Is it me, or majority of novels have tournament chapters as fillers. Nothing happened in them, plot is basically stagnated and participants are one issue characters. These happens in JP, CN and KR novels. Do you find them interesting to read or boring?
boooooooring A well-written one, even if it is cliche, is ok or even nice to read, but after reading plenty of them, there is only so many differences the usual cn authors make (I didn't read that many tournament arcs in kr or jp yet)
You know, the feel is different when you read the first tournament arc when MC has just been reincarnated or transmigrated compared to when he has already got some strength.
Ah yes, the Tournament Arc. Sometimes multiple. Every single time I get this high-pitched voice repeating 'tournament arc, tournament arc!' in my head. That being said, I actually don't particularly mind them for the most part. It really depends on how they're written and the participants/stakes, though.
I like tournament arcs if they are done well. They have their uses, but among many uses they importantly provide a nice reset where all the characters /issues that have been built up and/or covered in the past x amount of chapters come together. I don't really think they are there to always drive the story further, it's just a tool to spread knowledge. Between the author and the reader (where does MC or X character fit in among the hierarchy within this story) and also between different characters within the story (now X has a better understanding of how strong Y is). It's supposed to be the fruit from the work that you have spent x amount of chapters reading about. It's true that there are a lot of stories (ok, CN stories) where the MC just slaps everyone down and the crowd goes 'wow', but in those stories, the faceslapping is pretty much the entire point of the story to begin with. If that's the case, it's just a poor story. It's just a poor story then. Plenty of tournament arcs are used to neatly tie ends (character X finally realises that they can't match character Y and gives up) or open up new rivalries and plot threads. Again, having the MC just slapping down a bunch of people never to be heard from again is generally just poor writing. So no, I don't think that tournament arcs are just filler.
If they act as prove significant growth to mc, then its interesting for me. Overgeared is one of example. If its act as face slapping, show off mc power then im usually skimming em all.
Mc: *appears* Side character: haha that character will definitely lose Mc: *does something mildly interesting* Big boss side character: hmmm interesting Antagonist: u boutta lose to this young master Mc: *wins the tournament or does something incredible* Everyone: OMG he's so cool and scary blablabla Good tournament arcs tend to involve the people who appeared during the previous arc(s). While also improving character development for either the MC or the other characters. It's also a way to conclude or start certain events and plots.
I used to think they were exciting and loved them but now, unless they're well done they're just bland
Believe it or not you're not the first to rant about web novels, or that specific aspect of them. I got so sick of them. when I tried reading Super Powereds and saw it's another teen super academy with tournament I dropped it.
For me it depends a lot on the context and how it's executed... Like... There need to be a few things conditions in place for a good tournament arc. 1) Low Stakes. If the MC needs to win a tournament in order to get the favor of a king which is the only way to save the world... The MC will win, period. The entire tournament became pointless at its very start, so now you have an entire arc which you have 0 hype for and 0 interest in. Compare that to something like Dragon Ball's Martial Arts tournament... Who will win those? You don't know, you want to see Goku win, but it's okay if Goku loses, there is excitement there, there is tension, there are moments where you'll cheer for Goku while hoping he'll win, only to see him losing to Jackie Chun because of a leg size difference. It is a lot easier to have a good experience reading a tournament arc when you don't know the outcome of it from the very start. 2) Something needs to happen. And by something I mean anything, really... If the tournament is all about fights, then it's just pure filler, I mean... Sure, sometimes you just want to see a good fight, but an entire arc of fight after fight after fight after fight with nothing happening or being developed at all? Yeah, that just sucks and gets boring in no time, Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tails had terrible final arcs exactly because of that, you can't have a story if no story is being told, fights should be used as part of the story, they can't be the story in itself. Compare that to Dragon Ball again, the first tournament had that guy that was fighting for the sake of earning money to buy water for his village, Master Roshi was fighting to teach Goku and Krillin a lesson that there is always someone stronger out there. Those were all really small things with little development, but they mattered and they were all important to keep the tournament interesting. It wasn't just one big tournament with the world at stake and nothing happening in-between rounds, there were small things that kept it exciting happening. 3) Characters that you care for. Sometimes authors decide to give a few chapters to develop random character A that you never saw before, you won't care for, and will never see again once the MC inevitably beat them... Yeah, that feels like pure filler, I just don't care about random character A. Even if you show their motivations and what not, I just know they'll lose to the MC anyways, so who cares? (technically speaking, the guy that was trying to get water for his village in Dragon Ball fits into that category, but the main difference is that we didn't know if Goku would win against him or not, he felt like a real threat, which led to excitement~) Instead, if you involve the actual cast of characters in it and make the tournament matter for them (and especially if you make them fight one another within the tournament), you'll get a much more interesting experience because both sides have stakes that you are very well aware of, and you want both of them to win. Of course, this can only happen when the tournament has low stakes though, because the individual stakes can't matter if the world is at stake in that tournament. Those are the main things that need to happen to make a tournament arc a good arc IMO, they can be good and they have the potential to be good... But they need to be done properly, randomly thrown in tournaments in which it's just fight after fight with the entire world at stake will never be fun. Especially when the MC is the only one that can win it. I mean, at least in the Cell Games there were multiple people that could fight against Cell, so even after Goku lost the world wasn't over yet... Even if we knew Cell was going to eventually lose.
I hold contempt for filler tournament arcs, along with the author who decided to waste both of our time.
Tournament arcs work if they are relevant to the story. The issue is having tournaments just for the sake of it. Just like gratuitous nudity.( Sorry but given all the recent scandals, I want gratuitous nudity to die)