Attack Its Weak Point: Difference between revisions

[[File:Togglodyte 2538.png|link=Magic: The Gathering|frame|Hint: Pull the bright yellow lever.]]

[[Boss Battle|Boss villains]] are usually [[Nigh Invulnerable|invulnerable]] all over their body, with the exception [[Achilles' Heel|of one or a few weak points]] which you can often attack [[For Massive Damage]].

Named for the line in the 2006 E3 [[Sony]] presentation.

{{examples}}

== General ==

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Vinland Saga]]'' {{spoiler|Thorkell has a glass jaw, one punch will knock him out cold. Rarely happens, what with him being several feet taller than nearly everyone else in the series.}}

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', every Angel has a bright red core which is its sole weak point. Attacks on other parts of its body are usually healed almost instantly; even weapons of mass destruction can only render them immobile for a time until they eventually regenerate all damage. This is the main reason for employing the Evangelions against the Angels; only by creating an opposing AT field can the core be made vulnerable.

* Happens in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' all the time. When facing heavily armored opponents without proper equipment, the usual tactic is to get on its back and tear open a hatch to either fry the electronic controls or shoot the driver in the head.

** It's also the preferred course of action for most villains who try to kill the Major. People try to crush her head or put a large caliber bullet through it at least five times.

* Pentagram marking on the body of the demons in ''[[My Balls]]'' are their magical weak spot.

* Possibly [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|the on/off button hidden in]] ''[[Chobits]]''.{{context|reason=How is this an example of the trope as written?}}

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': In the [[Final Battle]], {{spoiler|when Simon and the eponymous mech fail to overpower the Anti-Spiral's [[Humongous Mecha]], he just takes the smaller Gurren Lagann mecha and boards the Anti-Spiral home planet (which is on the mecha's forehead), finishing off the Anti-Spiral himself}}.

* ''[[Bleach]]'': It's more a blind spot but it was the only option to actually have a chance at hitting {{spoiler|Aizen}}. Subverted in that he placed several layers of protection in anticipation.

* In ''[[Crossbone Gundam]]'', [[The Empire|the Jupiter Empire]] has a [[Stone Wall]] called the Tortuga, with incredibly thick armor and battleship-class beam shields. In the final chapter, [[Guile Hero|Tobia]] finally destroys it by shoving a beam saber into one shoulder joint and punching it out the other side, ripping through all the internals in between.

* {{spoiler|Magical girls}} in ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' are extremely resistant to damage, especially if they have self-healing powers; but a direct hit to {{spoiler|their brightly-glowing [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Soul Gem]]}} causes instant death. {{spoiler|This happened to Mami, Kyoko, and Madoka in a previous timeline.}}

* ''[[Girls und Panzer]]'', final episode of the first series. Even a point-blank attack from one tank can't get through the opposing tank's armor - but then the tank crew's [[Cloudcuckoolander]] points out their opponent's weak point.

* In ''[[Megalex]]'', the Undergrounders, especially Adamâ, have an uncanny ability to hit the robotic Shock Troopers right in the control chip, through a tiny gap in their armor.

== Fan Works ==

* Interestingly, played straight in ''[[Zero Shock]]''. Jack is [[Colossus Climb|attacking a giant golem]], and so [[Talking Weapon|Derflinger]] advises him to attack its core. However, there are problems: there's no real guarantee that the core is even there. And if there is one, then there might be a chance that it explodes on destruction.

{{quote|“If it has one. Usually a sphere of some kind. Mostly stones with runes on them, squiggly little things like the one on the back of your hand. Some of the time. I think. Saw a few that had just a [[Refuge in Audacity|smiley face and a name on them]]. One of them just had a rude word on it! But anyway, find the core, [[Insistent Terminology|partner]]! You might need to do some searching, though, since sometimes [[This Is Gonna Suck|there are more than one core]], sometimes there aren't [[Oh Crap|even any]]! Most fun of all,[[Made of Explodium|some of them blow up]]! But one thing's for sure; the best thing is to go for the core, partner!”}}

== Films -- Live Action ==

* [[John Christopher]]'s ''The Sword of the Spirits'' trilogy. In ''Beyond the Burning Land'' Luke fights and kills the Bayemot (a giant ameoba-like creature) by striking at its nucleus deep inside its body with a sword.

* ''[[Wing Commander (novel)|Fleet Action]]'' has the Kilrathi getting [[Genre Savvy|savvy]] with this trope and designing a dreadnought with multiple layers of armor shells throughout the ship, specifically to eliminate conventional weak points and shrug off full salvos of anti-ship torpedoes. Too late they realized it just [[Subverted Trope|made a different kind of weak point]]... Marine boarding parties setting off massive blasts ''inside'' the ship, which would be contained by the armor and completely gut everything inside.

* In the late fourth season, most of ''[[Angel]]'''s cast is fighting {{spoiler|Skip}} and getting ''hammered''. Wesley, though every shot he's taken has bounced off the creature's armor, sees one of the few wounds it has suffered: A horn has broken off. He aims for the hole... and thanks to the [[Million-to-One Chance]], the bullet enters the head. This is lethal even to super-badass demon guys.

** Of course, there's also the fact that vampires are [[Nigh Invulnerable]] except for a stake to the heart or decapitation...

* ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'' features Drake, one of the ten Gods of the Infershia, who shrugs off everything thrown at him due to his armour - until one of Hikaru's energy attacks hits him in the back of the neck.

* [[Subverted]] in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''. The crew of the starship ''Valiant'' discover a new, massively powerful Dominion warship. They discover a weakpoint and plan an attack accordingly. The attack goes off masterfully, causing a massive explosion... [[Worf Barrage|which then dissipates and reveals the ship, still battle-worthy]]. {{spoiler|The ''Reliant'' is soon destroyed, and most of her surviving crew is killed when the Jem'Ha'Dar decide to [[Sink the Life Boats]].}}

== Mythology ==

* [[The Bible]]: Goliath got killed, partly, due to this trope.

== Tabletop RPG ==

* ''[[Gamma World]]'' adventure GW1 ''The Legion of Gold''. There's an amoeboid monster almost a kilometer wide in a lake. Its body can withstand 1,000 [[Hit Points]] of damage, but its nucleus can only take 50 [[Hit Points]] before it is killed. The catch: the nucleus is in the center of the lake under 150 meters of water.

== Video Games ==

** Surprisingly while the [[Giant Enemy Crab]] sparked a massive meme relating to attacking weak points for massive damage, the fact that a game supposedly based on "Famous battles which actually took place..." was not parodied as much.

* The ''[[Contra]]'' series likes the red, glowing orb variety, at least in earlier games.