"An' now the hugly bullets come peckin' through the dust,
An' no one wants to face 'em, but every beggar must;
So, like a man in irons, which isn't glad to go,
They moves 'em off by companies uncommon stiff an' slow."
An' no one wants to face 'em, but every beggar must;
So, like a man in irons, which isn't glad to go,
They moves 'em off by companies uncommon stiff an' slow."
All about combat, regardless of genre. See also Military and Warfare Tropes for war stories.
Tropes:
Categories:
- Absurd Cutting Power
- Dainty Combat
- Dueling Tropes
- Fighting Game Tropes
- Fight Scene
- Index Just For Kicks
- Injury Tropes
- Military and Warfare Tropes
- Skills and Training Tropes
- Special Attack
- This Index Fights Dirty
- This Index Hits for Massive Damage
- This Index Is Ready To Rumble
- This Index Knows Kung-Fu
- This Index Means Trouble
- Tropes in Shining Armor
- Weapons and Wielding Tropes
- Acoustic License
- Acrofatic: An obese character is able to fight well in spite of being overweight.
- Advantage Ball
- Air Jousting: Duel between two flying combatants, involving jousting-like head-on attacks.
- All Your Colors Combined
- Alpha Strike: Attacking a target with everything you have, all at once.
- Annoying Arrows
- Apologetic Attacker
- Armed Females, Unarmed Males
- Armored But Frail
- Armored Coffins
- Attack Animal
- Attack! Attack! Attack!
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!
- Attacking Through Yourself
- Attack Pattern Alpha
- Attack Reflector: A defensive maneuver that sends an opponent's attacks back to them.
- Backup Bluff: Threatening someone with backup that doesn't exist.
- Badass Army: A Badass Crew, but larger.
- Badass Minds Think Alike: Two characters form a perfect fighting team off each other despite no time to plan.
- Battle Aura
- Battle Chant
- Battle Cry
- Battle Strip
- Battle Trophy: Taking a piece or iconic belonging of your fallen foe to remember your triumph against them.
- Beastly Bloodsports: Animals fighting humans or other animals to the death for sport; usually portrayed as uncivilized or villainous.
- Beast of Battle
- Beat the Curse Out of Him: Exorcism through physical violence.
- Begin with a Finisher
- Berserker Tears: Tears of rage.
- Big Ball of Violence: When two or more people get into a squabble, they become a huge ball of smoke with fists and feet repeatedly poking out.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In
- Blocking Stops All Damage: Blocking literally negates damage, even if it's physically nonsensical.
- Blood Upgrade: Bleeding from being hit serves as a Berserk Button.
- Bloody Murder: Blood used as a weapon.
- Bludgeoned to Death
- Boarding Party: Attacking a boat by jumping/swinging overboard in cool, pirate style.
- Boxing Battler
- The Boxing Episode
- Brutal Brawl
- Catching the Speedster: A fast character gets tagged.
- Challenging the Chief: A societal ritual challenge which determines the person who's powerful enough to lead.
- Chaos While They're Not Looking: Alice walks out, Bob and Charlie are trying to kill each other. Alice walks back in and Bob and Charlie act friendly. Alice is none the wiser.
- Chase Fight
- Chevalier vs. Rogue: Two opposing characters/factions, one with with a knightly theme and another with roguish one.
- Childish Pillow Fight: A pillow fight is used to highlight innocence and immaturity.
- Choke Holds
- Combat Aestheticist: A character who takes delight in the elegance of combat.
- Combat by Champion: The outcome of a conflict is decided by a duel between representatives of each side.
- Combat Commentator
- Combat Compliment: A character in a fight genuinely compliments the fighting prowess of their opponent.
- Combat Parkour
- Combat Pragmatist: A combatant is willing to win the fight by any means necessary, even if it means stooping to unfair tactics.
- Combat Referee
- Combat Sadomasochist: Pain is pleasure. Their own, and others.
- Combat Uninterruptus
- Coming in Hot: A barely controllable aircraft comes in for a crash landing.
- Cooking Duel
- Counterpart Combat Coordination
- Coup de Grâce Cutscene
- Criss-Cross Attack: A very fast attack that involves multiple strikes coming from multiple sides.
- Critical Hesitation Blunder: A sudden unwillingness to kill results in being killed instead.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: A one-sided fight where one opponent is effortlessly beaten by the other.
- Cutting Through Energy
- Dangerous Backswing: Taking out someone standing behind you by swinging a melee weapon over your head.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts
- Defeat as Backstory
- Defeat by Modesty: An opponent is forced to forfeit the fight after losing their clothes.
- Defeating the Undefeatable
- Defeat Means Friendship: Defeating an enemy causes them to become your friend.
- Defeat Means Respect
- Deliberate Injury Gambit
- Detachment Combat
- Diagnosis from Dr. Badass
- Diagonal Cut
- Dodge by Braking
- Drama-Preserving Handicap
- Drunken Boxing
- Duels Decide Everything
- Duel to the Death
- Eat Me
- Elite Army
- Epic Battle Boredom
- Equippable Ally
- Exploited Immunity
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge
- Extremity Extremist
- Facepalm Of Doom
- Fake Special Attack
- Fastball Special
- Fast-Roping
- Fighting Fingerprint
- The Fighting Narcissist
- Final Battle-Induced Shirt Loss
- Finish Him!
- Finishing Move
- Fire-Forged Friends
- Fixed-Floor Fighting
- Flash Step
- Flexible Tourney Rules
- Force and Finesse
- Forced Friendly Fire
- Free-Floor Fighting
- Friend or Foe?
- Full-Contact Magic
- Full-Frontal Assault: Fighting while naked.
- Fumbling the Gauntlet
- Geo Effects
- Get It Over With
- Gladiator Games
- Grapple Move
- The Grappler
- The Greatest Style
- The Gloves Come Off
- Helicopter Blender
- Heroes Fight Barehanded
- Heroic Ambidexterity
- Heroic RRoD
- Heroic Willpower: Despite under some sort of villainous corruption or mind control, the hero has enough power to stay good.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker
- High-Altitude Battle
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform
- High-Speed Missile Dodge
- Hiss Before Fleeing
- Hit-and-Run Tactics
- Home Field Advantage
- Home-Run Hitter
- Homing Lasers
- How Much More Can He Take?
- Human Hammer-Throw
- I Can Still Fight!
- Idiosyncratic Combo Levels
- I Got You Covered
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice
- Improv Fu
- In the Back
- Intimidation Demonstration
- Intrinsic Vow
- Involuntary Battle to the Death
- In Working Order
- I Surrender, Suckers
- Just Toying with Them
- Kamehame Hadouken
- Killing Intent
- Kill It Through Its Stomach
- Kill Steal
- Knight, Knave, and Squire
- Knockback Slide
- Knockout Ambush
- Kung-Fu Clairvoyance
- Launcher Move
- Left Stuck After Attack
- Let's Mock the Monsters
- Limited Window of Vulnerability
- Locked Out of the Fight
- Ludicrous Mêlée Accuracy
- The Magic Touch
- Make Games, Not War
- Man Bites Man
- Martial Arts and Crafts
- Martial Medic
- Mecha
- Master of the Levitating Blades: A character that fights by controling many flying weapons around them.
- Metronomic Man Mashing
- Missile Lock-On
- Mook Horror Show: The hero fighting the bad guys is shown from the villains' perspective and has the hero portrayed as being like a movie monster.
- Multi-Directional Barrage
- Mutual Disadvantage
- Mutual Kill: A fight between two characters results in both of them dying.
- My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever
- Neck Snap
- Night-Vision Goggles
- Ninja Log
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
- No-Holds-Barred Contest
- No, I Am Behind You
- No-Sell: An attack does nothing to the opponent.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond
- Non-Lethal Warfare: A war where no one gets killed.
- Not So Invincible After All
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!
- On-Ride/On-Foot Combat
- One-Hit Kill: Destroying or killing the enemy with a single blow.
- One-Hit Polykill
- The Only One
- Open Shirt Taunt
- Opponent Instruction
- Opponent Switch
- Opposing Combat Philosophies
- Orgasmic Combat
- Out of the Inferno
- Painfully Slow Projectile
- Palate Propping
- The Paralyzer
- Parrying Bullets
- Pink Mist
- Pinned Down
- Pinned to the Wall
- Poison Is Evil
- Pressure Point
- Pro Wrestling Episode
- Pull Yourself Down the Spear
- Put Their Heads Together
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: A higher rank means more power.
- Recovery Attack
- Red Shirt: A character who exists solely to get killed off so that there can be casualties without offing any of the main characters.
- Refrigerator Ambush
- Roar Before Beating
- Rollerblade Good
- Rolling Attack
- Run or Die
- Sapping the Shapeshifter: For mere mortals, a shapeshifter can only be defeated in battle by slowly exhausting them and - often - their forms.
- Screaming Warrior
- Sealed Army in a Can
- Second Hour Superpower
- See the Whites of Their Eyes
- Self-Offense
- Self-Recovery Surprise
- Settle It Without Weapons
- Sex Is Violence
- Shadow Pin
- Sheathe Your Sword: Defeating the enemy by not doing anything.
- Shoot Everything That Moves
- Shooting the Swarm
- Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy
- Siege Engines
- Slipknot Ponytail
- The Slow Walk
- Smoke Shield
- Sniper Duel
- Sniping the Cockpit
- Snowball Fight
- Spam Attack
- Speed Blitz
- Spin Attack
- Spinning Piledriver
- Standard Starship Scuffle
- Status Infliction Attack
- Stop Hitting Yourself
- Straight for the Commander
- Strength Equals Worthiness
- Strong and Skilled
- Superweapon Surprise
- Surprisingly Super-Tough Thing
- Take Cover!
- Talented, but Trained
- Teeth Flying
- Tell Me How You Fight
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Deciding to keep using lethal methods on the enemy even when the enemy would most likely already be dead by now.
- Throw the Mook at Them
- The Thunderdome
- The Tourney: More or less seriously, depending on treatment.
- Trap Master
- Trial by Combat
- Turns Red
- *Twang* Hello
- Unblockable Attack
- Unholy Nuke
- Unskilled, but Strong
- Vehicular Assault
- Victory by Endurance: Winning the battle simply by lasting longer than everyone else.
- Victory by First Blood
- Victory Through Intimidation
- Villainous RRoD
- War Comes Home
- Warfare Regression
- War God
- Warrior Therapist
- Water Tower Down: Attack by knocking down a water tower.
- Weak, but Skilled
- Weaponized Offspring
- Weighted Gloves
- Well-Trained, but Inexperienced
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?
- The "Why Wait?" Combatant
- With Catlike Tread: Being too loud, noisy, and easily noticeable when it comes to being stealthy.
- With My Hands Tied
- The Worf Barrage
- World's Best Warrior
- You Are Already Dead
- You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again
- "You!" Squared
- Zorro Mark