#Writers and Warriors

[decideroffacts]

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

One subtle way that Xena got around the studio censors was to have Xena and Gabrielle always sleep side by side, with zero personal space, rather than on opposite sides of the campfire.

Even when they'd get to sleep in a bed, they'd always share it.

They might not have been able to come out and say it, but the show made it clear that these two slept like an old married couple, and on rare occasions, when studio heads weren't looking, they even got to cuddle.

[writers-potion]

Writing Female Fighters

The Heroine Must. Fight.

Today's female protagonists cannot sit on the side crying and breaking down or whimpering as the battle ensues.

Readers want to see autonomous female fighters who can at least defense themselves with courage and adequate skill.

Not all women are the same, but the heroine should get her butt moving.

Less Muscle, but More Flexibilty

The average woman is shorter than the average man, which makes it more difficult to wield a long sword or slam something down on the opponent's head.

A woman who works out can plausibly be stronger than a male couch potato, but if her male counterpart works out as much as her, the man is going to be much stronger.

On the other hand, the center of gravity in a woman's body is lower than a man's which makes it harder to knock her off her feet.

She is also more flexible, which gives her advantage in grappling fights, making use of complex landscapes, or deflecting blows.

A woman's small size can also be an advantage if her opponent has only ever trained with male opponents. His big hands might not get a good grip on her slender limbs.

In historical fiction, giving your heroine good muscule build can be tricky as exercise was generally considered harmful for women, with some exceptions for horseriding any maybe archery at best.

In such cases, make your heroine an accomplished dancer or an eager horsewoman, or the only girl whose father considered to be son replacement and thus, gave her a boy's education.

Women of lower classes who couldn't afford to be fashionably weak will be plausibly stronger, perhaps even more than an idle gentleman.

More Room for Negotiation, but Prolonged Ruthlessness

In the Suspense part of your fight scene, females are more likely to negotiate and talk more, strategically trying to descalate the situation rather than attacking on a momentary impulse.

Generally, women are less aggressive than men and remain level-headed longer than her male counterparts, opting for non-violent methods first before using force.

Exceptions apply if she is trying to protect her children (or someone who she cares for as a child). Mothers can be tigresses.

A female pre-fight conversation may be: "If you had not done so-and-so and betrayed me with so-and-so, we could have been good friends as I thought we would be." "What do you mean? It was in fact you who brought bad blood between us. I can still hear you laughing with so-and-so, taunting me, purposefully making me look bad -" "But that was so long ago! If you want me to say sorry about something so insignificant, you should have just said so: I'm sorry. There. Satisfied?" "Ha! I can't believe you say that so easily. You still don't get it, do you?" "Who's being petty and unreasonable now?"

A male pre-fight conversation will be shorter: "Who's the coward now?" "You're wrong." "Prove it." "Bastard."

Compared to men, it will take more time for a woman's fight hormones (adrenaline, neurotransmitters and such) to kick in.

She would be slower to engage initially, throwing reluctant punches and thinking, but she'll grow more and more violent and lose all rational thought and compassion, and once she's in full flow, may not stop even when her opponent begs for mercy.

When writing a male-female duo, you can show him going for the first blow while she observes and strategizes first. When he's past his peak and panting, she is flying about left and right. Later when the tension wears off and she becomes wobbly and teary, she can rely on him to have recovered faster and distract other teammates so that they won't see her cry.

Plausible Skills and Backstory

In many cultures and time periods, the general attitude of society towards girls is that they have no place in fist fights or martial arts, unlike how it is encouraged for boys of the same age. So if your heroine has physical prowess that surpasses typical 'fitness' or is hidden, build a backstory of how she's obtained it.

For modern heroines, it can be as simple as signing her up for martial arts classes or yearly membership at the local gym. For historical fiction or girls with strict 'feminine' upbringing, it can be trickier.

It can be related to profession: maybe she was an erotic wrestler, catfighter, or an assasin who thought killing was more honorable than prostitution. They may have dabbles with it for a short time and is now trying to hide their past from their respectable employer or fiance.

It can be family backstory: Perhaps her mother was an accomplished martial artist or she had to fend for younger siblings on the streets from an early age. Maybe she was the only girl in a family of many boys who refused to be the punching bag.

Inexperienced Female Fighters

A woman with no fighting experience or training is likely to resort to one of these on instinct:

Try to talk herself out of the situation, attempting to persuade or negotiate for her life.

Grab something to use as a weapon. This instinct seems to be stronger for women than it is in men.

Use her hands to try and break free, or kick (often wth little success)

Pull hair

Scratch.

In a serious fight, pulling hair and scratching won't be helpful, except when the police come to find her body, they would find the opponent's DNA under her fingernails.

Plausible Weapons and Clothing

All of the above applies to scenes where both parties have no weapons, or has the bare minimum (like one dagger each).

Weapons are equalizers, and if your heroine is pointing a gun at her opponent she will definitely NOT hesitate to be the one to shoot first.

When giving your female character a weapon, choose one she can plausibly use. It would take an unusually brawny woman to wield a great medieval longsword.

For historical fiction, give your heroine something she'll plausibly own. Swords and firearm were a no-go for women, but archery was borderline acceptable.

For clothing starters, you definitely CAN NOT dress her in a tight miniskirt and chainmail bra with long, flowy hair and multiple silver chockers. Unless she's trying to seduce her way into her opponent's bedroom, and he has a chainmail bra fetish.

A practical heroine will have her thighs covered, preferably with leather but at least with fabric, since a lot of blood flows through the thighs and a slash would be critical.

She'll keep her hair tied, tucked under a helmet, braided back, etc. so that it won't impede her vision.

She'll support her breasts with a strong sport bra. In a historical eprioid, she'll either tie her breasts tight with a fabric bandage or support them with some kind of leather corset.

Invent a female version of male fighter clothing of the time you are writing about if it doesn't exist.

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! 📸

[puppiekit]

I'm not sure if this has been said before but one aspect to Warriors I literally cannot wrap my head around is that there is STILL a rule against medicine cats starting their own families, when the series has repeatedly and VERY explicitly established this rule as a BAD thing. There's just this weird disconnect between the narrative and the writing that I cannot wrap my head around.

The writers have never given us a story in which this rule has helped anybody or prevented any issue. Yet again and again they've only used this rule to establish "Literally has only ruined families and caused pain and heartbreak to our beloved characters." Yet for some reason they act like the clans still NEED this rule or...? Or what? They'll need help with their kits or something???

Like, not only does the rule have no actual benefit to the clans - as we have NEVER seen an instance in which a medicine cat having a family (under normal, socially accepted circumstance!) would seriously hurt others - but it is a rule formed from complete and utter idiocy to begin with! Not even a good reason! Like they could have given us a million different canonical stories behind why the rule exists, and they actually decided on something as stupid as.... Single teen mother with ADHD receives 0 help with her 4 kids by her entire community and cannot handle the stress....... LMFAOOO

They ACTUALLY expected us, the audience, to accept this as a valid reasoning for restricting the lives of literally every future medicine cat ever, and not an unfortunate individual circumstance. And THAT goes without even addressing the fact that Moth Flight literally just had the worst clanmates ever. The clans would never neglect to support any cat in helping to raise their kits, they are groups who rely on working together for god's sake. We literally have cats who do nothing EXCEPT help with that. And I think the writers KNOW this, so they quiet literally gave Moth Flight - specifically - the most unsupportive, idiotic clanmates ever just to excuse it. Like its actually lunacy

[karanligagomulenkizz]

[shitwarriorsquoteunquoteart]

if those spoilers are accurate this arc is going to be a trainwreck of previously unseen magnitude

[kikker-oma]

Fanart based off of THIS AMAZING WHUMPTOBER FIC of @skyward-floored 's!! Please read it and it's sequel❤️

Warning: Blood, stabbing, character under control

[whenfatecollides]

Xena and Gabrielle, as well as other characters, acknowledging that they have feelings for each other as early as season 2 💃

[hero-of-the-wolf]

art credit @/linkeduniverse

they are best friends your honor

[firefliesnightcore]

Wind: have I ever told you how much I appreciate you?

Warriors: *beginning to panic* what have you done?

Wind: you're an awesome big bro

Warriors: what-

Wind: I love you

[fire alarm starts going off]

Warriors: oH SHIT

Wind: you're my favourite

Warriors:

Wind:

Warriors: *heart melting like whatever's on fire* ...you mean that?

Wild, in the kitchen: HOLY SHIT THE TOASTER--

[lele5429]

I cannot describe the kaleidoscope of emotions I got from reading @not-freyja ’s “References” before bed time after a long day of academic work.

So I’m going to process this with drawings. This is my first “large scale”-ish fan art project.

Again, if you’ve not read Freyja’s brilliant 19k chapter, go have a wild ride!

[redstonedust]

theres one real reason id love to be a mcyt and its just that id want to see people intepret my minecraft skin.

[eywaseclipse]

Okay they’re twins yup. We’re looking at a future Tuk.

[writers-potion]

Different Genres, Different Fight Scenes.

Romance

No real gore; write entertaining fight scenes with an illusion of reality

Avoid excessive arobatics or feats of unbelievable strength. Stay realistic - describe the weather, how the ground feels.

Add a layer of erotic tension.

Use injuries as opportunities to test the hero and heroine's relationship, for displaying touching and tender care.

Fight scenes in romance tend to be short (<700w)

Where there are several fight scenes: (1) he comes to her rescue - (2) she comes to his rescue (3) together they fight in the final showdown.

Fantasy

Fantasy fight scenes will primarily be enertaining, but have considerable grit.

Since readers needs to retain their suspense of disbelief in dragons, fairies, unicorns, etc. it helps to keep fights realistic.

Heroes will be skilled in using the weapon of their choice, and he climax of the fight will be prolonged, detailed and technically precise.

Science Fiction

Invent a special weapon for your book. To make it plausible, take a real-life weapon and extrapolate.

To make it interesting, the weapon will have a critical flaw or have consequences to the user which will make the plot more interesting.

Thriller

Fight scene in thrillera are very gritty, with real violence and gore. There will be several injuries and death.

However, the hero will also show off his skill in prolonged fight scenes, making it entertaining.

The suspense section is typically long

The hero will often have advanced level fighting skills.

Horror

As long as the blood is plot relevant, readers will want to see gore and grit.

The suspense and aftermath sections will be long, with unexpected twists that gets the hero behind his back.

Cozy Mystery

Cozy mystery won't have too much fighting involved, but if it does it will be be short.

Focus on how the hero struggles towards the next clue as a result of the fight rather than on the fight itself.

Historical

Fight in historical novels can be anything between entertaining and gritty.

Consider the periodic background, tech level, and relative wealth of your fighters before you give them weapons and armour.

In period where life expectancy was shorter and violence was more commonplace, your heros will be less bothered about seeing death, gory gutting, or having children in battle. Less qualms about killing.

In most periods and societies women didn't fight, and you must come up with a plausible backstory for her.

Literary

Either the fight takes place off stage or it is shown in all its realistic brutality.

Literary fight scenes are gritty and short.

You will choose to focus on the aftermath - play up the tragic, sinful, meaninglessness, etc. of violence for the reader and how it affects your hero's psyche.

Young Adult

YA fight scenes are entertaining, but it can escalate to be very scary.

he plot often revolves around he protagnoist performing implausible feats of fighting, often with exceptional martial arts skills.

Choose whatever martial arts teenagers find "cool" and build up your knowledge about it.

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! 📸

[e0n0d0o]

A important moment from @willowedhepatica's "Death Doesn't Dream".

This is a commission for Wyper's interview on PHD interviews.

[caliphoria17]

SimonDavisBarry: Ok folks, here’s the infamous scene 18 that we never shot. Comes before the running over water scene.