Basic Trope: A character hits someone trying to sneak up on them, and does so without needing to turn around.
- Straight: Alice is talking to Bob. Carol sneaks up on her to attempt a surprise attack, but Alice punches her without even turning around.
- Exaggerated: An entire Ninja squad tries to sneak up on Alice, but she takes all of them out without looking.
- Downplayed: Carol tries to sneak up on Alice from the side. Alice punches her without turning to look directly at her.
- Justified:
- Bob warned Alice about Carol's attack.
- Alice sensed Carol's presence.
- Carol wasn't nearly as stealthy as she thought she was.
- There was a mirror in front of Alice, and she saw Carol's reflection approaching.
- Alice is a Blind Weaponmaster, so which direction you attack her from is hardly relevant for stealth.
- Inverted:
- Instead of hitting Carol, Alice blocks her attack without looking.
- Alice and Bob are having a conversation, with him standing behind her. Alice tries to surprise Bob with a sudden punch to the face without looking, but Bob sees it coming and hits her first.
- Subverted: Alice's fist missed.
- Double Subverted: But her other fist didn't.
- Parodied:
- A variety of enemies tries to sneak up on Alice in rapid succession, and she takes them out without looking in increasingly ridiculous ways; whereas she simply punched Carol, by the time she gets to Zack, she defeats him with a spoon.
- Carol repeatedly tries to sneak up on Alice while the latter is working a desk job. Alice keeps taking Carol down without ever stopping her work or taking her eyes off the computer screen.
- Zig-Zagged: Carol sneaks up on Alice, who senses her and tries to punch her without turning around. Alice misses, but then connects with a second punch. However, Dave was also sneaking up on her, and he sucessfully took her down.
- Averted:
- Characters always turn around when dealing with an opponent who's behind them.
- Attacks from behind are always successful.
- No one tries to attack anyone else from behind.
- Enforced: "We need to show how badass Alice is. How about having her beat someone down without even looking?"
- Lampshaded: "How did you land a hit without looking?"
- Invoked: Alice is trained in this technique, so she willingly acts as a decoy to lure an assassin and take them down.
- Exploited: When attacked by a squad of Mooks, Alice demonstrates this technique on one of them to intimidate the rest into retreating.
- Defied: Carol doesn't bother with an attack from behind because Alice will just know it's coming anyways. She simply attacks from the front.
- Discussed: "Aren't you worried someone will sneak up on us like this?" "Nothing can sneak up on me. I'll deal with them without even looking".
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The camera focuses on Alice's face, which doesn't move, so the action happens offscreen, but a "pow" sound is heard, followed by Carol groaning.
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: When Carol tries to sneak up on Alice, the latter hits her with a Pie in the Face.
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