History Main / DesignatedGirlFight

* Any time ''{{Bionicle}}'' manages to pass TheBechdelTest, it's usually because of one of these. Helryx vs Tuyet and Gali vs Gorast spring to mind.

Essentially, when the Hero needs to fight a girl, he must get a Pinch Hitter to take his spot. Sometimes the Hero's girlfriend gets this as her role. Often the job of TheChick in the FiveManBand is to smack the supervillainess around, essentially becoming the team's Designated Hitter for all female villains.

* In ''{{Hellsing}}'': Seras Victoria kills Jessica, the ''female'' vampire in volume one, then she fights Zorin Blitz in a big battle. Although later it seems she was going to battle [[spoiler: the Captain]], that fight ended up more [[spoiler: about Pip vs Captain with him giving the deadly blow]]. It's mildly subverted when she kills nameless ghouls/male vampires or helps others to fight other opponents.
** Subverted with Alucard vs Rip van Winkle.
** Subverted with Integra vs [[spoiler: the Major]] with some assistance from Seras.

** In ''DigimonFrontier'', Izumi is the only one that even got an ''opportunity'' to fight Ranamon.

* ''Film/{{Superman}} 2'' has the evil Kryptonian woman Ursa getting punched out by Lois Lane (and apparently falling to her death) after getting depowered. I've always thought to myself, "How convenient, now Superman doesn't have to."

** GalaxyRangers managed to be an aversion most of the time, despite having a female BigBad and several ActionGirl characters among the guest cast and RoguesGallery. The notable exception was in "Scarecrow's Revenge" where the titular villain turned Maya BrainwashedAndCrazy and sent her against Niko. The scene's almost a punchline in the fandom, as Maya had been hitting on [[ChichMagnet Goose]] earlier.

** GalaxyRangers managed to be an aversion most of the time, despite having a female BigBad and several ActionGirl characters among the guest cast and RoguesGallery. The notable exception was in "Scarecrow's Revenge" where the titular villain turned Maya BrainwashedAndCrazy and sent her against Niko. The scene's almost a punchline in the fandom, as Maya had been hitting on Goose earlier.

->Beastboy: "''I didn't know I was this tough''."
->Cyborg: "''You're not. I kick your butt all the time''."

** Part II completely averts, if not ''inverts'' this. Likely because the [[OddlySmallOrganization comparatively smaller]] number of villains and thus [[TheSmurfettePrinciple comparatively even smaller number of female villains]] (2 if you count Karin, 1 if you don't) and there not being a TournamentArc to get characters on the same side to fight each other ''every'' non-filler fight with a woman in it had her fighting a man.

* In ''{{Bleach}}'': Matsumoto and [[spoiler:Hinamori]] fight against Harribel's all female group of fraccion.

** Jinx is Raven's ShadowArchetype, so they end up fighting whenever the groups battle anyway.

** Then nicely {{averted|Trope}} in {{JLA-Avengers}}, when WonderWoman and {{Aquaman}} go up against SheHulk and [[TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]]. She-Hulk is regarded as (physically) the strongest female superhero in the Marvel Universe, but she still isn't quite up to Wonder Woman's level. On the other hand, Hercules is about as powerful as Wonder Woman (and there are a whole host of other reasons those two make great opponents), so that's who fought (setting up a nice little SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfFunny from Herc at the same time).

* In ''PokemonSpecial'', this doesn't extend to sanctioned matches, such as gym battles, but against bad guys, yup, girls tend to match up with each other. If genders don't match up in those ultimate battles against good and evil, that's just because the gender ratio isn't evened out. As many girls will pe paired up against each other, and whoever's left gets to fight a guy.

*** OK, but Ishida sews dresses.

** But who can forget how, out of all the competitors in the Chuunin exams, Sakura and Ino, hated rivals, just ''had'' to face off against each other.
*** In fairness they were, as said, rivals, that kinda justifies them fighting by shonen logic, just like Naruto had to fight Neji after he [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown brutalized]] Hinata -- all in all, the fights in the Chunin Pre-lims weren't to bad about this, with two girl/girl (Ino/Sakura and Tenten/Temari) and two boy/girl (Shikamaru/Kin and Hinata/Neji). If you add the next round there was one ''more'' girl/boy fight (Shikamaru/Temari).

* Source of the quote above: in the final battle in ''HotFuzz'', Skinner's attack secretary is taken out by Doris, the one female police officer.
** Objection, they had no problems fighting the other female antagonists and were in fact about to shoot the secretary before Doris knocked her out.
*** But the quote makes it obvious that the creators of the movie were aware of and playing with the trope.
*** Damn right they knew about it. That whole movie revels in playing all of the old cliches straight. And it is glorious because of it.

[[caption-width:250:OnePiece takes this trope UpToEleven]]
-> "Nothing like a bit of girl-on-girl!"
-->- HotFuzz

An unspoken version of WouldntHitAGirl, when there's a team with one ActionGirl, and there's one female opponent among several men, the two will always take care of each other. She might take out one of the guys, too, but the men will keep to themselves. It's not universal enough to list aversions, but it's definitely noticeable.

This tends to be the end result of a basically gendered aspect of many superheroes: male superheros tend to have a generally male RoguesGallery, and females tend to have a generally female rogue's gallery. Thus, a LegionOfDoom team-up tends to be fought along gender lines.

** In the Thriller Bark arc, when Usopp is the only one capable of fighting Thriller Bark's female officer, Perona. WouldntHitAGirl kicks in, however, in that Usopp never actually ''strikes'' Perona, just frightens her into unconsciousness.

** Averted in Amazon Lily, by virtue of Luffy being the only one around to fight an island full of [[HotAmazon hot amazons.]]

** Also many fans are roaring for a fight between [[ActionGirl Sakura]] and [[DarkChick Karin]]. [[spoiler:Considering that the latter recently saved the former from being killed by Sasuke, and the former is now working to heal the latter back from the brink of death, the aformentioned fans are not happy.]]

*** In fairness they were, as said, rivals, that kinda justifies them fighting by shonen logic, just like Naruto had to fight Neji after he [[NoHoldsBarredBeatDown brutalised]] Hinata-- all in all, the fights in the Chunin Pre-lims weren't to bad about this, with two girl/girl (Ino/Sakura and Tenten/Temari) and two boy/girl (Shikamaru/Kin and Hinata/Neji). If you add the next round there was one ''more'' girl/boy fight (Shikamaru/Temari).

* In ''PokemonSpecial'', this doesn't extend to sactioned matches, such as gym battles, but against bad guys, yup, girls tend to match up with each other. If genders don't match up in those ultimate battles against good and evil, that's just because the gender ratio isn't evened out. As many girls will pe paired up against each other, and whoever's left gets to fight a guy.
* In ''{{Bleach}}'': Matsumoto and [[spoiler: Hinamori]] fight against Harribel's all female group of fraccion.

* When the Comicbook/{{X-Men}} first fought AlphaFlight, Storm and Snowbird went at it, even though Storm's powers were a better match for Shaman's and Snowbird had more in common with Wolverine.
* The Marvel vs. DC/DC vs. Marvel miniseries had [[Comicbook/{{X-Men}} Storm]] facing off against WonderWoman, with Storm winning due to nonsensical fan voting. There was really no reason for these two to fight other than that they were the most popular female superheroes in their respective universes. In terms of power level, there's no comparison between the two (Wonder Woman would've beaten Storm in a single panel if it hadn't been a [[PopularityPower popularity contest]]). IronMan vs. Wonder Woman would have been a much more balanced fight.
** Then nicely [[AvertedTrope averted]] in {{JLA-Avengers}}, when WonderWoman and {{Aquaman}} go up against SheHulk and [[IncredibleHercules Hercules]]. She-Hulk is regarded as (physically) the strongest female superhero in the Marvel Universe, but she still isn't quite up to Wonder Woman's level. On the other hand, Hercules is about as powerful as Wonder Woman (and there are a whole host of other reasons those two make great opponents), so that's who fought (setting up a nice little CrowningMomentOfFunny from Herc at the same time).

* Source of the quote above: in the final battle in HotFuzz, Skinner's attack secretary is taken out by Doris, the one female police officer.

* ''{{Superman}} 2'' has the evil Kryptonian woman Ursa getting punched out by Lois Lane (and apparently falling to her death) after getting depowered. I've always thought to myself, "How convenient, now Superman doesn't have to."

** And of course she end up having to fight Drac's last vampire bride ([[CurbStompBattle If you can call it that]]) though considering said bride was hounding her throughout the movie. Its pretty justified.

** ''GoldenEye'' might be one of the best examples of James's willingness to hit a girl. His fights with Xenia Onatopp were brutal, with James pulling absolutely no punches.
* In ''{{Batman}} and Robin'' the movie, Poison Ivy was reserved for Batgirl. The men just had no effect on her.

* In ''[[{{Ptitleer3dxllk}} GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'' when Cobra invades GI Joe headquarters, redheaded Joe Scarlett has a brutal fight with the Baroness.

* BulletproofMonk has one where ActionGirl Jade gets in a fight with TheDragon, who happens to be the Nazi villain's daughter - or possibly granddaughter, I've forgotten. It's Jaime King versus Victoria Smurfit; for a fight to the death, hotness ensues remarkably quickly.

* In the thai film RagingPhoenix, Jeeja Yanin(essentially a DistaffCounterpart of Tony Jaa) goes through hordes of men just to finally reach the villain..ness. Now most chauvinist guys would roll their eyes at this and lower their expectations of the fight, but what unfolds is probably the mother of all CatFights. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxrOEzClazU&feature=related Observe.]]

* ''TheFaerieQueene'', Book 5: The female knight Britomart fights the evil Amazon queen Radigund because her boyfriend [[JamesBondage Artegall]] had to learn the hard way that WouldntHitAGirl should not apply when said girl is trying to kill you.

** In the original ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', it was fairly common to see Jason, Zack and Billy fighting Goldar while Trini and Kimberly fought Scorpina. This was back before Goldar [[VillainDecay stopped being a threat to any of them]] and Scorpina getting PutOnABus, of course.

** Gogo V has Venus against [=GoPink=].[[spoiler:Also singing battle in ep 45]]

* Used to a degree in ''ResidentEvil 5'', during the two-on-two boss battle with Wesker and [[spoiler: Jill.]] If Chris keeps Wesker's attention on him, Sheva will engage and attempt to restrain [[spoiler: Jill]] to keep her out of the fight.

* In the [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/6719-1-year-anniversary-video TGWTG Team Brawl]] Spoony made Nostalgia Chick fight That Chick with the Goggles while he would take Bennet the Sage. As Nostalgia Chick and That Chick with the Goggles fight Spoony and Bennet simply grabbed their cellphones and started taking pictures.

** BatmanAndRobin has Batgirl vs. Poison Ivy.
** The big reveal flashback in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker has Batgirl stay behind to battle and then chase down a fleeing Harley Quinn, leaving a tortured and psychotically broken Tim Drake behind while she gave chase.

* ''HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats'' had an episode featuring a female opponent for Heathcliff named, Tammy, who tried to take over Heathcliff's territory. He couldn't hit her, but his girlfriend Sonja didn't mind beating her up.

* ''HeathcliffAndTheCadillacCats'' had an episode featuring a female opponent for Heathcliff named, Tammy, who tried to take over Heathcliff's territory. He couldn't hit her, but his girlfriend Sonja didn't mind beating her up.

* In the ''JusticeLeague'' episode "Secret Society part II" The JL and Gorilla Grodd's Secret Society battle in a football stadium. Superman is about to punch Giganta(who in this version is more girly than the ''SuperFriends'' version) but hesitates when she pulls the "You wouldn't hit a woman would ya?" line. Behind Superman, Wonder Woman answers "I would!" flying in and knocking Giganta out.

* Done, rather irritatingly, in ''[[Cradle2TheGrave Cradle 2 The Grave]]'', in which Gabrielle Union [[AssPull suddenly pulls out]] sufficient martial arts skills to hold her own against Kelly 'Lady Deathstrike' Hu.

* Done, rather irritatingly, in ''Cradle 2 The Grave'', in which Gabrielle Union [[AssPull suddenly pulls out]] sufficient martial arts skills to hold her own against Kelly 'Lady Deathstrike' Hu.

##: The MonsterOfTheWeek or TheDragon, usually male, dishes out equal punishment to all heroes present, regardless of gender. This is how most fights in most episodes go.
##: If the MOTW or Dragon's weakening by round two's end, the Rangers will not take it easy on her if it's a female.
##: If multiple combatants of multiple genders are around, they will tend to be divided by gender.
*Used a lot in {{Super Sentai}}, in which TheChick fight the DarkChick or DarkActionGirl.

**Zyuranger has Lamie (who'd become Scorpina below) against [=PteraRanger=]

*And to top it of the heroine and villainess each have their own theme song too.
** Done very frustratingly when ''PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' and ''PowerRangersDinoThunder'' crossed over, where the mind controlled Ninja Rangers team squared off against the Dino Rangers, but unlike almost every such inter-ranger battle, it wasn't by color, or by power, but by gender; with the Blue Ninja Ranger fighting the Yellow Dino Ranger and vice-versa.
** Generally with all crossovers, the girls usually fight the other girls with bits of fanservice (as in humor fanservice) wrapped around it.
** In the original ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', it was fairly common to see Jason, Zack and Billy fighting Goldar while Trini and Kimberly fought Scorpina. This was back before Goldar [[VillainDecay stopped being a threat to any of them]] and Scorpina getting PutOnABus, of course.