Adrenaline has a big effect on pain, and people are often more sensitive to attacks outside of the rules of fighting. Often, groin kicks steal the will to fight, rather than the ability to fight. In mma, groin shots are illegal, and fighters will seem hurt/startled by them and take a rest to recover, because they do hurt. But if you take the same guys and let them fight in the street without rules, groin shots may not have any more effect than any other hit.
Good question. The only time I ever took a hard hit to the chest, it was less painful, but I could barely breathe, so I'd say it would have been a far more effective combat move. Edit: though it would depend on where you were hit. That hit obviously stunned some nerves in my chest, whereas just punching the ribs probably wouldn't have done much.
Yes. I think it's largely down to motivation at that point: if someone is harassing a girl in a bar and she kicks him in the nuts, he's probably going to figure out that he should stop and hobble back to his mates. If two men are fighting to the death, they're going to be too buzzed to worry about the pain until after the fight.
That’s 50/50. Sometimes the guy will get mad and actually hit her. Sometimes that makes the bar explode. Making the decision to ramp up the physical violence is dangerous.
Anyway, back more on the original topic, in the novel I'm finishing off at the moment, the half-werewolf 'bad girl' gets beaten up by the crazy homeless lady after bad girl kills the main female character in the story. But most of the guys die, too, so it pretty much evens out. I did think about having one of the male characters fight the girl, but I couldn't convince any of them to do it (most of them were running away from her since she has big teeth and a big axe). And crazy homeless lady needed to get some revenge near the end. Main female character does try the 'kick 'em in the nuts' thing with one of the bad guys, and... it doesn't go too well for her. Of course, it is horror, which has never exactly balked at killing off female characters. Come to think of it, there are plenty of genres where it is considered normal. Mystery, for an obvious one, where murder victims are at least as likely to be female as male.
Oh ok. Breastbone and ribs being the body armor. I guess I've just thought about how the reader would receive a male character punching my antiheroine in the breast if she wasn't wearing any metallic armor on her body...maybe he just swings really hard there and hits her there...not that it'd hurt her any more than a man being punched there would...just curious how most readers would receive that. If I'm writing this First-Person from her perspective, just want to get a better feel or sense of how that would feel to a female character. She has a high tolerance for pain....yes I would agree that hitting anyone in the abdomen or stomach would be far worse than a hit to the chest...good things to note. Thank you for you elaboration.
Yeah, I've heard that before. I guess it depends on the person. When it comes to a character and how they fight, I suppose everyone that their weak spots. My main character will have a few battle scars on her back that when they get touched or hit, it will cause her excruciating pain...very sensitive. She'll likely keep that in mind when she battles and keep the scars somewhat covered up and try to hide the fact that she has them so her opponents don't have an advantage. Not sure about what kicking her in the crotch would feel like to her...haha....see with trying to write from a female's perspective and me being a male, I'm trying to figure how to write that because I'm writing her story in First-Person. Probably won't have her opponents kick her there but she will sustain quite a bit of physical damage that wears her down over the course of the story. Her story may be a tragedy. I don't know that just yet.
Interesting piece on the WWII combat instruction manual. I will have to grab a copy of that. My antiheroine was actually inspired from aspects of WWII. Would be good to know that because she'll have gone through the military and been through training...might have to write some of her story and focus on her time starting in the military when she was a bit younger. Thank you for sharing that piece.
Yeah, overall it seems there are far more male deaths than female deaths in literature, movies, video games, etc. In the story I'm writing, both females and males will die probably very evenly 50/50. Everyone is fair game. No one is sacred, saved from facing death. Even my antiheroine could die at the end of her story...in fact that may be just what happens. I can imagine what that would look like writing the scene from First-Person perspective...from her eyes...I know what exactly would happen and how she would react in her final moments. However, I do not know if that will happen or not yet, it all depends on her choices in her story.
The first thing I thought of when seeing the thread title was: characters who are the representation of death. And I was all like "Aha, I have one of those. She's a she! She even has a scythe" ... then I realised what the thread was really about. In my stories, it's about an even chance either way. However since my stories tend to have more female characters than male, it skews the stats towards the ladies a little. I must say that, probably due to the preponderance of guys ending up as cannon fodder, female deaths do seem more weighty.
I get what you're saying. Yes, feels like in general that female deaths have a greater weight to them. In books, movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, etc....in general there are more male deaths than female deaths. So when a female character does pass away in the story, feels like her death is greater than a male...just in general. In the story I'm writing, there are more male characters than female. Of course, the head honcho of my whole story is a female...while she does have a fair share of female allies at her hand, she has more male allies. I will never treat her with a "I am a woman, hear me roar" mentality...never ever...she may be one female in a male-dominated occupation...being a crime lord...she really works hard to get to where she wants to be. To be honest, even she could die at the end of her own story. I haven't written or plotted what happens in the end exactly but I have a feeling she will die at the end. Since this is first-person through her eyes, it will be very strange to write her death scene. What happens after she blacks out? Does it end there or does someone else pickup before end of the entire story...if she does die, she will make a sacrifice I feel. Readers may find her a bitch at times but she does have a heart for some people in her life and she may be willing to protect them with her life. I think readers will find her growth of character something interesting. May be a bit selfish at the beginning but at the end people will realize she has a heart. Now if she does die, how will it happen? Well, it would take a lot to take her down but it would be a very painful death that she will fight. Throughout the story, she does cause a lot of death (not only by her hands but by her hired henchmen) so she may get what's coming to her. Not being cruel to my precious antiheroine but since she's earned such a notorious reputation among the world she lives in...a very dangerous criminal...a lot of people would want her death to be painful and drawn out. Again, not saying what will happen to her ultimately. But I feel her story won't have the happiest ending.
