Combat Tropes

All about combat, regardless of genre. See also Military and Warfare Tropes for war stories.

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
  • Remember the Alamo
• 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.
  • Squash Match
• 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.
  • I Fight for the Strongest Side!
• Defeat Means Respect
• Deliberate Injury Gambit
• Detachment Combat
• Diagnosis from Dr. Badass
• Diagonal Cut
• Dodge by Braking
  • Do a Barrel Roll
• 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
  • Inertial Impalement
• 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
  • Humongous 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
  • Infernal Retaliation
• 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
  • Close-Range Combatant
  • Long-Range Fighter
• Siege Engines
  • Battering Ram
• 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