Discussion Main / WaifFu

1. Would you other users want to have a Waif-Fu section? 2. Does Black Widow from Iron Man 2 count as this, or She-Fu?

The whole Real Life section is kinda fucked.

I would like to delete most of it, because it's not gender-specific, so it would rather belong in Pintsized Powerhouse

I don't understand why nobody included specific examples of actual women who kicked ass, there have to be thousands.

I was looking at the history of this page and I found that there was a Real Life example about Edith Margaret Garrud fighting policemen, but it was cut in April 2016 by Mc Jeff who claimed it was misuse because Edith Garrud didn't do cartwheels and backflips while jujuitsuing policemen. Personally, I'm not sure if the example had to be completely removed for that reason (I mean that it could've been tweaked so that it made no mention of flips), but I'm also not sure if she even fought policemen at all. Can anyone answer my questions, please?

How come a lot of people act like this couldn't possibly be the least bit plausible in Real Life? Granted, it's a given that a 100-pound waif won't be the best fighter, but it's not like a slim, petite girl can't be any good at fighting (keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, but is much more compact, so it's possible to be toned without looking like you're pumped on steroids). Now to be fair, they probably wouldn't match well with someone much bigger and much stronger than themselves, unless you factor in Fragile Speedster and Deadly Dodging, with a Glass Cannon thrown in for good measure. But is this really a completely unrealistic trope?

Two things. First, the description of the trope, and the picture, imply that it's only for females. I regard this as very confusing.

Second, and more importantly, I'm a bit bothered about this section, which is the first real life example: "Because they don't hold anything back in a fight, animals (of either sex) can be incredibly strong for their size. A 25-pound monkey will nearly always beat a 150-pound man in an arm-wrestling contest, and a dog the same size can pull its owner to the ground by yanking hard on the leash." I've already heard that apes, as in chimps or gorillas, have a huge strength advantage over humans. More upper-body strength from the climbing and knucklewalking plus more fast-twitching musclefibres make them much stronger, pound for pound and in total, than a normal human. The thing is, I've heard this for apes, but not for those little 25-pound monkeys, and I seriously can't imagine it. Maybe they are stronger than us in relation to bodyweight, but that's hardly notable considering the Square-Cube Law, and that's not really what this trope is about. As far as I understand it, this trope is about a tiny opponent bringing down a much stronger opponent, in a hand-to-hand fight, using his superior skill. So unless someone can give a good example of a 25-pound monkey bringing down a fullgrown man, I'd say we cut this one part.

(Frankly, this arm-wrestling thing bothers me in general. I mean, how can you enter an arm-wrestling contest with an animal? And if you could, how would you grab it when its arm is the size of your whole hand? So yeah, this bothers me. Would like to have a few more opinions on this one.)

At the part that talks about Penelo being a Waif-fu, I think it'd be a good idea to use a quote from the original game. I believe the quote was a conversation between Basch and Penelo when they were at the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea.

"If you grow tired, we stop and take rest."

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm tougher than I look."

"You are at that."

Given that it is said that "A character dependent on Waif-Fu is likely to be a Fragile Speedster, or possibly the Jack of All Stats. Sometimes Super Strength is added on, but it doesn't make a lot of sense then"; it makes no sense that you're using this particular example of Sin City, since in it the character of Miho is "strong enough to leap off a rooftop and shove swords through a car roof" and able to survive "a grenade going off under her feet without a scratch".

I was going to add as an example Kevin, the character of the first SC book (played by Elijah Wood in the film), since he CLEARLY is faster and more agile than the hero, but Marvin is stronger. In fact, he defeats the bad guy PRECISELY by getting him "captured or pinned" so he's not "able to break free", and he depends on "cool moves to win rather than simple strength". Really, this example fits very well with what the trope is saying (the texts between quot. marks are taken directly from the trope), as opposed to the example given.

(All this for the "Comics" section, of course)

So I think that the current example (Miho) should be actually erased (because it does NOT represent the trope accurately) and replaced with this one. But being a new guy, I am still kinda shy at erasing something, and I don't want to add an example that opposes the already given one. So if someone more experienced thinks I am correct here (I don't have doubts about it, I am just new), please, erase it and add something like:

Sin City: Kevin, the mute cannibal in the first story ("The Hard Goodbye"), is faster and more agile than Marvin, the muscled hero. He actually has to handcuff Kevin to himself, then he easily knocks him out.

Thanks.

Would this trope still be in effect if the character in question is decidedly a Fragile Speedster who Minored in Ass-Kicking, but wouldn't necessarily stand a good chance against someone much stronger than themselves? Or would it count as a subversion?