Records of the Swordsman Scholar

Good story, even if a bit slow. Characters have much more depth than 99% of other stories but the overall plot ends up not making progress for over 80 chapters. Early on characters are written as people but the story devolved into introducing the same exact cliches every martial arts manhwa/manhua has done already.

The difference is so apparent that I wonder if a 2nd author or editor attempted to deviate from the story and fumbled; there is a 0% chance that the original author generated the bottom barrel slop that the story turned into. The story began with an intricate political/martial power balance with leaders having human considerations but it turned to the most generic cliche of haughty brats cliches of being corrupt in typical murim story fashion with zero repurcussion, logic, or interesting motivations.

Because I'm a basic bitch. My opinions and views often align with the majority. I know that if I see a few reviewers that I agree with I don't even have to read the synopsis to find the same kind of problems they do.

However, I'm on ch 106 of this manhwa. I'm shocked. PRO outweighs the CON for me.

PRO:
No romance! (So far!)

The woman have their own lives, their own goals, agendas and agency. Shockingly their thoughts do NOT revolve around the MC or what he's doing. (Holy shit, did these generic manhwa women kind of passed the Bechdel Test?! Whodathunk?! Especially considering the disappointing story this was adapted from.)

MC is secure in his masculinity and his pacifist lifestyle so he has zero needs to constantly and arrogantly prove himself. What a relief to read. He's strong. He might not know it but the important thing is he's not all that curious and doesn't go out of his way to start dumb shit to "find out". Because, guess what, his life doesn't revolve around "being stronger". He has nothing to prove to anyone, not even us readers.

A breath of fresh air.

Timid, low self esteem, refuses opportunity left and right because he's to Humble, always apologizing, refuses to carry a sword even though people have made attempts on his life, is a schoolar but is written so bad he dosnt use his education ever instead he's almost always saved by others or the proverbial bell. Is strong but still let arrogant assholes who are weaker than him screw with him because for some reason he refuses to put them in their place because he's a pacifist in most chapters.

The most infuriating part is that the MC has stenght but never use it, he gets steeped on and just accepts it, there is no satisfying moment when he kicks the ass of some asshole which is a pretty important part in a weak to strong story... you know, the payoff!!!

After 57 chapters I've dropped it!

Read till chapter 42 and dropped

(for the record, i have indeed looked through the spoilers and i wont be stating it because my analysis and prediction was true even when i didnt know the spoilers but it does act as a confirmation that what i observed does continue to happen.)

So, heres a timeline of the start of this series, the MC clears the civil service exam in his teens. Top of the class btw. Then proceeds to be a scholar studying martial arts for the decade + a few years till he gets essentially kicked out of service while he's in his 30s and is now left to wander the world.

Things to note: he is extremely accomplished in the sword yet he has never actually fought or even sparred with anyone else thus he has no idea of his real strength, this does get resolved later as he starts to get an idea. and somewhat rids him of his spineless nature.

Now comes my main issue with this series. the MC's personality.
He's walking along this road and bandits jump up to rob him (at this point he doesnt know his own strength nor has a sword so that part is excusable) so he manages to barely dodge strikes from clubs and an actual sword (the bandits intend to 100% kill him and they even say it), he gets saved by a passing carriage and then he shouts at them to not kill the bandits, okay, fair enough and what next?

nothing, nothing is the answer, he literally lets these people go, because they definitely learnt their lesson and are never going to rob anyone again right?
He does not even think of handing them to the police/ authorities.
Nor does he even carry out justice himself which is probably like a chopped off arm for robbing.
nope he literally lets them roam free as he gets on that carriage himself and leaves.

And incase you think this is a one off, no its not.
Such events happen MULTIPLE times.

Yeah its one thing to not kill people, i can agree with that, but that doesnt mean you let them go freely.
And that too from a civil servant no less. What test did he pass?

He also doesnt hold grudges or have any sort of spine as you can already guess.
Its really like the usual japanese MC but instead this guy is supposedly in his 30s
This fake kindness of him continues and probably will continue throughout the series.
He acts every bit like your usual teenage MCs except his age is actually in his 30s cause he just trained under a rock for so long.

He has that korean babyface going on tho and apparently looks 'young' with people often assuming he's in his 20s (looking at context) but this fact isnt really acknowledged by him.

The previous commenter PZcolo did point it out and yes the pace is a little slow but that is hardly the biggest problem with this, infact the pacing is fine enough except at certain places like the start.

Also incase you wanted to know, there are multiple females characters but there is NO romance nor harem at all. None of the women are interested in him nor is he interested in them, He does make multiple comments that he finds them beautiful but thats it. He makes no attempts to pursue any of them nor does it look he's ever going to. Its another one of those he's going to marry his sword. (but the author loves introducing new female characters then saying theyre all engaged or already married etc etc as if to really hammer that point home that the MC is going to stay alone)

the art is, alright but the MC is literally the most generic looking character out of all of them.

Anyways final verdict 6 out of 10. The very epitome of generic but it has its good points sometimes.

TLDR: read the title of this comment

Interesting story, unfortunately the pace is really slow, one may think it's good for character development, but even so it's slow to a point it starts getting a bit boring in between the good parts. Also, the MC is a scholar, a real one, not like in most stories, but like in "Tale of a scribe that returns to the country", so he's a moral and principled man, one that doesn't like fighting and that has no issues in lowering the head too avoid them, which to be fair I like, problem is that combined to the slow pace its sort of tedious at times. He is any case a well presented and developed character, if a bit boring. Also, he's the only important char so far, others are relevant for a few chapters but are left aside soon after, and there is no clear female lead either (thou one is hinted at).
As for the story, there ain't much to say so far, the guy is an imperial scholar that gets involved in martial arts and studies them but since he was never part of the martial world he doesn't realize that he's growing stronger and no one around him is able to tell so either. It's too soon to know more about it since the first 20 or so chapters are merely the prologue, thus the story hasn't really started yet. So far it's not particularly good but it ain't bad either.
Art is good (too few fights to have an opinion on the action scenes) and the dialogues are on the good side for mahwa.
Overall, interesting but slow, time will tell more.