Combat Tropes: A-I

Weapons may be the mainstay of the Badass, but they don't mean squat if he or she doesn't know how to fight. In fact, since the very definition of a Badass, not to mention the Action Hero, is based on fighting, Combat Tropes would be more important than Weapons Tropes.

My stories tend to be fantasy stories; even those that contain hard science or are based in mainstream reality have some kind of fantasy element, however subtle. Most are also adventure fiction, in that they involve a (hopefully) "exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger" (according to Wikipedia). However, not all of them are action-adventure, because they don't involve fighting, chases, or even much activity at all. For example, "Masie's Mind" and "Post-Traumatic Redemption" simply involve characters standing or sitting around, talking. Most other stories have some small amount of action, but it's mostly peripheral; not quite an afterthought, but not the main point of the story either. Even those that are action oriented have action scenes interspersed with quieter moments of conversation or traveling. (On top of which, I suck at writing fight scenes; more about that in the part 2.)

As such, I consider my stories to be fantasy-adventure, with some action, rather than true action-adventure.

Arbitrary Minimum Range -- weapons have a minimum range; any closer than that and they become useless

***** The Caerleon Order tries to take out monsters while they are far away, because all the weapons the Order uses have minimum effective ranges, and if the monster gets too close troops must switch to other weapons with shorter ranges. For example, all explosive projectile ordinance, from missiles to 40mm grenades, must travel a certain minimum distance before they arm themselves, so as not to endanger their users. If a monster gets closer than a weapon's arming range, that weapon becomes useless. However, weapons with shorter ranges are invariably weaker than those with longer ranges, and so have a lesser chance of destroying the monster.

In the Dreamlands, professional adventurers and fighters generally have at least three weapons, one for long range (like a bow or sling), one for mid-range (like a sword or axe), and one for short range (like a knife or club), to overcome this problem.

Medb hErenn defies this trope, because her strength and speed allows her to overcome the minimum range limitations for just about any melee weapon.

Armor-Piercing Attack -- an attack, weapon, or munition that rips through the armor that your enemies wear

***** Most monsters are either extremely tough or armored, or both. As such, the Caerleon Order uses whatever armor-piercing ammunition works the best, everything from armor-piercing bullets to anti-tank missiles.

Bar Brawl -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a fight in a bar

***** Team Girl has one in "The Steel Gazelle" and "A Typical Friday Night".

Battle Chant -- before battle, a group of soldiers repeat a chant over and over again, or sing as they advance into battle

***** Monsters can be as vulnerable to psychological warfare as mere humans. Sir Differel Van Helsing has found that if she marches her troops to battle while singing to the accompaniment of bagpipes, she can confuse or demoralize some monsters, while others are physically harmed by the noise.

In the Dreamlands, chanting and singing before and during battle is standard operating procedure.

Bigger Stick -- using a more powerful weapon than your opponent has

***** Caliburn and Vlad Drakulya are Differel's most powerful weapons, and both are more powerful than almost any monster extant.

Blade Lock -- during a sword or knife fight, the combatants lock their blades together by the hilt

***** This is a standard maneuver in most sword dueling styles. It allows one combatant to push away the other's sword, or even disarm him.

Boom, Headshot -- targeting the head instead of the center of mass (usually the chest)

***** Technically, this is a video game trope, but it can work in other media as well.

Some monsters cannot be killed by chest shots unless the heart is struck. Others have thick armor over their chest. However, few monsters have bulletproof skulls, and the majority can be killed by a head shot. As such, all troops assigned to the Caerleon Order are taught to aim for the head as much as possible.

Bow and Sword (Blade) in Accord -- a character is adept at both archery and sword or knife fighting

***** In the Dreamlands, Sunny uses a composite bow, but if an enemy gets too close she switches to a dagger. She can also give them a good whack with the bow itself.

Boxing Battler -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a character who fights as a boxer

***** Eile is a champion-level boxer, taught by her Uncle Gene, a former US Marine Corps drill sergeant who was a champion boxer. She in turn taught her daughter Connie to box.

Sunny's mother, Oda Jaeger, is also a boxer.

Master-at-Arms Giles Holt taught Differel rough-and-dirty street fighting techniques, and she taught them to Lady Margaret Chesham.

Bullet Dodges You -- bullets refuse to hit a character

***** In a future story, Differel confronts a child Vampire so old, she can use telekinesis to stop bullets in flight, even at point blank range.

Bullet Sparks -- when bullets hit a surface, they ricochet with sparks

***** Defied in my stories; lead bullets cannot produce sparks, even when hitting metal, and steel-jacketed rounds can only make sparks if they hit steel targets. Even then, the effect is quite weak and easily missed.

Chairman of the Brawl -- using furniture as a weapon

***** In the forthcoming "Cats' Peril", Eile and Sunny use stools to smash consoles in Dr. Mabuse's lab.

Chokeholds -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; grasping an opponent in a way that renders him or her unconscious

***** In "Fun 'n' Games", Maggie King saves Differel from rape by putting Giles Holt in a chokehold that cuts off his air.

Cold Sniper -- the emotionless, silent hunter with a scope, a rifle and a very good eye who can shoot you in the face from a mile away and not lose a wink of sleep over it

***** Differel can be this way when her people are in danger. Ditto Vlad or Mr. Holt when Differel is in danger.

In the Dreamlands, Sunny can act this way to save Eile.

Sunny's mother Oda will not hesitate to gun down anyone who threatens her daughter or Eile.

Combat Parkour -- a character in a battle jumps around and performs gymnastics moves to dodge bullets or other physical attacks

***** Team Girl can't dodge bullets, exactly, but they have incorporated their knowledge of parkour into their fighting styles.

Differel has done the same with her knowledge of gymnastics.

Combat Pragmatist -- a character who will do anything in a fight to win

***** Both Medb and Differel will fight honorable duels when challenged, but if just attacked outright, they both will do whatever they need to to survive.

Combat Sadomasochist -- a character who fights because he or she enjoys seeing or experiencing pain

***** Differel can't be sure this isn't the reason why Vlad continues to serve the Van Helsing bloodline after over a century.

Curbstomp Battle -- a fight that's extremely one-sided; where one side trashes the other with little-to-no effort

***** Medb with just about anyone or anything she fights; see "Barbarians R Us" for an example. However, in "Sacrificial Offering", "The Lions of Inganok", "Pride and Fall", and "The Price of Folly" she is barely able to hold her own against beings far more powerful than her.

Vlad does this to most monsters, but he is also subject to the Worf Effect, so sometimes a monster will do this to him. (But he always comes back!)

Delaying Action -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a battle fought to try and hold up a superior force

***** In "Survival & Sacrifice", Mr. Holt does this to give Differel and Team Girl a chance to stop a horde of monsters before they break loose from the estate.

Do Not Run With a Gun -- a character must stop moving to shoot a gun

***** This is a video game trope, but it has some Truth In Television.

It is generally harder to aim when moving as opposed to standing still. In "The Beast of Exmoor", Differel has trouble hitting the weak point of a Cat From Mars while she dodges its attacks, but finally nails it when she stands still.

Dramatic Gun Cock -- used to intimidate a subject under interrogation

***** In a future story, Differel is interrogated by White Hall after the Fomorian wizard king Grendel is defeated to determine if she might have been in league with him, and at one point her interrogator threatens to shoot her in the head unless she tells the truth. He has some credibility in that he had already killed Margaret in the same way for lying to him.

Dual Wielding -- wielding two melee weapons at once

***** Medb will sometimes fight with her spear and Dane axe, spear or axe and sword, or sword and dirk. Also, if her spear is broken, she will wield the blade end like a sword and the butt end like a club.

If Eile cannot get to her shield, she will use her knife along with her sword to parry blows.

Differel will use both Caliburn and her poignard if she must; see "Dribble & Maggot in the Land of Dreams".

Eye Poke -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; attacking your opponent's eyes with your fingers

***** One of the fighting moves Mr. Holt taught Differel was the tiger's claws: using her fingers to gouge an enemy's eyes.

Final Exam Boss -- a Final Boss that can only be defeated by using just about every item and power you've acquired throughout the adventure

***** Technically, this is a video game trope, but it can work in other media as well.

In a future story, Team Girl explore a lost temple, making allies and collecting artifacts, all of which they need to defeat the Big Bad who rules over the temple.

Finishing Move -- a special combat maneuver that is only used to cap off a battle

***** Medb has two magical powerwords that never fail. One is setim, which stuns or knocks an opponent unconscious. The other is glamain, which blasts an opponent to ash.

Caliburn is this for Differel; few monsters can survive being struck by it, much less are immune to its power (The Princess in Orange is one such being that is immune).

While Vlad has many attacks that result in dead or destroyed monsters, one that virtually never fails is him ramming his hand through the monster's heart. Only supernatural creatures are immune to this attack.

Firing One-Handed -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; shooting a gun with only one hand

***** Team Girl and Differel were trained to hold and fire a gun with two hands, for precision aiming, but Differel often fights with a sword in her freehand, so she trained herself to shoot one-handed.

In the Dreamlands, because of the way she must hold her wheellock pistols to prevent misfires, she normally shoots them one-handed.

Five Rounds Rapid -- monsters are never attacked with anything except small arms, but they are never vulnerable to small arms fire

***** Subverted; the Caerleon Order would rather use the most powerful weapon at its disposal, but many monsters are vulnerable to small arms fire. See "Shenanigans", "The Beast of Exmoor" (the young of the Cat From Mars), and "Survival & Sacrifice".

However, played straight in the following stories: "Man Friday", "Oak Do Hate", "The Beast of Exmoor" (the Cat From Mars herself), "Rhapsody in Orange", and "Youthful Indiscretion".

Flynning -- stage swordplay in which the actors try to hit each other's weapons instead of each other

***** Some Truth In Television; in Real Life, an attacker is not trying to hit his target's sword but the target itself, but the target will strike at the attacker's sword to parry the attack.

In my stories, I try to depict swordplay realistically, which includes minimal Flynning.

Friendly Sniper -- a sniper that is cheerful and friendly, but still deadly

***** Sunny, when she's not being a Cold Sniper.

Gangsta Style -- shooting a gun while holding it sideways

***** In the Dreamlands, Differel's wheellock pistols have a lower rate of misfires if she holds and fires them sideways. The flame has a better chance of going from the pan into the barrel that way.

Grapple Move -- a combat maneuver that involves grabbing and throwing an opponent

***** Medb uses these moves, and taught them to Team Girl.

Differel was trained in commando close-quarters combat, which includes grappling and throwing, but mostly she tries to incapacitate or kill her opponent.

Groin Attack -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; striking someone's crotch (works on women as well as men)

***** Another fighting move Mr. Holt taught Differel was to grasp and squeeze an opponent's groin. It works as well on women as men.

Gun Fu -- the fancy moves characters perform with their guns; essentially martial arts with guns

***** Generally averted or ignored; I come the closest with Vlad, who can shoot while on the run and still hit whatever he aims at.

Gun Kata -- the style of shooting where your opponent ought to be when he or she is aiming at you, and not being where your opponent ought to shoot

***** Vlad; he selects a target, then aims and fires even as he selects his next target.

Guns Akimbo -- shooting two guns at once

***** Vlad; he carries two of each of his pistols so he can shoot at two separate targets at once.

Guns vs. Swords -- combat involving predominantly swords on one side and predominantly guns on the other

***** There have been a few times when Differel has been attacked by gun-wielding assassins, and all she had was Caliburn. At other times, the Caerleon Order has gone up against paranormal beings armed only with swords.

Heroes Fight Barehanded -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; a hero disdains fighting with any weapon except his or her own hands

***** Medb knows just about every hand-to-hand martial art there is or has been (though she prefers to use weapons first). Eile defends herself with boxing (unless she has a weapon available). Differel can take down monsters barehanded (but she would rather shoot them or blow them up).

Heroes Prefer Swords -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; the hero and leader is the character with the sword

***** Medb (though she prefers spears over swords); Eile (though she and Sunny are partners); Differel, hands down.

Hit-and-Run Tactics -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin; get into range, attack, and flee before your opponent has the time to react

***** During the invasion of Britain by the Fomorian wizard king Grendel, Differel at first tried to match him strength-for-strength in head-on battles, but only devastated her forces. After that, Vlad taught her to use guerrilla warfare to keep the Fomorians off balance and finally ambush them.

Speaking of which, when Vlad was human and voivode of Wallachia, he use guerrilla tactics combined with a sorched-earth policy to harass the invading Ottoman Turks and thoroughly demoralize them.

I Know Kung-Faux -- a character knows a fictional martial art that doesn't exist in Real Life.

***** Medb is perhaps the last practitioner of the Tuatha De Danann and Fir Bolg fighting styles. She also knows Fomorian, Serpent Man, and Leng Man martial arts, as well as those of the Hyborians and various other extinct tribes and cultures, and those of alien worlds she has visited.

I Know Karate -- when you warn an attacker you know martial arts, and then kick his ass

***** After Margaret learns enough about hand-to-hand fighting from Differel, she takes out attackers bigger and stronger than her while still a child.

I Know Madden Kombat -- a character trained in a non-combat sport uses it as a basis for combat

***** Eile and boxing; Differel and gymnastics.

I Know Mortal Combat -- learning a fighting skill (or any skill) from the media

***** Dr. Mabuse has a "sleep-teaching" machine that really works. She uses it to learn new scientific disciplines, and Team Girl and Differel use it to learn new languages.

Implausible Fencing Powers -- ridiculous or impossible displays of swordplay

***** Technically, Caliburn is supposed to be able to slay whole armies with a single stroke and cut the tops off mountains, but Differel has never put those claim to the test. She has used Caliburn to cut through steel fire doors, though.

Improbable Weapon User -- a character who tends to use improvised weapons

***** Sunny, hands down. In fact, she could be said to have a black belt in Improv Fu.

Speaking of which...

Improv Fu -- a fighting style that isn't so much about fighting as it is making up new and ridiculous ways to combat your opponent

***** Sunny is a master at improvisational combat, but sometimes she does this on purpose to confuse her opponents.

Instant Death Bullet -- a character dies the moment he or she is shot

***** In "Survival & Sacrifice", just about any monster Team Girl hits dies on the spot.

Instant Marksman Just Squeeze Trigger -- an amateur's marksmanship instantly improves when he or she is told to squeeze the trigger instead of pull it

***** In the forthcoming "Dream-Trials", Differel and her friends are traveling by boat when they are attacked by pirates. She gives one of her guns to Bettie Stivic and tells her to squeeze the trigger, not jerk it. Later, Bettie saves Differel life by shooting a pirate.

Next week I shall present Part 2 of Combat Tropes.