History YMMV / TheDeerAndTheCauldron

** Mongolia and Tibet makes sense though seeing Wu Sangui is an usurper, and Mongolia did break the treaty and war against Kang Xi Emperor later in history.

** Elvis Tsui Kam Keung has made a career out of being the Ensemble Darkhorse extraordinaire, and his take on Ao Bai in ''Royal Tramp'' helped to drag his name out of B-movie obscurity and straight into the mainstream.

* HoYay: In the 1992 LiveActionAdaptation, Xiaobao has some oddly intimate moments with the male characters, it's mostly PlayedForLaughs. To name a few:

** Movie Hai Dafu after being injected by Long'er's needle becomes a ManChild really enthusiastic about penises and has an UndyingLoyalty to Xiaobao because he's his "little dicky".

** Princess Jianning tends to be the highlight of each LiveActionAdaptation.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: It may be a little hard to believe Wu Sangui's betrayal of the throne and collusion with Mongolia and Tibet, considering the way China has been treating them in the present. Then you get to the part where ''he's also colluding with Russia.''
** Mongolia and Tibet makes sense though seeing Wu Sangui is an usurper, and Mongolia did break the treaty and war against Kang Xi Emperor later in history.

* HarsherInHindsight: Li did nothing to sort out his guards' generations blood feud instigated by his [[spoiler:fake death and ploy having Hu becoming a double agent]] nor use his treasure to repel the Manchu overlords resulting in ''Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain'', he just guard over his lover instead.

*** Notably the later revised edition changed them to be from Qinghai (which doesn't gel well with passage mentions of the specifically Tibetan living Buddha Dalai Lama) and scrapped some passages that may be construed as negative comments of Tibetan lamas.

** What should have been the major turning point of the story, the gathering of the seven wives, is somewhat marred by the fact that it leads up to ''date rape of six of them while are all paralysed or unconscious''. And due to the conditions of the incident, Wei still needs ''their'' help to sort out ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice who he did what to!]]''[[note]]The fact that Su Quan, A-Ke and Jianning all get pregnant and give birth at roughly the same time says a lot.[[/note]]

** Xiaobao and The Emperor. Xiaobao learned and uses the breast grabbing dragon claw technique against The Emperor, explicitly stating that he usually uses it on women, but makes him the exception since he is a good man and also proceeds to tear off his pubic hair in a fight. The Emperor also has two moments where he casually grabs Xiaobao's groin.
** Xiaobao using the same dragon claw technique against [[TheDreaded Aobai]] and pinching his nipples to distract him.
** Hai Dafu after being injected by Long'er's needle becomes a ManChild really enthusiastic about penises and has an UndyingLoyalty to Xiaobao because he's his "little dicky".

** What should have been the major turning point of the story, the gathering of the seven wives, is somewhat marred by the fact that it leads up to ''date rape while they are all paralysed or unconscious''. And due to the conditions of the incident, Wei still needs ''their'' help to sort out ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice who he did what to!]]''[[note]]The fact that Su Quan, A-Ke and Jianning all get pregnant and give birth at roughly the same time says a lot.[[/note]]

** What should have been the major turning point of the story, the gathering of the seven wives, is somewhat marred by the fact that it leads up to ''date rape''. And due to the conditions of the incident, Wei still needs ''their'' help to sort out ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice who he did what to!]]''[[note]]The fact that Su Quan, A-Ke and Jianning all get pregnant and give birth at roughly the same time says a lot.[[/note]]

** Elvis Tsui Kam Keung has made a career out of being the Ensemble Darkhorse extraordinaire, and his take on Ao Bai in ''Royal Tramp'' lives up to that name despite.

** Elvis Tsui Kam Keung has made a career out of being the Ensemble Darkhorse extraordinaire, and his take on Ao Bai in ''Royal Tramp'' lives up to that name despite some major CharacterDerailment.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Wei Xiaobao, because he's nothing like Jin Yong's previous protagonists (and nothing like conventional WuXia heroes, either), gets a lot of this. Is he a completely selfish, self-serving bastard, or does he also have his own (albeit twisted) sense of honor and morality? Does he serve the Emperor out of fear or friendship? Does he love any of his wives or is he just collecting them for bragging rights? And so on. Jing Yong enthusiasts have written entire ''books'' discussing Wei Xiaobao's character.

** Elvis Tsui Kam Keung has made a career out of being the Ensemble Darkhorse extraordinaire, and his take on Ao Bai in ''Royal Tramp'' lives up to that name despite some major CharacerDerailment.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Princess Jianning tends to be the highlight of each LiveActionAdaptation.

** Even before that, one of the different factions scheming for the 42 chapters is from Tibet, which sends BareFistedMonk lamas into China and give our heroes a pretty hard time. This may be a bit harder to take in in present day, where it's China that's still in the process of annexing Tibet.

* ValuesDissonance: What should have been the major turning point of the story, the gathering of the seven wives, is somewhat marred by the fact that it leads up to ''date rape''. And due to the conditions of the incident, Wei still needs ''their'' help to sort out ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice who he did what to!]]''[[note]]The fact that Su Quan, A-Ke and Jianning all get pregnant and give birth at roughly the same time says a lot.[[/note]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Princess Jianning tends to be the highlight of each LiveActionAdaptation.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Wei Xiaobao, because he's nothing like Jin Yong's previous protagonists (and nothing like conventional WuXia heroes, either), gets a lot of this. Is he a completely selfish, self-serving bastard, or does he also have his own (albeit twisted) sense of honor and morality? Does he serve the Emperor out of fear or friendship? Does he love any of his wives or is he just collecting them for bragging rights? And so on. Jing Yong enthusiasts have written entire ''books'' discussing Wei Xiaobao's character.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Wei Xiaobao, because he's nothing like Jin Yong's previous protagonists (and nothing like conventional WuXia heroes, either), gets a lot of this. Is he a completely selfish, self-serving bastard, or does he also have his own (albeit twisted) sense of honor and morality? Does he serve the Emperor out of fear or friendship? Does he love any of his wives or is he just collecting them for bragging rights? And so on.