You Can Barely Stand: Difference between revisions

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As a rule, much of fiction ends with the villain being defeated by the hero. This should be dramatic, but if the true villain isn't [[The Man Behind the Curtain|that physically powerful]], then this is going to be a rather short fight.

Sure, a writer could give their [[The Chessmaster|master manipulator]] a [[Humongous Mecha]] or have your [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|amoral industrialist]] secretly be a [[Authority Equals Asskicking|martial arts master]], but there's also something satisfying in bringing the invincible hero down a few pegs. Many pegs. To the point where they're already a few moments from death when they meet; this has the effect of showing that the character isn't fearless simply due to having superior power, but superior ''character''-strength even when stripped of those abilities.

[[You Can Barely Stand]] is a scene where the villain meets the hero when he's in no fit state to fight. The threat of blood loss or collapse is as much a threat as the bad guy slapping him about and telling him [[Just Between You and Me|he's failed]] and that he's [[Not So Invincible After All|not that]] [[Made of Iron|invincible]] [[Not So Invincible After All|after all]]. The reason for the injuries can include a [[Kryptonite Factor|special weakness]], having been poisoned, having been [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured]], magical influence, or having just [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|gotten the crap kicked out of him]] by either the [[Mooks]] or [[The Dragon]].

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* Early on in ''[[One Piece]]'', Zoro had to take on a clearly inferior swords''fish''man after having been nearly cut in half diagonally across the chest in a previous fight.

** Even earlier in the Manga, Zoro fights Buggy's [[The Dragon|first mate Cabaji]], a swordsman, after being stabbed through the side by one of Buggy's knives. Cabaji makes it a point to go after the wound repeatedly...and after repelling him, Zoro cuts the wound WIDER, just to prove he can beat Cabaji even with that handicap.

** Also Zoro -- the post-Oz Kuma encounter {{spoiler|when he is so injured he can't stand, and yet uses Kuma's magic paw-bubble to take all of Luffy's damage too}}, and the post-Kuma multi-Kuma fight {{spoiler|where his injuries from the Kuma encounter make him collapse, whereupon he gets up again to use his most powerful technique, whereupon he is struck with a light beam/laser thing, whereupon he gets up again to face down Kuma (who is surprised that he survived that first encounter) whereupon he is vanished away to Nightmare Before Christmas-land. Where, upon waking, he tries to get up ''again'' but luckily has been semi-mummified by Perona}}.

*** [[Department of Redundancy Department|Whereupon... wait, you said that part already.]]

* Every single fight in ''[[Bleach]]'', notably during the Soul Society Arc. Subverted twice in the Hueco Mundo arc when {{spoiler|Grimmjow encounters Ichigo barely able to stand, and has Orihime heal him; and Nnoitra beats the hell out of an already-almost-dead Ichigo.}}

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* [[Fate/stay night]] Unlimited Bladeworks. Lancer's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] is basically him taking out a major villain and a minor one, both non-heroic spirits, while suffering one such wound. That wound is being stabbed through the heart with his own magic spear. His response? [[Badass Boast|"As if I would die from a wound like this."]] We must emphasize this wound is through the heart. With a spear that causes wounds that cannot be healed.

** And appropriately enough in the scene happening parallel to that one, we have Shirou. During the course of his fight he's broken his fingers, gotten covered in cuts, has various other broken appendages, and is all but dead due to being outmatched. Quite literally the only thing keeping him swinging is a full on [[Determinator]] mode.

*** [[Always Save the Girl|Shirou]] in HF too. [[Punctuated ~~for~~ Emphasis|He. Will. Save. Sakura.]]

*** [[Always Save the Girl|Shirou]] in HF too. [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|He. Will. Save. Sakura.]]

* Touma in ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' was like this during his first fight against Accelerator. the funny part? it was {{spoiler|Misaka}}, the one who he was helping, that put him in that state

* ''[[Naruto]]'' has the battle between {{spoiler|Jiraiya and Pein. After it looked like he had won, Jiraiya was ambushed by the rest of Pein's [[Hive Mind|six paths]], [[Necromancer|including the ones he had just killed]]. Worn out by using his sage mode, Jiraiya has no chance in hell of defending himself and all six bodies impale him with their swords. [[Determinator|When he still gets back up]], one of the paths goes to finish him off and slits his throat, at this point he's dying so quickly he invokes the trope almost verbatim. He still doesn't want to die however, so he makes a ''[[Desperation Attack|Massive]]'' Rasengan and destroys the path that slit his throat so thoroughly that it has no chance of revival. The force of this knocks Jiraiya back into the water, where he succumbs to his wounds and [[Go Out with a Smile|dies smiling]] after reflecting on his life.}}

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*** Really more of an inversion. He can cut loose because he doesn't have to worry about accidentally killing Lex. This happened in Smallville too.

** Subverted in one instance in the comics (fighting a makeshift squad of villains). He's very ill, but still very strong. The conflict is that, as he says to the villains, he is so sick he has no idea if his punches will remove heads from necks.

* ''[[Spider-Man]]'' fought The Black Widow in one issue. ''He'' had a case of pneumonia that would have put an ordinary man into the hospital, but it just slowed and weakened him down enough that the Black Widow thought he been toying with her when he broke free of her swing line at the end of the fight.

* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', Cutter refuses to be healed during the first battle with the Northern Trolls because it would take him out of the fighting for too long, and his tribe needed every fighter they had.

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** In the book, Boromir is "[[Annoying Arrows|pierced by many]]" arrows, but kills more than 20 orcs -- after driving off hundreds; Ugluk, the Uruk-hai leader, even boasts of this slaying as a great feat, saying "We are the fighting Uruk-hai -- we killed the Great Warrior" (albeit with arrows from a distance, while Boromir was defending two hobbits). Likewise, the story implies that orcs could never have defeated Boromir in combat otherwise.

*** The film version makes up for its reduced number of arrows by making the arrows ''really big''.

** In the book, Frodo also defies all of the Nine Nazgul at the River, despite being severely weakened, stabbed, and almost completely under the Witch-king's power. (Unfortunately cut from the film-version).

* In the ''[[Daredevil]]'' film, Daredevil goes to the climactic fight with Kingpin while still seriously injured from his fight with Kingpin's [[The Dragon|Dragon]], Bullseye. Kingpin proceeds to own him in seconds, and even gloats about wishing he could fight Daredevil "in his prime".

* Both [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya|Inigo]] and Westley do this in the climax of ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' (see page quote).

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* In the fourth book of [[The Sword of Truth]], Richard defeats his evil brother, despite being barely able to stand due to a disease, and the brother wielding the titular sword. A couple minutes later, that brother tries to kill Richard, despite having his spine ripped out.

* In Robert A. Heinlein's short story ''The Long Watch'', the hero Lieutenant John Dahlquist barricades himself in an Interplanetary Patrol nuclear weapons bay on the Moon, while dying from the radiation dose he's getting from impromptu hammer-sabotage of a bunch of nuclear warheads sought by Colonel Towers, the leader of an attempted coup. It's sort of a ''You Can Barely Stand''-off.

* Vimes in ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud]]'' fights off a small army of dwarfs while badly beaten from a fall, cold and wet, and highly disorientated. However this is (probably) because of {{spoiler|the Summoning Dark trying to control him}}. Where he ''really'' shows his [[Heroic Resolve]] is that, once he's run out of armed opponents, he ''stops''.

* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]]. In nearly every book. In ''Fool Moon'' he basically ''uses up his magic''-- and that's ''before'' he even has a chance to confront the pack of werewolves he came to fight.

** Played with in ''Turn Coat'': While it's really obvious that he can barely stand (numerous bandages, about to fall over from lack of sleep, and what have you) and he's hopelessly outnumbered, none of the {{spoiler|other Wardens}} want to attack him because [[Shrouded in Myth|they've all heard about]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|the crazy crap he's pulled]] when he's running on nothing but sheer bloodymindedness.

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* Inverted in ''[[Golden Sun]]''. 4 teenagers face the powerful villain Saturos in Mercury Lighthouse. Normally they would be no match for him, but the Mercury (Water) [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|energy]] drastically weakens Saturos's Mars (Fire) [[Psychic Powers|Psynergy]] and gives [[The Medic|Mia]], who is a Mercury Adept, Psy Point regeneration. Still a somewhat challenging boss fight.

** Later in the game, at Venus Lighthouse, you fight Saturos and his partner Menardi to prevent them from lighting the lighthouse. Due to your massive increase in strength since the previous fight at Mercury, you defeat them with (relative) ease. After the fight, Mia actually says outright, "You can barely stand," in response to a comment from the injured Saturos. [[Fusion Dance|Cue Mia eating her words, dragon style.]] This trope, but with the roles reversed.

** The sequel ''Lost Age'' also has two incidents of this trope After the fight with replacement baddies Agatio and Karst atop the Jupiter Lighthouse. Regardless of how the fight goes, they're forced to make a hasty retreat because the fight with Felix and Co. took to much out of them, and the heroes from the last game are on their way up. Once the villains leave, Issac and co. arrive a tense standoff ensues between the two teams (long story). Ivan defuses the situation by suggesting they return to the local village to resolve things, as both teams are too tired to fight.

* By the time the last fight in video game ''[[Def Jam Series|Def Jam: Fight for New York]]'' comes around, your character has done the [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] power-ups for so long he has become a virtually [[Made of Iron]] fighting machine, so fighting the cowardly [[Manipulative Bastard]] [[Bad Boss]] who has never shown any sign of having any fighting ability seems like it should be pretty anti-climactic... except that he stabs you in the back with a cane sword before the bout begins, significantly lowering your health.

** And Crow isn't exactly a lightweight in the ring, either. (figuratively speaking; It ''is'' still Snoop Dog.)