Kratos from God of War

Months ago, I posted about an idea called The Ninja Never Wins.  Briefly, this was a series of books that spoof fighting games.  Strange fighters with bizarre, over the top backgrounds in tournaments that seem to have no real purpose.  New characters in every book and the rounds would be randomly chosen by me as well as the winners.  It was a fun idea that I really couldn’t pull off without a lot of problems.  The main weakness of the series was that it would end up being repetitive. especially when I had nearly 64 rounds in the final tournament.  Now, I could solve this by choosing one character to follow, but that means the reader will know the winner of each tournament.  Unless I found another way to pull off both.

This is what brings me to John Chandler.  After an unfortunate accident involving a bottle of seltzer, this guy is one of the few clear characters I have from the series.  I always had an affinity for him.  The man is a prisoner and is in the tournament to earn his freedom.  Why was he imprisoned?  He married a woman who comes from a family of assassins and her mother didn’t approve.  So, his mother-in-law framed him for several murders to get him locked up.  John’s goal is to earn his freedom, regain his wife (who has been brainwashed by her family), and get some revenge.  It was an interesting story that I think I’ll try to run with in a Freedom-Wife-Revenge process.

The tournament would act as the setting and maybe I’ll have the other fights going on around him.  This is where things get rather wonky because I don’t know if it makes sense to have him win every tournament.  There were special rules to each one, which made it odd: Regular, Magic Gems, Weapons Deathmatch, Women Only, Tag Team, and All Star Finale.  I can see how he’d gain something from each on though.  Here’s the idea:

1. Regular-  John loses to the person that beats the champion.
2. Magic Gems-  He escapes the tournament before it ends.
3. Deathmatch-  He wins and earns freedom and money to unbrainwash wife.
4. Women Only- John is missing and his wife enters the tournament for answers.
5. Tag Team-  John & wife team up to win.
6. All Star-  No idea here.  Maybe he’s forced to get involved?  He has what he wants, so I don’t know why he would willingly enter.  Maybe he’s become addicted to the tournaments?

These might not be long books either.  Might even be a novella series if I keep the random battles and winners going.  It’s definitely a big work in progress that is inching closer and closer to completion.