Everyone stopped to blink at that for a second. I mean, come on. Impaled by a guided frozen turkey missile. Even by the standards of the quasi-immortal creatures of the night, that ain't something you see twice. "For my next trick," I panted into the startled silence, "anvils."
— Harry Dresden, The Dresden Files: Blood Rites
There's a climactic battle going on all around. Suddenly, something happens and both sides turn and stand around watching in horror or surprise. They may even exchange glances, shrug, or give up fighting altogether.
The results of this trope are usually Delayed Reaction, a resumption of hostilities, or total embarrassment.
Supertrope of Battle-Halting Duel. See also Mid-Battle Tea Break, Playing Nice for Now, Chaos While They're Not Looking and Enemy Mine. Can result in a Pass the Popcorn moment. A more humorous take on Stopped Dead in Their Tracks.
Note: This trope tends not to cover arguments but does cover fights of all other kinds.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In a Volkswagen commercial
, a pair of praying mantises halt their fight to watch a beetle (representing the VW Beetle) cruise by.
Anime and Manga
- Mummymon, Arukenimon, Tapirmon and Digitamamon's reaction to Azulongmon appearing in Digimon Adventure 02.
- In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, Scar ends up fighting the entire State Military during his attempt to kill Ed. When Alex Louis Armstrong arrives, randomly ditches his shirt and starts flexing, Lt. Hawkeye, the rest of the soldiers, and even Scar all stop and stare at him in confusion.
- During a mission in the Antarctic, Havia and Qwenthur of Heavy Object get caught in a firefight. In the course of the firefight a flock of baby penguins runs right in between them. Both sides cease fire to watch, and even cheer on a baby penguin that slips, only to immediately resume combat once the penguins are out of harm's way.
- In High School D×D, Issei somehow manages to summon the freaking breast god. EVERYONE stops fighting and turns to look at him like he was going crazy.
- In K, during the final confrontation, when Shiro regains his memories and his Sword of Damocles appears magnificently in the sky, both Scepter 4 and HOMRA members stop fighting and look.
- In an episode of Hetalia: Axis Powers, the Allies try to sneak attack the Axis on a beach. A minor fight ensues, but the conflict is halted as both sides gawp at a 50-foot-tall Roman Empire rising from the sea to sing about what Heaven is like.
- One Piece:
- It's a plot point in the climax of the Alabasta arc. Afrer Crocodile gets sent flying, the ongoing civil war pauses for a brief moment, allowing both sides to finally hear and listen to Vivi's desperate pleas for them to stop fighting.
- Towards the conclusion the Marineford arc, everyone pauses to watch and listen to Koby's desperate plea to stop all the fighting. This serves as an important plot point as without it, Kizaru would have blasted Law and an unconscious Luffy to kingdom come. Shanks lampshades it as Koby faints, saying how the few seconds of courage the young Marine mustered up changed the fate of the world.
- For a more humorous example, Luffy and Whitebeard exchange words after the former arrives at Marineford. To Ivankov and Buggy's disbelief, Luffy loudly declares to the world's strongest man that he's going to be the Pirate King, not Whitebeard (or, in the dub, that Whitebeard has to go through him first). Cue a collective Jaw Drop from all the Marines and pirates in the vicinity as they raise their hands in shock.
- Film:Gold has a moment where Tesoro uses Gold Splash, creating a huge column of gold water. It's distracting enough that Sabo and Lucci, the latter of whom is a Blood Knight who does not like his fights being interrupted, both stop and stare at it in shock.
- In Sound of the Sky, "Amazing Grace" is all that is needed to stop the Helvetican and Roman armies from charging at each other. Before they get a chance to resume the battle, Rio shows up to announce a peace treaty, and the whole fight is called off.
- In Dragon Ball Super Universal Survival Arc and not long after the "Tournament of Power" started. Universe 9 is erased following the defeat of their warriors. This prompts all the remaining fighters to stop their battles momentarily and react to this, coming to the realization that the Zen-Os were serious about their threat to wipe out the losing universes and will not wait until the tournament is over to do so.
- Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnźamise. Open warfare breaks out to prevent the rocket being launched into outer space, but when it does both sides stop fighting to stare in awe.
- In Accel World, in the midst of a heated battle, everyone stops when the Black and Yellow kings finally throw down. Justified, in that this was the first instance in the history of the Accelerated World that two Level 9 players had fought with intent to kill.
- Bad Company: Sakura stops the free-for-all brawl in the schoolyard by blasting everyone with a hose, though that may have less to do with it than her giving everyone in the yard below a Panty Shot.
- In Hellsing, Alucard and Anderson (who were only brought along as the bodyguards of Integra and Maxwell, but whose bloodlust is overwhelming them) are about to start fighting to the death right in the middle of the public museum the two leaders have arranged to meet in... only for Seras to burst onto the scene, leading a group of elderly Japanese tourists right between the would-be combatants. Some of them even mistake the two monsters, who have stopped still as statues, for some kind of performance art. By the time the tourists are gone, the mood has settled down and Alucard and Anderson back down from each other. Walter gives Seras a thumbs-up for her quick thinking.
Comic Books
- In one Archie Comics story, Archie and Reggie are judging a boxing match, proud that they're too civilized to do anything so vulgar as box. They start arguing, and the last panel is the two boxers watching Archie and Reggie beating the crap out of each other.
- A one-shot page in a furry comic had the Godzilla fight going on outside a skyscraper window coming to a halt while they ogle the female skunk in the room as she's disrobing and presenting them with a perfect view of her backside in the process.
- In North 40, a small rural town in the American South has been cut off from the rest of reality and a number of its inhabitants either turned to monsters or granted superpowers (the line can be blurry). The local sheriff (un-mutated) is facing a clan of hostile trailer trash (several mutated, including one who made a Hulk-like transformation, but retained his normal — which is to say, sub-standard — intelligence). Both groups are attacked by a scrap-metal construct built by a third party. The Hulk-like character tries to attack the construct, only to be sent flying. The Sheriff and the leader of the trailer trash pause in their dispute to watch him fly by.
- During the climactic battle in Spider-Verse, the Spider Army and the Inheritors both stop fighting when The Superior Spider-Man kills the Master Weaver.
- One of the canine protagonists of Rover Red Charlie is chased into a deserted military vehicle by another dog, and unintentionally presses his paw against the trigger of an abandoned grenade launcher. He and his pursuer briefly stop and stare in awe at the resulting explosion.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: Part of the reason Steve Trevor gets to kill all of the giant beasts Queen Clea set to kill him on his own is that Diana and Clea are too busy gawking at how efficient he is at it to continue their own fight or interfere with his. Once he's killed the last of them Clea gets her act together and orders her archers to just shoot him, at which point Diana jumps down to help Steve.
- When Mooks sent by International and The Farm duke it out in Get Jiro!, Jiro tries to calmly diffuse the situation. When an International mook tries to attack him, Jiro manages to slice off one of his arms with one of his sushi knives faster than the eye could see. The battle grinds to a halt to admire his cutlery skills (having been able to slice the arm off carefully enough not to touch the bone), even allowing the man to bleed out as they do it.
Comic Strips
- The Far Side includes one strip in which the participants of the historical (and extremely brutal, no-quarter-given) battle of the Little Big Horn come to a dead stop, waiting for a hornet to calm down.
Fan Works
- Absolute Trust: In Chapter 2, Zuko's invasion of the South Pole pauses when Alec firebends for the first time. Everyone gapes, including Alec.
- Chaos Effect: In Chapter 33, Edwin is in a two-on-one tag duel with Yugi against Original Character Cabal. When Cabal declares an attack that seems to cause a Sadistic Choice, Edwin asks if they've ever heard of the Kobayashi Maru. Yugi, Cabal, and the monsters all look at him in befuddlement (the answer is no, they haven't).
- In chapters 93-95 of A Growing Affection, everyone in a certain large battle stops to stare when Minato (or rather his soul that Orochimaru accidentally summoned) announces that he is Naruto's father.
- Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger: During a flashback depicting the final battle between the Revanchists and the Mandalorians on Malachor V, both sides halt their battle and collectively stare at the sky in horror when the Mass Shadow Generator is activated, creating a black hole above the battlefield that starts sucking everything in.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: In Chapter 34, there's a large battle going on between Sabrina's Psychic-types and every Pokémon Ash has caught up to that point (the rest of them being brought by Dexter with the help of a group of Exeggutor that can use Teleport to level the playing field). The fight briefly stops when Sabrina uses her powers to make Ash float and forces him to watch how she Mega Evolves her Alakazam.
- Prehistoric Park Reimagined: In the Phase 2 finale Breakout, Terrence the T. Rex and Tut the spinosaurus are engaging in a vicious battle, with Mahazatra the majungasaurus eventually joining in on Terrence's behalf, when their battle eventually gets brought to a halt by Uilleam the dodo walking up to them while they're fighting and fearlessly trying to challenge them to fight against him.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness Act III: In chapter 8, Dark is outright trying to murder Tsukune, convinced that Tsukune can't be trusted to keep the ghoul contained, with Mizore and Felucia agreeing with him and fighting Moka and Kokoa to prevent them from intervening. All fighting stops when the edge of the cliff Dark and Tsukune are fighting on gives way, forcing the four girls to drop everything to pull the boys back up... which leads to Dark, Mizore, and Felucia seeing just how durable the Holy Lock is and accepting that the ghoul is indeed sealed away.
- In "Strength In Numbers", a story from the Facing the Future Series, the fight between the Far Frozeners and some of Danny's enemies is momentarily stopped when they watch with revulsion as Danny barfs up the excess food he had eaten.
- This Bites!:
- In Chapter 40, the battle between the Enies Lobby garrison and Galley-La, the Franky Family, the giants and the TDWS pauses when Nami, amped by Soundbite, proceeds to chew out Cross and Luffy for enjoying the Rocketman ride across to the Tower of Justice.
- Also in Chapter 40, Hattori holds off on eviscerating Cross to let him broadcast Spandam's activation of the Buster Call and let the director dig a very deep hole for himself.
- In What It Takes, Damien Darhk tosses Laurel off a ledge, and she uses her Canary Cry to slow her descent, landing unharmed in front of several Mooks. There's then a slight pause as everyone processes what just happened.
Darhk: I'll be damned. (Beat). Oh well. Kill her.
- A different weasel makes a difference: At the Great Battle of the Wall, Tyrion Lannister mortally wounds an Ice Dragon, only for it to slam into the Wall at his position, killing him and making a breach in the Wall. For a good 30 seconds afterward, the Others and humans can both only stare in silent shock and horror. Then the battle resumes even more fiercely than before.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: When Sasuke fights Evil Sasuke for the first time, their fight is interrupted by Naruto making a long speech where he wrongfully guesses who Evil Sasuke is. The latter and Sasuke both end up having the same reaction, which consists of looking slightly chibified, having Blank White Eyes, and sweat dropping:
Evil Sasuke: He still has a talent to annoy I see.
Sasuke: He has his moments.
Film — Animated
- Aladdin: Near the end, Abu and Iago stop their fighting to gaze in shared disgust at the sight of Jasmine kissing Jafar.
- The Aristocats: In the final battle, the mouse Roquefort is trying to figure out a combination lock to free Duchess and the kittens while the alley cats fight Edgar. As an alley cat fight is naturally loud and impossible to hear lock tumblers over, he screams "QUIET!" causing the entire fight to freeze and stare at him until he gets the lock undone. Even the music cuts out. The moment the lock is undone, the fight resumes.
- The Emperor's New Groove: Towards the end, Big Bad Yzma tosses Kronk a dagger and orders him to kill Kuzco and Pacha. Kronk's shoulder angel and devil show up and the three have an argument, but to the other three it looks like Kronk's just talking to thin air. Yzma points at him with her thumb giving a "Can you believe this?" face, while Pacha and Kuzco just shrug.
- The Fox and the Hound 2: Chief and Todd pause their chase to watch Amos Slade, who has wound up on the back of a cow, in his underwear, covered in mud and with a beehive on his head. Copper joins them to watch the spectacle, all of them sharing glances and a simultaneous "Uh Oh."
- Kung Fu Panda 3: While Master Shifu and the Furious Five battle against Kai's jombiesnote , Po leaps in to join them, but is so surprised by the jombies that he misses his landing, hits a roof, and falls to the ground. Shifu, the Five, and the jombies all stop and stare for a moment before resuming their fight.
- The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: The battle between Simbas pride and Ziras has been raging with the Pridelanders seemingly on the backfoot against the Outsiders. Simba, weakened from an earlier ambush, is being savaged by almost ALL of the Outsiders whove been explicitly trained to attack like this by Zira, who then issues her personal challenge to him. Simba doesnt miss the challenge and tosses ALL of the Outsiders off him, swiping at a few more, and is then struck by Zira when he is distracted. This successful attack actually causes Pridelander and Outsider alike to stop what theyre doing and gape in shock at the first blow between the two leaders, a successful hit against the seemingly unbeatable Simba, no less. They then form a circle to watch Simba and Zira face off for their final duel, what the entire decades long feud has been building towards. Luckily, Kiara and Kovu arrive and defuse the stand-off.
Film — Live-Action
- In Armor of God II this is a running gag. One time, Elsa attempts to distract the bad guys by whipping off Ada's Modesty Towel. Rather than taking advantage of the opportunity to knock the guy out, Jackie and the gunman both stare.
- In Children of Men, the climactic battle grinds to a halt when the combatants hear the cry of the first child born in two decades. The fighting starts again shortly afterward. With a rocket launcher no less.
- In Gangs of New York when the Navy starts firing on the gangs. This time the distraction pretty much ends the conflict.
- In Hot Shots! Part Deux:
- The captured American commandos and Iraqi soldiers share looks of confusion when Saddam Hussein comes out of his palace firing two machine pistols in random directions and getting into a spat of Amusing Injuries.
- Topper is having a shootout with a Mook when they both pause and look over as the Energizer Bunny enters the battlefield. After a moment, they open fire on the Bunny, celebrate for a moment, then Topper kills the Mook.
- In the film adaptation of The Indian in the Cupboard, Omri tests the cupboard's powers by animating several iconic pop-culture plastic figures, including a Jurassic Park T-rex and Darth Vader. When the cupboard is opened, we see the characters engaged in combat... until they notice the comparatively giant-sized boy sitting there, stop fighting, and stare. Omri quickly slams the door shut again, changing them back before anything can happen.
- Near the end of the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy and the truck driver cease hostilities for just long enough to steer away from a home construction site, and exchange a brief chuckle before resuming the fight.
- The Legend of Frenchie King: Louise and Maria's Cat Fight ends when the oil they both want starts to spill out of the well and they stare in surprise for a few seconds before collapsing from exhaustion.
- The Mummy Returns: When Imhotep and Rick are fighting, the two lock blades as they watch the Scorpion King arrive.
- In The Naked Gun 2, Drebin is fighting an assassin in Jane's bathroom, then they notice Jane in the shower and both stop to gawk at her.
- OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies: 117 has just left a Honey Pot tied up in her underwear in the villain's lair, but runs into two mooks as he opens the door. One says "What's this, infidel, leaving without saying goodbye?". 117 tries talking his way out of it, but it becomes obvious the mooks are staring at the girl and just repeat the same sentences. 117 pushes past them... and is immediately punched out by a third mook who couldn't see her.
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Dead Man's Chest - Pintell and Ragetti snatch the chest containing Davy Jones's heart while Jack, Will and Norrington have their Mźlée ą Trois. Then they run into Elizabeth, go "Ello, poppet," and advance on her - only to pause as Will and Norrington roll past on a dislodged waterwheel (still dueling), with Jack running after them. Ragetti stares at Pintel, who just shrugs, and they go back to business - until Davy Jones's crew shows up. Then they give Elizabeth their swords and run.
- A little later in the battle, there was another pause when the wheel - now containing Norrington and Will - came crashing on the beach. Even Davy Jones's men paused to gawk at the sight.
- At the beginning of At World's End, Captain Barbossa and an Army mook briefly gape with swords crossed when a firework shoots directly between them. Barbossa snaps out of it first and runs the man through.
- Dead Man's Chest - Pintell and Ragetti snatch the chest containing Davy Jones's heart while Jack, Will and Norrington have their Mźlée ą Trois. Then they run into Elizabeth, go "Ello, poppet," and advance on her - only to pause as Will and Norrington roll past on a dislodged waterwheel (still dueling), with Jack running after them. Ragetti stares at Pintel, who just shrugs, and they go back to business - until Davy Jones's crew shows up. Then they give Elizabeth their swords and run.
- In the first climax of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Knives dives into the scene to attack not Gideon, but Ramona, for breaking Scott's heart. Scott and Gideon just stop to watch them fight for a few moments before resuming their own fight.
Gideon: You gotta admit I put on a good show.
- In Slap Shot the Charlestown Chiefs and the Syracuse Bulldogs are having a bench clearing brawl, which comes to a screeching halt when The Chief's Ned Braden skates to center ice and starts stripping down to his jockstrap and skates, as "The Stripper" plays from the broadcast booth. Both teams stop fighting where they stand and just gawk in bemusement.
- Undercover Brother. While the title character is fighting a couple of mooks, Sista Girl and White She-Devil start ripping each others' clothes off and end up showering together. UB and the mooks stop fighting, sit down together and enjoy the show.
Literature
- Apocalypse Me: In Chapter 80, a fight between Zeke and Ryan is interrupted by the System making a box:
Both Zeke and Ryan stared at [the System Box], surprised.
- In the Deptford Mice prequel book The Oaken Throne, there is a war between the bats and squirrels. Vespertilio (a bat) and Ysabelle (a squirrel) have discovered that the fighting is based on lies, and along the way have fallen for one another. To get the opposing sides to listen to them, they share a Big Damn Kiss which causes their respective armies to stop and stare in disgusted horror.
- Discworld: In Unseen Academicals, the game is nearly over anyway (just not officially over; the Dean hasn't blown his whistle) when the sudden appearance of Pedestriana stops everyone in their tracks. Even Andy stops, though he makes the unwise choice to resume hostilities afterwards.
- The Dresden Files: In Blood Rites, in the middle of a battle with vampires, Harry redirects an entropy curse directed at him into one of them, which results in the vampire being abruptly squashed flat by a frozen turkey fallen from a passing plane. And then the timer dings. The participants in the fight all stop to stare in confused silence because, "Even by the standards of the quasi-immortal creatures of the night, that ain't something you see twice." Although Harry still keeps his wits about him enough to come up with a really good Bond One-Liner:
"For my next trick, anvils."
- The Emperor's Gift: The fighting between the surviving Space Wolves and Grey Knights aboard the Corel's Hope is brought to an end when everyone present falls to their knees in awe at the appearance of the Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell-Handed, one of the few people in the galaxy to have met the God-Emperor of the Imperium.
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx features a scene where the Elite and Brute Covenant fleets are bitterly duking it out above Delta Halo, while simultaneously battling the Flood which are trying to escape Delta Halo so they can spread back into the galaxy. At one point, one of the Covenant ships gets infected and hijacked, ramming itself into another Covenant ship to try and infect it as well. Almost immediately, every single Brute and Elite ship turns their guns on the infected cruiser, momentarily forgetting their quarrel to ensure the Flood do not spread any further. The ship that was rammed even lowers its shields to allow itself to be destroyed by the combined armada. Once the immediate threat is finished, however, the Brutes and Elites go right back to fighting.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this happens near the end when Ron, who is befuddled by a spell, picks up a floating brain from a tank and everyone turns to watch in horror.
- In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? A brief one occurs in episode 12 when Hestia releases her goddess form. Both Bell's companions, and the hostile adventurers they were fighting, stop fighting when they see her transform. The hostile group then runs away, not wanting to provoke Hestia.
- This happens during the rock fight in Stephen King's IT: all of the kids (Ragtag Bunch of Misfits and Jerk Jocks alike) stop fighting and turn to watch Victor Criss and Bill Denbrough start a dual rock-throwing Unflinching Walk towards one another. Even Henry pauses to watch.
- In the scene "What A Game" of Ragtime the Braves and Giants fans suddenly stop their confrontation when something exciting happens on the baseball field. The confrontation is not yet physical, but it is implied that it is approaching physicality.
- Happens occasionally in Tales of the Branion Realm, usually when an Animal Battle Aura appears over the battlefield or an Angst Nuke knocks both sides off their feet.
- In the climax of The Way of Kings (2010), Kaladin pulls an entire volley of arrows into his shield. Both his bridge crew and the Parshendi are so stunned they stop what they're doing in the middle of the battle, and the Parshendi archers abruptly retreat
- Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest: In volume 4, this is the immediate reaction of Cattleya and the hero party she's about to finish off when the spike from Hajime's Pile Bunker crashes through the ceiling of the room and two of Catt's chimeras.
Live-Action TV
- In Band of Brothers, when Spiers makes a suicidal run through Foy to make contact with I Company, both sides stop firing for a brief moment simply because they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Anne", Buffy's fight with the demons is interrupted by the head demon holding a knife to Lilly. He announces that their fight is lost and he'll kill Lilly to make an example. Lilly pushes him off a high platform instead. Buffy and the demons look at him as he falls and a beat later the main fight resumes.
- The CSI: NY episode "Tales from the Undercard" opened with a massive fight between striking workers and scabs, which ended prematurely when a jackhammer pierced recently laid concrete that a man had been buried in, causing blood to shoot up and drench the brawlers.
- Doctor Who: In "Battlefield" (the King Arthur one), there's a moment in Mordred and Ancelyn's final duel where they break apart for a moment — and the Doctor walks right between them,◊ casually tipping his hat as he passes, on his way to his own final confrontation with Morgaine. Mordred and Ancelyn stare after him for a moment before remembering that they were in the middle of fighting to the death.
- Kamen Rider Dragon Knight: A fight between Kit and Chris is briefly broken up by Len and Brad barreling through the background, distracting them. Kit using that oppurtunity to tell off Chris for having a very convoluted idea about the situation before running off after the other two riders.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: When it turns out that Kuroto has Game Disease even though he should be immune to it, Taiga, Hiiro and Parado all stop fighting and stare. Then Parado gets bored and disappears.
- A staple of Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger due to the overall ridiculousness easily truncing anyone's effort to concentrate or stay serious. For example, the fight between Kaito and Stacy is put to a pause when Zocks waltzes in for the first time, because neither of them expected a singing, dancing pirate to pop out of nowhere.
- Retro World and the team stare at Zocks as he goes through the motion of his usual incessantly showy pre-transformation dance and song without realizing that his Geardalinger got turned into wooden ship's wheel by the World's first attack. Then when it (obviously) doesn't work, he freaks out and the World uses the following chaos to escape.
- There's a scene in The Wire where Chris and Snoop, the most lethal enforcers for the Stanfield gang that owns West Baltimore, come to intimidate the leader of a rival gang into becoming part of their organization. In the middle of this, a sixth grader suddenly rides past in an expensive SUV that he stole, music blaring from the windows as he rolls past, barely able to see over the steering wheel. Everyone takes a couple of moments to stare before getting back to business.
Toys
- In one BIONICLE story, Toa Ignika uses the Mask of Life's power on Makuta Icarax during a heated battle in a cave, devolving the Makuta from an Energy Being in armor back into a bio-mechanical life-form. However, Icarax's armor is only designed to hold energy. So when muscles and organs grow back in a body that was never meant for them, the end result is, to say the least, not fun for Icarax, whose howls of agony halt every other combatant in their tracks. As the narration notes: "No one could remember the last time they heard a Makuta scream."
Video Games
- The various mutant gangs of Bulletstorm will more than happily fight each other on the occasions you meet them together, but pulling off a particularly brutal skillshot will cause them all to stop and stare at the carnage for a moment.
- In Halo: Combat Evolved, if you finish the final level on Legendary you are treated to a marine sergeant and an elite grappling over a rifle... till the Pillar of Autumns generators go up. The two fighters simply break apart and stare, before hugging each other.
Johnson: This is it, baby. Hold me.
- Happens toward after the final fight of Jak 3: Wastelander where Vegar and Jak gawk at the revelation that the Precursors are actually ottsels. The fight does not restart.
Jak: Oh my God.
- In the fourteenth chapter of Kid Icarus: Uprising, the air battle consists of surviving a war between the Underworld Army, led by Thanatos, and the Forces of Nature, led by Phosphora. Although for the part, the Mooks are all "out for blood - each other's AND [Pit's]," about halfway into Pit's flight segment, you can see a trio of Monoeyes and a trio of Nutskis stop firing and just watch the flirty lightning chick and the glow dragon trade the last few blows. This makes them easy picking if you can shoot them before Phosphora finishes off Thanatos. note
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon kicks off with the final battle between every good and evil character introduced in the series up to that point. Out of nowhere the Pyramid of Argus rises from the battlefield leaving everyone to stop and stare as if mesmerized. Stryker punches out Mileena who was still gawking and begins the mad rush to the top to claim the ultimate power. An interesting question is how did any of the present fighters know what was at the top?
- Happens in the opening FMV of Pac-Man World 2. The ghosts are playing with the Golden Fruit (which they just plucked off the tree), then the fun and games turns to an argument, then horseplay... then Clyde just stands there, eyes and mouth wide with terror, as Spooky emerges from under the tree. The rest of the ghosts stop fighting and gawp, paralyzed with fear.
- Super Mario Sunshine has this occur in the second mission of Bianco Hills ("Down With Petey Piranha!") just before the boss battle with the titular giant piranha plant. Mario climbs to the roof of a windmill, where Petey Piranha is polluting the surrounding area with goop. Petey roars a Mighty Roar at Mario, setting the stage for a boss battle... only for the roof to promptly crack beneath their combined weight. The two suddenly look down, then slowly share a worried glance with each other before the roof collapses beneath them. The actual fight takes place inside the windmill itself.
- One of the trailers from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U recreates the pivotal scene from Fire Emblem Fates where Corrin is forced to choose which of the two families to join in battle. He instead opts to join Smash Bros., prompting What the Hell, Hero? from both families, asking why he is abandoning the war to fight these strange opponents. Not long into the trailer, though, both sides begin speaking in awe over Corrin's various powers, the presence of other Fire Emblem heroes, and even Corrin's abrupt gender change. By the end of the trailer, they are all but conversing casually, and it seems that the imminent battle between two armies has been forgotten.
- Warcraft
- Happens to a combating Orc and Human in this Warcraft III intro... Until they're both killed by what they're gawking at.
- And again in the trailer for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria(About 2:25), when Chen Stormstout interrupts the fight. Human even hands the orc his weapon so both are armed. A Later follow up video shows two still in shock over what they witnessed. As they put it, a "Bear in a hat".
- Happens to a combating Orc and Human in this
- In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in the mission "High Noon", Hernandez charges at Pulaski while he's forcing Carl to dig his own grave, causing Pulaski to instinctively turn and shoot him. Both Pulaski and Carl pause to stare in confusion as Hernandez falls into the grave before Pulaski runs, starting the gameplay.
- Battlefield 2042 has one at the end of its Reveal Trailer when the US and Russian forces in Incheon immediately stop fighting when they saw an incoming tornado and decided that they better evacuate the area as fast as they could.
- Short Deconstruction Game We Become What We Behold has one of these as the man in the bowler hat pulls a gun on the spiky-haired square man. The player hears the gunshot behind the pop-up photo they take, then both sides rip each other to shreds.
Web Animation
- In Red vs. Blue, the red and blue grunts' epic fight is interrupted by a red announcing he has the blue flag and that all should bow down and worship him. A group of blues beat him to death. A beat later, war resumes.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: Mid-combat, when the circus wagons come to life, there's a good pause where Wooster and Dupree just gawk.
- Homestuck: In [S] Caliborn: Enter, PM and Jack Noir stop for a moment to survey the foreboding cracks in reality.
- An early Sluggy Freelance arc is titled "Game Called On Account Of Naked Chick", which starts when a fight between Torg and Bun Bun comes to an abrupt end when they stumble into a lake where Oasis is bathing.
Web Original
- In one of his Counter Monkey videos entitled The Jedi Hunter, Spoony recounts how after he set a Sith lord on fire with his flamethrower the rest of the party and the Sith they were fighting stopped briefly as the burning, screaming Sith lord ran past them.
- Used several times in the Channel Awesome anniversary crossovers:
- In the TGWTG Year One Brawl, The Nostalgia Chick and That Chick with the Goggles get into a catfight offscreen. While this is going on, Spoony and Bennett the Sage, who were about to fight each other as well, decide to take pictures of the catfight instead.
- In Suburban Knights, Todd in the Shadows ends up fighting an inanimate pole and eventually falls over from disorientation thanks to his eye-covering costume. One of the Cloaks and Film Brain stop their own fight for a moment to watch.
Western Animation
- In the Duck Dodgers homage to Samurai Jack, Dodgers and the evil sorcerer Achoo are squaring off when a monkey wearing lederhosen shows up and starts dancing around. Dodgers and Achoo stop for a moment and begin discussing whether or not the monkey is there to build tensions.
- In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Nerds of a Feather", a fight between fantasy and sci-fi enthusiasts at a Fan Convention gets momentarily derailed as they all stop and stare at Candace, who is wearing a full body Ducky Momo costume, as she awkwardly waddles and quacks her way through the middle of the melee.
- Rugrats: During the Food Fight scene of the episode "Little Dude", a Football player pulls Tommy from under a table. Ramon calls out "Hold it!" which stops the fight, takes Tommy and leaves the cafeteria while everyone looks at them. Once he's safe in the exit, he says "OK", and the food fight immediately resumes.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- In the "Return to New York" arc of the 2003 series, Baxter Stockman shows up in a Humongous Mecha during the confrontation between the turtles and Splinter, and Shredder's forces. He takes a ludicrous amount of damage, but just keeps coming back, leading to this exchange:
Leonardo: What do we have to do to stop this guy?
Shredder: I have asked myself that question many times... - Another instance of this (between the turtles and the Kraang) occurs in the 2012 series, when Spider Bytez makes his debut.
- In the "Return to New York" arc of the 2003 series, Baxter Stockman shows up in a Humongous Mecha during the confrontation between the turtles and Splinter, and Shredder's forces. He takes a ludicrous amount of damage, but just keeps coming back, leading to this exchange:
- In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.I.V.E.", Numbuh 86 and Big Bad Father share a laugh at the expense of a Fish out of Temporal Water.
Father: Hey! Nineteenth century kid! You wanna watch a carTOON? On the TELEVISION?!
Real Life
- When a total eclipse of the sun occurred while Lydia and Media were fighting a battle in Ancient Greece, both commanders recognized the wrath of the gods when they saw it. They signed a peace treaty, went home and never waged war against each other again. Thanks to the eclipse and us knowing where the battle took place, this is actually the earliest historic event that can be dated to an exact day: it was May 28, 585 BCE.
- During the Battle of the Nile, the French flagship Orient exploded due to fire reaching its magazines. For the next ten minutes, firing ceased as sailors were too busy either dousing fires on their own ships or staring in utter horror at seeing what had become of the Orient.
- One source claims that in an aerial battle over Germany, a B-17 pilot attempted to bail out. His parachute got snagged in an aircraft and he was basically being dragged behind the plane. The writer recalls the entire battle coming to a stop while people stared in horror, until a fighter pilot put him out of his misery.
- The Mount Vesuvius Eruption of March 1944 so far its Last! . Fighting (at least on the ground) around Naples came to a halt as both sides (Germans and Americans & British) watched the event in amazement and horror.
