Basic Trope: A character takes an attack in order to gain an advantage in a fight.
- Straight: Bob lunges at Alice, who moves to take the attack in the shoulder. Bob's sword becomes stuck, slowing him down for Alice to land the finishing move.
- Exaggerated:
- Every hit Bob landed in the fight was calculated by Alice.
- Every single fight that takes place involves a deliberate injury gambit.
- Downplayed: Alice didn't actually intend to be hit, but she's tough enough to take the pain and quick-witted enough to take advantage of the opening Bob has now left himself.
- Justified: Opponents often lower their guard at the moment of victory.
- Alice becomes more powerful the more wounded she is. The strike to the shoulder was just the power boost she needed.
- Inverted: Bob is attempting to throw the fight in a convincing way, and deliberately attacks in a way that injures Alice but leaves himself open.
- Subverted: After restraining Bob, Alice tells Bob that she wasn't actually expecting to get hit...
- Double Subverted: ...but when she did, she knew she could use it to her advantage.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Bob stabs himself to get at Alice, in a move suspiciously like seppuku
- Averted: No attacks are deliberately taken.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I'm beginning to think that I'm a little bit of a masochist."
- Invoked: Alice decided to do this, as Bob is a fragile speedster and having his blade lodged in her side would take away the "speedster" part.
- Exploited: Bob's sword was poisoned, because he knew Alice would have to concede an attack to hit him.
- Defied: Bob has oiled his sword so he can easily withdraw it.
- Bob is using a reach weapon like a spear, leaving the impaled Alice to feebly flail at empty air.
- Discussed: Isn't there a way that doesn't involve getting horrifically injured?
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The wound becomes infected, and Alice eventually has to be hospitalised.
- Alice's skill in hitting a mobile opponent is reduced to the extent where she has to invoke deliberate injury gambits to win fights.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice uses some of the money she was paid for taking down Bob to cover her living costs while she's out of action.
- Alice trains herself to survive grievous injuries so that she can do so repeatedly.
I've been hit, but it's opened the way to Deliberate Injury Gambit!