Fight Co-Ordination: I am not good at it.

[hells_half_acre]

Well, if my bad knees and lack of training didn't cinch it, my lack of ability to co-ordinate a fight would: I will never be a stunt man or fight choreographer. :P

For one of the stories I'm writing, I have to write a fight involving 4 good guys and 2 bad guys. Good guy #1 has to do something stupid that puts him directly in harm's way. Good guy #2 has to get a minor injury (optional). Good guy #3 has to perform magic from the sidelines to save Good guy #1 without being seen (obviously, this is Merlin). Good guy #4 has to do something so that he's not a waste of space. Bad guy #2 has to somehow sneak up on them after they take out bad guy #1. 

I cannot figure out how to do it. And it is driving me nuts.

Writing is hard.

Comments

[ramblin_rosie]

Considering that my first thought was "Needs more bad guys," I don't think I'll be much help. :P Unless it's a shootout/ambush? (Sorry, I'm currently working mainly on scenarios where the heroes are generally outnumbered 100:1.)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's the problem...but I can't increase the number of bad guys. I'll just have to think of something clever somehow. :P

[mymuseandi.livejournal.com]

Happy 2013!! :)

A suggestion: maybe you can watch a vid in youtube of a fight? Or several fights, and then try to describe what you're watching in Merlin terms :)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Good idea! I need to find some 4 against 2 fight scenes. Thanks!

Happy 2013 to you too!!!

[thursdaysisters.livejournal.com]

I feel ya, I got a lot of my fight vocabulary reading Raymond Chandler noir (also, Jim Butcher's "Dresden" books would be right up your alley, lots of magic/non-magical combat).

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

See, it would also help my novel if I were better read in the crime genre...this is neither here nor there, it's just that in the past couple of days I've really realized how much different stuff you have to research and be really knowledgeable about in order to write well.

[liliaeth]

Now I assume this will be set in Merlin's era. So what about involving horses. The bad guys spook the horses, gg1 tries to stopthem and nearly gets trampled for his efforts. Merlin could use a spell to calm the horses while 2 nearly gets run over by them as well. 4 can then take one bad guy while 2 takes the other one

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Well, you're right about it being set in Merlin's era. Sadly, they're in town, so no horses - and gg1 has to do something dumb that he can be yelled at for - so something as genuine as trying to stop horses wouldn't work. Also, bad guys can't work pre-emptively or with much forethought because they are monsters.

So, yeah...I've made it very hard for myself. :P

But thanks for the suggestion! Maybe I can work a similar angle with barrels being knocked over or something...

[ramblin_rosie]

Maybe GG#1 isn't paying attention to where he's going and blunders into a cart/stack of boxes/stack of barrels/whatever that not only potentially hurts him and/or #2 but also draws the monsters' attention?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Problem #320: He can't blunder. It has to be purposeful - he has to think that what he's doing is the smart thing to do, even though it isn't.

It's a complicated scenario. Basically, he has to not listen to people and do something he thinks is the correct thing to do, but that ultimately puts him in unnecessary danger and thus causes him to need to be rescued by Merlin/#2.

Definitely something that draws the monsters attention though! So, we're on the right track there. Maybe Merlin has to knock over the barrels in order to save him and they accidentally take out gg#4 temporarily so that I don't have to worry about working him into the fight. :P

[liliaeth]

I really need to know who's making the mistake then.Is this the SPN/Merlin crossover you mentioned you were writing, or a straight Merlin fic?

The reason I'm asking is, if it's the crossover then the mistake depends on whether it's made by a char from Merlin or a char from spn. See, if it's a char from spn, then the mistake could be made due to a lack of understanding of things in Merlin's era, if on the other hand it's Arthur or one of the knights making a mistake, then their mistake could be to remove a magical object or talisman, or even a line of salt or something like that, that was keeping the monsters at bay.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - I was just trying not to spoil it, but obviously I need the help. :P

Gg#1 is Arthur - he's got to be the screw up. I sort of have an idea for that though, so that's not as big a problem as you might think.

It's mainly the co-ordination of the rest of the fight that's the problem. I need Merlin to use magic (because it would't be Merlin'verse without it) and I need gg#2 (a Winchester) to come to the rescue...and then have a second monster attack... with optional small injury to Winchester, because why not?... and then gg#4 (knight) has to NOT be a completely useless stooge standing on the sidelines.

Actually, maybe I've got this... Arthur puts himself in danger because he's a noble idiot (again, kind of have an idea for this). Merlin sees this and starts trying to tip the fight in Arthur's favour (barrels etc...that somehow prevent gg#4 from entering the scene right away), Winchester actually kills Monster#1 - thus saving Arthur. Then, out of nowhere, monster #2 hits, slight injures Winchester, but is killed by gg#4 (who has freed himself from barrels?) so that he's not useless?

Then it's just a matter of the co-ordination of the fight itself - who does what when, etc...so that it's believable.

Is there something I'm forgetting with my original scenario? I'll have to sleep on it (and try writing it tomorrow to see if it works).

[ramblin_rosie]

Agreed. If it's Sam stalking off to do his own thing or Dean blowing something up, it probably relates to a "This is stupid, we know better because we're from the future" moment. (Of course, conversely, it could be Arthur stalking off because these crazy people from the future don't know what they're talking about--except that they do!)

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Fight scenes are a specialty of mine. When I beta for sandymg, she has sent stories that say 'insert fight scene' to me :)

I'd be happy to help if time is not critical, I have limited free time for the next few days.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Really?! That'd be fantastic. I'll send you an email with the details - plus what about Merlin you need to know.

There's no real deadline. I've still got a lot of the fic to write, and it's not like I'm on any sort of fic-update schedule.