Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Fighting Spirit

It's surprising that this is one of the smaller entries (at the time of this writing); there are numerous connections one can make to other tropes.

Fighting Spirit is fairly simple, if not exactly define as one may initially think it is. The two can be combined, however, as the two concepts aren't mutually exclusive. Any case, Fighting Spirit is when a character's ki/chakra/what-have-you manifests in physical form to fight for them. It isn't difficult to connect this to magic or superpowers though it's a power that can also easily be assumed to be more spiritual than secular in nature. You really don't see superheroes using this that often either, though they can exist.

Immortal Iron Fist provides a good example of what one can do with a character utilizing Fighting Spirit and perhaps why you shouldn't. The West isn't immune to typecasting characters and there's a history of giving characters of Asian descent (whether they are from a country in the continent or not) these kinds of powers. This harkens partially to the likes of wuxia and thus we do see Fighting Spirit coupled with martial arts skills, whether or not said martial arts are accurately depicted.

As such, it's relatively easy to go this route and design a Fighting Spirit character that's Asian - and if the writer/producer/etc. is particularly bad at designing them, they may not know what country they should be from, making a stereotype even more likely as a consequence (especially if, you know . . .). Naturally remember Hanlon's Razor and don't go jumping the gun when it's easier to assume the people involved simply didn't realize they were doing it at the time.

Anyway, one way or another, there are a few character types that use this from time to time. Again, magic is a common thread, or anything magic-like in scope. Monks (and priests as well really) may sport this attribute, whether or not they also use martial arts. Ninja may focus their chakra into something fierce when prompted, depending how accurate to actual ninja abilities the material strives to be. Of course, said ninja may also taste the rainbow, causing them to stick out but that's what fantasy's for.

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