Basic Trope: Women always fight other women.
- Straight: When Alice's and Claire's teams square off, they fight each other.
- Exaggerated:
- Two armies, both having soldiers of both sexes, face off. Every female soldier on one side fights a female soldier on the other side.
- Two Amazon Brigades of different factions fight each other, with no men around.
- Downplayed:
- Alice and Claire target each other most of the time, but they do not fight each other exclusively.
- Alice occasionally fights with some men, but most of her opponents are female.
- Justified:
- It's Personal between Alice and Claire.
- Alice's skill set is the best suited for dealing with the Dark Action Girl (or vice versa, depending on which side gets to dictate the terms of battle)
- Claire is a violent sadist whom is known for brutal attacks towards male genitalia, which is the real reason why the men are rather hesitant on fighting her.
- Men on both sides have a "won't hit a girl" policy.
- World of Action Girls - All people who participated in fights are women of multiple all-women teams, while men are absent.
- All fighting takes place in tournaments, where sexes are segregated to ensure an even match (analogous to Real Life sports).
- Alice has a power set that would allow her to defeat a man instantly (such as the capacity to seduce them if she touched them) so Claire fighting her is the only option.
- Inverted:
- The One Guy on one side fights the other side's only girl.
- Every team member fights an enemy of the opposite gender.
- Gender Inverted: Allistair, The One Guy of his group, fights Clay, who's also The One Guy of his group.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Claire face off, size each other up... and switch to different opponents.
- Alternatively: One of them turns out to be a guy in drag.
- For a Third Option, the fight is just getting started when one combatant proceeds to Curb Stomp the other, and moves on to another opponent.
- Claire is so tough it takes Alice and Bob fighting together to beat her.
- Claire uses summon magic to fight and calls a male creature to attack Alice.
- There are two girls on each team; Alice and Claire fight each other, while the other two each fight one of the guys.
- Double Subverted:
- Both Alice and Claire easily defeat their respective opponents, then fight each other.
- Or both choose the only other women on each team for their opponents, so the fights are still both girl vs. girl.
- From Subverted #2, she isn't a guy in drag at all. She just looks like one.
- The opposing team is only described in vague detail up to The Reveal that they are gender opposite of Alice's team. All the boys attack the girls while Alice attacks the one guy but the "girls" turn to be boys in drag and the one guy is a girl wearing a suit that makes her look masculine.
- After Alice's trounces the monster Clair assimilates it and attacks Alice directly.
- Parodied:
- Alice and Claire start fighting, and their male teammates stop to watch. And bring popcorn.
- The matches are horribly unbalanced! For example: The "good" guys send little and fragile Alice (who's an Actual Pacifist to boot!) against Claire who is a murderous and nigh unstoppable Brawn Hilda. Seriously, what the hell heroes!?
- The two have a pillow fight.
- The pair start at opposite ends of a massive battlefield, and ignore all other potential targets in order to fight one another.
- Alice or Claire is stripped naked during the fight, and someone records it and posts it online.
- Zig Zagged: Claire beats Alice and moves onto another opponent... but then Alice gets back up, and the fight continues.
- Averted:
- The female characters on each side don't fight each other.
- There's no fighting scene in the show.
- Enforced:
- "We can't have The Hero hit a girl! Have the Action Girl fight her instead."
- Alternatively: "We need fanservice."
- Lampshaded: "Look, there's a girl on the other side! Fortunately, we've got one on our side, too."
- Invoked:
- Claire joins the fight for the express purpose of having a chance to rip her goody-two-shoes counterpart's face off.
- Alternatively, one team recruits Alice for the sole purpose of countering any Action Girls their opponents may have.
- The organizer of fighting event introduces the sex-segregation rule for all matches to make sure that the competition is fair enough for everyone.
- Exploited: Knowing the boys on the opposing side won't hit a girl and knowing they also team with a very formidable girl, a girl of their own is sent out explicitly to manipulate the opposing team into unfavorable positions.
- Defied:
- Claire wants to fight Alice, but her male teammate's skill set is a better matchup against that particular opponent, so she lets him handle it. She fights a male opponent whom her skill set is better suited to dealing with.
- Bob empties a machine gun into the opposing force's crowd to try to thin their numbers and kills Alice before she and Claire face off.
- Discussed: "Woo, catfight!"
- Conversed: "So why is it that the female characters in action movies always fight each other?"
- Deconstructed:
- The Action Girl is mentally unable to fight at her full potential against men due to a tragic accident in her backstory.
- Alternatively, the Action Girl doesn't fight men because she doesn't feel like it's fair to fight someone who's (technically) not allowed to fight her.
- Or they do go the Les Yay route but have Claire be a Psycho Lesbian who wants to rape Alice (if she hasn't already). And even if the scene is played for Drama it both of these ladies are an example of Ms. Fanservice can invoke certain other reactions as well. (Though to be fair there is a chance for it to be intentional especially if its a dark comedy.)
- The Action Girl who Does Not Like Men has been trained especially for fighting men, but her skills become a waste when they refuse to fight her, much to her dismay.
- This is not a Cat Fight. This is bloody, brutal combat. There is no hair pulling, there is no torn clothing, and the only thing these girls are covered in is blood. Someone will die, and if they're lucky, they won't need to be identified by dental records (assuming they have any teeth left.) The survivor will likely leave with heavy scars at best, and possibly permanent injuries. Alice, if she survives, may be traumatized by what she just did... Or might not even bat an eyelash when asked about it later.
- Reconstructed
- She overcomes her mental block, but still happens to have the skills best-suited to taking down the Claire. Now, though, she can keep fighting after.
- The technicality is made official. Men cannot attack women and more women are brought onto the team so that Alice doesn't have to bear the load on her own.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is about to attack Claire with a steel chair, but he stops himself, knowing he Wouldn't Hit a Girl. He proceeds to bring Alice over, and hand her the steel chair, giving her the OK in beating Claire senseless.
Bob: Oh right, I Wouldn't Hit a Girl! Alice, come over here! Take this steel chair I've got here, and beat Claire senseless with it!
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