Another reason to like it is that it won't always work. A bullet fired from too far away might not be spotted at all when it's fired; in a complicated firefight the dodger can't see everything at once and might not be able to dodge bullets coming at them from three different directions at once.Connor MacLeod wrote:I'm of two minds on it. On one hand the 'reacting faster than the guy firing' approach is actually the best, becuase its not too complictated nor inefficient, especially for a normal person.
From a literary point of view that's good. When the hero has a defense that only works 90% of the time, you can force them to avoid situations where it wouldn't work, or show them actually having to get clever about going into those situations.
Perfect invulnerability is boring.
Example: In the series Trigun Vash the stampede is noted for dodging bullets. This isn't any sort of super-speed magic forcefield assisted dodging type or anything like thta. IIRC it's even flat out stated he's basically out-reacting the guy and dodging before he fires. I dont know if the visual evidence supports that or not (I wouldn't count on it) but in the context of trigun you could make arguments for that theory to work out.
Counterexample: The movie blade had Deacon Frost being shot at by blade from a short distance and avoiding gunfire. I dont think he actually stepped aside so much as ducked, but the bullets were clearly in the air before he dodges. This is alot messier (there's the issue of him holding the hostage for one thing) but you can't argue 'preemtpive dodge' without basically ignoring what is shown or otherwise creatively reinterpreting it. Whether or nt that is neccesary is up for debate, and its likely to garner arguments if it didn't.
It can probably be even more complicated depending on example, but that's just the point. If we were talking about an 'original' fic I'd say the predictive dodge is the best approach. You could probably work up other 'countermeasures' depending on the setting and what you're working with and make things work, though. One interesting idea as an explanation for 'ignoring visuals' was that mind control or illusion might be involved as some sort of 'ECM' like effect - basically made to shoot at a place where the target might not actually be, or screwing with perceptions, or something similar - but that would require the existence of some sort of telepathic or mind control abilities as well.
In any case the important thing is probably that while 'actually dodging a projectile' is an option, its not neccesarily the only one.[/quote]
