Confusion Fu: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''EDI:''' If two AI weapons are pitted against each other, the one with superior hardware will always win. [[Humans Are Special|Human misjudgements defy predictive models.]]

 

Some fighters have [[Fragile Speedster|speed]], some have [[Mighty Glacier|strength]].

 

 

They are the natural nemesis of those blessed with [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]. Stylish Confusion Fu fighters sometimes double as [[Dance Battler]]s. This style is often used by [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]s and [[Crazy Awesome]] characters.

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Aiki]]'': One of the bizarre training regimens involved doing a crazy dance so that your strikes couldn't be seen.

* ''[[Gate Keepers]]'': The [[Super Prototype]] beats the [[Awesomeness By Analysis]] enemy general because its lack of a [[Power Limiter]] makes it impossible to completely control. The general can't predict its random motions and thus can't hit it or defend against its attacks. The downside to not being able to control the prototype exactly is the risk that the attack you want to make isn't always [[Ramming Always Works|the attack you get]].

'''Kyouraku''': "It's not good to keep forcing this characteristic thing, Espada-san. And, if you're going to talk about characteristic, not having a characteristic behaviour is characteristic of me." }}

 

* [[Deadpool]], from Marvel Comics. To the extent that he once defeated ''[[Awesomeness By Analysis|the freakin' Taskmaster]]'' by sheer unpredictability—Tasky thought that Deadpool was about to get angry and sloppy, but he ''really'' just [[Crazy Awesome|started on a dance number]]. True, Confusion Fu has already been proven to be an effective strategy against Taskmaster (for example, [[Daredevil]] used a similar trick to goad Taskmaster into jumping in front of a moving car), but Deadpool beat the Taskmaster by ''being Deadpool''.

* In ''[[Watchmen]]'', Dan says that Rorschach was a good fighter because he was unpredictable. Probably related to the fact that he's [[Crazy Awesome|not quite sane]].

* During a [[Secret Six]] / [[Suicide Squad]] crossover, Catman explains that he is able to hold up in his fight against Bronze Tiger because Bronze Tiger has "a defense for every style...and styles are for $%#@ing idiots." He then proceeds to [[Man Bites Man|take a big bite out if Bronze Tiger's jugular]].

 

* The entire point of the Chaos Army in ''[[Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]]''. Lacking Draco Mafloy's experience in the wizarding world or his ability to [[Manipulative Bastard|understand other people]] or Hermione Granger's ability to learn quickly or [[Power of Friendship|understand other people]], Methods!Harry actively courts and confusion among all three sides of the fight, as he and his army suffers the least from such confusion compared to Hermione's lesser ability to plan for the unexpected and Draco's knowledge that [[Gambit Pileup|running such ridiculously complex plots is suicidal]].

 

* Wong Fei Hung in ''The Legend of The Drunken Master''. His drunken boxing style is ALL ABOUT doing stuff that seems insane or physically impossible to do.

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' : As anyone who's fought Jack Sparrow of more than once knows he's a wicked [[The Chessmaster|Chess Master]] with a one-track mind, sometimes the only way he can win a fight is by being unpredictable.

* In ''[[Push]]'', this is how the good guys hide their plan from the precognitive Pop Girl. Nick writes the individual steps of the plan down and seals them in envelopes, which are marked as to when and where they are to be opened. He then has his memory wiped so even ''he'' won't know what the group's going to do until he opens the envelopes he carries.

 

* In ''The Oval Amulet'', Paragrin beats Cam by swinging wildly. Kirk, however, knows what he's doing.

* ''The Traveler'' by John Twelve Hawks: The [[Hero Secret Service|Harlequins]] are sworn to protect the titular [[The Chosen One|Travelers]] from a [[The Empire|totalitarian shadow government]] which seeks to [[Anvilicious|eliminate liberty and free choice]]. To fight these control-freaks, Harlequins "cultivate randomness". They are deliberately unpredictable in battle and go so far as to use random number generators to make decisions in order to confound predictive tracking algorithms.

* In [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s early ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'' stories, the berserkers were [[Omnicidal Maniac|omnicidal]] self-replicating war machines whose combat strategies were driven by a random number generator, seeking to avoid predictability at almost any cost. As the series progressed, this aspect of the berserkers' programming came up less and less often and the berserkers' strategies became much more logical.

* ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' once referenced the adage that "The best swordsman does not fear the second best, he fears the worst since there's no telling what that idiot is going to do."

* In ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'', the narrator notes:

{{quote|The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot.}}

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': Harry Dresden often defeats opponents with hundreds, sometimes ''thousands'' of years of experience on him, buttloads more magical talent and skill, and vastly superior physical abilities often by doing things that are the exact opposite of sensible. With a bit of [[Gambit Index|every Gambit trope ever]] thrown in. Yes, even [[Unwitting Pawn]]. On Harry.

* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Ringworld|The Ringworld Throne]]'' and [[Ringworld|Ringworld's Children]], doing this sort of thing is the only way Luis Wu can stay in the game against the superhumanly smart protectors... until he becomes a protector himself.

 

* In ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]],'' Hiramekimedes, master of [[Awesomeness By Analysis]], kept losing to Hiroto, who was even better at it... {{spoiler|1=so he went [[One-Winged Angel]] and adopted a ''nonsense-based'' style, calling himself Detaramedes (''detarame'' = nonsense), fighting crazily and yelling things like "1+1=300!" He was winning until Sousuke, who has the usual [[Hot-Blooded]] hero's style of "charge in mindlessly and win via plot convenience," stepped in. ''Throwing his sword and riding it like a surfboard,'' he managed to finalize Detaramedes singlehandedly.}}

** ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'' has Gokai Green, "Doc" Don Dogoier. His teammates are all talented sword- and/or gunfighters, but he isn't; instead he (kind of) makes up for it by doing all sorts of wacky things like using a trapeze, [[Wrestler in All of Us|wrestling moves]], [[Improvised Weapon]]s like tree branches and buckets, and even tripping and pratfalling. In effect, Don has '''weaponized''' being the [[Comic Relief]] [[Butt Monkey]]. This gets a lampshade in one episode where his teammate Joe asks why he doesn't ditch that "zany fighting style" and get more serious.

*** Because Glee is [[Bellisario's Maxim|deeply grounded in realism]], obviously.

 

 

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'''s [[Our Orcs Are Different|Orcs]] have the Animosity special rule, meaning that each turn there's a chance that any given greenskin mob might ignore orders and squabble amongst itself, shoot at or even charge a friendly unit making funny faces at them, or let loose a mighty "WAAAGH!" and charge at the enemy. If the army's general can't predict how it's going to behave, how can the enemy?

* The tradition continues with the [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|Orks]] of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. The dreaded [[Tele Frag|Shokk Attack Gun]] has a lengthy table for both [[Critical Failure|critical failures]] ''and'' [[Critical Hit|critical successes]], meaning that whenever it fires something interesting is going to happen. Looted vehicles have a chance of jolting forward each turn when their drivers hit the wrong button. Hitting a ramshackle Trukk dead-on with a lascannon might make it clatter apart comically without injuring its occupants, or send the flaming wreck veering off like a missile. Madboyz might tear the enemy general apart with their bare hands or stand around picking grubs out of each others' noses...

** A 3rd edition sourcebook included "Drunken Boxer" as a [[Prestige Class]].

** In ''[[Pathfinder]]'' and editions 1-3.5, an inexperienced player playing an illusionist will have trouble figuring out what to do with the class. A good illusionist will have the party's enemies chasing shadows, running into walls, falling off cliffs, and attacking their allies by mistake long before reaching 5th level. Unlike some Confusion Fu classes, the illusionist has to confuse his enemies with well-controlled and clever use of his powers, not rely on randomness.

* ''[[Feng Shui]]'' has a martial arts style based upon consuming alcohol. Yes, that's right ''consuming alcohol''. Needless to say, some of those fights can get a little strange...

* In the game ''Flash Duel'' Most characters have abilities that strengthen or debuff their opponents in a fantasy style sparing match. Lum's abilities plays a different game all together. One ability allows the player to take an extra turn for having a Poker Straight, or his other ability (out of three) gives your opponent a chance to forfeit the round to avoid losing the game!

 

* As a meta-example, ambiguous cross ups in most [[Fighting Game]]s. If the player needs to hold the directional stick away from the opponent in order to block, the attacker can cross the opponent up by jumping to the opposite side of the opponent and attacking while the opponent is holding the stick in the wrong direction. An ambiguous cross up is when a player attacks directly on top of his opponent, so neither player can actually tell which direction the victim is supposed to block.

** To a lesser extent, there is also the entire concept of mixups. Some attacks cannot be blocked in certain positions in order to prevent a player from endlessly holding block without fear of taking damage. Characters who can flow into multiple types of attacks make the defender have at least a 50-50 chance of correctly guessing what will come out next when simple reaction times aren't fast enough. The odds for the defender worsen when the attacker implement throws which must usually be broken with an input within a narrow time frame, delays to throw off any sense of rhythm, and cross ups (ambiguous or otherwise).

** A simpler example are novice players who resort to random [[Button Mashing]] and yet sometimes score wins against more experienced players.

* It's this basic principle that occasionally lets inexperienced [[Button Mashing|button mashers]] beat experienced players in fighting games (and other games) at least a few times. Skilled players and the AI are generally predictable, but it can be tricky fighting a flailing foe whose moves are often the ''worst'' in a normal situation.

* Voldo in ''[[Soul Calibur]]''. Very few characters in the series can keep up a volley of attacks at an opponent while ''facing the opposite direction''. Or while prone. And then there's his variety of interesting grab attacks, the most acrobatic of which is occasionally known by the [[Fan Nickname]] of "[[Where's Waldo|Where's Voldo]] [[Shout-Out|Now]]?"

** Ditto with Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu's repertoire includes propeller-based flight, teleportation, healing himself from the [[Lotus Position]], [[Seppuku]], spinning until dizzy, using his swords as stilts or pogo sticks, and a health-draining face grab, to name a few. Sometimes several of the above occur at once, and the health-drain also unlocks limited usage of a small move pool consisting of [[Shout-Out|an attack borrowed from each Tekken character]].

*** Some of the characters, while otherwise predictable, have one or two moves that can mess with people's heads. Mario's cape attack flips the directions his enemies are facing, which can confuse new players that don't know why they suddenly attack attacking backwards. King Dedede's projectile normally is just a Waddle De, but has a small chance being a Waddle Do, a Spike ball, or an Item.

** One of the reasons Meta Knight is the only one in S class in the tier list is that almost all of his special attacks can be used as recovery moves (on top of his five jumps) so it is impossible to predict how he will get back on the stage. Also his down B teleport move can really mess with people's heads.

** And Lucario has insanely weird hitboxes.

** Olimar uses Pikmin in all of his attacks. Each color of Pikmin has different properties, and when Olimar creates them, they spawn randomly. When Olimar performs an attack, the line cycles, so his next attack will use the next Pikmin in line. This means that different strategies open up depending on what order your Pikmin are in. Fun times for both players.

** Every Minor (except Disco Kid) and Major Circuit fighter in Title Defense has some sort of feint, delayed attack, or other unpredictable movement, which is the main source of the mode's [[Nintendo Hard]] reputation.

* ''[[BlazBlue]]'' has the insane [[Eldritch Abomination]] Arakune, who fights much like you'd expect an insane blob-thing to fight. He can teleport, turn invisible, glide, fire out projectile clouds with random properties, and some of his moves are actually ''fake-outs'' for teleports.

** Now accompanied by [[Magical Girl|Platinum the Trinity]], who has six different modes to switch between. Her randomness is limited by the fact that her next mode can be seen by both players, but anything beyond that is as random as Zappa's ghosts.

* ''[[Virtua Fighter]]''. Shun Di, especially in ''VF 4 Evo'': starts out predictable, [[Drunken Master|but you get enough drinks in him]], and there's basically no position he can't be a threat from.

* Patty Fleur in the [[Play Station 3]] version of ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. Almost all of her attacks have random effects, some of which can actually end up damaging herself or the entire party. The things used for said attacks are just random, including a mini rocket ship she can ride out of the battlefield, presents with harmful "gifts" in them, a frying pan, and mahjong pieces.

 

* Nemen Yi, the Chosen of Battles in ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'', fights using a unorthodox Sidereal Martial Arts style that involves [[Medium Awareness]] and [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]], literally. She jumps between panels of the comic strip, breaks off a piece of the gutter to throw at an enemy (which then pins them in place, because ''the gutter doesn't move''), tosses her opponents across panels, and uses the perspective of the comic to hit enemies out of her reach—the [[Real Life]] equivalent of "I squish your head". It's enough to utterly baffle her Abyssal opponents, with whom she mops the floor quite handily. It doesn't hurt that, in ''[[Exalted]]'', Sidereals can make themselves impossible to predict by most people.

** She also looks down towards the following panels of the comic to see what will happen in the future. Yep, Sidereals.

* Lord Sykos from ''[[The Wotch]]'' is particularly dangerous because, though his moves are random, each individual move is also incredibly clever and effective, showing a keen understanding of the psychology of most magicians.

* Vriska of ''[[Homestuck]]'' is armed with the [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004099 Fluorite Octet], a set of [[Numerological Motif|eight eight-sided dice]] that "execute a wide range of highly unpredictable attacks" when rolled; the higher the roll, the more powerful and lucky the attack. It's implied this is a bit of a double-edged sword, as getting a low roll against a sufficiently powerful opponent would leave the attacker defenseless. However when she rolls the highest possible number, 8^y (where y=8), she {{spoiler|channels the fighting soul of her ancestor and is able to go toe to toe with an omnipotent super being}}, something NONE of the readers saw coming

 

* Superheroic teenager Random from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' gains a new set of superpowers every time he wakes up. This makes it impossible for his opponents to plan ahead when confronting him, as they never know what he's going to be capable of.

* Appears on ''[[The Guild]]''. Kwan is revealed to be a champion-level gamer [[Up to Eleven|in Korea]]. He was defeated by {{spoiler|Mr. Wiggly}}, who seemingly picked his spells at random—including spells so unorthodox that Kwan hadn't bothered defending against them.

* [[Crazy Awesome]] Jade Sinclair (Generator) of the [[Whateley Universe]] seems to live this trope. Up against a mercenary in power armor? She beat him by first stabbing herself on his blade. Up against an unbeatable holographic simulation? She invented the Radioactive Condor Girl attack.

** Although plenty of Team Kimba characters have tried this move at least once. Fey, opposing The Necromancer and a host of prepared spells his minion Nightgaunt was firing at her back, opted for an uncontrolled release of wild magic that manifested as hundred of hobgoblins she had no control over.

 

* ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]'': Crazed toymaker Quackerjack. In addition to his deadly toys, his sheer instability and unexpected acrobatics make him as much of a challenge as the other members of the [[Five-Bad Band/Western Animation|Fearsome Five]].

* The episode of ''[[South Park]]'' where Cartman thinks he died plays with this, in that Cartman actually intended to use his ghostly spookyness as the tactic. However, being that Cartman was entirely visible, what the criminals saw definitely qualifies as this trope.

 

* "The world's best swordsman need only fear its worst, because he has no idea what that idiot will do." See the Quotes page.

* Often seen in the chess world. Many's the amateur who succeeds through offbeat play, and even at the grandmaster level, some players favour bizarre openings like 1. b4. A 19th-century example, William Potter, is described in ''Lasker's Manual of Chess'':

* The Karate school [[wikipedia:Genseiryu|Genseiryu]] is a more controlled version of Confusion Fu; while it doesn't employ the outright random attacks of many examples on this page, the style is founded on the idea of the practitioner gaining the advantage over his opponent by making his movements and attacks difficult for his opponent to read or predict.

* [[Drunken Boxing]] runs on this - it's meant to be hard to predict, using flowing movements that emulate a drunken stagger.

 

{{reflist}}