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Charles Gramlich
Acolyte

Date Joined Aug 2007
Total Posts : 269

Posted 3/29/2008 11:50 AM (GMT -5)

As for boring fight scenes? They hardly ever bore me as long as they give me detail. Of course, it's necessary to care about the characters. The worst fight scene I ever read was in "The Wizard of Oz" where it consists of something like: "He killed that one. Then the other one came at him and he killed that one. After a while he had killed all of them."

Charles Gramlich

http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/

Jack Windsword
Stablehand

Date Joined Mar 2008
Total Posts : 33

Posted 3/29/2008 1:34 PM (GMT -5)

"I get bored real quick if the fight scene isn't realistic."

Does this mean kicking power levels up a few knotches is bad?

Back alley scuffles of flesh and steel are great, but if a hero has to fight a wizard, then I want to see that wizard be a wizard. I want him to launch massive swirling bolts of colorful energy that can destroy buildings. I want to see him tear open the world and summon a forbidden abomination with hellfire in its veins that can devour souls. If the hero has a "powerful magic sword," then I want to see the power.

Am I the only one in this camp?

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539

Posted 3/29/2008 2:12 PM (GMT -5)

Jack,
I'm sure you're not. Realistic has different levels of meaning. And POV is important in what works as well. I don't mind insane levels of power and magic, but I have to feel tension, I have to have something invested in the scene as a reader and I want the scene to pay off on that investment. Easiest way with wizards is to let the reader inside the head of one side of the fight and show the effort! Resisting magic or using it isn't supposed to be effortless, and its part of the action in that fight. If you can't see it from the outside and its important, you have to take the reader inside to show it.
Mike

Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Dutchman Rescue"in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
"Stains" in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
"Morning Coffee" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/morning-coffee-by-michael-d-turner/
"The Jewel Below" in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com/issues/issue8/vol2-iss8-05.htm
"Happy Landings" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/happy-landings-by-michael-d-turner/
"Teller of Tales" in Every day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/teller-of-tales-by-michael-d-turner/
Read "Silver Shells" In Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/silver-shells-by-michael-d-turner/

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539

Posted 3/29/2008 2:14 PM (GMT -5)

Charles,
I remember that scene. The scarecrow is fighting the witch's crows, and later the Tin Woodsman is fighting her wolves. Both parts were extensively rewritten at the request of the publisher, but yes, Baum is perhaps not the ideal author to pattern one's combat scenes from.

Mike

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5004

Posted 3/30/2008 1:45 AM (GMT -5)

Jack Windsword said...
"I get bored real quick if the fight scene isn't realistic."

Does this mean kicking power levels up a few knotches is bad?

Back alley scuffles of flesh and steel are great, but if a hero has to fight a wizard, then I want to see that wizard be a wizard. I want him to launch massive swirling bolts of colorful energy that can destroy buildings. I want to see him tear open the world and summon a forbidden abomination with hellfire in its veins that can devour souls. If the hero has a "powerful magic sword," then I want to see the power.

Am I the only one in this camp? VIEW IMAGE

That 'wizard' sounds more Like Galactus than a wizard to me.

cussedness
Adept

Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 847

Posted 3/30/2008 3:59 AM (GMT -5)

www.janraefrank.com/stories/the_whorehouse_devil.html Have a look at the concluding fight. It's a mix of action and thought, but it moves fast. that's how i like them.

Janrae Frank
I have no skeletons in my closet, they are all hanging from the yardarm.

Once there were three brothers, Brandrahoon the vampire, Isranon called the Dawnhand, speaker to spirits, and Waejonan the Accursed, first of sa’necari. Isranon defied his brothers and was destroyed, his descendants forced into the darkness.

The Shadowed Princes
www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook64690.htm?cache
website
www.janraefrank.com
Darkzone
darkzone.yuku.com/

Charles Gramlich
Acolyte

Date Joined Aug 2007
Total Posts : 269

Posted 3/30/2008 11:39 AM (GMT -5)

Erasmus, yes, the Tin Woodsman versus the wolves. *Shudder* I didn't know it had been rewritten at the request of the publisher. They wanted the violence toned down?

Charles Gramlich

http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539

Posted 3/30/2008 7:13 PM (GMT -5)

Yes. Afterall, it was (IIRC) 1897-1898 and this was a book for children.
Mike

Jack Windsword
Stablehand

Date Joined Mar 2008
Total Posts : 33

Posted 4/3/2008 4:03 PM (GMT -5)

crystalwizard said...

That 'wizard' sounds more Like Galactus than a wizard to me.

He could kick Thoth Amon's (sp?) ass...

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