How to do fights correctly in media

CherryLimeade's avatar
CherryLimeade

It's complicated. Powerscalers between verses piss me off, but it also is super frustrating when characters in a show are wildly inconsistent in what they can do (COUGH INVINCIBLE) and thus how they roughly stack up to other characters in their own verse. That being said, I HATE powersystems which simplify things to numbers or basic strength contests (like Dragon Ball or Mid Leveling) where a stronger character always beats a weaker character. If the weaker character gets a powerup then they're the stronger character so in the end it is always the strongest who ends on top. I really enjoy powersystems such as HxH, JJBA, and to a lesser extent Frieren + JJK where creativity in a fight and tactics are far more important than how strong your ability is. Objectively Chrollo Lucilfer has the strongest ability in the verse which is why it is entertaining to see Hisoka be able to go blow for blow when his ability is just Bungee Gum. The best example of battle tactics over raw power in a fight I've seen is EASILY Josuke + Okayasu + Mikitaka vs Superfly Superfly is arguably bottom 3 stands in the verse (survivor and Cheap Trick are the other 2) yet this guy through knowledge of the tower and memorization of trignometric angles is able to give two of the most overpowered characters in the verse as well as a shapeshifting alien a run for their money. This brings up an interesting thing to play around with in fights: win conditions. Too many fights in modern series have a basic win con of "winner kills/incapacitates loser" as the only way to win while the Superfly fight of DiU has a unique wincon of being the first to escape the tower. In my opinion this makes fights far more interesting and engaging as both the characters and the audience are no longer thinking in one dimension; there are now multiple ways to win an encounter where the end goal can be achieved in numerous ways. Another layer of complexity is having different win conditions for different characters. Let's do a hypothetical: one character needs to capture an artifact inside a cursed temple while the antagonists' goal is to complete a summoning using that artifact. Now there are multiple layers of complexity - the protagonists can either kill all the summoners, destroy the artifact, or try to sneak in without being detected. Maybe there's a third faction whose goal is to take hostages without killing. A perfect example of this is Netero vs Meruem where Netero's goal is to kill while Meruem tries everything in his power to get just close enough to incapacitation

Comments

TerrySHTARK's avatar
TerrySHTARK

Cherry we must be brothers cause WE agree hxh and jojos fights mog all 🥹🥹

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    ValhelmWCCG's avatar
    ValhelmWCCG

    strategical fights like JJK and HxH are my faves

    Reply
      ValhelmWCCG's avatar
      ValhelmWCCG

      they always tryna cook me with my Dragon ball takes but they can't deny how lazy the author is, even super saiyan is just a byproduct of his laziness

      Reply
      1 Reply
        ValhelmWCCG's avatar
        ValhelmWCCG

        my fights are on par with HxH

        Reply
        1 Reply
          rhubarb_w_salt's avatar
          rhubarb_w_salt

          HxH truly peak… kurapika against the spiders… sacrifice n vows… the power system is so interesting n awesome… also plot wise its just good writing man

          Reply
            papaya_cyborgsolsta's avatar
            papaya_cyborgsolsta

            Yeah fights where it’s just a dih measuring contest are annoying.

            Reply
            1 Reply
              Jomackima's avatar
              Jomackima

              I agree, jojos does it amazing not just in a fight sense but the powersystem itself letting us gleam stuff from even minor side characters, i do have to say after just reading part 8 tho that wou and soft and wet go beyond was kinda ass, i was liking part 8 in general, highkey fun fun fun was probably the most interesting stand + fight in the part. Hoping part 9 does it better

              Reply
                Butter-Kun's avatar
                Butter-Kun

                I'm too tired to read. I'm gonna hit the hay

                Reply
                  CherryLimeade's avatar
                  CherryLimeade

                  One fight that really felt like an asspull to me was Go Beyond vs WoU. Let's be honest, that was way more of an asspull than SP vs The World

                  Reply
                  1 Reply

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