranquilFury: Huang Yaoshi rarely loses his composure, even as he plans and executes your painful demise for having upset his daughter.
* TrainingFromHell: Guo Jing's ten years at the hands of the Six Freaks... Not that it did him much good, though.
* TheWhitePrince: Yang Kang at the start.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: murder of the Five Freaks, who are portrayed as heroic and competent fighters throughout the story. It causes a giant rift in Guo Jing and Huang Rong’s relationship, fractured a tenuous alliance between the Wulin masters who should be fighting the Jin and Ouyang Feng, and significantly changes Guo Jing’s character and position.]]
* YouKilledMyFather: Both Guo Jing and [[spoiler: Yang Kang]] are ''supposed'' to have this for Wanyan Honglie, but what complicates things is that [[spoiler: Wanyan Honglie is Yang Kang's adoptive father who genuinely loved him.]]
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