Fantays/sci-fi/fictional characters' martial arts styles

[Makalakumu]

I thought this would be a fun thread. Think of a fictional character that practices martial arts in a book that you love and analyze the art. Are there any similarities to real arts? Did the author do that on purpose? Is the author a martial artist?

 

[Makalakumu]

One of my favorite martial arts badasses in fiction is Al' Lan Mandragoran from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I love reading scenes with him involved because he is the consumate warrior. My favorite scenes are when he is fighting or teaching Rand Al'Thor how to fight with the sword.

The "blademaster style" that he practices seems to be a curious mix of chinese and japanese sword arts. I practice a chinese sword form and all of the moves have names like "parting the silk" or "heron takes wing" so I could immediately imagine what these techniques may have actually looked like.

I like the mental training that flows with the art. The concept of the "Flame and the Void" or the "Oneness" as it is called by those who speak the Old Tongue, reminds me of the concept of "Mind of No Mind" inherit in many Japanese styles.

This may sound silly, but I wish that Lan's style actually existed. I would totally get into it.

As far as Robert Jordan being a martial artist...I am not sure if he actually practiced a style. However, I do know that he is a graduate of the Citidel and that he served two tours in Vietnam. Thus, the battle sequences and the warrior characters are very well done.

 

[Makalakumu]

Has anyone ever thought about Drizzt Do'Urden's style? The two scimitars sort of remind me of FMA...

 

[FearlessFreep]

Not really about MA but I read "Not For Glory" and something I picked up was that the main character kept different types of bills in different pockets so that if he needed to bring out his money or 'flash some cash' he could control what he revealed he had based on where he pulled the money from

I've started doing that in that I will keep some cash in my wallet and some in various pockets so if I'm ripped off, they won't get the whole thing, and also so that if I have to pay cash for something, nobody around me will see how mch I'm carrying if they get nosy and watch me.

 

[Makalakumu]

One of the first characters that caught my interest as a martial artist was Zaknafien Do'Urden. This character comes from R.A. Salvatore's series on the adventures of a particular dark elf named Drizzt. These books are loosely based off of D&D, which I played religiously in high school and a little in college. Zak is Drizzt's father and he taught Drizzt a martial arts style that centered on the use of two swords.

When I read about this style I imagine that it is very fluid, almost dancelike. It emphasizes circular motion and clever parries that turn into attacks. When I think about some of the two stick siniwali that I've done, I imagine some of the basic moves of this style.

I don't know if Salvatore is a martial artist, however, I do think that he has some knowledge of various weapons. Perhaps the knowledge comes from an actual style or maybe it comes from an SCA type of format. I would be very interested if someone has some info on this...

 

[FearlessFreep]

I read a SCi-Fi book called "Wolfling" where there was this form of sword combat based on the energy blades similar to 'lightsabers' but the blades wiuld flucuate in length so you had to position your blade to meet the opponents blade at a point where your blade had enough energy

I remember reading one of Peirs Anthony books from the Incarnations Of Immortatlity series in which he had a very long, drawn out description of a Judo challenege that made me think that he had done a lot of research into Judo

 

[Makalakumu]

I read a SCi-Fi book called "Wolfling" where there was this form of sword combat based on the energy blades similar to 'lightsabers' but the blades wiuld flucuate in length so you had to position your blade to meet the opponents blade at a point where your blade had enough energy

I remember reading one of Peirs Anthony books from the Incarnations Of Immortatlity series in which he had a very long, drawn out description of a Judo challenege that made me think that he had done a lot of research into Judo

I totally forgot about lightsabres and Jedi. Duh...

I've read that Peirs Anthony book. I think it was the third in the series. That was one of my favorite parts!

 

[Navarre]

What about Jason Bourne from Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy?

When I first watched the film I was impressed that Bourne's fighting style was effective in close quarters and relied heavily on economy of motion. There were no jumping back kicks or that sort of thing. It fit perfectly with his occupation.

I'm sure it is a MMA of some sort but seemed heavily on the ju-jitsu side.

 

[arnisador]

The Bourne films used Kali...it was discussed here. A Search will turn up some info.

See also the list of fictional martial arts at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_martial_arts

 

[Marginal]

Roland's mindset in the Dark Tower books always seemed very influenced by texts from Japanese swordsmen etc.

 

[Kacey]

I've read that Peirs Anthony book. I think it was the third in the series. That was one of my favorite parts!

I think it was With a Tangled Skein, which was about Fate - one of the 3 incarnations of Fate fell in love with a Judo master, and had to get the incarnation of War to be her champion. The explanation of Judo was quite good, I think.

I've also read several other novels in which the main characters know Karate or Judo and teach it, where the unexpectedness leads to success... One of them was an Anne McCaffrey "Freedom" series, in which humans used Karate against a larger, stronger humanoid race that had a lot of oomph, but no style or system. The descriptions of using leverage to overcome larger size and greater strength were pretty good.

 

[FearlessFreep]

That's it. I knew that War fought the challenge as champion for the woman but it was not *in* the book about War (allthough I think the love attraction went the other way)

And I enjoyed the chapter about the challenge...this was prior to any MA training of my own and was very intriguing

But like most of Anthony's work, I think that series started good and drifted down

 

[Kreth]

One of my favorite martial arts badasses in fiction is Al' Lan Mandragoran from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I love reading scenes with him involved because he is the consumate warrior. My favorite scenes are when he is fighting or teaching Rand Al'Thor how to fight with the sword.

The "blademaster style" that he practices seems to be a curious mix of chinese and japanese sword arts. I practice a chinese sword form and all of the moves have names like "parting the silk" or "heron takes wing" so I could immediately imagine what these techniques may have actually looked like.

I like the detail that Jordan provides for the sword work. It seems very Japanese to me, including the descriptions of the swords and sword furniture. In particular, the herons on the hilt of a blademaster's sword sound like a description of menuki.

As far as Robert Jordan being a martial artist...I am not sure if he actually practiced a style. However, I do know that he is a graduate of the Citidel and that he served two tours in Vietnam. Thus, the battle sequences and the warrior characters are very well done.

Are you aware that "Robert Jordan" is a pseudonym? I suspect that much of the history in his biography is fictional.