History Main / ConfusionFu

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* An unintentional example occurs in the ''Videogame/{{Medabots}}'' anime; Ikki, Koji, and Space Medafighter X are supposed to represent Japan in an international Robattle tournament, but since Space Medafighter X consistently fails to attend any of the matches, Ikki and Koji are forced to disguise their friends as X and substitute them for him. Since each of their friends has a different medabot and a different fighting style, their opponents perceive Space Medafighter X as bringing a different bot to each round of the tournament, and his tactics as being impossible to predict.

* The TowerDefense game ''VideoGame/CanterlotSiege'', Discord doesn't follow the path when he appears and walks around the map freely, making his path very difficult to plan for. In the third game, the BonusBoss randomly rearranges the positions of your towers when they appear.

** While it's not manufactured by Foil, the Ballpoint Splatling is functionally very similar to their style. Splatlings can only shoot via {{Charge Attack}}s, but unique to the Ballpoint is that its range, damage, and fire rate change depending on how charged it is. Contrary to what logic may suggest, a full charge with a Ballpoint Splatling will actually result in a ''shorter'' range than a light charge, but as the charge unwinds, it will switch from one set of attributes to whatever is the next lighter one until it runs out.

** The Goo Tuber and the Nautilus are weapons that must be [[ChargeAttack charged]] to attack, but they can hold their charges for a long time while you're hiding or traveling in ink (in which you're practically invisible). They're not particularly fast or powerful, but they do allow for devastating ambushes. That is, from the perspective of an opponent, a skilled Goo Tuber or Nautilus user could potentially be hiding anywhere.

** And the fighting game ''VideoGame/TouhouShinkirouHopelessMasquerade'' added the UnexpectedCharacter, [[EmptyShell Koishi]] [[PerceptionFilter Komeiji]]. What wasn't unexpected was that she would use confusion-fu. What ''was'' unexpected was how random and confusing it would turn out to be. Well enough for the fact that her normal attacks include things like {{sneez|eOfDoom}}ing (which fails by having Koishi catch her nose if attempted twice in quick succession) or having an IdeaBulb, her forward dash has her turn intangible while prancing onwards and, after a few steps, ''skips''... which is actually an attack, by the way... The top of the mousse is that one of her attack buttons doesn't do anything. ''Until slightly later on in the fight, provided certan conditions are met.'' At first she's likely to be just as unpredictable to the one using her as she is to the opponent.

** An unlockable weapon for the Soldier called [[ScavengedPunk The Beggar's Bazooka]] has a random [[Pun trashectory]] for each rocket fired, this coupled with the ability to [[HammerSpace somehow load three rockets at once]] then fire them in quick succesion makes the weapon harder to conciously aim but even harder to avoid getting hit by.

* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'', where the player race can swim through their own color of ink including up walls and through grates, is full of this. Besides the obvious:

** Brellas are able to attack for chip damage (which is still fairly high in this game), defend and support teammates, making them invaluable for Ranked battles. Their subs and specials are often more support-focused, allowing them to hinder the enemy or make a strong push in some gamemodes.

** This is the SignatureStyle of Foil, a manufacturer introduced in ''Splatoon 2''. Except for the Bubble Blower, each of their weapons has two forms that the user can switch between at will, and using one form when the opponents expect the other is key to using them well. Both the Squeezer and the Flingza Roller have a fast, short-range form and a slow, long-range form, which can set opponents up for misdirection as long as you don't make it obvious. Foil also makes the Baller, a [[LimitBreak Special Weapon]] that's ordinarily a rolling ball that deals CollisionDamage... until it explodes and inflicts a [[OneHitKill one-hit knockout]] on any opponents caught in the blast radius.

** The Alpha Legion of the Chaos Space Marines [[NebulousEvilOrganisation aren't known for much]] but they are known for their incredibly unorthodox tactics and reliance on secrecy and misinformation, on top of being deadly {{super soldier}}s. DressingAsTheEnemy, {{TheMole}}s, XanatosSpeedChess, propaganda, recruiting other groups to fight as catspaws, anything goes. This stems from their early rivalry with the Ultramarines, a highly orthodox force with the mantra "[[AwesomenessByAnalysis Information is victory]]"; the Alpha Legion's counter-argument was effectively "Why focus only on ''collecting'' information about your enemy? Spread misinformation about yourself and the enemy will never be able to beat you." Given how the ultimate clash between the two was the Alphas inflicting all kinds of frustrating defeats on the Ultras until they basically RageQuit via mass orbital bombardment of the whole planet, they likely were right.

** Valkyr is a TierInducedScrappy, who is believed to be underpowered and useless. Eventually this led to valkyrs being so rarely picked that most players just forgot how to counter them.

* Similar to the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]] example above, WesternAnimation/DangerMouse once illogicked a computer to death by performing the following routine for it:

** Similarly, Arceus's ability, Multitype, allows it to become any one of the 18 elemental Pokémon types, providing that it is holding the corresponding Plate or Z-Crystal for each type (i.e., Draco Plate/Dragonium Z for Dragon-type). Silvally, an artifical Pokémon based on Arceus in-universe, can likewise change its type (though it uses Memory discs instead).

** It's also precised that Rincewind's favorite method of fighting bare-handed is to strike badly, but as many times as possible, and with maximum strength (which doesn't mean very much in his case) in order not to let the opponent the opportunity to realize how terrible a fighter he is. Not to mention faking the use of his nonexistent magic powers in a voluntarily ridiculous and over-the-top way, just to give him the time to score a Groin Attack or any other non-magic trick.

* The title character of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' notes he met his friend Katy when she prevented a fight from starting between him and some jerk by jumping between them and singing [[Music/{{Eagles}} "Hotel California"]]. She calls this “the art of confusion” and adds that it “works really well on stupid people". And then when she's cornered by a mook with a sword, Katy tries the exact same tactic, and it works, at least until the stumped guy just decides to resume atttacking.

* The title character of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' notes he met his friend Katy when she prevented a fight from starting between him and some jerk by jumping between them and singing [[Music/{{Eagles}} "Hotel California"]]. She calls this “the art of confusion: works really well on stupid people". And then when she's cornered by a mook with a sword, Katy tries the exact same tactic, and it works, at least until the stumped guy just decides to resume atttacking.

* The title character of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' notes he met his friend Katy when she prevented a fight from starting between him and some jerk by jumping between them and start singing [[Music/{{Eagles}} "Hotel California"]]. She calls this “the art of confusion: works really well on stupid people". And then when she's cornered by a mook with a sword, Katy tries the exact same tactic, and it works, at least until the stumped guy just decides to resume atttacking.

* The title character of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' notes he met his friend Katy when she prevented a fight from starting between him and some jerk by jumping between them and start singing [[Music/{{Eagles}} "Hotel California"]]. She notes confusion "works really well on idiots". And then when she's cornered by a goon with a sword, Katy tries the exact same tactic, and it works, at least until the stumped guy just decides to resume atttacking.

* According to Otto fon Bismark, this is the usual Russian style. They counter every stratagem by unpredictable folly:

%% There have been four Image Pickin' threads for this page:

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinkie_by_quizia.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E9SliceOfLife There are other ways to fight a bugbear]]...\\
[[https://quizia.deviantart.com/art/Pinkie-539553164 but Pinkie's is certainly the most fun.]]]]

* In the Brian Bendis series of ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'', the title character can manifest the personalities of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/SpiderMan, or ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and, so doing, adopts their weapons and fighting styles. To say that this is unexpected by his opponents is an understatement. It also saves his life several times when fighting Count Nefaria. Plus, he's ''notoriously'' mentally unstable, and it shines in his fighting style and general actions being insane. Taskmaster (again) has refused to fight him after several intel mismatches, copying self-damaging moves by accident and finally having Moon Knight ''crashing a helicopter into a building'' to catch him off-guard.

* In the Brian Bendis series of ''ComicBook/MoonKnight'', the title character can manifest the personalities of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Franchise/SpiderMan, or ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} and, so doing, adopts their weapons and fighting styles. To say that this is unexpected by his opponents is an understatement. It also saves his life several times when fighting Count Nefaria.

* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'''s [[{{Oireland}} Aran Ryan]], Wii version. He has no "idle animation" like the other opponents and never holds still, and slides all about the ring throwing in random punches. Also unlike every other fighter it's impossible to land a combo on him unless you counter him mid-attack. He's also a [[CombatPragmatist foul stinking cheat]] and incorporates headbutts, elbow strikes, horseshoes in his gloves and perhaps most blatantly of all a ''boxing glove on a rope'' that he swings around like a flail, into his attacks. Also, [[AxCrazy he's fucking crazy]]. We mentioned the crazy, right?
** Every Minor (except Disco Kid) and Major Circuit fighter in Title Defense has some sort of feint, delayed attack, or other unpredictable movement, which is the main source of the mode's NintendoHard reputation.
*** Even Disco Kid to some degree, as his left jab can be delayed or not, though he's not as bad as everyone else.
** [[spoiler: Donkey Kong]] beats even Don Flamenco in the taunt-and-counter department, with multiple taunts, each with their own counter-attacks, and a lot of his attacks have similar build-ups. And sometimes he'll just accidentally hit himself in the face and give you a free star.

** Tzeentch crosses this with TheChessmaster and turns both of them UpToEleven. Tzeentch represents change, sometimes simply for its own sake, but he also happens to be the setting's ultimate planner. It is said that every action, no matter how random, is all part of Tzeentch's plan. Even the times when his forces lose terribly (which may have the effect of killing off a weaker champion so a greater one will rise, or overstretching a foe so they can be defeated by a different force later). As such, it seems to be impossible to beat Tzeentch because even a victory will be playing into his ultimate plan. Of course, authors can't seem to agree on what the ultimate goal of Tzeentch's plans are (or if he even has one), which means he's either the universe's greatest MagnificentBastard or an esoteric MadGod. The fact that there is no shortage of confusion about whether Tzeentch is randomness incarnate, or whether that randomness is all part of a greater plan (and, thus, not random at all) is itself [[MindScrew delightfully Tzeentchian]], however, so it doesn't really matter.

** Sometimes you can easily hit an expeirenced player by spamming light attacks without even changing the stance. This works only because of how unbelievably stupid it is, and it is possible to miss [[UpToEleven up to ten]] hits, delievered in such a style.

*** The Soda Popper can give the scout ''five'' midair jumps taking this trope UpToEleven.

* Appears on ''WebVideo/TheGuild''. Kwan is revealed to be a champion-level gamer [[UpToEleven in Korea]]. He was defeated by [[spoiler:Mr. Wiggly]], who seemingly picked his spells at random -- including spells so unorthodox that Kwan hadn't bothered defending against them.

* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'': This is one of the three ways to beat Midnighter, as it completely confuses the precognitive computers in his brain. (The other two are "Be better at AwesomeByAnalysis than he is" and "Be so powerful that it just doesn't matter if he predicts your moves or not.") Taken [[UpToEleven to extremes]] in the DC/Wildstorm crossover, where Midnighter takes one look at the Joker, tries to predict him and has a ''petit mal'' seizure (think of a computer lagging to a freezing halt, which was literally what (probably) happened here).

* The Quiz, from the appropriately named ''Brotherhood of UsefulNotes/{{Dada}}'', had the superpower of "anything you haven't thought of yet". A particularly nonsensical example was the ability to turn people into toilets with flowers in them. In fact, her ability was so chaotic, it was only defeated by the power of Lists. The Comicbook/DoomPatrol fought her by running away and yelling out powers, so she couldn't use them.

* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', this is Harry's strategic trademark, mixed in with frequent {{Indy Ploy}}s and latterly, XanatosSpeedChess, and along with his tendency (partly down to Doctor Strange's manipulations) to be in the right place at the right time, it's why he's such a SpannerInTheWorks to various villains -- he's the wild card factor, because no one quite knows what he's going to do next. All they ''do'' tend to know is that it'll probably be [[CrazyEnoughToWork completely nuts]]. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that when combined with [[PoorCommunicationKills a habit of not sharing changes in plan]], it's also prone to derailing his allies' plans, and sometimes ''[[UpToEleven even his own.]]'' After one particular piece of attempted XanatosSpeedChess goes horribly wrong in the sequel, he learns to moderate it by actually stopping and thinking first, and communicating -- at which point the plans he comes up with often still qualify as this, because they're still just that nuts.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Peter Quill is a baseline human in a galaxy of superhuman aliens (and that's not to mention the angry gods). He gets by with gadgets and trickery. At the end, he [[LookBehindYou distracts]] [[BigBad Ronan the Accuser]] by [[spoiler:challenging him to a dance-off while singing "Ooh Child"]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

* In ''[[VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry Ougon Musou Kyou/Cross]]''n all of [[{{Meido}} Shanon's]] regular attacks look [[CuteClumsyGirl accidental]], hitting opponents with anything that would be used in her typical chores: serving trays and carts, entire tea sets, carpet beaters, scrubbing brushes, and her apron.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' Spider-Man and White Tiger use this to beat Taskmaster, who can quickly copy their moves. They do this by switching weapons, luring him into the gym (which still has the obstacle course from yesterday set up), turning the lights off, and using the numerous obstacles as weapons. In a later episode, just like the Comic Books example above, Taskmaster has an OhCrap moment when he hears Spider-Man brought along Deadpool to capture him. Deadpool humiliates Taskmaster by dancing all over him.