Ninja Log

"On at least one occasion, he leveraged a clearly preternatural ability to escape detection by disappearing completely — leaving a log in his place. Does he decide what is left behind, or is the log is [sic] an inextricable result of the process? I will see if he can leave a cheese plate instead."

— Tycho, Penny Arcade, "The Return of Hattori Hanzo"

A Ninja character is attacked and apparently fatally shot. But when the dust clears — surprise! Instead of a mangled body, the villains find some object. It may be a straw dummy, a heavy vase picked up from an adjacent room or even the ninja's empty clothes; in less serious settings the object will turn out to be a large wooden log.

The trope comes from ninja legends and has probably originated from ninja using various objects to check the area for ambushes, pretty similar to how some western characters use a helmet on a stick to trick enemy snipers. A less pleasant version of the trope involves disguising a captured mook to look roughly like the hero and pushing him into the room where ambush is expected.

In Japan, this is known as kawarimi ^note spelled 変わり身, a somewhat convoluted double pun off 変身, (Henshin), and 代わりに (kawarini, "instead"). "Transfauxmation Sequence" roughly approximates the nuance.. Exactly where the log came from and how the ninja switched is a common source of jokes among anime fandom since no ninja is ever seen carrying one — perhaps they were hewn out of Epileptic Trees?

Compare: Actually a Doombot, Decoy Getaway, Outfit Decoy, Disguised Hostage Gambit, Escape Battle Technique, Flash Step, Sleeping Dummy, Smoke Out, and Switch-Out Move. Note that this is not a log kept by a ninja captain. Also not to be confused with a Ninja Post or Ninja Prop. For what's sometimes called ninja logging in online games, see Rage Quit.

Effectively a type of Swap Teleportation, since it's basically an instantaneous swap of the "log" and the ninja's body.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Meme of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is an expert at this, due to her fear of having to interact with others. In her case, she uses small plushies which she knits herself to serve as substitutes.
• In the first chapter of Ayakashi Triangle, Suzu tries to kick Matsuri for carelessly grabbing her thighs, and he uses his ninja training to switch places with a log... the instant after he's hit. Suzu asks what the point was, and Matsuri explains that he didn't want Suzu to hurt her leg on a log. Really, he was just showing off. Outside this one joke, the technique isn't used again.
• Berserk of all places, although not by a ninja. Guts uses this tactic despite being one of the tallest human characters. At one point he actually attaches his armor to a log and throws it at Wyald. Wyald of course falls for it, since immediately before this he's distracted by what he believes to be Guts hiding behind a tree; it's really just a body Guts hung up there for that reason.
• Bleach:
  • Both Yoruichi and Byakuya use this trick on occasion, leaving behind their jackets. Note that the former is a ninja, and the latter happens to be gifted at using Flash Steps. He even laments the fact that he had to use something she taught him when he uses it.
  • Toshiro has the ability to make clones from ice which shatter into ice when destroyed. He used this ability in his battle with the Espada Tier Harribel allowing him to perform a sneak attack from behind.
• An odd use of it occurred in Buso Renkin — Papillon uses this to distract and evade Tokiko when he steals a Renkin from a foe she just killed. He uses his own uniform for this, leaving him in just speedos, but since when has that bothered him?
• In Brave10, Saizo uses this substitution trick on Sasuke during their fight, as well as once on Hanzo and Kamanosuke.
• Cardfight!! Vanguard (V Series): the rebooted Nubatama clan has a few cards that do this, in the form of Evil Decoy tokens. The card art for these tokens depicts them as logs wearing karate gi, surrounded by clouds of smoke and pierced through with several shuriken and kunai. Cards that interact with them generally have effects involving switching the opponent's attacks to target the tokens instead, and the tokens themselves can intercept from the back row.
• In A Certain Magical Index, Shiage Hamazura creates a makeshift smokescreen. Shizuri Mugino laughs and attacks his silhouette, only to find it was a stack of cardboard boxes. She incredulously asks if he's a ninja.
• In episode 118 of Fairy Tail, Lisanna tries to attack Kain Hikaru. Kain quickly uses a property of his Voodoo Doll to teleport away and teleport Elfman in his place, leaving Elfman to take the hit instead.
• Recca from Flame of Recca is a ninja, and so, of course, masters the Substitution Jutsu. He usually uses a doll that looks like himself, or just his uniform, for it, and a surprising number of powerful foes falls for it — probably because they focus so much on his spectacular ability to conjure fire, that they forget his Ninja Training. Actually spoofed in the very first volume of the manga. When saving Yanagi from several punks, Recca immediately spreads a sheet that looks like a tree log to look like he vanished and replaced with log. It doesn't work, obviously.
• Edward and Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist frequently create decoy versions of themselves, usually complete with stuck-out tongues to taunt their enemies after tricking them. The decoys are usually created with alchemical transmutation of dirt, walls, or other bits of the surrounding environment. Sometimes Ed even adds his trademark red jacket.
• G-On Riders: Yuuki does this once in a later episode. Since it's a slightly Ecchi series, she leaves her clothes behind.
• In the hentai series La Blue Girl, Miko uses this trick by replacing herself with random rubble. It's one of her few jutsus that aren't totally perverted.
• Lupin III: The titular thief loves to do this, normally leaving behind a dummy dressed in his clothes and with a goofy expression on its face.
  • The entire gang pulls this off in the first season television intro to Lupin III: Part II, leaving Zenigata in a car filled with dummies (which promptly crashes).
  • Lupin III: Stolen Lupin has subverted the trick: Zenigata is chasing Lupin onto a truck, when he realizes the Lupin he's chased was a dummy, then caught Lupin ready to dangle down from an overhead sign, to discover that was the dummy, and the dummy on the truck was Lupin in a Dummy-Lupin disguise!
• Yamato of Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! has one he puts in his bed on occasion. It shows up the first time in episode 2.
• In an episode of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the resident German Ninja, Schwarz Bruder is pitted in a fight against Viking Gundam. Just when everyone thinks Schwarz's gundam had been pierced by a volley of oars, a double take reveals that the boat Viking Gundam had been riding in not a second before was in Schwarz's place instead.
• Corvo from the Monster Collection manga, being the setting's equivalent to ninja, does it with a chair and some of his clothes.
• Naruto is one of the more well-known examples. It overuses the "substitution jutsu" left and right, often showing a character's death in slow-mo, when it's painfully obvious they aren't going to die so easily. This could be justified since most of the main characters live in what translates to "The Village Hidden in the Leaves". Trees are everywhere. Most ninja travel faster leaping through trees than they do running. Although rare, characters are occasionally seen using other things as well, like mud, shadow clones, and on one occasion, a giant plush frog.
  • Played with a couple episodes in, when Naruto makes a bunch of Shadow Clones to fight Kakashi, and when one is about to attack him Kakashi substitutes one of the other clones for himself.
  • Played with again later, where Sakura runs into this fight using only the "Log Substitution" technique (and making it painfully obvious via hand signs that she's using it). After three or four times getting attacked and swapping herself for a log, she doesn't use the technique, but still does the hand signs for it, taking two kunai to the arms in the process. Her opponent, assuming she's swapped again, turns away, and doesn't realize she didn't swap out until he has a kunai in one arm and Sakura's teeth in the other.
  • After the first couple story arcs though, the technique pretty much ceases use entirely. This is most likely because the author realized the extreme vagueness of when it can or cannot be used sort of killed the drama and logic behind a lot of action scenes.
  • Towards the end of the main series, Sasuke is given Six Paths power by the Sage of Six Paths, along with Naruto. This power gives him the Rinnegan in his left eye. It has the unique ability to allow Sasuke to teleport anywhere he can see within a certain range. This also allows him to focus on an object or a person, and then swap places with them.
• Near the end of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Yue Ayase tries to attack Paio II, but ends up hitting her empty costume. Paio II, who had Flash Stepped out of the costume and and is now completely naked, attacks her from behind.
• Ninja Scroll: The Series: In one of the episodes an experienced ninja uses a stray cat in this manner. In another, the geezer Dakuon uses a log that happens to be stuffed full of lit dynamite.
• Trafalgar Law in One Piece has this as one of the many uses of his switching power. He even uses a literal log in one instance.
• Pokémon:
  • In X & Y Series, Ash's first Kalos Pokémon Froakie can do it with its bubble foam. It uses it successfully to trap a Fletchling.
  • In XYZ, human ninjas can do this as well, as shown by ninjas in the Ninja Village episode.
• Ranma ½: Used repeatedly by Ranma throughout the series. The log trick is used against Prince(ss) Herb at the hot springs in the manga. Note that Herb is more bothered by the fact Female Ranma is no longer wearing a kimono afterward than by being tricked.
• Real Bout High School: A member of the all-girls Shinsengumi is a ninja-obsessed otaku who never did any ninja trick before. Her first one is literally the Ninja Log. While she does manage to replace herself with a log, she unwittingly knocks her head somewhere.
• Used, oddly enough, in Rurouni Kenshin by Han'nya after grabbing his fellow ninja Beshimi. Since the story doesn't have any mystical elements, he had to have carried the giant log through the air just so he could replace it with Beshimi.
• Used recursively in the anime of Samurai Deeper Kyo. One ninja stabs another in the back, only to have him turn into a log. The ninja who was stabbed then ambushes the first ninja, only to have him turn into a pile of dry leaves. This goes on for a while.
• Slight variance of this trope in Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi. Tsubasa uses teddy bears instead of a log, but otherwise plays this trope straight. The lady she uses this on, Angela, is always surprised when this happens.
• Ataru Moroboshi from Urusei Yatsura uses these all the time, mostly to evade Mendô. He's also fond of exclaiming "Ninja vanish!" and zipping all over the place with unprecedented speed and agility.
• Used in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, of all places, when Crow attempts to tie up Jaeger, who he mistakes for a Dark Signer. A second later, the rope is tied around a pile of steel poles that weren't there before.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Tsukikage, who is an actual ninja, occasionally uses logs to divert attacks meant for other people he is rescuing. Usually he combines this with a smokescreen; he throws the smokescreen, grabs whoever he's rescuing, places a log in the previous position, the attack hits the log as the attackers can't see clearly, and by the time the smoke clears Tsukikage's gone. A notable instance is when he uses this trick to save Reiji from Zarc, ruining Reiji's scarf in the process.
• YuYu Hakusho: The fight between Hiei and Makintaro starts with Hiei cutting off one of his opponent's arms. Makintaro regrows his arm into an ax and charges at Hiei. He slices through Hiei's robe only to find no one there. Hiei appears on his shoulder, notes his foe's bad luck, and impales him with his sword.

Comic Books

• The Punisher:' One story starts with the Punisher running while shooting at the ground with a submachine gun, yelling that he was coming for the Big Bad, and promptly getting sniped for his trouble. That wasn't Frank but a mook that Frank had forced into a Punisher outfit to draw out the bad guy. The shooting was because he was running across a minefield and told to shoot the ground to set them off before he stepped on them.
• In the second issue of the Static comic book, Static fashions a decoy of himself out of some debris, his coat, and trash can lid hoverboard. He uses this to bait a villain named Tarmac; the dialogue is reused almost word-for-word in the Animated Adaptation.
• In Superman: The Doomsday Wars, Superman took off his shirt and cape and draped it over a teleport device. Naturally, Doomsday lunged as soon as he saw it, and got teleported to the moon.
• Used at least once by the Neko Ninja Chizu in Usagi Yojimbo.

Fan Works

• Ki Tamaida of Dark Heart High uses this a few times. Most frequently, to avoid getting in trouble for cutting class to meet someone.
• One of the funnier moments from the Dream Tournament fanfic series involved this. In a crossover between different fighting games, Andy Bogard unleashes his best move against one of the Samurai Shodown ninjas, with this as the unfortunate result. "I Choretsudan'ed a LOG?"
• Rinnosuke (as Santa Rinnosuke) tries this in the Touhou Project fancomic Life of Maid. It works, initially, but the use of his clothes as a decoy later comes back to bite him in the ass.
• In Naruto: The Abridged Series, the log is an actual character, serving as Sasuke's nemesis.
• In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, Mister Mxyzptlk replaces himself with a cheap dummy with a Henohenomoheji for a face when Izuku is about to wring him for turning Inko into a dog. In "Jingle My Bells, Baby", Santa Claus of all people does this when All For One catches him in a net, teleporting to Kahndaq and leaving a lump of coal in his wake.
• The Naruto fanfic Yet again, with a little extra help makes a Running Gag out of this trope by having Leaf ninjas hold cult-like reverence for the Log, who sacrifices itself on their behalf. Other ninjas think they're all crazy. The Log may have actually been controlling them ever since Hashirama's time, and is aiming to take the entire world in its name, having already brainwashed the Shodai, Nidaime, and Sandaime Hokages. ...Yeah. It's that kind of fanfic. Made darker by the revelation of the evil World Tree and the so-far-absent controller of it. The Cult of the Log was intended to sway the Konoha shinobi to be easier to direct by the Big Bad.

Film — Animation

• Kung Fu Panda 2: Po and the Furious Five are captured and chained together, and Lord Shen is about to fire his cannon at them when the fuse keeps getting blown out. The culprit is Master Mantis; the mantis the guards caged up is really one of Po's action figures. If you pause the DVD just before Mantis is put in the cage and advance frame-by-frame, you can SEE Po swapping Mantis out with his action figure. It also doubles as a Chekhov's Gun, as in the first movie Po pointed out that Mantis was about the same size as his action figure.
  • A more blatant example occurs earlier. In the scene where Po and the Five are sneaking around the city in a dragon costume, they get surrounded by wolves who immediately thrust their swords into the costume. They then pull it away to reveal...a pile of vegetable crates.

Film — Live-Action

• In the 2005 Sci Fi Channel b-movie Alien Siege, the hero puts his jacket on a dead mook and props him up. The villain falls for this, allowing a sneak attack. The hero comments that he's glad the villain doesn't watch a lot of action movies.
• Don't Open Till Christmas: After murdering Kate's father, the killer somehow manages to hang his mask and costume on a pole at the bar, which Cliff then tackles.
• In Lust for Gold, Ramon Peralta and his partner leave rocks stacked to look like they are sitting round the campfire while they sneak off to find the mine. Walz only gets suspicious when the fire starts to die and the figures still haven't moved.
• In the film adaptation of Ninja Hattori-kun, a more plausible trick is used on two occasions, with a character leaving their clothes behind as a decoy.
• In the original Total Recall, when Quaid is being shot at near an alien reactor, he is wearing a holographic projector watch, which several times fools Mooks into shooting it (or in one case, each other).

Literature

• Saigo in Eric Lustbader's novel The Ninja uses this trick.
• Rhythm of War:
  • Lezian the Pursuer can project his spirit out of his body, forming a new one elsewhere and leaving a dry shell of the old one behind. This can be a deadly distraction, as people who don't know about his abilities sometimes continue to attack the remains while he comes up behind them.
  • The same book introduces the Herdazian general nicknamed The Mink (because he's so sneaky). In addition to practicing escaping from any kind of chains and cuffs, he also likes to see if he can trick his men by replacing himself with bundles of rags and sneaking away. He usually can.

Live-Action TV

• Both versions pop up in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger when the team uses the Kakuranger and Hurricanger powers. In the Kakuranger tribute, Ninjaman pulls the trick twice against the Monster of the Week, once on foot and once when enlarged (though he uses a straw dummy instead of a log).
• In Kamen Rider Geats, this is one of the various ninja tropes associated with the Ninja Raise Buckle. Literally the moment Keiwa gets the buckle, in the process of getting hit by the first Final Boss's attack, this ability activates leaving a log where he was standing.
• Lee Van Cleef from failed 80's series The Master (a.k.a. Master Ninja) does this in one episode, putting his ninja headwear over a doodad attached to an electrical transformer during a fight. Because it happens at night, his opponent doesn't notice, and ninjitsus his way to electrocution.
• Power Rangers
  • Power Rangers Ninja Storm: They leave their uniforms behind. These are probably spares as they are never left naked.
  • The Ninja Sentai Kakuranger did this eight years earlier, but it (mostly) didn't show up in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers adaptation because Saban dropped the ninja element. The regular Earth rangers did do it fairly often in their Ninja Ranger forms, though.
• Naturally, as the third ninja sentai series, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger tends to use this as well with the straw dummy variation'.

Puppet Shows

• Blark and Son: After Fletch chains Blark to a chair (at Blark's request) in "Only an Ex-G.I. Can Stop This Embarrassing Dad", Blark somehow manages not only to pull this trick with a pumpkin, but to do it while Fletch is looking directly at him.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, one Warlock invocation, fittingly named "Flee the Scene", is a short-range teleport that leaves a major image illusion of the caster in their place.
• In Pathfinder, the Mythic Archmage has access to the Mirror Dodge ability, allowing the user to teleport up to 30 feet away and leaving an illusory duplicate to take a hit.
  • There is also the wooden double spell, which creates a wooden figure that takes damage in your place.
• Mutants & Masterminds: The "Mecha and Manga" supplement offers the Substitution power to allow anime-based superheroes to perform this trick.

Video Games

• One level of Ape Escape features ninja enemies that turn into these upon taking hits.
• In Beat Blades Haruka, if Narika has to abort an infiltration attempt, she teleports out and leaves a log behind. Neither Haruka nor Subaru do this, however.
• The Korean MMO Blade & Soul has a very literal invocation of this trope with the "Decoy" skill for its totally-not-a-ninja Assassin class: time its use well, and if you're hit during the short window it's active, you automatically dodge the attack, enter stealth & slip behind the enemy where you're perfectly set up for a powerful counterattack, while a freshly-sliced wooden log takes your place.
• Bloody Roar:
  • Bakuryu the weremole ninja uses the log version.
  • Kohryu the Iron Mole in later games also plays with this version of the trope, using a steel construction girder instead of a log to fit his metal theme.
• The Ninjates from Castle Crashers uses this too — while fighting them, they will sometimes vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a log wearing their pirate-gear, and then appear with a flying kick behind you. It's quite dangerous, actually.
• Yukimaru of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories has variation on this where she replaces herself with a Snowman before appearing on the square behind her opponent and attack with her weapon. Justified due to her clan being the "Snow Clan" and coming from an icy area. The move is also ice element despite the snowman not touching the opponent. The generic Ninjas play this trope straight.
• The Toto Bunny Prinny from Disgaea 5 uses "Ninja Rabbit Technique! Body Switcheroo!" to swap itself with a carrot after getting beat up by the party.
• Appears in Enter the Gungeon as a special item. When used, all enemies attack the log instead of the player until the log breaks or a timer runs out. Also comes in an explosive variant that blows up when hit, damaging nearby enemies.
• In For Honor, one of the Shinobi's post-battle signatures is this, involving the Shinobi disappearing and leaving a log behind.
• Halo: Reach and Halo 4 have the hologram armor ability, designed to invoke this trope. Specifically, the hologram looks exactly like the player, right down to the weapon they're holding, and it possesses a motion tracker signature. Upon activation, the hologram runs in a straight line towards a spot directed by the player. Even with both the player and the hologram visible, the distraction can provide just enough time for a killing shot. 4's hologram will even automatically teabag fallen enemies.
  • With the advantages of the hologram spelled out, though, players who know what they're up against often see through the illusion. Some other players have gotten creative and even more successfully pulled off the Ninja Log trick by pretending to be the hologram themselves, setting the real hologram where they would be expected to be and then acting exactly like the hologram would to get behind the enemy and then attack them, and demonstrated here.
• In Ikemen Sengoku, Sasuke pulls off this trick several times in his route and somehow always has the time to draw glasses on his decoy logs before the swaps. Chalk it up to Rule of Funny.
• At least once in the Kirby series, Ninja Kirby has been able to swap himself with a log. Though normally he opts to swap out and disappear with an explosion.
• The Last Blade: Zantetsu uses the log version.
• Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam has Ninjis and their paper counterparts. When attacking them, one has to alternate moves (for example, if one is attacked via jumping, the next Bro. has to attack it with the hammer) or else they will change to a log and stay protected..
  • The Ninjis were already able to do this in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.
  • Ditto in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• Shadow Man can do this in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. In the Mega Man Battle Network series, one of the battlechips makes a puff of smoke, an injured dummy falls to the ground, and MegaMan.exe jumps in the air and throws ninja stars at the opponent. From the third game of the series onward, MegaMan could use a Navi Customizer Program to perform this trick at any time. Like his robotic counterpart, ShadowMan.exe can also use this ability, and MegaMan can copy the trick while using ShadowMan's DoubleSoul.
• The idea is used for an outfit in Miitomo; a log suit with a few shurikens stuck to it, released alongside more traditional ninja garb.
• A game mechanic in Naruto: Clash of Ninja: Using a Substitution will let you break out of a combo and get a free hit on your opponent, but costs three-fourths of your chakra. The Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series does this as well, taking either a portion of your chakra or a unit from a substitution gauge, depending on game.
• Pokémon has the move Substitute, which replaces the user with a doll when the enemy Mon attacks. The anime and manga interpretations of this move have been inconsistent, but it has occasionally been used in the style of the trope.
  • Super Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS has Greninja using the aforementioned Substitute attack in this fashion, vanishing and leaving only the doll, and sometimes literally a log, behind if it's attacked, and then counterattacking.
• Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?: Hoshikage, in later fights with her, pulls a body switch with Master Frog when hip-pounded if said attack wouldn't stun her. Her Tsukikage self uses a different item to escape being stunned, and also has a much faster pattern overall.
• The ninja Benikage from Rumble Roses does this. Several of her counters and special moves involve her disappearing in a puff of smoke and leaving behind a wooden log that falls on the opponent's head or rolls under their feet. Since there is really nowhere for her to hide it makes it look like she is actually transforming into a log and back again rather than substituting it somehow.
• Samurai Shodown: Hattori Hanzo and Galford use the classic log to avoid the enemy attack and counter from unexpected directions. Also Kazuki can avoid an attack by explosive teleport, leaving his burning pants behind.
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, the fourth boss Roxy, a half-ninja, has this as one of her attacks. After faking the player out with the log, she attacks from all four corners of the screen, centered on the decoy.
• Sengoku 3 has this as each character's desperation move.
• The opening of Sengoku Basara Battle Heroes has Sasuke using this technique to disguise a rock as his master Shingen, which gets attacked by rival ninja Kasuga and her clones.
• Valentine of Skullgirls (who is a ninja nurse) does this with a bag of medical supplies for her ukemi.
• This is Stealth Elf's chief ability in Skylanders. If you take the Straw Pook Savant upgrade path, you can make them spinning blades that explode on destruction, killing most enemies in moments.
• The ninja girl Ibuki in Street Fighter V leaves one of these as part of her V-Reversal. In other SF media she has been shown capable of putting her pet Tanuki in her place or even nothing at all.
• In Tales of Phantasia, one of the kinds of monsters are ninjas who are rather fond of doing that, making them quite a pain to hurt with a sword.
• In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Sheena uses this to keep Richter from killing Marta. It remains convincing for a surprisingly long time.
• In the Tenchu series, fittingly enough, such logs are used as 1-Up items. When the player character is "killed" their body is replaced by one of these and they respawn nearby. Doesn't work with Bottomless Pits though.
• Used in a strange way in Trio the Punch: each time Kamakura the ninja (one of the player characters) takes a hit, he briefly turns into a log, but this is only a visual effect that doesn't actually prevent the damage from the hit. (Unless maybe it's supposed to be a visual representation of Mercy Invincibility?)
• Downplayed in Wii Play: Motion, as the boss ninja in Trigger Twist still takes some damage when he uses this technique.
• In World of Warcraft, the (Night Elf) Talrendis Scouts in Azshara have Forest Step, which is exactly this.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • Blake possesses the ability to make clones of herself, which she calls a "shadow", to misdirect opponents from being able to strike her. While the basic Semblance is not this trope because clones vanish into thin air and don't rely on objects to form, that changes when she combines her Semblance with Dust. The Dust shadows look like normal clones until struck whereupon the illusion vanishes and Blake-shaped Dust is left behind. Ice and Earth Dust create statues of Blake that trap an opponent's weapon or limbs whereas Fire and Lightning Dust explode upon impact, causing fire or electrical damage.
  • Neo often uses her illusion Semblance to leave behind magical copies of herself, which shatter like glass when struck.

Webcomics

• Violetta from Girl Genius specializes in misdirection and sleight of hand.
  • If that doesn't sound that impressive, well, think again.
  • She also swapped the opponents' weapons — twice, for a dead plant and a broom. Which looked even more embarrassing to the victims.
  • She later swapped a Ridiculously Cute Critter held hostage for a smoke bomb.
  • Later, a senior Smoke Knight pulled similar trick in which, while clamping a gas mask over her face, she managed to disappear, leaving a cardboard cutout of herself clamping a gas mask over her face and another explained that it's common ability among Smoke Knight.
  • A senior Smoke Knight can pull this on a being with control over time who has a firm grip on her arms.
• In A Modest Destiny, the "Escape Dummy", as he calls it, is Maxim's trademark trick.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Belkar pulls this out it first "Dueling Egos", during his fight with Miko Miyazaki. The dummy is also trapped to douse her in sake — just add an alighted match and FWOOSH!
  • Haley does it in "Mean Girls", prompting the response "Damn it! I was hoping to kill her and here she had to go and turn herself into a dummy made of flour sacks!"
  • Blackwing, V's raven familiar, also performs this by sacrificing a feather.
• Penny Arcade parodies this by having Gabe switch himself with a log to escape awkward social encounters.

Western Animation

• Zuko does this in one episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. A Dai Li agent is out on his evening patrol, when suddenly Zuko runs past him, shoving him out of the way before disappearing down an alley. The agent follows him, and turns the corner to see him just... standing there. Confident that his opponent is too terrified of him to put up a fight, he hurls his gloves (made of stone) at the figure, and it falls to the ground. Then the real Zuko puts a blade to his throat.
• Batman: The Animated Series:
  • A panther lunges at Batman, and somehow it gets tangled in an empty cape.
  • In Mask of the Phantasm, the police open fire on Batman, only it's just his cape draped over a road barricade.
• Family Guy: In "A Fistful of Meg", Peter repeatedly harasses Brian by going naked in front of him. To get back at Peter, Brian sets up a plush dummy of himself (complete with recording) so he can fool him and then surprise him with his own nude, shaven body.
• Fillmore!: In "Play On, Maestro, Play On", Fillmore goes to tackle the Ultra-Box thief on to find thief has somehow put his jacket, wig and tray on a dummy.
• In the series opening arc for Disney's Gargoyles, Elisa Maza uses her jacket on a branch to bait an enemy stalking her; this is a form of an actual ninja tactic.
• Looney Tunes:
  • In Ain't That Ducky, Daffy Duck makes a cardboard cutout of himself and puts it in the middle of the road for a hunter to knock over. Daffy then pretends to be his own son mourning his "dead" father, to make the hunter feel even guiltier.
  • In Wet Hare, Bugs Bunny is taking a Waterfall Shower while singing when the villain comes and shoots at the waterfall. Bugs, who is tending his garden, goes over and finds his record player shot to bits. "Of course you know, This Means War!."
  • In The Hare-Brained Hypnotist, Elmer reaches into Bugs' hole and grabs what he thinks is Bugs, but it's really a balloon with rabbit ears that sends him floating into the stratosphere.
  • In Duck! Rabbit! Duck!, Bugs makes a snowman of himself while Elmer and Daffy are conferring, after which Elmer shoots the snowman and Bugs comes out dressed as an angel.
  • In Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur, Daffy paints a picture of himself on a boulder to fool the caveman hunting him. "Not bad for a guy who never took an art lesson in his life."
• Used rather ridiculously in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. Jax, without his cyborg arms, is hiding from Komodai. Komodai sees him crouched nearby and spits acid at him, only to find out it was a pile of rocks Jax set up. A pile of rocks exactly the same size, shape, and color as him. Right down to his purple pants.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: Enid often avoids attack in a puff of smoke, leaving a log in her place. Most often, she uses it to avoid customers that come to her work desk. In "Red Action to the Future", she gives her ally a projectile by turning into a log—which is possibly what she was always actually doing.
• Phineas and Ferb's Dr. Doofenshmirtz catches Perry the Platypus in a trap, rants for a bit and is then attacked by Perry. He looks over at the trap, where there's a wooden decoy of Perry, and complains that this makes no sense.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: Boris Badenov regularly carries around a cardboard cutout of himself, just in case the moon men wanted to schrooch him. The heroes don't attack it, though, and actually stand guard the twelve hours it takes to unfreeze somebody once scrooched, not wanting him to get away.
• Rick does this very thing to Pussifer in Rick and Morty S5E10 "Rickmurai Jack".
• Played for laughs in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Chaperone". Mr. Krabs asks SpongeBob to take Pearl to her prom, but then the real SpongeBob appears and shows him the exact replica of himself he made, which is whom Krabs was talking to. In the end, it is implied that the dummy SpongeBob is the one who went with Pearl.
  • In "F.U.N", Mr. Krabs doesn't believe Plankton is really trying to be SpongeBob's friend and is just another trick to get the Krabby Patty formula. To prove it, he puts a Krabby Patty in front of Plankton to see if he takes it. Plankton doesn't, but after he leaves, the patty has somehow been replaced by a cardboard cutout.
  • In "Gary Takes a Bath", SpongeBob tries to get Gary bathed by absorbing the bathwater and chasing him around the house while shooting the water at him. At the end of the chase, SpongeBob sees what appears to be Gary meowing while stuck in a tree, and soaks the snail with the remaining water, only for him to see that it was really snail-shaped record player.
    SpongeBob: Oh no! I bathed Gary too hard and removed his skin!
• In Static Shock, Static uses an electrified pile of money to distract Rubber Band Man, and actually explains the tactic! "Kawarimi — ancient ninja art of misdirection. All you need is a get up some idiot can mistake you for, and some idiot."

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