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 Twelve Episode Eighteen through Season Thirteen Episode Nineteen. 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 second set of data from for Washington are as follows: 12x18 (Wash and Carolina versus Felix and Locus) and 13x18 (Washington and Carolina versus Felix and Locus). These will be combined with the previous results for a final analysis as of the conclusion of the Chorus arc as well as a discussion of Washington as a whole to this point.

When one looks at how Wash’s skills played out in these two seasons, you can see Washington from a number of different angles, and a number of different ways of how he handles CQC. As ever Washington remains a man to be taken on by those with sufficient quanta of stamina, because he can move through a variety of phases of a fight and still hold his own. Mostly we see Washington as a man who uses guns for a long as he can manage it, a man still up to date on his knife work, a focused melee fighter who strings together successive blows to critical areas, and one who knows a decent bit about controlling enemy motion. Of course he’s also proven himself more than willing to bring psychological combat into play when it is necessary, but only then.

So let us start off our analysis of the survivor Agent Washington by noting, without confusion, that Washington is a man for weapons. We not only see this in previous seasons as well as his success as a gunner, but his propensity for noping the fuck out of a fist fight if he can manage it. A noping that is on par with that of Sarge or Agent North Dakota (who, do not kid yourself, will 100% bring a repeater pistol to a fist fight). This aversion for surrendering his weapon is more than just from the constraints of the machinimation, it is something that we see heavily reflected in Washington during his conflict with the Charon Mercenaries, most pointedly at the end of season twelve. One only need look at his primarily Felix focused confrontation (12x18) to see just how much ‘do not want’ Wash has for unarmed combat.

Throughout the majority of his conflict with Felix, Washington does everything he can to remain armed. At first this manifests as taking the time to maintain cover in the early fight, making sure that his longer ranged rifle remains at effective distance. This doesn’t hold up well when Felix insists on closing the distance with a knife and shield. At this point Wash changes weapons out for the shorter range of his pistol, more effective at a melee sort of distance. While he isn’t very prepared for someone who moves quite like Felix, we often see him using the pistol itself for the blocking and attacking that would normally happen in a brawl, at one point even swinging the butt of his pistol into Felix’s arms to knock a stab aside. Eventually this preference for the tool bites him in the rear when Felix places a sticky bomb on it and he’s forced to discard the weapon, leaving him with only the rifle. Even then he deals well with using the weapon to block bladed attacks. Who can blame Washington for his preference for weapons, though, when he manages an insane shot with his battle rifle, taking Locus’s sniper rifle out of commission (13x18). By doing so Washington actually manages to outshoot the sniping specialist and end up with the longest range weapon in the combat, which doesn’t end up serving him well in the long run, but only reinforces just how much of a marksman the man is. Why should a man like that be in a fist fight?

Previously we have also considered Washington and his skill with knives. I would suggest looking back to see more about this line of inquiry, but Washington definitely shows himself in combat with them in the most interesting ways in season thirteen. Yes, I do mean starting with his little showdown with a frustrated Felix (13x18) where he not only manages to dodge a number of thrown weapons (in the most amusing way possible), but his own awareness of how he is trained with them. Catching the final blade not only takes skill and confidence not to dodge, but to follow that up with the gloating flip of the weapon shows how confident Washington is when presented with a talented knife thrower and user.

What really sells this point is the fact that Washington retains the blade he catches. This is a valuable tool in a fight and he doesn’t want to give it up, which is respectable in a person we have seen competence in before. What’s more, Washington reprises his knife thrown at a deadly invisible person this season, this time with Locus as a target. Returning Felix’s weapon to his hand when Locus finally makes use of his tactical cloaking ability, Wash cuts himself to fling his blood, thereby giving him a location for his target as he previously had against the Meta through footprints and snow movement. Then, still cocky, he gives a smug little wave and puts the knife in Locus’s shoulder. What’s more, he further uses the weapon even when he can’t grip it by delivering a front heel kick into the grip to drive the weapon deeper into Locus’s shoulder, furthering the injury. While Washington doesn’t really get a chance to show off his knifework in season twelve beyond his clear awareness of how to defend himself against one, season thirteen only underlines the fact that, given a knife, Wash should still be considered armed and dangerous.

As I have said before, and will likely say again, Washington is a battle of attrition once he finally gives up on weapons and faces you with his fists. Most of his fight against the mercenaries in season thirteen (13x18) forces him to rely on his physical capabilities. This is because early on his guns are abandoned, presumably due to ammo limitations. But once guns are forsaken Washington should not be counted out. As he is thrown off of Felix’s shield in the beginning of the fight in question, Washington is still coordinated and focused enough to immediately kick the gun out of Felix’s hand, knocking Felix off balance. This gives him a chance to land, get to his feet, and be prepared for a fight before Felix even has a full chance to recover. A lot of Wash’s tactics mirror this. After he puts the knife in Locus he manages three quick punches to Locus’s head, a blow that serves as a more disorienting sort of thing in the sorts of armor they wear, before Locus has a chance to close and knock Wash away with a headbutt.

Wash also continues to flow smoothly in combat during this season, moving easily from move to move through a fight. Against Felix in the previously referenced phase of the fight Wash pushes aside a punch with one hand while stepping in to uppercut with the other, then pushes Felix’s arm further out of the way to open him up for a gut punch. Even then he doesn’t stop, moving further forward through a near kata-like advance, twisting Felix’s arm up and out to deliver a blow to Felix’s armpit before finally sending a hook straight at the head. Why is this combination so important when it comes to looking at Washington? Not because he leaves himself open too long and gets kicked in the back of the head. No, the importance is the places Washington strikes. Under the helmet with the uppercut, a strong jab to the stomach, a punch in the armpit? These are all places with reduced armor coverage. The armor of a helmet covers only to the base of the chin, the stomach has smaller plates than the chest and limbs, and under the arm has no coverage at all. These are weak points to the armor and Washington strikes them blow after blow, driving home the most possible pain for someone who, in respect to the series, doesn’t have the luck of being able to hit like a truck. Again Wash underlines this focus on weak points later with Locus, dealing a string of punches followed by a kick to Locus’s head. Clearly a concussion or at least dazing the man is a focus here, but he does what he has to do to keep the battle going his way. And, as noted in the previous analysis post, the continual blows do make him more interesting against a human opponent, shows in how much all parties end up worn down by the end.

We also gain a new and interesting look at how Wash handles himself as we watch him face Felix while the energy sword is in play (13x18). The Sangheili take on edged weapons is a highly dangerous weapon, a weapon that can cut like a dream (or a lightsaber), cutting through the advanced armor work by Freelancer and Merc alike with little problem. Faced with a weapon where even a glancing blow can be crippling, Wash displays an impressive amount of skill not shown before by, instead of just evading, working to control his enemy’s movements. At many points one can see Washington physically grabbing Felix’s wrists and elbow to either pull the blade off course, or redirect it so he can stay out of the dangerous area of the energy sword. Felix does deserve some credit for making sure he doesn’t let Wash get around his guard once the thing is present, but Washington is impressive in his ability to use his enemy’s movements against them to keep himself safe. Now if only he could go ahead and put that together with his punches to keep the enemy in position for whatever blows he wants, he would be impressive.

Last time I ended by analysis by saying that when it comes to it, Washington isn’t the best fighter, and this remains true. When compared to other Freelancers he does come up short. But in the Chorus arc he puts together a lot of the skills he has displayed over the years into a well oiled process. If possible Washington will come at you from an unexpected angle and deal blow after blow after blow. Perhaps they aren’t the most punishing hits, but each pain can wear down an opponent, and Washington seems intent on being relentless in his approach once you take his weapon away. Ultimately maybe not the greatest fighter, but definitely more versatile than many others cannot achieve.

Agent Carolina

The episodes/fights I have drawn my second set of data from for Carolina are as follows: 12x10 (Carolina versus Felix), 12x18 (Carolina and Washington versus Felix and Locus), 13x11 (Carolina versus Sharkface), 13x16 (Carolina versus Sharkface) and 13x18 (Carolina and Washington versus Felix and Locus). These will be combined with the previous results for a final analysis as of the conclusion of the Chorus arc as well as a discussion of Carolina as a whole to this point.

Now, as before, Carolina remains a difficult individual to analyze, in part because there is still so much to talk about when it comes to Carolina. In fact, volume wise my analysis generated more notes about Carolina with melee weapons and CQC combat than any other character who got into a physical fight of any substance in Seasons 12 and 13. This is especially interesting considering she edges out Felix who, hands down, has more on-screen fight scenes than any other character in the Chorus arc (or at least CQC fights). In addition to this there is the added note of a complication that comes up for Carolina during Season 12 that forces a change up to her combat style and forces a new approach to looking at her from the information provided to us in Seasons 9 and 10. As an additional note before we start in earnest, I have opted to leave out Carolina’s encounter with the Pirates while she and Epsilon were busy stealing data, as that is primarily a gun fight with a poor unfortunate soul who gets smashed by a door.

Ultimately Agent Carolina remains a force to be reckoned with, but as of Season 12 she has, more or less, toned herself down a bit. There is less show to her style, and more practicality. Without the pressure to be the best, or proving how being the best made her better than the woman her father ultimately made her into, we see Carolina has become a better teammate by the end of Season 13. Carolina still makes use of impressive agility in a fight but enhances that versatility through the use of additional mods and tools to improve her combat, and in showing better skill with taking advantage of terrain. Yet on the other hand we will also see that Carolina focuses less on the blocking she used to make casual use of to instead move to more control of her opponents in a fight, or flat out evading attacks. Finally, we’ll close by looking at one of the most noticeable changes in Carolina’s fighting style (if you’re watching nearly as closely as I tend to): the movement away from kicks and toward punches.

The Agent Carolina of the Freelancer Era is a showy fighter, there is no denying that (and for more discussion on that topic please see the first Edition post on Surviving Freelancers, link above). In part this derives from confidence. Carolina is the *best* and she knows it, she has proven time and time again to be superior to just about any challenge that can be thrown at her. Yet by the time we reach Season 12, Carolina has been through a lot more. She isn’t a young woman that can take on the universe anymore, and she knows it. The woman who wanted to be the best, wanted to live up to the memory of her mother and who wanted to earn the approval of her father has instead been replaced by someone who has seen herself brought low, overwhelmed by seemingly impossible odds, and needing to be not only picked up in her battle with the Tex-Bots, but supported throughout it. This more self-aware Carolina is the one we get in her entrance to Season 12, but unfortunately not all of the overwhelming confidence is gone. Yes, I did say there is ‘less’ show to her style, but I didn’t say there was ‘no’ show. Consider the very nature of her entrance into the Chorus Arc. Felix disarms the near destruction of Hargrove’s plans in a classic villain speech, Locus reaffirming their connection, and then there is Carolina.

This first fight Carolina takes part in ends up primarily being against Felix (12x10) and shows that her confidence is still there. Her very entrance is at a high drama point with an amusing line, a live grenade left with Locus, and a needlessly showy somersault to the ground. Granted this does have an advantage of leaving everyone staring in shock and allows Carolina to immediately come up inside of Felix’s feet to strip him of his gun and kick him in the gut. However it is her confidence which leaves her ultimately vulnerable, because after she’s put Felix on his ass she remains there, leaving a perfect opening for Felix to stab her in the leg. From here, though, Carolina shows she’s learned her lesson about being too showy in a fight, except when it suits her, because who can’t say there is an element of showmanship to her ‘losing’ against Felix and Locus later that same season (12x18), not to mention the cartwheel to get to her gun in that same fight. When one considers how Carolina was in Seasons 9 and 10, the entrance into the Boneyard (10x8) immediately comes to mind, Carolina shows more restraint when it’s needed. Nearly all of her next confrontation with Felix and Locus (13x18) at the tower is a more visually restrained fight when compared to Freelancer Carolina, filled with practicality of blocks, punches, and a healthier respect of what both her opponents and her teammates are capable of in a fight.

During Project Freelancer Carolina saw her teammates as people to compete against, not people to work with. This is an area Carolina shows marked improvement in by the time Season 12 rolls around. The first place one can really recognize this is, again, in Carolina’s first team battle against Locus and Felix (12x18). Where once Carolina might have, even despite an injury, tried to take full charge of any combat situation, would have relied on her own superior fighting skills, instead she allows Tucker to take charge of the combat plan. A combat plan that requires them to buy time to force Felix to monologue, and the best way to do that ultimately means that she has to lose the fight, and make it look good while she does. This plan depends on her ability to trust the simulation troops to complete the important task of tricking the bad guys while she ends up, among other things, getting a roundhouse kick to the face, being chokeslammed, knocked into a large rock, suplexed, and sent flying from a two-handed hammer fist. Much of this fight involves her and Washington playing off of each other, having to pull each other out of deadly situations, ones they have to let themselves get into to help enhance the confidence of Felix to the point where he will blab. Carolina has learned at this point not only to manage her own fight to appear less skilled than she properly is, but also keeping track of Washington who could occasional be further away than easily crossed so they can come to each other’s defense, all of which she must do without the enhanced information processing provided by Epsilon.

The place this best manifests, though, is in Carolina’s final fight of Season 13, the rematch she and Washington share with Felix and Locus (13x18). This is the fight for all the metaphorical marbles, and the one where we can best see her improved teamwork. In this fight Carolina works rather fluidly with Washington to manage the dual issues of Felix and Locus, whose fighting styles are well suited to combat with Carolina and Felix. In this fight Carolina starts by taking advantage of Wash’s skills with shooting to allow him to handle removing Locus’s sniper rifle from play rather than recklessly putting her full confidence in herself and the mods she frequently relied on when facing hard battles in the past. She remains aware of Washington in the combat, making sure he ducks a platform so they aren’t taken out that way, attempts to use her grappling gun to remove Felix from combat with Washington, and even puts faith in Epsilon managing her mods after a previous failure to protect Washington and herself from the crashing ship that ultimately ends the battle.

Talking about the use of her grappling gun and mods, it is important to talk about how Carolina makes use of technology in her fights. Back in the Freelancer Era there is no denial of Carolina’s reliance on her speed enhancements to provide the best combat advantages she can get. This is further backed up by her use of melee weapons, namely the Grav Hammer and her Humbler stun-baton, during that same time period. During the Chorus Arc Carolina also shows she is willing to make use of the technology at hand. I have already noted her use of the grappling gun to catch Washington and the defensive shield formerly carried by North Dakota and Maine. Where this use of tech is best seen, though, is in Carolina’s second fight against Sharkface (oh-ha-ha) in episode 16 of season 13. She uses her enhancement mid-fight to jump into the subway car in the first place, meaning she can get to the extraction point in a timely manner. In addition when Sharkface uses the grappling-gun that is then in his possession to try and get a grip on her, Carolina grabs the cord and hauls hard to haul Sharkface into a two-footed kick. What’s more she then, though not on screen, retracts the cord a good distance to make a short tether, and uses that to provide additional leverage to haul a door off of the train car to run it into Sharkface and knock him out. The last instance of using this weapon that I do want to point out, and perhaps

Part of this underscores Carolina’s enhanced management of terrain to her advantage. The whole train portion of the fight reinforces Carolina’s use of the area around her in a fight. First and foremost there is the movement of the fight to the transit system as it is. Not only does this allow her an opportunity for a tactical retreat, she uses the train itself for her fight. One of the greatest difficulties she had in her first encounter with Sharkface (13x11) was keeping herself safe from his flamethrowers (an issue she also had in their original encounter in 9x15), a danger she reduces by immediately breaking the windows on the car. The increased airflow makes the flamethrowers useless, which also serves to reduce Sharkface’s mobility. She further puts herself in a position during the ensuing fight where she gets a pole between Sharkface and her, having her guard open for a split second on her right, tempting Sharkface to strike from that side. Enhanced movements as provided by the armor they wear, gets Sharkface to punch into the pole, trapping his arm. Of course she’s smart enough to not fully trust this, bringing her arm up to block just in case he manages to carry through. She takes further advantage of him being trapped to manage a few more free blows. Moments later she dodges another set of strikes from Sharkface, twisting to the side, getting a foot up on a chair to provide her the leverage to jump high in the air and get a flying split-kick right to Sharkface’s head. Even then it doesn’t end. One can actually see Carolina look up for a moment to confirm the presence of metal loops in the handrails so she can haul herself up to deliver a mulekick to his chest to knock Sharkface away and give her time to regain a defensive position. Then there is the previously mentioned matter of the grappling-gun and door.

This all serves to reinforce the situation of the first encounter with Sharkface in 13x11. In this fight Carolina, due to that overconfidence mentioned before, ends up disarmed before any real combat begins. Even with the weapon in hand the flamethrowers would have been a serious hazard for even someone as skilled as Carolina. Her lack of awareness of the risk the ice presented was, of course, a failing of her situational awareness, and getting caught by the grappling gun to haul her down was also a problem. But once she’s in the ice Carolina makes better use of the situation. She narrows her body up to get momentum to slide up and around the top so she can fall on Sharkface. This allows her to disarm Sharkface and jump off him to get into another ice tunnel to protect herself from his other gun. In addition she keeps aware of where she’s going, able to redirect her movement with touches and pushes, keeping her away from Sharkface.

But Churby, I hear you say, that’s all well and good, but what about actual *combat techniques*. Yes, yes, I know, but I wanted to close on the parts of this that matter. I would again draw attention to something Monty Oum, the original animator and choreographer for the RvB fights Carolina occurred in, said regarding Carolina. In a comparison of Carolina and Tex’s fighting styles he pointed out that Carolina not only throws more punches, but she allows for the possibility of being hit. This remains true in these seasons, even when she’s letting herself be beat up. Carolina is still a woman who will dodge and block things thrown at her. Yet this has diminished in some regards in Seasons 12 and 13 compared to the Freelancer Arc. Where once Carolina did more blocking of attacks, leaving her in close range with opponents to allow for quick counter attacks, Carolina at this point opts more for dodges or, when those don’t work, actually catching the blows her opponents throw at her. This is best seen when facing Sharkface for the first time (13x11). Faced with flamethrowers and no ranged weapon of her own, Carolina repeatedly grabs and traps Sharkface’s arms against her chest to keep his weapons out of play. That doesn’t mean she has given up on dodging, though. Frequently she ducks under punches, dances and twists away from kicks. This is not fully effective, of course, during the railcar fight with Sharkface she sometimes dodges in ways that throw her off balance, and were it not for his speed, she would have been vulnerable to more blows.

Now, if you know me, you know that in the first edition post I was happy to point out an important recurring aspect of Carolina’s fighting: kicks. Where many Freelancers rely on punches or even throws, Carolina falls back frequently to kicking. In fact, there is even a pattern in her kicks themselves. Carolina is prone to a quick series of three kicks in a row sprinkled highly liberally around her fights, to a point where one could not get through even her target practice on the MoI without throwing out a kick. For the Chorus Arc these distinctive and truly unique touches to Carolina’s combat are just short of missing. Not only are kicks less common, but her signature chain occurs *once* in the whole two seasons. Why would it be that Carolina would forsake her characteristic attack pattern in favor of punches? This was a question that the answer to eluded me in the first edition of this post, why would this happen. Of course the answer is simple, to the point where overlooking it was truly a shortcoming on my part. For this we need to look no further than Carolina’s entrance to the arc, Episode 10 of Season 12. A fight between Carolina and Felix that ends with a knife in Carolina’s leg. The healing unit she salvaged cannot be run at full efficiency. Epsilon himself notes that he’s got issues with power management of the mods. There are too many and he’s not only broken from the start, but old. Chances are Carolina has not been able to fully heal the damage to her leg, damage exacerbated by her use of the speed enhancement to save Caboose’s life. It is likely Carolina is not able to perform her usual approach to fighting, reducing her mobility in addition to depriving her of her favorite tool. Instead she rests more heavily on punches and less on the kicks that were once her fortay. With the level of damage she sustained it is hard to say if she even would be able to return to her previous style of combat in the future, forcing her to adapt and approach combat from a new direction.

Ultimately Carolina is still a masterful fighter, and with age she is growing more aware of her circumstances, thereby making her an even better fighter in some regards. However she still suffers from a bit too much confidence and underestimation of her opponents. It will be interesting to see how she evolves over time and if she can fully get herself up to her mastery level with the reduced degree of kicking. The one thing she still has to her advantage, and will always have, is that Carolina never stops. If someone is better she will work to beat them, and her determination can win out in the end. Especially if you give her some functioning enhancements, but those aren’t required.