So I decided to go with the setting of this story that will be a ultimate fighting tournament, run by a martial arts cultist member and business man, who has pretty much become a superhuman an this point. This tournament is basically a bloodsport fighting event with death matches, with the likes of superhuman experimented creatures, mythological huge beasts, cyber enhanced fighters and so on, one of them is even an MMA fighter champion who's very feared for his ferocity and has cyber enhancements. But there would be traditional human fighters and regular martial artists entering the ring. Examples are a female karate expert, a pro boxer guy, a tai chi expert woman, a drunken kung fu monkey girl, a kickboxer movie stunt man, a female kickboxer, a capoeira mixed with BJJ female fighter, a female Jeet Kune Do fighter and a female kendo fighter. How could I make them more practical, that they would stand more a chance against such monstrosity of killer monsters, hybrid creature experiments and mythological beasts?
how about letting them use technique and quick wit, superb tactics, maybe even weapons. make them resourceful. hope this helps. good luck
Thank you, but how do I represent each style of fighter from across the globe without being a stereotype?
How do you represent different styles of fighting withOUT basically resorting to stereotypes? Karate is different from Ju Jitsu is different fro Aikido is different from Krav Maga is different from Taekwando. Unless you have a very in-depth understanding of each style, I don't see how you can possibly write about each -- especially in the context of an international, to-the-death competition -- without using stereotypical descriptions.
If the monsters they're fighting are so ridiculously overpowered, then you'd need to find some way to even things out. You could give the regular humans some kind of advantage, like armor, advanced weaponry, etc. Alternatively, you could handicap the monsters. Could a human martial artist take on a razorfanged monsterbeast if it had a broken leg? What if it was drugged to slow its reflexes? How about a three-way fight between a human and two monsters that hate each other? Good luck! Have fun writing!
Short answer, you don't. Long answer: Well, no matter the advantages a monster might have physically, we humans have something that at this time we have proven to be unmatched at; intelligence. A bear can be stronger, a lion can be faster and a tiger can be stealthier, but us humans have a shot at killing any of them under the right set of circumstances; scenarios which allows our intelligence to show it's affect. That's what I personally feel is the 'edge' human beings have in the hypothetical scenario, we can always imagine a situation where we could win. That's our advantage. But the problem becomes when you set scenarios allowing human beings to have a chance in a competitive arena fight. For me personally, it feels like ass pulls or plot armor and I lose interest fast because fairness gets taken out of the equation. Some people would probably lap it up either way. I think it could be more compelling if you create a cost. You shouldn't get your arm out of the sharks maw without getting it ripped off. Every win in this battle should cost the normal fighters. This is one way to increase the believability of the triumphs. One thing I'd dissuade you from doing is believing martial arts can be the cause of victory. Let's say being a pinnacle master of a martial art makes you strong as the inhuman, well you've already broken your promise/premise that they are normal. It's just a bunch or asspulls like chi or overtraining dogma which allows human being to exceed their limits. So having got that out of the way, here are believable ways to approach the problems of human beings able to kill monsters in a fair but unfair fight (fair that they cannot just luck a win, but unfair that the sequence of events have to unfold certain ways): 1. Reconnaissance. Humans are one of the few species that would stalk their prey for days just for the sake of information. A tiger may hide until it's close enough to strike, but a human will wait until its "time" to strike. The distinction is important because instincts have to be controlled to allow logical processes to work. 2. Teamwork. There are quite a few predators who work together, but humans tend to have the best teamwork. Or they may also be strategically adept at it. Just research coming tactics and employ them in group battles or something. 3. Sacrifice. Human beings can take a loss in the short term to gain an advantage in the long term. A concept that is lacking amongst most apex predators. You can probably apply this logic to 1 and 2 and find interesting ways to win some fights. 4. Tools. Well this depends on how pure you want to make your martial artists, but weapons and armors are the great equaliser in man vs beasts. 5. Survival. Humans are great at surviving if they are trained to do so. So how does a martial artist survive a bear encounter? He runs away downhill. Just create scenarios where the humans outlast the monsters: if there is a time limit until the floor turns lava, then make sure the human is hanging unto a rope. 6. Change the rules. It occurred to me that you could even change the rules of what the show down would look like. If the objective is not to kill the other, humans may be able to outlast and survive by playing the "game" differently. Anyway there are probably more, just some I thought off right now.
Going to go with Soul Caliber thought on this, where every fighter has a weapon and style that has it's perks and weaknesses for each opponent. Granted on the more absurd levels of martial prowess in arena combat would be the Drukari Witch Cults, that can take on dozens of horrifying monsters from WH40k, while wearing nearly nothing and armed only with large knives, a spear, and blades and hooks woven into their long red locks. Though the Dark Eldar are more fragile than a human, but are faster and smarter which gives them the advantage. Also being taller and having the reach advantage helps. So, overall so long as you keep things on a restricted level when it comes to weapons and not allow projectile or beam based weapons (plasma swords, axes, etc.), Then there will be a somewhat even match based more on skill than pure reliance on their offensive and defensive capability to pull them through. Even Gladiators of the Roman era were known for their skills and wits to fight more than once in the arenas.
This is kind of obvious, but give each fighter a sort of superpower. Some kind of powerful punch that can bust through stone walls for one, maybe another can summon chi to an amazing degree and channel it into an energy beam or a blast that can mess up a dragon. Etc. Like the way it's always done in the old kung fu movies and the animes.
I'm not sure if it's possible I do have some ideas for adding weaponry to certain characters. But I want the humans to have more beyond like human abilities so the fights can be more fair against different beasts. Afterall, each fighter is chosen or enters to join to compete in this tournament, which would be the best from the best from each different locations. So no handicap monsters as this is a test to see who the ultimate fighter is in these death matches This is my concern. That having a pure karateka, a monkey kung fu fighter, a pure tai chi fighter, a pure boxer or kickboxer might not be believable against such high odds when facing off against such terrifying beasts and hybrid killing machine weapons This might be a great idea. These humans need to be something very special, like with weapons or possess such magic abilities to face off against such creatures, but can magic abilities fit in with sci-fi experiments and such in a future-society setting?
This would be great, but how do I avoid cliche stereotypes? For example, I have a monkey motif kung fu fighter and tai chi dragon woman with water powers from China, an African American karate hawk motif girl, a Russian female sambo fighter with a bear motif, a mauy thai fighter woman with spider powers or a mauy thai guy with elephant powers. These are all bad stereotypes right?
That really depends on how you write it. I mean, there is basically nothing new under the sun. Every kind of story has been written countless times, what makes one better than another is how well it's written, how engaging it is. You're already on somewhat thin ice for stereotypes since the basic premise sounds a lot like the Mortal Kombat movie. But in that movie I don't think the protagonists had any kind of special powers or abilities. Only the bad guys and monsters did. If I remember right, it was the fact that the good guys were fighting from more pure principles and the bad guys and monsters weren't that kept making it possible for the goods guys to win. I would change the basic premise in a few ways to make sure it doesn't sound like an MK copy. Actually, scratch that. The important thing isn't to make it not sound like or seem like a copy, just develop the idea and change it until it's no longer very similar. You need to take charge of the ideas, work them through your creative process and keep developing them. That's the way any good creative work is done. If you're using borrowed ideas taken from other sources and not developing them enough it will be apparent where they came from.
Sure you can have magic or something like it in Sci-fi. WH40K has a kinda magic in it's setting, with psychers who can see the future in some capacity, shoot lightning, destroy peoples minds, and stuff like that. Then their is the entire tech of the Orks that works for them primarily because enough of them believe it does so it does. Though by all reasoning it is just mainly stuff roughshod pounded together that will not work for any other factions that uses more realistic technologies. Absolutely you can have magic in a future society, so long as it's balanced out within the universe. Hell even the Force in Star Wars is basically magic in Sci-fi, and I don't have to explain all of that since pretty much everybody knows all the stuff the Force wielders can do with their abilities.
What if I had it so that this was an international fighting event thst is known world wide through social media, with top fighters, most combat elite, and monstrousity hybrids all competing in this to determine who's the best, still similar to MK? (Save for the death matches). The protagonist actually has superpowers cause he's part demon What if the monsters were not just mythical but also hybrid creations and the fighters are human experiments? Eample, fighter from Mexico is a pro boxer with super enhanced arms/fists, tai chi water woman is instead an experimental woman being that is made up of water and can change to solid? Monkey kung fu girl is instead a female fighter created with monkey/chimp DNA with highly level of physical abilities?
It sounds to me like you're developing it the right way. Keep going like that as you work out story details and you should come out with something that feels pretty original.
Thank you. But does it sound better if all these human experiment fighters were hybrid experiments? Or martial artists with magic? Example, the monkey kung fu fashion model girl from China and tai chi water woman both from China that both use magic? Or monkey girl a human fighter raised in a facility with monkey DNA and water woman raised in a lab made of water, both from any country, not China? And I know styles like tai chi and monkey kung fu are overexaggerated and not very practical against combat fighters with magic and monsters which is why I thought of a female sanda elite fighter from China?
I think you're worrying about the wrong thing. Your premise is already unrealistic, so readers aren't going to worry too much about whether a tai chi martial arts could really fight a monster. What they will care about is whether it's entertaining. Make it fun! Make it badass! Focus on how the fights tell a story, not the minutia of particular styles. If you can do that, nothing else will matter.
But it bothers me cause I like there to be some logic, even in fiction of what can make descent sense. Yes in fiction a wizard or sorcerer can take on a monster or stand a chance with their abilities, but a karate/taekwondo champion or tai chi master really doesn't stand much of a chance, as most of them practice to fight for points or for exercise purposes, they don't fight in a full out contact combat or kill situations. A supersoldier has a better chance, even an mma fighter with super abilities stands a better chance I think and I'm scared of the cliche of "woman from China who does tai chi" is a pretty common trope, am I all about this wrong?
Well logically they shouldn't win in a straight up 1 v 1. The villain glass in the shamalyadingdong (dont know his name) trilogy represents it well. He cannot win a fight against a super hero dude, but he finds ways to sort of beat him I guess. Its just about how you frame the 1 v 1.
I don't know if this helps but if you understand Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do theory,it's all about mixing moves from different martial arts of different cultures to come up with something more effective. Nothing like the culturally chauvinist Hong Kong tv dramas that portrays Bruce as someone who is strictly Chinese kung-fu-all-the-way. So maybe the female Jeet Kune Do fighter keeps on adapting and adds new moves that she saw her human and non-human opponents use on her and then reapplies the variations and combinations as she keeps on fighting new enemies. So she is someone who can adapt and is not ashamed to use other's techniques and moves.But of course she can't learn specific moves from certain creatures. E.g a dragon since a dragon can fly and she can't. And of course a frog or a flea monster can leap to great heights but she can't. I must warn you though lol don't put Tai Chi and Jeet Kune Do in the same novel. Why? Because it's very ironic. There was once a tall guy named Alcindor who had an interest in Tai Chi and approached Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee then said " Forget Tai Chi. It's for old men in parks". You can read the book Bruce Lee:A Life by Matthew Polly to get that quote. I'm not putting down Tai Chi, just letting you know of a fact. Updated:Sorry I didn't answer your question. My bad. Ok. Let's see . Maybe she reads a lot and finds out the mythical creatures' weaknesses through books?Or by just observing their habits? An example would be that she noticed a creature has a dislike towards cigarettes so she gave some advice to someone who has the power of fire to try using it on that creature in the upcoming fight. Or she fights long enough to discover that the creature she is fighting is actually blind and is more sensitive to sound so she makes more noise with her footsteps to distract it. Can also be she fights a robot only to find that it's not all steel and it has a flesh and blood brain located in the steel belly of the robot.
Looking back at this thread, this quote stands out as something you're stuck on unnecessarily. Yes, most competitive fighters might have this problem—so write about the one that doesn't! In fact, this sounds like a fun exercise, so I'm gonna pitch you a character arc. Your MC starts out fighting in competitions, whatever martial art you want. She gets really good, maybe becomes a champ, but then one day she gets mugged, stabbed by someone who's angry and desperate and willing to do anything. She's traumatized and realizes that all her training means nothing without that killing edge. She becomes obsessed with it, fighting harder and harder as she recovers. She injures sparring partners. She picks up stray animals and forces herself to look them in the eye as she hurts them, finally killing one with tears pouring down her face. She does it again, and again, and it gets easier. In her triumphant return to the ring, she seriously injures her opponent, ending her career, and officials have to pull her off before it gets worse. She retires, horrified that she's turned into a monster. Finally, she gets picked for this tournament, however you handle that. In the ring, she watches a horrible monster slaughter her friends with ease because they don't know how to really fight for their lives. Every bloody red emotion she's ever felt wells up inside her, and she goes full berserker, unleashing hell upon the hapless monstrosity, killing it in an epic battle for the ages. And as she stands atop it's corpse, covered in blood and awash in the cheers of the fans, she lets loose a primal scream of triumph. She's not just a monster—she's the fucking monster queen. Roll credits, badass heavy metal playing in the background. I'll take my Best Screenplay Oscar now, thank you very much.
So essentially she'd be a mixed fighter, that learned to add in other skills and moves to her style already? I didn't know this. Like say there's this girls mother who's from China and her style is tai chi? Maybe I can mix her style with something else so she is not predominant in tai chi, as it is just a small part of her move set? So like if her style was wrestling, kickboxing, combined with some dragon kung fu with tai chi movements? This would be a great way for me to go.
Ok I like this but I'm thinking what would be a better way for it to go? 1. She was a martial artist, but after being mugged and attacked she wanted to learn a more killing edge to it? 2. She was an acrobatic, then one day she got attacked or mugged and then decided to take up martial arts and learn it with the killing edge? 3. Someone close to her was attacked badly and mugged, so she then decided to take her revenge on that attacker who would be at the tournament and trained hard in martial arts with the killing edge? Which path would be better to start out with?
You gave a detailed answer. In the ring, he pursues a terrible beast that slaughters his teammates effortlessly, since they have no idea how to really fight for their lives. Every ridiculous sensation of red that is constantly feeling the wells within her and fills with berserker, unleashes hellfire on the unfortunate monster, killing him in an epic battle for centuries.
Yup. This idea is not original but at the same time it is rare and nobody has a monopoly on this idea. Except maybe the Jeet Kune Doists. Most definitely. An example scenario would be her opponent would expect her to be using soft movements but instead got repeatedly jabbed in the face.
