Just Toying with Them: Difference between revisions

** Loz gets into a fight with Tifa in the church, which he seems to regard as good sport. She beats him up with relative ease and he seems to be defeated. Then he gets up again and, no longer wanting to play, takes her out with one move using [[Flash Step]].

** This is also a likely way of interpreting the final battle between Cloud and Sephiroth. Sephiroth, whose motivation at this point is largely payback for being defeated in [[Final Fantasy VII|the game]], drives Cloud to his highest limits without even so much as getting winded himself, and then tries to finish him off after some suitable [[Evil Gloating]].

* [[Ranma Half]]: Ranma holds off Akane's attacks with one hand while reading a manga with the other. Now that's humiliation.

* [[Yu Yu Hakusho]]: Young Toguro, the antagonist of the second season (the Dark Tournament), feigned defeat the first time he met Yusuke in order for his employer to win a bet. However, he later went back gave Yusuke a demonstration of his real power by demolishing a building. He plays this trope by explicitly telling others what percent of his power he's using. The only exception is during his final fight with Yusuke when he revealed he'd only been using 85% of his power instead of 100%

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

 

== Literature ==

** In the fight between Inigo Montoya and the Man in Black, the [[Trope Namer]] for [[I Am Not Left-Handed]], [[Master Swordsman|Inigo]] starts figting with his off-hand just because he can't find a decent challenge anywhere any more. It quickly turns out that this time he was wrong about having the superiority needed in the first place to apply this trope. {{spoiler|The Man in Black, however...}}

** The fight between the Man in Black and Fezzik starts out this way, with the Man in Black finding himself in a [[Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh]] situation while Fezzik basically stands there impassively. This is quickly lampshaded:

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Q also picks a fight with Capt. Sisko of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'', provoking Sisko to punch him and knock him down. Again, Q seems to be pulling his punches, given what he can do.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In a side quest, Firkraag, a powerful red dragon with a grudge against the [[Player Character]]'s dead mentor Gorion, takes the guise of a human to lure the characters to his lands to perform what sounds like standard heroic mercenary work. Then he sets them to kill some paladins (through an illusion that makes each party see the other as monsters) to ruin their reputation. Once the party has fought its way down through his lair, he appears in his true form and explains that he just wanted to torture Gorion's spirit, and can't be bothered to kill the protagonist just then, unless they really insist on it, recommending that they just be on their way. He's powerful enough in a fight that this arrogance isn't entirely unwarranted.

** In the main plot, [[Big Bad|Irenicus]] has the [[Player Character]] and their allies at his mercy after just {{spoiler|stealing the souls of two of them}}. His pragmatic mind finds no more use for them, but when he gives them to [[The Dragon|Bodhi]] to dispose of, she decides to give them a [[Mercy Lead]] in a convenient nearby labyrinth full of challenges and enemies before hunting them down. Or that's what she says, anyway, as she eventually shows up from the front rather than behind and explains she had no intention of keeping any deal. [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] steps in at this point, because in game terms Bodhi would have to be completely foolish to think she is in no risk trying to stop the party (which she just re-armed herself) with the help of the handful of vampires she has with her. It becomes a moot point anyway when {{spoiler|the player character's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] makes its first appearance.}}

 

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''

** In "A Time For Hair Raising", the characters enter a spirit world and face two [[Jerkass Genie|Jerkass Genies]], Zefolas and Fezeel. These two demons trade in souls and are virtually omnipotent in their own realm, but like to play a game of granting wishes to mortals in exchange for their souls rather than just taking them outright. They have no intention of ever ''losing'' the game, though, so they interpret the wishes however they like and ignore all that might cause them harm. Their only weakness is that they're still bound by any promise they ''do'' choose to make.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Ironically, Discord [[What the Hell, Hero?|implicitly criticizes]] [[Big Good]] Celestia for sealing him in stone at one point. Her [[Good Is Not Soft|decisiveness]] in dealing with her enemies brings to mind [[Terry Pratchett]]'s quote about how it's better to be at the mercy of an evil man, as he wants his enemies to know they have lost.

{{quote| '''Sokka:''' Wait, I '''''know''''' you're a better fighter than this!<br />

'''Azula:''' Oh, I know, I'm just wasting your time until the eclipse is over. And it looks like my Firebending is back! }}

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'':

** When Oberon returns and wants to wipe the Avalon clan off the island, Goliath challenges him to let them remain. Oberon's wife makes it more interesting (and to give them a fighting chance), and get's him to agree to fight with only "the strength of a child." He agrees, having been bored for some millenia. What he fails to say is that he'll have the strength of a child of ''Avalon'', meaning he's still leagues more powerful than four standard gargoyles.