History Main / HowMuchMoreCanHeTake

* A non-combat version which applied to ''both'' contestants was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E2%80%93Mahut_match_at_the_2010_Wimbledon_Championships the Wimbledon 2010 first-round match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner]], famously recorded in [[https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/jun/23/wimbledon-2010-tennis-live Xan Brook's live blog]] which read like an ApocalypticLog. The game had started on the 22nd late in the day and had to be put on hold because of fading light before the start of the final fifth set. Resuming at 2:05 the next day, the two men battled for '''seven hours''' in the deciding set (longer itself than any other tennis match in history), ending up ''tied'' at 59 games each when the umpire was forced to stop play again at 9:10 PM, declaring they would resume where they left off the ''next'' day. Both men were reduced to shambling zombies, staggering around the court in obviously exhausted agony, but refusing to concede defeat even when they were literally falling flat on their faces. ''[[{{Determinator}} Isner wanted to play on!]]'' When they resumed the next day the match fortunately didn't take ''nearly'' as long to resolve, as Isner finally won the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, '''''70-68!'''''

* The [[{{Spinoff}} spinoff]] series, ''OneMinuteMelee'' is an arguably worse offender. The series is largely aimed at those who [[JustHereForGodzilla watch Death Battle only for the fights]], and thus features '''[[MemeticMutation NO RESEARCH]]''' with the outcomes boiling down to AuthorAppeal. Because of this, most fights end being an exchange of intense {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s with both sides exchanging the AdvantageBall until the winner lands the finishing blow at the minute mark.

* Of course, seeing as it's based off ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosZ'' is a big offender. The worst was probably the [=Team Mario/Axem Rangers X/Koopa Bros.=] melee. Can anyone truly say that Axem Yellow's hammer attack he performed on Sonic, should have left Sonic with no problem? That still does not stop the fights from being FREAKING AWESOME.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods because they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] only happen when one runs out of health points and [[RealityEnsues mortal wounds that would kill a normal body are insta-kills]], despite their NighInvulnerability...

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] only happen when one runs out of health points and [[RealityEnsues mortal wounds that would kill a normal body are insta-kills]], despite their NighInvulnerability...

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] only happen when one runs out of health and CriticalHit's are [[RealityEnsues mortal wounds that would kill a normal body]].

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be either that [=K.O.'s=] are an InstaKill, or they only happen when one runs out of health and CriticalHit's are [[RealityEnsues mortal wounds that would kill a normal body]].

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be either that [=K.O.'s=] are an InstaKill, or they only happen when one runs out of health and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeMeter's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] are an insta-kill, and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom LifeBar's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] are an insta-kill, and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical LifeMeter at [[MultipleLifeBars 64 points]] (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom HealthBar's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward LifeMeter that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] are an insta-kill, and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical HealthBar at 64 points (which is also stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom HealthBar's) shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle. Meanwhile Gideon's is a more straightforward HealthBar that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that [=K.O.'s=] are an insta-kill, and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim Scott]] [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld Pilgrim's]] world [[LikeRealityUnlessNoted runs on video game physics and is also fuelled by anime logic]]. Scott himself has been kicked in the chest through wallpaper, levitated through 3 brick walls, and thrown towards a castle and just sort of brushed them all off. Both the comic and movie shows Scott getting knocked out by Lucas Lee after a good hit and still ends up ok. The Free Comic Book Day story gives the general explanation that he's much more tougher than the regular human because he [[PowerUpFood obsessively picks foods e sure they too, run on video game logic]]. The movie also shows that each character has their own health bars, with Scott's being a vertical HealthBar at [[SixtyFourBit 64]] points stylized after VideoGame/RiverCityRansom shown together with a few other stats to the left, and an ambiguous stat bar surrounding him in a circle, while Gideon's is a more straightforward HealthBar that only goes down when [[spoiler: Scott and Knives take him both on.]] The general consensus seems to be that K.O.'s are an insta-kill, and CriticalHit's that would mortally wound a body counts as well.

* MMA fighter Chan-Sung Jung gained the nickname of "The Korean Zombie" due to his ability to take large numbers of heavy blows and still move forward whilst swinging at full strength. He ''has'' been knocked out in the past though.

* Lexxus had some doubters when she qualified for a shot at Wrestling/{{WSU}} champion Wrestling/MercedesMartinez in a particularly cowardly way but gained a lot of respect when the two preceded to go seventy-three minutes, resulting in the longest women's bout ever recorded...to that point.

In fighting {{anime}}, {{superhero}} comics, and kung fu movies, characters are often [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower stronger]] and [[MadeOfIron tougher]] than any normal person has the right to be. This makes for more interesting concepts, because it automatically limits the field of people who can deal with a particular problem, forcing our heroes into the fray. But when this concept is taken to its logical extreme, you end up with a new problem:

** [[spoiler:Sasuke and Naruto's second climactic fight at the end of the manga]] one ups their first, especially on [[spoiler:[[{{Determinator}} Naruto]]'s]] side. [[spoiler: Sasuke]] literally starts screaming at him to [[WhyWontYouDie fall already]].

* Sort of used with LampshadeHanging in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs''. Both combatants think that they're losing and wonder if they will to be forced to use their ultimate weapon.

** This is averted in ''Advent Children Complete''. Many scenes were revised, and fights now show battle damage.

** This happens a little later in Kenshin's final battle with Shishioh, after taking multiple hits from Kenshin's ultimate technique and being struck directly in the face by a Futai no Kiwami. Eventually it ends with [[spoiler: Shishio helpless on the ground, being protected by Yumi whom he takes advantage of by stabbing her to seriously wound Kenshin. With both of them on the ground, various members of the team states that the first one to get up will win easily, as the other will be helpless. Kenshin totally collapses, bleeding out, and Shishio manages to stand, maniacally cackling as he thinks he's won before ''bursting into flames'' (his body heat became so intense that it caused the fats and oils in his blood to ignite, as he has no sweat glands). Holy shit.]]

** ''One Piece'' has also fallen into this thanks to its "Whitebeard pirates VS marines" battle: when a large quantity of characters have been shot, stabbed and still getup, and each of these characters have unique superpowers you need to pay attention to it's really difficult to decide which side is winning. As a whole the 'theme' of the Marineford arc seems to have been [[spoiler:'everyone loses except Blackbeard']]

* The Dio Brando-versus-Joutarou Kujou Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' part 3 is perhaps one of the most overlooked examples (WRYYYYYYYY and the steamroller eclipse it, but are aspects of it). The sequence danced gleefully into this territory (STEAMROLLER) and never left until the battle was over. Not only do you get Jojo and Dio trying to out-beatdown one another, you get then trying to outsmart, and eventually [[spoiler:out-TIMESTOP one another, culminating in a simultaneous-punches-connect-simultaneously that holds off the conclusion JUST LONG ENOUGH]]...

** The match started with [[spoiler:Rakan being pummeled by [[FullContactMagic magically-enforced]] punches moving at [[SuperSpeed over lightning speed]], being driven into the ground with a concentrated blast of [[BlowYouAway tropical squall-level winds]], then culminating in being at the center of an explosion of [[ShockAndAwe lightning]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill with enough heat to vapourize small mountains]]. [[TheJuggernaut He got back up.]] Then proceeded to beat the person who did it to him with punches of enough strength to kill high-level dragons and shatter large sections of earth. (Supposedly, by this point, his organs should've been turned to mush; HighPressureBlood [[BloodFromTheMouth from the Mouth]] was in order). On Kotaro's end, he was stabbed through his arms, legs, and torso, then later got slashed at several key points on his body by a a lot of {{BFS}}s, ultimately being impaled through his back-to-chest with a sword larger than his head. His answer? Really good HealingFactor. The person who stabbed him? Got pinned to a wall with AntiMagic {{BFS}}s]].
** In the end, [[spoiler:both Negi and Rakan ended up running out of magic before they took down the other guy, so they ended up engaging in GoodOldFisticuffs. At that point, they both fainted from exhaustion]]. Of course, Rakan is essentially [[BeyondTheImpossible physics, magic, and logic defying power]] distilled into human form, so this kind of thing is really to be expected from him. From Negi, however...
* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', [[spoiler:Revy and Roberta]] end up settling their differences in a fistfight that ends up being a very good example of this trope. The end result is draw by CrossCounter (although [[spoiler:Roberta]] isn't knocked out, which technically makes her the winner).

* Unlike the game series it's based on, the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime, is generally able to avoid CriticalExistenceFailure as it has more freedom to visibly depict a Pokemon's condition as a battle goes on. This combined with the relative fast pace of most battles allows the anime to avert this trope usually. But there are still many occasions where battles drag out with none of the combatants appearing to be close to fainting despite getting hit with multiple attacks, even powerful or super-effective ones that should lead to K.O. It can get so bad that sometimes, one Pokemon can land many strong moves that are clearly damaging, on the opponent without K.O'ing them yet get hit by one and be down for the count. It's especially common in knockout battles involving more than 1 Pokemon or battles between super strong trainers and Pokemon. And it's all but guaranteed to kick in during scuffles between [[OlympusMons Legendary Pokemon]].

* In one of the later ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' stories there's an entire chapter in which Cutter and Rayek settle their ancient grudge by beating the crap out of each other in the troll caverns. At first they're just using fists and feet, but as the fight goes on it escalates to the point where they're bashing each other with huge chunks of rock. Even when Rayek is half-dead from all the punishment he refuses to give up, telling Cutter that he "hasn't had enough". [[spoiler:Actually there's method in his madness - what Rayek means is that Cutter hasn't had enough ''revenge'' yet. He knows the only way he can ever settle the quarrel once and for all is by letting Cutter almost kill him.]]

* Features quite often in ''Comicbook/{{Zero}}'' with the titular character participating in some really brutal fights over the course of the series. One notable instance involves Zero fighting a retired agent on a rooftop, before giving chase and involving some CarFu, going back to a fist fight after their cars crash, Zero getting [[EyeScream stabbed in the eye]], and ending with Zero slamming a car door repeatedly at his target's head.

* In the first story of the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'', Dark Danny and [[spoiler:Future Danny]] are at a stand still until Dark Danny uses the intervention of Tucker and Valerie to his advantage. Even when Danny manages to unlock a powerful SuperMode that enables him to overpower Dark Danny, it's still not enough to stop him. He eventually got a boost of power when Vlad tried to use TrickedOutGloves to steal his energy. He eventually lost when [[spoiler:Future Danny and Sam activated their {{Super Mode}}s]] and Danny and Sam delivered a double punch to him, finally knocking him out.

* Superman versus the agents of Zod in ''Film/SupermanII''. Exactly how much does being punched through a skyscraper hurt Superman? Incidentally this is why the tense moment at the end of that fight when Superman is believed to be dead completely fails to fool the audience, since by that point we've seen him go through worse and barely acknowledge it.

* Generally averted in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' for humans. Harry can put out a ''hell'' of a lot of damage, but is human underneath it. Played straight with most of the big, supernatural enemies that Harry faces, as well as Cowl, who's currently one of the [[BigBad biggest bads]] in the series.

* This trope was believed to be the ''downfall'' of "legit" pro wrestling up until shoot fighting and eventually mixed martial arts became a thing. Matches tended to be over quickly and increasing the amount of time for a pin or adding more falls actually did little to fix that, and on occasions where matches went ''long'' they tended to be boring stalemates. The rock bottom of these was believed to be a Collar and Elbow style match between Jacob H Martin and James Hiram [=McLaughlin=] that went on for six hours without a decisive winner at Whitney's Opera House in Detroit, Michigan on June 29th 1876. However, it was taken to its logical conclusion on January 26th 1881 in New York City New York when a Collar and Elbow match between Clarence Whistler vs. William Muldoon went for ''nine hours'' without a decisive winner! The idea behind working matches was to both have long bouts and keep them interesting.

* Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, Wrestling/AntonioInoki defeated Masa Saito in an hour and twenty five minute Island Death Match, that indeed had people asking the question.
* Wrestling/{{W|orld Wrestling Federation}}WF Champion Wrestling/BrunoSammartino retained his title against Waldo Wrestling/{{Von Erich| Family}} in an 81 minute time limit draw...psyche, that wasn't a time limit draw, that was them having to stop the show because of a curfew being put in effect!
* Wrestling/ChrisHero destroyed the notion that the promotion was only for {{Garbage Wrestler}}s when he defeated Wrestling/CMPunk for the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship in a two out of three falls bout that went ninety two minutes.
* Wrestling/RingOfHonor decided once decided to put its own time limit to the test. The result? Wrestling/AustinAries pinned Wrestling/BryanDanielson after seventy five minutes! Now you know why it cuts off at an hour.
* Lexxus had some doubters when she qualified for a shot at Wrestling/{{WSU}} champion Wrestling/MercedesMartinez in a particularly cowardly way but gained a lot of respect when the two preceded to go seventy three minutes, resulting in the longest women's bout ever recorded...to that point.

* This is the principle behind the Last Man Standing match. It's no count-out, no disqualification, and no pinfall or submission. The only way to win is batter your opponent so badly that he can't answer the ref's ten count.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Fudge}}'' is one of the few tabletop [=RPGs=] that actually weakens people as they get beat up, using a wound track (boxes under wound categories that get filled in), with hurt and very-hurt wound boxes. A hurt is a significant penalty, and it will be obvious; a very-hurt is a huge penalty, and will be just as absurdly obvious.

*** The D&D Miniatures game follows the RPG's lead. Most creatures have to make a morale roll after losing half their Hit Points, or run off the battlefield. Otherwise, there's no difference between being at full HP or nearly dead. By contrast, games like ''TabletopGame/HeroClix'' or ''TabletopGame/MageKnight'' have characters get progressively weaker (and lose special abilities) as they take damage.

* The almost unknown RPG "TabletopGame/{{Ammo}}" (only published in Italy) uses 16 different stats for a character. Half of this are used both as normal stats (like Strength for damage, or Agility for dodges) and as life points: damages are randomly distributed amongst stats, reducing them. A very wounded character is highly inefficient, expect for magic users that have little use for physical stats anyway.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and other MMORPG's the [[AnAdventurerIsYou main tank]] is often required to be hit by enemies so powerful, a single blow would likely slay almost any other player. The tank is required to endure these colossal hits by the hundred and is only able to do so by being extremely powerful and the subject of his own personal battery of healing spellcasters. The result of this can be that if a healer mistimes a spell or runs out of {{mana}}, a tank can be [[CriticalExistenceFailure suddenly killed]] by an attack which previously appeared inconsequential.

** Guts manages to survive a lot of painful punishment from Nightmare -- a kick, followed by a lightning sword uppercut, then a SphereOfDestruction that causes him to fly and slam against a tree. [[spoiler:After Nightmare transforms into Night Terror, Guts tanks three Eye Beams (enough to finish off any normal Soul Calibur fighter), one of which slams him against a tree, an impalement by Soul edge followed by explosion that flings him against a rock, and a wall of flames. ''[[MadeOfIron He survives all that]]''. Guts only resorts to using the Berserker Armor when confronted by Inferno's literal inferno]].

* Mounty Oum's ''WebAnimation/{{Haloid}}'' had somewhat realistic levels of combat, given that the two combatants were wearing armor that would rival a 50-ton tank. However, his follow up series ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy'' has characters taking insane amounts of damage and just getting up for more. In addition to the random pummeling and slashing, the most notable moments were Kasumi taking a bullet to the chest and just getting knocked down for a bit and Tifa taking an axe to her exposed midriff and not even flinching (although she did get knocked back about twenty feet).

* Tennyo vs. the Arch-Fiend, in the story ''Boston Brawl'' of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse. It just keeps escalating, and they just keep healing up, all the way until a building falls on them. They both get up from it [[spoiler: but the Arch-Fiend is out of energy, and Tennyo is just pissed off.]] In this case it's an intentional GodModeSue since the writer is attempting a {{Deconstruction}}.
** Averted with Sara, who has similar regeneration abilities. Getting cut in half meant she was pretty much doomed, and needed to eat FAST. Fortunately, some minions are nearby.

** Taken to the extreme in the GrandFinale, where the fight between Superman and Darkseid goes on for far too long, and is mostly Darkseid smacking the crap out of Superman, with several blows that look like they ''should'' be devastating - one looks like it'd break Superman's back! - but don't noticeably affect his ability to fight in any way. What makes this even crazier is that it seems like ''Batman'' - yes, ''Batman'' - tries to mix it up with Darkseid, and because of this trope, it seems like his jump-kick is about as effective as Superman. And after enduring this horrific, brutal abuse from a stronger-than-ever Darkseid for the ''entire episode'', Superman gets up, shrugs it off, comes up with the WorldOfCardboardSpeech and a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome...but the comeback doesn't even last as long as it took him to ''get through'' the speech, when he's interrupted by a device that ''puts him in as much pain as is physically possible'', and ''that'' ends the fight.

* ''{{Transformers}}'' often faces this problem and ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' especially: the Predacons (most commonly [[TheChewToy Waspinator]]) are frequently blown into pieces, and often survive without even going into the "safety lock" emergency state, yet [[spoiler:Dinobot]] died while largely intact. The shows offers the (surprisingly consistent) justification that it doesn't matter how much they're torn apart, as long as their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Spark]] has energon supplied to it they can be put back together. Thus [[spoiler:Dinobot]] died not from injuries, but because he kept fighting long after his system told him to shut-down, while Waspinator's spark is located within his head, allowing him to survive attacks and mishaps that blow him to pieces. This spark placement is meant to be very unusual.

* A non-combat version which applied to ''both'' contestants was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E2%80%93Mahut_match_at_the_2010_Wimbledon_Championships the Wimbledon 2010 first round match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner]], famously recorded in [[https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/jun/23/wimbledon-2010-tennis-live Xan Brook's live blog]] which read like an ApocalypticLog. The game had started on the 22nd late in the day and had to be put on hold because of fading light before the start of the final fifth set. Resuming at 2:05 the next day, the two men battled for '''seven hours''' in the deciding set (longer itself than any other tennis match in history), ending up ''tied'' at 59 games each when the umpire was forced to stop play again at 9:10 PM, declaring they would resume where they left off the ''next'' day. Both men were reduced to shambling zombies, staggering around the court in obvious exhausted agony, but refusing to concede defeat even when they were literally falling flat on their faces. ''[[{{Determinator}} Isner wanted to play on!]]'' When they resumed the next day the match fortunately didn't take ''nearly'' as long to resolve, as Isner finally won the match 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, '''''70-68!'''''

* The ''MortalKombat'' series has been notorious for this, however ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' takes it UpToEleven. Since the character models have been designed with painstaking detail to show the damage inflicted on their bodies, both external ''and'' internal, expect to see a lot of fighters look like they've packed up for a trip to the morgue ''before the end of the first round''. Particularly nasty are the characters who break their backs, crack open their skulls or lose an eyelid when busted up. Yes, their eye is just barely hanging there completely exposed.

** Another boxing example: Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward beat the everloving bejesus out of each other, both sustaining incredible amounts of punishment. They ended up fighting [[WasntThatFun three times]], producing much of the same excitement. (A writer for the ''Boston Globe'' described all three fights as "like a Popeye cartoon, only more eventful.")

** ''One Piece'' has fallen into this recently thanks to its "Whitebeard pirates VS marines" battle: when a large quantity of characters have been shot, stabbed and still getup, and each of these characters have unique superpowers you need to pay attention to it's really difficult to decide which side is winning. As a whole the 'theme' of the Marineford arc seems to have been [[spoiler:'everyone loses except Blackbeard']]

* Mounty Oum's ''WebAnimation/{{Haloid}}'' had somewhat realistic levels of combat, given that the two combatants were wearing armor that would rival a 50-ton tank. However, his follow up series ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy'' has characters taking insane amounts of damage and just getting up for more. In addition to the random pummeling and slashing, the most notable moments so far were Kasumi taking a bullet to the chest and just getting knocked down for a bit and Tifa taking an axe to her exposed midriff and not even flinching (although she did get knocked back about twenty feet).

* The (anti-)climactic fight scene in ''Film/TheyLive'' where Nada and Frank spend a good five minutes pummelling each other in a parking lot. Given they're fighting on a concrete surface you'd probably expect broken bones by the minute mark, nevermind when they start with the suplexes.

* During the battle between Twilight and Tirek in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Twilight's Kingdom Part 2]]'', the two are evenly matched.

-->-- '''Wrestling/JimRoss''' on Wrestling/MickFoley, shortly after Foley is thrown off the Hell in a Cell through a table and gets back up

* Most hardcore matches tend to go like this, but Wrestling/MickFoley has made a career out of it. The majority of a Foley match will consist of the opponent hitting him with everything he has (finishers, chairs, tables, ladders, announce tables, thumbtacks, 2x4's, barbed wire, slams through Hell in a Cell cages), after which Foley inexplicably takes control of the match, until his opponent hits something completely off-the-charts (like spears through flaming tables) to get the win.

** Vegeta is the ''king'' of this trope. No matter what anyone throws at him, he just won't stay down! Heck, he and Frieza are the only canon characters that have ever stood up after being hit by the Spirit Bomb! [[spoiler: The first time he died, it took a blast ''straight'' through the heart to finally get the job done, and even then, it took a few minutes for him to actually die!]]

* Lexxus had some doubters when she qualified for a shot at Wrestling/{{WSU}} champion Wrestling/MercedesMartinez in a particularly cowardly way but gained a lot of respect when the two preceded to go seventy three minutes, putting on the longest women's bout on record.