Kung Fu Wizard/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A magic user also happens to be a skilled martial artist.

  • Straight: A wizard is introduced who is also shown to be a skilled martial artist.
  • Exaggerated: Every single magic user in the story are skilled martial artists, regardless of age or any other limitations.
  • Justified: The wizard took up martial arts because he felt that he couldn't just rely on magic alone in combat.
    • Or alternatively magic has limitations which require the user to be physically fit, so he picked an activity that would also have a use in combat.
  • Inverted: Squishy Wizard
  • Subverted: Despite his martial arts skill, the wizard isn't all that useful in combat...
  • Double Subverted: ... Or so he wants his opponent to believe. Once the enemy lets his guard down, he shows his true power.
  • Parodied: An enemy boasts that he cannot be harmed by magic...and promptly has his jaw removed by the wizard.
  • Deconstructed: The wizard ends up neglecting his magic for his martial arts training and is less powerful than other wizards magic-wise, as a result.
  • Reconstructed: Having balanced abilities still comes in handy though.
  • Zig Zagged: A mage loses his staff and decides to take up a martial art. He gets quite good. He later refinds his staff, and, relying on magic becomes decadent and unfit.
  • Averted: No mages are martial artists, and no martial artists have magic powers
  • Enforced: To be able to enter the inner circle of the Wizards Guild, wizards must defeat a demon they've summoned via hand-to-hand combat - no magic or weapons allowed.
  • Lampshaded: "After those muggers caught Berilius without his wand and robbed him, he swore he'd never be helpless again."
  • Invoked: A wizard is advised to take up martial arts to increase his combat skills.
  • Defied: All magic users must take a vow never to fight with anything but their magic.
  • Discussed: "I always wondered why someone called 'The Lightning Sorceress' specialized in ice magic. I guess they were talking about her reflexes."
  • Conversed: "If I could spam energy bolts I wouldn't be mixing it up hand-to-hand with the bad guys. Especially if their hands were holding swords and shields."

Back to Kung Fu Wizard, who's a hair less flashy than the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot.