How Does One Keep A Fight Between "Gods" Interesting?

[Lorelliad]

Not actual gods, no. But there will be a time in my story when the characters are strong enough to level entire planets, maybe even cause the destruction of a few universes with a single slash. And of course, they will have enemies who can do the same. Question is, how does one make a fight between these two powerhouses interesting?

It's like, oh, cool, they can slice through reality, but what's that gonna do against this guy who does the same, but to entire planes? I don't want to spend my fight scenes writing how a single flick of the finger caused this planet to disappear off the face of the universe.

At this point of the story, the battles are more geared towards the physical side of things, with my protagonist just starting to pick up a new martial art. But he's only a D-rank, and he'll eventually shatter that whole system entirely and reach a level where you can't measure his power level with mere letters.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Usually the way to make fights interesting is through skill, spectacle, or stakes.
You've got the spectacle built in.
So show how skilled the fighters are.
And then give the audience a reason to care. For example, if the enemy can slice through a planet, then all of the MC's friends are basically dead without the MC's action. Try superman?

 

[LunaSoltaer]

Make it a puzzle fight.

Gods have absolute dominion over something, right? Or similar. Like, say The God Of Fire is up against The God Of Magma. The GoM can't incinerate the GoF, who has better heat abilities, BUT Magma is still a liquid and GoM can probably try to drown GoF!!

Or more abstract, a fight between someone who can set the position of something at will vs can set the velocity at will. The ultimate Heisenburg duel!

 

[TotallyHuman]

Search Umineko Lamdadelta vs Benrcastel fight for example

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Well my novel has my MC fighting against a still-powerful former god, though I made it interesting by making that god an actual historical figure and picking up from his tragedies.

 

[SailusGebel]

Make it a wrestling match.

 

[Lorelliad]

Make it a wrestling match.

Do they have to be sweaty and covered in oil

 

[Corty]

Keep them fighting people on their own level. Then it can be like any normal fight. Sprinkled with descriptions of how others can't even see them move or how one punch levels mountains. That is how I did it. The moment god-like characters have to face weaker opponents, the story could fall apart in a moment, especially if they don't win instantly.

 

[SailusGebel]

Do they have to be sweaty and covered in oil

Nah, but it would be nice to include a huge crowd pop and a couple of false finishes. Bonus points for finishing the bout with moonsault.

 

[ManwX]

Its very hard to do these kind of battles when the stakesare so high. I mean you run into the problem of consistency and corner yourself. Look at dbs. Its literal grabage. Its just basically who can get his new form etc. Half the tike we dont see the destruction. There mutiversal busters yet when the fight happenes on earth they dont even shake the damn planet. You definitely might need to think on how to approach this. Its could make or break you novel.

 

[melchi]

I usually drop progression fantasies when the characters get to planet destroying levels. If the main premise is physical combat (defeat the OP bad guy) then the characters become extremely unrelatable. I think the only way to keep it interesting is to pivot to something other than that.

Example: One Punch man can defeat anything but his difficulties are all mundane.

He who fights with monsters has a gold rank dude they keep in stasis but bring out for difficult fights. However, Earth's mana is so low that he'll waste away because it can't support a gold rank. He therefore is tied to the American government for mana coins.

The devil is a part timer has the demon lord sealing his powers because earth can't sustain him as well.

Amelia the level 0 hero goes to a system world where everyone prejudges what someone can do because of [class]. So if you don't have a cooking class no one will give your cooking a chance.

Magical girl crystal genocide destroys earth but that really is just a pretext for finding her friends. Destroying earth is not the main focus so it works.

The point being, I don't like stories about demi-gods. Protags have to be relatable to human readers somehow. Demigods make terrible main characters in their purest forms.

 

[BearlyAlive]

You either keep the powerlevels mor ore less the same or you change the kind of conflict you have. Going against a god could be everything from a battle of brawn to getting them tangible proof their divinity doesn't exist. It could be anything, heck you could even rap battle the god of music for shits and giggles. Or you just take one of those below

 

[ManwX]

I usually drop progression fantasies when the characters get to planet destroying levels. If the main premise is physical combat (defeat the OP bad guy) then the characters become extremely unrelatable. I think the only way to keep it interesting is to pivot to something other than that.

Example: One Punch man can defeat anything but his difficulties are all mundane.

He who fights with monsters has a gold rank dude they keep in stasis but bring out for difficult fights. However, Earth's mana is so low that he'll waste away because it can't support a gold rank. He therefore is tied to the American government for mana coins.

The devil is a part timer has the demon lord sealing his powers because earth can't sustain him as well.

Amelia the level 0 hero goes to a system world where everyone prejudges what someone can do because of [class]. So if you don't have a cooking class no one will give your cooking a chance.

Magical girl crystal genocide destroys earth but that really is just a pretext for finding her friends. Destroying earth is not the main focus so it works.

The point being, I don't like stories about demi-gods. Protags have to be relatable to human readers somehow. Demigods make terrible main characters in their purest forms.

I have a fanfic series that I made that I'm still working on. in which the charter transcends all of the fiction as well as all the nonfiction with the help of something. It's a little complicated explanation in the novel. he literally sees us like we see comics bruh. he's from a mirror world like ours. The catch is he is nerfed to oblivion with abilities that are like op with funny names inspired by other shows and cartoons etc. Also, the usage also has side effects that are horrendous plus he is entirely dependent on Points GP and he needs them to use the broken abilities. bruh. otherwise, he's completely useless and is dependent on info he has of the fictional verse like samurai jack overlord etc lmao. That's how I made a story around a being that transcends the unwritten leviathan. You cant use gods like these in their full-power stories for sure but I think they can do other thing.

 

[Cipiteca396]