Clean Cut: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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-Stroke Battle]] would be far more difficult to conceive of as trying to go all the way ''through'' your victim would be nearly impossible. [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2810/could-historic-japanese-samurai-swords-cut-a-human-body-in-two-with-one-stroke Nearly.]

 

 

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]].

 

 

* The parasites in ''[[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''.

* Integra ''[[Hellsing]]'' is [[Badass Normal]] who manages to easily cut apart Nazi vampires. She was using a sabre, though.

** [[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 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.

* ''[[13 Ghosts|Thirteen Ghosts]]'' (the 2001 remake) features this ''[[Karmic Death]]'' for the cast member whose ulterior motives put the whole diabolical clockwork into action, in exchange for money. A sheet of glass descends from the ceiling, and for a few seconds he's frozen and can't move. His eyes blink, and then his front half succombs to gravity as his back half remains suspended. Complete with ''[[Gallows Humor]]'' when an oblivious cast member asks, "Did the lawyer split?"

 

== Literature ==

* 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 ''[[Hammer's Slammers]]'' stories by [[David Drake]]. In many of the stories, the mercenaries are shown to have knives so sharp that they can cut leaves hanging on trees ''without disturbing them''. In addition, there is a "cutting bar" used that can slice through things such as chain link fencing without stopping. Though the cutting bar is said to have "vibrating, interlocking teeth" in it, making it a combination of a Machete ''and'' a chainsaw in action...

* [[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.

* 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|The Way of Kings]]'' do to anything not living. If it is alive, it Cleanly Cuts the ''[[Soul Cutting Blade|soul]]''.

 

* 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.

* 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 (TV miniseries)|Merlin-1998]]'' miniseries, the titular wizard demonstrates this with Excalibur, cutting cleanly through a regular sword used by an enemy just by ''parrying'' it.

 

== 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.

* ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' has Yamato, a katana apparently so sharp it can effortlessly cut through several feet of stone. From about half a mile away. Also used to separate dimensions.

* ''[[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 ''[[Asura's Wrath]]''.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Torg's [[Empathic Weapon|magic, talking sword]] Chaz never seems to just cut partway through something. Either it clangs harmlessly off of demons and aliens, or it cuts them clean in two. [[Justified Trope]] by its magical nature, which lets it kill just about anything with one stroke when "powered up."

* Anywhere one of the four invincible swordsmen shows up in ''[[Twelve Dragons]]''.

* The web only comic strip Pibgorn has seen this at least once.

 

== Web Original ==

** 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 ==

* 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.

 

 

== Real Life ==

** 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 Clean Cut.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fight Scene]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]