How Much More Can He Take?: Difference between revisions

When two supercharged beings hit each other with enough force to shatter a brick wall, but can take it because they are [[Nigh Invulnerable]], we have no way of knowing if the blow was significant or not. The character may reel, but after a moment he's back in the fight as if it had never happened. This is easy to accept at first, but if the fight goes on too long, you start getting lost, and the end of the fight becomes somewhat anti-climactic, since -- unlesssince—unless the writer finds an elegant way to make the fight's conclusion clearly decisive -- itdecisive—it's just an exchange of blows until one of them randomly [[Critical Existence Failure|takes a blow seemingly no different than any other and collapses.]] This can be especially damaging to the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] when the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]] is in play: you never get to ''personally'' witness the [[Informed Ability|assured growth in potency]] of the heroes and villains alike.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has normally made sure to emphasize the character's mortality during combat (such as things like sharpened stone spears being fatal like they should be). Then the match between Negi & Kotaro against Kagetaro & Rakan came about and threw all that out the window. {{spoiler|The match started with Raken being pummled by [[Full-Contact Magic|magically-enforced]] punches moving at [[Super Speed|over lightning speed]], being driven into the ground with a concentrated blast of [[Blow You Away|tropical squall-level winds]], then culminating in being at the center of an explosion of [[Shock and Awe|lightning]] [[No Kill Like Overkill|with enough heat to vapourize small mountains]]. [[The Juggernaut|He got back up]]. Then proceeded to beat the person who did it to him with punches of enough strength to kill high-level dragons and shatter large sections of earth. Repeatedly (supposedly by this point his organs should've been turned to mush; a [[High-Pressure Blood|High Pressure Bl]][[Blood From the Mouth|ood From The Mouth]] was in order). On Kotaro's end, he was stabbed through his arms, legs, and torso, then later got slashed at several key points on his body by a [a lot of[[BFS|BFSs]]s, ultimately being impaled through his back-to-chest with a sword larger than his head ([[One-Winged Angel|at the time]] [[Big Badass Wolf|this was saying something]]). His answer? Really good [[Healing Factor]]. The person who stabbed him? Currently pinned to a wall by [[Anti-Magic|magic-canceling]] [[BFS]]}}. This battle is still going. {{spoiler|And [[The Hero]] ''still'' has one more trumpcard. Always one more trumpcard}}. Of course, Rakan is essentially [[Beyond the Impossible|physics and logic defying power]] distilled into human form, so this kind of thing is really to be expected from him. From Negi, however...

** [[James Bond (film)|Bond]] and Trevelyn's fight at the end of ''[[GoldeneyeGoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]''.

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' has a rarely-used optional rule: The Clobbered rule. Taking half your hit points in physical (non-magical) damage, total, in a single round, reduces your ability to act in the next round. However, since no-one uses that rule, most of the time D&D uses the traditional [[Critical Existence Failure]] rule.