Foe-Tossing Charge: Difference between revisions

When somebody spots their nemesis or target or temporary #1 foe across a battlefield and they go after them, anyone who comes at them or gets in their way as they charge will be [[The Worf Effect|thrown aside]] without a glance. If it's a good guy going after a bad guy, the emphasis will be on [[Determinator|how determined they are]]; if it's a bad guy going after a good guy, the message will be more that the bad guy's [[Implacable Man|really big and strong]] [[The Juggernaut|and intimidating]]. If the bad guy is ''really'' evil he'll even mow down his own people just to get at his target.

 

 

 

Depending on how [[Badass]] the target of this are, this can also end in a massive [[Oh Crap]] from said target.

 

{{examples}}

* This happens a number of times on the football field in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''.

** This is Gaou's way of playing offense. His team runs a game where the players follow Gaou as he runs over and through anyone who gets in his way. [[Worthy Opponent|Until he meets Kurita.]]

** Near the end of the Soul Society Arc, three lieutenants try to block Ichigo's path; Ichigo takes all three down in two seconds and keeps going. This doubles as a [[Look What I Can Do Now!]] moment (especially given that a single lieutenant gave him trouble several episodes back - though, to be fair, said lieutenant was abnormally powerful for his rank). Even more awesome because he did it with his ''bare hands'', even smashing one of the lieutenant's weapons with his fist ''after'' they powered up!

** In anime episode #14, Ichigo does this to a massive group of hollow to get to [[The Lancer|Uryu Ishida]]. Partially to help, mostly so he could be up close as he continued to call him [[Jerkass|an asshole]], A) [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|For getting them in this mess in the first place]] and B) [[What the Hell, Hero?|For endangering half the town in the process]].

* ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' once had Mugen being denied sex he paid for from a female [[Ninja]] posing as a prostitute. When she needs help later, she whispers something in his ear, and says she'll do it if he helps. Thus we have Mugen beating the shit out of a bunch of guard while ''unarmed and half-naked''.

* Shannon Casull in ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'' gets his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], when he enters a room full of enemies and notices his little sister Pacifica handcuffed and surrounded on the other side of it. Let's just say it takes a [[Physical God]] to stop his charge.

* Luffy from ''[[One Piece]]'' does this often. Most notably when he charges through ''5000 people'' to get to CP9.

** He tries this later when trying to save {{spoiler|his brother Ace from execution}}, along with several other pirates, including all of {{spoiler|Whitebeard's}} crew. However, it doesn't work so well when some of the foes he's trying to toss are Vice-Admirals and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Whitebeard has more luck with it, though.

* In ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'', Ashitaka does this to get to San and Eboshi when San attacks Iron Town, in a rare combination of this and [[Tranquil Fury]].

** It's also the basic assault method of the Boar Gods {{spoiler|until Jigo's engineers took advantage of it}}. [[Big Badass Wolf|Moro]] herself indulged in it when attacking Eboshi's convoy in the mountain, killing more people by shoving them off the cliff than by mauling them.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' when [[Tsundere|Yoko]] does a Foe Tossing Charge... to punch Kamina in the face. Reason? He got so [[Distracted by the Sexy]] his opponents ''jacked his [[Humongous Mecha]] from him''.

 

* The Juggernaut does this in the film ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]] 3''. He also does this any time he appears in any medium. It's kinda his thing.

* After having his life and reputation all but ruined by his archenemy [[Big Bad|Cobweb]], [[Marvel Comics]] hero ''[[Sleepwalker]]'' fought his way through a mob of Cobweb's [[Mooks]] on his way to finally capturing and banishing the monster for good in the final issue of the series.

* The first time we see [[Sin City|Marv]] attacks is when he barreling through the door of a hotel room, tossing cops aside like tin pins.

 

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', Paul does this (well, it's more of a foe-tossing series of hops) to the skeletons and zombies as he makes his way to the ruined city to rendezvous with the others and destroy the Heart of Evil. And he laughs all the way there.

* Asuka pulls this off in the finale of ''[[Neon Exodus Evangelion]]''.

* In ''[[Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]'', Medley does this to save Rainbow Dash's life. But [[It Got Worse]] aftermath.

 

* A staple of [[Wire Fu]] movies, notably ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]''.

* In the film version of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: The Fellowship of the Ring'', Sam, Merry, and Pippin get tossed aside when they attempt to protect Frodo from the Ringwraiths on Weathertop. (In the book, Frodo is a bit more proactive, and attacks the Ringwraiths himself.)

** Subverted when {{spoiler|Gandalf and the Three Hunters arrive at the Golden Hall: Gandalf strides forwards unstoppably to confront Saruman/Theoden, while in the background Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli do the foe-tossing.}}

** Near the end of the Helms Deep battle the few remaining Rohirrim pressed in the inner sanctum of the keep decide to go with a boom and charge into the Uruk-Hai army in a suicide attack trampling and tossing aside everybody in their way. {{spoiler|The attack turns out not to be so suicidal after all}}.

* In ''[[Terminator]] 2: Judgment Day'', some poor passerby gets riddled with bullets for standing between the T-1000 and the T-800 when they open fire.

* In ''[[The Patriot]]'', Colonel Tavington (bad guy) and [[Mel Gibson]]'s character spot each other across the battlefield in the final battle. Each then slices, shoots, and wades his way through the other side's Mooks to get to his nemesis.

* In ''[[The Forbidden Kingdom]]'', the [[Monkey King]] tosses Jade soldiers left and right with his staff as he leaps through the air. This is not to reach the Jade Warlord or anything, he just thinks it's fun.

* Name a movie about American Football, any movie - you'll find someone plowing through a group of the opposing team at one point.

* Done in the Wire-Fu movie ''[[Hero (film)|Hero]]'', wherein two protagonists tear straight through an army of mooks to gain access to the palace.

* ''[[Blood Diamond]]'' has an interesting take in which the man doing the charge is actually trying to ''save'' the guy he's after, but the other think he's going to kill him and keeps fleeing.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZsMDgRhWsg Zhang Fei] in ''[[Red Cliff]]''.

* In the [[Chronicles of Narnia]]: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe film (2005), after Peter witnesses the White Witch {{spoiler|fatally stab his brother Edmund}}, he charges her, smacking a minotaur aside in the process with one wild swing of his sword. Just before he began his Foe Tossing Charge, he had been fighting another minotaur (and had considerable trouble killing it), so this could also count as a [[Let's Get Dangerous]] moment.

** A bit previous to this, the centaur general Oreius and a ''talking rhino'' charge the White Witch's polar-bear-drawn chariot, mowing down her right-hand minotaur in the process, in order to protect Peter. And it's awesome.

* In ''[[Airplane!]]!'', Robert Stack's Captain Rex Kramer refuses to be delayed on his way to the control tower by a gauntlet of evangelists and political activists.

** One must go back to the time when ''[[Airplane!]]!!'' was released. At that time it was very common to be approached in that manner in airports. Most people were more than a little annoyed, making that scene a one which prompted much cheering and applause.

 

* Happens twice in the Battle of Five Armies near the end of ''[[The Hobbit]]''. First when Thorin and company (of 12) fight their way as far as Bolg's bodyguard. Second (and more effective) is when Beorn fights his way to Bolg himself.

** Double points for Beorn {{spoiler|being a werebear in [[Everything's Worse with Bears|giant bear]] form.}}

* In ''[[The Dresden Files|Proven Guilty]]'', Morgan is said to have cut his way through a Red Court army, coming within feet of the Red King himself.

* In ''[[Safehold|Off Armageddon Reef]]'', by [[David Weber]], [[Badass|Merlin]] engaged in one of these near the end of the book. Merlin is an incredibly advanced android with strength, speed, and reflexes far above human capacity; he is equipped with nanoengineered nigh-unbreakable incredibly sharp [[Katanas Are Just Better|katanas]]. (Well, technically, a katana and a wakizashi.) [[Curb Stomp Battle|His foes are sailors equipped with metal armor, swords, spears, axes, and primitive muskets]]. To quote the book: "he went through his enemies like an avalanche, more hampered by their corpses than by their weapons."

* The novel ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Old Republic]]: Deceived'' start with the novelization of the Sith sneak attack on Coruscant, specifically the attack on the Jedi Temple, which is shown in a trailer for the MMORPG. As the Jedi and Sith disciples battle in the temple's entrance hall, Darth Malgus spots the most experienced Jedi currently at the temple, Jedi Master Ven Zallow. Both are having little trouble killing the other side's acolytes. Malgus rushes towards Zallow, killing Jedi left and right, while Zallow is busy slaughtering Sith warriors. Unfortunately, after an intense fight, Malgus ends up killing Zallow and destroying the temple.

 

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', episode: "The Gift". Buffy heads to where Dawn is; the guy who was bleeding Dawn steps forward and says, "Ah, the Slayer. This should be interest-" He is then flung off the ledge and plummets several stories.

** In the same episode, {{spoiler|Ben}} is completely horrified to find he can remember what it felt like as Glory doing one of these through an army of knights with only the divine strength in her bare hands: crushing bones, ripping flesh, soaked in blood...

** In "The Wish", Buffy and the Master each fling aside several vampires as they charge across the room to fight each other

* Played for laughs in ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]''. Whenever the normally shy and gentle Black Ranger gets inspired by his love interest, he turns this [[Up to Eleven]], mowing down every Mook in sight and the [[Monster of the Week]], including enemies the other Rangers were in the process of taking out - leading to some comical swing-and-a-miss shots.

* In the season 2 finale of [[Carnivale]], {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Justin Crowe]] hacks his way through a crowd of ''[[Kick the Dog|his own]]'' followers with a sickle, to reach [[The Hero|Ben Hawkins]]}}

 

* This is one way to interpret the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' ''trample'' ability in "real combat" terms. (the other interpretation being that the creature simply walks over its opponents.)

** Actually, a lot of cards have art where the creature shown is doing some serious foe tossing trampling. Giants tend to do this a lot.

** There's also the ''Zeal'' spell, which lets you move through enemies and gives you some protection from their attacks of opportunity as long as you keep moving towards a designated target.

* It's not only possible but thoroughly encouraged in [[Iron Kingdoms|Warmachine]] to slam your enemies about the battlefield. More than one unwary player has found their key units disable by a well-timed slam attack and it forms the basis of one of the most simple assassination strategies.

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', this is possible and encouraged. Then again, if you weren't capable of charging through crowds of mooks and send them flying into the stratosphere, it wouldn't be ''Exalted'', would it?

 

* Used often in the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series. A character will, at a dramatic moment, ignore movement rules and move across the ''entire'' map to attack a specific character. They also ignore HP or anything else, doing [[MacGuffin]] level damage.

* ''[[Nethack]]'' gets very much like this later in the game, with many of the more nastier enemies summoning monsters at the player, and killing them just gives the summoner time to summon more. Then there's the big room full of monsters before facing the Wizard of Yendor, Yendor himself calling a bunch of nasties (or even a clone of himself), another such room full of undead, and after that some demons and a bunch of [[Goddamn Bats|bug-summoning]] priests, right before the amulet-carrying High Priest of Moloch, and as the ultimate example, the Astral Plane with more priests summoning annoying little insects, angels and other astral beings, a gang of former heroes, and three Riders of the Apocalypse ganging up against the player. In all of these examples, beating all of your enemies would be quite crazy, when all you need to do is to get through them - and sometimes back again.

* ''[[Bloodline Champions]]'' has a few examples of charges in the game, though it's less tossing enemies aside and more causing anything hit to be temporarily incapable of defending themselves from the force.

* In ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'', Nero performs one of these when trying to reach {{spoiler|Sanctus in his order armor before he escapes, carrying Kyrie with him}}. At first, he gets battered by enemies as his attention is diverted {{spoiler|to the aforementioned spoiler}}, but quickly proceeds to start throwing the enemies, before finally bursting through a group of them.

* ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' is probably the video game poster child for this trope... worse yet, some incarnations of characters in 'Warriors' franchise games (for example, Lu Bu, or some ''[[Samurai Warriors]] 2'' characters) can toss their foes... and worse yet, it's usually unblockable!

** Sanada Yukimura is known for this, in any games he appeared, especially [[Samurai Warriors]]. In fact, he did that in Real Life, obviously his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], tossing and plowing through the Tokugawa soldiers with only some trusted men, or himself alone, until he reached Ieyasu face to face, only to declare that he has ran out of energy and died afterwards. No wonder Ieyasu was so impressed and dubbed him ''Japan's Number One Soldier''

** In ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 6'', Zhao Yun and all the other characters with the True Speed ability do exactly this (once it's activated). And Zhao Yun himself did this in Romance of the Three Kingdoms to save Liu Bei's son in the battle of Chang Ban. (And ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 6'''s intro...)

**** Gan Ning is also infamous for this as his default Musou attack. Once you hit the button, he just charges and DOES NOT STOP until the bar is empty.

***** Koei has changed the way musou attacks work. Prior to DW7, a musou was a warrior attack swinging their weapon or using a power until the bar ran out. Now that it is a single-button-press action with huge variations between characters, many characters now have musous involving forward movement, slicing, smacking or otherwise blowing away '''dozens of enemies at a time''' while charging through them.

* In ''[[Dead Rising]]'' there are several ways to do this. Just grab a nearby skateboard, shopping cart, parasol or any other handy melee weapon and off you go.

* The Tank from ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' does this in the opening cinematic, either knocking aside, crushing or ripping apart any zombie unlucky enough to be between him and the survivors he's trying to kill, even though the other zombies are trying to do the exact same thing.

* In ''[[Dawn of War]] II'', the Force Commander has a skill called "To Victory" which involves him quickly charging to a selected point. This causes all cover-type obstacles in the path to be destroyed, and all enemies to fly around. Painfully.

** The Grey Knights, introduced in one of the expansions to the original, have this as an optional upgrade. Heavy weapon squads and Tau Fire Warriors really, '''really''' hate it.

* Dragons in almost any RPG trailer almost always show up by stomping on (or eating) a fellow evil mook to show off just how big they are. Both Warhammer and [[Dragon Age]] for example have this happen.

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' 2, when {{spoiler|Ezio's father and brothers are executed}}, he tries to pull this on his way to kill the guy that did it. Unfortunately, he's stopped by a pair of heavies and disarmed, forcing him to run.

* Haseo toss 5 PKers to the sky then slash all of them with scythe at the opening scene of ''[[.hack GU Games|.hack//G.U.]]''.

* Titan mutants in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' will charge at Batman without the slightest concern for the thugs caught in their pace. [[Bullfight Boss|You can use this to your advantage]].

* The Charge move in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' for the [[Magic Knight|Vanguard]].

** Grunt also has a tendency to do this whenever he shouts "[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|I AM KROGAN!]]"

** In the Multiplayer section of [[Mass Effect 3]], aside from the Vanguard's Biotic Charge, Krogans can do a running charge that is guaranteed to kill [[Cannon Fodder]] in a single hit. The Resurgence Pack means we now have Vanguard Krogan.

* In ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]] III'', Kratos can do this when he grabs an enemy, using their body as a battering ram as he dashes through enemies. After running for a while he'll simply toss the body or if he hits a wall he slams their head around.

** This is also true in Capcom's line of Marvel tournament fighters, where most of the big characters have a charge attack that will send an opponent skyward.

** Modern era ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]]'' games like ''[[Sonic Rush Series|Sonic Rush]]'' and ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' day stages give Sonic himself the ability to do this in-game with the [[Nitro Boost|Sonic Boost]], letting him run through enemies like they are nothing.

* The Standard-Reaction of a very pissed [[Kingdom Hearts|Keyblade-Wielder.]] In one especially memorable instance, it involved ''cutting their way through large, LARGE buildings''.

* [[Everything's Worse with Bears|Volibear]] from ''[[League of Legends]]'' has an ability that gives him increased speed and flings his victim backwards over his head. [[Mad Scientist|Singed]] has a similar skill.

 

* [[Problem Sleuth]] had a habit of throwing Mooks through the doors of the Cathedral of Syndetic Ascension as he scaled each floor to try to look badass.

* More of an Innocent-Bystander Tossing Charge, as Summer goes [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=109561 running after her friend] in ''[[Everyday Heroes]]''.

 

* In ''[[The Gamers Alliance]]'', [[Loveable Rogue|Refan]] and [[Sorcerous Overlord|Zarnagon]] go at each other during the Second Battle of Myridia, each tossing away any enemy that stands between them.

* In Episode 8 of ''[[Super Mario Bros Z]]'', Mario and Sonic team up to do this while [[Storming the Castle|Storming the Omega Doomship.]]

 

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''

** Prince Zuko once simultaneously took down multiple "elite" Royal Procession Firebenders to get to his sister in the second season premiere. One might argue that said sister [[The Worf Effect|proceeding to smack him around like a red-headed stepchild]] served to weaken the overall effect of said charge, or confirm that ''she'' [[Eviler Than Thou|was even scarier]]. They could also be holding back because Zuko is a member of the royal family. Or it could be because good ole [[Badass Grandpa|Uncle Iroh]] was tossing them about too.

** Subverted in episode 2 when Sokka prepares for one of these against Zuko and is unceremoniously kicked into a snowbank.

* Makes an appearance during the wedding scene in the first ''[[Shrek]]'' movie. The eponymous ogre and Fiona find themselves beset by Mooks; Shrek starts 'wading' through them, throwing them off as necessary. They manage to slow him, but we never get to find out the ending thanks to a [[Gunship Rescue]] moment.

* Animated film example: In the 1986 ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'', Optimus Prime does a surprisingly dramatic version of this before confronting Megatron.

** The absolute best part is the [[Oh Crap]] look on Thrust's face... which is reflected on the front of Prime while he's running over him! You could also call this a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]... if Prime weren't already the most awesome thing there.

** Another ''Transformers'' example: in ''[[Beast Machines]]'', Noble/Savage chases after a group of fleeing Cycle-drones. They go around a corner behind a short wall, and we see the Drones fly up into the air and fall back down.

* In Disney's ''[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]]'', Lady Cluck, a dumpy, motherly anthropomorphic chicken, does this to an army of ''rhinoceros'' mooks - all in the style of a NFL player. Set to two college fight songs, USC's and "On Wisconsin."

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Nothing will stop Beast Boy from getting to the Brain! He cares not for the hundred or so villains his friends are all dealing with, He '''MUST''' get to the Brain!

* Norman does this in ''[[Mighty Max]]'' during one zombie episode to help Max get to Virgil.

* Aragh has quite an epic foe tossing charge in [[The Flight of Dragons]] animated film when he charges through possibly hundreds of Sandmurks to reach and then kill the queen Sandmurk.

{{quote|'''Kent Brockman:''' What began as a traditional soccer riot has escalated into a city-wide orgy of destruction! }}

 

* Cyrus the Younger tried to pull this during the Battle of Cunaxa, charging into the Persian emperor's bodyguard of 6000 horsemen with his own escort one-tenth that size. His charge came as a complete surprise and scattered his opponents, but his foe tossing was cruelly interrupted by enemy javelin tossing, with fatal effect.

* Pelopidas of Thebes attempted this during the First Battle of Cynoscephalae to get to his hated enemy, the tyrant Alexander of Pherae. He did not have superhuman strength, though, and fought on foot, and his enemy's bodyguards were not so amused by his attempts to toss them aside. Once they had disposed of him, they discovered to their dismay that his death was a [[Berserk Button|cause for renewed enthusiasm]] on the part of his army, which proceeded to utterly wipe them out.

* At Arras in May 1940, shortly before the fall of France, a posse of British tanks charged the Germans, who quickly found out that their 37mm anti-tank guns were useless against the thick-skinned Matildas<ref>despite the silly name</ref> and their Panzers IIs and IIIs couldn't even dent them. It was only many miles later that Rommel managed to patch up a defensive line of 88s and 105s, neither of them actually intended as anti-tank weapons. Only two battalions took part in the attack, but the Germans thought they'd been hit by five ''divisions''.

** Very few people seem to realise that the British and French together were stronger in tanks (and arguably with better tanks) than the Germans. Where they fell down was in the command and control area. There were other factors too: French Generals who'd e.g. been Captains and Majors at Verdun in 1916 were so traumatised by the 1940 German invasion of France that British officers had to pick them up and physically ''shake'' them to make them come up with a battle plan. Ironically, the impulsive and over-eager generals of the First World War might have performed ''better'' under the circumstances and with the same technology.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:This Index Is Unstoppable]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]