My Thoughts: The Subjective Opinions of AveinL

Fights in Stories

I think we can all agree that when it comes to fights, it's almost always exciting to watch them in action either in a clash of strength or a battle of wits. There is tension in the air as you wondered who would win, as you root for a character to win.

But what makes a good fight scene in a story?

To me, this answer might surprise some of you but it's not the flashiness of the fight, the colorful and myriads of supernatural abilities being displayed, not even the choreography, though they may or may not help but one that serves the story and has meaning to it.

A fight that stands on it own, sure, those are important factors but a fight in a story does not need them. It's the same way a dialogue serves to enhance the richness of the story. A fight does too, in a different manner.

These fights are one you'd remember greatly because they are significant points in the story that serves a shift to it. For example, All Might vs All For One was just glorified fist tossing and throwing powerful overwhelming abilities that only the two fighters can actually withstand when they take it at full force. It isn't a good fight on its own. And yet, it is one of the greatest fights in the show because it has meaning to it. It serves an overall shift to the story. The Number One Hero's flames have faded and they could no longer hold its form after releasing one final burn to emerge victorious. All Might died in that fight and Toshinori Yagi walked out of it with his Hero Persona dead.

Now, Hero Society is left without its sole pillar to hold its peace, the League of Villains are still out there, Izuku's mentor can only support him outside of battles. All Might and his era is gone and with it, the story shifts to a new beginning, one without the Symbol of Peace to show that there is nothing to fear because he is here, because now, he is not.

Basically, fight scenes shouldn't be made if they don't have a purpose to the story. Just because a fight scene hasn't appeared for 10 chapters doesn't mean you should make one now. If the reader gets bored and leaves, then they leave. Your focus shouldn't be about making them stay because of style, cool factor and spectacle (fights) but making them stay because of the substance and content overall (story).

However, that doesn't mean that every fight scene with a meaning, is good. It all boils down to execution, again. It may sound cool as an idea but when you really look at the results...

"AveinL, can I ask, would you consider the Trihexa vs Y/N in Union stories a "good" fight?"

No, of course not because the way the fight is described, beyond the lack of sufficient description and/or horrible description of the fight, is the typical "everyone has been defeated and all is hopeless until the hero arrives." trope. And it sounds even dumber when the result is akin to a janitor(Y/N) mopping dirt(Trihexa) in a spectacle and stylish way. Not made any better by the fact that the actual writing describing the fight is lacking but what can you expect from Union Academy storytelling? Their format is garbage and their paragraphs aren't fleshed out. You can tell they typed all that in under 5 minutes and never went back to make it even better.

Yes, the fight has meaning. It is a shift to the story and everyone now knows Y/N as he beat the big baddy but they did done diddly fucked that up too by shoving trash in it, like turning Trihexa into a girl in his harem. Not made better by the fact that there is no build up, no mention or showcasing of Trihexa prior to that scene. The fight with an endgame big baddy and its DEFEAT, for some reason, always appears at the start of the story. Could you imagine if, early on in MHA, before the League even arrives at USJ and you get a story of All For One and you find out he is the reason All Might got no stomach and a missing lung, he just appears and forces All Might to retirement, no foreshadow, mentions of his legend and bits of his story, the relationship between AFO, OFA, and OFA's users and their history? Just no build up and no steady pacing? And when all hope is lost, Izuku Mido- sorry, Yagi, arrived and one shots All For One with fucking new powers he got after escaping his abused and neglected environment. He just tanks or dodges any attack the villain throws at him, no matter how many variety of Quirks and combination of destructive and powerful attacks, and bitch slaps him once, which beats him. And then All For One is turned to a girl.