Old vs New

[NotaNuffian]

I just risened from being slumped on the desks and woke up drunk.

A thought on my head.

In old times I read wuxia and xianxia, MCs and some lucky bastards always find ancient manuals that grants super powerful techniques etc, allowing them to steamroll other people.

Then after some years, I see an anti trend about how MCs would mock losers who hold onto old techniques and thought that old is better, followed by MCs steamroll these guys.

From here I see Old Vs New thing.

Argument for Old is that they are supercool, superpowerful, superuntested techniques only for destined people as mooks who have them will just die. As of why New suck compared to Old? Tons of things are lost throughout time. This was very prevalant in JinYong chronological works.

Argument for New is that people improve, change and update techniques to fit modern times alot better. Old can be torn apart, studied and overcome. When New vs Old, Old dies.

Have you seen such comparison before?

What are your thoughts?

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Never saw it since I only read old Wuxia, Xuanhuan, Xianxia.

 

[Hoshino]

No since I only read MTLs and some TLs, but most of comments there are brain dead.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Never saw it since I only read old Wuxia, Xuanhuan, Xianxia.

So no old style is much stronger than new style vibe?

No since I only read MTLs and some TLs, but most of comments there are brain dead.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

So no old style is much stronger than new style vibe?

The only ones I read were stories where in old times cultivators were stronger, while current times have bloodlines diluted, clans weakened compared to before, and so on. So yeah, older techniques are also better in those stories. Never read a story where the opposite happened.

 

[NotaNuffian]

The only ones I read were stories where in old times cultivators were stronger, while current times have bloodlines diluted, clans weakened compared to before, and so on. So yeah, older techniques are also better in those stories. Never read a story where the opposite happened.

I think the ones that featured such a thing is the ones that would often harp about improvement in society etc.

I think Tales of Herding Gods had elements of it. But then it got its head turned when people start to relearn lost old arts except they are also trying to innovate on the new arts.

Wishy washy mixed bag really.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I think the ones that featured such a thing is the ones that would often harp about improvement in society etc.

I think Tales of Herding Gods had elements of it. But then it got its head turned when people start to relearn lost old arts except they are also trying to innovate on the new arts.

Wishy washy mixed bag really.

I actually started readind Tales of Herding Gods, but I dropped it around chapter 100.

 

[xedale]

In a xianxia, there is technology left behind by an ascended ancestor god and technology invented by fellow humans.
Improving techniques invented by humans is perfectly possible. But to compete with gods, your civilization would need to be extremely advanced.
A situation where ancient god-level technology got corrupted by time to a point it's almost unusuable and a team of open-minded mortals might clean things up a little is a possibility too.

 

[NotaNuffian]

In a xianxia, there is technology left behind by an ascended ancestor god and technology invented by fellow humans.
Improving techniques invented by humans is perfectly possible. But to compete with gods, your civilization would need to be extremely advanced.
A situation where ancient god-level technology got corrupted by time to a point it's almost unusuable and a team of open-minded mortals might clean things up a little is a possibility too.

Kind of what was happening in Cultivation 40K.

The MC Li Yao was stating that technology lost can be found and technology marches with time. While hiccups may occur and devolution is still a form of evolution (to keep up with the current trend), things often get better.

This is his argument of the Old is not better all the time.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

Often in wuxia, in my exp. The New Vs Old is more centred around Tradition VS Progressivism. Hierarchical VS Agile/mobile paradigms.

On the one hand, you get the creation of a Sect and the perfection of a specific martial arts, which is a multi-generational thing. On the other honoured traditions become revered and can't incorporate a new shift in paradigms.

 

[RainingFish]

I think traditional Chinese culture put a lot of emphasis on ancestors, meaning the techniques they made would be favored. New techniques being favored more now probably has to do with the technological advance, and that influence fiction.

 

[Gakemikazuchi]

In Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Frieren literally states to Fern that basic offensive and defensive magic is enough to dog walk mages of the current era of their verse. I think its a pretty blatant insinuation that magic had regressed in their verse, to the point that basic magic from her (old-ass) arsenal is enough for modern mages.

 

[Snake99]

I think it depends on how well known those techniques are, if the protagonist finds a manual of old techniques that were lost a long time ago, it makes sense for him to defeat the competition with them, on the other hand if he is studying old techniques that everyone knows, then he doesn't really have any advantage, new things is not always good, inventing something from scratch is not easy, it takes time and experimentation until you get something that is useful and effective, so many times it is better to learn old techniques that have already been proven to work.