History Main / TellMeHowYouFight

* '''[[{{Flynning}} Lots of unnecessary movement]]:''' The style is not so much as combative as it is about flailing your arms in an intimidating way (which rarely works, unless opponent's style is even more about bullying than skill). Character is arrogant, untrained or both, may be HotBlooded. However, there's a chance of all this being just [[ObfuscatingStupidity dangerously obfuscating stupidity]].

* '''[[{{Flynning}} Lots of unnecessary movement]]:''' The style is not so much as combative as it is about flailing your arms in an intimidating way (which rarely works, unless opponent's style is even more about bullying than skill). Character is arrogant, untrained or both, may be HotBlooded; there's however, a chance of all this being just [[ObfuscatingStupidity dangerously obfuscating stupidity]].

* '''[[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Crippling and lethal techniques]]:''' Almost every attack made by the character in question is potentially crippling or lethal; this means character may be a CombatPragmatist, or {{badass}}, or [[TropeOverdosed pragmatic badass]]. Also quite appropriate for HeroicSociopath. This style involves neck twisting, arm breaking, [[EyeScream eye gouging]]...

* Knees and elbows from Muay Thai, first made popular by Tony Jaa in OngBak represent a sort of nuclear option in a hand to hand fight. ''[[TomYumGoong TheProtector]]'' took this further. Between the movies there tends to be a progression as our somewhat pacifistic hero meets bigger and badder enemies: push kicks and palm strikes, to punches and kicks, and finally to knees and elbow. Of course, to use knees and elbows you have to get closer to your opponent, and in some cases jump on their head, but with some acrobatics one can land a flying double knees to the face, or double elbows to the top of the skull. But hey, that's what a guy like Tony Jaa (5'6" 136 lbs) has to do to beat Nathan Jones (6'11" 350 lbs).

[[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

!Examples are needed.

* In the final scene of HouseOfFlyingDaggers, Jin and [[spoiler:Leo]] exhibit mutually suicidal tactics. It may say more about their emotional states at the time than them as people, though.
* {{Hero}}: Flying Snow is fast and elegant to Fading Moon's suicidal aggression. Long Sky handicaps himself by leaving the head of his spear covered for his entire battle with the Elite Guards.
* In Film/{{Fearless}}, Huo Yuanjia is portrayed in his fight with Qin Lei as a flashy and acrobatic fighter compared to the other's direct, powerful moves, which seems to comment on his gloryhounding personality. His ruthless use of improvised weapons in the latter half of their fight also seems to imply a great deal about him.
* In ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', as part of the ShownTheirWork, ''everyone'' is this. A good example is Zuko, who begins the series using an extremely fierce but stiff and unrefined style, reflecting his anger and frustration, but grows softer and more controlled as he matures and starts to deal with his problems in a more constructive manner.
** Similarly, Aang, [[MartialPacifist who doesn't like hurting people]], tries to avoid attacks until he can get in a hit that knocks his foe off balance or otherwise ends the fight without any damage.
** Of course, each Bending style is based on (and blended with) a martial arts style.
** Except it goes far beyond that. Zuko, Azula and Iroh all use the same style, but even someone without actual training can tell that they're extremely different. Zuko is very stiff and aggressive, [[MagnificentBastard Azula]] is ridiculously cool and precise, and [[BadassGrandpa Iroh]] is relaxed yet terrifyingly powerful.
* {{Naruto}} from the titular series fits the unnecessary movement part to a T. This shows especially well in his fight against [[ArrogantKungFuGuy Neji]]
* In {{Dragonball}}, especially ([[CerebusSyndrome ironically]]) the early parts, this shows in most characters. [[TheHero Goku]] himself has "[[IdiotHero the mind of a child]]" and so uses an extremely simplistic style, jumping straight at his enemies and just punching them. When he uses special attacks, they're usually either just normal attacks with {{Kiai}}, [[MartialArtsDoNotWorkThatWay really weird physical stunts]] or [[KamehameHadoken Kamehameha]]
** Goku eventually gets training and starts to use a more stylized form of Turtle School martial arts. He continues to use it throughout the series and it might be what gives him his edge against the later absurdly powerful Z enemies like Vegeta Freeza or Buu who more or less just throw their incredible power around and blast stuff.
*** Goku, and some of the others like to use the ''Can't Touch This'' variety against inferior opponents, especially when it helps them show that, well, [[MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours their kung fu has gotten stronger.]]
* In one episode of BatmanTheAnimatedSeries, a rival who once trained with Bruce Wayne is able to discover Batman's secret identity by watching him fight.
** The same happens in PowerRangersWildForce. Justified in that the person watching the White Ranger fight is in fact a) her father, and b) the person who taught her to fight.
* From the comics Cassandra Cain, as Batgirl II, initially had trouble adjusting to being a crime fighter due to the fact her orginal style was focused specifically around assassination and most of her moves finished with a death blow.
* In ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'', Faith's fighting style is described as being psychotic and out of control.
* ''FadingSuns'' allows the player character to specialise in martial arts. There are several kinds of 'em, and all of them are quite {{Troperrific}}: "quick, elegant strikes" (nobility favourite), two CombatPragmatist styles (one for gritty mercenaries and the other for [[OurElvesAreBetter dark elf-like]] [[RecycledInSpace aliens]]), a fancy-schmancy flamboyant style (popular among most mystic and philosophical of noble houses), and so on. In fact, there's at least one for each of the patterns described above.
* Though it's never commented on in-universe, the fighting styles of characters in TheMatrix add another layer to the philosophy of the movie. Explained [[http://plotlessviolence.comicgenesis.com/d/20061112.html here]].
** In short, humans tend to have more fluid, flashy or distinctive styles based on the character (contrast Morpheus' kung fu to Ballard's boxing), while the Agents all use a generic karate-based style. Humans also use martial arts throws and wristlocks (Morpheus vs. Neo), wheras agents simply grab-and-heave, which works due to their incredible strength.
*** This crosses into a low-tier version of AccidentalNightmareFuel for some martial artists - imagine coming up against an opponent who is far less skilled than you but is so tough as to be undefeatable! (watch Neo's fight with Smith in the subway, where Neo goes on a roll and Smith essentially ignores it.)
* Played with in the StarWars expanded universe; lightsaber combat has many different styles that emphasize different things. They're not necessarily an indication of who the user is, though. Makashi is the style of precision and pragmatism...and is also used extensively by Count Dooku. On the flipside, Soresu emphasizes constant motion, always keeping the lightsaber moving so its on its way to deflecting the next incoming attack even if its not incoming yet. As one would expect, Obi-Wan, who doesn't put effort into hurting people, is a master of this.
** The master. Not ''a'' master. When the man who invented his own school of lightsaber combat, and is Samuel L. Jackson, says ''the'' Master, you listen.
* In KenichiTheMightiestDisciple, this is played relatively straight with the Eight Fists, since they all have incredibly specific styles which are very suited to their personalities. The two foremost examples are Hermit, who uses a combination of Flynning and elegant, quick strikes, and Berserker, who, well, goes berserk on his opponents with dangerous techniques and little style.

* In ''AxeCop'', Axe Cop can identify somebody's allegiance by their front kick.
* [[DemonPrinces Kirth Gersen]] deals out {{NoHoldsBarredBeatdown}}s as an example of his Determinator nature.
* Knees and elbows from Muay Thai, first made popular by Tony Jaa in OngBak represent a sort of nuclear option in a hand to hand fight. TheProtector took this further. Between the movies there tends to be a progression as our somewhat pacifistic hero meets bigger and badder enemies: push kicks and palm strikes, to punches and kicks, and finally to knees and elbow. Of course, to use knees and elbows you have to get closer to your opponent, and in some cases jump on their head, but with some acrobatics one can land a flying double knees to the face, or double elbows to the top of the skull. But hey, that's what a guy like Tony Jaa (5'6" 136 lbs) has to do to beat Nathan Jones (6'11" 350 lbs).
* In real life experienced fighters - bouncers, martial artists, cops, soldiers - can identify an opponent's training and likely actions based on a very small amount of information. At a very simple level a wrestler's pre-attack posture is very different from a boxer or kicker's. People with weapons often move to protect or deploy the weapon first.
* In the Jet Li film ''Film/TheOne'', the homicidal Yu Law can be seen practising violent, straight strikes ("The fastest way between two points will always be a straight line") emphasizing brute force, simple attacks, and a straightforward approach to getting what he wants. Contrasting this, his good alternate self Gabe Law, practices a more flowing style, based around weaving, dodging, and flowing strikes. It's very useful against styles that forego finesse, and simply batter away at their opponents without much technique. It's almost ironic that Gabe is a police officer, and Yu Law is the villain, really.
** The styles are Xing Yi Quan (Heart Mind Fist(?)) and Ba Gua Quan (Eight Trigrams Fist), respectively. The former is recognized as a simple and direct style that's easy to learn, but hard to master. The latter's famous for its circular stepping movements, usually used to strafe the opponent. Practitcioners are usually encouraged to train in both styles to cover each other's strengths and weaknesses.
* In {{Burn Notice}}, Michael must convince a Russian gangster that he himself is Russian and does so by using Sambo to fight him (Sambo being a Russian Martial art). In his voiceover, he notes that if you talk like a Russian but fight like an American, you can consider your cover blown.
* In the Batman novel {{Batman Year One}}, Bruce Wayne is able to surmise that Selina Kyle has had Karate training by fighting her.
* SinCity has a wide variety of combatants:

* In RyuGaGotoku 4, each of the four main characters has their own style of fighting:

<<|WeaponsAndWieldingTropes|>>

** In RyuGaGotoku 4, each of the four main characters has their own style of fighting:
*** The flashy, flamboyant Akiyama fights [[ExtremityExtremist mainly with kicks]], and also has two additional ways to taunt an enemy, as well as being easily able to manipulate the battlefield to pull off his more acrobatic moves.
*** TheBigGuy Saejima fights with brute strength, and his moves are based on setting up the opponent for a powerful hit.
*** The cop, Tanimura, uses a (storied up) version of the real life unarmed style used by the Japanese police; it focuses on taking the target down and out as quickly (and non-lethally, but certainly painfully) as possible.
*** TheMario, Kiryu, has a mix of the other three's attacks, plus his own Komaki and Secret Sword moves.

* In the Jet Li film TheOne the homicidal Yu Law can be seen practising violent, straight strikes ("The fastest way between two points will always be a straight line") emphasizing brute force, simple attacks, and a straightforward approach to getting what he wants. Contrasting this, his good alternate self Gabe Law, practices a more flowing style, based around weaving, dodging, and flowing strikes. It's very useful against styles that forego finesse, and simply batter away at their opponents without much technique. It's almost ironic that Gabe is a police officer, and Yu Law is the villain, really.

->-- Leverage, "The Homecoming Job"

* In {{Burn Notice}}, Michael must convince a Russian gangster that he himself is Russian and does so by using Sambo to fight him (Sambo being a Russian Martial art).

* In the Jet Li film TheOne the homicidal Li can be seen practising violent straight strikes ("The fastest way between two points will always be a straight line") whereas we see his good alternate self practice a more flowing style.

* '''[[SuicideAttack Suicidal tactics]]:''' Character launches forward, not caring about leaving himself wide open to attack. It is a style appropriate for BloodKnight, a DeathSeeker or a [[TheBerserker Berserker]]. The character may also just be NighInvulnerable (or at least MadeOfIron). Could be an ActionBomb. Often involves SuicidalOverconfidence.

* In {{Fearless}}, Huo Yuanjia is portrayed in his fight with Qin Lei as a flashy and acrobatic fighter compared to the other's direct, powerful moves, which seems to comment on his gloryhounding personality. His ruthless use of improvised weapons in the latter half of their fight also seems to imply a great deal about him.

** The master. Not *a* master. When the man who invented his own school of lightsaber combat, and is Samuel L. Jackson, says "the" Master, you listen.

* In {{Fearless}}, Huo Yuanjia's is portrayed in his fight with Qin Lei as a flashy and acrobatic fighter compared to the other's direct, powerful moves, which seems to comment on his gloryhounding personality. His ruthless use of improvised weapons in the latter half of their fight also seems to imply a great deal about him.

*** Mace Windu is the master of Vaapad, but yes.

* In one episode of BatmanTheAnimatedSeries a rival who once trained with Bruce Wayne is able to discover Batman's secret identity by watching him fight.

* In ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'' Faiths fighting style is described as being psychotic and out of control.

** The master. Not *a* master. when the man who invented his own school of light saber combat, and is Samual L. Jackson, says "the" Master, you listen.