History Literature / TheLegendOfTheCondorHeroes

* TheLegendOfX

* EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: Not quite everyone. The Mongols and two of the main protagonists' mothers (Charity Bao and Lily Li) don't... but practically every other named character does to at least some degree, from heroes and villains to side characters. This ''is'' a {{wuxia}} novel, after all.

** Wanyan Honglie has shades of this with Genghis Khan; They are both initially important but not the uncontested ruler of their peoples, and both are planning and working to ascend by pulling allies, favor, and resources to their cause. The difference is, Genghis Khan does become the ruler of the Mongolians, while Wanyan Honglie never becomes the Jin Emperor, despite his ambitions to overthrow his older brothers and possibly his father;

* AnyoneCanDie: Let's see... by the end of the novel, the death toll includes and is not limited to [[spoiler:4/5 of the main characters' parental figures, 6/7 of the Seven Freaks of the South, and uh, at least one of the main characters.]]

* 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 a 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.[[note]]The Jurchen Jin did wipe out the Northern Song; the Southern Song was taken out by the Mongolian Yuan, along with the Jurchen Jin.[[/note]] This may have been due to lingering anti-Manchu sentiment, given the numerous problems China faced during the later Manchu Qing Dynasty.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[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.

* HandicappedBadass: Ke Zheng'e and eventually Cyclone Mei[[labelnote:*]]Mei Chaofeng[[/labelnote]] are blind for most if not all of the novel, and both of them kick serious ass.

* IdiotBall: The last story arc was kicked off because Guo Jing and Ke Zheng'e fell for a plot designed to split up Guo Jing and Lotus Huang. 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.

* CoolPet: The Condors. They're white birds big enough to carry a couple of adults with difficulty. They're human-level intelligent and understand speech.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The 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 Lotus Huang'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.]]
* WaxOnWaxOff: Guo Jing's slow acquisition of martial skills is the despair of his ''shifus'' until he meets a traveling Taoist priest, Ma Yu, who doesn't agree to become his master, but offers to teach him some "breathing exercises" to help him focus and sleep better. Guo Jing takes up the exercises, and suddenly he's picking up kung-fu techniques in days that would previously have taken him the better part of a year to acquire. Turns out that what Ma Yu has been teaching him were the basic ''neigong'' techniques of his Taoist sect, without their names.

* SharedUniverse: Alongside ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheCondorHeroes'' and ''Literature/HeavenSwordAndDragonSabre'', its two sequels, and ''Sword of the Yue Maiden'' (a [[DistantSequel distant prequel]]), ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes'' is noted to take place in the same continuity as the ancient Chinese classic ''Literature/WaterMargin'', as one of the main characters is [[HeroicLineage descended from one of the 108 heroes in the classic]].

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Applies to 'every' martial artist; the translation notes that the term "kung fu" applies to any skill gained through hard work and practice. In this world, no one is born inhumanly strong and talented people are those who can learn and implement martial arts concepts quickly but it still takes years of practice to become truly strong. Early on a mid-rank martial artist, Qiu Chuji, carries an enormous urn full of wine on one hand. Accomplished martial artists are capable of felling trees with single blows of their hand. Late in the story, Guo Jing has no problem walking against the powerful current at the bottom of waterfall pool even though he's completely submerged. He also picks up an ox and holds it over his head without terribly much trouble.