Clean Cut: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
Animating and detailing realistic [[Sword Fight|battles with edged weapons]] is remarkably difficult. Real-life edged weapons usually leave rough, horrible wounds, and severing arms, legs, or the neck of an individual is a very difficult task requiring either brute strength or significant time to saw at the wound. But quite aside from the simulation issues, if realistic blade wounds were done, then a [[Single
As a result, most bladed weapons in fiction are [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|impossibly finely-edged things]], capable of slicing straight through a victim and leaving such a thin cut as to be almost unnoticeable. Passing straight through a spine or rib cage? No problem! Decapitating an individual with a single blow, or even cutting them apart in multiple angles? Can do!
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Bonus points if it [[Diagonal Cut|doesn't manifest]] [[You Are Already Dead|until the attacker has sheathed their sword]], and extra bonus points if the wound does not manifest until the victim (for example) reaches up to feel his neck, at which point his head falls off, or [[Tempting Fate|the victim assumes the attacker missed]]. Even more bonus points if the sword is thick enough (i.e. the sword blade is visible) that no matter what the edge is like, the width of the blade should shove out the pieces of the object as it passes through them.
May be [[Justified Trope]] (read: [[Hand Wave
See also the delayed version, the [[Diagonal Cut]], and cousin trope [[Half the Man He Used To Be]]. See also [[Paper Cutting]]. Contrast [[Like Cannot Cut Like]].
{{examples|Example}}▼
For what Real Life calls "clean-cut" (note the hyphen), see [[Perma-Shave]].
== Anime and Manga ==▼
* The parasites in ''[[Parasyte (Manga)|Parasyte]]/Kiseijuu'' can turn parts of their bodies into blades that can slice and dice multiple humans in the blink of an eye. This happens ''a lot''.▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* Integra ''[[Hellsing (Manga)|Hellsing]]'' is [[Badass Normal|Badass enough a Normal]] to easily cut apart Nazi vampires. She was using a sabre, though.▼
▲* The parasites in ''[[
▲* Integra ''[[
** {{spoiler|Her butler can do the same, but uses apparently limitless [[Razor Floss|razor wires]] with enough skill to earn the nickname "Angel of Death."}}
** And Luke Valentine as well, although he's a supernaturally strong and fast vampire.
* Happened a lot in ''[[
* ''[[
** Same thing goes for Shiki Ryougi in ''[[Kara no Kyoukai
* Justice decapitates the title character's dad in ''[[
* ''[[
** In all fairness, he did have some vision from his [[Goggles Do Something Unusual|sunglasses]].
* Happened at least once with Akabane in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Happens fairly often in ''[[Ranma
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': In the manga, Wrath jumps through a rain of bullets at a group of soldiers. Four of them (or more, hard to tell with all the flying body parts) simultaneously fall to pieces two panels later.
* Goemon, in ''[[
* Averted by Guts from ''[[
** Played straight by swords used by Casca or Griffith, as well as the sword made by Godo that Guts used immediately before the Dragon Slayer, which cleanly slice through another sword and the edge of an anvil before it broke on an Apostle's hide.
* Happens in ''[[
* In ''[[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]]'' this is how Masane kills her first zombie robot (it even tries to move after her before falling apart and exploding) and later how "the Ultimateblade" the replica for a male Wielder, bites it.
* ''[[
* Characters in ''[[Blood
* Happens in ''[[
== Comic Books ==
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** [[Man-Thing]] probably doesn't count, however, given that it is (despite its human origins) little more than a mobile mass of vegetable matter and slime.
* Miho in ''[[Sin City]]'' is known for having such clean cuts that her victims don't know they've been slashed. She often only has to make one sword thrust before a head or arm comes off. In one instance, she threw her shuriken and chopped a man's head clean in half to the point that even his eyeballs were sliced and still in their sockets.
== Film ==
* In the teaser for ''[[Cube]]'', a character is in one room when ''something'' happens. The character freezes in shock, and seconds later falls apart in neatly diced cubes. The ''something'' turns out to be a moving grid made of razor wire.
* Variant: Practically all the dismemberment in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Underworld (
* ''[[Equilibrium]]'': John Preston incapacitates his former partner with four quick, obviously fatal slices. The former partner sinks to his knees and looks shocked before his face slides off.
* ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'': the [[Big Bad]] has a sort of laser whip that cuts through almost anything. At a certain point he swings it near a minor baddie in an attempt to cut open a chain; said minor baddie is shocked that the [[Big Bad]] did that without regard to the baddie's safety, and says so. Not showing much respect for his opinion, the [[Big Bad]] slices through the baddie with his whip. He briefly glances up, before falling apart in three clean pieces.
** It's generally assumed that he's using a monomolecular whip as described below, with added visual effects because slashing ''nothing'' around while people are getting dismembered would look stupid. The weapon is quite popular in the cyberpunk game ''[[
*** In the Gibson short story, it's a weighted monomolecular wire concealed in his thumb. It's worth noting that you would be able to ''feel'' the location and movement of a device like that, in much the same way as one can feel how a set of poi are moving.
* ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'': the sword Green Destiny, in the hands of the right wielder, can be drawn, cut pieces of iron in half, and sheathed again ''all in the one movement.''
** In theory, this is because the Green Destiny Sword is extremely hard and sharp ''steel'', cutting not-quite-as-hard iron.
*** Even the finest steel doesn't cut the poorest iron this way. Also, the sword is only effective in the hands of a right bearer. Master Li Mu Bai defeats an opponent wielding Green Destiny with a thin branch of wood.
* In the extended [[Incredibly Lame Pun|cut]] of ''[[Sin City]]'', Miho dispatches [[Scary Black Man|Manute]] this way at the end of The Big Fat Kill.
* Averted in ''[[Star Wars]]''. The lightsabers do cut through almost anything (they cannot cut through other lightsabers, cortosis blades, Phrik or blades created by sith alchemy, and it can be difficult to make them cut through anything with an electromagnetic field), but are obviously immune from material limitations, what with being plasma and all. Also people don't spend half a minute looking shocked before falling to pieces. Limbs and appendages tend to fly all over the place, although [[Bloodless Carnage|bleeding is very limited]] as the laser cauterizes as it cuts, and leaves a gap due to the width of the blade and the fact that surrounding flesh is heated white hot and thus charred.
** Lightsabers also cannot cut superconductors. Apparently, the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has room-temperature superconductors that can hold an edge. Combine that with [[Vibroweapon|Vibro Weapons]], and you get the vibro-shields (yes, shields used as swords, contrasted with the lightsaber's status as a sword used as a shield) of the Akk Guards, who fight [[Badass|Mace]] [[Samuel L. Jackson|Windu]] in ''Shatterpoint''. Aside from the cauterizing, [[Vibroweapon|Vibro Weapons]] in general can perform this trope just like lightsabers. Better, maybe, since cauterizing is not strictly part of the trope. However, hold a lightsaber against a superconductor for long enough and the whole thing will melt. Also, vibro weapons have less cutting power than lightsabers.
* In Gabriel Byrne's ''[[Ghost Ship (
* ''[[Final Destination]] 2'' features a similar scene, except with two fenceposts with barbed wire spun in between, slicing apart one of the destined to die.
* A [http://youtube.com/watch?v=VX6xsIrZfdo deleted scene] from [[Tom Cruise]]'s ''[[The Last Samurai]]'' has the lead character, Nathan Algren, witness a samurai named Ujio walking along a street, who gets hassled by a pair of businessmen. The samurai takes their insults for a few moments, as they insult his heritage and his swords, but when one of them pokes him with a cane, Ujio slices off the head of the man in a clean, swift fashion, and sheaths his katana in one fluid movement while the other scrambles backwards.
* There is a scene in ''[[Resident Evil (
* In ''[[
* ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]'' features Que'tesh warning Ba'al that her sword's blade has been sharpened to the width of an ''atom'' and that it would be very easy to cut a body in half {{spoiler|as she later does}}.
* Arguably inverted in ''[[
* ''[[
* The most important blows are delivered this way in ''[[Kill Bill]]''. Oren Ishii beheaded a mutinous henchman with a single swipe, and the Bride cut of an arm off Sophia Fatale, chopped ''another sword'' in pieces like it was a straw, and then sliced Oren's head in half.
* In ''John Carpenter's Vampires'', the [[Big Bad]] slices somebody in half vertically using his hand.
* Maida decapitates a [[Mook]] quite cleanly in ''[[
* Michael Myers from the ''[[Halloween (
* In the 2006 remake of ''[[The Omen]]'', {{spoiler|photographer Keith Jennings}} gets his head sliced cleanly off...by an unhinged sign post. Seeing as the momentum wasn't terribly large, that thing must've been sharp as hell. Then again, though, [[Satan|higher powers]] are also at work, which might help explain it.
* ''[[
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Taken to the logical extreme with [[The Grim Reaper|Death]]'s scythe
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[
** Toward the end of ''[[
* In the ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' series, the Subtle Knife has two <s>blades</s> edges: one for cutting through ''anything'' tangible, and the other for ''cutting through the fabric separating alternate universes''.
* Also taken to extremes in the various ''[[
* The ''[[Gears of War]]'' novel ''Aspho Fields'' averts this, as a character's attacking a Locust with the chainsaw bayonet on the game's infamous Lancer Assault Rifle is an extended pushing of the chainsaw into the Locust, and they later found out they had a piece of bone stuck in them that flung off during the altercation.
* Also done in the ''[[Known Space]]'' series of short stories by [[Larry Niven]]. Not by a knife though... In the stories there is a type of thread referred to as "Sinclair molecule chain" -- [[Razor Floss|a thread that is one molecule wide, and can slice through anything with just a gentle tug]]. How they manage to attach handles to it is a different story... This is also used in the "variable-knife" and "variable-sword" from the same series, which is nothing more than Sinclair chain spun out from a handle, with a "stasis field" to support it. Not to mention a red ball at the end, so you can tell where the thread ends.
** In another Larry Niven story, the 'attach handles' part is explained when we find out that Sinclair had no trouble designing the monomolecular chain, but the hard part was devising molecular links for the ends so handles could be attached and the chain wouldn't unravel.
* In ''[[Hyperion|Endymion]]'' a trap made of monomolecular wire gets noticed when one of the heroes realizes he doesn't have an arm any more.
* ''[[
* [[Badass|Raven's]] weapons of choice in ''[[Snow Crash]]'' are glass knives, invisible to millimetre-wave radar and not much thicker than a molecule along the cutting edge. Usually mounted on an Aleut whaling harpoon for armour-piercing death at a distance.
* ''Headhunter'': Michael Slade's serial killer can take a victim's head off with one blow. Possibly justified, as the cutlass-like killing blade is equipped with a sliding weight on its blunt side, which shifts from hilt to tip when the weapon is swung and dramatically increases the force of impact.
* ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (
* In the short story [http://dailysciencefiction.com/story/desmond-warzel/epinikion "Epinikion"] by Desmond Warzel, the alien Squids have natural weaponry that not only does this to their human opponents, but leaves them alive for several hours after being bisected.
* This is what the [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|Shardblades]] in ''[[The Stormlight Archive
* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' featured numerous instances of unusually clean cuts, however one of the most graphic of these examples was in the (incredibly controversial) episode "The Way", in which {{spoiler|Xena's arms were cut clean off by Indrajit, the King of Demons}}. It's alright though, not two minutes later into the episode she has {{spoiler|six arms}}. By the end of the episode, all is well again and {{spoiler|she has her own two arms back}}.▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has a few good examples. Notably {{spoiler|Anya's}} death in "Chosen".▼
▲* [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] featured numerous instances of unusually clean cuts, however one of the most graphic of these examples was in the (incredibly controversial) episode "The Way", in which {{spoiler|Xena's arms were cut clean off by Indrajit, the King of Demons}}. It's alright though, not two minutes later into the episode she has {{spoiler|six arms}}. By the end of the episode, all is well again and {{spoiler|she has her own two arms back}}.
▲* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] has a few good examples. Notably {{spoiler|Anya's}} death in "Chosen".
▲* [[Angel (TV)|Angel]] features quite a few of these, mostly with beheadings.
* An episode of ''[[CSI: NY]]'' featured a corpse killed by a cut so clean that the wound wasn't obvious until the body was moved, at which point the head fell off. It turned out to have been made by a [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana]].
** To be fair, they did spend a good part of the episode clarifying at the person wielding said katana was incredibly well trained and strong enough to make such a cut.
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* Happens in pretty much every episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]].''
* Most bladed weapons shown on ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'' leave jagged, messy wounds; even those that hack limbs off. Of course, more often than not they're cutting through gel torsos. Though in a few instances, this was played straight. The samurai cleanly cut through two pigs with a katana.
* In the 1998 ''[[Merlin
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
* More critical hits, regardless of system, than can ever be counted. Completely justified by the [[Rule of Cool]], too.
* ''[[Final Fantasy]]''s Odin does this to his enemies when using his Zantetsuken (effectively, decapitating iron sword), slicing them cleanly into two pieces.
* ''[[
** Not to mention Dante's Rebellion. It cuts a cubic meter of solid steel/stone/magic die neatly in half.
** With Yamato, Vergil swishes his sword, turns around, puts it in his scabbard, waits a second... and then as he clicks it in the enemy is slashed apart by the
*** One of the enemies even manages to speak several lines after the slash, before its head goes in pieces.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Knight 2]]'', there is a cheat setting that allows the lightsaber to do this, accurately slicing models along the cuts, making it possible to filet enemies and friends alike. The setting to allow this implies that it was a feature of the game that was censored.
* ''[[Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance]]'' has this as one of its [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMdu_dUzjfE newest gameplay features.]
* One of Yashas attgacks from ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090901192345/http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=39&issue=14 Lampshaded] in ''[[
* Anywhere one of the four invincible swordsmen shows up in ''[[Twelve Dragons]]''.
* The web only comic strip Pibgorn has seen this at least once.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120509101800/http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00069.html Early on] in ''[[
== Web Original ==
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** Also from the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', the sword wielded by [[Mary Sue|Tennyo]], which is made of ''anti-matter''.
* All blades in ''[[Greek Ninja]]'' seem to have this ability. The most profound example is {{spoiler|Sasha cutting off Creon's arm}} with ease, near the end of the battle.
== Western Animation ==
* An assassin in ''[[
** Making it a mono-atomic blade?
** Wait, then what is it made of? It can't be an alloy, and no existing element would hold an edge like that.
*** [[Memetic Mutation|It's the future, we don't have to explain it.]]
* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'': One of his signature moves is to leap at the enemy, perform a series of lightning-swift slashes in mid-fly, then land and pose dramatically with his eyes closed as the enemy falls apart and explodes behind his back.
* A couple of ''[[
** Done also in [[De Patie Freleng]] shorts such as The Inspector and The Ant and the Aardvark. Little wonder, as many of DPF's directors were old Warner Bros. alums. One particularly memorable gag involved the Aardvark actually flying through a wire fence and then plucking a small square out of his own hindquarters.
* In an episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Wilma warns Fred not to tease the cat, it will scratch him. Fred denies that the cat would do that. After Fred teases the cat several times, the cat emits its razor-sharp claws and slices across him. "He never touched me," Fred says, before falling apart like sliced bread.
== Other Media ==
* In the ''Dagorhir'' system of foam-padded swordfighting, any solid hit to a limb with a slashing weapon is considered to have cut it off. In this game, your limbs are essentially your [[Hit Points]], and the only other damage that's tracked is damage to shields and armor; therefore there's no middle ground between [[Only a Flesh Wound]] and [[Deliberate Injury Gambit]].▼
== Real Life ==
* As the link above shows, swords that can cut through several bodies in a single stroke aren't unheard of. "5-body blades" as they're called are out there, and fetch a ridiculously high price at auctions. In fact, it's not too unreasonable to assume that some of these swords can cut through MORE than
** Though it should be noted that since the amount you could cut through is just as, if not more dependent on momentum then sharpness, this trait isn't unique to the famously sharp Katana. Its just that no one other then the Japanese used unarmored and restrained corpses cut in a blow as a unit of measurement. One could probably cut through more with a heavier European weapon, with an axe cleaving deeper then a sword.
* Obsidian scalpels. Sharper than normal surgical steel scalpels, but don't last as long.
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* Guillotines.
* "Water saws", which use extremely hot and extremely high-pressure water. It cuts steel in half extremely quickly without resistance, and applying it to a human wouldn't be pretty.
* Swords made of Damascus/Damascene Steel are said to be capable of this, being [[Absurdly Sharp Blade
** Though people tend to forget that we're capable of so much more with the modern science of metallurgy. Theres no need to rediscover a lost technology we've now surpassed in performance.
*** However by rediscovering it we can build from it, and learn new things.
**** For example, Katana's are so sharp because of the way that they added carbon to the iron thus proving a metallurgical concept.
* The way a Samurai's katana is made, from it's shape to the composition of the steel used is designed to pretty much cut through flesh and bone in a single stroke (provided that the wielder is a trained swordsman).
** The composition of steel is to compensate for the generally poor grade irons available to Japan at the time. The lengthwise curvature is to ensure greater drawing action on the swing and to take advantage of the human body's natural vacuum to add pull to the swing's momentum. A less skilled swordsman could embed the sword so firmly it would take a struggle to free, but a more skilled swordsman would get a
▲== Other ==
▲* In the ''Dagorhir'' system of foam-padded swordfighting, any solid hit to a limb with a slashing weapon is considered to have cut it off. In this game, your limbs are essentially your [[Hit Points]], and the only other damage that's tracked is damage to shields and armor; therefore there's no middle ground between [[Only a Flesh Wound]] and [[Deliberate Injury Gambit]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fight Scene]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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