Misused: Megaton Punch

According to the trope description and page image for Megaton Punch the trope is basically "Armor Piercing Slap that sends the recipient flying, optionally with A Twinkle in the Sky".

Just went through that page and deleted like fifty gajillion examples that just listed it as "A really strong attack" (I moved the examples I cut to the discussion page.)

The trope needs some kind of help, either expanding it to include "A really strong attack" or make it more clear that the given criteria is not sufficient.

I'll open this, but I don't see anything wrong with the description. Either the trope is misleadingly named or it's just accumulated a ton of example decay that needs addressing.

Just massive misuse.

I made a YKTTW for Super Punch in response to noticing this sort of misuse. Some examples don't really fit either, as they're just "a strong punch" without the sort of enhancement that Super Punch implies, or the comic implications of Megaton Punch. Though I guess many of them can go to Punched Across the Room.

Something very similar happened with Paper Fan of Doom earlier... it's explicitly a manzai reference, but people shoehorned in people using fans as legitimate combat weapons because we just didn't have a trope for that.

I would say that Punched Across the Room is the mundane variant where it's just a really strong punch. There's no need for a third trope. Well, at least I don't think so. The way to find out would be to look for examples that don't fit either.

edited 21st May '14 12:44:56 PM by Fighteer

Lots of examples have a Super-Strength user punching their opponent across a city or greater distances. I recall moving one example a while ago of The Incredible Hulk punching Juggernaut across the continental United States.

Well, okay, so we have a couple of possible variations here.

Megaton Punch as presented is not "got punched really far", but "got punched by a girl in a comically exaggerated way that sends you flying into orbit, across continents, etc."

Punched Across the Room could absorb those examples of Super-Strength punches as an Exaggerated Trope version.

What about "super powered punch attack that doesn't send someone flying," then?

Wouldn't that just fall under the general category of Super-Strength? "Punches someone really hard" is certainly a pattern but it's not meaningful in and of itself, only with respect to some particular property of the puncher or the punchee.

I think they're saying that Megaton Punch is the Played for Laughs version of Punched Across the Room, which is the Exaggerated Trope of Super Punch.

Yeah, but that's not true. Megaton Punch is the exaggerated version of Armor Piercing Slap. It is unrelated to Punched Across the Room.

Super Punch may be a missing supertrope; if so, Megaton Punch would go under that, not Punched Across the Room.

edited 21st May '14 1:17:02 PM by Fighteer

Well, going with the first few examples from the YKTTW...

• Hajime No Ippo: No super strength involved, and no punching across the room. In fact, one of the punches does the opposite, freezing the opponent in place.
• Hunter X Hunter: Punch enhanced by ki turning it into a powerful attack. No super strength necessarily involved, and it may have the effect of Punched Across the Room, but not always.
• DBZ: Just a "super" attack in the form of a punch. Given the guy is Small Name, Big Ego, ain't no one actually getting punched anywhere. The second example also says it explodes, which seems like it isn't just Super-Strength and also doesn't count as Punched Across the Room.
• Nanoha: No clue, honestly. Don't know the franchise so I'm going to gloss over this.
• Big O: Giant robot that basically fires a weapon when it punches. Not super strength, and his opponents usually aren't moved by the attack, just get a hole blown in them.
• Macross: Giant robot punching through a ship and firing weapons. Again, no super strength (well, past giant robots being strong, of course) and the enemy doesn't go flying as much as they go... dying.

Looking through these, the difference I'm seeing between Super Punch and Punched Across the Room is that Punched Across the Room is an event, whereas Super Punch is an aspect of a character, something that they'll do repeatedly.

Oh, I missed that we had a YKTTW already going. Sure, let that run. I think that our main action, therefore, needs to be to clean Megaton Punch, not make any other change.

Hasn't this topic come up before, for the exact same reason?

edited 21st May '14 8:18:09 PM by Stratadrake

Megaton Punch can be the Exaggerated Trope for two tropes: Troperithmetic

Now, the real question is: Do we want to rename Megaton Punch? Because it really doesn't sound like a comedy gag. The lack of a Super Punch trope is part of the problem, but even when it gets launched I still see people misusing Megaton Punch.

We may want to turn Megaton Punch into a disambig between Super Punch and "Punched Into the Sky Gag."

edited 22nd May '14 6:40:57 AM by Larkmarn

^ One of the specific posts from the previous thread was that the description is one thing while the name basically screams Falcon PUNCH!!!.

Clock is set.

The impression I get from the picture and the description is that it was created with a common animation gag in mind:

Guy does something to upset girl (usually an ordinary girl with no special powers).

Girl punches him.

Guy goes flying into sky.

Very rarely is it intended to be taken seriously, or to imply that storyteller is really intending to portray the girl as having the power to literally punch someone hundreds of meters into the sky.

Like Armor Piercing Slap, the whole idea is exaggerating the girl's ability to inflict physical harm upon males that upset her, for comedic effect. It is never, ever used to portray a male hitting a girl in this manner, because while men slapping up women is horrible, Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female on Male.

So yeah, basically we need to split this between Super Punch and some new name for whatever we want to call this gag.

edited 23rd Jun '14 9:20:25 AM by Catbert

If Megaton Punch is intended only for comedically exaggerated punches, then yes, Super Punch would be split off.

Yep, although MEGATON PUNCH!! is the common meme for that specific comedy gag.

It's a bit old now, dates from Love Hina's popularity height.

So Super Punch seems about ready for launch, but I'd really like people's input on potential other names.

Super Blow, to extend the trope to other forms of strikes (e.g. kicking and headbutts)?

So I guess this never came to pass

In regards to Stratadrake's post about the previous thread, yes is has. I recall someone was going to split of a "Mad girl super punch gag" trope.

So, wait a second. If I'm getting this right, then the current definition of Megaton Punch is "Armor Piercing Slap that ends with the target being Punched Across the Room on the low end and becoming a Twinkle in the Sky on the high end". Why is that tropeworthy? Isn't that just The Same But More Specific?