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Game-Breaking Injury: Difference between revisions
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Well, it just so happens right before The Hero got into this battle, they were injured in another encounter whether it be an everyday accident or while fighting off a few [[Elite Mooks]]. The Big Bad quickly notices The Hero's weakened state and quickly shifts the tide of battle. If they really want to ensure victory, then The Big Bad will take every chance to aggravate the injury even more by relentlessly attacking it.
Not to be confused with an [[Achilles' Heel]], characters suffering from a
Game Breaking Injuries can be used either as a plot device or as a means of character development. If The Hero is also a [[Determinator]] they will simply push through the pain and use their limb as normal. If [[The Rival]] is involved in this trope and is of greater skill than The Hero, in order for them to lose to The Big Bad, they might suffer a Game Breaking Injury in order to weaken them. Sometimes it's a [[Retired Badass]] who has an old war injury. If that character is also an [[Obi
[[Truth in Television]], of course, especially in the sports world, where severe injuries can end careers and leave players crippled for life.
A type of [[Drama
{{examples
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** Another moment where Sanji suffered a Game Breaking Injury was during the ''Drum Island Arc''. After being buried by an avalanche he later helps defend the doctor who saved his life. He's unable to fight due because the [[Dr. Jerk|old bitch]] hit him in the back to temporarily paralyze him and keep him from aggravating the wound.
** After using up ''all'' his strength defeating Rob Lucci, Luffy was so injured and exhausted that he could do nothing to protect himself from incoming cannon-fire, requiring his crew to intervene on his behalf to save him.
** Zoro recently suffered a major Game Breaking Injury from [[
* In ''[[Baki the Grappler]]'', the title character fights Koushou Shinogi, a martial arts master who can cut nerve endings, causing certain limbs to become unresponsive. During the fight, Shinogi had managed to render Baki's entire right side useless.
* In ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'', the main character has a match against Takuma Saeki, who is better known as The Speed Star. During the match, Seaki resorted to using jabs to swell up Ippo's eye so that he would be unable to see out of it then using this new blindspot as a way to help him deliver surprise attacks.
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** Many of the examples given so far are actually [[Truth in Television]]. It is very common for fighters to specifically attack a cut created earlier or to keep attacking a swollen eye. Legends like Roberto Duran were notoriously dirty in their fights, but were expert at hiding it from the referee. Arturo Gatti once broke his hand in the middle of a fight and kept using it. Matter of fact, much of what's ever happened in boxing is sometimes too crazy to think it might have actually happened.
*** You can add Sonny Liston blinding opponents with vaseline on his gloves, boxers thumbing the eyes with their punches (less common today), and headbutting and rubbing your head in a cut.
* Piccolo resorted to using Game Breaking Injuries at the end of the first ''[[
** Also, in the movie "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan," Broly was '''stabbed through the gut with a dagger.''' Many years later, guess where Goku punches him.
* In the final volume of ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'', {{spoiler|Onizuka is targeted by a group of [[Batter Up|baseball bat-wielding]] [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels|motorcycle riders]] who hit him in the head multiple times. What really makes this fight dramatic is that Onizuka is suffering from a brain condition in which if he suffers one more major blow to the head, he will die. The biker gang is well aware of this information.}}
* During the fight with [[Magnificent Bastard|Shishio]] in [[Rurouni Kenshin]], the entire cast feels this. Kenshin's been weakened to the point that he has to string multiple special moves together to even get Shishio to flinch, Saito's legs have been injured, making his signature attack useless, Sanosuke can't properly perform his special attack, and Aoshi can barely fight. Ultimately, Shishio's own
** Also averted earlier, when Saito was trying to prove to Sanosuke that he's not strong enough to help Kenshin: Saito beats him up effortlessly, bare-handed, and ''specifically'' avoids aiming for Sano's injured shoulder.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]: [[The Movie]]'' has Spike taking a gunshot wound to the stomach right before his fight with Vincent in the climax fight. For the most part he doesn't feel it until his opponent grabs at it.
** The same happens in the series finale, as when Spike is [[Storming the Castle]], he is shot in the arm, which puts it out of action. [[Badass|Barely slows him down though]].
* ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]'' has a few of these moments, which are literally Gamebreaking Injuries
** Kunimitsu Tezuka {{spoiler|has an old injury in his left elbow due to the immense amount of strain his techniques put it through ''and'' a rather cruel bullying-related incident.}} In his match against Atobe {{spoiler|Tezuka was first to lose, on account of his shoulder being blown out because of his subtle tendencies in favoring his elbow, Something Atobe was very aware of.}}
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* Terry Bogard injures his ankle right before being asked to fight Kim Kaphwan in ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and was unable to use any sort of kicking attacks. He managed to come out on top. However, {{spoiler|his fight against Krauser did not go as well and his injured legs played a major factor in this loss}}.
* Guts' first encounters the Holy Iron Chain Knights in ''[[Berserk]]'' after getting the hell smacked out of him by Rosine. He still manages to kill several of them before getting knocked out.
** The Knights were really lucky to get away with so few casualties considering A). The Knights consist mostly of undertrained nobles (whose parents wanted them to serve in the military without actually, you know, getting HURT!) and B). Guts is also known as [[One
* During a supposedly easy mission, [[
* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', Hiruma was forced to play the second half of the {{spoiler|Deimon-Hakushuu game with a ''broken right arm'' after a fateful run-in with Hakushuu lineman Rikiya Gaou. Hiruma, is right handed and the ''quarterback'' of his team,}} but because he's HIRUMA, {{spoiler|he still manages to pull the Devil Bats through for the win.}}
** Sena's legs were already pushed past their limits (to the point his legs were burning up so much that stream was literally coming out of his legs) at keeping up with Agon and he continued on to play throughout the entire again despite the pain.
* Utterly hilarious variation from ''[[Clannad (
* In ''[[Ranma
* ''[[
* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist]] Edward fights against #66, an executed convict with his soul bound to a suit of armour, with the binding rune in his helmet. Edward seemed to have won by knocking it off, but was stabbed in the side when it turns out ''two'' souls were in the armour (one controlling the head, one controlling the body). Not only was Edward exhausted, but now he was heavily losing blood, and only barely managed to win.
** Only a few pages later, Edward was confronted with the homonculus Envy. He tried to attack, but the combination of a missing bolt and the wear-and-tear of the previous battle caused his automail arm to fail. Luckily Envy only punched him in the gut and let him live.
* ''[[Monster (
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Naruto]]'': According to Jugo, Sasuke had trouble facing Killerbee because the wounds he sustained fighting {{spoiler|Itachi}} hadn't properly healed. Earlier on, the curse mark serves as a
** Also, Gaara delivered a major one to Rock Lee, not only shattering his left arm and leg, but ''pieces of the bones were imbeded in his spinal column.'' If not for the fifth hokage, he would have lost his ninja career, his life's dream, and probably his spirit.
** Lee came close to having it happen ''again'' in his fight with Gensho. The latter nearly crushed his leg bone with a cross-block.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' has the [[Eye Scream|eye injury]] sustained by Lockon Stratos in an earlier battle become a significant factor in {{spoiler|his death at the hands of Ali Al-Saachez, who takes advantage of the blind spot it creates to deal a crushing blow to his mech, forcing Lockon to abandon it and [[Heroic Sacrifice|shoot Ali manually, exposing himself to return fire in the process]]}}.
* In ''[[Basilisk]]'', Gennosuke has the best [[Evil Eye|ability]] of them
* In ''[[Holyland]]'', a villain gunning to take down [[The Hero|Yuu]] and [[Big Brother Mentor|Masaki]] sends two hard-hitting gangsters to ambush Masaki on his way to their final showdown. Although Masaki trashes the pair, his leg gets injured and the villain's [[The Dragon|main enforcer]] is able to beat him as a result. This allows Yuu to be [[Big Damn Heroes]] when he shows up and subsequently defeats the enforcer.
* In the anime version of ''[[The Idolmaster (
* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', Red decides to turn down the position of Viridian Gym Leader because of the painful frostbite he sustained from the previous year's battle against the Elite Four. He does get better, but not before giving the position to Green.
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== Films ==
* Inverted in ''[[
* In ''[[
* Sherlock Holmes has suffered several injuries, mainly one to his shoulder in ''[[Sherlock Holmes a Game of Shadows]]'' which Moriarty {{spoiler|takes advantage of in their theorized fight}} but {{spoiler|Sherlock subverts it by [[Take a Third Option|taking a third option]]}}.
* Emperor Commodus in ''[[Gladiator (
* Used as a [[Chekhov's Gun]] ''twice'' in ''[[Point Break]]'' when Keanu Reeves's [[Informed Ability|Informed Disability]] (a literal
* Near the end of the tournament in ''[[The Karate Kid]]'', the evil karate instructor orders one of his students to [[Ordered to Cheat|break Daniel's leg]], which he does, disqualifying himself. Mr. Miyagi sets the injury and he fights the last bout with his bullying nemesis trying to hit the fracture... until Daniel [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnvXpLOzKeQ&feature=related does the kicking equivalent] of a FALCON PUNCH!
* Van Damme's character in ''[[Lionheart (
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Rumble in The Bronx]]'', Jackie broke his ankle jumping onto the hovercraft, and continued filming with the broken ankle.
* In [[Ong Bak]] 2, the protagonist gets into a massive battle royale against a large group of mooks. He eventually gets wounded by a sword slash to his gut, which he proceeds to bandage quickly to get back into the fight. Later, an assassin who took note of this proceeds to [[Combat Pragmatist|target the wounded area with clawing attacks]].
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== Live Action Television ==
* ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
== Literature ==
* Westley has a game-breaking condition in ''[[The Princess Bride (
* This is [[Older Than Print]]. In [[King Arthur]] legends, this is how Sir Gawain of Orkney dies. He had an old head wound that was nearly fatally reopened in a fight with Sir Lancelot. Lancelot refused to fight him while he was wounded and sent him to his tent to recover. Ironically, he was nearly healed when news that Mordred had taken over Camelot came. He insisted on going to war with his king, but had his head wound reopened AGAIN in a small skirmish with a bunch of untrained peasants on his way to a ship. He died minutes after the fight was over.
* The only reason {{spoiler|Whiskeyjack}} died in [[Malazan Book of the Fallen|Memories of Ice]] was because he had not healed his hurt leg.
* In ''Changes'', there seems to be one when {{spoiler|Harry breaks his back}}, but the person gets [[Power At a Price]] from {{spoiler|Queen Mab}} to be healed, among other things. We see later in ''[[Ghost Story]]'' that the choice wasn't exactly fair since {{spoiler|Lucifer}} interfered.
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** When {{spoiler|Crow stabs you in the back after you storm his joint}}, you start the battle off with half health.
* The second ''[[Resident Evil]]'' [[Video Game]] began having their heroes' body language reflect their overall health. If they took too much damage then they would start limping and not move as fast as they normally do. If you were low in health and had to run away from a group of zombies or a huge boss then you were in for a rough night.
* One of the trailers for ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]: Age of Reckoning'' features a rather one-sided battle between a Chaos warrior and a Sigmarite Warrior-Priest. lhe Latter is on his knees, having taken a nasty blow to the side, when suddenly his eyes and weapon come alive with a holy fire. The Chaos warrior just cocks his head and knees him in the injured side. You can watch the whole thing on www.blur.com
* In ''[[Rainbow Six]]'', getting wounded slows you down and decreases your aim accuracy. In ''Rogue Spear'' and later games, the characters are actually shown limping.
* Similarly in ''Operation: Flashpoint'', taking a wound in the arm would make it more difficult to aim. A wound in the legs could just slow you down, or make it outright impossible to stand at all.
* In ''[[The Godfather (
* Done in-plot in ''[[Yggdra Union]]''. Once the Royal Army has finally dispatched the corrupt priests blocking the way for Yggdra to get crowned, Gulcasa and the Imperial Army suddenly show up and attack you. Although the Royal Army tries to stall for time while the coronation is performed, Gulcasa proceeds to [[Hopeless Boss Fight|hand you your ass]] until his body ''very'' suddenly starts to give out on him due to side effects of the ritual where he assumed Brongaa's power. Fending him off becomes much more manageable, but being [[Determinator|his stubborn self]], Gulcasa keeps fighting until his overtaxed body hits the breaker switch on him and he collapses.
* Jubei suffers one of these off-screen in ''[[
* In ''[[
* After the [[Final Boss]] of [[Crisis Core]], Zack must fight his way through the entire Shin-ra Army. You start the fight out kicking ass left and right with no problem. But then the screen fades out. It cuts back in with several hours having gone by and far fewer enemies on the screen, but now Zack is reduced to limping and all of his attacks have a huge and interruptable windup. [[You Should Know This Already|Three guesses how the fight ends.]]
* In [[Dwarf Fortress]], a character can be crippled by wounds to different parts of the body. For example, broken arms can leave someone unable to wield weapons or shields, a severed motor nerve in the leg can leave someone unable to stand, eye injuries cause blindness, etc. Fortunately, multiple weapons and shields can be equipped to the same hand, and crutches can be used to regain standing ability, albeit at the cost of a speed penalty.
* ''Bloodstorm'' averts this awesomely. The enemy can ''cut off all your limbs'' and and leave you a quivering heap on the floor, sliding around on your intestines, but you can still ''win the fight'', using only headbutts.
* In the ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' series, allies and enemies limp or crawl when severely injured, however the player doesn't suffer from this.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', the Great Grey Wolf Sif slowly limps in pain when he is near death.
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* The opening scene of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' has this happen to Bruce Wayne, when his bad heart finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers and he is forced to use a gun to make the last attacker step down.
* In [[Transformers:
** The damage inflicted on Megatron in the battle is so severe that he cannot defend himself from Starscream's treachery the way he usually does when Starscream tosses him into space on the way back to Cybertron.
* [[Star Wars: Clone Wars]] has General Grevious being ridiculously impressive and highly adept at combat... and in the last episode, Mace Windu uses the Force to crush his chest, nearly killing him. Cue ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'', where he's coughing and wheezing painfully and jobs to everyone.
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' Megatron spends the entire first season in traction after Starscream planted a bomb on him in the first episode and he burned up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Megatron's efforts to fix his Game Breaking Injury make up a good chunk of the first season's plot, and they do pay off in the end. In the series finale Starscream {{spoiler|posthumously}} screws over Megatron ''again'' {{spoiler|with bombs he planted in the Omega Supreme clones}}. Megatron survives, but he is in such poor condition that Optimus curbstomps him.
** [[Big Good]] Ultra Magnus is torn apart by {{spoiler|Shockwave}}, leaving [[Jerkass|Sentinel Prime]] in charge of the Elite Guard. {{spoiler|[[Word of God]] confirms that Ultra Magnus ''died'' from his wounds.}}
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** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Amazingly subverted]] in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his leg earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents.
* The Minnesota Vikings' Ron Yary was notorious for playing in spite of injuries, particularly the occasion in the 1981 season where he played with a ''broken foot''. Not that this managed to effect his performance at all...
** Don't forget Brett Favre, whose noted "Ironman Streak" of Most Consecutive Starts at any [[
** Similarly, the Dallas Cowboys' Rayfield Wright came into the 1975 season with a weak knee and managed to shake the most powerful defensive ends in the league regardless.
** Jack Youngblood of the Los Angeles Rams actually played every single play on defense during Super Bowl XIV against the all-powerful Pittsburgh Steelers with a taped up broken leg. Considering that it was the Rams' first title game appearance in years, it was probably justifiable, as there is was no way he was going to miss the most important game of his life.
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* During the 2004 Olympics, Russian judoka Dmitri Nossov lost the semifinal, cutting his eyebrow muscle and seriously injuring his left arm. He still won a bronze medal ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r--bPIJYwXg using just the remaining arm]''.
* Football player Franz Beckenbauer played The "Game of the Century" against Italy in the 1970 World Cup semi-finals with his arm in a sling, because Germany had already used their two player substitutions.
* [[Kurt Angle]] famously won a gold medal with a [[Memetic Mutation|broken freakin' neck]].
* Good tactics in pretty much any type of equally-matched one-on-one REAL fight to the death involving blades. As opposed to working for that tidy one-shot to the chest, neck, or head. Once your opponent is bleeding out, his form is bound to suffer. That's assuming your foe's limbs are all still attached. And this can be done without closing in enough for him to land a [[Mutual Kill]]! Hollywood, however, disagrees.
** Doubly so in knife fights, since one-shot kills with knives are a bit harder to come by.
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* In Super Bowl XXXIX, Donovan [[Mc Nabb]] completed a pass to Terrell Owens, giving him an open-field run to the endzone. However, Owens hadn't fully recovered from a leg injury from earlier in the season, so instead of scoring a touchdown like he would have on a healthy leg, a Patriot defender was able to catch up and tackle him from behind. The Eagles proceeded to fumble on the next play and went on to lose the game by 3.
* The 2012 NBA season, coming right out of a lockout, is now notorious for various injuries ultimately benching players from ''any'' team.
** Chicago Bulls had Derrick Rose tear an ALC in his left knee; he will miss [[Dropped a Bridge
** Miami Heat had Chris Bosh straining his abdominal.
** New York Knicks had rookie Iman Shumpert and veteran Baron Davis also tearing their ACL.
** Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic harmed his back prior to the playoffs.
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[[Category:Injury Tropes]]
[[Category:Fight Scene]]
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