The ending was one rare instance where this version is less faithful than Hong Kong’s. The book ends with where the final part of China’s starts if I remember right. That bastard Murong Fu’s madness is taken care of earlier whereas the book and the 96 version ended correctly with this, I thought it was a horrible ending cos that guy was a real son of a bitch (Well we never saw his mother but I assume it runs in the family going by him and his father) he deserved a terrible death or torture over a blissful ending where he becomes emperor of all he surveys (Children on a beach)… All the more so as the great hero of the story, the greatest of the 3 mains had not such a happy ending at all to understate it…. If Tian Long Ba Bu has a heavy tie with Buddhism, which it does from what I’ve heard, the 8 main fighters each being demi gods and semi devils of Buddhism hence it’s alternate name Demi Gods Semi Devils… It has somehow divorced another Indian principle Karma…. Treachery leads to ignorant bliss whereas heroism leads to suicide and martyrdom?
My opinion of why it ended this way was to keep Qiao Feng in the spotlight, Murong Fu was cast despicably, I cannot imagine this not to be so I even have heard he is more likable in the novel…. This I need to see for myself as we all know his end result I can’t imagine… Well I guess same can be said for Darth Vader, then again no cos Vader had raw talent at the very least and Murong was anything but that, he had talent yes but he fell far short of expectations and resorted to deceit and murder to compensate…. Having Qiao Feng dying as the ending makes him the star, the show started with him so fitting it ends with him (And that bitch, as you said ungratefully throwing her donated eyes away) They couldn’t end it without showing the fate of Ah Zi though actually now that I think about it I am unsure if this last scene is 100% accurate. In the HK version, after they fall off Tie Chou jumps off after Ah Zi, followed by a lot of crying from the survivors. (Heck I am a strong man myself when it comes to holding back tears but to see a great hero die in front of me in real life I would be too) but as we saw here Tie Chou smashed himself to death first…. Is just weird, anyhow I never liked the ending of this story at all. Something so fundamentally wrong about it, in my mind and I’m sure many others Jin Yong’s greatest hero having such a crappy fate, whereas the other heroes get to live longer and we assume get more powerful, this great warrior’s life is cut to his 30s, like Bruce Lee…. Oh one area where this series isn’t good for me is the main music, compared to other mainland series anyway, the awesome Condor Heroes/She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan’s opening is unmatched, the ending music soppy but better than this song. The music in the series was good though, even the scenes that used Terminator 2 music hehe but I like Cameron’s work so no matter.

Regarding Murong Fool’s followers, good point I never took note! I didn’t realise there may have been more, who in their right mind would follow this maniac?! Same can be said for real history I guess…

Sweeper monk is never explained, ever. When I was a kid and watched the 1996 version, I thought the title was literal, we’d be seeing demi gods and semi devils and when sweeper appeared I thought he was a demi god! He was more powerful in this version, he just looked at Xiao Yuan Shan and Murong Bo to overwhelm them, Qiao Feng was totally useless against him.(Who is a bigger badass in the 96 version, in some fights at least, he takes on Murong Fu, Ding Chun Qiu AND You Tan Zhi not for the few seconds in this recent version but he has a full on fight and beats them all easy, really was no need for Duan Yu and Xu Zhu to help. Murong Fu even got his sword broken… Well that happens a lot anyway haha. Generally they had more fights in 1996, that never happened in the book) So useless he did nothing, whereas he actually does blast him in the book and the mainland one as you saw after watching his father die. ‘Die!!!!!!!!!’ ‘Hao Gong Fu’…. He got that out of the sweeper at least but of course he’s no match for him, the book Qiao Feng broke the monks ribs with this blast, no small feat… Anyway no we know nothing about him, he was there 41 years not 40 if I remember right. I actually was told one CRAZY theory…. Now about Xu Zhu being told to receive instructions from a woman, who never appeared. That SAME woman is theorised to be the MONK!??? Timeline wise its possible, that woman disappeared over 40 years ago and she can leech chi so her prospects for power are endless and I was told sweeper used non Shaolin techniques, looking at Ah Zhu it’s possible also for women to convincingly appear as men in this story, though how do they mimic the voice? Anyway I don’t accept this crazy theory!

Another, which sounded like a nice one but doesn’t work for some continuity reasons is that Sweeper is Murong Bo’s own father! Who also took the dark path and was dying from it but was healed by the previous secret master of Shaolin….
The moderate of an extinct Wuxia forum I used to frequent even said Sweeper is an incarnation of Buddha himself so no reason to compare his powers to the others cos he is just too out of their league!
What does frustrate me with Jin Yong is how he builds these superhumans yet somehow China still gets owned in wars with barbarians…. Senseless, the Mongols in Condor Heroes were nothing compared even to the weakest villian characters but somehow they take China in battle?
I think he’s a great mystery character, it took him to defeat these two old troublemakers of Wulin and as far as I know Murong Bo is in fact the most powerful villain in Jin Yong world, along with Jiu Mozhi that Tibetan. He also beat them way too easily it was scary, always someone stronger as they say. It was also a letdown, cos of how hyped Qiao Feng was in the Hong Kong version, along with his father and Murong Bo and this stranger just rewrites the league tables out of nowhere, I couldn’t look at Qiao Feng as the unstoppable after this cos we saw there is at least one that can own him easily.

Finally the assassination at Yanmen Pass, it was a dishonourable attack so they wanted it secret, sure anyone nearby will note a slaughter happened but they can’t say they saw the faces of who did it. Clearly they were guilt ridden for their crime and they raised Qiao Feng as a Han to atone for it, you are right in how cruel they were in the execution of it and it wasn’t lost on Xiao Yuan Shan that’s for sure!

The last part was very different in this version compared to 96, 96 was a showcase of mass fighting, Liao vs Qiao Feng and co, they were continually overwhelmed but they sure killed many enemies. This one was less entertaining cos Qiao Feng doesn’t hurt a single countryman during his escape (He scares them with dragon sounds), while it is more noble we watch these shows for action!

I’ll leave with my own plothole, cop out. The poison that is used a few times to incapacitate a whole crowd, surely a cheap way to take people down. Why don’t they use it every scene then? I don’t think the tv ever explained it and poison is used often in Jin Yong, it sure is a lame way to avoid fighting and watching a film or show that’s kung fu based to see people avoiding fighting is just bull.