History Main / DuelsDecideEverything

* In the prologue of [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Knife of Dreams]] [[spoiler: Galad Damodred]] has dug up a half-forgotten law that gives him the right to TrialByCombat and which, if he wins, should give him command of an army. Subverted when some of the officers of said army accuses him of blatant LoopholeAbuse and try to arrest him. Double-subverted when the Commander is so amused by his cockiness that he lets him proceed as planned.

** Ironically enough, the original manga series and first anime series [[UnbuiltTrope subvert this somehow]]. "Yami Yugi" had demonics powers, so he would punish everyone who lost. (or himself, in case he lost [[hottip: *:[[spoiler:[[TheAce which he never does]]]]) Therefore, the demonic powers are what controls the world (which makes sense, considering they can bend reality), and [[MagicPrerequisite the duels are just a requirement to activate them]]. ([[RuleOfCool besides being cooler]])

[[quoteright:250:[[BrawlInTheFamily http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/duel_2556.jpg]]]]

** Averted at Act I Scene IV: Cyrano and De Valvert engage in a SwordFight. This doesn’t decide anything but set Cyrano as the SpannerInTheWorks for [[TheVillain De Guiche’s]] plans.

* ''CustomRobo'' - Duels with toy-sized robots are shown right at the beginning to be the perfect way to attempt a robbery. [[SeriousBusiness It gets more ridiculous from there]]. It's mentioned a few times that the toy-sized robots use ''real weapons'' with ''live ammunition'', operate in bullet time and can be controlled over decent distances (and in ''Arena'' one police officer NPC actually ''does'' get shot during a fight) -- using them for a robbery makes sense. Dueling with them being their ''primary'' use (even when there are safties that vaporize any stray bullets), not so much, and this still doesn't explain how you end up always fighting them in the game's toy arena...

** In the original manga series and first anime, this made a lot of sense. "Yami Yugi" had demonics powers, so he would punish everyone who lost. (or himself, in case he lost [[hottip: *:[[spoiler:[[TheAce which he never does]]]]) Therefore, the demonic powers are what controls the world (which makes sense, considering they can bend reality), and [[MagicPrerequisite the duels are just a requirement to activate them]]. ([[RuleOfCool besides being cooler]])

** In the original manga series and first anime, this made a lot of sense. "Yami Yugi" had demonics powers, so he would punish everyone who lost. (or himself, in case he lost [[hottip: *:[[spoiler:[[TheAce which he never does]]]]) Therefore, the demonic are what controls the world, and [[MagicPrerequisite the duels are just a requirement to activate them]]. ([[RuleOfCool besides being cooler]])

* ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' in all its incarnations.

* Similarly, an issue of ''Transformers'' has an ancient Autobot overlord attempt to get two warring city-states to settle their differences through gladiatorial games. As you might expect, [[WhatAnIdiot it didn't work out as much as he hoped it would.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:[[ThisIsSparta YOU]]... [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim ARE]]... [[{{Mook}} AN]]... [[WhatAnIdiot IDIOT]]!]]

* In the prologue of [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Knife of Dreams]] [[spoiler: Galad Damodred]] has dug up a half-forgotten law that gives him the right to TrialByCombat and which, if he wins, should give him command of an army. Subverted when some of the officers of said army accuses him of blatant LoopholeAbuse and try to arrest him.

-> ''"Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him."''
-->-- ''TheGrandListOfConsoleRPGCliches'', [[ConsoleRPGCliches169To192 #189]]

Every problem will inevitably lead to a climactic direct confrontation. Is TheHero facing the threat of war? A terrible plague? An economic recession? Inevitably, there's a tangible villain responsible for it and the solution is to confront and defeat them. Regardless of their motivations, both heroes and villains caught in the focal point of the conflict will not even bother with diplomacy, threats, subterfuge or otherwise tactics employed by people in similar RealLife situations. If they do, you can expect these strategies to backfire spectacularly, or at best delay the inevitable face-off.

"Defeat them" should not be taken literally. In RealLife, ''if'' someone's figured the best way to deal with a situation is neutralize a specific person, they would employ whatever means necessary to do it, be it an assassination or a smear campaign. Here, it means showing this person that [[MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours Your Kung Fu is Stronger Than Theirs]]. If you're watching ''Tales of the Knights of St. Bob'' you're probably looking at a swordfight waiting to happen, which may be feasible- but it's equally possible that you're watching something like ''Super Table Football Superstar'' and after an interminable mutual glare, one party will [[SeriousBusiness dramatically challenge the other to a game of table football]].

* ''ChangelingTheLost'': The true fae are {{Reality Warper}}s so any duel actually does decide everything, Changelings on the other hand are stuck with less powerful versions.

* The film RobotJox is based around a series of mecha battles between the USA and USSR to decide who gets Alaska.

[[caption-width-right:250:[[ThisIsSparta YOU]]... [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim ARE]] ...[[{{Mook}} AN]]... [[WhatAnIdiot IDIOT]]!]]

[[caption-width-right:250:[[ThisIsSparta YOU]]...[[WhyDontYouJustShootHim ARE]]...[[{{Mook}} AN]]...[[WhatAnIdiot IDIOT]]!]]

-> ''Every problem in the universe can be solved by finding the right long-haired prettyboy and beating the crap out of him.''
--> - '''TheGrandListOfConsoleRPGCliches''', [[ConsoleRPGCliches169To192 #189]]