Action Girl/Playing With

Basic Trope: A female fighter.

Straight: Alice takes out a whole bunch of Mooks and even the Big Bad with her awesome fighting skills.
Exaggerated: Alice takes out a whole bunch of Mooks and Evil Elliott himself with a single punch.
Downplayed: Alice is rather feminine and prefers to avoid physical combat, but can put up a fight when necessary.
- Alice is a sensible woman. She does not think she can beat up men with the build of longshoremen just because she is beautiful. Instead she grabs a crowbar and clobbers them. Or uses a Taser. Or calls the cops. Or eludes all the mooks and finishes her mission without bothering about petty things like who is a better fighter.
Justified: Alice grew up in a rough neighborhood with 4 older brothers and had to learn to hold her own or get treated like crap.
- Alice had four loving older brothers who did not treat her like crap but constantly worried about her and made sure to teach her how to fight just in case.
- Alice is from a Proud Warrior Race. Everyone has to learn how to fight. Even if the men do most of the fighting some bad guys will always slip past.
Inverted:
- Alice is the Damsel in Distress. She has no fighting skills whatsoever (and typically does not even try), and always has to be rescued, usually by the male members of The Team.
- Alternatively, Alice may not have fighting skills, but instead uses incredible calculative abilities and still manages badassery by being a Guile Hero.
- Non-Action Guy.
Gender Inverted: The male Action Hero
Subverted: Chickification or Faux Action Girl.
- Alice is physically stronger than her boyfriend, and comes from a military family. However, the stresses of her Training from Hell and Military Brat upbringing have turned her into an Actual Pacifist.
Double Subverted:
- Alice seems like Faux Action Girl. Her resume or reputation speak of her ass-kicking skills, but she doesn't fight much, or gets handed the Distress Ball every now and then. But then, when she finally gets her chance to shine, they have to clean up what's left of the villains with a mop.
- Alice acts like a Faux Action Girl to get close to the Big Bad, and proceeds to take him out.
- But when someone she loves is threatened, she is forced to renounce her pacifism, as violence is the only way to save them.
Parodied: Alice is a Boasting Soldier.
Deconstructed:
- Alice kicks ass and takes names, but everyone especially her love interest is intimidated by her, even though she is in fact a decent, lovable person. This causes her to feel bad about herself and give up fighting.
- Alice is equally as the male characters, but is the fact that she's a girl is what causes her trouble. Every month she's incapable of fighting for a week (if not Cute Bruiser). And she's not taken seriously and just dismissed as 'the woman' and not taken seriously regardless of her abilities. If ever on the hand the villain, she's subjected to more horrendous forms of torture which lead to unfortunate results.
- Alice lives in a Fantasy/Sci-Fi universe and knowing the risks involved with that learns to train in the sword/lance/axe/gun/polearm to protect her weaker sibling. Eventually, her beloved sibling ends up in a relationship with someone just as actiony (if not more so) as her, and she feels rejected. She loses the next battle badly, and realizes how stupid it was to learn to fight without picking up more useful skills, and becomes dejected, losing all faith in her abilities. The next battle ends tragically.
Reconstructed:
- People are intimidated by Alice, but she does not let it get to her. And people get used to the fact that she is an Action Girl.
- Despite knowing the disadvantage she is given, Alice also realizes that she's also a positive role model to the other females. Alice just trains harder to make these disadvantages not hinder her performance which results in the girl becoming stronger than her male counterparts.
Zig Zagged: Alice is a Faux Action Girl, add Took a Level in Badass, then stir in Chickification for good measure.
Averted: Alice does not fight.
Enforced: Girls Need Role Models
Exploited: Isn't it a shame that all the other gang leaders tried to rob her leaving me the head of the gang? It's not like I encouraged them is it?
Lampshaded:
- "You took out Evil Elliott! Way to go, Alice!"
- "Dude, you just got your ass kicked by a girl..." "Shut up, she'll hear you!"
Invoked: "Hehehe...just you wait. Alice will kick your ass!"
Defied: Alice chooses not to fight, so that Bob will not be intimidated by her, and so she can get rescued by him.
- Alice chooses not to fight because she is an Actual Pacifist.
Discussed: "Aw, come on, Alice, you can go into battle! Please? Pretend you're one of those badass female warriors from those books you love!"
Conversed: "I love this show. That one girl Alice kicks so much ass."

You'd better return to Action Girl, before Alice takes you and your minions down!