A Man That Follows Hell
Is there any reason why this is called "Only a Flesh Wound" instead of "JUST a Flesh Wound", especially with the Monty Python page quote/trope namer status? Just wondering.
"I have my way, I'll have ****in' ten robots on this ****er and I'll run it from Seattle, how 'bout that?!" — Sig Hansen
Sorcerer in training
Removed this from the Film/Starship Troopers entry:
"** Perhaps it would be best if we just concede once and for all that Starship Troopers stinks on ice, and that the people who made it were not even slightly interested in minor details like reality or faithfulness to the source material any time it got in the way of making an extremely anvilicious movie."
This contains no example of the trope, does not add to the entry, is not funny or thoughtful, and toes the line of natter and flamebait.
(I didn't like the movie, did like the book.)
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
I think someone needs to point out that the top-quote is just played for laughs. Someone nameD Cider was asking if this trope is the same as Who Needs Their Whole Body?, which is just ridiculous. My first thought was "remove the top-quote" but I now think that's stupid. Preferably just point out somewhere that Who Needs Their Whole Body? is THIS trope tuned Up To Eleven.
Edited by Kelnius
It should be noted that shoulder wounds are not anywhere nearly so fatal as the page suggests. There are really only four places you can bleed out: the thigh, the chest, the abdomen, and the floor; to use a paramedics' joke. The arm or the shoulder, the closest thing there is the brachial artery, but with even the slightest bit of bleeding control within the first HOUR, you're good. Reconstructing the shoulder joint, on the other hand, works pretty much as described. Anyone object to an edit?
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I'm sorry, but that's total nonsense. The place they usually call the "shoulder" when talking about bullet wounds on TV would actually be the upper left (or right) chest. The subclavian/axillary artery routes through there, and winds UNDER the collarbone, where it's almost impossible to get pressure on, and totally impossible to get a tourniquet on. Besides that, bullets tend to bounce and fragment, so there's a really good chance of doing damage deeper into the chest cavity, where there are all kinds of vital structures.
What you're saying is true IF the slug were to hit the outer part of the shoulder, the deltoid area, but that's almost never what you see in situations where this trope is used. Oh, and BTW? If an external wound has been bleeding for an hour and the victim isn't either dead or in deep shock, it probably wasn't that serious a wound.
RE: the City of Bones example:
- Subverted in Michael Connelly's City of Bones, a cop wants to know what it's like to get shot, so she shoots herself in the shoulder while apprehending a suspect, and ends up dying from her wound within minutes.
This page is full to the brim with most amusing fantasies about human anatomy and medical care. The best part is, Tropers aiming to point out Flesh Wound trope almost invariably fall for the Insta-Dead (Instant Death Bullet) trope. It's gorgeous.
I didn't check the Instant Death Bullet page itself, but I'm sure there's a lot of funny examples too =)
"However, a bullet wound to the left shoulder will usually prove to be lethal while a character will survive the same wound to the right shoulder or even the right chest, presumably because the heart (allegedly) is on the left side."
There don't seem to be any examples that bear this out, and it sounds bizarre to suggest that anyone thinks the heart is in the left shoulder.