churbooseanon

If you’ve been following me for a while then you definitely know one thing about me: I like fights. I like to write them. I like to read them. I like to watch them, and dear me do I like to pick them apart. So, while I’m not a martial arts expert (nor do I play one on TV), I spent a long time gathering the data and working on conclusions.

So without further ado, here it is. Animated Combat Styles in RvB as interpreted by ChurbooseAnon, and involving materials from Season Eight Episode Four through Season Thirteen Episode One. Subsequent editions may come out that revise these descriptions or enhance them, and will be linked to in revised versions of this post, as well as any revisions linked to this. All of the posts in this series will be tagged as ‘RvB Combat Styles Analysis’ now and in the future.

In the course of this post I’ll be talking about the following individuals in the following order:

Surviving Freelancers:

Agent Washington
Agent Carolina

Agent Washington

The episodes/fights I have drawn my data from and based my conclusions on for Washington are as follows: 8x19 (Washington and the Meta versus Ɛ-Texas), 8x20 (Washington with the Reds and Tucker versus the Meta), and 12x18 (Washington and Carolina versus Felix and Locus).

My previous discussion of Wash in a fight was pointing out that he prefers to keep enemies at the effective range of his firearms, which we know he is deadly with (ask the Hornet he shoots while falling through the air on top of the Sarcophagus in 9x15). When physical fights are forced upon him, though, Washington turns into the battle of attrition, chaining together blow after blow. This has not changed with the battle season twelve gave us, but we have learned that Washington is as good at managing an enemy combatant using a knife against him as he is at throwing knives, and that he’s not prepared for non-traditional combat styles such as Felix’s.

There are few situations where we don’t see Wash defaulting to guns to be honest. When Sharkface shows up during the assault on the presumably Charon-owned facility (9x15), Wash sticks to only guns, including one he doesn’t know how to operate or that its projectiles bounced. After jumping off of the building he shoots at the Hornet despite the fact that he is falling with no obvious immediate relief. When faced with the Texbot battle (10x21) Wash shoots rather than otherwise engage the enemy. Even in the battles he does get into CQC exchanges in he still goes for his gun when the range is suited to it. Thus, despite the many battles Wash is present for, we have very few instances of punches thrown. Yet the ones we do have are quite telling.

Let’s talk about that idea of Wash being a ‘war of attrition.’ This is mainly based on how Wash performs against Ɛ-Texas (8x19). After the Meta begins to fight with the capture unit and chunks of the cliff is falling around the fighting trio, Wash is left at an awkward range considering the fact that he has no gun and no knife. In this position Wash goes after Ɛ-Texas in melee, jumping at her with a flying knee, landing and blocking a blow from Texas. The next few movements Wash makes are punches and kicks that flow so perfectly together in a chain that I can’t help but look at his motions as the execution of a kata, each advancing step bringing him into the next step of the rehearsed and perfected form. Clearly the goal here is not necessarily to overwhelm Texas with strong attacks, but to keep the attacks coming. Blow after blow after blow to keep the opponent on defense. In this way it doesn’t matter if all of Wash’s attacks are effective provided he can keep going to wear down the stamina of his enemy. Granted this is not the best tactic against a robot, but against a human opponent it could prove effective if Wash’s stamina is sufficient to maintain such an assault.

Of course this isn’t the only thing Wash does in this fight, or against the Meta. In addition to the above (and jumping on the Meta’s back to protect Doc and Church), Wash shows himself to be proficient with a knife. This occurs not only with the capture unit (8x19) which he uses as a stabbing implement, but also with the knife that Ɛ-Texas herself brought to the fight (8x20). Wash doesn’t manage to land a blow on Tex with the unit, but does manage to disarm her of a rifle using the unit in a reverse grip on the unit, something suited to turning the sharp point of the unit into a powerful, downward stabbing weapon. Wash also uses this grip with the combat knife against the Meta, allowing him to easily block the blade of the bruteshot, and slash the Meta across both shoulders. Ultimately he uses the knife at a distance as a throwing weapon, landing it in the Meta’s chest armor before pulling his rifle (which he managed to steal from Ɛ-Texas’s back in the middle of the fight in 8x19 after his melee attack chain and as he was being thrown aside) to engage in a firefight with the Meta.

Of course, Wash isn’t only somewhat capable with a knife, he handles someone coming at him with a knife well. While he tries to maintain distance between himself and Felix to make best use of his firearms, and even switches his guns out to better handle distances against Felix (12x18), he follows Felix’s knife well. He uses both the pistol and later his rifle’s muzzle to protect from knife attacks by Felix, and when too close to use either, he dodges, and weaves around the blade’s slashes and stabs, sometimes moving out of the way even before Felix completes a spin. The downside of this awareness is that with his attention so caught up on Felix’s knife, Wash misses Felix attaching an explosive to his pistol. Wash is also less situationally aware than some other people, ultimately throwing his soon to explode pistol at Carolina and Locus, almost injuring an ally.

Wash has some weak points as a fighter, in that he’s not prepared to handle unorthodox approaches. While we may assume some of his lack of success against Felix and Locus was based in the plan to lose to them so Felix would brag, Wash does fail to account for Felix’s shield being used as a weapon. Twice. He’s also clearly not prepared for Felix coming at him with only a knife while Wash is trying, and failing, to shoot him in the head. So, while Wash has potential as a melee fighter, he’s probably best if we just give him back his guns and let him have an effective range to shoot at people with.

Agent Carolina

The episodes/fights I have drawn my data from and based my conclusions on for Carolina are as follows: 9x3 (Carolina, North and South versus Insurrectionist soldiers), 9x15 (Carolina versus Sharkface, Carolina versus Demo Man and Insurrectionist soldiers), 9x17 (Carolina and Maine versus Sleeveless and Girlie), 10x2 (Carolina versus Insurrectionist soldiers), 10x8 (Carolina versus Insurrectionists and Girlie), 10x9 (Carolina and Maine versus Girlie and Demo Man), 10x10 (Carolina and Texas versus Connecticut and Insurrectionist Leader), 10x19 (Carolina versus York, Carolina versus Texas), 10x21 (Carolina versus Texbots), 12x10 (Carolina versus Felix) and 12x18 (Carolina and Washington versus Felix and Locus).

The only problem I have with Carolina when it comes to combat is that there is so much to talk about with Carolina in a fight. I wish I was kidding. We’re working with decidedly more fights than any other character, a greater role in many of those fights, and a complicated combat style that relies on a plethora of various techniques, specialties, enhancements, and evolves over time with the character herself. There is the Carolina you see amused and loving the fight she’s in at start of season nine and the Carolina so worn down and overloaded at the end of season ten, and even the Carolina who has to pull back a little at the end of season ten. We’re talking her speed, her showy style, her repositioning herself in a fight to take advantage of new angles to get through defenses, an evasive fighter who dodges and blocks almost with disdain of the idea of being hit, and not one but two weapons she gets in hand for melee combat. Part of the reason the combat posts are divided in the manner they are is because of how great of a challenge Carolina’s style presents over the course of the series as we attempt to look at her as a creative, highly trained, highly driven, and above all thoughtful combatant.

Let us begin with the two melee weapons Carolina works with in the course of the series (and no I will not be talking about the improvised grenade flail she uses during the course of the Texbot fight). Granted she makes very limited use of the bruteshot’s blade to stab Girlie (9x17), but beyond the single slash we get very little. Just a bit more than that we get a grav hammer (9x15, 10x2). While this weapon is less used in the series (and honestly it’s presence in the boneyard in 10x2 is not explained), the way Carolina uses the grav hammer does speak to her style. This is a huge, heavy weapon, which Carolina first lifts when she’s blown up the Banshee to knock it into Sharkface. Yet despite the weight, Carolina lifts the thing easily, holds it by its handle, and hurls the weapon like a javelin, striking Sharkface (oh-haha) in the head.

The grav hammer reappears to bash Insurrectionist troops (10x2) and here Carolina does far more. Granted it is possible that the disabling of the gravity in the hanger (thanks Wash) contributes to this, but the movements Carolina makes here are quite different from before. Carolina hurls the hammer like a javelin again, yes, but this time to throw it into the middle of a group of soldiers, prompting it to send out a shockwave. She then kicks the handle to get it back into the air, catches it, swings it one handed in to the mass, hits another with the pommel, and continues on. Ultimately in this instance Carolina ends up in the air, making many showy spins and twists with her body and the hammer acting as counter balances in the air. Does she need this display of force? No. In the null-g environment her guns would probably be effective with minor compensation, while the hammer needs far more compensation and force to wield effectively in this position. Still, Carolina puts on a bit of a show as she fights, perhaps for intimidation purposes.

Later in season ten we are introduced to another melee weapon of Carolina’s mainly used in the attack on the dockyards (10x9 and 10x10): a non-lethal stun baton reminiscent of the Humbler stun device of the Halo canon. Canonically the ‘shock stick’ is a purple-colored, non-lethal electrical baton used by UNSC Marines and law enforcement for subduing individuals in a temporarily painful way, but with no long-lasting effects (source) . Carolina shows particular aptitude with this weapon, which she produces for the sole purpose of facing knife fighters in Girlie and CT. By having a melee weapon she is in position to not only guard against the blades she faces, but trap and disarm the knife wielders at the same time. In addition the electrical properties allow for stunning enemies, giving her a potential edge. While she does get in a few blows that discharge electricity, Carolina mainly seems to use the weapon defensively, preferring to kick or punch when she can. That being said, the most important part to Carolina using the Humbler is the way she uses her speed to allow her to get a chance to put her in better position to use the weapon.

It’s really easy to say that Carolina is fast. She has her speed mod, but there is an inherent speed to her combat style that many others lack. While Connie uses her own speed to evade attacks, Carolina uses hers to get into position. This position is just as often a defensive block or dodge as it is something offensive. It is easy to look at her speed and think of it only for how fast she strikes, but in battle the real purpose of this is the way that Carolina changes angles of attack. This is obvious from her first entrance (9x3) when she jumps down to the platform North and South are on and she keeps coming at the soldiers there from new angles, as it is later on against Texbots where she uses her speed mod to take this even further, but with less control. (10x21). There are few battles she’s present in that she doesn’t take advantage of disengaging to come back at her enemies from another angle. This comes through best against Girlie and Demo Man on the dockyards (10x9), where she uses this to duck and dart around both enemies to try and lay the Humbler on less protected parts of their bodies. She does this as well with Tex (10x19), a rearrangement of position that is made easier by the lack of gravity on the ship.

Monty Oum himself once noted that one of the important notes of Carolina as a fighter is that she not only throws more punches than Tex, but that, unlike Tex, Carolina allows for the possibility of being hit. The chance that she needs to block and dodge and feint. This is obviously true in almost every fight one sees Carolina in, to the point where making specific notes of instances where this occurs would be an exercise in listing any and every fight Carolina is in. Rather it would be more useful to point out the best instance of how Carolina blocks and dodges. And that, in my opinion, is the fight with Demo Man and Girlie (10x9). For a good portion of this fight Carolina is faced by Demo Man and Girlie on her own, holding both the quicker Girlie with her knives and the stronger Demo Man with his robotic arm at bay with carefully directed blocks and dodges. Typically she dodges the stronger, slower attacks of Demo Man, and blocks the quicker, bladed attacks of Girlie. She accounts for the potential of these two to hit her, and in the course of battle determines what the best ways to face the varied capabilities of her opponents. The people that lay a blow on her are few and far between.

When it comes to landing blows herself, Carolina actually has a clear preference. While almost every other Freelancer favors the punch, Carolina is a woman who uses her legs. Her entrance into her first fight is with a kick, and she continues from there by kicking more enemies, turrets, and anything that gets in her way (9x3). On the highway (9x17) Carolina goes after Girlie with a pinwheel kick, followed by a flying kick to get Girlie off the warthog, and then a roundhouse. In fact, it is here where we see the first recurring instance of one of Carolina’s habits: Carolina chains kicks in sets of three. After three she either changes legs or has some other transitional move, sometimes into another set of kicks. When she meets Texas in the halls of the MoI after the gravity is turned off (10x19) she opens with a kick, is hit to the 'floor’, flips back to her feet to deliver a spin kick (which is caught), and then twists her body to deliver another kick. She tries another three kick combo against Locus (12x18), only to have her leg caught before the third kick could take place. After Locus releases her because of Wash shooting at him, Carolina quickly gets in that third kick. But the place where this is most obvious is against York (10x19). In the course of the elevator fight Carolina does not one, not two, but four chains of three kicks in a row, typically changing positions between each until she has York off the ground. Twelve kicks in sets of three before one final kick sends York floating up the elevator shaft, and frees Carolina to run off to find Texas.

One of the other things that one can notice about Carolina is the fact that, even for all of the clear training and skill she possesses, she is a damn show off. A show off who I theorize did gymnastics or an equivalent acrobatic sport growing up. When Carolina is in a fight she likes to be the center of attention: the showy way she arrives and takes apart the Insurrectionist forces (9x3); the 'fancy bit with the purple plane’ as well as her attacking of Insurrectionist soldiers after the group is surrounded on the roof (9x15); the whole of the way that Carolina chases Sleeveless after the main portion of the highway fight (9x17); her entrance to the main facility in the boneyard and how she moves around the fight while the gravity is disengaged (10x2); her departure from the Pelican as well as how she dive tackles Girlie to stop her from shooting at Wash rather than shooting at Girlie (10x8); the ENTIRETY of the fight with the Texbots before the arrival of the Reds and Blues (10x21); and right on down to the timely rescue of the Reds and Blues on Chorus (12x10); and much of the way she acts against Locus and Felix in the course of their showdown at the jamming tower (12x18). Yet none of this compares to the simple way she moves in battle.

Look at the way Carolina moves in a fight. Instead of practical combat rolls which would tuck her into a small ball and allow her to move quickly and allow her armor to cover exposed points, Carolina flips around fights. Cartwheels, handsprings, and other jumps are common characteristics of Carolina in a fight, and is an interesting backdrop against large groups of enemies (9x3) where she has clearly been enjoying herself in a fight. And her battle against the storm of Texbots (10x21) has her performing more showy jumps and flips in the course of it than is strictly necessary in a fight against what might be seen as overwhelming odds. Reasons for this can be easily postulated to relate to Carolina reinforcing her position on the leaderboard. Not only is she better than you, she does it while looking good. At the same time watching the way she jumps and falls is a bit telling. If you look at her jump to the Banshee and her jump away from it when it explodes, she keeps her arms and legs tucked together, her body twisting in ways the look a lot (in my opinion) how gymnast flip between the uneven bars and dismount from various apparatuses. There is just a gymnastic feel to her motions that could suggest an acrobatic background interacting with her clearly martial arts training.

The last thing I want to talk about (before I get to Carolina against Locus and Felix) is the way Carolina’s melee style differs a bit when she’s fighting emotionally charged battles. In the course of the Freelancer Arc Carolina fights four heavily emotionally charged fights: against CT (10x10), against York (10x19), against Texas (10x19), and against the Texbots (10x21). Each of these she handles different ways. Take the battle with York for instance. In the course of this fight Carolina, despite having the knowledge that York has betrayed her, the advantage of distance with her guns, and admitted trust issues, she lets York easily into her guard and even lets herself be unarmed. After this, with York in a melee situation, she finally takes charge of the fight, quickly knocking York off balance and while he keeps up for a brief time, she brings the fight with him to a close in seconds. Chances are that in the course of the program Carolina and York have spared before, and she knows just how to go after him to take him down quickly, something she easily demonstrates here. Yet for all of that, York is not (to the best of our knowledge), left badly injured. This is a fight that Carolina enters into unwillingly, but once pushed to conflict she puts orders and her need to beat Texas at the fore and removes the show from her fight to do a quick, simple, decisive match that quickly removes an obstacle from her bath, but still with all her usual grace and skill.

The battle against CT is a very different matter. Here Carolina is betrayed, but every bit of her speaks of reluctance to do what she has been ordered to do by the Director. It is Tex that forces the situation to a fight. Tex that takes the first shot. Tex that is the cause of Connie’s death and Carolina who yells at her for it. More over, Carolina lacks a lot of her decisive edge to this fight. Most of this fight Carolina actually spends blocking and dodging CT, her attacks far less frequent than they are in nearly any other fight she partakes in, and more than half of the blows she does 'land’ score hits only on holograms. This could be either reluctance to fight someone so recently an ally, someone she cannot believe the betrayal of, or an underestimation of an opponent. This fight is ultimately summed up by Carolina using the Humbler more as a defensive tool, and her posture is, in many ways, more defensive than it is in most fights she partakes in.

Then there are the fights against Texas, first in her Beta manifestation (10x19), and then later in the form of the Texbots (10x21). The former fight is characterized by more of Carolina’s traditional style of speed, force, evasion and kicking, but all in a relatively controlled manner. At the same time her anger seems to rule her, because Carolina lacks a lot of the situational awareness that Carolina displays in almost every other fight she winds up in (which again is far too lengthy to list). She doesn’t notice the bridge door behind her (even though she anticipates where Texas was headed), she doesn’t anticipate the use of the door as a weapon, she doesn’t account for the cracks on the glass, and doesn’t react to the orbital entry anywhere near as early as she might have had tension not been high in the fight. She starts the fight relatively in control of herself, but the longer it continues, the less regard Carolina seems to have for her surroundings. This is echoed in the fight versus the Texbots, though potentially compounded. In the early portion of the fight Carolina is her usual self. Quick, smart, showy and full of situational awareness (grappling-grenade flail anyone). Rationality seems to bleed away as Carolina keeps fighting, until finally she taps into her speed mod. At that point all strategy and focus on the fight seems traded away in favor of brute force. This is an interesting note because before this Carolina throws three to four attacks for every one by a Texbot. By going to speed mod and brute force granted by it, Carolina actually switches over to a more Texas style of attacking: giving it all the force she can and trusting that it will be enough. In the end, it ends up with Carolina overwhelmed and burnt out, certain she can never beat this obstacle. Clearly in this, as in above, Carolina can be dominated by her emotions, and it can severely affect the outcome of a fight.

There is a good case for this to be made the first time she encounters Felix (12x10). Carolina enters the fight confident. She knows what she is capable of, she knows what Epsilon can do for her, and clearly she can’t imagine Felix being that capable in a fight. This, like the fight later in the season (12x18) is not a characteristic fight for Carolina. Too much confidence, too much swagger comes into this fight, perhaps because she has yet to find someone since Tex who has really stood against her (and now she probably even knows who Texas was). Because of this overconfidence not only does Felix get a few good hits off on her, but he manages to stab her in the knee and send her flying, right into position to be taken out by Locus. Of course this fails due to her possession of a teleportation grenade, but over confidence did not help her melee skills in this fight. This is also a very punch heavy fight for Carolina, which is strange in and of itself compared to her previous style of combat.

One of the most interesting fights for Carolina, though, comes in her battle against Felix and Locus (12x18). There is no fight that is less typical of Carolina than this one, though much of that may be dismissed by the fact that she, as she points out to Epsilon (12x19), was intentional. She wasn’t supposed to beat the mercs. Still, this battle is a strange one for Carolina. Yes, there is the situational awareness, the gymnastic motions, even the speed. But Carolina gets off less attacks than is characteristic for her. She punches far more than she normally would, not all of which hit. And strangest of all, Carolina goes for a gun mid-fight. Carolina is not the sort of person who goes for guns in the middle of combat, more often defaulting to hand to hand or other melee weapons or uses of her surroundings to help her after she’s closed to a melee distance. Taking that chance to open the distance to possibly shoot at an enemy is new for her. Either this is her trying to be less effective in a fight, or taking advantage of the fact that in that moment no one else had a gun in hand. The final interesting point is how Carolina literally seems to stand there, waiting and actually LINING HERSELF UP for the attacks delivered by Locus and Felix in the end. It is possible that, to better sell her defeat, Carolina takes those blows to get herself out of the way.

Truly I look forward to future fights with Carolina to see if her style has further evolved, or whether she will go back to tried and true methods. Where are my trios of kicks?