Yup, you heard me. I want to know in your opinion, which fic has the best action scenes, and if possible, why?
I was reading Joe's second story in his Hero trilogy quite a while ago, because I'd heard that one chapter in it (Possibly no. six, can't be sure) was an awesome action scene. I found it pretty good, but it all seemed slightly surreal to me.

Now, I'm writing a duelling scene, and while it's going reasonably decently - action can be pretty important in a fic and I really don't want to mess it up. So, I'd like some how others have done it.

The proportion of actual fighting to dialogue between hero/es and villain/s, for example, would be interesting to see. Whether authors stick to spells we all know, or do they branch off into their own? High death rate, low death rate? Do either of the sides use tactics? Is Apparating a major part of the fight? To shield, or to evade? Is it a lot of standing still, or using the environment to your advantage? What makes a good action scene?

It'd really be great to see the best Harry vs. Voldemort scenes and also the best battle scenes - Death Eaters against whoever.
Additionally, on top of saying which fic has the best action scene - is there anything that could make it better?
I, personally, would really love to know.
Thanks, Element.

 

Hmm I can't remember the name but it had H\G ad the best dueling of Harry vs. Dumbledore. One of the most famous fics.
Barb's too had good fighting scenes.

 

That's The Awakening Power by Sib - it has 3 great duels: Harry vs Snape (nice to see the git brought down), Harry vs Dumbledore (legendary scene) and Harry vs Voldemort (also good).

Barb's triology has a good areal fight scene in its third instalment - Harry on a broom against DE dragon riders. Pretty cool.

Shezza88 probably has the best action scenes around. Check out any of his earlier HP fics (Cell Block or Future Remaped, for example).

I just finished reading Joe's Hero series. The first half of second book has some pretty cool action, like a duel against Voldemort, or a raid on Azkaban.

Scorpion Sorcerer by Vorlon666 has pretty good ones, but they are missing that certain something to make them truly great.

The Potter Factor by Amora has pretty good action, but a bit ridiculous at times (I especially liked Harry standing on wing of a jumbo jet and dueling with Umbridge on a broom).

Innocence Of Guilt by ENSIGN has cool scenes too, but they are too soft at times - no killing ans gore kinda ruins his great ideas.

 

I was probably the one calling Joe's Defiance chapter 6 the best action chapter. I still think that too. Have loved almost all Joe's sequences and battles. From the first stories battle with the overcharged reducto, to it's aerial sequence running from death eaters on broom, to it's final voldie battle where Harry gets skewered on his own little pokey stick before jumping into an AK. Joe's still my tops for action.

Shezza88 is up there too. Mostly Shezza's battles in the time turned back fics, and Revelations stuck with me. (Not counting the mystical mythical Deus Ex Machina who just popped up from another planet and toasted dementors.)

sib-ff's Awakening Power has the best Harry-Dumbledore duel, great scene. And other good battles with Snape and Voldie at the end.

sloth's Undead Alliance had a nice Harry-Snape battle I remember too.

Joe's who I'd call the best, but some other battles I remember liking a fair amount were Halstead's one-shot "Twisted", R.K. Thompson's battle at Hogwarts in "HP and the Time Turner", Oriens Bennu's little streetfight in "Rising of the Bennu", ryanaven's old het!fic as well as even some of the stuff in his slash Gaining Momentum fics. Probably a bunch more, but at first remembrance these jumped to mind for me.

 

Well, I like the action scenes in A Stranger in an Unholy Land by serpant-sorcerer. Especially when Harry fights vampires (chapter 9).

 

I like the final battle in White Knight Gray Queen. There were some nice action cequences but a also a few minor points that I found strange. An Apache cannot carry people inside it. Its only got room for 2 people. Its a attack helicopter not a Hind!

 

Joe's Hero Trilogy has the best action scenes hands down.


Vorlon666's Scoprion Sorcerer's arnt bad scenes.


SlowFox's the Third Key had good action scenes.


Jbren's to fight the coming darkness is fairly good at them.

 

joe's defiance fic's 27-28 had THE best fight scenes. No arguments. At all.

 

An oldie but goodie (although clichéd now, wasn't at the time) is R.K. Thompson's Harry Potter and the Time Turner/HP and the Curse of Atlantis...

as well, LogicalRaven (i think it was his) HP & the Dichotomy of Being...

as well, although not as indepth as it should be, Dark Lord Nedved's works.

 

I nominate...me~!

Oh come on, like you all didn't love what I did to Snape and Draco.

 

ah, we would if we were going to include massacre/butchery... cause that wasn't a fight. Draco and Snape just got roasted... :mrgreen: Not that I'm complaining...

 

There was one INSANE battle in Allizarin Sylvain Phyre's fic. 'The Rise of Chaos'.....it was sadly deleted.....

 

Best Battle Scenes

Off the top of my head, only a few stand out.

The Azkaban fight in HP & The Power of Hogwarts was pretty darned exciting. I loved the portkey bullet idea and taking Bella out with a banished door was nice. Messed her up but kept her around to punish some more.

In the second book of Barb's Psychic Serpent series there was a good battle in the forbidden forest. I probably liked the build up to the fight more than the fight itself. If she'd killed Ginny off in that fight it would have salvaged the whole series for me.

Almost every fight in HP & he Summer of Cange is really nice. The author has an almost battle zen feel to most of the later ones. The fight in Knockturn alley reminded me of the final game scene in Shaara's book For Love of the Game. The movie didn't do a very good job with it unfortunately. I wish Shaara were still alive and writing HP fanfics. That would've been something to read.

 

I didn't like that scene at all. Actually, after that chapter, I dropped that fic entirely for some time.

Yes, this has one of the better Harry/Voldemort final duels in fandom. But the fic is still way too sugary for my taste (even if bunch of people get killed).

Yeah, scene with the fall of the Ministry was great, but he still overinflated DE strenght and numbers.

This also has very cool broom battle in the last 2-3 chapters.

Average at best. They are just hurling hexes at each other, like from machine guns. Too unimaginative when you have a whole world of magic at your disposal.

 

I like most of Fury of the elements action scenes, even though the death eater's numbers seem unplausible. it's like there's a limitless amount of DE's. The story itself is a bit surreal, what with the whole 'pit' thing, the nagarythe assassins and the superpowered four heirs. I do like the battle scenes though; lots of gore to go around, not to mention detailed and a bit epic.

 

Truly one of the best battle's i've ever read, I just wish there was somewhere that this fic is archived... :cry:

 

There is a copy at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPRecycleBin/

 

I didn’t think Barb’s fight scenes were anything even close to special. The ones in the beginning were all over in less then three spells, it wasn’t until about book two that she had her people actually try to dodge a curse, and then it wasn’t till the end of book three that she used a shield charm. I just read the whole series like two weeks ago, (that’s why I haven’t been around much incase anyone actually wondered, that’s a fricken long story…) and the only way I actually managed to finish the series was by chanting to myself that it’s a classic and that I can’t call myself a Harry Potter FanFiction fan until I read it.

The battle scenes were that stories week points, creativity and good writing skills can only take you so far while writing a battle scene, and luckily Barb had those in spades. Her drama leading up to a battle scene and after a battle scene was great, but during the actual fights Barb seemed to lack that certain flare it takes to make a thrilling, on the edge of your seat scene. Hers were mediocre at best, downright flame worthy at worst. (First, second and third dueling club scenes were all totally horrible, hell almost every duel in the first book was horrible, they did get better through the course of the books I will admit, but they were still only average or slightly above average at the end.)

One of the main things she kept doing in her dueling scenes was she would start the duel with something along the lines of “Ready, set go… person 1 casts a spell and person 2 wasn’t ready for it so person 2 got hit.” They are standing facing each other in a duel, how the hell are you not prepared for the start of it. I guess I’m just trying to say that Barb let way too many of her spells hit their target when they shouldn’t have.

If you’re looking for my advice in writing a duel scene, never end a (fair) duel with one spell, actually never let the first spells in a duel hit their opponent, it just comes off as cheesy, people would be ready for the first spell of a duel. (Obviously there are exceptions, like a blinding flash of light spell or something like that, but you get what I mean)

 

While I don't remember anything about Barb's battle scenes, which to me indicates they're not particularly good nor bad, this thread is more than just battle scenes. It's about action scenes. And I do remember really liking her rescue from Azkaban sequence, where Harry's animagus form became so useful. And while casting Accio to defeat a Dark Lord is probably almost as lame as Avada Kedavra, I do remember some of the aerial battle with the dragons and Harry's communication with them. Not the most impressive magical duels by any stretch, but decent action sequences.

And if you want some insight on writing a decent duel, check out Shezza's little how-to guide here: http://forums.darklordpotter.net/viewtopic.php?t=1967&start=15