History Main / Flynning

* Mostly averted in {{Series/Merlin}}. Duels sometimes include this, but most often they just go for the kill and sword fights are over quickly. Even the Arthur vs Mordred swordfight of legend takes all of ten seconds. Arthur parries, hesitates to catch his breath, and Mordred runs him through.

* Crops up on occasion in Wrestling, where the wrestlers will do this, usually with steel chairs or [[strike:kendo sticks]] Shinai. Professional Wrestling in general could be considered a form of Flynning, but with amateur wrestling and martial arts instead of swords.

* Though ''KamenRiderFaiz''- being a ''Kamen Rider'' series- has its share of {{Flynning}}, it's notably subverted during a fencing duel between main character Takumi (minimum experience with swordplay) and [[TheRival rival]] Masato (president of the university fencing club). Takumi's offense consists of wildly aggressive {{Flynning}} which is expertly parried by Masato, who retaliates with a single, point-winning riposte. This happens three times in a row.

* There is an episode in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', where a fighting scene is played on stage. Since the hero pretends to be an actor, a mini-game is presented where you have to respond with parry high to threaten high et cetera. Your performance is then rated by the audience. No matter how badly you do, you're given a chance to improve your score.

* In the realm of knifeplay, most First Person Shooters do knife play quite improperly with the back slash which will result in a quick counterattack and subsequent death.

* In the realm of knifeplay, Most First Person Shooters do knife play quite improperly with the back slash which will result in a quick counterattack and subsequent death.

* In the realm of knifeplay, Most First Person Shooters does knife play quite improperly with the back slash which will result in a quick counterattack and subsequent death.
* Speaking of knifeplay, MetalGearSolid4's second fight between Raiden and Vamp has the two characters sending sparks through the air as they repeatedly block and parry eachother's knives. Of course, actually getting two knives to collide real life even once would be difficult even if it was choreographed, and downright impossible (not to mention stupid and pointless) in a real fight. For all their effort, they may as well have aimed for their target's ''body'' and not their weapon.

* An example of the edge on edge part comes as an aversion and justified trope in VisualNovel/FateStayNight. Assassin and Saber are fighting, and Assassin always parries because his sword can't take the kind of abuse real blocking would require. Saber, on the other hand, has a magic sword and doesn't have to worry about such things, so she gets annoyed at his refusal to match her in a contest of pure power. [[spoiler:Eventually, he does block an attack, and ends up losing the fight because it bent his sword and ruined his technique.]]

* The Franchise/AssassinsCreed games feature a double-whammy aversion of both this trope and ArmorIsUseless.
* Can be attempted in the SoulSeries, but will usually result in having your weapons break (''Soul Edge'') or being blown back by the force of inertia (the ''Calibur'' games.) Though a particularly long Guard Impact chain can look rather like Flynning.

** This was used intentionally during Kira and Athrun's brief duel during ''Gundam Seed Destiny''. Since they were friends and only wanted to convince the other to leave the battlefield and let the their respective forces deal with the problem, their battle consisted entirely of firing warning shots at each other and beam sword Flynning while telling the other to return to their ship. Eventually though Kira gets too agitated about the situation and instead of parrying dodges and slashes for real taking Athrun's Gundam's head off and forcing him to retreat much to Athrun's shock.

The other primary variety of unrealistic fencing (more popular in the far east and modern works) is a preposterously overactive offense, typically consisting of spin and flips that would leave the back wide open combined with absurdly overshot slashes and swipes that would invite a quick lethal interruption.

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* Mostly averted in ''KingdomOfHeaven'', where some effort was made to present the use of weaponry at least somewhat correctly. Although not perfectly done, the guards Balian is taught are similar to those of the historical Italian school of longsword fencing, and the use of half-swording and striking with the hilt is featured rather prominently.

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* Averted in ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973'': Not only was the swordplay highly realistic (with moves like grabbing the opponent's blade, and hitting them with one's cloak), but all the stars were trained swordsmen. ChristopherLee admitted in an interview that he had to remind OliverReed during one of their fights that he wasn't really trying to kill him. It didn't help that the swords they used weren't foils.
** A scene in the comic JonSableFreelance had movie stuntman "Sonny" Pratt tell Johnny Carson that "Oliver Reed fights like it's for ''keeps''."#
* A fight scene from the film's sequel, ''The Four Musketeers'' featuring similar aversions. And the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9uGy3LlNeI climactic duel]]. This fight features a parrying dagger, the use of the sword as a mace, realistic speed, brawling and grappling, and both combatants getting tired.

** In ''[[FireEmblemElibe Blazing Sword]]'', Eliwood's critical animation has him hold up his rapier specifically for AudibleSharpness, swooshes it around before stabbing, and then do a backflip.
** ''[[FireEmblemTheSacredStones Sacred Stones]]'' has Eirika avert this; both Eirika's normal and critical animations are quite straightforward until she promotes (and even then she keeps it to a single spin). Her ''brother'', on the other hand, Flynns with a spear in his critical.

* The lightsaber battles from the original ''StarWars'' trilogy (dubbed "budget kendo" in some circles). The prequels' battles are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0mUVY9fLlw the same thing]] but faster [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning (and spinnier)]], although both can be {{Handwave}}d that since the movies take place ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway, they would probably have developed their own sword fighting styles that depended more on using the Force.

* Most of the swordfighting in the TV miniseries ''[[AsianSaga Shogun]]'' was Flynning. It's especially obvious when they show a scene of someone cutting someone else's head off, they'll zoom in to show just the sword wielder, and the trajectory of his blade will be no where near where the other man's neck was.

* Somewhat averted in the Star Wars-inspired lightsaber duel in "RyanVsDorkman 2." Though there is some flynning, the choreography is especially well-done and the two fighters actually seem to be trying to hit each other instead of just clanging swords. They also put some importance on showing just how dangerous the lightsabers are. One of the best moments is when one character has another's lightsaber pinned against a wall and the 2nd character grabs the other guy's head and tries to push it into the sabers. See the fight [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RATMJ8JH1qo here]].

* Somewhat averted in the Star Wars-inspired lightsaber duel in "Ryan vs Dorkman 2." Though there is some flynning, the choreography is especially well-done and the two fighters actually seem to be trying to hit each other instead of just clanging swords. They also put some importance on showing just how dangerous the lightsabers are. One of the best moments is when one character has another's lightsaber pinned against a wall and the 2nd character grabs the other guy's head and tries to push it into the sabers. See the fight [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RATMJ8JH1qo here]].

** Although there ''are'' shades of TruthInTelevision here, as in very, ''very'', rare cases, two experienced and skilled fencers will have a phenomenon similar to this, usually to show off how much better than everyone else they are as a psychological attack(or for shits when they are bored), using advanced moves such as the seldom used "prime"(first) parry (instead of the more practical and efficient "quatre"(fourth)), which is when you point your blade vertically downward, holding your arm roughly at mouth level across your body so the blade is on your off hand side; or the [[AwesomeButImpractical incredibly impractical(and risky) yet oh so awesome]] stunt wherein instead of dodging you actually crouch so far your go ''under'' your opponents thrust and strike up from that position.

* The lightsaber battles from the original ''StarWars'' trilogy (dubbed "budget kendo" in some circles). The prequels' battles are the same thing but faster [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning (and spinnier)]], although both can be {{Handwave}}d that since the movies take place ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway, they would probably have developed their own sword fighting styles that depended more on using the Force.

* In the LooneyTunes cartoon, ''TheScarletPumpernickel'', DaffyDuck plays the Flynn-type swashbuckler. Near the end, he engages in this kind of sword duel with Sylvester the Cat, who plays a Rathbone-type villain.

* Exception: Unlike modern performers, many actors from the GoldenAgeOfHollywood, such as Basil Rathbone and Tyrone Power, were actually champion swordsmen in RealLife. Combined with a very active fencing scene in Hollywood at the time, this led to superb fights in films where all of the male leads knew what they were doing. One such fight between Rathbone and Power can be seen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VTyPWvyAF8 here]].

--->'''Morgan''': Very pretty, Mr. Shaw.
--->'''William''': Thank you, ma'am. I had the good fortune of studying with a grand master in Vienna!
--->'''Morgan''': Now stop fiddling, and kill the man!
--->'''William''': Kill him? Bless me, we never got to that!
--->''*Morgan grabs William's arm and thrusts it forward, sending William's sword through the chest of the enemy mook.*''
--->'''William''': I see.

* Inverted in most weapon-based {{Fighting Game}}s. Instead, thanks to the magic of HitPoints (well, in most cases), characters tend to survive some [[OnlyAFleshWound grievous blows]] every round. Sword collisions, while generally possible, don't happen too often; in the cases they ''do'', the things that happen vary from game to game, or even from instance to instance, though it?s never Flynning.

Not as common as it used to be, but the pseudo-ninja style whirling blades, often one on each hand, sometimes even by ROMANS, is ( if anything ) even MORE absurd