Discussion Does anyone think explanations during fights are unnecessary?

I feel like for a lot of Chinese novels, they drag out their fights scenes far too long by inserting explanations in the middle of them. Not only do I think they are too long, they are also unnecessary. We should be able to observe and determine what occurs during a fight wihtout any exposition. Some examples are Divine Throne of Primordial Blood and Heavenly Jewel Change. It feels like 80% of the fights are explanations of things that don't need to be explained and it slows down the pace to an unbearable level.

It doesn't stand out in novels like Human Emperor because that novel is 100% filler (even when fights aren't occurring).

 

I think that it's necessary as a world-building as long as the author place it right so it doesn't give the impression that it's a chore to read.

 

Seconded.
What IS unnecessary is the amount of words wasted on why the MC will definitely loose since [Random Enemy 5] is SOOO much better, and [Random Enemy 4] only lost, because the MC got lucky.

 

lol you never watched anime where they talk fight?

 

It depends really. Is the author incompetent and relies on filler to fill in the wordcount or is he actually a good author that can describe a fight scene without repeating themselves atleast 3 times. A good example of great fight scenes are Douluo Dalu where they mostly rely on wit and cleverness to win rather than shouting OP techniques until you win

 

I feel like that explanation could have been more shorter if it was placed at the end of the fight and the lackeys asked what happened

 

The scholars in the peanut gallery who had researched ancient heavenly techniques and lost divine weapons finally have a chance to display their knowledge, but you want to shut them up.

 

It depends. Because not all stories need to be explained to readers and some are necessary because at the beginning of the story it was insufficient to figure out what the fight transpired.

 

It's a common trope.

If it's a friend betraying you, then you'll already be dead before even noticing what happened. At most you'll be able to utter a "why" before dying.

If it's an enemy, expect a slow and loud fight where everyone knows what's happening from a mile away and probably get to know all the villain's life too.

 

Are they explaining some ridiculous power? Then it's necessary.

 

Something even worse is the reaction. CN novels LOVE having an audience watching the duel, making comments and getting shocked. It defies the laws of physics when people talk and explain while the MC is punching someone. There's the explanation of the punch, underestimating the MC's punch, explaining why the the villain will defend, explaining the background of the villain and that the villain is a genius all while the MC is attacking, it's like half a chapter of content between the MC attacking and the result of the attack.

 

As long they don't use Era destroying punchs like li qiye
Or showing skils and forgetting them 3 sec later like Mga
It's good

 

What about the occasional spitting blood out? You can't not have those.

 

I actually like fights with plenty of explanations. It allows the writer to build up all sorts of unusual scenarios and still have them play out in ways that the reader can understand. Without extra information, how is the reader supposed to process how systems like magic work? This was the original way Jin Yong made his reputation, and it's why he's the most popular of the modern Chinese writers.

There are two potential problems though. If the writer isn't very good, then this extra commentary can end up as filler hence all the complaints about it. Also, the sad reality is that the writing for this commentary can be quite good in Chinese, but it doesn't translate terribly well so the English version can be a lot more stale.

 

To be honest I prefer the shorter descriptions on the battles, they should be resolved in few scenes, just imagine narrating Goku's fights hit by hit...

 

I feel like the best way for a fight to go is that you describe what an observer would see and have absolutely no explanations during the fight. The world building should have established some basic principles before the fight. You could also have short explanations after the fight but no explanations (even short ones) during the fight.

 

I'm not too sure about that one. That novel has the same author as Heavenly Jewel Change. I haven't read DD, HJC does have wit (ignores it in the 2nd half) but its fights are still dragged down by excessive explanations. However, I could be wrong about DD.

 

If you make explanation in the middle of something... It means that you fucked up during world-building and have to explain, otherwise people would not be able to undestand. However, if it is done one or twice with a lot of events in between, it can be used to show some character growth.

 

That doesn't always work because a lot of the time the observers have no idea what's going on. Hell, sometimes even the people doing the fighting might not know what's going on! Besides, this is a solution in search of a problem - commentary during a fight can be very good so it's not a story mechanic that needs fixing.

 

THIS. It's 100% bad world-building that you have to explain fights DURING them. You should have already established most rules BEFORE the fight. Explanations ruin the pacing of the action, you can totally have fights as exciting as those on cinema on writing if you do pacing right.
It's also a gross violation of "show don't tell". You should have shown the skills of the fighters before the conflict in some way. You also don't have to explain every single little detail. Letting some of the explanation be completed by the reader's own assumptions and imagination is a great way to keep magic mysterious while also having a hard magic system.
Write what is happening and what the observers see. If one of the characters is quite perceptive then you can infer a lot from the magic system just by empiricism.

The results of the poll are quite surprising. Some people have read so much trash action scenes they don't know how a good one should be written.