YMMV / The Smiling, Proud Wanderer

• Creator's Pet: The 2018 web series has Lan Fenghuang as one of the main characters as part of an Ensemble Cast, as opposed to her original status as a minor character in the novel. The actress for Lan Fenghuang happened to be the wife of the director. Critics are upset that the show neglected the Linghu Chong character and scenes in favour of additional focus on Lan Fenghuang.
• It Was His Sled: Among all the changes in the adaptations, some key memorable events from the novel remained the same in almost all the adaptations: Dongfang Bubai, Yue Buqun, and Lin Pingzhi had castrated themselves to learn the forbidden martial arts, Dongfang Bubai is a homosexual man dressed in women's clothing, and Yue Buqun is the biggest hypocrite in the Five Mountain Sword Sects Alliance.
• Memetic Mutation: The incredibly poor reception to the 2018 web series spawned a good few jokes at its expense.
  • The 2018 web series is what killed Jin Yong. ^ExplanationWhen Jin Yong also passed away in 2018, some people joked, in a darkly comedic manner, that seeing his novel get such an awful adaptation is what actually killed him.
  • The 2018 version is the best because it actually made me laugh. ^ExplanationThe Chinese character for "laugh", 笑 (Xiào) is in the novel's Chinese title, "笑傲江湖" (Xiào'ào Jiānghú).
• Questionable Casting:
  • Many critics disliked Richie Jen's portrayal of Linghu Chong, singling out his face, voice, acting, and inability to pass for someone in his 20s.
  • Ding Guan Sen's portrayal of Linghu Chong was ridiculed as well. Besides the acting (or lack thereof), some pointed out that he looked too young to play Linghu Chong (Ironically, though, the actor's age at the date of portrayal actually comes closest to his age in the novel)
  • Kind of like a Remake Cameo, some cast members from the older adaptations returned to play different characters for newer adaptations:
    • Bryan Leung who played Linghu Chong in the Taiwanese TV series (1985) played Feng Qingyang in the Chinese TV series (2013).
    • Leanne Liu who played Ren Yingying in the Taiwanese TV series (1985) played Dongfang Bubai in the Taiwanese TV series (2000).
    • Lau Kong who played Feng Qingyang in the Hong Kong TV series (1984) played Xiang Wentian in the Hong Kong TV series (1996)
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Naturally, given there are so many adaptations.
  • The 2000 Taiwanese TV series gets a lot of flak for greatly altering both the plot and the characters' personalities.
  • The 2013 Chinese TV series adaptation gets a lot of criticism for Dongfang Bubai becoming a Composite Character with a large chunk of the other characters, causing them to become a Spotlight-Stealing Squad to whoever was left, for supposedly ripping off the entire plot from the better received 1996 adaptation, and for having Tian Boguang engaging in Black Comedy Rape.
  • The 2018 Chinese web series gets the worst online reception, to the point that critics admitted that they actually liked the 2013 version more. Several characters had their personality and motivations changed, and events are played out of order through plot changes or constant flashback scenes, resulting in numerous plot holes. To wit:
    • Xiang Wentian, whose novel version showed Undying Loyalty to Ren Woxing, turning traitor under the threat of death.
    • Linghu Chong is given toxic blood as an ability; despite this, he later saves someone via blood transfer without any issue whatsoever.
    • Yu Canghai is turned into an annoying recurring enemy.
    • Changing Yang Lianting into the secret daughter of Ren Woxing.
    • And Dongfang Bubai is given a dose of Adaptational Heroism, only for him to suddenly reveal himself be just pretending to be a good guy all along

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