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Playing With / Deliberate Injury Gambit

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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!

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