|  Author | Topic: Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite! (Read 56 times) |
Prince Faramir
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|  | Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite!
« Thread Started on Mar 27, 2009, 5:20pm » | |
I am curious to know what opinions different people have about the way Tolkien writes out his battle scenes in The Lord of the Rings. Obviously it's nothing like the Hollywood-ish (but totally kick-ass) battle scenes orchestrated by Peter Jackson in the film version. Instead of giving a one-man view of the chaotic fray of the battle, Tolkien usually seems to present his battles from a more strategic standpoint, as though someone was looking on from afar.
My question is this - Do you think that Tolkien's battles would be improved by including a little more of the nitty-gritty, one-on-one action that provides a sense of urgency and intimacy with the characters, or do you prefer the way his battle scenes are with the broader and more aloof point of view?
~Kay
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Wotts Collier
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| | Re: Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite!
« Reply #1 on Mar 31, 2009, 1:33pm » | |
Its hard to describe fluid and dynamic multiplicity in interaction with any sort of concise or poetic beauty... (could be possible...) So for Tolkien's style it makes sense...
In the RP environment (ie not a narrative in the traditional sense of the word...) it can be made dynamic more easily (though still become muddled...). You have multipe points of view for a start, which helps...
The trouble can be the technique used...
Its hard to react to something that has a defined beginning, middle and end, and still retain the feel that you are part of the action. For example, if I were to say:
"I swing wildly in your direction, miss entirely and fall through the window shutters and end up lying on my back in a puddle outside the Inn..."
Its all very nice, quite comical; but what was everybody else doing...? All stood watching...?
If on the other hand there was someone stood in front of the window; and I were to say within my post that I recklessly charge towards the person with with weapon above my head (high ceiling in the Inn  )... Then in their post they get to react...
"Instead of cowering before the brute, I step into his attack, drop my weight, and use my shoulders and hips to unbalance him..."
React...
*realising the situation, he can decide the full outcome; he could go through the window; or be thankful to have missed the window...
But did his leg go into he smouldering embers in the fire grate next to the window...?
Of course the person in front of the window could recoil from the attack and in blind panic fall through the shutters behind them...
No one else should decides for definite what happens to you in your post... (as is always the case in RP...) but this becomes more difficult as you go into detail... and time slows down...
You also have to remember that super-fast action cannot be described in detail...
What happens when you ask the only eye witness to the asteroid breaking up on entry and burning through the night sky to earth...
Usually something like:
"Well it all happened so fast; there was a flash of light nearly blinded me and then there was a huge rumble in the distance as I've never heard before..."
What did that actually tell you of the cosmic phenomenon...? Practically nothing at all.
Balanced approach I always find best. I mean its difficult to have a flowing conversation, sometimes, in RPs; so a battle and vicious hand to hand combat is liable to be quite disorientating.
Anyone done much hands on hack 'n' slash RPing??
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Kahllen Feymor
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| | Re: Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite!
« Reply #2 on Apr 1, 2009, 12:40am » | |
I find that in RP's, the plot is almost always deeper, juicier, and more intriguing when it consists of less all out brawls. Don't get me wrong; sometimes there absolutely must be a confrontation. But as you said before, it must be in moderation.
Personally, I loved Tolkien's method during the big battles. Helm's Deep, for example. The writing was so beautifully executed. From the destruction of the Deeping Wall to Theoden's charge, I felt like I could read it again and again. I believe my blood pressure went up just reading that chapter. Haha
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Thranduil
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| | Re: Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite!
« Reply #3 on Apr 1, 2009, 2:10pm » | |
Thinking about it, Tolkien does sometimes go into more depth but usually when it is literally a 1 on 1 confrontation and often only for effect...
Often he will say A goes at B and simply 'bests him' or their '...knighthood proved the bolder...' or similar...
But there is the odd exception where he speaks blow by blow... Morgoth V Some Noldor Lord (Fingolfin or someone...)
But then Narrative and RP are indeed two very different ball games...
I don't think Tolkein would improve by more nitty gritty... but a RP needs it... to greater or lesser extent. As Kahllen says, just not so much that it distracts completely from the Plot as a whole. Though I have had Fun RPs where random brawling played a major part, never with Tolkiens works...
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Kahllen Feymor
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| | Re: Battle Scenes - everybody's favorite!
« Reply #4 on Apr 1, 2009, 10:38pm » | |
There have definitely been times when I just felt like killing a thousand demons in one post, but most of the time it goes overboard. haha
I don't think anyone has or ever will match Tolkien, at least in his own style of writing. The great thing about the Trilogy is that you always knew that there were a thousand more stories, just as in-depth, just beneath the tale of the One Ring. It really is amazing that he was able to create such a vastly detailed world, along with thousands of years of history.
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