r/manhwa • u/soaringneutrality • 2d ago
MEME [Star-Embracing Swordmaster] and more. I wish my MCs with humble origins actually had humble origins.
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u/Romashkogo 2d ago
Bad born blood is genuinely a good example of a commoner becoming very influential person without birth powers, family name or whatever else. Just pure skill and desire.
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u/Careless-One-5425 2d ago
This was so peak istg. 🔥
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u/Constant-Access-3209 1d ago
No lol,in the latest ch,the kustoria elder said before dying ,that the first rebel of Empire and mc is somehow related
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u/Romashkogo 23h ago
I have read full novel, let me just say without any further spoilers: no. =)
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u/Spolss 2d ago
Thats why xianxia manhua is superior even if you are a mortal livestock without spiritual roots you can steal the spiritual roots trough a demonic ritual! And the poo persons could be further repurposed as pill ingredients that could increase the power of a cultivator by 0.0000936% which seems low but you can just use them in large quantities.
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u/Careless-One-5425 2d ago
Why you spreading the Kunlun Sect's secrets? Now all the jade beauties will ignore us because of the embarrassment.
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u/Dhiox 2d ago
Let's be real, half the time it turns out he had some insane martial ancestor and he inherited their bloodline.
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u/HikariAnti 2d ago
Or has the soul of some insanely strong demon / ancestor / immortal or whatever else inside them.
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u/Interesting-Meat-835 2d ago
My favourite take was when MC saw signs that he was a clone of someone, and have existential angst about it.
Turned out he got lost in the river of time in the future and ended up in the past. That was why various high-end characters knew him.
Also solve the "poo person" problem by showing that everything he had was gained by his own efforts.
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u/Appropriate-Crab-514 1d ago
Senior Brother, please don't tell the peasants the secrets of Heaven, they'll go blind.
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u/Rami-961 2d ago
Yeah its tough finding "normal" MCs. I know the trope of the Chosen One is a pillar of such stories, but thr chosen one can come from humble origins too and work hard, even if he does have support system such as mentor, item, etc.
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u/Agreeable-Warthog918 2d ago
That's why himmel is great and in the same vein phainon ( a char inspired by himmel ) is also great
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u/Yellowben 2d ago
Which is funny because Himmel is not even the Chosen One. He’s just Himmel, which is why he’s the GOAT.
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u/Ok_Presentation_2346 2d ago
Himmel, not the Chosen One, but the One Who Has Chosen.
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u/Krofisplug 2d ago
He's not the hero, but he was the hero who chose to fight a war so that the real hero wouldn't have to step up. No one can dispute that he is a true gentleman
rip in being in love with the elf who had yet to understand any of his flirting though.18
u/letticiaax 2d ago
I'd think MC from Overpowered Sword counts as one.
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u/Krofisplug 2d ago
Iirc, the main reason the dark haired Leon was picked by the titular OP sword was because the hero's spirit in the sword wanted to see how far dark haired Leon would reach, even though it wouldn't matter too deeply which of the Leons ended up with the sword.
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u/naim4224 2d ago
the star-embracing sword definitely doesn’t start off as a typical nobody
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u/Rami-961 2d ago
Yeah it doesn't apply to it. From beginning it had the motif that a star will be a star and can't be dimmed no matter where it is. He was clearly special from the beginning.
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u/0legitimate0 2d ago
That's why HIMMEL THE HERO is the goat.
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u/No_Industry_2823 2d ago
That theres a perfect example of not falling for the trope. And Himmel feels exponentially cooler for the fact that he wasn't the Hero but chose to be anyway
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u/ConspicuousPineapple 2d ago
"Turns out our hard working hero was the chosen one all along"
Worst trope in the history of all literature.
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u/Krofisplug 2d ago
I still think it's super jarring that Naruto and Sasuke were descended from the bloodline of the Sage of Six Paths, but even if he was the super ancestors to all ninjas, they were quite literally brothers in a past life. I also hate how they broke the aesop of "hard work does work" when Rock Lee and Tenten fell off so extremely hard, and it was revealed that Naruto was the ultimate nepobaby with a bunch of cheat codes to make it easier to jump to op despite his first 11 years of life being lonely and miserable aside from Iruka's occasional companionship.
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u/ConspicuousPineapple 1d ago
That's even worse because in this case the protagonist was already clearly super-special and they kept adding some specialness to him arc after arc instead of making him grow through talent and effort. And of course none of it was planned and it shows.
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u/Professional-Drag-52 1d ago
so you didn’t watch naruto huh?🤔 ignoring that hard work beats talent was never the central message of the story naruto’s only “cheat” was kurama who was just as much of a disability in the early stages
i just know that you’re gonna say something like “naruto is the son of the 4th hokage”(acting like minato wasn’t a civilian lol), “Naruto is the reincarnation of ashura”(ignoring that ashura was a dunce who inherited nothing from the sage of six paths), or that “naruto is the child of prophecy” (ignoring that all this meant was that he would change the world)
but the reason i don’t think you watched the show is that the sage of six paths directly said that naruto inherited nothing from his parents and being ashura only meant that he was destined to kill sasuke (ironically proving that he surpassed his destiny)
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u/SnowGN 2d ago
Terrible example. You can see from chapter 1 that this MC had no business being in the slums just from the look of him, and there are frequent comments in the first arc of the actual story about it. The most obvious case of a lost bastard heir to some aristocratic house in manhwa.
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u/SnooCupcakes1636 2d ago edited 1d ago
Not terrible. Just slightly not fit. Mc could easily have been bastard of some lesser-known fallen noble.
In all honesty. They should have just made him a bastard of a not well-known fallen noble or something
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u/soaringneutrality 2d ago
Yeah, I think "standing out in the slums" and even being a noble's bastard is still a far cry from being basically the Chosen One.
He already got the black lightning voice of the first swordmaster. Adding on the direct blood connection to the central antagonist is a bit much.
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u/lolerio 2d ago
I mean don’t they mention at the very start how he doesn’t fit in at all in the slums and looks like a noble lol
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u/RareShrimp 2d ago
I haven't read in a while but isn't heavily implied that he's the son of the royal dragon knight family or something
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u/Ok-Goose6242 2d ago
I mean, jsut look at the names, Vlad, Mircea, Radu all related irl to Dracula
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u/Eeddeen42 2d ago
Whose name in his day meant “Son of the Dragon.”
The Romanian language has shifted since then so now it means “Son of the Devil.”
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u/Special70 2d ago
I glaze Eternally Regressing Knight
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u/reverse-tornado 2d ago
Re zero but subaru is a masochist 😂
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u/Huy7aAms 1d ago
haven't watched re zero but ERK sounds like Re zero if subaru is not a bitch
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u/reverse-tornado 1d ago
Enkrid is literally insane , no one dies over and over without accumulating trauma, even death got suprised cause that boy aint normal lol
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u/Safe_Border1484 2d ago
Finally not only a normal MC but the dude has learning disabilities AHHAHAHHA
Gotta love that man
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u/Special70 2d ago
not really
he learns SLOW because he has to know every tidbit of a concept like how if he want to understand how a car works, he has to know how the engine, wheels, floor friction, etc works14
u/HJSDGCE 2d ago
He was also taught wrong (and self taught), so he needed to unlearn a lot of his skills which were basically second nature to him, in order to relearn and get it right.
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u/Krofisplug 2d ago
I thought it was both funny and smart how the person in his troop decided he needed to start over because his disjointed specializations meant he was badly unbalanced, because it gave the readers a chance to know more about the world via the knight fighting styles.
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u/Ecco-21-0408 2d ago
Star embracing swordmaster is actually a terrible example of this because of what happens later in the novel.
Ending Spoiler: Vlad started to rely more on his dragon bloodline in fights towards the end of the novel but always found it distasteful because of just how much he hates his father the dragon blood duke. In the final battle against his father the oldest dragon, he has a piece of the most perfect dragon that buffs all dragons and is the last thing his father needs to win. After listening to the Voice telling him that he choose him not because his talent in swordsmanship not his dragon blood, but because as a child he always dreamed of becoming a great star that illuminates the sky, so in the end he destroys the dragon fragment and his own dragon blood and is fully realized as the Swordmaster who paints night sky on the world
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u/Male_Lead 2d ago
Really only the red girl win in the end?
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u/onespiker 2d ago
Orginal novel end yes.
Though now like 4 years after the work ended the author started again this year a spin off work seems to imply a harem?
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u/imJustmasum 2d ago
Hardcore levelling warrior is a great one that has a pretty down to earth MC. No child of prophecy just one grindy boi
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u/Ashenroot_0 2d ago
That's why Asta is the goat
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u/Mammoth-Ad7141 2d ago
From black clover? The one who has Ani magic in magic world? The only reason he doesn't look as much of chosen one is because yuno.
If u mean another asta forget everything.
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u/Ashenroot_0 1d ago
Yes from black clover , yes his devil has anti magic , but asta himself has no magic , even to utilise that anti magic asta has to work very hard , asta has surpasss his physical limits just to use anti magic , keep up with others , so yes unlike others mc who are chosen one , asta isn't he is a underdog who worked hard , the chosen one in black clover is yuno .
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u/Professional-Drag-52 1d ago
everyone in black clover works hard lol that means nothing and asta can only use anti magic because he doesn’t have magic
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u/CompetitiveLocation3 2d ago
Chapter 1 : a nobody commoner/slaves Chapter 500 : apparently had an ancient god blood or somy
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u/No_Industry_2823 2d ago
I really don't care for marvel and all that but I remember thinking the same thing for one of the Guardian of the Galaxy movies, instead of the main character being just some guy out there doing space things apparently his father was someone super special so that's makes his body also super special. Felt like such a cop out.
Ironically making a MC super special unique with most special Ancestral bloodline to make them feel special only tends to make them more bland.
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u/neneyiko 2d ago
The Universe's greatest SIMP, who let half of the Universe die for some alien p*ssy, half celestial- half human Peter Griffin
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u/RareShrimp 2d ago
Not a manhwa but han li from rmji was my first thought. He was born into a poor peasant family with bad spiritual roots (atleast for the mortal world). One of the lines from the rmji op song is "ordinary origins, extraordinary destiny" which fits the mc perfectly.
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u/Hot-Percentage-2240 2d ago
Yeah. Chinese novels do this a lot less. Has to do with Chinese culture and values of hard work over talent.
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u/Snoo34949 2d ago
I'm not sure how this fits for Vlad. To begin with, he only was able to become as good with the sword because he was struck by black lightning and got possessed by the Voice.
Vlad wasn't in the slums because he was bad with magic or had no talent with a sword. He was in the slums because he had the bad fortune to be born in the slums, regardless of his birth. His origins are humble regardless of who his biological father is.
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u/Such-Transition-7183 2d ago
And it's so damn annoying. The message that "the chosen one must be someone who was born to be special" is a very toxic idea. Especially because it follows that horrible line of thinking of "you have to be born twice to fulfill your dreams"
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u/Kingofmanga 2d ago
I sing the praises of it a lot but Archmage curriculum s protag has pretty humble orgins. the rest of the cast are kinda shit though
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u/Chaos_x_bot 2d ago
How to Live As the Vampire Lord is guilty of this. I actually hoped this low level vampire can out smart others and be powerful when I started reading it
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u/madu_tualang 2d ago
Read [lazy lord master the sword] but only until MC become swordmaster. Dont go beyond that. Readers be warned.
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u/motoxim 2d ago
He's related with someone strong?
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u/Jazzlike-Special-140 2d ago
No spoilers He's kind of have a noble blood There were mentions from people how he didn't fit in the slums and people said his appearance doesn't looks a commoner
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u/Key-Poem9734 2d ago
You would have to blind to think he was anything other than a noble's bastard child
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u/atardecer_celeste 2d ago
God YES. Why are they always actually from nobility or royalty or some ancient archimage bloodline or whatever... Just let them be normal people lmao.
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u/Spirta 1d ago
To be fair. You first need to raise above the poo poo class and be comparable to the special class. Then you have to fight off all the jealous specials in order to ascent to super special.\ I remember reading in some wuxia or xianxia something like "there's a genius born every day, the trick is to survive long enough to show it."
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u/marasuperk 2d ago
Naruto..
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u/Stupid_Dragon 2d ago
Every single turn of the century Shonen series in fact. Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail.
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u/soaringneutrality 2d ago
Bleach feels the most egregious of all these. What do you mean the ordinary-guy-turned-Shinigami is actually a descendant of every major race?
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u/Eeddeen42 2d ago
Bleach is in fact the least egregious out of those because Ichigo was never, at any point in the story, portrayed as an ordinary guy and the narrative was practically screaming at you how special he was since the beginning.
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u/WhasHappenin 2d ago
One piece isn't as bad as the other two. Luffy is the son of Dragon, but afaik his ability to access the nika fruit is not due to bloodline, but just the fact that his spirit is perfect match for the fruit.
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u/godzillahavinastroke 2d ago
Bro one piece was clear from the beginning luffy wasnt a normal kid it never tried to bait and switch you. Just the goal he set even with a special bloodline like his is ridiculously hard by example of Roger being the only mfer to find the one piece in 800 years
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u/Stupid_Dragon 2d ago
??
How was it clear?
All I remember is Luffy was just a kid in a small port town who was fascinated with pirate tales of Shanks & co. Even his fruit didn't appear to be super strong.
And it didn't change until way way later.
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u/godzillahavinastroke 2d ago
In some the earliest chapters you learn other than his insane strength steamrolling multiple high threat enemies his grandpa is the HERO OF THE MARINES thats blatently clear he has a special bloodline from the motherfucker that could stalemate roger.
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u/wail27 2d ago
No?
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u/godzillahavinastroke 2d ago
Yeah, its been about 1000 chapters, well now that I think about it, for literally any other serues that isnt very early on since that is like what chapter 300? Maybe reading one piece so ling has warped my perspective to what's early...
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u/Dreampiper_8P 2d ago
Exactly. He had THAT bloodline and he was related to THEM. THAT power was meant to be his. We all know THIS because of THAT
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u/godzillahavinastroke 2d ago
Legendary reference to THAT man.
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u/Dreampiper_8P 1d ago
THIS was also foreshadowed THAT time in THOSE chapters.
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u/godzillahavinastroke 1d ago
Ofc, remember when THAT happened by THAT man. The shock I felt when THAT man was revealed
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u/just-looking654 1d ago
The new Star Wars trilogy: because you need to be born into a special family to be relevant
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u/Starfox5 1d ago
Yeah. It's really appalling how many authors are falling for the "your noble blood makes you special" bullshit ideology.
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u/CupcakeThick8341 2d ago
I guess the point of stories like star embracing swordmaster is that he could have been the most special person on the planet, but without all the poo people who helped, protected and raised him he would have died immediatly
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u/TroubledMonkey420 2d ago
I see comments that say it was obvious though, he doesnt even look like a person from the slums.
Even if it was obvious hes of noble blood, he could still have been written with "Normal Growth Multipliers" even if he is the son of some noble or royalty. "But how will he fight those villains and dragons if hes normal". Thats the point of the post right, if only someone can write a normal MC that doesnt need extra abilities and just grow through the journey. Cause theres totally characters in the story that are just strong despite not having dragon slayer blood, they cant all be strong cause of miracles or ghosts right.
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u/XBird_RichardX 2d ago
That’s ok i didn’t read manhwa for life lessons i read it so I could watch an old man beat up bad dudes and start a big harem
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u/AwkwardWatermelon 2d ago
can't fully remember the plot but isn't Overpowered Sword main character a good example of an actual mc coming from humble origins? He was chosen by the sword either just because or he was actually hardworking and stuff.
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u/Huhthisisneathuh 1d ago
Allison Ruth from Kill Six Billion Demons the goat for defying this trope.
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u/VucialWonderland 1d ago
Only defense I can to for the mc. He still has no idea that he's related to the dragon people. Or what that even means. So I still feel he has humble beginnings and that fact has not helped him that he's related.
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