History Main / FightUnscene

* Parodied in an episode of ''Droopy The Master Detective Hound''. A fight between Droopy and [=McWolf=] consist of the two bowing, and [=McWolf=] flying out the window. When demanding an explanation, Droopy's son shows a recording of the fight in "super slow motion" which is basically the two bowing, Droopy turning into a blur around [=McWolf=], then stopping, then [=McWolf=] flying out the window.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In the DC vs. Marvel mini-series, the results of seven key matches were determined by [[PopularityPower fan vote]]; Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} out-polled Lobo, but the writers couldn't think of any way to believably make it happen, so the last blow occurs off-screen as the two (fighting in an alien bar) fall behind the bar. After a couple of {{Beat Panel}}s, Wolverine is the one who stands up. For the record, back in his home series after the event, Lobo says that "[[ComicBook/XMen some bald guy]]" bribed him to throw the fight.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' the epic battle between Heaven and Hell is described by an angel who notes it is ten times bigger than the final battle in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings.''

* In one part of a ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode where [[ArtShift claymation monsters]] fought, the main characters watch the fight in such a way that the audience can only see the monsters' shadows on the wall. Someone comments on how expensive claymation is, and Soos adds "This is an impressive fight, though. Sure am glad I'm facing towards it."

* A handful of fight scenes from ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'''s ''Mata Nui On-Line Game'', but in contrast to many other examples, these used the trope to great effect:

----

* In the DC vs. Marvel mini-series, the results of seven key matches were determined by [[PopularityPower fan vote]]; Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} out-polled SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}, but the writers couldn't think of any way to believably make it happen, so the last blow occurs off-screen as the two (fighting in an alien bar) fall behind the bar. After a couple of {{Beat Panel}}s, Wolverine is the one who stands up. For the record, back in his home series after the event, Lobo says that "[[ComicBook/XMen some bald guy]]" bribed him to throw the fight.

->''That's the problem with CHR's fights. Since they're described with the bare minimum of effort, you really have no idea what took place. It could have been a brutal, gigantic clash that tore apart an entire continent and went on for days, or if you're lazy like me, you can just take it completely literally and only show what was actually described!''

* ''LetTheRightOneIn'' featured [[spoiler: the final fight - all we see is the male lead almost being drowned in the pool (the camera is sub-water too), then suddenly, people from above the water begin to scream, and the hand that is holding the boy down suddenly disappears. Cue showing the bloodbath above]]. Being a drama with supernatural elements, this really works very well, and doesn't feel like an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome.

--> -- '''Normalman''', notes on ''[[ChristianHumberReloaded Christian Humber Reloaded: The Webcomic]]''

Making a [[CoconutSuperpowers virtue of necessity]], characters may "move too fast to be seen!" as one of their in-world powers. Ideally, they move between static poses in a split second and dramatically hold those poses for many frames, with the melee replaced by a [[TheHitFlash Hit Flash.]]

Compare BattleDiscretionShot, RelaxOVision, OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, CoconutSuperpowers, and TheHitFlash. See also BolivianArmyEnding, ChargeIntoCombatCut, FightSceneFailure and TakeOurWordForIt. When a scene is skipped entirely and only described afterwords, it is SecondHandStorytelling instead.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'' actually as a minor case of this ''in print form'': when [[spoiler:Laxus]] sets up hundreds of objects that will destroy a populated town, a full chapter is spent setting up having all of the guild members come together to destroy them all first, but then ''we see none of these attacks being launched'' as the very next page just skips to the explosion(s) made from the objects being wrecked [[ImplausibleSynchrony all at once]]. This was fixed in the anime.
** The part where [[spoiler: Erza fights and defeats a hundred monsters]] is also done in just one page in the manga. This was also fixed in the anime.

* The ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' is, sadly, loaded with these. There is one episode in particular in which Dante gets purposely sent into jail in order to rescue a man under the request of his sister. Inside, Dante finds out said jail is run by demons in disguise who periodically release all the inmates in order to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt them down]]. Once the "game" starts, a [[GoodOldFisticuffs disarmed]] Dante calmly gets out of his cell, stands before a bunch of demons and adopts a [[AssKickingPose fighting stance]]. Cue the fade to black and when we're back Dante is calmly walking away from a bunch of beaten up demons...

* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'': the whole 2nd half of Episode 6 is full of it. Cue Gainax blowing the whole budget on the fighting while the rest looks...well...
** The "too fast to see" varient is played for laugh in the BeachEpisode, as it [[MundaneMadeAwesome happening with a volleyball match]] makes it rather hard for the ref to do his job.
* ''LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}}'' [[TropesAreNotBad deliberately uses this as a stylistic choice]] when Araragi faces down the rainy demon. Most of the sequence focuses on his face, brief glimpses of a blow or another, and cuts to [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} typography designs]]. It's a highly stylized series as it is to begin with.

* Early in ''Manga/DragonBall'', young Krillin fights Master Roshi (in disguise) during a tournament and the fight is over in a blink of an eye. When the audience complains, Master Roshi and Krillin enlist the aid of the announcer and cameraman and re-enact the most improbable fight ever in slow motion.
** This trope is played painfully straight throughout the entire length of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''.

* In the DC vs. Marvel mini-series, the results of seven key matches were determined by fan vote; {{Wolverine}} out-polled {{Lobo}}, but the writers couldn't think of any way to believably make it happen, so the last blow occurs off-screen as the two (fighting in an alien bar) fall behind the bar and, after a couple of {{Beat Panel}}s, Wolverine is the one who stands up.
** For the record, back in his home series after the event, Lobo says that "[[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} some bald guy]]" bribed him to throw the fight.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Parodied in an episode of ''Droopy The Master Detective Hound''. A fight between Droopy and [=McWolf=] consist of the two bowing, and [=McWolf=] flying out the window. When demanding an explanation, Droopy's son shows a recording of the fight in "super slow motion" which is basically the two bowing, Droopy turning into a blur around [=McWolf=], then stopping, then [=McWolf=] flying out the window.
* Explicitly {{lampshaded}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim'': Suddenly, [[DiabolusExNihilo for no reason whatsoever]], Jim is surrounded by a bunch of HighlyVisibleNinja. Cut to a news anchor explaining that because action sequences are expensive, studios have been forced to resort to cheap tricks, such as...
-->'''Earthworm Jim''': (standing on top of a pile of unconscious ninjas) What a great action sequence!
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', a fight is about to break out between elves and dwarves, only for a man to suddenly appear and say it's too violent to show, so instead, they show a clip of a koala until it's over, all the while, the man is discribing the fight.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' Upon finally opening up the Door Lord's door via the power of music, Finn. Jake. Marceline and Princess Bubblegum discover the Aesop he was trying to teach them about ThePowerOFFriendship. The Door Lord rejoices and we cut to the next scene in which he is tied up and badly beaten making it a BrokenAesop.
* In ''WesternAnimatiom/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' The titular character tries relentlessly to get his sister to tell him a secret she knows. He pokes her repeatedly in the head until warned "You do that one more time...." . The warning goes unheeded and the next scene depicts him with several scratches all over his face.
* The fights scenes in which RogerRamjet is involved are usually replaced visually with sound effects words.
[[/folder]]

* A handful of fight scenes from ''{{Bionicle}}'''s ''Mata Nui On-Line Game'', but in contrast to many other examples, these used the trope to great effect:
** Kopaka VS the Muaka: Kopaka activates the Mask of Concealing, turning invisible for the first half of the fight. We only see his footprints and the [[HitFlash flashes of his sword]] hitting the Muaka. The beast soon sees through his method, and smashes him into a snow-mound, forcing him to switch to another MaskPower.

* Lampshaded on StardestroyerNet. There is a section there dealing with how certain StarTrek vs StarWars scenarios will turn out - Trek fans vs the [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]] show writers vs realistic scenario. So, in a scenario of retaking a planet with land forces, the show writers' scenario is that the battle doesn't happen at all - due to this trope, it will become the ''Defiant'' battling an orbital defense platform in order to clear the way for Klingon troop transports.

----

** Ranma gets worse with this later in the series. It's part of what leads to it [[JumpedTheShark Jumping the Shark]]. The relentless {{Filler}}-quality ResetButton-reliant episodic bullcrap is another part.

* The {{Blackest Night}} crossover between [[AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] and [[TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] had Black Lantern Spoony grabbing Linkara, only to be interrupted by a title card and return to Linkara freed. Less an effects limitation and more that they just couldn't figure out a good way to stage Louis escaping the hold.

* ''Anime/LegendOfHimiko'' also suffers from these. Especially in the penultimate episode.

* ''LegendOfHimiko'' also suffers from these. Especially in the penultimate episode.

In ''WesternAnimatiom/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' The titular character tries relentlessly to get his sister to tell him a secret she knows. He pokes her repeatedly in the head until warned "You do that one more time...." . The warning goes unheeded and the next scene depicts him with several scratches all over his face.

* ''YuYuHakusho'': Played with in the Hiei-vs.-Seiryu fight. Hiei blurs around Seiryu a few times, and he falls apart. Then the rest of the team compares notes on how much of the fight each managed to see - he was moving too fast for ''them'', too.

* Avoided in the ''GhostInTheShell'' movie, which looks as if it's going to lead into one of these, with Kusanagi being invisible during a fight sequence. What transpires is a thing of absolute beauty, with her presence only being displayed by splashes in puddles and the brutal beatdown her victim receives. And the occasional InvisibilityFlicker.

* ''SumomoMomomomo'': The battle between the fully grown Koganei Tenka and his pre-teen brother was so fast that only "martial artist vision" could see it. Certainly censors couldn't, and maybe that's the point.
* ''FistOfTheNorthStar'': One exceptionally frustrating exception to the rule that "TheMovie is more explicit": In the movie, Raoh confronts Shin in Southern Cross. We cut away, and then when Kenshiro faces Shin later, their fight consists of one punch before Shin dies from an attack inflicted by Raoh earlier. For those keeping score, that's ''two'' fights the audience is cheated out of.

* ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma ½]]'': When Ranma is fighting skating martial artist Mikado Sanzenin there is a scene where it appears the latter is spinning Ranma around madly injuring him and preventing a counterattack. Only Akane's sharp eyes are able to see the Ranma is actually pummelling the hell out of him with blows almost too fast to see. It's only after the fight when Mikado's partner, Azusa asks if Mikado won the fight that Akane points out he has actually been knocked unconscious despite still being on his feet.

* The ''DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' is, sadly, loaded with these. There is one episode in particular in which Dante gets purposely sent into jail in order to rescue a man under the request of his sister. Inside, Dante finds out said jail is run by demons in disguise who periodically release all the inmates in order to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt them down]]. Once the "game" starts, a [[GoodOldFisticuffs disarmed]] Dante calmly gets out of his cell, stands before a bunch of demons and adopts a [[AssKickingPose fighting stance]]. Cue the fade to black and when we're back Dante is calmly walking away from a bunch of beaten up demons...
* LegendOfHimiko also suffers from these. Especially in the penultimate episode.
* ''[[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Panty & Stocking]]'':the whole 2nd half of episode 6 is full of it. Cue Gainax blowing the whole budget on the fighting while the rest looks...well...

* ''{{Katanagatari}}'' uses it for comedic effect in the case of Hakuhei Sabi. Said person is hyped as a MasterSwordsman without peer. Said person is beaten completely offscreen with the characters describing just how awesome/epic the fight was.
* Early in ''DragonBall'', young Krillin fights Master Roshi (in disguise) during a tournament and the fight is over in a blink of an eye. When the audience complains, Master Roshi and Krillin enlist the aid of the announcer and cameraman and re-enact the most improbable fight ever in slow motion.
** This trope is played painfully straight throughout the entire length of ''DragonBallZ''.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]
* Late in the first season of ''GameOfThrones'', when Tyrion is sent into battle with his [[TheHorde Barbarian Horde]], he is accidentally knocked unconscious for the duration of the fight. Since he actively participated in this battle in the book, it was likely an example of this trope.
** In fact GRRM was assigned to write the episode and had a blog post about the battle scene being absurdly beyond the budget available to him. The irony being that before he became a Famous Author he wrote TV scripts... which were often rejected for having battle scenes too expensive to film.
** Similar comments were made by the production team prior to ''Blackwater'', causing the audience to expect this trope in regards to the battle the episode is named after. Come ''Blackwater'', the outcome was [[{{HSQ}} anything but]].
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' the fight between Peter and Sylar is shown entirely as a bright light through a crack in the door.
** They pull the same trick again two seasons later with the big showdown between Nathan, Peter, and Sylar.
* In ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' the scene in which Chromartie kills a SWAT team is shown from the pool, so all the viewers see is them being flung down. A lot of people didn't mind, considering the unusual shot (and the song that went along with it) as being more effective than another scene of people ineffectively shooting a terminator.
* Every other foe is beat up by Clark in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' while he is super-fast, which translates to showing the mook perfectly fine and then showing him lying on the ground with Clark nearby.
[[/folder]]

* In ''BlackLagoon'' most of the firefight between Revy and the Cuban ex-assassin Roberta, arguably the deadliest opponent Revy faced in single combat during the series, was mainly observed from the other side of a stack of shipping crates. Presumably the battle was just too amazing to animate.

Compare RelaxOVision, OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, CoconutSuperpowers, and TheHitFlash. See also BolivianArmyEnding, ChargeIntoCombatCut, FightSceneFailure and TakeOurWordForIt. When a scene is skipped entirely and only described afterwords, it is SecondHandStorytelling instead.

** The "too fast to see" varient is played for laugh in the BeachEpisode, as it happening [[MundaneMadeAwesome happening with a volleyball match]] makes it rather hard for the ref to do his job.