History Main / TellMeHowYouFight

* In ''[[Film/Serenity2005 Serenity]]'' we get several confrontations between [[TheCaptain Mal]] and [[ProfessionalKiller the Operative]]. Mal is a [[GoodOldFashionedFisticuffs rough hewn brawler]] whose fighting style is a result of being TaughtByExperience in everything from fistfights as a kid on a country ranch, to surviving in warfare, to dirty squabbling with other criminals post-war. His fighting style reflects this: strong and direct but somewhat sloppy, and it works as well as it does mostly because Mal is a large and strong man who will fight very dirty when given the chance. By contrast the Operative is a ConsummateProfessional who is impeccably trained, his moves and strikes are precise, targeting pressure points and vulnerable spots on the body so he can do the maximum amount of damage or most easily incapacitate an opponent while using the least amount of force needed. The Operative also does more to use angles, side stepping, and parrying blows, and has his SignatureMove, TheParalyzer, as an ace up his sleeve. The result is that when they fight the Operative dominates whenever they're at range and he has a chance to respond to Mal in a manner befitting his training, and virtually the only time when Mal is effective is when they get into the nastier business of grappling up close, as that gives Mal a chance to use his greater strength, or when Mal manages to fight dirty by doing things like temporarily blinding the Operative and hitting him while he's blind. [[spoiler:Their second and last fight concludes in a very thematically appropriate way; the Operative appears to have Mal temporarily paralyzed with his fancy technique, but it turns out that the move doesn't work on Mal because a war wound damage that nerve. Mal pretends to be helpless so the Operative becomes overconfident and goes to finish him, and Mal catches him by surprise with an elbow to the throat. In other words, the textbook technique of the Operative is rendered ineffective because of Mal's life experience and countered by Mal's cunning.]]

* '''ShowingOffYourPowers''': A fighting style defined by spectacle and performance. Showmanship is the primary concern here, and generally suggests the character has a performing arts background of some kind, or is a SmugSuper who is more concerned with attention and looking cool to others.

* '''ShowingOffYourPowers''': A fighting style defined by spectacle and performance. Showmanship is the primary concern here, and generally suggests the character has a performing arts background of some kind, or is a SmugSuper who is more concerned with attention.

** Occurs in-universe with Tarrlok discovering Amon's identity when they finally fight each other [[spoiler: because he recognizes his brother's bloodbending.]]

* '''Quick, Elegant Strikes:''' Character settles the dispute with one or two sudden, swift punches. This style often shows that a character is refined, often royalty, and usually very arrogant as well. See also FingerPokeOfDoom. Also see Can't Touch This below.
* '''[[SuicideAttack Suicidal Tactics]]:''' Character launches forward, not caring about leaving himself wide open to attack. It is a style appropriate for BloodKnight, a DeathSeeker, a LeeroyJenkins or a [[TheBerserker Berserker]]. Could be an ActionBomb. Often involves SuicidalOverconfidence. ''Alternatively'', the character may just be NighInvulnerable (or at least MadeOfIron), which makes this style a variant expression of brute strength.

* '''[[UnskilledButStrong Brute Strength]]:''' The character focuses not so much on technique, as on his physical strength. Expect powerful punches... and not much else. Typical for GiantMook and DumbMuscle, among heroes occasionally for TheBigGuy.
* '''[[PerfectPlayAI Can't Touch This]]:''' Character actually does little to harm the enemy, choosing instead to just defend himself and [[DeadlyDodging use the enemy's own strength against him]], often humiliating him in the process. Style focuses on [[CounterAttack intercepting and countering attacks]], occasionally grounding the opponent with a precision strike to a PressurePoint. Character using this style is often wise and does not fear his opponent; there's a good chance on him being MartialPacifist. Also see Quick Elegant Strikes above.
* '''AttackReflector''' on the other hand, can imply that the fighter is lazy or lets their AppliedPhlebotinum handle everything or their PowersDoTheFighting, unless it's part of a more complex fighting style. Their overconfidence [[PhlebotinumBreakdown will usually be their undoing.]] Alternatively, this may be the mark of a MartialPacifist or TechnicalPacifist who doesn't want to attack his opponent - but is okay with the opponent hurting themselves.
* '''[[{{Flynning}} Lots of Unnecessary Movement]]:''' The style is not so much as combative as it is about flailing your arms in an intimidating way (which rarely works, unless opponent's style is even more about bullying than skill). Character is arrogant, untrained or both, may be HotBlooded. However, there's a chance of all this being just dangerously ObfuscatingStupidity.

* '''SelfImposedChallenge:''' Character eschews weapons when everyone else uses them, or [[PowerLimiter otherwise limits his power]] ([[RestrainingBolt and it may not be by choice]]); appropriate for a ProudWarriorRaceGuy or variety of MartialPacifist or "[[Literature/{{Discworld}} smiling, wrinkly old man]]" types. May be used by {{Blood Knight}}s or {{Worthy Opponent}}s who can't get a satisfying fight any other way, which shows deserved overconfidence. May be fond of saying IAmNotLeftHanded.

* '''CombatSadomasochist''': The character likes to inflict and receive pain, and ''lots of it''. The hallmark of a sadistic, careless villain. Depending on how strong the self preservation instinct is, the fighter might favor either the suicidal or elegant form when inflicting pain.
* '''PowersDoTheFighting''': Similar to the AttackReflector example above, this can imply that the character is lazy and/or overreliant on his powers. They will never bother dodging, unless faced with a strong enough attack that can break through their defenses. If this happens and they fail avoiding the attack, [[SquishyWizard that will likely result in an instant defeat right there]]. Characters that fight like this are usually villains, as bad guys tend to be [[TheLawOfPowerProportionateToEffort allowed to be this powerful with little effort]].

* '''LongRangeFighter''': Shines from a distance, fails horribly at close combat. The implication here is that the character is too physically frail, smart and/or cowardly to attempt getting close and personal, so they will rely on magic, PsychicPowers, KiManipulation, [[RubberMan extendable limbs]] or whatever gives them the reach advantage to take down the opponent. Alternately, it means that the fighter is [[GuysSmashGirlsShoot a woman]], for whom this is somewhat expected, especially a ProperLady.
* '''CloseRangeCombatant''': The inverse of the above, with the implications also being inversed. The character in this case is strong, confident and/or reckless, shining on hand-to-hand combat and often overlapping with the suicidal tactics described above, but with an emphasis on this character's lack of reach being a potentially [[CripplingOverspecialization crippling weakness]].
* '''AttackDrone''': Combining and magnifying the traits of PowersDoTheFighting and LongRangeFighter, a fighter who relies on drones to battle their opponents is nearly always highly intelligent but physically unimpressive, and usually MinoredInAsskicking. This is usually a villainous trait, particularly in video games (where it's the mark of a FlunkyBoss); a hero who uses this is TheSmartGuy and will normally still be a bit of a CombatPragmatist.
* '''VictoryByEndurance:''' Simply outlasting the opponent, sometimes by way of psychological warfare (annoying them to the point where they reveal their ace in the hole prematurely) or being a StoneWall. The default methodology of a WeakButSkilled fighter; always loses to an IncreasinglyLethalEnemy or InstakillMook.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he fights. This is when a character's fighting style reflects his personality or methodology. Similar to WeaponSpecialization except here, it's not so much what you use as how you use it.

** This is part of the [[PlanetOfHats cultural hat]] of the near-Human[[ProudWarriorRace Echani]]. They use combat as a form of communication, and say you do not know someone unless you have fought them. Part of that stems from a genetic oddity where same-sex siblings look almost identical to an outsider. An Echani would be able to tell the siblings apart by how they move, and especially by how they fight.

* ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' allows the player character to specialise in martial arts. There are several kinds of 'em, and all of them are quite {{Troperrific}}: "quick, elegant strikes" (nobility favourite), two CombatPragmatist styles (one for gritty mercenaries and the other for [[OurElvesAreDifferent dark elf-like]] [[RecycledInSpace aliens]]), a fancy-schmancy flamboyant style (popular among most mystic and philosophical of noble houses), and so on. In fact, there's at least one for each of the patterns described above.
* GURPS Martial Arts details a lot of fighting styles (and Tactical Shooting, in turns, discusses gun fighting styles). Each style gets described in terms of what combat skills, techniques and options it uses, and also what advantages and disadvantages a typical stylist would have - a style that encourages Bloodlust and Berserk is a lot different than one that encourages a certain Code of Honour or Sense of Duty. Meanwhile, the gun fighting styles are the same - [[ColdSniper the Sharpshooter style lists Loner and Callous as typical disadvantages ]]and the Shotgunner style lists Bully, Overconfidence and Hard of Hearing.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'', using the [[AttackReflector Resonance Reflector]] doesn't raise your kill count, and so it becomes the trademark of a pacifist Iji. Whether this is a MartialPacifist making a principled decision to never attack her enemies, or a TechnicalPacifist using {{mooks}}' attacks against them to keep her own hands clean, is up to interpretation.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', battling serves as a way to evaluate a trainer as a person. Since Pokemon take on characteristics of their trainers, their fighting styles often match the personality of their trainers as well. Ash, for example, is a HotBlooded hero, uses a fast, up-tempo battling style and likes to improvise on the fly. His Pokemon, especially Pikachu, usually become {{Boisterous Bruiser}}s after being with him for a while. Earlier (back in the Kanto era), he was described by one opponent as [[PowersDoTheFighting relying excessively on his Pokemon's abilities]] (as opposed to having a tactical style of his own), which in this case was a sign of his inexperience.

* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', Saber deduces that Berserker is someone who knows her true identity ([[spoiler:King Arthur]]), through the fact that he can actually '''dodge''' her strikes despite her sword being completely invisible, indicating that he's quite familiar with the dimensions of her sword (thus rendering the invisibility moot). When Berserker's sword ([[spoiler:Arondight]]) is revealed, the truth begins to dawn on her, but isn't until the mask vanishes that she realizes just who he is.

* Though it's never commented on in-universe, the fighting styles of characters in ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' add another layer to the philosophy of the movie. [[http://plotlessviolence.comicgenesis.com/d/20061112.html Explained here.]]
** In short, humans tend to have more fluid, flashy or distinctive styles based on the character (contrast Morpheus' kung fu to Ballard's boxing), while the Agents all use a generic karate-based style. Humans also use martial arts throws and wristlocks (Morpheus vs. Neo), wheras agents simply grab-and-heave, which works due to their incredible strength.
** Actually, it does come up in universe in the second movie. Seraph (the Oracle's bodyguard) tells Neo he attacked him because fighting someone is the best way to get to know them.

* ''Series/Titans2018'': During a sparring between Dick and Rose, they discuss about fighting, expressing different views on it that can be seen even in their WeaponOfChoice. Rose chooses the deadly, quick [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]], reflecting her elegant fighting style, [[DanceBattler full with dancing movements]], but ready to give deadly blows at every turn. Dick instead has just a wooden staff, and his style is less about the killing blow and more about [[ThouShaltNotKill defense and knowing when to spare a life]]. Rose breaks his wooden stuff at the end, but he still defeats her.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he fights. This is when a character's fighting style reflects his personality or methodology. Similar to WeaponOfChoice except here, it's not so much what you use as how you use it.

For a weapon-specific version, try WeaponOfChoice. When a person's specific identity can be deduced from their fighting style (not just general traits), that's FightingFingerprint. When powers are thrown into the mix, see PersonalityPowers. When it's how you play a game, than it's CharacterDrivenStrategy.

For a weapon-specific version, try WeaponOfChoice. When a person's specific identity can be deduced from their fighting style (not just general traits), that's FightingFingerprint. When powers are thrown into the mix, see PersonalityPowers.

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* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': Zak Gramarye engages his potential defense attorneys in a game of poker for this reason. [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin misinterpreted this as StrengthEqualsWorthiness, as Phoenix had actually ''won'' his poker game against Zak; Zak, however, was not paying attention to the ''outcome'' so much as the ''play style'' of his opponent...and in his game against Gavin, he saw a ruthless streak that he deemed dangerous. Correctly so, as many years later Kristoph would murder him over this slight.]]

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* '''PowersDoTheFighting''': Similar to the AttackReflector example above, this can imply that the character is lazy and/or overreliant on his powers. They will never bother dodging, unless faced with a strong enough attack that can break through their defenses. If this happens and they fail avoiding the attack, [[OneHitKill that will likely result in an instant defeat right there]]. Characters that fight like this are usually villains, as bad guys tend to be [[TheLawOfPowerProportionateToEffort allowed to be this powerful with little effort]].