Heroic Second Wind/Playing With

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Basic Trope: The hero gets a climactic second wind.

  • Straight: After being apparently beaten, Bob finds new resolve, stands up, and delivers a finishing blow to his enemy.
  • Exaggerated: Bob becomes absurdly powerful after being injured, to the point where he deliberately allows himself to be beaten to invoke this ability.
  • Justified: Bob has a Healing Factor, Bottled Heroic Resolve, or is hiding some kind of Phlebotinum.
    • Alternately, he's faking being beaten.
  • Inverted: The villain gets up after being beaten by Bob.
  • Subverted: Bob gets his second wind, only to have the villain defeat him again, for good. See Hope Spot.
  • Double Subverted: Bob gets his second wind only to be defeated again. Then he gets a third wind. Can be repeated if needed.
  • Parodied: The hero and villain play a continual game of one-upmanship with this trope, each getting up repeatedly after being beaten down. Cue Inaction Sequence.
    • Alternately, he tries it and gets an Offhand Backhand from the villain, plus mockery for his trouble.
  • Deconstructed: Bob tries this and suffers crippling, permanent injuries or death as a result.
    • Alternately, Bob's power comes from a Super-Powered Evil Side, and every time Bob is seriously injured, he loses control of it temporarily. Each incident also permanently damages his ability to control it as well, meaning that eventually Bob is going to either die or lose control for good and become a Complete Monster.
  • Reconstructed: However, the injuries/death spur thousands of other heros to rise up and use what happened to Bob as a rallying cry of what they are fighting for, and defeat the villain who did this to Bob.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob gets back up, but after a second bout with the villain, he passes out, leaving the villain alive, but he jerks in his sleep, trips the villain, the noise of the fall wakes him up and puts him back on even footing with the villain.
    • Alternatively, see Double Subverted.
  • Averted: Bob is unable to get back up. He's beaten.
  • Enforced: Certain types of heroes (or particular characters) are expected to do this, to the point where the audience is disappointed if they don't.
  • Lampshaded: "Oh, Bob's fine -- he'll get back up and kick Dave's ass any second now."
  • Invoked: A character intentionally lures an opponent into (apparently) beating him senseless so that he can pull off a surprise victory with this trope.
  • Defied: The villain takes extra steps to ensure that the hero won't get back up.
  • Discussed: "Uh, oh, Bob is hulking out! Dave's toast now!"
  • Conversed: "Just watch. This is the part where he gets up again and runs the guy through!"

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