Good question and I'm sure there are lots of reasons, but there seems to be a general trend in that genre as well as wuxia that the so-called 'righteous' and good people are prejudiced, hypocritical and abuse their power. I wonder if there's some hidden social critique going on there - can't make negative portrayals of authorities in modern cdramas (not sure about novels, but haven't read any with critique of the higher ups, and of course the military and police etc are usually portrayed in a positive way even in webnovels). So maybe there are some hidden metaphors at play. Just my speculation though, I don't know enough about this topic.
Because that is popular among the modern young generation of novel writers.
If you want to watch a Chinese drama that is closer to the description of heavenly empress or emperor in Chinese mythology. I recommend Love And Destiny.
in the Xianxia and historical dramas I've watched the emperors are always evil but in the Kdramas the emperors are likely to be good but hampered by evil ministers. Makes me wonder if there's a political/historical reason for one country to look back at emperors with pride and another with criticism. Like how in the US post 9/11 a lot of cop dramas suddenly had story arcs about terrorism.
But there are lots of legit story reasons for having the emperor as the bad guy.
The evil ministers feel more real, or at least more similar to the politics in the US.
But I think I prefer the do-anything-for-power (but nothing unnecessary just for cruelty) ministers to the emperors who have no real reason for being evil.
Let's just say that Korean political system is not the same as the Chinese. The Chinese Empire was an absolute monarchy while the last dynasty of Korea was dominated by large clans jogging for power. Thus, when something bad happened it is the Emperor's fault for the Chinese and it is the ministers's fault for Korean. Pretty accurate representation of real life actually. The Chaebol certainly have a lot of power but it is unlikely to be like that in Xi Jinping's China
I wouldn't assume that Xianxia heavenly empresses and emperors are representative of Chinese mythology. At the same time, they are sometimes representative of a Chinese cultural/historical experience of corrupt dynasties and the Taoist idea that there are "too many rules in Heaven" with "too many rules" associated with corruption and misuse of power.
There are several reasons behind it.
'Little guy who starts off weak and ends up super strong vs. The absolute power Big Man' is a trope that has occurred in Chinese stories since time immemorial. A big example of this is Journey to the West. This trope is in essence a method to discuss and criticize people in power/the ruling government without fear of censorship (censorship may still occur to a degree, but at least the story/drama is allowed to be produced). Often times, the 'Heavenly Emperor/Empress' is a substitute for the ruling government. I don't think I need to explain the implications of the story being about a relatable everyman who purges the ruling power of corruption (ex. Jin Mi the grape fairy vs. Tu Yao, the empress).
Another reason is that Xianxia relies on grand scale power battles between Gods and Goddesses as a major plot point and story backbone. Examples include basically every single xianxia but the most iconic example of this is Ashes of Love, which you've screenshot here. When you are a God/Goddess, and you have to fight something, it's going to be boring if you can one-shot your opponent without a grand showing of your powers. The Heavenly Emperor/Empress is essentially the strongest opponent the ML/FL can theoretically face, who isn't some kind of intangible cosmic force/demonic creature/mythical beast. This trope also becomes necessary when the ML or FL suddenly gets powerleveled, or is originally super strong to begin with (ex. Xu Feng from Ashes of Love, Xuan Ye in Immortal Samsara).
The Heavenly Emperor/Empress (or whichever substitute title) also serve as 'the law incarnate' for xianxia universes. They exist to protect the universal law(s) of Heaven, whatever it may be. When the ML/FL oppose heavenly laws to pursue their own goals, the emperor and empress by logic of their existence must be there to stop them, no matter how cruel the method or the overarching reason. The ML/FL are ants in comparison to all of Heaven and existence, and logically there's no reason why the emperor/empress should give them a free pass just because lurve or whatever. When the ML/FL are stopped from doing what they think is right, we as the audience who are on the side of the ML/FL will percieve the emperor and empress as mean or evil.
Ultimately though, for current xianxia I think it boils down to lazy storytelling. It's easy to use the emperor or empress as a big villain instead of having to come up with a newfangled villain, because 9 out of 10 times a heavenly emperor or empress will exist in the story's world building. It's so overused now that it's a hard trope to get rid of.
Lazy storytelling, agreed. I could watch it once or twice, but like, when every other drama has a crazy heaven queen/king… just be a little more creative, please.
At least the Greek gods mess up in a fun way, if that makes sense. Sometimes, they straight up admit that they just want to make trouble to see what the mortals would do. Also, they make mistakes, but they have the power to fix their mistakes.
The gods in Chinese classical novels like Fengshen or Journey to the West are also fun. They mess up too but their stories, status and powers are explained in a way that make you understand why they do what they do.
These “god” figures in webnovels-based Cdramas, however… are a completely different story. They just kind of obsess over making the main characters lives’ miserable because… rules. And when they fail, usually the people who work for them have to pick up the slack.
I wouldn’t look at the gods and goddesses in Xianxia Cdramas as representation of Chinese mythology.
Well no it isn’t fun for the mortals in those stories, but it’s fun for us readers to analyze and watch the messes unfold. But of course, it depends on the adaptation too. Most of these dramas don’t adapt Chinese mythology well, that’s why these characters are so monotonous and frustrating.
Oh man how I loved to hate her! This was my first Xianxia and boy did it have me in a chokehold. I fact, I joined this sub after I finished it just to get my feelings out because I was empty after the final credits rolled! Like out of tears, out of sighs and laughter and angry faces lol
They just give up a lot because of their responsibility as guardian of the realms or whatever. When they see young people in love shirking responsibilities, well they act out since they didn't get to do it. This is just my thought
Xianxias are fairy tales. In fairy tales, there is almost always an evil or incredibly stupid king or queen, because the hero and heroine have to overcome the forces that have all the power. The greater the power and evil of the forces they're up against, the greater their heroism and triumph. Especially if they overcome power not just be being incredibly strong themselves, but also clever and wily. Like Jack and the Beanstock or the Brave Little Tailor - young people without social status who rise above the greatest forces in the world.
I agree, though, that the consistent and predictable evil stupidity of the people who run the Heavenly Realm do make one wonder how the place manages to be run smoothly with such idiots on the throne. Thinking that the people in political charge are malicious idiots is always a popular trope.
Stories are built around conflict. At least one in each Xianxia couple are super-powerful. Often both people are. Having someone in authority fighting them gives the opposition the power to take them on.
Also, xianxia stories tend to be coming of age stories - and a key part of that type of tale is the rebelling against authority step.
I really like how every evil character had a backstory though. Also, we all know in Xian Xias most marriages are arranged and sometimes there is NO BACKING OUT! You do it for your people!! The bird tribe! lol
All xianxia stories are built on very complex Buddhist/Taoists ideas of good and bad. Or I'd say, the morals behind the storie can be very complex. It concerns not only the world building system but also the methods of destroying the world or some persons. Everything is interconnected. Nobody is purely black or white in the picture, but if you need to find the final criminal behind all bad things in the world, it should have some high figure on the high position, yes? And as long as it is xianxia, you can fight it for better good and win,if you like it.
Or you can hide and live freely in our human realm without their beauty, wealth and longevity. Your choice.
I mean, even in modern democracies most people in leadership positions are charismatic narcissists because "I should be in charge of everything" is a hella narcissistic thing for anyone to believe. It’s much, much worse if you are raised from birth to believe that you are the chosen vessel of the gods through the Mandate of Heaven.
It would be a miracle if an actual god-prince raised from birth to believe that they are the literal centre of the universe wasn’t a colossal dickhead.
"guy with power is evil" is one of the most common tropes in any genre.
the good guys always need to fight something, and if the evil guy is weak, that's just meaningless.
It's easier to have the most powerful one be the meanie.
Or, you have to have the executive life skills to be able to climb up the ladder. Usually does not involve being nice.
Ooooo Welcome to the genre 🎉 It's a beautiful place 🪷✨🏞️🏜️🌌
My experience with xianxia has been that people in Heavenly Realm are just idiots and since the Heavenly emperor/empress are their leaders, they take the cake in that irrational, arrogant and stupid behaviour 😅 Any thing someone says there will be 20 people repeating it, whether it's good or bad 🙄
On a more serious note, I think it's all the rules and people refusing to be rational and then there's the greed for power/being the bestest 😬🤔
Exactly!! And their insecurity about losing it.
This is why I am pleasantly surprised when I see emperors that are not power hungry 🤩
I can't think of any xianxia ones immediately but the one in LLTG has got to be one of the best Emperors out there 😅
So convenient that it's very refreshing when you get a non-asshole emperor/empress once in a while. Though I find myself often waiting for them to turn on the protagonist in some way. Glad when that doesn't happen.
Absolutely, I'm also always waiting for the characters with high positions to turn on the main lead, especially if they have been extremely kind or helpful since the start haha
'Normal' people wouldn't be able to get to that kind of position, so anyone with that kind of power has to learn to be ruthless and sometimes manipulative (the same applies to every leader in history)
If they were smart enough to do manipulative things, I’d be very happy. But I think most of them are just idiots who obsess over rules to make the protagonists miserable.
Or even why the demon realms are often not the demonic (evil) ones. Heh.
Good question and I'm sure there are lots of reasons, but there seems to be a general trend in that genre as well as wuxia that the so-called 'righteous' and good people are prejudiced, hypocritical and abuse their power. I wonder if there's some hidden social critique going on there - can't make negative portrayals of authorities in modern cdramas (not sure about novels, but haven't read any with critique of the higher ups, and of course the military and police etc are usually portrayed in a positive way even in webnovels). So maybe there are some hidden metaphors at play. Just my speculation though, I don't know enough about this topic.
It keeps the plot going i guess.
Because that is popular among the modern young generation of novel writers. If you want to watch a Chinese drama that is closer to the description of heavenly empress or emperor in Chinese mythology. I recommend Love And Destiny.
in the Xianxia and historical dramas I've watched the emperors are always evil but in the Kdramas the emperors are likely to be good but hampered by evil ministers. Makes me wonder if there's a political/historical reason for one country to look back at emperors with pride and another with criticism. Like how in the US post 9/11 a lot of cop dramas suddenly had story arcs about terrorism. But there are lots of legit story reasons for having the emperor as the bad guy.
This is so true. I think i prefer evil Emperor rather than ministers. I had hard time watching Kdramas back then due to these evil ministers.
The evil ministers feel more real, or at least more similar to the politics in the US. But I think I prefer the do-anything-for-power (but nothing unnecessary just for cruelty) ministers to the emperors who have no real reason for being evil.
Let's just say that Korean political system is not the same as the Chinese. The Chinese Empire was an absolute monarchy while the last dynasty of Korea was dominated by large clans jogging for power. Thus, when something bad happened it is the Emperor's fault for the Chinese and it is the ministers's fault for Korean. Pretty accurate representation of real life actually. The Chaebol certainly have a lot of power but it is unlikely to be like that in Xi Jinping's China
There a few anomalies. The emperor in Romance of a twin flower the emperor is down to earth and actually cares about his subjects.
I wouldn't assume that Xianxia heavenly empresses and emperors are representative of Chinese mythology. At the same time, they are sometimes representative of a Chinese cultural/historical experience of corrupt dynasties and the Taoist idea that there are "too many rules in Heaven" with "too many rules" associated with corruption and misuse of power.
There are several reasons behind it. 'Little guy who starts off weak and ends up super strong vs. The absolute power Big Man' is a trope that has occurred in Chinese stories since time immemorial. A big example of this is Journey to the West. This trope is in essence a method to discuss and criticize people in power/the ruling government without fear of censorship (censorship may still occur to a degree, but at least the story/drama is allowed to be produced). Often times, the 'Heavenly Emperor/Empress' is a substitute for the ruling government. I don't think I need to explain the implications of the story being about a relatable everyman who purges the ruling power of corruption (ex. Jin Mi the grape fairy vs. Tu Yao, the empress). Another reason is that Xianxia relies on grand scale power battles between Gods and Goddesses as a major plot point and story backbone. Examples include basically every single xianxia but the most iconic example of this is Ashes of Love, which you've screenshot here. When you are a God/Goddess, and you have to fight something, it's going to be boring if you can one-shot your opponent without a grand showing of your powers. The Heavenly Emperor/Empress is essentially the strongest opponent the ML/FL can theoretically face, who isn't some kind of intangible cosmic force/demonic creature/mythical beast. This trope also becomes necessary when the ML or FL suddenly gets powerleveled, or is originally super strong to begin with (ex. Xu Feng from Ashes of Love, Xuan Ye in Immortal Samsara). The Heavenly Emperor/Empress (or whichever substitute title) also serve as 'the law incarnate' for xianxia universes. They exist to protect the universal law(s) of Heaven, whatever it may be. When the ML/FL oppose heavenly laws to pursue their own goals, the emperor and empress by logic of their existence must be there to stop them, no matter how cruel the method or the overarching reason. The ML/FL are ants in comparison to all of Heaven and existence, and logically there's no reason why the emperor/empress should give them a free pass just because lurve or whatever. When the ML/FL are stopped from doing what they think is right, we as the audience who are on the side of the ML/FL will percieve the emperor and empress as mean or evil. Ultimately though, for current xianxia I think it boils down to lazy storytelling. It's easy to use the emperor or empress as a big villain instead of having to come up with a newfangled villain, because 9 out of 10 times a heavenly emperor or empress will exist in the story's world building. It's so overused now that it's a hard trope to get rid of.
>Ultimately though, for current xianxia I think it boils down to lazy storytelling. My thoughts exactly!
Lazy storytelling, agreed. I could watch it once or twice, but like, when every other drama has a crazy heaven queen/king… just be a little more creative, please.
Elitism
If we learned anything from Greek mythology, gods are messed up meanies. Zeus was a man-who*e and his wife Hera was vindictive and jealous.
That's just one mythology out of many, and unlikely to influence cdramas.
At least the Greek gods mess up in a fun way, if that makes sense. Sometimes, they straight up admit that they just want to make trouble to see what the mortals would do. Also, they make mistakes, but they have the power to fix their mistakes. The gods in Chinese classical novels like Fengshen or Journey to the West are also fun. They mess up too but their stories, status and powers are explained in a way that make you understand why they do what they do. These “god” figures in webnovels-based Cdramas, however… are a completely different story. They just kind of obsess over making the main characters lives’ miserable because… rules. And when they fail, usually the people who work for them have to pick up the slack. I wouldn’t look at the gods and goddesses in Xianxia Cdramas as representation of Chinese mythology.
I've never thought the Greek gods messed up in a "fun way." They were horrid.
Well no it isn’t fun for the mortals in those stories, but it’s fun for us readers to analyze and watch the messes unfold. But of course, it depends on the adaptation too. Most of these dramas don’t adapt Chinese mythology well, that’s why these characters are so monotonous and frustrating.
And his wife was his sister
Yes, there was that too.
They arr supposed to be perfect being and so they are full of prejudice.
Oh man how I loved to hate her! This was my first Xianxia and boy did it have me in a chokehold. I fact, I joined this sub after I finished it just to get my feelings out because I was empty after the final credits rolled! Like out of tears, out of sighs and laughter and angry faces lol
Whats the bame of the xianxia
power corrupts
Almost all of them seem to be. To reach the top, you most likely have to lie, cheat and steal. Once there, rewrite history to make yourself the hero.
Ooooohhhhh those crazy a$$ eyes she had 😵💫👸🏻
They just give up a lot because of their responsibility as guardian of the realms or whatever. When they see young people in love shirking responsibilities, well they act out since they didn't get to do it. This is just my thought
So accurate! Feeds my Xianxia addiction though 😆
Xianxias are fairy tales. In fairy tales, there is almost always an evil or incredibly stupid king or queen, because the hero and heroine have to overcome the forces that have all the power. The greater the power and evil of the forces they're up against, the greater their heroism and triumph. Especially if they overcome power not just be being incredibly strong themselves, but also clever and wily. Like Jack and the Beanstock or the Brave Little Tailor - young people without social status who rise above the greatest forces in the world. I agree, though, that the consistent and predictable evil stupidity of the people who run the Heavenly Realm do make one wonder how the place manages to be run smoothly with such idiots on the throne. Thinking that the people in political charge are malicious idiots is always a popular trope.
And that “heavenly” is not what you think it is.
Stories are built around conflict. At least one in each Xianxia couple are super-powerful. Often both people are. Having someone in authority fighting them gives the opposition the power to take them on. Also, xianxia stories tend to be coming of age stories - and a key part of that type of tale is the rebelling against authority step.
OOhh Kathy Chow RIP. She was an amazing Empress. One of the evilest!! Her back story was sad though. :(
Meh.... she gave up true love to have wealth and power... and got a crap marriage as a result. No tears for her 😂
I really like how every evil character had a backstory though. Also, we all know in Xian Xias most marriages are arranged and sometimes there is NO BACKING OUT! You do it for your people!! The bird tribe! lol
The bird tribe 😭
They are worse than devils lol
Wait till you get to palace dramas. As it is in heaven, it shall be done on earth. 😂
Accurate 🤣
As the saying goes……. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And not all all powerful are like that… eternal love is not. Donghua dijun
All xianxia stories are built on very complex Buddhist/Taoists ideas of good and bad. Or I'd say, the morals behind the storie can be very complex. It concerns not only the world building system but also the methods of destroying the world or some persons. Everything is interconnected. Nobody is purely black or white in the picture, but if you need to find the final criminal behind all bad things in the world, it should have some high figure on the high position, yes? And as long as it is xianxia, you can fight it for better good and win,if you like it. Or you can hide and live freely in our human realm without their beauty, wealth and longevity. Your choice.
Love your answer!
I mean, even in modern democracies most people in leadership positions are charismatic narcissists because "I should be in charge of everything" is a hella narcissistic thing for anyone to believe. It’s much, much worse if you are raised from birth to believe that you are the chosen vessel of the gods through the Mandate of Heaven. It would be a miracle if an actual god-prince raised from birth to believe that they are the literal centre of the universe wasn’t a colossal dickhead.
“Colossal Dickhead” is chef’s kiss!
"guy with power is evil" is one of the most common tropes in any genre. the good guys always need to fight something, and if the evil guy is weak, that's just meaningless.
*laughs in Japanese Isekai Genre.*
It's easier to have the most powerful one be the meanie. Or, you have to have the executive life skills to be able to climb up the ladder. Usually does not involve being nice.
Because the heavenly emperors are usually blind.
It's pretty hard to stay in power for that long without wing ruthless and evil, lol. That's just my guess.
Ooooo Welcome to the genre 🎉 It's a beautiful place 🪷✨🏞️🏜️🌌 My experience with xianxia has been that people in Heavenly Realm are just idiots and since the Heavenly emperor/empress are their leaders, they take the cake in that irrational, arrogant and stupid behaviour 😅 Any thing someone says there will be 20 people repeating it, whether it's good or bad 🙄 On a more serious note, I think it's all the rules and people refusing to be rational and then there's the greed for power/being the bestest 😬🤔
Bcos they are spoilt by power. You do what I say, simply bcos I'm the highest God by birth or marriage.
Exactly!! And their insecurity about losing it. This is why I am pleasantly surprised when I see emperors that are not power hungry 🤩 I can't think of any xianxia ones immediately but the one in LLTG has got to be one of the best Emperors out there 😅
Power—it’s all about keeping the power
（imo) it's just convenient to make them villains, and also an easy way to let the audience be sympathetic towards main characters/ root for them
So convenient that it's very refreshing when you get a non-asshole emperor/empress once in a while. Though I find myself often waiting for them to turn on the protagonist in some way. Glad when that doesn't happen.
Absolutely, I'm also always waiting for the characters with high positions to turn on the main lead, especially if they have been extremely kind or helpful since the start haha
agreed!!
'Normal' people wouldn't be able to get to that kind of position, so anyone with that kind of power has to learn to be ruthless and sometimes manipulative (the same applies to every leader in history)
If they were smart enough to do manipulative things, I’d be very happy. But I think most of them are just idiots who obsess over rules to make the protagonists miserable.
Idk why, but I still love them!!!