Basic Trope: Most of a swordfight is made up of clashing the swords against each other.
- Straight: Robert and Charles spend most of their climactic fight parrying each other's blows, rather than striking each other.
- Exaggerated: Robert and Charles spend several hours clashing their swords with no attempt to hit the other.
- Downplayed: Robert and Charles' blades only come into contact once or twice before one of them wins.
- Justified:
- Charles is an Implacable Man; Robert is focusing on parrying because a proper attack wouldn't do anything to him.
- Robert himself is a Fragile Speedster that relies on wearing down his opponent for a Victory by Endurance.
- The two are only pretending to fight to excite people or make it seem like they're angry at one another when it's really all acting.
- Set in the future, the laser-powered rapiers are more lethal. Thus Charles blocking Robert's attacks are actually just as important as Charles actually landing an attack on Robert.
- Robert is trying to take Charles alive rather than kill him, and is focused on disarming or exhausting him rather than landing a (potentially fatal) blow on him.
- Robert and Charles are both novices who don't really know what they're doing.
- Inverted: Single-Stroke Battle
- Subverted:
- Robert and Charles trade a few attacks, but Robert realizes he's not getting anywhere and begins focusing more on dodging entirely.
- Robert and Charles actually do start out trying to kill each other properly, but both are fast enough and a real attack requires enough commitment of movement that, after a few nearly-disastrous first attempts, they've switched to what's essentially a war of attrition, each waiting for the other to get too tired to parry a fatal blow.
- Double Subverted: Eventually the fight carries them into confined quarters and they are forced to go blade-to-blade in an attempt to overpower each other.
- Parodied:
- Robert's sword breaks in the middle of the fight... and he continues blocking Charles with the hilt.
- Robert's mentor explains that "if you actually hit someone in a swordfight, you're doing it wrong!"
- Zig Zagged: Both men start of flynning until one of them is injured in which case, he keeps away until his Healing Factor can take care of the wound. He comes back and starts flynning again and is injured a second time with the same result.
- Averted: Robert and Charles do occasionally clash swords, but it only makes up a small portion of the fight.
- Enforced: "We don't want the actors to get hurt. Just have them hit their swords against each other until the end."
- Lampshaded: "Try hitting someplace other than his sword!"
- Invoked:
- Robert and Charles, both master swordsmen in a tournament where they're unknown, flynning through their qualifying match to make everyone else underestimate them and ensure they both go on to the later battles.
- They are in a strange fencing sport which involves trying to knock your opponent's sword out of his hands by hitting it as hard as you can. This involves a lot of swords clanging together.
- Exploited:
- Charles has to deliver a message, and Robert has orders to thwart him. Charles resorts to a lengthy and mobile Flynning duel with Robert, which sees him arrive at his destination and deliver the letter while still fighting.
- Robert and Charles manage to break each others' swords, forcing them to engage in unarmed combat, something Robert is good at.
- Defied: Charles begins going through some impressive — but nonfunctional — flourishes with his sword. Robert punches him in the face and stabs him in the gut.
- Deconstructed:
- Robert attempts to replicate the swordplay he's read about in chivalry stories, only to leave himself open and get quickly slaughtered by the properly-trained Charles.
- Repeatedly clashing swords damages both blades to the point where they chip and eventually break.
- Reconstructed:
- Robert utilizes unorthodox swordplay techniques that takes the form of Flynning, which is made viable by confusing his opponent.
- Also counts as exploited, as Combat Breakdown occurs and the two begin to slug it out with Good Old Fisticuffs
- Discussed: "Have you noticed Robert and Charles are mostly just hitting their swords together?"
- Conversed: Two fencers complain as they watch a sword-fight in a movie.
- Played For Laughs: While Robert and Charles are fighting, Alice sits in the background and watches, commenting that it's the silliest thing she's ever seen. The soundtrack agrees.
- Played For Drama: The duel between Robert and Charles is still a fight to the death, complete with close calls on both sides.
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