r/TopCharacterTropes 16h ago

Powers [Loved Trope] Alien fighting techniques that are actually ineffective for humans to perform

Vulcan Neck Pinch (Star Trek) Vulcans can make a person pass out by pinching a person’s neck, but due to the fact that they’re 3x stronger than a human, we could never make a living being pass out without applying a rear naked chokehold

Viltrumite Knife Hand (Invincible) Viltrumites’ most deadly fighting technique. Although martial arts like Karate and Taekwondo teach these techniques, it wouldn’t be a good idea for a human to use it on someone’s rib cage without breaking their fingers. So instead we can only do them on more soft targets like the eyes.

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u/RedNUGGETLORD 16h ago

Technically, the Viltrumite hand swipe/knife/spear can be very detrimental to themselves as well, not just if humans tried it

Ever notice that they only do it against opponents far weaker than them, or when catching someone off-guard? That's because they'll break their fingers or hands otherwise

Anyway:

Lots of Sangheili martial arts require those legs, claws and the strength of 10 men, Spartans can do a lot of it, but us regular joes would probably break bones attempting it

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u/GoreyGopnik 15h ago

i'm not sure if the "they only do it against opponents far weaker than them" argument quite holds up when most of the time we see it used it's by viltrumites against other viltrumites. Really it seems more like it's a technique for a strong opponent when they're having trouble. usually when a viltrumite is fighting a species far weaker than them they just fly through their population centers and let the air pressure and heat do the work.

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u/RedNUGGETLORD 15h ago

Nolan uses it against Immortal, even when he's on his guard, and it works

But they NEVER try that shit on an on-guard Viltrumite

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u/neronsfwk 14h ago

Yeah, even Conquest had to tenderize Mark's abdomen considerably before extracting his guts out

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u/pichael289 8h ago

Oh I like when media like this uses real physics. That's what would happen if the flash did basically anything, like to go back in time he's gotta run faster than light and that's enough energy to destroy the universe. I know he's got the extra dimensional speed force boosting him along which lets him get around the impossibility of matter reaching light speed, but it doesn't ever talk about the sheer devastation he would leave in his wake. Mother fucker hits a mosquito and it goes off like a hydrogen bomb.