Writing Traumatic Injuries References

New Heero artwork that comes on an acrylic stand with the new Strict-G x Alpha Industries jacket!

[sharing a safehouse]

Duo and Trowa: [staring out the window]

Quatre: What are you guys doing?

Duo: The TV broke so we’re watching a couple break up across the street.

SEXY

Gundam Wing + Text Posts Vol. 5

[at Preventers HQ]

Une: You scored a 25/27 on your mental health questionnaire.

Heero: That means I’m good at mental health, right?

[Crisis counselor enters the room]

Heero: Dammit.

Duo: Have you ever just wanted to do normal teenager stuff?

Heero: Like what?

Duo: You know, like going to school dances or committing arson.

Heero: To be fair, we have done one of those things.

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

Duo: All of the birds died in AC 182 due to OZ killing them and replacing them with spies that are now watching us. The birds work for the bourgeoisie!

Relena: ...what—

Heero, not looking up: A seagull stole his fries.

so this one time, a lonnnnnnnnng time ago,  I was super obsessed with Gundam Wing. OBSESSED. LIKE NOTHING ELSE. it was my shit man, intensely so actually. and everybody and their mom hated Relena but I loved her like burning. She was sort of useless, and in hindsight, I can see that. But she was also sort of awesome! And she believed in shit! to the detriment of sense at times, but come on, who hasn’t?

OH RELENA. I CAN NEVER QUIT YOU

The Great Gundam Wing Rewatch ‘14 Episode 06: PARTY NIGHT

Thrown into a new, uncertain destiny, Relena returns to the Earth. What awaits her is a school party and notice of Heero’s transfer. Knowing Heero’s secret, Relena figures out that the transfer is related to his next mission. OZ assassins come for Relena, and Heero ends up saving her.

This episode’s highlights:

That Relena-Mrs.Darlian moment. Relena says that whatever happens–whatever the truth may be–Mrs.Darlian will always be her real mother. (This scene is this mod’s first taste of a soap opera moment in an anime when she was, like, nine.)

Treize believes that VFM Darlian is exactly the type of person who is “sacrificed to a new era”. We love you Treize, but sometimes you make our skin crawl.

Relena goes to their school party. She invites Heero–who, ever the gentleman we always know, points a gun at her. But they go anyway and Relena tells him she has met Dr.J.

Meanwhile, Wufei, in Gundam Shenlong, is destroying the naval port. Sometimes we wonder what the boy does in his pastime.

In the circus, we find out Trowa is not afraid to lose his job. Or, you know, he just doesn’t care. When the Ringmaster scolds him for being late, Trowa responds, “I made it here. That’s good enough.” Catherine ushers him onto the stage for their act.

Also, Trowa is not afraid to die. Cath realizes he actually wants her to mess up her knife-throwing act and kill him. (This begs for one whole meta! Anyone?)

Back at the party, Heero and Relena are having a conversation on the dancefloor. Then Lady Une attacks, with the intention of eliminating Relena. Heero mistakenly thinks that the OZ is there for him, so he suits up and fights. Lady Une wonders if the Gundam is protecting Relena. 

…and it is. Heero himself doesn’t know why exactly he is protecting Relena. He is confused. “What in the heck am I thinking? I’d be better off if she died, wouldn’t I? What’s wrong with me?!” he yells, before destroying the last OZ mobile suit.

Just as when Lady Une decides she’ll go after Relena herself, Treize calls, telling her to stop the mission because he just decided to let Relena live. We find out that Lucrezia Noin has called Treize and told him the connection between Zechs and Relena. 

Back at the school, Relena is questioning Heero–she’s asking the same questions Heero is asking himself. Heero tries to kill her again, but realizes he. Just. Can’t. So he flies off, leaving Relena behind.

To be continued on: EPISODE 07: SCENARIO FOR BLOODSHED. Previous episode: 1 2 3 4 5