History Main / ArtisticLicenseMartialArts

[[quoteright:350:[[CodeGeass http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Spinzaku2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:340:This is how [[FanNickname Spinzaku]] knocks away a gun.]]

* Any time a martial artist fights off two, three or more people at once, this trope is being invoked. Even an excellent fighter would be considered lucky to defeat or even get away from two people attacking at once.

* The entire medium, or at least the actual matches. Even the simplest of punches is painfully slow, choreographed weeks in advance (sometimes literally) and aimed at low-damaging areas, frequently the opponent's massive pecs. And that's not even considering the more ludicrous maneuvers detailed below.[[hottip:*: The reason is, of course, that they're only trying to put on a good show, not actively trying to kill each other.]]

* The entire medium, or at least the actual matches. Even the simplest of punches is painfully slow, telegraphed weeks in advance (sometimes literally) and aimed at low-damaging areas, frequently the opponent's massive pecs. And that's not even considering the more ludicrous maneuvers detailed below.[[hottip:*: The reason is, of course, that they're only trying to put on a good show, not actively trying to kill each other.]]

* BujingaiSwordmaster takes this trope UpToEleven, using {{Wuxia}} as a motif. Apparently in the demon-infested future of Japan, martial arts will allow you run up and leap off of walls, do a spinning backflip kick while DualWielding swords, and even [[BeyondTheImpossible fly]]!

--> '''Elder:''' My, my, it's like they're filming a movie!
--> '''Sakaki:''' I agree, these kids have too much excessive movements! But for a fight between two kids, this isn't too bad!

-->-- ''HistorysMightiestDiscipleKenichi''

* In ''[[KenichiTheMightiestDisciple History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi]]'' one character starts spinning in place a few times before planting an outside crescent on Kenichi, while he gawks in disbelief. Try that in the UFC.

** Also Lampshaded in chapter 136:
--> '''Elder:''' My, my, it's like they're filming a movie!
--> '''Sakaki:''' I agree, these kids have too much excessive movements! But for a fight between two kids, this isn't too bad!

** Kirk used a horizontal jump kick so often that when William Shatner nearly got into a fight, he realized that he was instinctively planning on using it. After a moment of consideration, he realized that flopping onto the floor at the beginning of a real fight would go very badly for him, so he walked away.

* Any claim that representing rank by belt color is older than the 19th century, or that either the actual rank or its order is recognized/equivalent beyond an individual teacher, possibly following a standard set by a style. Some older styles, like karate and kung fu, also have significant variability between traditions.

* Played with in Nick Harkaway's TheGoneAwayWorld when discussing the so called martial arts secrets that obviously must exist, since every single ChopSockey film has made use of them. The master of the main character says that there are no such things as the Inner Teachings or any such nonsense. Then he makes one up on the spot as a joke just so that the students can say they have some to other martial artists. Of course [[spoiler: later the protagonist realizes that the teacher's secret teaching was totally legit, and proceeds to use the Ghost Palm of the Voiceless Dragon... {{OneLiner: fucker}}.]] The zig zag moment comes when the narrative completely justifies the use of the secret: [[spoiler: the protagonist spends some time getting his older opponent's heart rate up by forcing him to expend a lot of effort in using a hard style martial arts. Then when the opponent's heart is racing along at 190 bpm, the protagonist lays a nice solid palm strike to his sternum, causing cardiac arrest.]]

* Played with in Nick Harkaway's TheGoneAwayWorld when discussing the so called martial arts secrets that obviously must exist, since every single ChopSockey film has made use of them. The master of the main character says that there are no such things as the Inner Teachings or any such nonsense. Then he makes one up on the spot as a joke just so that the students can say they have some to other martial artists. Of course [[spoiler: later the protagonist realizes that the teacher's secret teaching was totally legit, and proceeds to use the Ghost Palm of the Voiceless Dragon... {{OneLiner fucker}}.]] The zig zag moment comes when the narrative completely justifies the use of the secret: [[spoiler: the protagonist spends some time getting his older opponent's heart rate up by forcing him to expend a lot of effort in using a hard style martial arts. Then when the opponent's heart is racing along at 190 bpm, the protagonist lays a nice solid palm strike to his sternum, causing cardiac arrest.]]

* Flip, flip, flip, flip. Everywhere you look in fiction you see martial arts depicted as being at least 1/3 acrobatics. In real life moves like flips and handsprings are excessively dangerous unnecessary show-off moves to use in a martial arts match, and the few martial arts moves which do include such spectacular gymnastic feats tend to be very high risk maneuvers.

This page is dedicated to all of the 'amended' martial arts that populate movies, manga and anime, especially high-flying spinning kicks and other telegraphed moves. Lots of times, this comes from the directors following the RuleOfCool, but many other times, they just DidNotDoTheResearch. If there is a HandWave coming up, appeals to Screw The RulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers may be thrown in - after all, a "highly telegraphed" multi-spin roundhouse is a lot less easy to counter [[SuperSpeed when your foot meets your opponent's face in the time it takes for him to blink]], and if you can [[NighInvulnerability shrug off a tonne of hits]] and [[SuperStrength kill the one guy with one]] then a punished whiff is not as critical.

Compare MartialArtsAndCrafts, ChopSockey.

Contrast WhatTheFuAreYouDoing.

This page is dedicated to all of the 'amended' martial arts that populate movies, manga and anime, especially high-flying spinning kicks and other telegraphed moves. Lots of times, this comes from the directors following the RuleOfCool, but many other times, they just DidNotDoTheResearch. If there is a HandWave coming up, appeals to [=~Screw The Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!~=] may be thrown in - after all, a "highly telegraphed" multi-spin roundhouse is a lot less easy to counter [[SuperSpeed when your foot meets your opponent's face in the time it takes for him to blink]], and if you can [[NighInvulnerability shrug off a tonne of hits]] and [[SuperStrength kill the one guy with one]] then a punished whiff is not as critical.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] in ''{{Chuck}}''. One confrontation with [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] starts with him showing off in a series of backflips and high-acrobatic martial arts. It's justified, as his backstory includes competitive gymnastics but no actual combat, which means he's the kind of person who could do backflips ''and wouldn't realize it's a bad idea''. So a martial arts fight is set up, but then Sarah just [[JustShootHim shoots him in the knee.]]
* [[Series/DoctorWho The Third Doctor's]] Venusian Aikido pretty much counts as this; it seems to have mostly been designed to make Jon Pertwee look good in a cloak.

* A short film by the [[http://www.zgmain.com ZeroGravity]] stunt team, "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQI8Ya0ZIs US vs HK]]," manages to parody it ''both'' ways by playing the same fight scene as both Hollywood and Hong Kong martial artists would do it. Their argument seems to be, "US sucks. HK is awesome."

** [[FanNickname GSP]] vs. Josh Koscheck II was pretty much this trope in action, GSP's jab vs. Koscheck's "BRH" (Big Right Hand). It has somewhat of a built-in excuse in that Koscheck's orbital bone was fractured in the first round by one such jab -- GSP would devolve to spamming [=BRHs=] himself in a later fight where he got poked in the eye -- but the result was [url=http://hosteddb.fightmetric.com/fights/index/3157]a statistical[/url] [CurbstompBattle curbstomp].