With My Hands Tied: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Jaime Lannister, an in-universe [[Memetic Badass]] and widely considered to be the greatest fighter in the Seven Kingdoms, gets into a sword fight with Brienne of Tarth, whose first on-screen action was to defeat something like forty other knights, including a young knight who is generally thought of as the new Jaime. Jaime's hands are shackled together at the time, and he'd been locked in a dungeon for some time prior to the fight. Brienne is arguably also hampered in that fight by her oath not to do any harm to Jaime until they reach their destination, and is on the defensive until he starts to taunt her. They fight for what's implied to be the better part of a day, and by the time they're done they've both lost their swords and been injured. It only ends when they're interrupted while grappling. {{spoiler|Most fans give that fight to Brienne, as she was (successfully, until the interruption) trying to drown Jaime in a creek.}} Each is astonished at the other's skill, with Jaime later judging the strength of his oponents by Brienne (and finding them wanting,) and Brienne mentioning that no knight she's ever faced would be able to withstand Jaime at his full strength.

** Leading to the funniest exchange in the whole book (paraphrased):

"Well, he was getting on my nerves!" }}

** It's been not so subtly hinted that Jaime Lannister is (or was, in his youth) the greatest living blade on Westeros. Brienne was no slouch but its implied that most of the warriors of the new generation haven't learned to fight in real battles. The distinction between being good in tournaments and being really good is lampshaded by Jaime and Barristan Selmy.

* In the first book of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, several characters are captured, and one in particular, a boundary warden named Chase, has his hands tied behind his back (because he'd ''already'' killed five of the nine attackers on his own). When a suitable distraction happens, he tackles one of the captors and snaps his neck with his legs before being beaten savagely by the captor's leader. He's standing up again within minutes, leading one of the other characters to remark that he's far tougher than he has any right to be.

* Parodied in ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men At Arms]]'':

'''[[All Trolls Are Different|Detritus]]''': You get opportunity! I tie BOTH hands behind your back! }}

* In [[Redwall|Mossflower]], Martin the Warrior, [[Determinator]] that he is, fights off guards who are dragging him into Tsarmina's chamber over the course of three chapters or so.

* On ''[[Dexter]]'', the title character is kidnapped, tied up and thrown in the back of a van by a dirty cop trying to force a confession out of him. Dexter kicks the into his face, then manages to wrestle the man's knife from him and take him down with his hands still tied.

* Played with in one episode of ''[[Get Smart]]'', where Max and his friend Sid are shackled by their hands in front of a deathtrap. Max frees himself by releasing the fake hands that were bound by the shackles.

* Occurs in the ''[[Bones]]'' episode "Two Bodies In The Lab". Brennan does it trying to escape Kenton in the warehouse. It works for a while, until Kenton gets the upper hand on her.

 

== Web Animation ==

* In ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', one of the questions Strong Bad asks Homestar in the short "The Interview" is "Who would win in a fight: Strong Sad or The Cheat?". Homestar's response comes with a cutaway to a brief demonstration:

 

 

* In ''[[The Venture Bros]]''., Brock kills two [[Mooks]] this way: One of the mooks was giving him a cavity search. Brock tightens up (enough to make the guy scream in pain), swings the guy around like a flail, and knocks the other guy out, all while being in shackles.

** This scene also wins awards for quite possibly the best dialogue in the series.

'''Pirate 1''': Oh, and it would be ''better'' if he was telling the ''truth''?! }}

* In the second part of ''[[Justice League]]'''s three-part [[Grand Finale]], half the team gets a chance at this. Wonder Woman, impressively, manages to free herself while tied to a pole by throwing the enemy's knife at the control panel ''with her teeth''.