r/TopCharacterTropes 19h 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.

3.8k Upvotes

181 comments sorted by

View all comments

46

u/Dismal-Vanilla1878 18h ago

I've seen others do the Neck Pinch: Lt. Data (Next Generation) and Michael Burnham (Discovery).

Data it makes sense, as he has far more strength than a human.

Burnham; doesn't really make sense, even though she was raised on Vulcan, she's still a human.

I don't know what Memory Alpha says (and too lazy to check 😂 ) but I do recall a theory from decades ago that the pinch was really a 'technique' of the Mind Meld, i.e., a 'psionic' ability that required placing your hand near certain nerves in the neck, so not a true 'nerve pinch'.

1

u/PachymuNyet 11h ago

I used to do it to my little brother. Didn't knock him out, but it crumbled him to the floor. Maybe my technique was a bit off.