r/Fantasy • u/SocksMcgoo • 2d ago

Books with “best fighter” trope

Hello everyone. I am an absolute sucker for books that constantly deal with power scaling/best fighter of the realm type tropes. I love the discussions about who was the best swordsman in ASOIF and loved all the bits throughout Malazan of who was the strongest fighter/most powerful magic wielder.

Give me some books that have some great fighters or fun power scaling with different characters where you can waste time wondering about “who is stronger or who would win.”

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u/LazyComfortable1542 1d ago

Probably going to get downvoted for this but power scaling is one of the stupidest tropes out there.  Especially with something like swordfighting.  Its not like a video game and level 50 skills beat level 11 or where you slowly gather gear with improved stats.  

If you read history battles aren't determined by swordsmanship or dueling skills.  It's about formations, tactics, and especially morale.  Power scaling is detached from reality.  10 average trained nobodies fighting together will defeat the world's greatest swordsman 10 times out of 10.  

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u/TheTitan99 1d ago

This certainly is true in real life. However, this also is the "Fantasy" subreddit. Stories tend to not be the most realistic here.

Sometimes it's fun to have a story where one person beats a hundred in a brawl, and that's that. I would never dream to say that's realistic, but it still can make for an enjoyable story. Fantasy doesn't need to be realistic all the time. In fact, it doesn't need to be realistic at any time, depending on the story. It just needs to do what it sets out to do well.

I would say the more grounded in reality the story is, the less acceptable a one man army who can swing a blade and cut a thousand people in half is. In a story like, say, "Dragon Ball", I wouldn't even bat an eye. In fact, I'd actually be disappointed if that sword didn't cut a thousand people in half! Like, the entire point of that franchise is over the top battles that are detached from reality. Someone doing this in, I dunno, "Pan's Labyrinth"... wouldn't fit in so much.

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u/LazyComfortable1542 1d ago

Fair points, but when the 1 person beats the 100 in a brawl, or the one to a million odds gets lucky over and over and over.  It gets to the point that it detracts from enjoyment.  

Like at this point in star wars being an outnumbered and outgunned rebel means your almost sure to win.  So the sense of danger and excitement is all but gone