History Main / GameBreakingInjury

* In ''Literature/MemoriesOfIce'', the third book in ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', the only reason [[spoiler: Whiskeyjack]] dies is because he had not healed his hurt leg. In ''Literature/TollTheHounds'', book eight, it is revealed that Hood, the god of death himself, personally manipulated events as revenge for a particular slight.

** The Knights were really lucky to get away with so few casualties considering A). The Knights consist mostly of undertrained nobles (whose parents wanted them to serve in the military without actually, you know, getting HURT!) and B). Guts is also known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Hundred Man Slayer"]]... this not his career total - it's from ''[[OneManArmy one fight]]''.
** Unfortunately for the Knights this was ''not'' the case the next time they met; Guts had spent several days recovering in a sacred spring and was packing new/reforged equipment, including the ''[[{{BFS}} Dragonslayer]]''. At least they were smart enough to run after he cleaved a few of their mounted units in half.
* During a supposedly easy mission, [[Franchise/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha Nanoha Takamachi]] was gravely injured in this manner. This caused her to change the cadets' training curriculum, so while they will still be going through hell, they won't be weakened too much to become seriously injured. Then there's what Shamal did to her...

* In 2016 Indycar driver Josef Newgarden went literally headfirst into the wall at Texas Motor Speedway, breaking his right hand and shoulder, and there was talk about whether he would be back for the end of the season. As it turns out, he was back for the very next race at Road America, where he finished eighth in spite of having thirteen screws in his shoulder and his hand was still healing. Two weeks after that, at the G-load heavy Iowa Motor Speedway, he started on pole and utterly dominated, even while still healing from his injuries at Texas only a month before.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': Downplayed. [[spoiler: Judy's leg gets torn during the incident at the museum, robbing her of her mobility that made her a FragileSpeedster. That said, she and Nick's greatest strength was always their wits and they incorporate the injury into their plan. She's back in good health in the epilogue.]]

-> ''Think of all the knees, twisted, bent and broken''\\

''But if your knee has had the gong, there is no running away!''

-> ''"Think of all the knees, twisted, bent and broken''\\

''But if your knee has had the gong, there is no running away!"''

* Subverted]] by the Green Bay Packers in UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 45. Not only did they come into the game missing 8 of their 22 regular starters, but two of their top players on offense (Donald Driver) and defense (Charles Woodson) left the game in the second quarter leading to both men reportedly giving fiery speeches about overcoming adversity at halftime... [[{{Determinator}} it worked]].

** Subverted]] in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his ankle earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents (Baun also played in that game as well).

* Piccolo resorted to using Game Breaking Injuries at the end of the first ''Manga/DragonBall'' series. To gain an upper hand in the fight, Piccolo breaks one of Goku's legs and puts a giant gaping hole in his shoulder. To make sure his opponent felt that particular attack, he later rams his elbow into it.
** Also, in the movie "Broly, the Legendary Super Saiyan," Broly was '''stabbed through the gut with a dagger.''' Many years later, guess where Goku punches him.
** Goku in the Android and Cell Sagas, firstly falls to his knee during a fight with C19 because of a heart virus, and then forgets to eat senzu bean to recover his wounds before he's taken down by a Cell Jr.

* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', Sigrun gets a troll bite on her arm in Chapter 9, which doesn't really get to heal properly between getting dragged into fights and her own neglect of it when she is not in her fight. In Chapter 12, she decides to stop wearing her sling and use the arm normally desite it still disturbing her. During the massive attack in Chapter 13, a troll going for the tank containing the group's two non-immune members escapes her because her arm acts up enough to make her lose her grip on her knife, which in turns distracts her long enough to get swatted by the tail of another troll.

** Taken to a [[TearJerker heartbreaking extent]] in Date's rematch with Ricardo Martinez; [[spoiler: Date's special MegatonPunch, the Heartbreak Shot, gets thrown twice- the first time Ricardo blocks it by shear luck with his elbow, shattering Date's right hand. The second time he throws it, his timing and the setup are absolutely perfect and it's a straight shot to the knock-out, except the damage sustained from the first shot robs him of the power he needs to clinch it]].

* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' Bond sustains two shots to his chest and shoulder. [[spoiler:He loses his iconic aim with the Walther PPK due to these injuries, and he never recovers them by the end of the movie. Also M is hit with the thug's gunfire in a non-lethal area [[RealityEnsues but]] [[TearJerker due to her age, she dies from the injury due to bleeding out]].]]

* Used as a ChekhovsGun ''twice'' in ''Film/PointBreak1991'' when Creator/KeanuReeves's [[InformedAbility Informed Disability]] (a literal Game-Breaking Injury from his character's football career) prevents him from capturing Patrick Swayze's BigBad. Also facilitates a [[FoeYay Crowning Moment of Foe Yay]] so powerful it had be to [[LampshadeHanging explicitly referenced]] in ''Film/HotFuzz''.

* [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Gloriously subverted]] by the Green Bay Packers in UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 45. Not only did they come into the game missing 8 of their 22 regular starters, but two of their top players on offense (Donald Driver) and defense (Charles Woodson) left the game in the second quarter leading to both men reportedly giving fiery speeches about overcoming adversity at halftime... [[{{Determinator}} it worked]].

** [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Amazingly subverted]] in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his ankle earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents (Baun also played in that game as well).

Game-Breaking Injuries can be used either as a plot device or as a means of character development. With enough HeroicResolve, The Hero might be able to push through the pain and continue fighting. If a member of TheTeam is involved in this trope and he or she is of greater skill than The Big Bad, they might suffer a Game-Breaking Injury to level the playing field. Sometimes this ally is a RetiredBadass who has an old war injury. If this character is TheMentor, then you can bet for sure that this injury will be the cause of his undoing. Often a way to make it so YouCanBarelyStand.

TruthinTelevision, of course, especially in the sports world, where severe injuries can bench players during critical moments not to mention end their careers and leave them crippled for life.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', a character can be crippled by wounds to different parts of the body. For example, broken arms can leave someone unable to wield weapons or shields, a severed motor nerve in the leg can leave someone unable to stand, eye injuries cause blindness, etc. Fortunately, multiple weapons and shields can be equipped to the same hand, and crutches can be used to regain standing ability, albeit at the cost of a speed penalty.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': Downplayed. [[spoiler: Judy's leg gets torn during the incident at the museum, robbing her of her mobility that made her a FragileSpeedster. That said, she and Nick's greatest strength was always their wits and they incorporate the injury into their plan. She's back in good health in the epilogue.]]

* Westley has a game-breaking condition in ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', but uses ToThePain to win regardless.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', during Optimus Prime and Megatron's final battle, Megatron is aware he is losing the fight and starts tossing rocks at Optimus. He then throws a shard of metal from a ship at him, cutting his side open, taking advantage of the injury and making it worse by slicing open the wound with an energon sword. Later on while holding Hot Rod hostage, he shoots him in the same wound and also in the chest and face fatally wounding him, but just before he passes out he manages to knock Megatron off a cliff, severely wounding him.
** The damage inflicted on Megatron in the battle is so severe that he cannot defend himself from Starscream's treachery the way he usually does when Starscream tosses him into space on the way back to Cybertron.

** The same happens in the series finale, as when Spike is StormingTheCastle, he is shot in the arm, which puts it out of action. [[BadAss Barely slows him down though]].

* Emperor Commodus in ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' stabs Maximus right before their final duel to give himself an unfair advantage. Maximus is too much of a BadAss {{Determinator}} to let that stop him from kicking the Emperor's ass. [[spoiler:[[DoubleSubversion Though he still dies from the stabbing]].]]

* Toward the end of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' [[spoiler:[[BigBad Kylo Ren]] takes a near-direct blast from Chewie's boltcaster. He still puts up an [[BadAss incredible fight]] (considering that most people hit by that thing are blown across the room ''in pieces''), but it puts him off his game enough that Finn is able to hold his own with a lightsaber against him for a brief period and Rey was actually able to [[Awesome/TheForceAwakens take him down]]]].

** In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' Bond sustains two shots to his chest and shoulder. [[spoiler:He loses his iconic aim with the Walther PPK due to these injuries, and he never recovers them by the end of the movie. Also M is hit with the thug's gunfire in a non-lethal area [[RealityEnsues but]] [[TearJerker due to her age, she dies from the injury due to bleeding out]].]]

** Unfortunately for the Knights, the next they meet him, Guts is in prime condition, having spent several days recovering in a sacred spring and had his BFS reforged.

* In ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}'', Gennosuke has the best [[HypnoticEyes ability]] of them all -- with his gaze he can command his enemies to kill themselves or each other. He gets to demonstrate it early on against some {{mooks}} but soon after has his eyes blinded and sealed shut for 7 days, making him unable to use it and rendering him mostly useless for the rest of the series. Liberal use of his ability would have made it too easy for his clan to win the battle. Oboro has her own {{Magical Eye|s}} which nullifies the abilities of any ninja. This too would have given her clan a clear edge in the battle, but she too becomes blinded (though for her it was deliberate so she would not have to fight Gennosuke) for 7 days.

** Also, Gaara delivered a major one to Rock Lee, not only shattering his left arm and leg, but ''pieces of the bones were imbedded in his spinal column.'' If not for the fifth hokage, he would have lost his ninja career, his life's dream, and probably his spirit.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* In ''Film/OngBak 2'', the protagonist gets into a massive battle royal against a large group of mooks. He eventually gets wounded by a sword slash to his gut, which he proceeds to bandage quickly to get back into the fight. Later, an assassin who took note of this proceeds to [[CombatPragmatist target the wounded area with clawing attacks]].

-->-- '''Greg Champion''', "Knee Reconstruction" (to the tune of "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire)

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Zaheer poisons Korra with a lethal dose of heavy metals. She survives the poison and most of it is metalbent out of her, but her convalescence takes ''three years'' even with Katara regularly healing her, and even then she's unable to go into the Avatar State or the Spirit World, or fight at her full capability, because of a combination of lingering metal inside her and psychic trauma from fighting Zaheer under the poison. It takes no less than [[spoiler: Toph herself]] to get the metal out, and [[spoiler: Zaheer leading her back into the Spirit World]] before she's able to deal with the trauma.

Game-Breaking Injuries can be used either as a plot device or as a means of character development. With enough HeroicResolve, The Hero might be able to push through the pain and continue fighting. If a member of TheTeam is involved in this trope and he or she is of greater skill than The Big Bad, they might suffer a Game-Breaking Injury to level the playing field. Sometimes this ally is a RetiredBadass who has an old war injury. If this character is an ObiWan, then you can bet for sure that this injury will be the cause of his undoing. Often a way to make it so YouCanBarelyStand.

* Right before the 1994 Olympics, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the kneecap by Shane Stant, a man hired by [[BlondesAreEvil Tonya Harding's]] ex-husband. Kerrigan would win the silver medal a month later. The gold medalist that year, Oksana Baiul, was also competing injured thanks to an accident at a warm-up event.