Battle Discretion Shot: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''And then, at the absolute climactic height of the action sequence, everything went dark.''
|"Fangs of Endearment: A Vampire Novel" by [[Dave Barry]]}}
▲{{quote|''And then, at the absolute climactic height of the action sequence, everything went dark.''|"Fangs of Endearment: A Vampire Novel" by [[Dave Barry]]}}
▲Or: [[A View to A Kill (Film)|A Non-View To A Kill]]
It's finally arrived; the climactic moment where good meets evil, where right fights wrong, where...someone will get their ass kicked! But then, suddenly, the camera decides not to focus on the great battle, but rather on something a little more insignificant, like the pool or some other innocent area, with only the sound of the battle heard (perhaps somewhat muffled) and perhaps the occasional [[Screen Shake]], especially in animated media. [[Reaction Shot|Focusing on the faces of observing characters]] gives a good gauge of the brutality of the fight without showing the fight itself; [[Distant Reaction Shot|zooming out farther]] without reducing the battle noise is a less common variant, but still not too rare in comedies. It stays this way for the entire fight, only showing the aftermath.
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There are a variety of reasons for this. The first is money: the producers might not have had enough money to ''actually'' film an epic battle. This might lead to an [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]. On the other hand, if they care enough, they could combine this with the second reason: artistic quality. A big fight scene might not be that interesting or original - but deliberately ''not'' showing the fight, instead focusing on something mundane, that could be considered [[True Art|art]]. But beware: this could lead to [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]] There's also a third reason: perhaps the director did want a really violent and/or bloody battle, but the [[Moral Guardians]] objected too much. Or, if it's a cartoon, it could be due to the [[Rule of Funny]]. Often, these are shown either through a [[Big Ball of Violence]] or zooming outside a building and showing it bounce and tumble around from the force of the battle.
Related to [[Gory Discretion Shot]] and [[Sound
'''Warning: Contains spoilers'''
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
{{noreallife|Real Life does not have [[Discretion Shot]]s of any sort.}}
== Anime ==▼
* ''[[Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (Anime)|Tsukuyomi Moon Phase]]'', [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|I'm looking at you]]. {{spoiler|The fight between Hazuki and Count Kinkel took place pretty much entirely off-screen. And it was dead serious.}}▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* [[Played for Laughs|Used for humorous effect]] in ''[[Excel Saga (Anime)|Excel Saga]]'' when Excel is killing {{spoiler|the creator of the original manga, Koshi Rikdo}}, [[Relax O Vision|random shots of flowers and butterflies are seen in place of the supposedly gory action]].▼
▲* ''[[
▲* [[Played for Laughs|Used for humorous effect]] in ''[[Excel Saga (
* The majority of the gun battle between Revy and Roberta of ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' was done like this.
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', the fight between {{spoiler|Espada #0 Yammy Rialgo}} and the team of Rukia, Chad, and Renji takes place mainly off-panel. We see them preparing to fight... and then we switch to the Real World for a few months to cover the fights there. By the time we catch up in Hueco Mundo, Much of the battle has already taken place, with {{spoiler|Rukia}} the last one standing.
** {{spoiler|Yammy}} again this time he's fighting {{spoiler|Kenpachi and Byakuya}} then we switch to {{spoiler|Ichigo and Unohana}} on their way to Fake Karakura Town. Then after it's all over we see {{spoiler|Yammy}} defeated.
* ''[[
* The end of the first arc of ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]''. It's spent something like twelve episodes building up to {{spoiler|Youko rescuing Keiki and claiming the throne}}- then skips over the entire {{spoiler|civil war}} in about 5 minutes. Sure, the series is meant to [[Shoujo|focus more on character interactions]], but ''still''.
* ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' managed to have one minor example, being an anime that focuses on [[Magical Girl|magical girls]] who fight their opponents by singing. In one scene, Rina encounters a group of boys who want to give her a ride and seem to be thinking naughty thoughts. The scene then switches to a calm scene on the beach. Cut back to the car scene to see the boys knocked out with Rina dusting off her hands.
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== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[
* In the "Grand Theft America" arc of '
* In ''[[Street Fighter (
* Initially, most of [[Squirrel Girl]]'s victories happened this way, as it was hard for most writers to illustrate in any pseudo-realistic way how she was able to defeat the most powerful titans of the [[Marvel Universe]] by herself. They started to show more detail in her own series, however.
▲* In ''[[Fifty Two]]'', there's a beautiful example of this. Lex Luthor has been provoking Steel for months -- at the moment, Steel's niece is his hostage -- and has often crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] for reasons related to his "Everyman" project, which has culminated in Luthor gaining [[Flying Brick|Superman's powers]]. Steel's armor has been destroyed, which leads to several pages of [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]] -- and Steel still gets back up, every single time. Fortunately, Natasha (The niece) [[Flaw Exploitation|uses Luthor's paranoia]] and her own ingenuity against him, ultimately shutting down Luthor's powers. Luthor has an [[Oh Crap]] moment, and then the next panel is a wide shot of the building, and the sounds of smackdown ''echoing'' across Metropolis. It is ''unspeakably'' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|satisfying]]. The creator commentary included in the trade paperback reveals that, originally, we were ''supposed'' to actually see the end of the fight, but the writers realised that nothing they could draw could possibly look as amazing as what the readers own minds would fill in.
▲* In the "Grand Theft America" arc of ' 'the Ultimates' ', Hawkeye has been captured and tortured in order to provide defensive codes allowing the Masters to attack New York City. After hours of torture he tears off his own fingernails and kills several guards by flicking them into their throats before threatening a scientist to let him go. After he's released a battallion charges in with him about to pick up an assault rifle. We cut to guards watching the carnage on security cameras before cutting back to reveal Hawkeye standing over a dozen dead soldiers holding two smoking rifles. His response to the security cameras? "Run."
▲* In ''[[Street Fighter (Comic Book)|Street Fighter]]'', one issue ends with Ryu accepting a challenge from "the greatest Kushti wrestler in all of India." We don't see the fight, but one can only imagine how it ended.
▲== Film ==
* Part of the climax for ''[[Let the Right One In]]'': {{spoiler|Oskar is about to be drowned by the brother of the bully he beat up, his head held underwater. We only see it from under the pool, so we don't know what's happening at first, but it becomes apparent soon enough that Eli is killing the bullies when a ''severed head'' falls into the pool, followed swiftly by an arm.}}
* ''[[Fahrenheit 9/11]]'' didn't show any footage of the September 11th attacks, but instead showed a blank black screen while audio clips of the events were played, followed by reactions of people who saw it happen caught on (muted) video.
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''[[Spy Kids]]'': "Carmen, Juni, close your eyes! We don't want you to see this!"
* ''[[Fight Club]]'': The fight between the Narrator and Blondie. According to the [[DVD Commentary|director's commentary]], the original version was more directly graphic, but the censors boohooed it. The result that made it into the cinematic version fit this trope. The change, arguably, led to a scene more horrible because it used this trope.
* ''[[The Warriors (
* [[Vietnam War]] film ''84 Charlie MoPic'' is shot from the point of view of a cameraman attached to a army squad. (The title is his callsign.) At one point the squad calls down unseen artillery on unseen Vietcong, as the film didn't have the budget to show either of them.
* A short film named Woodshed is nothing but this: a static shot of a woodshed and the noises of a huge scuffle.
* ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (
* [[Pixar]] loves this one. usually involving a [[Monsters, Inc.|trailer]] or [[The Incredibles|truck]] of some kind.
== Literature ==
* ''[[Redwall|Rackety Tam]]'' has a small group of robbers occupying a family of farming voles' home. Then, [[The Lancer]] (and [[The Big Guy]]) and the [[Lightning Bruiser]] come along and decide [[Trojan Prisoner|to infiltrate the home as "hostages"]]. In an offscreen battle inside the home, from the POV of the vole family who have evacuated their children outside to keep them away from the fighting, the two protagonists manage to kill all the three or four robbers. According to the sounds inside, they fight them with kitchen utensils and their own weapons. In the end, the last of the robbers trundles out, gargles violently and dies as well.
* The battle outside Riverrun in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is told entirely from Catelyn Stark's perspective. She is somewhere close to the battle where she can hear it, but it was too dark for her to see.
* [[
* In ''[[Twilight (
* Appears in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', when Bilbo faints during the Battle of the [[Five Races|Five Armies.]]
* A lot of the historical events in ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': the big battle between the FBI and {{spoiler|Cromartie}} at the end of Season 1 to the tune of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around." {{spoiler|Cromartie slaughters everybody except Agent Ellison, but we only see things from underwater, as bodies come crashing down in the pool one by one.}} ''And a voice spoke and said, "Come and see," [[Department of Redundancy Department|and I saw]]. And behold, [[Incendiary Exponent|a flaming horse]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|and him that was on it was Awesome, and Sweet followed after him]].''
* Done repeatedly in ''[[Rome]]''. The series includes several major battles of the early Roman Empire, but only once actually showed huge groups of soldiers fighting each other. For example, Caesar's campaign against Magnus is represented with a few screaming soldiers and a Roman standard falling into a puddle. That's about five years of warfare, right there.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has season one's big showdown between Future Peter and Sylar - colorful lights busting through the door Mohinder's holding shut.
** Also season three's big showdown had the Petrelli brothers facing off against Sylar at his absolute strongest. All we saw was colorful lights and Claire's eye peaking through the door. The fandom was a bit less forgiving this time.
* During the first fight of ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' (between Dillon and some Mooks), the camera stays focused on a lone flower, which Dillon had watered just beforehand and is probably the only thing still living in the wastes.
* In the ''[[Stargate SG
== Newspaper Comics ==
* One ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip had Calvin sledding down a particularly treacherous hill. Instead of seeing him crash, we see Hobbes standing at the top of the hill, watching and reacting.
== Video Games ==
* The ''[[
▲* The ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' video ''Meet the Sandvich'' takes place entirely inside a refrigerator with the camera pointing at the eponymous Sandvich. The beauty is in the sounds of the battle - first the Heavy chows down on his sandvich with an almost-adorable "OM NOM NOM" noise, then come some sickening cracks and the Scout's screams of "MY BLOOD! HE PUNCHED OUT ''ALL'' MY BLOOD!" [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity ensued]].
** This this later becomes justified with a little bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] (Or [[Fridge Horror|Horror]]) from Meet the Medic. {{spoiler|Meet the Sandvich was from perspective of the [[Oracular Head|Oracular Spy Head]] in the fridge}}
* In ''[[
* ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]'' starts off with a bang using one of these. After the two-minute intro cutscene, the first level begins with you vigorously shaking the Wiimote to make DK pound on Kalimba, which is shown from outside the (very bouncy) hut.
* Used a couple times in the ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series; once in the governor's mansion in ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'' and then in Club 41 in the first episode of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]''. The latter is one of those "creators didn't have the resources" versions; in a game commentary they explain that showing the inside of Club 41 would have put them over the Wii's file size limit.
==
* ''[[
* In ''[[
▲* ''[[Eight Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' loves this trope. For every battle that's shown on panel, there are at least two whose effects are only observed by the other characters or implied via speech bubbles, sound effects, or [[Gory Discretion Shot|rivers of blood]] from offpanel. The crowning moment, however, is in the [[Final Battle]] with Chaos where this is used twice -- first when it actually happens and again, in a [[Double Subversion]], in [[Flash Back]]. The latter also counts as an intentional [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]].
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', Doc [[It Makes Sense in Context|is retrieving a missile from a robot alligator submarine]] when a park warden catches him. The next page of the comic simply contains the words: HE IS A NINJA and then cuts to Doc driving the warden's car to his destination.
* Parodied in [http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006811 this scene] of ''[[
▲* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', [[Technical Pacifist|Grace plays a fighting game]] during her birthday party while Ellen watches. [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2005-06-02 At one point], Ellen is actually shocked by what she sees even though its stated to be only cartoon violence.
{{quote|
▲* Parodied in [http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006811 this scene] of ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'', wherein we cut away from Jack Noir killing a regulator to [[Relax O Vision|a Pawn that Jack Noir killed previously using a knife]]. And then we cut back (too early) to see that Jack Noir [[Gorn|isn't actually finished killing the regulator, let alone cleaning up the copious amounts of blood.]]
▲{{quote| "''[[Narrator|You]] [[Running Gag|stop being the other guy]] in time for us to see that you have just finished [[Blatant Lies|quickly and cleanly]] [[Tap On the Head|subduing]] the...''"<br />
▲"''Jack.''"<br />
"''Jack, [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|the man is dead.]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|Stop that.]]''" }}
== Western Animation ==
* Lampshaded in the ''[[Animaniacs]] '' episode "Bully for Slappy." After being warned to tone down the level of violence in her cartoons by the US government, Slappy Squirrel spends the rest of the episode building a strange machine while Skippy deals with [[The Bully|a school bully]]. Once the machine is finished, Slappy feeds the bully AND a senator into the machine, explaining that this machine helps eliminate the viewing of violence on screen, by allowing all the violence to happen OFF screen.▼
▲* Lampshaded in the ''Animaniacs'' episode "Bully for Slappy." After being warned to tone down the level of violence in her cartoons by the US government, Slappy Squirrel spends the rest of the episode building a strange machine while Skippy deals with [[The Bully|a school bully]]. Once the machine is finished, Slappy feeds the bully AND a senator into the machine, explaining that this machine helps eliminate the viewing of violence on screen, by allowing all the violence to happen OFF screen.
* The Yakuza/Springfield Mafia fight in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' takes place mostly from the view of the Kitchen. Homer is then rather bummed out that he's missing out on all the good action.
** Especially since "The Little Guy hasn't done anything yet, and you know when he does, it's gonna to be good"
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*** (Little Guy crashes through the window) "Forgiveness, please!"
* Happens a lot in cartoons to get around the [[Moral Guardians]]. You'll see stars and planets shooting into frame from offscreen and you get to see the onlookers wincing reactions.
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* ''[[South Park]]'' "My god! This battle is epic! This is even more epic than the final battle in the ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' movie, this is like [[Take Our Word for It|ten times more epic than that battle!]]"
* Ironically, in the Rankin-Bass ''animated [[The Return of the King (
** It also happens in their version of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' some examples include when Gandalf kills The Great Goblin you see him swing the sword and it cuts to the Great Goblin grabbing at his throat and falling into a tunnel, when Bilbo stabs the spiders you see closeups of their spinning faces, and during The Battle of Five Armies the only impacts shown are when an enemy is hit with a shield other than that they swing their weapons and it cuts to the enemy falling, and from a distance you see dots throwing spears and arrows at each other.
* In the ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'' series based on the animated movie, this tended to happen whenever Hades pissed off another of the Olympian gods, usually in the last scene of an episode. He'd try - vainly - to apologize to his angry contemporary, then the screen would shift to the main cast, watching - with horror, amusement, or a combination of both - a rather violent offscreen fight that was clearly one-sided against Hades.
* ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' went a step or two further with [[Relax
* Used as a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'': Happens near the climatic end of the Bugs Bunny short "Knights Must Fall".
* A few big battles in the animated ''[[Asterix]]'' movies use the [[Big Ball of Violence]] to hide the brutality, filling the screen with dust and armour flying out (also odder things like false teeth and boxer shorts).
** In a more specific example, During ''Asterix in Britain'', when Obelix is imprisoned in the "Tower of Londinium", we see him leave his cell [[Open Says Me|in the fashion you'd expect]] of [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|Obelix]], then we cut to outside the Tower, hearing the sounds of Obelix knocking the guards about (and occasionally one flying out the window) as he goes down. Once he's down, however, Asterix goes in the front, thinking Obelix is still in there, and it happens again, only this time, going up. They both then realise where the other is, and it happens ''[[Rule of Three|again]]'' until they meet in the middle. The whole thing pretty much qualifies for a [[Crowning Moment of Funny|CMOF]].
* ''[[My Little Pony
{{quote|
'''Pinkie Pie:''' ''(to dragon while offscreen)'' Hi!
''(cue sounds of offscreen beating)''
'''Pinkie Pie:''' ''(exits dragon cave in a busted, silly outfit)'' Apparently, he doesn't like laughing. Or sharing...
* Happens a lot in cartoons made by ''Xilam'', such as ''[[Oggy and
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Power Lunch"; after the Girls are nearly done in by he super-powered Gangrene Gang, the villains lose their powers, and the Girls are - justifiably - angry. The final scene closes to the sounds of the Girls brutally giving them a pounding over the narrator's closing statements.
* Happens a lot in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', especially when one of the heroes beats up several adult enemies, something that is hard to show realistically. One good example is the end credits which occur right after the end of "Operation: F.L.U.S.H.", right after the team closes in on the Toilenator; the viewers see the Treehouse and hear a violent fight from within, until finally, there's a loud flushing noise and the badly bruised villain is dumped out a drainpipe.
* ''[[Transformers Rescue Bots]]'' features one of these when the titular Bots finally manage to confront the [[Evil Counterpart|MorBot]] in combat at the end of "The Reign of Morocco". It may double as a robotic form of [[Gory Discretion Shot]], as the resulting rain of robot parts implies that what they did was rather brutal.
{{quote|
* This happens a lot in the ''[[Hercules: The Animated Series]]'' whenever Hades ticked off one of his fellow Olympian gods. He would try — vainly — to apologize to his angry contemporary, and then the screen would shift to the main cast, watching — with horror, amusement, or a combination of the two — a rather violent offscreen fight that was clearly one-sided against Hades.
* Happens a lot in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', especially when only one of the heroes beats up several adult enemies, something that is hard to show realistically. One good example is [[The Stinger]] which occurs right after the end of "Operation: F.L.U.S.H.", right after the team closes in on the Toilenator; the viewers see an outdoor view of the Treehouse and hear a violent fight from within, until finally, there's a loud flushing noise and the badly bruised villain is dumped out a drainpipe.
* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': In the episode "Frankie, My Dear", when Frankie finds her current [[Jerkass|(and soon to be ex-)]] boyfriend insulting and bullying Mac and Bloo, she gives him a [[Death Glare]], rolls up her sleeve... And the scene cuts to her, Mac, and Bloo eating pizza:
{{quote|'''Mac:''' Wow, Frankie, I can't believe you gave him a nosebleed!
'''Bloo:''' And that was the most ''atomic'' atomic wedgie I have ''ever'' seen!
'''Frankie:''' I know, can't believe he wore briefs. What a loser.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:This Index Happened Offscreen]]
[[Category:Fight Scene]]
[[Category:Discretion Shot]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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