Ilasir Maroa

The only moves I remember from WOT are more esoteric and abstract than budo terms.



I think the point to remember here is that a fight scene in literature cannot convey the moves accurately anymore than dialog actually resembles real-time speech. Most people will not undertsand terms from a specific style, whether that be Italian fencing or Japanese(?) budo. The best method it to use a system you are most familiar with, and simplify. No one really fights like a style demands. They will bastardize. Don't be afraid to do the same. "Chopped at his opponents leg" for instance, is not describing a specific mood, but most anyone can create their own image of it. There's nothing wrong with using terms from budo as long as they are explained somewhere. I don't look up moves as I read a fight scene. I let my head come up with a reasonable interpretation. As long as your description stays consistent, a reader should not have a problem.


Out of curiousity, which type of budo are we talking about here? Kendo?

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Belial666

There is a vast difference between real-life swordfighting and supernatural heroes swordfighting.

Generally speaking, a swordsman in real life combat (not just fencing) learns a few to a few hundred specific moves and practices until they are commited to muscle memory. During an actual fight there is very little concious thinking being done as your muscle memory and reflexes take over and you repeat specific patterns-you can't think while your enemy is hacking at you for the very simple reason that a stab takes a tenth of a second-that's how much time you have to respond.

Between supernatural fighters, swordfights can get more interesting. Someone with immense strength who can also largely ignore momentum (as many superstrong characters seem to be able to) does not need to worry about balance much. Someone so fast that can see the world in a form of dilated perception (think Matrix) does have time to think and pick the perfect attacks/counters during a fight.

So in the end, it depends on what type of characters you're writing; human or more than human?

Industrial

Read fifty grand by Hemingway, this is how you portray combat perfectly. It's in the form of boxing but still not to much of a stretch and its probably how I would write it.

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