The frequent complaint I hear about martial arts situations in stories where there are too many enemies is that nobody in a gang ever lines up to fight the hero one on one. So if I recreate that same situation in my work,it will just be another cliche. So how do I get pass this?The only so-called "best" option that people recommend be done in real life is to run but I can't put that in as the one being chased isn't exactly a marathon runner and is not guaranteed to outrun his enemies.So my last option is to hide. But if that isn't the only option left I'd rather not type that down.(All the characters being chased and the ones doing the chasing are only normal humans and not cyborgs or supernatural creatures. The setting is also in modern times in 2018)
Don't choose between cliches. Take one and invert it. Twist it, turn it on its head. Instead of lining up and attacking one by one, maybe they all try to attack at once and keep getting in each other's way. Think about the good martial arts films, the fight choreography. They might start with a cliche, but they find an interesting way to switch it up.
The lining up one-at-a-time problem in film might originate in the writing Writing isn't ideal for showing simultaneous action - because it's a linear stream of information linked together in a syntax When we write groups, we lose either detail or pace === Glätz posed ominously on one leg as he readied his chi for the secret vampire-ninja technique: Vermillion Cormorant. Mook 1 swirled his nunchucks, eager to prove himself within the clan. Mook 2 crept up behind the hero, in his new black sneakers. Mook 3 unholstered his trusty pistol. . .. ... Mook 99 nudged the fire escape open. He hadn't posted his life insurance form back, but the boss was still stood on one leg, so probably no-one would mind if he skipped the start of the fight. === Glätz readied his chi as the Mooks circled. === So there are several possible problems at once:- Self-created problem: why is an action scene being written if it's going to be difficult? Writing isn't a visual medium: only the internal emotions and the character relationships are real, so what is this action scene doing in the book? (It might be waking the reader up, resolving a conflict, showing the stakes - or many other things: but that's the real problem not who runs faster) We write what we know: We're lucky to have some real ninja vampires on the forum but I'm not one of them. For this I'd try and pick up an Andy McNab book for research and see how he structures the paragraphs. iirc he gives good descriptions of killing multiple people - with the little details that stuck in his mind at the time Fighting to avoid conflict: from the OP the action scene might be a confrontation between protagonist and antagonist, but the (in fiction false) action might be avoiding writing their (in fiction real) feelings. Can a plot device be introduced to stop them fighting?
And sometimes the hero can use the battleground to their advantage. Think of the 300 Spartans holding off the Persian army at Thermopylae–they fought in a narrow pass that forced the Persians to bunch up and fight "one at a time" instead of using their numerical advantage.
I've been binging on the old Wild Wild West tv show and it certainly illustrates a big difference between asian martial arts movies and western tv shows. Jim West is always fighting multiple opponents (3 or 4, depending on the episode) simultaneously, and sometimes loses. Also of note, is that in the first season, he uses Kenpo a lot - Robert Conrad was a black belt - but as the seasons went on, the fighting just became the usual western fisticuffs.
I remember that footage of a street fight in Istanbul. A guy (who seems to be an Armenian boxer) fought while being heavily outnumbered. He never got hit. It took good timing, quick reflexes and moving around to avoid getting surrounded. EDIT: I think the Armenian boxer is actually a Turk named Nuh Demircan. It seems that someone tried to trick the viewers with the video that I watched earlier.
In real life, if you're confronted by multiple foes, you're best bet is to run and separate the opponents from each other and then try to take them out one by one.
Re: Realism in a fight scene. Absolute realism will kill fantasy so I think we should pay it some attention but we have to find a balance. Running is the best option in reality but if you are unlikely to be able to get away then sometimes you have to make a stand. Against multiple opponents I would run for sure. If you have lots of characters lining up for a fight then it can work: 1. Sorry for the cliche, but look at Enter the Dragon. Lee's sister is being attacked by a large gang so she leads them into situations where they can only attack one by one. Skinny walk ways next to water etc. Yet, when you think about it, Lee' own character was fighting multiple opponents at times but he was never overwhelmed as was his sister! Her character didn't stand a chance. Bruce Lee never put his own character in the overwhelmed danger, outnumbered yes, but his skill set was so superior that he overcame his opponents that came in trios. In other words, Lee really thought things through. 2. Think of any Tolkien battle. Lots going. Many simultaneous fights. Characters being introduced and removed very quickly. Multiple plates spinning at once. Heroes being made one minute and killed the next. All very dynamic. The beauty of Tolkien is that he would introduce characters almost like they were on some kind of conveyor belt. The reader has little time to keep up so they adjust and make sense of it the best way they can. As a reader I feel i have to go with it to keep up and never question his action/fight scenes. Its when people get all keggy handed (awkward) about a scene that it doesn't work. When the action is slow it gets ripped apart by the reader (and destroyed completely by writers!) A lot of this is about choosing the appropriate point of view to tell the story. Wrong point of view and the scene will choke IMO.
Fighting multiple opponents is always very dangerous even if you have the advantage in fighting ability, weaponry, etc. Most sensible fighters will try to avoid or escape a situation like that whenever possible. However, if you have no other choice, then to my understanding the most important thing is to not get surrounded. This requires a hit-and-run type of approach where you stay on the edge of the enemy group at all times, moving about quickly to outmaneuver them, and keeping individual exchanges of violence brief and decisive. The goal is to kill or disable whoever is closest before the others can get a hold of you or cut off your escape path. This is of course a very intense way of fighting and the risk is that you run out of stamina or make a critical mistake before you can whittle them down, but it's your best bet as long as escaping isn't an option.
Often it seems like, in the martial arts movies I've seen, the main character and his opponent are like legendary figures. The stories are almost mythical. Large numbers of opponents are often defeated early just to demonstrate what badasses they both are, and then when they finally meet we discover which is the bigger badass. And there are even more legendary flashbacks to the training masters, who perform completely superhuman feats.
Completely unrelated, but there's a great scene in Shogun where one small army is met by an enormous army and the big army only engages as many samurai as the small army can field, fighting one on one until the small army is defeated. Very honorable. Not a great way to minimize casualties, but still honorable.
Not something the real samurai would have done though. They had absolutely no compunction against unleashing a whole can of whoop-ass using overwhelming numbers.
One option is to put your back to a wall and fight them in closed confines where multiple enemies will get in each others way... that only works for a short time though as multiples will still wear down a single defender another option is to go for the biggest/strongest/leader and hurt him so brutally that the others nope the hell out of there a third option is that your character gets his ass kicked and starts the next chapter waking up in hospital swearing revenge...that route avoids the over powered mary sue invincibility which can be an issue in these stories
Much as others have said, have the protagonist retreat to a better defensive position, limiting the directions from which an attack might come...even a doorway is better than the middle of a room. Injure or disable one or two, then fallback to another spot and repeat. It will keep the action moving and a little different when a new defensive postion is taken up. Be creative. A doorway, outside a culvert, along a river bank, a closing garage door, in the bed of a dump truck that just started moving (driver with no knowlege of what is happening) etc. It really depends on the time and place of the action.
Have you guys seen 13 Assassins? It has a 45-minute fight scene where thirteen samurai rig a bunch of booby-traps in a village and kill like 200 soldiers. It's so badass.
Sounds like a remake of 7 Samurai. And as @Naomasa298 pointed out, they certainly had no compunctions about ganging up on the bad guys with lots of villagers.
