How Much More Can He Take?: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Heroic Age]]'' is essentially about super-huge reptilian monster things called Nodos that can (and do) destroy small moons with a single attack. This overwhelming power really makes itself apparent when two Nodos are engaged in battle for ''over 300 hours.'' That's nearly two weeks of pummeling each other over and over again with enough force to rend a small celestial body in half. And near the climax of the fight, neither one seems any worse for the wear.

** The fight at the end of the Saiyan saga actually showed what Goku and Vegeta's limits were; getting stepped or landed on by a 50 tall ape is apperently too much.

** Vegeta is the "king" of this trope. No matter what anyone throws at him, he just wont stay down. Heck he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb!

** The majority of that was just added to the anime, though ({{spoiler|6-Tails Naruto vs. Pain}} was even worse in that aspect). What was really the indication of who was winning was who had to rely on their [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] first, with the whole fight escalating until they were both using all that they could. ''Then'' it ended after [[Beam-O-War|one attack]].

*** {{spoiler|Well, keep in mind that the fight was 6-Tails Naruto vs Pain...'s last animated corpse. So we've got a monster made mainly of chakra with a human body somewhere in the middle versus a guy fighting from miles away using a dead body as a glorified puppet. It makes sense that neither one would really SHOW a lot of damage being taken since the two guys fighting aren't even on the front lines.}}

* Sort of used with [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' A's. Both combatants think that they're losing and wonder if they will to be forced to use their ultimate weapon.

* Basically the default form of combat in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]: Advent Children''. It demonstrates how well video-game-style fights translate to a non-video-game medium: Not well.

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'', Yusuke and Chu have one. This is after spending all their spirit energy on various attacks and utterly pulverizing each other with energy attacks and such, and they can't even use their spirit attacks anymore. There's also a catch: Not only can they not move at all or they agree to forfeit, but their back heel is resting against a knife. Every hit that they each take knocks their foot into the knife, causing immense pain. Eventually {{spoiler|Yusuke wins after Chu tries to finish him with a mammoth headbutt. Yusuke intentionally just takes the attack and Chu is knocked out.}}

** The knife had two purposes: the aforementioned resting of the heel against the blade, and if one of the fighters ''did'' step back, the other would take the knife that was now between them and stab him with it (more or less just a guarantee that no one would be retreating, as by that point Chu liked Yusuke well enough to not kill him and it's doubtful Yusuke would kill Chu even if they weren't friendly as he didn't see Chu as being either evil or a threat to his friends).

** And a route before that in Unlimited Blade Works, we have Shirou vs. {{spoiler|Archer.}} Outclassed in skill and power, has a broken arm, a broken leg, shattered fingers, is bleeding profusely, and is much to his opponent's surprise, ''still able to parry and attack''.

* Don't even try guessing who is winning on ''[[Hellsing]]''. Even if someone has been decapitated, shot in the head, impaled a bajillion times and stuck to the wall, they've still got it under control. Really.

** Not really, since it was shown that they both were extremely exhausted just before the finale blown. {{spoiler|Revy}} was just slightly more tired than her rival.

* ANY fight in ''[[Bleach]]'' involving Kenpachi is one of these, especially the one between him and {{spoiler|Nnoitra}}. Hell, any fight in Bleach that isn't a [[Curb Stomp Battle]].

* ''[[Visual Novel/Clannad After Story|Clannad After Story]]'' has a fight that lasts from dawn until after dark in episode 8.

* [[Hajime no Ippo|Ippo]] is notable for three things, strength (he punches way above his weight class), stamina, and an iron will. In a long bout, this trope is very much in evidence, as Ippo just never gives up, and can take a lot of punishment. The scariest thing for his opponents, after the intensity in his eyes, is that his punches just don't die.

 

== Film ==

** This is why the tense moment at the end of that fight when Superman is believed to be dead completely fails to fool the audience. Sure, he got crushed by a bus, but he's ''Superman'', for goodness sake. You'd have a hard time convincing us that that'd even knock the wind out of him.

* This can even happen in movies about supposedly normal mortals:

*** ''Rocky IV'' is bad, too. Ivan Drago managed to ''kill'' Apollo Creed with one of his punches, and Rocky is still able to hold him off for ten minutes screen time before his "come-from-behind" win.

** ''[[Face Off]]'': You would think that getting stabbed by a butterfly knife (and twist to make sure the wound won't close) would end a fight. No? How about a Harpoon to the gut? Still going? These guys didn't even slow down despite receiving wounds that at the very least should have made them limp.

 

== Literature ==

* Generally averted in the [[Dresden Files]] for humans. Harry can put out a ''hell'' of a lot of damage, but is human underneath it. Played straight with most of the big, supernatural enemies that Harry faces, as well as Cowl, who's currently one of the [[Big Bad|biggest bads]] in the series.

* Metalcrafters and the Vord Queen are this in the [[Codex Alera]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

** It should be noted both fights end in a climatic way - {{spoiler|Spike}} beats {{spoiler|Angel}} after stabbing him on the shoulder with a stake and {{spoiler|Buffy}} beats {{spoiler|Faith}} after stabbing her in the stomach with a knife.

** Spike in general has a tendency to do this. He starts off being beaten around by virtually everything, then wins the fight in a short space of time. E.G., fighting against that fire-fisted demon to regain his soul, he was being destroyed before suddenly gaining the upper hand and snapping the guys neck.

** ''[[Shadowrun]]'' uses a two stat wound tracking system - lethal and nonlethal damage. Characters accumulate ever greater penalties to all actions as those tracks fill up.

*** The old Alternity system had ''four'' stats for wound tracking. Damage in some of them came with associated penalties to all actions; damage in others didn't.

** Interestingly, in the PDQ system this is the only way damage is tracked at all - damage is taken directly off of your skills and you lose the fight when you have none left.

*** The D&D Miniatures game follows the RPG's lead. Most creatures have to make a morale roll after losing half their Hit Points, or run off the battlefield. Otherwise, there's no difference between being at full HP or nearly dead. By contrast, games like [[Hero Clix]] or [[Mage Knight]] have characters get progressively weaker (and lose special abilities) as they take damage.

** Star Wars Saga edition battles can either follow or avert this trope depending on how much damage is being dealt per attack. Lots of weak attacks can bleed off hp without any noticeable effect until you suddenly drop dead from being hit with a toothpick but powerful attacks will move your character down a condition track, making you suffer penalties to everything until you've recovered.

 

== Video Games ==

** This is also sort of a callback to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' (the first with the word "Solid" in the title), where {{spoiler|Liquid Snake, who Liquid Ocelot is a doppleganger of, simply ''won't '''die'''.'' You actually fight him a total of ''four'' times - ''five'' if you're counting both halves of the REX battle}}.

* ''[[Dissidia]]'' features leads and antagonists of most of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series duking it out with Brave attacks (that merely strengthen the attacker's next attack and weaken the opponent's) and HP ones (that actually deal damage), both featuring sharp weaponry and explosive magic. While all of the characters involved are inhumanly tough, strong and agile, there is no [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|in-game explanation]] ''why'' one kind of a seemingly deadly charging slash can wound, while another just discourages the enemy.

** Those wings should not have let him fly to begin with since he never flaps them for flight; he just uses his magic flight to go through. The wings are likely just for steering.

* ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' averts this to the point that quite a few of the injuries the 4 heroes receive last ''the entire game''. It's quite obvious when the player is failing too many [[QT Es]].

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' and other MMORPG's the [[An Adventurer Is You|main tank]] is often required to be hit by enemies so powerful, a single blow would likely slay almost any other player. The tank is required to endure these colossal hits by the hundred and is only able to do so by being extremely powerful and the subject of his own personal battery of healing spellcasters. The result of this can be that if a healer mistimes a spell or runs out of [[Mana]], a tank can be [[Critical Existence Failure|suddenly killed]] by an attack which previously appeared inconsequential.

 

** Taken to the extreme in the [[Grand Finale]], where the fight between Superman and Darkseid goes on for far too long, and is mostly Darkseid smacking the crap out of Superman, with several blows that look like they ''should'' be devastating - one looks like it'd break Superman's back! - but don't noticeably affect his ability to fight in any way. What makes this even crazier is that it seems like ''Batman'' - yes, ''Batman'' - tries to mix it up with Darkseid, and because of this trope, it seems like his jump-kick is about as effective as Superman. And after enduring this horrific, brutal abuse from a stronger-than-ever Darkseid for the ''entire episode'', Superman gets up, shrugs it off, comes up with the [[World of Cardboard Speech]] and a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]...but the comeback doesn't even last as long as it took him to ''get through'' the speech, when he's interrupted by a device that ''puts him in as much pain as is physically possible'', and ''that'' ends the fight.

** On the other hand, decently averted in the episode "Flash Point", in a brawl between [[Captain Atom]] and Superman - the two of them (particularly the Captain) visibly take damage and slow down as the fight goes on.

* How ''[[Family Guy]]'''s Peter vs. Giant Chicken fights tend to go, although they accumulate at least cosmetic injuries over the course of the fight. It helps that they're all [[Rule of Funny|played for laughs]] and pretty much happening for no reason anyway.

** Waspinator's spark is also located within his head, allowing him to survive attacks and mishaps that blow him to pieces. This spark placement is meant to be very unusual.