Random Idea #83: Sword vs Gun fights (in visual media)

I had some shower thoughts after watching some various fight shows, specifically about choreography. So, I assume we’re all broadly familiar with sword fights.

Note that “gun” and “sword” here are simply shorthand for any ranged, projectile weapon and any melee weapon, punches and kicks included.

There are many to show a back and forth in strikes, blocks, probing shots, etc, in the midst of a sword fight. Plenty of foot work too, to let them make use of the environment. Jumping and twirling if you want to be flashier and more spectacular, even if less realistic. The sword is, for the most part, moving at human visible speeds, and must work past a defense that can usually react to it, slowly chipping away until one of them messes up and gets cut or worse.

Gun fights operate on a more ragged edge. It is rarely practical carrying something strong enough to fend off rifles unless you have a bit of magic at work. There are typically two outcomes. Either the shot misses/bounces and does minimal damage (Terminator), in which case bullets are either abandoned or only used to slow/annoy, or it hits and does grievous damage (B1 Battle Droid). While you can always (futilely) pump shots into an implacable foe, the only practical way to extend the fight for lethal bullets seems to be to increase the number of missed shots, either through cover, movement, or straight up inaccuracy (B1 droids, again, though Clone troopers aren’t free of this either), since the price of getting hit is too high, armor barely doing anything. If the gun fights were at a few hundred meters and everyone is trying to keep cover this might be excusable, even realistic, but since the enemy being barely 4 pixels tall is a bit lame, most of these fights tend to end up at somewhat ridiculously close range.

Gun fu/Gunkata/etc makes some attempt to remedy this, adding extra movement where there were none to excuse their ability to avoid being hit at ball throwing range, extending the length of the fight without making it seem like both fighters are extremely poor shots, though typically the hero/primary villain is much better at avoiding bullets than the massed mooks who get gunned down. Still, unless one character is wearing super armor (Mandalorian), getting hit with one bullet is still lethal, even if they sometimes mag dump anyways (John Woo)

However, things feel like they break down a bit when someone brings a sword to a gunfight. You could do the Indy thing and end the farce in a single shot, which is fine for mook-slaying, but when you need a climactic battle, this doesn’t really work. The melee character needs to be able to close the distance without getting riddled with holes, while the gun wielding character wants to keep the distance due to their lack of close ranged options. This is somewhat lamp-shaded in the climax of the first Deadpool movie where, spoilers, Deadpool forgets to bring his bag of guns that would heavily trivialize the final fight scene, especially since Deadpool himself can practically no sell most of the guns aimed at him, while none of the enemies he faces are truly bullet proof. This forces Deadpool to engage in melee and have the fight go on a bit longer than “goes in and shoots everyone”, though he really could’ve just picked up the guns from the mooks he dropped.

In order to fix the unbalanced reality of the two weapons, the melee character by definition needs some form of superhuman power, either deflecting, dodging, or no-selling bullets, which risks making bullets feel extremely useless. Jedi are good examples of this, being able to send back dozens of bolts back towards an opposing army. They’re so good that you’d save ammo either aiming at literally anyone else, or getting every gun you have pointed in their direction.

Meanwhile, for the ranged character to feel threatening, they need to be able to keep the distance, since staying in the other fighter’s combat range is a lose condition. Usually they equip some sort of gimmick, like explosives, flames, or other tools, since if they were superhuman, they wouldn’t be playing keep away in the first place. Elements of this dance can be seen in a lot of fighting games, in zoners versus rushdown or grapplers, however they mostly address it by making ranged attacks less reliable of a damage dealer. Two characters plinking at each other across the stage isn’t all that interesting, after all, relegating them to be more of a combo extender than a primary weapon.

Visual media don’t seem to be able to give ranged weapons that luxury, however, stuck in that binary of useless or overly lethal, versus how most audiences are fine with punching people into walls without them shattering every bone in their body.

If bullets are mostly useless, then the fight tends to become primarily melee heavy regardless, with gunfire being a flashy distraction that seems to barely slow the opponent down.

Lethal bullets are usually saved for blasting mooks. If anyone important comes along, they are usually capable of deflecting/dodging bullets, and we’re back to melee.

As for possible solutions?

First, normalize the differences between getting shot or getting punched across the room, otherwise one is always going to be better than the other. It makes no sense why getting clocked by a bouncing Vibranium Shield is mostly survivable while everyone needs to block bullets.

Second, while real gun fights might take place at a distance, for narrative and visual purposes they’re generally going to be at absurdly close ranges, especially if one of them is using a melee weapon. The gunner in a position to constantly plink is an instant lose condition for the swordy, so the gunner has to also be capable of fighting in melee.

I think the balance of characters in the FGC is probably one of the better blueprints to start with. Getting hit with a rocket is just as damaging is being punched very hard, though depicting that in live-action might be a bit hard to sell, compared to cartoon characters. Using gun fire as a combo tool feels like a good idea, integrating a bit of flair for the character’s personal gun-fu style to add into their melee style, giving them in turn more space to do damage at a (short) distance. Giving the swordy a few ranged moves, magical or otherwise, in turn can help even up the field a bit, to give them a way to help slow the gunner down to use their blade.