History Main / DeliberateInjuryGambit

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** Captain Ginyu punches a hole through his own chest, crippling himself just before using his hitherto-unknown GrandTheftMe attack on Goku, thereby crippling Goku instead.

* This is how the Norse monster Fenrir was tied up. The wolf grew wise to the attempts of the gods to tie him up and refused to let the gods try it for a third time. Therefore, the war god Tyr placed his hand into Fenrir's mouth, saying that the wolf could bite it off if the gods did not untie the wolf after a while. They didn't, and so Fenrir bit Tyr's hand off. Tyr had anticipated this, and it didn't seem to bother him.

* In ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'', since the protagonist Akira is assisted by his VirtualSidekick via virtual reality displays that show him where to position, where enemy bullets will land, etc, he sometimes (such as at the top of Sarenthal Tower) has to grit his teeth and just go to where he knows bullets will hit to get his way through seemingly impossible gunfights. He has {{Nanomachine}} medicine as well as PoweredArmor, that ultimately allow him to survive this ([[DentedIron though it takes its toll on him]]).

* Morrison in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' 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.
** Occasionally, Ash has Pikachu allow an opponent to hit him, causing Pikachu's Static ability to paralyze the opponent.

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), 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.

* Dragon Shiryu does this in the Capricorn house in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', letting Shura stab him in the chest with his hand and then breaking it off before launching both of them into space. [[spoiler: Shura has a HeelRealization and saves Shiryu [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of what's left of his life]].]] He does it again in the Lucifer movie, and [[spoiler: Siegfried]] from the Asgard warriors did it to Sorrento Siren in the last Asgard battle [[spoiler: but ultimately failed since Sorrento managed to release himself at the very last moment]].

* Guts, in the ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' manga, does this in his fight against the Apostle Rosine, where it appears that he has been impaled through the head by her probiscus and killed - only for it to be revealed he turned his head at the last moment and was only impaled through the cheeks, then gripping the weapon between his teeth to prevent Rosine from dodging away from his final sword blow.
** He did it earlier in the same fight in intentionally allowing her to impale his arm, just so he could get a good shot off with his ArmCannon.
** He also did a weird version with a giant Kushan monster which he ''let'' hit him so he could get on a building to attack from.
** Guts does this pretty often when he's not fast enough to dodge incoming attacks, and turns the situation around by tanking the attack in question, before utilizing the properties of the attack to [[AttackAttackAttack hit the enemy back]], a lot worse than he got hit himself, in a similar fashion to the current page quote. In the Conviction arc, Guts takes a hit by a massive wheel and uses the momentum gained by this and his ArmCannon to get high enough to kill a high-flying enemy and the one swinging the wheel around in one go.

* In ''Anime/TokyoGhoul'' the final episode has Kaneki after being tortured by [[spoiler: Jason/Yamori]] enough to gain a massive amount of pain tolerance combined with his already abnormally ''Badass'' regeneration to allow him to twist the leg that [[spoiler: Jason]] is holding so he can get a spin kick to his face, afterwards the leg spins back into place and is perfectly fine.

* In ''[[Creator/SimonRGreen The Bones Of Haven]]'', the leader of an urban-fantasy Special Wizardry And Tactics team throws herself on the sword of a terrorist fanatic to give her squad the chance to take the man down. Doubles as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, as she sneers in his shocked face and asks him: "You didn't think you were the ''only'' one willing to die for your beliefs, did you?"

* In ''Manga/DailyLifeWithMonsterGirl'', this is part of Zombina's general strategy- run in, get shot to bits, then attack when her opponents think she's dead and have let their guard down. She's not bothered by the wounds because she's a zombie already.

* Guts, in the ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' manga, does this in his fight against the Apostle Rosine, where it appears that he has been impaled through the head by her probiscus and killed - only for it to be revealed he turned his head at the last moment and was only impaled through the cheeks, then gripping the weapon between his teeth to prevent Rosine from dodging away from his final sword blow.

* Occasionally used in ''{{Manga/Gantz}}''; since finishing a mission enables you to return unharmed, some characters take the danger of getting injured to finish an opponent. Bear in mind that if you have ''any vital signs at all'', [[GoodThingYouCanHeal you come back unharmed]].

* Manga/BattleAngelAlita: Alita's solution to dealing with an opponent with a polearm who is [[SuperSpeed fast enough]] for the reach advantage to be of use? Let her arm get severed at the shoulder and beat the other girl down with the thick end. Not the first time she pulled such a stunt nor the last. She's a cyborg, by the way, if you were wondering how she can repeatedly hit people with her own severed arm; when they found her, she was a functioning brain in the ruins of a torso.

* Common in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' in the cases of Tyranids, Orks, and Space Marines.

* Jace Beleren from TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering does this distressingly often. Only, as a telepath, he is taking the injury with his mind instead of his body. He defeated his EvilMentor (a giant Sphinx) into going deep into Jace's mind to rearrange the furniture, but Jace effectively burned down the house around him. Jace forgot his mother's face, the sound of his own name, and where he was born, while the Sphinx forgot ''how to breathe.''

* In one section of ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', a secondary character of the player's choosing must avoid capture and free the player character and the rest of the party. If Canderous Ordo volunteers, he severely injures himself with a plasma grenade -- knowing his special healing implant will revive him once the {{Mook}}s have left him for dead.

** The Wrath skill is also present in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu]] and is the personal skill of several characters: Princess Tailto, [[spoiler: her son]] Arthur, [[spoiler: her daughter]] Teeny, [[spoiler: her niece and Teeny's {{expy}}]] Linda, and [[TheDragon Prince Julius]]. In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Thracia 776]] it's the base skill of several characters and a Class Skill for Berserkers. Therefore one can technically invoke the trope there as well, but that requires very careful planning since the unit will {{critical hit}} everything in his or her path but will likely die as soon as anyone strikes him/her.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has the "Nerd Rage" perk that maximizes your Strength and raises your Damage Resistance by 50% when your health drops into the critical range. This can be useful if you're playing a character trained in close combat, however what you'll end up most commonly using the perk for is increasing your carrying capacity. This means you'll be spending a lot of time preventing your health from being restored outside critical and [[CriticalEncumbranceFailure Critically Encumbering]] yourself, hoping to eventually lighten the load (stashing your stuff, merging items via repair or crafting, using up explosives, or [[IdiotBall eating foods that raise your health and undo the Nerd Rage that allowed you to carry it in the first place]]).
* ''Videogame/{{Bastion}}'' has Werewhiskey, a CriticalStatusBuff that gives you guaranteed critical hits as long as you're below 33% health. With how absurdly overpowered this is, a valid strategy is to deliberately get damaged until the buff kicks in, then charge through the level one-shotting everything.
* ''Videogame/{{Runescape}}'' has Dharok's Greataxe, which does incredible amounts of damage if a player has low health and is wearing the full set of armor. If you see a player using the axe and "red-barring," ''stay the hell away from him!''

** [[Franchise/{{PowerRangers}} Dragonzord]] vs. [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} Mechagodzilla]] ends on one of these: [[spoiler: The Dragonzord has impaled Mechagodzilla on its spear, making it look like the match will go to Tommy. Then Mechagodzilla pulls the spear even further in and starts charging the [[FreezeRay Absolute Zero Cannon]]. Tommy doesn't dodge in time, and both he and the Dragonzord are completely frozen on a molecular level by the blast and shattered into nothingness by Mechagodzilla's roar]].

* In ''Manga/AkagamiNoShirayukihime'' Mitsuhide decides a fight needs to end quickly since Zen and almost all of their other allies are down and only himself and Kiki are uninjured so he disarms the corrupt noble by trapping his moving blade between his arm and torso while slashing the noble across his torso. Mitsuhide didn't have any armor or even his own sword at the time as he'd just escaped his imprisonment minutes earlier.

* [[Manga/{{Gunnm}} Gally's]] solution to dealing with an opponent with a polearm who is [[SuperSpeed fast enough]] for the reach advantage to be of use? Let her arm get severed at the shoulder and beat the other girl down with the thick end. Not the first time she pulled such a stunt nor the last. She's a cyborg, by the way, if you were wondering how she can repeatedly hit people with her own severed arm; when they found her, she was a functioning brain in the ruins of a torso.

In video games, there may be certain abilities/perks that activates when the user gets hit, or [[CriticalStatusBuff when they've lost]] [[DesperationAttack a good part of their HP]]. Naturally, some players may try using this gambit to unleash those abilities. In some other cases, you might be fighting an enemy or boss whose attack will leave them vulnerable even if you get hit by it, or when they're normally impenetrable until they lower their defenses when they try to attack you; this leaves a room for you to exploit this to attack them.

This trope occurs when a character deliberately allows himself to be injured, injures himself or takes advantage of the fact that he's just been injured, and uses it to gain an advantage against an opponent.

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.

* ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'': being a {{Mighty Glacier}} in the beginning of the series, this was the main way Ippo fought his opponents. Later he evolves into {{Lightning Bruiser}}.

** Don't forget much earlier in the series, when an unarmed Clare lets a yoma punch her through the stomach, only to throw herself and said yoma down a cliff to grab her sword and regain the upper hand.

** [[spoiler: Masaki Kurosaki]] once had trouble hitting a hollow because it was too fast. So she decides to stand still. It charges up and bites her... and she shoots it [[BoomHeadshot in the head]] [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange at point blank range]].

** Naruto allows Kabuto to stab him through the hand with a kunai, so that he can hold him while he forms a Rasengan with his other hand to hit Kabuto with. In an anime flashback in Part 2, Jiraiya points out that it's most advantageous to avoid having to do this.

** Used earlier in the same arc by Sakura, who [[SpamAttack spams]] [[NinjaLog Substitution Jutsu]] to avoid her opponent's attacks. Eventually, her opponent gets so sick of it that he launches an attack ''at'' her and immediately looks for where she's gone now. Only this time, she hasn't used the Jutsu, and has actually taken the hit to get close to him.

** Guts does this pretty often when he's not fast enough to dodge incomming attacks, and turns the situation around by tanking the attack in question, before utilizing the properties of the attack to [[AttackAttackAttack hit the enemy back]], a lot worse than he got hit himself, in a similar fashion to the current page quote. In the Conviction arc Guts takes a hit by a massive wheel, and uses the momentum gained by this and his ArmCannon to get high enough to kill a high-flying enemy and the one swinging the wheel around in one go.

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': During his final fight with [[KendoTeamCaptain Shusui Hayasaka]], Kazuki knew he couldn't stop his more skilled opponent's Reverse Do finishing move with a traditional defence so he returned his buso renkin to its kakugane form inside his chest just before it hit, stopping an attack that would have cut him in half with his near-indestructible {{Magitek}} artificial heart, shocking his opponent long enough to reactivate his weapon and strike a near fatal blow of his own.

* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has done this in the beginning of his fight with Tommyrod.
** He did it again later on, when he let Tommyrod [[ManBitesMan bite off one of his fingers]] in order to get close enough to [[ManBitesMan bite off his wing]].

** Tengu Brunch has [[ShockAndAwe electric powers]], but can't create electricity - only take it from another source and amplify. In his fight with Elg, his powers are rendered useless, because his batteries run out. After he suffers a merciless beatdown from his opponent, he reveals that his body can work as a power plant, turning energy from outside sources into electricity - and all those hits was a ''great energy source''.

* In ''Manga/BlackClover'', [[TheBrute Vetto]] allows [[TheHero Asta]] to stab him with the Demon-Dweller Sword so that Asta would no longer be able to use its AntiMagic against him and figuring that with his immense stamina he can survive having a sword impaled in his chest for long enough to kill the heroes. [[spoiler:This backfires badly, because the Demon-Dweller Sword's ManaDrain function is not dependent on Asta actually ''holding'' the sword. It continues to drain away Vetto's strength-enhancing magic the whole time. Vetto only [[OhCrap realizes this]] when his SuperSenses are reduced to the point he can no longer track Asta's movements.]]

** Ishigami was subjected to this in the backstory when he discovered the the boyfriend of a girl he knew was cheating on her. The boyfriend provoked him into attacking when he was confronted in order to make him look like a crazed stalker and destroy his credibility.

** Rather than expend energy healing that hole in his torso, he left it and allowed his living suit to cover it. In a later issue, he deliberately took a blast to the chest, knowing that most of the damage would blow harmlessly through the preexisting hole, while counting on his opponent to assume it would be a mortal (or at least debilitating) wound.

* 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.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': During her fight with Artemis' reanimated skeleton in issue 302 Diana purposefully lets Artemis get in a hit that knocks her down in order to kick the sword powering the reanimation out of Artemis' hands.

* John [=McClane=] in ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' : "You shot yourself through the shoulder!?" "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

* Simon uses an interesting variation at the end of the film ''Film/TheDouble'' to [[spoiler:kill James]]. After he realizes that [[spoiler:he and his double share the same injuries, he first locks James in his old apartment, and then jumps off a building in a way he knows won't kill him immediately, but will injure him badly enough that he'll bleed out to death if not brought to the hospital. He calls the ambulance for himself before he does it, so he knows he will survive, but James is left for dead.]]
* Thorin uses this against Azog in ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies''. Trapped in a BladeLock, he [[spoiler: lets Azog's stab through him and strike the ice below. This gets Azog's [[BladeBelowTheShoulder blade arm]] stuck, allowing Thorin to deal a lethal blow. Unfortunately, [[MutualKill neither of the two survive afterwards]].]]

* 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]].

* Literature/HonorHarrington's swordmaster notes that this is something she instinctively knows in a fight - she will take an opportunity to defeat her opponent even if it means injury or death to herself. He notes this after a match that by fencing rules he won, since he touched first, but in a real duel he would be dead while she would "only" be missing an arm (in a society with cybernetics and regeneration, this is less of a problem than it seems). This style is especially evident in her [[SpaceOpera space battles]], where on one occasion she turtled up and allowed the enemy to batter her ship just to lure it in close enough to use her grav lance on it.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/DeadBeat'', a ''villain'' does this to one of the heroes at the climax. [[spoiler:The Corpsetaker, dueling Captain Luccio, allows Luccio to run its/her current body through, and then [[GrandTheftMe jumps ship to Luccio's body]], leaving Luccio in her former body to bleed out.]] Fortunately, [[spoiler:Harry is clued-in by the Corpsetaker acting differently in Luccio's body, and kills it/her with a bullet to the back of the head, and the real Luccio, although trapped in the Corpsetaker's previous body, survives thanks to prompt medical attention.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', Sylvester is fond of this trope, most notably when he has his own bullet wound reopened so he can expose it to an [[AgonyBeam pain inducing bullet]] to get sympathy from his enemies.
* In ''Literature/CraftSequence'' novel ''Last First Snow'' an interesting variant is used. The novel focuses around a land-deal to renovate a slum area of town. The tenants of the area don't want to renovate because they believe the development will cause prices to raise and they'll be unable to live there. Eventually they reach a negotiation with the [[TheNecrocracy Lich King Ruler]] and developer to add the additional protection the ruler/developer wanted, but without causing anyone to lose their home. [[spoiler:The villain is shot deliberately immediately after the negotiation is complete. The additional protection is available but hadn't time to upgrade insurance. The resulting chaos of his getting shot will eventually lead to the destruction of the neighborhood, which he can then rebuild, getting around the negotiated terms]].

* On ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', Artie goads [=MacPherson=], who is holding a samurai sword, into stabbing him in the chest, and then holds on to it so that [=MacPherson=] will have to run and abandon the sword, a valuable Artifact. He survives, but is injured for several episodes.

* This is how the Norse monster Fenrir was tied up. The wolf grew wise to the attempts of the gods to tie him up, and refused to let the gods try it for a third time. Therefore, the war god Tyr placed his hand into Fenrir's mouth, saying that the wolf could bite it off, if the gods did not untie the wolf after a while. They didn't, and so Fenrir bit Tyr's hand off. Tyr had anticipated this, and it didn't seem to bother him.

** Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy tend to be based on damaged received for the most part. Thus you may be inclined to allow your characters to get hurt to satisfy the Limit Break requirement.

** The Overdrive modes Stoic, Comrade, Daredevil, Loner, Victim and Sufferer fill the Overdrive bar based on suffering some sort of injury or ailment.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'', there ae the skills [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Wrath Wrath]], which boosts critical hits, and [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Resolve Resolve]], increasing by half speed, skill and strengh. Both only work when the one using them lost at least half his HP. Guess some players order their soldiers to pull these off for devastating effect on the battlefield.
** The Wrath skill is also present in [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu]] and is the personal skill of several characters: Princess Tailto, [[spoiler: her son]] Arthur, [[spoiler: her daughter]] Teeny, [[spoiler: her niece and Teeny's {{expy}}]] Linda, and [[TheDragon Prince Julius]]. In [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Thracia 776]] it's the base skill of several characters, and a Class Skill for Berserkers. Therefore one can technically invoke the trope there as well, but that requires very careful planning since the unit will {{critical hit}} everything in his or her path but will likely die as soon as anyone strikes him/her.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', Wrath is not only the class skill of Berserkers, but [[spoiler: a Berserker who gets married can pass it down to his children if the player wishes so.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'' also adds the [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Vengeance_(Skill) Vengance skill]] which, upon activation, increases the damage of the user's next attack by half of their missing health.
* You can do this in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' as the Soldier. Upon release, the Equalizer was a weapon which increases your speed and attack power when held and your HP is low. At 1 hp, you go nearly as fast as a Scout and can almost 1 hit kill the lighter classes. People lower their health in two ways: either Rocket Jump into the low 20s, or just throw yourself in an all out attack. The enemy will most likely get a few shots in, when you can whip out the Equilizer and smack em about while they reload.
** That's now a relic of the past. Currently, its effects has been split up into two different weapons: the Equalizer (attack power) and the Escape Plan (increased speed).

** [[Franchise/{{PowerRangers}} Dragonzord]] vs. [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} Mechagodzilla]] ends on one of these: [[spoiler: The Dragonzord has impaled Mechagodzilla on its spear, making it look like the match will go to Tommy. Then Mechagodzilla pulls the spear even further in, and starts charging the [[FreezeRay Absolute Zero Cannon]]. Tommy doesn't dodge in time, and both he and the Dragonzord are completely frozen on a molecular level by the blast and shattered into nothingness by Mechagodzilla's roar]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' and Bluto were known to have tried to deliberately hurt themselves so they can get close to Olive Oyl, who in both cases was working as a hospital nurse. In each case, Popeye force feeds his spinach to Bluto so he can beat Popeye senseless.

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.

* Performed by Kazuki in ''Manga/BusoRenkin'', who turns his lance back into its (nigh-indestructible) kakugane form in order to stop himself being cut clean in half by his opponent's apparently unstoppable gyakudou technique.
** To elaborate: When he's not using his lance, it replaces his ''heart''. So he only got cut partly in half.

* Performed by Kazuki in ''Manga/BusouRenkin'', who turns his lance back into its (nigh-indestructible) kakugane form in order to stop himself being cut clean in half by his opponent's apparently unstoppable gyakudou technique.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': When the Gungans find themselves in battle against Grievous in "Shadow Warrior", [[spoiler:Tarpals]] winds up getting stabbed by him. Grievous mocks him, but then [[spoiler:Tarpals]] reveals that he did it deliberately. Grievous got a shock staff to the gut and the Gungans actually captured him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, due to the series' {{Foregone Conclusion}}s, it winds up being a SenselessSacrifice.]]

* In a villainous version, the Uruk-Hai leader in the first ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' movie is impaled on Aragorn's sword, and pulls himself up the blade to get up in his face and snarl. Aragorn promptly yanks the sword back out and lops off his head.