The water counterpart of Battle Amongst the Flames (and on occasion used together with that one), this is when a battle takes place in an area where water covers the floor.
Ostensibly, this is to make those fight scenes even more awesome, as battling on a puddle of water like this gives a lot of leeway for fancy splashing, sometimes accompanied with slow-motion, which adds to the awesome factor. There's also the rare Combat Pragmatist who uses their legs to splash water onto the opponent's face, blinding them and making them easy targets for an attack. Characters with electric powers can also exploit this by electrocuting the puddle on the floor (Most of the time, the person doing this are immune to electric shocks that would otherwise also affect them as well). Curiously, almost nobody ever slips on the water covering the floor. Not even with all those times when either or both combatants go airborne and/or off-balance and would in theory easily slip.
As said above, water counterpart to Battle Amongst the Flames, and on occasion used together with that trope, making for a cool Fire/Water Juxtaposition. Often goes together with Battle in the Rain, although note that this trope doesn't have to occur at the same time with it.
Compare Waterfront Boss Battle, which may involve the player character being above the water and the boss character being below it or vice-versa, and Underwater Boss Battle, both being underwater. Compare Mucking in the Mud, for another motion-impeding environment.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Okitenemuru: After meeting with a still alive Asu, Kanata, Shiki and Setsu have to team up to fight her. They do so in a ruined aquarium, in which the entire floor has been flooded.
- Reborn! (2004): At the first phase of the rain ring battle, Yamamoto and Squalo fight in a ruined building with puddles everywhere. The two take advantage of the water to execute their combos.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dark Yugi once fought a gang in an abandoned building that had leakages, with puddles of water all over the floor. He took advantage of this to trick the thugs into electrocuting themselves with their tasers.
Fan Works
- The Night Unfurls: The venue where Kyril, Sanakan and Hugh team up to fight Shamuhaza as an insectoid Eldritch Abomination is a lake.
Films — Live Action
- Birds of Prey (2020): When Harley Quinn breaks into a police station to retrieve Cassandra Cain, the damage to the control mechanism causes the ceiling water sprinklers to go off. When all of the cell doors unlock, Harley is forced to battle the released criminals (who all hate her) on a cellblock floor covered with water. During the fight, Harley uses the water to make several sliding attacks to kick and trip her opponents.
- In Blade Runner 2049, the final fight between K and Luv takes place on a pier as the tide is coming in, resulting in them fighting in waist-deep water. K is able to defeat her by holding her underwater.
- Constantine. Constantine arranges for the water in the hospital ceiling sprinkler system to be changed into holy water. He then sets off the sprinklers with a lighter, causing the half-breed demons he's facing to be doused with the holy water. This destroys their false human disguises, which makes them more vulnerable to attack. The water spray also covers the floor with water for the ensuing battle.
- Demolition Man: John Spartan and Simon Phoenix's final battle takes place in a cryo-prison, with melted ice covering the floor. Spartan uses this to put an end to Phoenix, throwing a drop of fast-freezing substance onto the floor which causes the whole place to freeze (jumping clear before he can be affected), causing Phoenix to become a Human Popsicle.
- In the first Lethal Weapon, Riggs and Joshua have their showdown on Murtaugh's front lawn, flooded by a broken fire hydrant. At one point Joshua tries drowning Riggs in a mud puddle.
- The Matrix Revolutions: the final fight between Neo and Smith takes place during an absolutely torrential downpour in the city; we see the two combatants run through almost a half foot of water when they rush each other.
- Predator 2. When Lt. Harrigan uses a grenade to blow open the door to the slaughterhouse, the resulting fire sets off the ceiling sprinklers, causing the floor to become covered in water. The Predator's invisibility shield is shorted out by water, making him visible and much more vulnerable to Harrigan's gunfire during their combat.
- The final fight in Save the Green Planet! takes place in a chemical factory in which the fire sprinklers have been triggered, and there are puddles of water everywhere.
- Tom-Yum-Goong has the battle in the burning temple, which also takes place in ankle-deep water. Kham battles a capoeirista and a wushu practitioner here.
Literature
- In Fox in Socks, there are some aggressive beetles who fight all the time. Sometimes, they fight in puddles, and sometimes, they fight in a puddle in a bottle on a noodle-eating poodle.
Video Games
- In 8Bit Killer, the protagonist infiltrates the Mega Tower through a maze of decrepit but not abandoned tunnels where every square metre of the floor is covered in ankle-deep water, which is apparently deep enough for divesuit-wearing enemies and even a giant tentacled monster to hide in.
- Battlefield 4 multiplayer map "Flood Zone" features a Chinese slum that starts slightly flooded due to the constant rain, but triggering the Levolution event by destroying the concrete levee will divert floodwaters to rapidly fill the playable map area with a rising tide, denying conventional ground vehicles and giving way for naval vessels such as boats, jetskis and amphibious IFVs to spawn instead to navigate the now-flooded city, as well as forcing infantry combat to the rooftops of the buildings.
- Rapture in BioShock is an Underwater City that is in serious disrepair after a year-long Civil War by its Ax-Crazy population has devastated the metropolis. Naturally there are leaks and slightly flooded areas which can be exploited by the player using the 'Electro Bolt' plasmid to electrocute all enemies standing in the flooded zones.
- In Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, the arena for the boss fight against Kotoko Utsugi has water covering most of the floor. To defeat her, you have to use the Paralyze bullet to electrify other enemies, which also causes the water to become electrified, temporarily exposing her weak spot.
- One of the grotto environments in Dragon Quest IX is a waterlogged cavern with waterfalls constantly bringing in more water from above (though the level never changes) and mostly features Flying Seafood Special enemies like undead whales or hammerhead sharks with centipede legs.
- In God Of War 2, Perseus' boss arena has shallow water covering the floor. This is a major oversight on Perseus' part, as his splashing footsteps allow Kratos to track his location despite his invisibility.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The battle against the Deku Toad is in a huge cavern with a thin layer of water, allowing its tadpoles to swim towards you.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The final battle takes place in a thunderstorm on an infinite plane of ankle-deep water. The boss is damaged by sticking your sword in the air and waiting for lightning to strike your sword, then attacking.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Several Test of Strength-type shrines in the game take place in arenas that are covered ankle-deep in water. This circumstance specifically allows Link to use his Cryonis power to raise blocks of ice from the water to interrupt the Ancient Guardian's charging attacks or repeatedly shock the Guardian to death.
- In the Pokémon series, surfing allows the player to encounter and battle wild Pokemon (some of which can only be found while surfing) and swimming Trainers, but other than some cosmetic changes and turning Nature Power into a Water-type move, it's not much different than other battle terrains.
- In Pokémon Black and White and its sequel, walking through puddles can also trigger a wild Pokemon battle (unlike other games where the puddles are merely cosmetic), but the battle terrain is not any different.
- Super Mario Bros. 3: In Water Land, the Hammer Brothers move back and forth from dry land to water; if Mario fights them in water he'll be knee-deep in it, slowing him and giving the Hammer Bros. the advantage.
- Tekken 6 has stages where this trope is in effect:
- "Tunnel Disaster" takes place in a slightly flooded tunnel that's also burning.
- "Mystical Forest" takes place in a forest basin with water covering up to the calves of both fighters.
- Warframe:
- In the climax of the quest "Call of the Tempestarii", the player takes control of Sevagoth's Shadow who fends off Vala Glarios' forces on a Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water.
- In Duviri, the Drifter can challenge Kullervo, in which case the large hole in the middle of Kullervo's Hold is turned into a floor covered in ankle-deep water for Drifter and Kullervo to duke it out.
Western Animation
- Castlevania (2017): In the final battle between Sypha and Trevor against a bunch of hell demons, Sypha briefly freezes the floor. That ice soon melts flooding the space, and Sypha uses it to electrocute the last of the demons she was fighting.
Live-Action/ TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Innocence" the Judge is blown up with a rocket launcher, setting off the sprinkler system. Buffy is then attacked by Angelus, with the two of them slipping and stumbling on the wet floor as they fight.
- Teen Wolf: In the seventh episode of Season 3, Alphas Kali and Derek engage in hand to hand combat while splashing in a flooded loft.
Real Life
- The Third Battle of Ypres in World War I is infamous in military history for the bitter fighting that took place round the Belgian town of Passchendale. Taking place during autumn rains, heavy artillery barrages destroyed the dykes and polders in a region that was already below sea level, ensuring the combatant armies fought in a morass of deep mud as the breached canals leaked back into the farmland they had previously been draining. The battle lasted for over five months.
- In the Battle
of Hemmingstedt, the Dithmarschian defenders flooded the flat marshland to create obstacles and chokepoints for the numerically superior attackers. The defenders were used to traversing such terrain, and ended up routing the enemy army, cutting them down or drowning them as they fled.
