Modesty Blaise (novel): Difference between revisions

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* [[Code Emergency]]: See [[Something They Would Never Say]].

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: If Modesty and Willie have a religion, it is this. One of the crowning examples is her final martial-arts battle vs. Mr. Sexton in ''The Silver Mistress''. Sexton being a world-class karate master who has equal speed with Modesty despite being immensely larger and stronger, Modesty loses her first match to him in a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]. In her rematch, she makes sure to fight Sexton while nude and greased up (so that he can't grapple), in a dimly lit cave (Modesty has superior night vision and, being the lead party in a stern chase, has had more chance to have her vision adjust) with an uneven, rocky floor (Sexton has spent the majority of his career fighting in dojos or tournaments, on exercise mats, and so isn't used to uneven surfaces), and after having swum a long way through icy-cold water to reach the cave in the first place (so Sexton's muscles are still stiff from cold, while Modesty has had several minutes to perform warm-up exercises as she reached the cave first). Having stacked every advantage in her favor possible vs. a proven superior opponent, Modesty then pulls out a narrow victory and kills him.

** Modesty applies a similar principle, only with guns, vs. Reverend Crisp in ''Dragon's Claw''. Crisp is perhaps the greatest quick-draw expert in the world, over a full tenth of a second faster than Modesty, and so she has absolutely no chance vs. him in the quickdraw match that the villain is forcing her to fight him in and knows it. Modesty's solution? To start shooting at Crisp while still walking ''towards'' the duel arena, at a distance of approximately 50-plus meters... a distance she is far more likely to hit Crisp at than vice versa, as he is a close-quarters quickdraw specialist while Modesty is a long-range competition markswoman. Sure enough, despite firing five shots to her ~~two~~ he misses with all five<ref>In fairness, 150+ feet is a ''long'' way to hit anything with a handgun, even for a good marksman.</ref>, while she puts ~~both~~ of ~~hers~~ right into his torso.

** Modesty applies a similar principle, only with guns, vs. Reverend Crisp in ''Dragon's Claw''. Crisp is perhaps the greatest quick-draw expert in the world, over a full tenth of a second faster than Modesty, and so she has absolutely no chance vs. him in the quickdraw match that the villain is forcing her to fight him in and knows it. Modesty's solution? To start shooting at Crisp while still walking ''towards'' the duel arena, at a distance of approximately 50-plus meters... a distance she is far more likely to hit Crisp at than vice versa, as he is a close-quarters quickdraw specialist while Modesty is a long-range competition markswoman. Sure enough, despite firing five shots to her three he misses with all five<ref>In fairness, 150+ feet is a ''long'' way to hit anything with a handgun, even for a good marksman.</ref>, while she puts two out of three right into his torso.

* [[The Con]]

* [[Contemptible Cover]]: During the 1970s and '80s, most of the books got stuck with [http://www.modestyblaisebooks.com/images/allcovers/overview.html covers] featuring an array of headless photos of women in [[Stripperiffic]] black leather outfits decorated with metal studs. Over multiple editions, each more contemptible than the last, and none bearing any connection to the books' actual contents. You know it's bad when a male reader would rather be seen in public with the first novel's original cover, which is ''bright pink''.