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The Coats Are Off

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"When Ric Flair whips his jacket off, that's when shit gets real."
Spoony

Everyone knows that wearing a longcoatnote  is one of the surest ways to show that you’re a badass, because nothing says “don’t fuck with me” more than having a long dark coat billowing out behind you as you walk. So how does one ratchet up the stakes when such a character is really serious about delivering a beatdown? They take that coat off.

Basically, when someone loses his coat, his badass level increases drastically. He can still be defeated, but he will look good while doing it and be very hard to put down. It could be argued that this effect is why Badass Longcoats exist in the first place.

In an actual combat situation, this does make sense. Coats and cloaks look great but are also bulky and tend to move about on their own quite a bit. This restricts the wearer's movements and limits their effectiveness in battle. Shedding the coat will not only make movement easier but also deny the enemy a potential grappling point. This also has the added advantage of getting the garment out of the combat zone. After all, who wants to get blood on their badass coat? Another possible use for a cloak in a melee combat is to wrap it around the off hand to use it as a shield. The cloak would of course be ruined, but better damage the cloak rather than arms or body.

Bonus badass points if you are shirtless beneath the coat, or if you're wearing pants with suspenders. Especially if this reveals a lot of muscles were underneath that flowing coat. Badassness levels will also increase exponentially if you're wearing business-like attire underneath — the nicer, neater, and more expensive the better. Heck, the badass level increases even if you're wearing a sleeveless shirt. EXTRA bonus points if the coat is revealed to be weighted clothing.

Compare The Glasses Come Off and Battle Strip.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Angelic Layer, Sai's angel Shirahime sheds her coat during a key battle.
  • In Assassination Classroom, Nagisa and Takaoka throw their jackets off before their final fight.
    • Itona also tosses his jacket across the classroom before attacking Koro-sensei, revealing a skin-tight tank top.
  • Bleach
    • When Captain-Commander Yamamoto fights he loses his haori to reveal his incredibly muscled -and scarred- chest and arms.
    • Against Yoruichi, Soifon sheds her captain's haori to reveal a skimpy uniform that's designed to expose the parts of the body that Shunkou reinforces to prevent destruction upon activation. Yoruichi reveals she can do it, too and her coat is blasted off her body under the force of her activation.
    • Kyouraku wears a woman's kimono over his captain's haori. He never takes them off until he fights Starrk. When the fight finally gets serious, Kyouraku sheds the woman's kimono. When the fight gets even more serious, he sheds his haori as well. Yes, his fight was so serious, the coats came off twice.
  • Inverted in Cowboy Bebop. Whenever Spike puts his trench coat on, you know shit is about to get real.
  • In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kokushibo already seemed to be too much trouble with his clothes fully on; he was making Muichiro, Himejima and Sanemi, three Hashira, break a sweat against him. Then Himejima and Sanemi manage to rip Kokushibo's haori (coat) off and that's where Kokushibo stops playing around. Himejima and Sanemi went from trying to go on the offensive to then struggling not to die against Kokushibo's devastating long range attacks.
  • Said almost word-for-word by Takato in Digimon Tamers when Rika tosses hers aside to go with him and Henry to fight the D-Reaper.
  • Both Piccolos in Dragon Ball. In the younger one's case, it makes even more sense as his cloak is weighed for training purposes.
  • Fairy Tail: If the character is male and wearing a coat, vest or other article of clothing on his torso, it will be discarded as soon as things get serious. Especially if that character is Gray. Jellal is a noticeable example, simply for the fact that he took his off while it was on fire.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist's Edward Elric (pictured above) takes off his coat when getting into serious battles, but he also inverted this at one point. After some downtime while hiding from the enemy, he made himself a new coat, even though it would allow him to be identified easily. Putting the coat on was his way of saying he was done running.
  • Hellsing:
    • Alucard gets stronger as he loses his coat; as the various pieces of clothing he wears act as a means to restrict his vast and considerable power, it's a Justified Trope.
    • Integra dramatically rips hers off in response to the Major's "Come, let us make war!"
    • The Captain in his fight against Seras. It's the first time we get to see his power as a werewolf. It's also the first time we find out that he wears no shirt under his jacket.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Battle Tendency: Joseph takes off his jacket as he prepares to take on Wamuu in a Chariot Race.
    • Stardust Crusaders does it twice:
      • After finding out how to beat Telence T. D'Arby at his own game, Jotaro casually removes his hat and place it aside, and soon Telence is unable to guess Jotaro's next move.
      • And during the final battle, Dio does this TWICE! He wears his gold pants and jacket while also red cape. Right when he stops time and kills Kakyoin, he discards his red cape (though, we at first don't see that since we initially don't see the stopped time). Much later in the battle, Dio does it again after drinking the blood of Joseph Joestar and becoming much more powerful. He then discards his gold yellow jacket as well and only retains his black sleeveless shirt, and gold yellow pants.
    • Stone Ocean: After escaping from Green Dolphin Street Prison to pursue Pucci, Jolyne tosses her prison jacket aside as it's carried away by the wind.
  • Fujiko's introduction in Lupin III: Dead or Alive comes from a mix of tropes. She enters a gladiatorial area in a cloak covering her entire body, hiding her face as well. General Headhunter removes it for her by throwing boomerang-knives that circle her and destroy her cloak, which is taken as a signal to begin combat.
  • Lyrical Nanoha's Fate Testarossa does this with her Sonic Form, and later Sonic Drive. In thise case, it's justifed by the fact that the outfit is generated by her magic, so she's shifting all her power from protection to speed enhancement.
  • In Maiden Rose, Klaus throws off his coat when he challenges Taki to fencing in front of the troops. Bonus points for the Shirtless Scene, sarashi-like bandages, and being blasé about the fact he still was recovering from very serious injuries.
  • Similar to (and perhaps the inspiration for) the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann example below is one from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. After Domon tells her that he loves her, Rain breaks free from the Devil Gundam. As she's naked, Domon swiftly covers her with his cloak. They then destroy the Devil Gundam once and for all.
  • There's a running joke among the Naruto fandom that any Akatsuki member who takes off or loses their cloak in a fight will be dead by the end of that battle.note  However, that also means that whoever they're fighting is tough enough for them to play for keeps. It should be noted that only three of them (Sasori, Kisame, and Kakuzunote ) took off their cloaks intentionally. The rest lost theirs as a result of Clothing Damage, except for Hidan and Deva Pain who just had theirs ripped open. However, when Konan fights Tobi, Konan dies with her cloak still on (although it opens a little after she dies), while Tobi survives despite losing his cloak.
  • One Piece:
    • Weirdly zig-zagged with Luffy; he takes off his iconic hat when things look rough... then puts it back on when things get serious.
    • The Strawhat crew tends to wear environment-specific clothing over their normal get-ups, perhaps specifically so they can invoke this trope and take them off (as in the final set of fights in the Alabasta arc).
    • Inverted: Roronoa Zoro wears a bandanna tied around his left arm which he specifically puts on his head whenever he gets serious enough to use all three swords at once, and then takes it off to signify the fight is over.
    • In the movie tie-in Chapter 0, Garp and Sengoku use the nice suit variant, flinging off their coats before fighting Shiki. Garp also has the habit of flinging away his coat and his suit jacket whenever he prepares to toss one thousand cannonballs in a row barehanded, complete with cracking his knuckles.
  • Pokémon Adventures:
    • At one point, Crystal takes off her coat that she always wears while going off to save a boat belonging to Bill the Pokemaniac by capturing a Flaafy and a Dunsparce that were attacking the boat. She leaves the coat off until she goes to rescue him from a cluster of Staryu at an amusement park. At that point, it is revealed that the shirt she wears underneath her coat is sleeveless and that she wears wristbands holding her Poké Balls underneath its sleeves.
    • And in a more traditional example, Giovanni and Red both do this before the climactic battle in the FireRed/LeafGreen arc.
  • Ranma ½:
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, Seijuro Hiko is Kenshin's master. He's the thirteenth Seijuro Hiko: every master of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu has to ''slay'' his predecessor to achieve the full mastery of the style and inherit their supreme techniques, the name and the Badass Longcoat, a loaded one that compresses his back, chest and upper arms muscles, developing them but also acting as a power limiter. It's also hinted that, without it, you wouldn't be able to use the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu for too long, as it hurts the body due to the extreme effort that is needed to use it. So, for the final test, Hiko throws his coat... and shows his terrific muscles, while Kenshin's face claim "Oh, Crap!".
  • Whenever a character in Saint Seiya removes their Badass Cape it is a sign that the conversation is over and the real action is about to begin.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon takes off his coat to cover the naked Nia, freed from the Anti-Spiral. Keep in mind here that without his coat, Simon is shirtless save for a man-corset. Lagann-hen has Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann take off his cape made out of red Spiral flames to unleash its Giga Drill Break.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul Re, Arima throws off his iconic coat before engaging in his final battle with Kaneki.
  • Thorkell literally tears his coat off when fighting Thorfinn for the last time in Vinland Saga.
  • Yami Yugi of Yu-Gi-Oh! throws off or switches his jacket to "cape-style" when he's ready to get serious in a duel. In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Alexander tosses off his longcoat just before the final battle.
  • In YuYu Hakusho, Hiei dramatically takes of his Badass Long Coat before every single fight. Most of the time he's shirtless under there, other times he's wearing a black or light blue shirt. Sometimes other characters do too, like Yusuke, Kuwabara, Raiko (in the movie), and Younger Toguro.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman:
    • In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, when Batman faces off against the Mutant Leader for the second time, he removes his cape. This is actually for a practical reason; Batman lured him to a giant knee deep mud pit, where a cape would have simply gotten in the way. It's also to represent the fact that Bruce realized that the only way he could win was if he fought smarter than the Mutant Leader, as opposed to the spectacular failure of brute force from their previous battle.
    • A classic Batman story from the '70s has him remove the cape prior to a sword fight with Ra's al Ghul.
  • Necromancers in Death Vigil have this habit of taking their tops off when it's time to get serious, as the Sigils they use to summon Eldritch Abominations are tattooed on them, and are only useable when they are visible.
  • Once The Punisher is ready to get messy he tends to remove his coat, revealing the black, skull-adorned T-shirt underneath.
  • Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter: Lady Shiva wears a long green coat just so that she can dramatically cast it aside before ruining someone's day.
  • Sin City:
    • Marv is very fond of his long coats, but in “A Hard Goodbye” he removes it at several points. Though removed for unrelated reasons (providing warmth and coverage for a naked woman, using it as a decoy), he tends to kick the most ass without it. Then again, considering just how many of the murders he commits and the beatings he gives are preceded by the words "That's a nice coat you've got there," maybe that’s not too surprising.
    • Likewise, Wallace, the main character of Hell and Back has no coat for the later part of the story for stealth purposes, resulting in much asses being kicked.
  • A particularly impressive version of this is pulled off by Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics). In an alternate future where Shadow is king, an aged Sonic attacks him. Unfortunately for him, Shadow is still in his prime because he was created to never age. To illustrate this, Shadow throws off his royal cloak, and beats Sonic into the ground before it hits the floor.
  • Wonder Woman wore a black leather jacket during J. Michael Straczynski's Wonder Woman: Odyssey, which she takes off in one issue before she goes to battle, before she gets rid of it for good in later issues after it receives Clothing Damage. Bonus points for always going with her shoulders bare.
  • Mr. Pendulum in Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse not only increases in asskicking, he also increases in size.
  • X-Wing Rogue Squadron: In "Blood and Honor", Plourr is tasked with fighting someone and removes her coat to hand to one of her squadmates. Things go sour after she drops the goon, and she's not seen with it again.

    Fan Works 
  • Lampshaded and affectionately parodied in Yu Yu Hakusho Abridged when Hiei fights Seiryu. Kuwabara asks Kurama if Hiei can win the fight, and the Genre Savvy Kurama replies that since Hiei has removed his shirt his powers will be dramatically increased as a result. Sure enough, Hiei wins the fight in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
    Kuwabara: Do you think the little guy can handle this?
    Kurama: Seiryu doesn't even stand a chance.
    Yusuke: What do you mean?
    Kurama: Don't you see? Hiei's taken off his shirt. It's anime law. Once a male shonen hero removes his shirt, his attributes all increase exponentially. [Battle Aura starts glowing around Hiei] Seiryu is doomed.
  • The End of the World: During the 3rd Quarter Quell, when the peacekeepers arrive to arrest the Rebels in the viewing center, most of the victors present (whether innocent or guilty) scramble to grab anything that could be used as a weapon. District 4 mentor Harris Greaves simply takes off his jacket and flexes his muscles before charging into the fray.
  • In Manehattan's Lone Guardian, Leviathan is forced to wear a coat for a few weeks to keep from creeping the city's residents out with her battle damage. After her auto-repair systems are finally done with it, she whips the coat away to show off her pristine condition before charging across the city at top speed. This is lampshaded by Drama Heart, who states that Levi has a flair for the dramatic.
  • Marine Captain Chaser Kiyoshi in Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse loves to dramatically toss aside her officer's jacket as a sign that she intends to fight seriously... and since it's so laden with sewn-in armor plating that even she struggles to move in it, her mobility shoots through the roof when she does. The fact she runs around in Vapor Wear underneath only intensifies the threat she poses to most pirates, since she tends to distract them whilst simultaneously moving way faster than they expect.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Dean from Backstreet Dreams takes off his jacket right before getting involved in a nightclub brawl.
  • Done for Black Comedy in Billion Dollar Brain. Harry Palmer is knocked out by a Soviet soldier and wakes up in the bathroom of their barracks. A Soviet soldier then enters, sees Harry and removes his belt and coat. Harry starts to remove his own coat to fight him, only for the soldier to enter a bathroom stall.
  • Blade does this right before going sword-to-sword with Drake in Blade: Trinity.
  • Subverted in Bullshot. The Comedic Hero is taking off his coat to engage in the manly art of fisticuffs, only to be kicked in the groin while his arms are immobilized.
  • Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman: Any time the Machine Gun Woman removes her fur jacket, it means that many people are about to die bloodily.
  • Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers: As the fight against Lotus gets serious, Dragon strips off his jacket. Lotus responds by pulling her hair back.
  • The Dark Knight Rises. Bane wears a prominent Badass Longcoat with shearling collar throughout his reign of Gotham, but shrugs it off in the melee between the police and his mooks when he sees Batman has returned and is coming towards him.
  • Day of the Outlaw: When Tex expresses his desire to kill Starrett, Bruhn tells him to go ahead, but orders him to it with his fists. Tex and Starrett both take off their heavy winter before they engage in a Brutal Brawl in the middle of the snowy street.
  • A variation in Deadpool (2016): Negasonic Teenage Warhead wears a Badass Longcoat and a turtleneck over her X-Men uniform on the way to the final battle. However both are incinerated the instant she ignites her powers to fight Angel Dust.
  • Easy Street: After a Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh... moment, The Bully takes his coat off as he prepares to pummel The Tramp.
  • Fight Club: Tyler Durden's pre-narrator-annihilation disrobement.
  • It happens a few minutes before the final confrontation, but in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood removes his longcoat to place it over a dying man, and instead dons the iconic poncho.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart throws his cape off dramatically before beginning to demonstrate dueling. Some fangirls in the audience catch it. However, Lockhart is not a badass and is defeated handily by Snape, who just showed up without a cape in the first place.
  • Hook does this with Captain Hook. For his duel with Peter Pan, Hook has Mr. Smee personally remove his coat after which the climatic duel between him and Peter begins. It should be noted that just few minutes ago, Hook fought Rufio and he had his coat on for this duel, likely because duel with Peter felt so much more personal to him.
  • In Johnny Reno, Yates takes of his jacket when he challenges Reno to a fight in the saloon. Reno responds by removing his own jacket, and Yates sucker punches him while he is doing so.
  • Not a coat, but you can count on Bruce Lee to kick a lot more ass if his top is torn or removed.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has an excellent example: Gandalf sheds his grey cloak in Théoden's hall, revealing himself to be Gandalf the White, and all that goes with that name. He proceeds to be a badass wizard.
  • Neo takes off his coat after the most iconic Bullet Time sequence in The Matrix. Morpheus also gets one of these moments in the second movie.
  • In the movie adaptation of the Polish book The Knights of the Cross, it happens twice. First, in the beggining of the duel between Zbyszko and Rotgier, Rotgier takes of his white cape with black cross. And during the historical Battle of Grunwald, Zbyszko's uncle Maćko duels Kuno von Lichtestein and they both remove their helmets.
  • In Mortal Kombat: The Movie, Shang Tsung takes off his big longcoat just before facing off with Liu Kang.
  • Exaggerated in Rob Roy: Before the climactic duel, Roy removes his heavy jacket and Cunningham his opulent frock coat. Cunningham also removes his wig, which shows that he expects this duel to be far more even than the previous ones he fought and that he is willing to forego vanity to improve his odds.
  • In The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, after the Chief has finally had enough of Fendall Hawkins undermining his authority and breaks his sword on his knee, the two men begin taking off their coats while everyone else tries to keep them from beating each other up.
  • River Tam in Serenity, just before clearing the bar. In epic slow motion and blue-filter lighting, of course.
  • In Sherlock Holmes (2009), both Dr Watson and Dredger take their coats off before the fight in the laboratory.
  • In Spiders II: Breeding Ground before Alexandra sets off to save Jason she takes off her black shirt.
  • Star Wars:
    • Qui Gon and Obi Wan dramatically take off their outer robes before facing Darth Maul, who also sheds his cloak.
    • Obi-Wan and Vader also do this right before their duel in Revenge of the Sith. Probably the main reason this doesn't happen in Attack of the Clones is the fact that both Obi-Wan and Anakin already lost their outer robes before their fight with Dooku (and Dooku didn't take off his cape because it protects him with its magic).
    • Obi-Wan also drops his robe before leaping down to face General Grievous and his Mooks. The man must have left robes all over the Galaxy. note  Presumably at least one aboard the Tantive, explaining where the robe he dropped before his climactic duel with Anakin came from.
    • After being challenged by Obi-Wan, Grievous returns the gesture by shrugging off his cape after pulling his lightsabers out of it.
    • In Return of the Jedi, the first thing Luke Skywalker does after being dumped into the Rancor pit is to take his cloak off and fling it aside. Evidently, when Obi-Wan taught him the Jedi ways, he also threw the whole robe-shedding thing into the package.
    • Asajj Ventress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, who is always shown wearing a long skirt when not fighting. Because the animators found it too difficult to animate her skirt during fight scenes, Ventress always removes her skirt before engaging in a lightsaber duel with the heroes (in fact, when she escapes after losing she will always leave her skirt behind). She stops doing this altogether from Season 3 onwards, however, as by then Ventress actually stopped wearing a skirt permanently.
    • Strangely averted with Mace Windu in Attack of the Clones. There's a significant shot of him walking down a hallway to confront the Separatist leaders that would be the perfect time for him to ditch his robe, but he doesn't. When he does ditch it, it's been set on fire, and thus not this trope.
    • The Jedi (again including Windu) don't ditch their robes before confronting Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith either. Maybe that's why they lost. Though Windu does (maybe) defeat Palpatine in the lightsaber duel anyway, so perhaps he simply doesn't need to.
    • In Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano takes off her cloak in almost the exact same way as Obi-Wan immediately before a duel. Clearly, she learned well from spending so much time around him.
  • Neither Raven nor Tom Cody wear their longcoat during the sledge-hammer duel at the end of Streets of Fire. Tom Cody even slips his suspenders off his shoulders before the fight.
  • In Sunset, Victoria's houseman, who is the former Australian light heavyweight boxing champion, takes of his jacket before squaring off against Tom Mix.
  • In Titanic (1997), Rose takes off her pink coat before going to a flooded deck to rescue Jack.
  • Doc Holliday shrugs off his coat as he raises his shotgun during the standoff at the OK Corral in Tombstone. Done rather quickly considering he was holding a double-barreled shotgun, but he had the duster draped over his shoulders instead of wearing it properly.
  • In Transporter 2, Frank carefully takes off his jacket, folds it and puts it on the hood of his car (declaring that he'd just had it dry-cleaned), before proceeding to wipe the floor with the teenagers that tried to steal his car.
  • In Who Am I? (1998), the final fight features "Who Am I?" in a tag-team battle with two skilled martial artists. When "Who Am I?" uses the first one's jacket and tie against him, the second one sensibly removes his before he jumps into the fight.
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Within the movie, the first time the Wonder Woman costume is seen in full is when Diana sheds the cloak she had been wearing for most of the film in order to leave the trenches and storm across No Mans Land by herself.

    Literature 
  • Near the end of the second book of the The Wheel of Time, Rand has his first real duel against Turak, an invading Seanchan lord. Throughout the novel, Turak is certainly ruthless, if rather effeminate and dainty. His servants retrieve everything for him, his fingernails are long and painted, he wears long, flowing robes, and he speaks in a light, almost sing-song voice. When Rand and company try to steal the Horn of Valere back from him, it turns out to be a trap to allow Turak to engage the heroes himself. He removes his robe, revealing a chiseled, muscular body, and then whips out a heron-mark blade, revealing him as the first true Blademaster Rand has to face in the series.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Played for laughs in an episode of ALF. Lynn notes that an angry visitor has taken off his jacket, apparently in preparation for a fight. Alf quips that someone should stop him before he wipes his shoes.
  • Downplayed but justified a couple of times on CSI: NY:
    • Lab coats are normally worn while processing evidence and/or doing reconstructions, but in "Corporate Warriors," Mac is seen brandishing bladed weapons, including a katana, without one because it would impede his range of motion. (His black t-shirt and track pants aren't hurting anyone's eyes, either.)
    • "Snow Day." After the Big Bad shoots the sprinklers so they kick on, Mac removes his soaked dress shirt, quietly balls it up and sets it aside while discussing tactics with Sheldon and Stella. Ostensibly it would be uncomfortable, but he'll need enough range of motion to fight with the perp before the showdown's over.
  • In the "Al Capone gang vs. Jesse James gang" simulation of Deadliest Warrior, Al Capone sheds his longcoat in preparation for the fight with Jesse James. Unfortunately for him, Capone loses the fight when one of James' men shoots him through some jail bars.
  • The Doctor Blake Mysteries: Lucien does this in "An Invincible Summer'' when he confronts a local thug who has pushed Mattie down and slapped Jean. He strips of his suit coat and proceeds to pound the crap out of the thug with Good Old Fisticuffs.
  • The Fourth Doctor took off his coat at the end of the Doctor Who serial Meglos. He did it to turn the title character's scheme of masquerading as the Doctor back on him to infiltrate his base...and booby trap his superweapon to destroy the planet.
  • In the "pool hustler" episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Uncle Phil takes off his jacket before proceeding to beat the pool hustlers that swindled Will at their own game in what is easily one of his most awesome moments.
  • Highlander: The Series: Subverted in "Comes a Horseman" where it marks the end of an epic confrontation. After Mac confronts Methos in front of the GMC Jimmy, both guys throw their coats into their cars and drive away.
  • Inverted in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Taiga Hanaya/Kamen Rider Snipe gets an epic scene in the final arc where he puts on a doctor's coat, showing that he is no longer a Back-Alley Doctor. Cue Kamen Rider Gamedeus Cronus getting his ass kicked by the Doctor Riders.
  • In The Umbrella Academy when Reginald Hargreaves confronts the Majestic 12 he removes his coat, causing one of them to mock him with faux concern that he, a solitary, elderly man, is ready for a fight. Then Hargreaves also removes his face, and they stop finding it funny.
  • Sherlock Holmes: In "The Solitary Cyclist", Woodley slaps Holmes across the face. Holmes proceeds to calmly remove his hat and coat, hang then up and then lay a serious beatdown on Woodley.
  • In the Smallville Season 9 finale "Salvation", Clark Kent disposes of his coat before proceeding to kick Zod's ass. In the rain.
  • In the television series of The Transporter: Season 1, Frank generally removes his suit coat before a fight, frequently passing it to the Damsel in Distress .

    Music Videos 
  • Chris Brown's music video for his 2007 single "Wall to Wall" has this happening twice. It happens at the beginning of the song when Brown (who is a vampire) takes off his trench coat as he gets out of his car, and when the female vampire (Suelyn Medeiros) gives him chase after escaping the spell of dancing on the wall.
  • In Twenty One Pilots' music video for their 2015 single "Fairly Local", Tyler Joseph takes off his coat towards the end of the video and even pins it on a wall, embellishing the significance of the room beginning to snow before reaching the climax.
    Pro Wrestling 
  • There is an entire category of dress that serves this purpose known as "entrance attire". It has its roots in warmup gear. Before competition, athletes would be expected to perform cardio drills and stretches to "limber up" and then wear fairly heavy clothing to keep their muscles from "cooling down" while they rested. This was to reduce the risk of injury, but over time warmup gear became increasingly thematic as wrestlers sought to look distinct among their peers and increase their marketability, to the point of robes that cannot even be manually removed in a timely manner (Dalton Castle), headgear that couldn't possibly serve towards staying limber (Stan Hansen), and potential weaponry that really shouldn't have been allowed at ringside (The Road Warriors) became acceptable.
  • On Gnarly Pop's Life Love And Lady Wrestling, Kikyo parodied Kiera Hogan's routine (wearing her merchandise around her waist before the bell) by wearing multiple shirts over her singlet and slowly removing them to spell out "Hi, My Name Is Kikyo, And I'm Gonna Kick Yo Ass". Hogan admitted it was clever.

    Tabletop Games 
  • GURPS Martial Arts supplement included an optional rule intended to simulate this very trope called "Bulletproof Nudity". This rule gave characters combat bonuses if they were wearing less clothing. The key was that you couldn't just walk around in a thong, you had to normally wear appropriate clothing and take it off or have it shredded during the fight.

    Video Games 
  • In Alpha Protocol, just before the battle with Omen Deng, he dramatically sheds his Badass Cape.
  • Dauragon C. Mikado, the Big Bad of The Bouncer, wears a Badass Longcoat for most of the game, including when you first get to fight him. In the Final Boss Fight, he starts out wearing it, too, but after you knock enough health off of him, he tosses the coat and becomes a LOT stronger. In the True Final Boss Fight, he removes the suspenders, too, and fights you full-on shirtless.
  • In Dark Devotion, the Executioner casts off his cloak at the halfway point of his boss fight. It was evidently weighted, as it lands with enough force to shake the room and he goes from being a slow but powerful foe to a Lightning Bruiser.
  • In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Adam Jensen wears a Badass Longcoat in his everyday life, but when going to serious assignments, he leaves it home, wearing only a bulletproof vest and his cybernetic implants above the waist.
  • Averted by both Nero and Dante in Devil May Cry, and then completely inverted by Dante in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, where he has a badass putting-the-coat-on moment and proceeds to kill a small army of demons.
  • The moment you enter combat time in Fallout 2, the Deathclaw NPC Goris drops his monk-like robe to rip the enemy a new one, then puts it back on to hide his features from friendly commoners.
  • In the Heaven's Feel Route of Fate/stay night, Dark Sakura seems to kill Kotomine, leaving only his priest's robes behind. But in the true ending, when Shirou goes to destroy Avenger, he finds Kotomine barring his path. This is the only scene in the entire game where Kotomine isn't wearing his coat, and it's also his most badass. He manages to give a really long speech and nearly beat Shirou to death, despite the fact that his heart completely ceased to function — a condition he survived for two days.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth walks around most the time in a Badass Longcoat, and most of the time he's still able to kick ass without breaking a sweat. In his final fight, he wears no coat, which gives him only a pair of pants and boots. The joke is, that fight is impossible to lose.
    • Auron of Final Fantasy X has his own iconic variation of this. In addition to the FMV at Luca, this is his standard fight-begin animation.
  • With the exception of Seofon, all of the other Eternals in Granblue Fantasy lose their Coat Cape for their 5★ uncap, (the last set of character levels for SSR characters in the game) just as they are about to embark on a quest for greater power using the hidden potential of their respective Revenant Weapons.
  • Hades: The final boss, Hades himself, actually burns the cloak off his shoulders as he starts the battle, every single time. Zagreus will quickly grow annoyed by the gesture, occasionally pointing out that's a lot of capes to burn through. Later on, when Zagreus breaks into Hades's room, he discovers that the only luxury Hades really uses his enormous wealth fornote  is a never-ending supply of capes.
  • Kingdom Hearts II:
    • Mickey Mouse, of all people, does this with his Badass Longcoat after a pivotal scene.
    • There's also a scene of Riku throwing off his own Badass Longcoat after he's restored to his true form and joins Sora in the final battle.
  • The King of Fighters:
    • Rugal Bernstein in The King of Fighters '94 first fights in a full tux and without using any of his special moves, but ditches the jacket and shirt for round 2 when he gets serious on your ass and shows you why he is the definitive SNK Boss. In his subsequent appearances, he has kept the green t-shirt he wore underneath.
    • The The King of Fighters '99 has this. Krizalid first appears with a coat in which the players could beat him with relative ease. After winning the round, he then burns his coat off and starts showing off his true power. He also does this in The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match as a special intro to certain characters on the Playstation 2. On all other versions, this becomes his regular intro, while standing without his coat becomes his special intro.
    • King tosses away her dinner jacket and hat in some of her intros.
  • Throughout the Kirby series, Meta Knight removes his cape before dueling Kirby. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the Beast Pack bosses Clawroline and Leongar also throw off their capes before they attack.
  • Kuri Kinton: Before a Boss Fight begins, said boss usually throws their cape away.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure: Alex Dudley's coat comes off dramatically when executing his S-Crafts.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Ghirahim actually teleports his robe away before fighting Link. He later powers up and removes everything else as well, including his skin, revealing his true Chrome Champion form underneath.
  • A time-honored tradition in the Like a Dragon series. Most of the major boss fights are precluded by the characters throwing off their shirt in a single swoop so that they can show off their Irezumi and if they look unassuming at first, show off that they're also pretty damn buff underneath. Amusingly enough, this action also takes off any undershirt or garments they have worn under their coats. The only time a justified version of this was done in Yakuza 0, wherein before the first fight with Kuze. He had his coat on his shoulders so he could pull this off much more easily.
  • In MadWorld, removal of a coat changes The Black Baron (stop starin') from a walking joke to the final boss. His hat follows suit without mention later.
  • In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Cyclops usually starts with a jacket over his X-Men uniform, but tosses it away before the battle begins.
  • Mega Man:
  • Nearly every single coat worn in the Metal Gear Solid series. It is especially prevalent in the fourth game, as four characters (Old Snake, Raiden, Vamp and Liquid Ocelot) lose their coats to become even more badass. Raiden in particular becomes twice as badass putting the coat back on during his 'I Am Lightning' moment. note  Also happens to Volgin, the Boss and the Sorrow in Snake Eater, Ocelot, Solidus Snake and Fortune in Sons of the Patriots, and Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid.
  • In One Piece: Pirate Warriors, Garp's taunt action is to have him take off his marine coat with the kanji for "Justice" on the back, which he normally drapes over his shoulders like a cape.
  • Persona 5: Shadow Shido's second form rips out his generalissimo suit to become a hulking mass of a man. Futaba lampshades this by saying that the muscles aren't just for show.
  • Project × Zone:
    • Saya's final part of her support attack has her tossing her coat revealing quite the eye-candy before catching her two swords in the air and slashing them to her enemy.
    • Some of Erica's attacks have her tossing off her nun outfit, revealing a cute cat suit beneath.
  • Resident Evil:
  • In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, after you deal two Deathblows to Lord Genichiro during his boss battle atop Ashina Castle, he'll shed his armor in order to wield his ultimate technique, the Lightning of Tomoe.
  • In Sengoku Basara, Yukimura dons a cloak bearing the Takeda emblem for most of the second season. However, faced with a humongous mechanical fortress, he throws it away to reveal the emblem of the Sanada on his back, signifying how he has finally become his own man. He then proceeds to stop the fortress' advance single-handed, with a pair of spears. Similarly, in the movie, he rips off his Badass Longcoat that represents his status as the commander of the Takeda army before he and Masamune go at each other, signaling that his desire to fight Masamune is personal and unrelated to the Takeda and the Date being enemies.
  • Shock Troopers has the main villain, only known as "Leader", discard his cape right before the Final Boss battle with him. Right after discarding his cape, he proceeds to take out his machine gun, and to star at the screen and do an Evil Laugh. Afterwards, final boss battle begins!
  • Shovel Knight features the Phantom Striker, a mysterious warrior shrouded in a blue cape; he dramatically casts it away at the start of every fight. Specter Knight is an inversion, befitting his Grim Reaper motif; the only time he loses his Badass Cape is when he's defeated, causing it to burn away and revealing the dessicated husk beneath.
  • Skies of Arcadia: When Galcian, the Big Bad and Grand Admiral of The Empire goes off on top of a rail car to catch the two protagonists, he ditches his immense, requisite Bad Ass Long Coat, revealing intimidating armor and a BFS.
  • Purge from Space Channel 5 Part 2 loses his coat before challenging you to the Final Dance-off.
  • In contrast to the movie (see film section for more details), Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, Mace Windu does discard his Jedi robe during his mission to capture Chancellor Palpatine. Reason for this change is unknown, possibly only due to Rule of Cool (even though, Anakin retains his like he did in the movie).
  • In Street Fighter II, M. Bison does this with his cape before you fight him.
  • Wild Dog does this in every Time Crisis game.
  • In Yo-Jin-Bo, Bo sheds his cape (and allows it to be shredded) to gain the upper hand when facing off against Kasumimaru.

    Web Animation 
  • In the trailer of RWBY, Ruby's hood and cape either disappear or turn into a Scarf of Asskicking before she starts kicking ass.
  • In Video Game Championship Wrestling, Kanji Tatsumi wears his school uniform jacket for his entrance but removes it for his matches. This is probably to avoid drawing attention to the game's character creator making it impossible to replicate Kanji's famous Coat Cape.

    Webcomics 
  • After being cornered by some undead, Yuri Kashnikov from Dead Winter elects to take off his jacket and decides to face the undead, head on with his fists even managing to decapitate one of them and send the head flying!
  • When Erikr and Itham in Crimson Knights prepare to face the creature Ajattara, they both quietly drop their cloaks before unsheathing their weapons.
  • In El Goonish Shive, Elliot takes off the top of his martial arts uniform (which was over a sleeveless shirt) and ties the belt around his head during a lull in his battle with Nanase. While doing this he gives a speech about not using his full power earlier.
  • In the final battle of Homestuck, Lord English ditches his CAIRO OVERCOAT before taking on an entire army of ghosts by himself.
  • Weak Hero:
    • When he's about to punish Rowan for (purportedly) stealing his bag, Wolf strips himself of his school blazer. The intimidation factor is increased even more by him slowly emerging from the shadows as he does so.
    • Dean sheds his jacket when facing off against Gray, signalling that he's gotten serious while also giving the readers a look at his muscular frame for the first time.

    Web Videos 
  • Lindybeige makes a point to generally do this in combat situations, since cloaks tend to wave around wildly while in high motion combat, and generally get in the way. Lloyd recounts one time while LARPing, someone slipped and fell when Lloyd started running in a direction while his comrade was standing on his cloak. Otherwise, he feels that a thick, woolen cloak is incredibly useful for keeping warm and dry while on long marches through cold or rainy climes.
  • In There Will Be Brawl, Luigi had worn his trenchcoat throughout the series. He took it off during the penultimate episosde, after Red dies in an explosion. Luigi covered his body using his coat and walked off to start the final battle.

    Western Animation 
  • Arcane: Soon after Vi attacks Sevika, the two do this trope, Sevika with far more flourish by dramatically tossing her shawl behind her to reveal her mechanical arm with a Shimmer injector while Vi just pulls her jacket down and leaves it at her feet.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Castlevania (2017): Isaac tosses off his cloak after setting off Hector's bombs, charging in towards Carmilla.
  • Used as a form of non-verbal Duck Season, Rabbit Season in the Looney Tunes short "Big House Bunny": Bugs Bunny finds himself in prison locking horns with guard Yosemite Sam (here called Sam Schultz). Bugs bets that Sam wouldn't be so tough without his uniform and dares him to take it off and fight. Sam takes off his guard uniform while Bugs takes off his prisoner garb. Bugs then "decides" that Sam is tough enough and puts on Sam's uniform, while Sam puts on Bugs' uniform. Bugs then blows the whistle and the other guards beat up Sam and take him to a cell.
  • Samurai Jack tears off part or all of his kimono at least every other episode. Usually loses the top knot, too.
  • Star Wars:
    • When General Grievous takes off his awesome cape when he fights Jedi and other opponents.
    • In contrast to the movies where he always kept his cape on during lightsaber duels, Count Dooku does it a lot too in The Clone Wars series.
    • Star Wars: The Clone Wars, "Lair of Grievous": Knight Nahdar Vebb drops his outer robe before using the force to clear the path to the Sepratist hideout that the Jedi have been lead to belive Nute Gunray is hiding at and which they've come to in order to retrive him. The actual opponent who awaits them is far more dangerous than they'd been led to believe.
  • In Voltron: Legendary Defender, this is how three of Lotor's generals reveals themselves to Throk and the other Galra in the audience.

    Real Life 
  • This happens incidentally in outdoor contact sports, like rugby or American football when the weather gets cold. When a player is on the bench, they'll often put on a coat (or drape it over themselves in football, the coat won't fit properly over the chest and shoulder pads). When it comes time for them to sub in and do violence, they shrug off the coat and run onto the field.
  • Boxers usually wear robes prior to coming to the ring.
  • When their team is at bat, Major League Baseball pitchers will wear jackets in all but the hottest summer days in order to keep their arms loose.
  • Television meteorologists tend to do this when in severe weather coverage, specifically taking off their formal suit jackets to reveal their button up shirts and frequently suspenders; they may also roll up their sleeves and/or remove their ties, all to make it easier for them to work on the weather computers. If you see them doing this, then that means you should be paying attention to what they're saying.


 
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"Robots? Let's Rock!"

During their first fight with the Foot Soldiers, the Turtles discover they're machines, leading them to going all out. At the same time, Shredder, who is watching, recognizes their fighting style and realizes only one person could've taught them it.

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