Realistic Fight Scenes: An Introduction

[Story_Marc]

This topic comes up so much all over and I just have so much I can say that I don't see others bringing up. I mean, I've both studied actual martial arts, fight experience, and tons of knowledge about theatrical stuff. So, with this, consider this a foundation for more fighting stuff. I can tell this is going to become a whole playlist as time goes on.

There's a link to a video I have at the end for more theatrical fight scenes too, so be sure to stick around to the end for that.

 

[Iamnotabot]

Ah it's nice hearing your voice marc, and nice vid too.

 

[Kureous]

Thank you, I really needed this!

 

[StrongArm]

Real life fights are often awkward, and there is a lot of scrambling around. The person fighting tends to have adrenaline pumping, and this causes tunnel vision & it kinda makes things hard to hear. Bystanders sometimes get involved creating even more awkwardness. People, especially women - tend to scream and chatter like apes. Only people that can remain very calm under pressure or people that have been in numerous fights, or well trained fighters - lose that awkwardness - these are the guys who will usually slug you in the jaw and send you to lala land.

Good post Marc

(edit: the reason women often scream if a fight breaks out is likely an instinctual trait from when we were all apes - it lets the members of your tribe know there is danger here its basically saying "come help" or "theres danger here, run away")

I once saw a video of a street fight in australia - two groups of guys - a three man group, and a five man group began to insult, shout at & harass each other. Words turned into pushing and shoving then shoving turned into fighting. It seemed like a typical street fight. The three man group was kicking the five man groups ass, and the five man group began to run away. One of the members of the three man group went after the five man group. It was at this time that a guy from the five man group jabbed the guy chasing him in the neck. He had a knife hidden in his sleeve. Blood squirted a foot and a half from the guys jugular, and he looked down at the blood shooting out of him for a couple seconds. His knees became wobbly and he fell backwards. He lay on the concrete and bled to death in about ten seconds. His leg twitched, and he died with his eyes open and glassy. The five man group ran away immediately. Worst part about it was that they were all just a bunch of stupid kids, none of them looked older than 20.

I dont mention this story to be edgy, but to showcase how raw and random real life violence actually is.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

This topic comes up so much all over and I just have so much I can say that I don't see others bringing up. I mean, I've both studied actual martial arts, fight experience, and tons of knowledge about theatrical stuff. So, with this, consider this a foundation for more fighting stuff. I can tell this is going to become a whole playlist as time goes on.

There's a link to a video I have at the end for more theatrical fight scenes too, so be sure to stick around to the end for that.

Halle-frickin'-lujah!!! This is going to so freakin' useful. I have zero experience in fights, so this is a life-saver for a story I have in mind. Helped me realize some inconsistencies that I'll either need to draw attention to because of magical powers or revise the plot. Not to mention for some fight scenes I'll be making, this'll serve to both decide how gritty I want my story to go from here and how to set the pacing as well as introduction of the fight.

 

[Story_Marc]

Real life fights are often awkward, and there is a lot of scrambling around. The person fighting tends to have adrenaline pumping, and this causes tunnel vision & it kinda makes things hard to hear. Bystanders sometimes get involved creating even more awkwardness. People, especially women - tend to scream and chatter like apes. Only people that can remain very calm under pressure or people that have been in numerous fights, or well trained fighters - lose that awkwardness - these are the guys who will usually slug you in the jaw and send you to lala land.

Good post Marc

Kudos! And yeah, that's something I seriously want to go into more in the future, especially with the internal experience.

I held back big time saying all the ways you can hit someone to just neutralize them quickly. One thing I decided to avoid in this script is "The Monkey Dance" as this one book best called it, which is more about posturing and acting tough as opposed to either truly wanting to throw down and all the stuff there. Plus the reasons people fight and just... Sigh... I've got so much more to cover... But, in the meantime...

Thank you, I really needed this!

Ah it's nice hearing your voice marc, and nice vid too.

Kudos to both of you! And hope this is of help, even if we're only scratching the surface of what I can go into--

Halle-frickin'-lujah!!! This is going to so freakin' useful. I have zero experience in fights, so this is a life-saver for a story I have in mind. Helped me realize some inconsistencies that I'll either need to draw attention to because of magical powers or revise the plot. Not to mention for some fight scenes I'll be making, this'll serve to both decide how gritty I want my story to go from here and how to set the pacing as well as introduction of the fight.

...FUCK! I COULD'VE USED DARKER THAN BLACK AS AN EXAMPL- Okay, that's going to be part of an entirely different video, how to be gritty while still factoring in magic. The same principles apply.

...I should probably just do a video on magic and fight scenes eventually... Sigh... Adding it to the list...

Regardless, glad to help! And as said, the end is an entirely different video I did for the more theatrical side of things!

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

...FUCK! I COULD'VE USED DARKER THAN BLACK AS AN EXAMPL- Okay, that's going to be part of an entirely different video, how to be gritty while still factoring in magic. The same principles apply.

...I should probably just do a video on magic and fight scenes eventually... Sigh... Adding it to the list...

Regardless, glad to help! And as said, the end is an entirely different video I did for the more theatrical side of things!

LMAO! Yeah. My MC has very little pain (most of the time) sense, which should lead her to sustaining far more injuries than normal, and a very fast healing ability.

 

[Story_Marc]

LMAO! Yeah. My MC has very little pain (most of the time) sense, which should lead her to sustaining far more injuries than normal, and a very fast healing ability.

How does that lead to fast healing? Though yeah, would definitely need a strong healing factor.

That's actually something that comes up for the protagonist of Tales of Arise, Alphen, who isn't able to feel pain at all. Though as this accurately points out with such people, these types (irl especially) are far more likely to die since we need pain to be able to figure out what is a threat to us. In Alphen's case, it works to his advantage because he's able to wield this insanely powerful flaming sword, but it damages him as well.

The only reason he's not dead from even touching it is because the person who holds onto the sword overall, the heroine of the story, has healing magic.

For quick fun with her, while I'm in the zone on this, she avoids touching anybody because whenever she does, they experience intense pain due to her having this thing known as The Curse of Thorns.

"A sword that sears the hand of he who wields it, and a healing arte to mend. A man numb to pain, and a woman whose very touch deals nothing but."

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

How does that lead to fast healing? Though yeah, would definitely need a strong healing factor.

That's actually something that comes up for the protagonist of Tales of Arise, Alphen, who isn't able to feel pain at all. Though as this accurately points out with such people, these types (irl especially) are far more likely to die since we need pain to be able to figure out what is a threat to us. In Alphen's case, it works to his advantage because he's able to wield this insanely powerful flaming sword, but it damages him as well.

The only reason he's not dead from even touching it is because the person who holds onto the sword overall, the heroine of the story, has healing magic.

For quick fun with her, while I'm in the zone on this, she avoids touching anybody because whenever she does, they experience intense pain due to her having this thing known as The Curse of Thorns.

"A sword that sears the hand of he who wields it, and a healing arte to mend. A man numb to pain, and a woman whose very touch deals nothing but."

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The pain resistance doesn't lead to faster healing, it just leads to more injuries. Sorry I worded it weirdly. Sustaining more injuries often means being left with more injuries after the fight, which isn't quite applicable, but I have often heard it be used for being dealt more injuries. *shrugs* The joys and vagaries of English.
Also, that's really damn cool!! *stars in eyes* That kind of reflection/symmetry in story-telling and abilities sounds awesome!

 

[StrongArm]

You have a great voice by the way, very relaxing . I left a like and i hope your youtube channel takes off!

 

[Story_Marc]

The pain resistance doesn't lead to faster healing, it just leads to more injuries. Sorry I worded it weirdly. Sustaining more injuries often means being left with more injuries after the fight, which isn't quite applicable, but I have often heard it be used for being dealt more injuries. *shrugs* The joys and vagaries of English.
Also, that's really damn cool!! *stars in eyes* That kind of reflection/symmetry in story-telling and abilities sounds awesome!

OH! That makes total sense! Can definitely see all kinds of fun ways to use that. Plus now I wonder what their limit is... My mind gets excited when thinking about applying magic and powers and all that.

And I could go on and on about that story (and the franchise in general), I absolutely loved it. Got caught up watching one of the openings again, it's so good.

While it isn't perfect (they rush a few things in the second half of the story due to time deadlines), it is an absolute gem that takes the story in unexpected directions and the stuff it explores. The basic surface is something that is a familiar, simple story, but where they go with it and stuff they explore is where the fascination lies.

The basic plot is a rebellion against a conquering magic race one. The protagonist starts as a slave and events lead to him joining a resistance movement after he encounters Shionne, a girl from said race who stole the fire orb from the Fire Lord. One thing leads to another and they form an alliance, with her goal being to assassinate the 5 Renan Lords while his goal is to just free his people.

The story is just willing to explore things like what if one rebellion goes too far and is driven by their own hatred, what about this location where the Renan Lord isn't oppressive like the others and he's created a sustainable system that treats people more humane, but they are still slaves -- what do we do here? -- or my favorite part, the story doesn't end at the lords being overthrown. Yay, we toppled the dictatorship! ...What now? To quote from TVTropes on one of its many deconstructions...

Three centuries' worth of collective suffering and resentment cannot be ameliorated in one fell swoop, especially when being a slave has become so ingrained since birth that, when the perpetuating institutions collapse, the newly liberated has little idea as to what to do next, and may struggle to build anew over the smoking ruins. The worst cases don't even know how to think for themselves anymore (such as in Ganath Haros), simply obeying anyone who tells them what to do without question, and in the absence of such - or even in spite of it - they'll revert back to past behavior simply because it's all they know and/or they still fear the consequences of disobedience.

Also, I just love the romance subplot with Alphen and Shionne.

You have a great voice by the way, very relaxing . I left a like and i hope your youtube channel takes off!

Kudos! Seriously have no idea how much it makes me happy each time I hear that about my voice, as there's this lingering part of me that's insecure about it for reasons.

At any rate, I appreciate the support! And hopefully! If it doesn't, eh, I'll still be here supplying what I can to others and making videos for my own satisfaction.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

We usually ignore realism in fight once the story tagged as "Fantasy".

 

[LunaSoltaer]

We usually ignore realism in fight once the story tagged as "Fantasy".

Not I! (sometimes)

I actually looked up what happens if someone gets struck by lightning in midair to help inform whether my MC survives a lightning strike.

(though survivability gets fun when your soul can provide life ejergy and such aaamd yeah...)

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

I can't help but feel recent threads inspired this video.
Well done as always!

 

[Story_Marc]

We usually ignore realism in fight once the story tagged as "Fantasy".

One can if it fits the tone of that type of fantasy. If my video made anything clear, it's that I'm not against theatre, I just find that knowing how stuff actually works provides a good foundation for making smarter decisions as a writer. It's a matter of tone. It's also why I discussed things with more spectacle stuff and built an entire video on how to make more theatrical fight scenes already.

Though yeah, this reassures me even more that I need to make one that targets fantasy writers in particular. Both for grounded and theatrical examples, since they don't exist outside of things.

I can't help but feel recent threads inspired this video.
Well done as always!

It's good timing in this case.

Now just to build up to me revealing a secret technique I came up with for constructing fight scenes...