History Main / DeliberateInjuryGambit

Typical in cases of BizarreAlienBiology. Compare with WoundedGazelleGambit (pretending to be hurt so that they can make a third person attack their target), ExploitedImmunity (getting both yourself and your target injured in a way you know won't harm you as much), AttackingThroughYourself (in which the attacker deliberately attacks himself to get at his opponent, rather than just letting an enemy attack hit him), SelfPoisoningGambit (Consuming something that is poisoned in order to lure someone else into also doing so) and PullYourselfDownTheSpear (pulling oneself down a spear to get closer or to make the enemy stuck) Related to FailureGambit and ConfoundThemWithKindness.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', during the Jack v. Jones fight. Jones of course is immortal, so it wasn't much of an injury.

* A less destructive version is seen in ''Literature/HanSolosRevenge'': Han is facing the one man he's ever met who's a quicker draw than him, so avoids a duel by shocking ''both'' their right arms into useless paralysis; the gunman is forced to retreat because Han [[IAmNotLeftHanded is ambidextrous]].

* Occurs in the ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' episode "Chuck Versus the Subway", [[spoiler: Chuck finds out that rogue traitor Daniel Shaw has downloaded The Ring Intersect after seeing him flash during a [=CIA=] meeting. He tries to reveal this to everyone at court by throwing a knife at him hoping Shaw will flash and catch it, [[CallBack a tactic Chuck's father used on Chuck in the previous episode]]. However, Shaw doesn't flash and allows the knife to stab him in the shoulder to "prove" Chuck crazy.]]

** In his fight against the Apostle Rosine, he deliberately lets her impale his right forearm just so he can get a good shot off with his ArmCannon. Later in the fight, when it appears that he has been impaled through the head by her proboscis and killed, it turns out that he turned his head at the last moment and was only impaled through the cheeks. He bites down on the proboscis so she can't avoid his final sword blow.
** In the Birth Ceremony Chapter of the Conviction Arc, Guts is about to be hit with a giant wheel being swung by an enemy, and has no chance to dodge it. Instead he shoots the wheel-user with his arm cannon at the moment the wheel hits him, and uses the combined force of the wheel and the cannon's recoil to get launched into the air so he can then hit another enemy who's flying above.

* One version of the ClockKing is a nearly unstoppable fighter because he can see a few seconds into the future. Ravager lets him strike her, then grabs his wrist, using her free hand to pound his face into hamburger meat and explaining that being able to see the future is useless if you can't do anything to react to your visions.
* As [[GoodThingYouCanHeal easily repairable]] robots, the ComicBook/MetalMen have this as their trademark. They'll take any risk, and even sacrifice their "[[ImmortalLifeIsCheap lives]]," because so long as the necessary parts aren't damaged they'll be back in the next issue, no worse for wear.
* Moon Knight typically ignores blocking or dodging incoming attacks preferring to conserve the energy that would have went towards blocking and attempting to shatter his opponent's morale by giving the impression of being an ImplacableMan.
* Shatterstar from Creator/MarvelComics, not being exactly human, pulls this trick a few times in order to skewer people bear-hugging him. He's able to do this multiple times rather than as a TakingYouWithMe gambit in part because [[GoodThingYouCanHeal he heals faster than humans]], and partly because his organs are arranged differently.
* ''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}'' tries this against his evil/good/whatever counterpart the Redeemer. He lets the Redeemer blast a hole in his torso so that he could act disabled and surprise him. Unfortunately, the Redeemer just teleports away afterwards. Fortunately, he got better.

* In ''ComicBook/UncannyAvengers'', we see ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} face the ComicBook/RedSkull after the latter had taken control of his teammates and reveal he had been souvenir hunting at the old X-Men base, [[spoiler: knowing that [[BatmanGambit the Skull would summon the thrall best able to kill him ASAP]] and gambling that he could survive [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown what]] ComicBook/{{Rogue}} [[LightningBruiser dished]] [[FlyingBrick out]] long enough to get ComicBook/{{Magneto}}'s old telepathy-blocking helmet on her head. [[OhCrap It worked]].]]
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* During ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'', Laura became one of the ''only'' people to ''[[Awesome/WorldWarHulk actually slow down Hulk]]'' by deliberately allowing him to grab her, bringing her close enough to catch him by surprise with her foot claws and [[EyeScream put out his eyes]] (the injury comes in in that she got put through a wall for her trouble). When Wolverine tried the same trick later, it was only because Hulk ''let him''.
** Later on, Hulk ''allows'' Wolverine to try pulling the same trick as Laura did, solely as a means to bring Logan close enough to kick his ass and put him out of the fight for good. Even with an indestructible skeleton and a healing factor, repeated concussions will still leave Wolverine too punch-drunk to fight back.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':

** A few of Ash's rivals have pulled this off. Morrison from the Hoenn League has his Gligar do this in a battle against a Marowak. The former's wings had been frozen by the latter's Ice Beam, rendering it unable to fly. When the Marowak attacks with a Bone Club, Gligar literally takes it head-on... then retaliates with a finishing blow. Stephan from the Unova League also purposely allows his Sawk to be hit by repeated attacks after it's been tied up by String Shot, allowing it to cut itself free.

More extreme cases of this can result in DeathIsTheOnlyOption, a HeroicSacrifice, or MutualKill. Frequently exploits GoodThingYouCanHeal. Compare TakingYouWithMe, DeathOrGloryAttack, LifeOrLimbDecision. One possible motive for doing so would be to get the opponent LeftStuckAfterAttack. May be used in order to trigger a CriticalStatusBuff.

* Yoshimitsu of the ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'' series of 3D fighters has a number of "seppuku" moves, where he stabs himself in the gut, and hopefully his opponent. The moves are very short range and do the same damage to Yoshimitsu that they do to his opponent, but have very high damage and are unblockable. Similarly, his descendant in the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series can pull off the same maneuver. What's more, Yoshimitsu is about the only character who has healing moves.

* ''WebAnimation/MurderDrones'': In "[[Recap/MurderDronesE6DeadEnd Dead End]]", after discovering that the sight of blood causes Sentinels to experience a LogicBomb, [[spoiler:Tessa]] later exploits this against a horde of Sentinels by slashing her already injured hand to spray blood around.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', this is used [[spoiler:in the end of ''Fall''. From Yang's viewpoint, Mercury was jumping at her to kick her after she defeated him in a match, and so she turned around and countered it. However, a look at the cameras reveals it was an illusion and it really looked like Yang blasted him in the knee unprovoked. This results in Yang being arrested while the crowd boos and her teammates look on in bewildered horror. Though somewhat subverted since Mercury has prosthetic legs that could take the hit.]]